Acts 4:29. “Grant to thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”
BOLDNESS. Speaking the word of God is a most awesome responsibility. That means that we speak for God; in God’s place; in the way that God would speak it; in the tone of voice that God would use. Even the inflections of the words used would have to be what God would use. The visage of the face, the rise and fall of the sounds, the use of the hands, the expressions of the eyes and mouth, the tilt of the head would all need to be like God – godly.
Do I dare to take such a task on? Is it presumption to think that I might speak God’s word? How can such a frail, mortal creature go to such lengths as to boldly make pronouncements that what I am saying is God’s word?
The only way I could even consider that what I say is God’s word, is that I have God’s actual words to compare it with. Thank God, we are not left without this guidance. We have the written scriptures contained within the Bible; we have the Holy Spirit within to use our mouths to speak the words of God boldly. So, thankfully, we are not left on our own to try to make what we speak, legitimately “God’s word.” We have the real thing and with confidence and boldness, know that God is the One who grants to His servants, boldness to speak His word without fear.
“I am so grateful Father, that You have given evidence that what is being spoken is truly Thy word, not some fabrication of my own making. Keep me conscious every time I speak, that this is God’s word for the moment to these people. Then, by Thy power, I can speak boldly. Amen.”
Acts 4: 33. “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”
WITNESSES. It changed everything! That familiar face they saw, was the face of the One with whom they had become so used to seeing. It was the face that looked up at Mary and Joseph when He was only a baby. It was the same face that Simeon and Anna looked at in the temple and caused them great joy. People by the thousands looked at that face until He was recognized wherever He went. The apostles had watched His expressions change from compassion on the multitudes to anger at the desecration of the temple. They had seen His delighted face as He blessed the children and had seen tears coming down that face at the grave of a dead friend. They had seen the whole range of emotions that were caused by human frailty and failings of others cross the face of their Master and Lord.
But something is different now. They had seen His face in repose at His death on the cross. They may even have watched as Joseph and Nicodemus took His body off the cross and saw the linen cloth placed over His face before the stone was rolled across the opening of the tomb. More importantly, they looked and saw Him three days later in their midst in the upper room. They “looked upon Him,” on the mountain in Galilee and then had watched His face as He gave the final words to them before He returns again to take them to the
Father’s house. Looking up they saw Him, until a cloud covered the face and form of the One, they knew was “alive from the dead.”
Now as a result of seeing the living, resurrected Lord Jesus, they themselves were objects of opposition and interest. People were looking upon this group of people because there was great power in their words and actions. There was great grace on every one of them as their obvious concern for others led them to not claim any of their hard-earned possessions was his or her own. An awareness of the Lord Jesus Christ with them and the Holy Spirit in them, made them and their life-style attractive even to those in opposition. They gave witness to the resurrection with power that could not be ignored.
I wonder if the assurance I have of Christ being alive is in any way attractive to those who know me. I wonder if I am able to create any sort of interest on the part of others in my Savior because of what they might hear from me or see in me. Is there any real power? Is there any grace that shows? Or am I easy to ignore?
“Father of all grace and power: I really want to be like those brothers and sisters of mine who never got over their enthusiasm for the benefits of the Gospel. I want – I need that kind of power to be effective in some small way. I pray that the kind of grace they had, would someway be seen in this naturally “graceless” person. In the name of Him who they never got used to. Amen.”