Opposition has a way of crystallizing boldness. It forces us to put up or shut up - to get on one side of the fence or the other. When conflict comes, we are forced to boil down the things we really stand for to the absolutes. Trivial matters and think-so’s disappear quickly under circumstances of persecution. No one is going to suffer for something he doesn’t really believe.

Haralan Popov was a minister of the largest Protestant church in formerly Communist controlled Bulgaria before the Iron Curtain fell. On July 24th, 1948 he was awakened in his home and taken into custody by uniformed officers to begin what turned out to be 13 years of severe suffering, torture, and imprisonment. He was denied food and water periodically, and beaten so many times he lost track. His wife and two children were left to fend for themselves during his absence. He has described his ordeal in the book Tortured for His Faith,(1) an autobiography. It was a harrowing time of suffering and misery, the whole of it spent in prison. His crime was that he was a believer in Jesus Christ and a leader in the Bulgarian church.

After Popov was released, he returned to the churches he had served. The Communist regime that had taken him prisoner was still in power. Listen as I read his description of what he found when he returned after 13 years of absence.

Sunday schools were forbidden and DS [Bulgarian Secret Police] spies were in every meeting. They wanted to know who was there, what was said, who prayed too fervently, was there any attempt to "proselyte" new converts?

They needn’t have worried because, by and large, the ‘new Ministers’ they had installed were over-zealous in enforcing the [State] religious laws. A police apparatus of total control had reached its octopus-like tentacles around the churches in a deadly embrace.

These secret, night-time beatings of anyone who seemed to be "zealous" in their faith in Christ were a regular night-time ordeal for many of our people - just as they are today in Russia, Bulgaria and many other communist lands. (Popov’s book was first printed in 1970 before the fall of the Soviet Union.)

Persecution of those who choose to follow Christ is nothing new. While 21st century American Christians have enjoyed a long respite from such things, we should never forget that our country was founded because of religious persecution. What has happened before could happen again of we aren’t vigilant.

How can a Christian face opposition with boldness? We addressed that issue in the last message in our continuing series called Acts of the Apostles. We covered Acts 4:1-11 in our last session, intending to finish the thought at a later date. We’ll do that today in the second installment on the subject, How to Have Boldness in Opposition. We’ll focus on Acts 4:12-31.

Let me quickly review. From verses 1-11 last time I pointed out four sources of the boldness of the early Christians that allowed them to stand firm in the presence of men who had the authority to kill them for what they believed. We considered these as things we can do to be bold in our faith. We can:

We’ll now pick out four more points from this passage.

Peter addressed the Sanhedrin council in response to the question in Acts 4:7, "By what power, or in what name have you done this?" What they had done was heal a crippled beggar who hadn’t walked for forty years. The obvious miracle led to Peter’s second sermon recorded in Acts 3 where he openly proclaimed Jesus and the resurrection. The Sadducees were livid in their response because they didn’t believe in the resurrection and they didn’t appreciate Peter and John bringing up the mention of Jesus of Nazareth Whom they thought was dead. Let’s read on beginning in verse 8:

I don’t know if you recognized it, but Peter had just drawn a big line in the sand as to who is saved and who is not. Again, verse 12:

The salvation to which Peter referred is salvation from the deadly effect of sin - the penalty of death. The name to which he refers is the name mentioned back in verse 10: "The name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene."

Do we really understand the impact of this verse? It is saying that there is only one way to get to heaven - through Jesus Christ! That surprises some people. It makes others angry, but that is what it says. Jesus Himself said essentially the same thing in John 14:6 when He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."

If Jesus and Peter meant what they said, what does that imply about people in other religions who try to get to God another way? Clearly, if you believe Jesus, they are lost and their religions do not lead them to God.

Jesus put it yet another way during His ministry in John 10:8-9: "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."

One of the compelling sources of boldness for the early Christians was not just the conviction that Jesus saves, but the conviction that only Jesus saves!

From the perspective of the Bible, when you or I go to visit a friend in the hospital and are forced by the situation to consider what might be their fate if they don’t pull through, we need only ask one question to determine that fate: Is this person a true Christian? If the answer is "no," and that does not change, their fate is sealed, no matter how religious they might be, no matter how good a life they might have lived. I’m not placing myself in the role of the Judge here. I’m simply relating what the Judge says.

How can we have boldness in the face of fear and opposition, then? We realize that only Jesus saves. That conviction compels us to speak up in situations that will silence us if our understanding on the issue is muddy.

It’s hard to argue with the results when they are standing right in front of you, looking back at you. This man was unable to walk for 40 years. Now he was leaping and walking and praising God!

Not only that, but there is another amazement issue here. Verse 13 says they were marveling because "they observed their confidence and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men."

These men on the council were trained in the professional rabbinical schools of Hillel and Shammai. They knew the ropes. In their world they understood that you didn’t have this kind of wisdom and lucid speech without proper training.

Peter and John knew this, too! And therein lies another source of boldness. Their lives had been changed radically by something far greater than themselves! The same was true of the life of the lame beggar. The radical change was so noticeable that the council was "marveling." If we want to have boldness in opposition today, we need also to remember that Jesus still changes lives.

There is something that comes in the life of every person who becomes a true Christian that the Bible calls "transformation." Though it may not be noticeable overnight, given time it becomes quite evident both to the one possessing it and to those around. The word for "transformation" in the Greek is metamorphe. We get our English word metamorphosis from it. Metamorphosis means "a change in shape or nature." In the Bible it is that remarkable change that takes place in the life of every true Christian.

Think back to what you were before you came to Christ. Has there been a change? Has there been enough change to convince you that there is something powerful behind all this? A person who has experienced this change can say, "I know this is real because there is no other way to explain this change in me and these others around me."

Another source of boldness is found in verses 15-22. This time I’ll give it to you before reading the passage: Realize that boldness is only known in opposition.

It’s easy to proclaim boldness. But you know if you have it only when you’re tested.

So the line in the sand was drawn. From this point onward in Acts, if Peter and John preached Jesus they were breaking the law.

That raises an interesting question. . . Is it ever appropriate for a Christian to break man’s law? The answer is found in verse 19 and 20: "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard."

God had ordered them to preach the gospel everywhere they went. These men in authority had now ordered them to cease that preaching. Who does the Christian obey in such cases of conflict? He obeys the higher of the two laws. He obeys God’s Law.

Opposition has a way of crystallizing boldness. It forces us to put up or shut up - to get on one side of the fence or the other. When conflict comes, we are forced to boil down the things we really stand for to the absolutes. Trivial matters and think-so’s disappear quickly under circumstances of persecution. No one is going to suffer for something he doesn’t really believe.

Let me once again read to you from Popov’s book as he describes the effect of the persecution on those who remained in the churches in Bulgaria:

"It was if the spirit of the early Church had descended in all its beauty, fullness and love upon the believers of the Secret Church. Every man, woman and youth was forced to ‘count the cost’ and decide if serving Christ was worth the suffering. And to the communists’ great regret, this was the healthiest thing they could have done for the Church, for the insincere gave up but the true Christians became aware of what it meant for them to become more dedicated than ever before."

The whole issue of what Peter and John were doing was suddenly reduced to a single decision: Would they continue to obey God knowing the Sanhedrin council could hurt or even kill them?

Why does God sometimes allow things to get harder? Perhaps one reason is that we need to get off the fence and take a stand.

There is yet a fourth source of boldness that we can apply to ourselves in this passage. It is simple, yet profound: Pray for boldness.

Peter and John had barely escaped imprisonment and physical punishment - perhaps even death. Had the chief priests had a way to pull it off, don’t kid yourself; they would have killed to silence these men. In the next verses we find out what there response was once they were released. They prayed! Oh, did they pray! What we see here is not some "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer. It was fervent. It was meaningful and full-hearted.

Though this is a rather lengthy prayer, there is a worthwhile pattern recorded here.

First, they recognized and reaffirmed the absolute sovereignty of God.

In other words, "Our God who was powerful enough to make the universe is still on His throne! These guys on the council are powerful, for sure, but they are nothing compared to God. They didn’t make the heaven and earth and sea. Our God cannot be thwarted or moved from his purpose."

A sailor in a shipwreck was thrown upon a rock where he clung for his life in great danger until the tide went out. Later a friend asked him, "Jim, didn’t you shake with fear when you were hanging onto that rock?" "Yes," replied the sailor, "but the rock didn’t." We may shake in fear under persecution, but God doesn’t.

It is interesting to note in passing that the word "Lord" there in verse 24 is not the usual kurios (Master) that appears so much in the New Testament. They used a different word. They used despota. We get our English word "despot" from it, though the Greek doesn’t carry the negative connotation that our English word does. Here it means, "Absolute Ruler." The idea is that there is no one else as powerful as the God of Heaven.

Their statement of God’s sovereignty led to the second conviction about the things of God: They recalled that they were in good company.

Verses 25 and 26 contain a quote from the Old Testament. It spoke of their ancestor, David, who had been persecuted before them. The idea was that this is how it has always been for God’s faithful people. Indeed, David had predicted this time. They were going through the same test that the heroes of the faith had gone through before them.

The third thing in this prayer is this: They reassured themselves of God’s overruling providence.

In verse 27 they recall what had happened with Jesus. Though it has seemed that all was lost at the cross, God overruled and brought victory in the resurrection. They realized that God could overrule the worst that man could ever give and still provide His very best to His people.

A fourth and final aspect of this prayer that added to their boldness is: They expected God to continue to give them strength.

In verse 29-30, we see that they expected the miracles to continue. They knew that it is God who empowers us to do the work that He assigns. He never leaves his people to face difficulty alone. He provides what is necessary to do the job.

In his book God Will Help Me, Walter G. Swanson refers to the life of Robert Dollar. He writes:

"God help us if we are ever persecuted in this country!" someone might say.

To that we can say most assuredly, "God will help us."

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place.

1. Harlan Popov, Tortured for His Faith: An Epic of Christian Courage and Heroism in our Day, Zondervan Books.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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