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EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored ninety-two books. Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).
Acts 4:31 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
Just three days before Jesus was executed, Jesus told his disciples, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the inhabited earth[1] as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14) Jesus would speak on this again just before he ascended to heaven, Jesus said to his disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations … teaching them to observe all that I commanded you …” (Matt 28:19-20) Of course, being curious, they were asking him, “Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the extremity of the earth.”–Acts 1:6-8
It has been and will be mentioned several times in this publication, Christianity has lost its way in the great commission of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, teaching biblical truths, and making disciples, even in the face of centuries of intensified missionary work this is true. It is the mission of Christian Publishing House and this author that the first-century lifesaving work of evangelism is restored, so that, all Christians may play a role in making disciples. Therefore, it is tools like this publication and others by this author and other authors, which will enable any willing Christian to share biblical truths effectively within their family, their community, their workplace or their school, to make disciples. Within this chapter, we will cover how the Holy Spirit can enable us to be bold when we are sharing biblical truths with others.
The Need to Be Bold
One can only imagine the joy of making a disciple for Christ, who, in turn, goes out to make disciples himself. Congregation Evangelists, be it male or female should be very involved in evangelizing their communities and helping the church members play their role at the basic levels of evangelism. There is nothing to say that one church could not have many within, who have the calling of an evangelist, which would and should be cultivated. However, like in the first-century, we in the twenty-first-century have many challenges that get in our way. Generally speaking, few today are eager to hear from God’s Word, mostly because the majority have preconceived ideas about it (just a man’s book, full of errors and contradictions, and the like), many are of the same mindset as those who were living the days of Noah. “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.” (Matt. 24:38-39, NASB) Then, the apostle Peter warned,
2 Peter 3:3-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
On these verses, David Walls writes, “In the last days refers to all the days between the first advent of the Messiah and the second advent. Characteristic of that time frame, however long it will be, is the fact that people will make fun of the doctrine of the Second Coming. Scoffing toward Christians is to express derision or scorn about a Christian or Christianity, the Bible, or God. It describes the characteristic attitude of the day toward the Second Coming. False teachers argued that the promise of the Second Coming had been delayed so long that we may safely conclude that it would never happen. As far as they could see, the world was going on just as it always had–people lived and died, but nothing really changed.” (Walls and Anders 1996, p. 141) Today, we have false teachers on both sides of the second coming fence: (1) ones that scoff at the idea of Jesus’ second coming and (2) those that act as though they are prophets of God, knowing the very day and hour.[3] However, we also have those that from liberal and moderate “Christianity” that ridicule, mock and oppose conservative Christianity. All of this, and we have not even gotten to those outside of Christianity, who also ridicule, mock and oppose the Almighty God and his Word, the Bible.
As true Christians, we may face ridicule, mocking, and opposition from the governmental officials, the news and entertainment media, other religions, and the agnostics and atheists. However, even closer to home, it may come from those that our children go to school with, their teachers, or it may come from those we work with, even from close family members. All of these people need to be evangelized to if we are to carry out the Great Commission of proclaiming and teaching God’s Word, to make disciples for Christ. We need to evangelize those in false forms of “Christianity,” the unbelievers, and those in either of these categories, who are closer to us.
However, we face yet more challenges that are in our way. One such challenge is our human imperfection, i.e., our human weaknesses, such as shyness and fear of being ridiculed, mocked and opposed. Lastly, our greatest obstacle is our church leaders, who are failing to train us to be effective evangelizers in our communities. James, Jesus’ half-brother wrote, “One of you says to them [the poor], ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (Jam. 2:16-17, ESV) This principle can be carried over to pastors, elders, priests, ministers, who say to their congregation, “You need to share the gospel in your community, so that you may help build up the church for Christ.” All of this pointing the finger at them by using the second person pronoun, “you” repeatedly, and these leaders have not even given them the tools to be effective evangelists within their community. What good is that? Therefore, their supposed faith that the evangelism work will be done, but having no works of training such ones, means they have no genuine faith at all, it is dead. If we are to persist in sharing the Word of God, this will require that we have the tools to help us (i.e., this book and others like it), as well as boldness. In this chapter, we will focus on boldness.
Ephesians 6:19-20 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
19 and for me, that a word may be given to me at the opening of my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may proclaim it boldly, as I ought to speak.
The Greek word, parresia, “boldness” in verse 19 has the sense of in boldness “in an evident or publicly known manner–‘publicly, in an evident manner, well known.’”[4] The Greek word, parresiazomai, “boldly” in verse 19, is a “(derivative of parresia ‘boldness,’ 25.158) to speak openly about something and with complete confidence—‘to speak boldly, to speak openly.’”[5] However, this boldness, confidence, courage, fearlessness does not give us a license to be blunt or rude to the ones we speak to, even if their demeanor is such. The apostle said to the Christians in Rome, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” (Rom. 12:17; See Col. 4:6, NASB) He went on to say, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” (Rom. 12:18, NASB) When we go about our evangelism work, sharing God’s Word with others, we need to be bold in this hostile world, but it needs to be balanced with tact as well because our objective is not to offend the one we to whom we are witnessing.
To be sure, this sort of boldness calls for personal qualities that involve much effort that needs to be developed over time. We do not just wake up one morning and decide that we are going to be bold from here forward. In addition, we do not just read a couple of Bible verses about being bold, and then, we are all of a sudden able to be bold in our witness to others. “But after we [Paul and his companions] had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much conflict.” (1 Thess. 2:2) We today can acquire a similar boldness if we are hesitant, shy, or nervous at the idea of speaking to others about the Word of God.
Paul and his traveling companions had boldness, which you can note he said in the above, “we had the boldness in our God.” In other words, God removed Paul’s fears and gave him boldness. The rulers, elders, and scribes gathered in Jerusalem and commanded Peter and John to no longer witness about Jesus. These Jewish religious leaders had the power of life and death over them. Of course, they could only take their life, not their opportunity at eternal life. However, Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” God was well aware of these threats, but he granted his servants to speak his word “with all boldness.” Ac 4:5, 19-20, 29, ESV) The Father had provided them with Holy Spirit.
[4] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 337.
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