Wise and Bold

Mark Dunagan
10/02/11 - Sunday Evening

Wise and Bold

“It’s hard, isn’t it, to know when to speak out and when to hold one’s peace; when to confront publicly and when to confront privately; when boldness is godliness, and when it is ‘inappropriateness’?  There are many times I wish I had spoken a truth and not erred on the side of appropriateness (or cowardice).  The more water that goes under the bridge, the more I wish I had feared God rather than man” (Courage or Inappropriateness, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com, 12-31-2009).

Boldness

• “And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19).
• “...they observed the confidence of Peter and John” (Acts 4:13)
• “...grant that Thy bond-servants may speak Thy word with all confidence” (Acts 4:29)
• “And began to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
• “...he had spoken out boldly in the name of the Lord” (Acts 9:27).
• “Speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord” (Acts 14:3).
• “And continued speaking out boldly for three months” (Acts 19:8).

I am impressed that even Paul (Ephesians 6:19) and all the other apostles (Acts 4:29), felt a specific need for boldness. They prayed for it and even sought the prayers of other Christians on this behalf.  Clearly, confidence in speaking about the gospel is something everyone needs.  These passages also reveal that boldness is not something that simply arrives one day in our lives and never leaves.  In the book of Acts we find Paul preaching boldly in many places (Acts 13:46), and yet he requests the prayers of the Ephesians that he would speak the word with boldness.  Even apostles had to continually work on being confident. Remaining bold will probably be a lifetime endeavor and will involve continual prayer, study and encouragement. 

The Benefit of Boldness

“Now I want you to know brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater process of the gospel, so that...most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear” (Philippians 1:12,14). 

So how does this work?  How it is that seeing a brother being persecuted translates into greater confidence?  “One is that we notice that the sky didn’t fall.  I don’t mean that there weren’t ugly repercussions…I just mean we find out that these things don’t kill us after all.  There is life after persecution.  More than that:  There is life in persecution.  We all have good and bad moments, whether we speak out for Christ or not.  Like C.S. Lewis wrote in A Grief Observed:  ‘One never meets just Cancer, or War, or Unhappiness (or Happiness).  One only meets each hour or moment that comes.  All manner of ups and downs.  Many bad spots in our best times, many good times in our worst.  One never gets the total impact of what we call ‘the thing itself’.  That is why the rest of us are made braver.  We see that persecution is survivable.  We even find ourselves envying (in a righteous way—Romans 11:11) a man who has done the thing, and is free.  He has faced his fears and so they no longer have power over him.  Their bark is worse than their bite, which only doers of God’s Word can know.  Those who hold on to worldly goods and reputation are controlled by them; those who let them go end up strangely elated, You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one (Hebrews 10:34)” (A Personal Thanks to Mr. Hume, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com, 1-7-2010).

Confessing Christ

“Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).

Confessing Christ involves much more than just confessing that we believe in Him prior to baptism (Acts 8:37).  It involves a lifetime of agreeing with Christ, confessing His point of view to the world, acknowledging our dependence upon Him, that His way is right, and confessing all the great things that He had done for us.  It means refusing to act like He does not exist or that He did not die for us, “If we deny Him” (2 Timothy 2:12). 

What Needs to be Said?

“Praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak…Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person” (Colossians 4:3-6).

• “It works!”

It is good to be humble and confess that we fail and fall (1 John 1:8-10), and yet the Christian life should be much more than just “a recital of botched examples or moral failure….I would like to hear a preacher stand up and, rather than reap approving feedback from the Amen section for his forthcoming confessions of daily lacks of courage and love and obedience, tell us how he had a great weak of victory and liberty in serving the Lord and walking in His ways—and finally overcoming a besetting sin, or finding power in prayer against a longstanding temptation, of learning the secret of contentment, or discovering the power of God in the midst of severe weakness.  I will not think such a man proud or arrogant.  I will take notes, and I will walk out of church slightly elevated from the ground” (“Getting Beyond Confession”, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com, 1-22-2010).  The Bible is filled with examples of success and victory, where people changed and did great things.  While we are being humble, we need to loudly proclaim the message that the gospel has worked in our lives. 

• “Let me tell you where I was” (Ephesians 2:1-3).
• “Let me tell you the sinful addictions that I gave up” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)
• “Let me tell you the fears that I have conquered” (1 John 4:18).
• “Let me tell you how the gospel has changed the lives of others” (1 Thess. 1:10).
• “Let me tell you the family mess  from which I have escaped from, and which no longer has a hold on me” (1 Peter 1:18).
• “Let me tell you how God and I met the enemies and defeated them”

• “All things are Possible with God”

“Next time someone tells you this week that a certain marriage or boss or job or situation is impossible, you must immediately combat that with the truth.  Say to yourself (out loud, preferably).  ‘Nothing is impossible with God’.  Repeat as often as necessary.  That is how we ‘take captive every thought’.  That is how we ‘destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5)” (“Sermons”, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com, 1-12-2010).

• “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14).
• “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).
• “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 includes destroying the false arguments that we confront in the world, yet it includes much more than this.  The first arguments that I need to destroy are the false ones in my own head.  “They are the cacophony of voices that I hear in my head all day long that tell me that I am worthless or that I am better than someone or that I cannot be happy unless X, Y, and Z are in place.  They are the unbiblical theories and strategies about life and relationships that I somehow continue to put credence in even while believing myself to be submitted to the word of God.  ‘What ifs’ that paralyze action, and the bottomless churning cesspool of ‘what can go wrong’ that choke every potential act of faith.  They are the habitual and hardly conscious rebuttals of doom of every attempt of a brother to encourage me.  The interminable bemoaning of my weakness and sinfulness to anyone who will listen and the constant stroking of regret (the idolatry of guilt)—all need to be destroyed.  They have the appearance of humility but get us nowhere” (Destroying Arguments, Andree Seu, Worldmag.com, 10-29-2009).  Reject promptly the following:

• “What is being asked of me is too hard”
• “I will never overcome this sin”
• “I just was never meant to succeed at anything”
• “It will never work”
• “That person would never obey the gospel”
• “It is just too hard to be a faithful Christian these days”
• “It just not worth it”
• “I  know I am going to fail anyway—why even try?”

Instead, let’s say, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017

www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net