My Pulpit Message notes - The Boldness of the Apostles

- Grow and go are two sides of one coin. There is a place of growing and after than there is going. If you go and have not grown there is a lot of emptiness. - Similarly if you just grow and keep on growing then we may end up with too much information.

- If we are with someone especially a figure of authority, someone that we admire, we want to be like them and do the things that they do. This happens to all of us.

Acts 4:13 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

- Jesus Christ comes and transforms us.Acts 1

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”

- There is this assurance that Jesus had left, he had been killed, but resurrected and he appeared to them

to assure them that He is still alive that that which He taught was not in vain.

Acts 2

- The church experiences the receiving of the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 3

- After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they became also changed men because they honoured andobeyed the instructions as they waited. They were preaching and teaching, miracles were happening, people were being healed, signs were following their works. They preached with boldness.

- The healing of the lame man was proof that the apostles were carrying out the ministry of Jesus Christ as He had told them. Especially as Peter stands with the lame man he offers up many infallible truths that it was not he or John who healed this man but Jesus Christ that they had crucified is the One that performs all the signs and wonders. - As Peter spoke about 3000 men got born again.

- The trouble begins because the persecution begins. This is because the leadership were not amused at the preaching of the apostles. They thought they had silenced Jesus Christ. They were not amused that people were becoming believers. They were not amused because signs and wonders were following the preaching and the work of the apostles.

Acts 4:1-4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed;

Acts 5

- The number of believers grew to about five thousand people.

Acts 4:8-13 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’[a]

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

- Being with Jesus brings a certain dynamic in our lives. Some sort of empowerment that we cannot be able to do as ordinary men.

- Being with Jesus can go beyond whatever achievement man can have, beyond any wisdom or strength of man, “It’s not by might, not by power, but by the Holy Spirit”.

- The man that was healed was there as evidence. There was therefore nothing they could say, so they withdrew to confer.

Three Lessons

The calling of the apostles

The coaching of the apostles

The commissioning of the apostles

The calling of the apostles

- Matthew 4:18-20, Mark 3:16-20, Luke 5:1-11 record how the disciples / apostles were called. We too have been called.

- Jesus made an invitation to the disciples and to each and every one of us.

- If you don’t know Him as your personal Saviour, Jesus is calling you so that He can make a difference.

The coaching of the apostles

- After the disciples were called they were told to come follow. So for about three years they were with Jesus Christ wherever He was. They experienced everything that Jesus was doing. They were taught / trained by the Master Himself. It was sort of like apprenticeship. So they learned from the best, “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

- The coaching was for example by teaching, or instruction. Matthew 5 is the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus was teaching them things that were contrary to the expectations of man.

- Coaching also came by observation. The miracles they saw Jesus perfume. For example healing of a lame man in Mark 10, 1:4045 and many other miracles. They observed the coaching.

- Jesus coached them by modelling. Not by preaching water and drinking wine but by showing the good example.

- John 18:10 Jesus was arrested and as he was being questioned Peter was very swift and withdraw the sword cut Malchus’ ear and Jesus said, that is not how we live and He picked that ear and restored it.

- We too are being coached through hearing the Word of God during Sunday service, through reading the Bible, HGFs, Schools of ministry.

The commissioning of the apostles

- After experiencing all that, Jesus sent them to go and do that which they saw Jesus doing.

- In the book of Matthew towards the end Matthew 28:16-20 The Great Commission 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

- verse 19 - the right rendering of ‘Therefore go’ is ‘As you go’ which means as you do what you do make disciples. As you teach, if you are a teacher, please be involved in the work of God. As a doctor as you treat amongst your colleagues / patients, also be a witness of the LORD Jesus Christ. If you are in business, we are commissioned as well.

- The great commission that Jesus wants with everyone of us, that after we have spent time with Him then we are to go and make disciples and to bring transformation in the lives of others. We too have been commissioned and this applies to all Christians. It’s not just to the pastors, elders or church leaders but to all.

- As you go, leave a mark / footprint which when ultimately people see that footprint they will know that a child of God has passed here and that can only begin when we have been in a place where we have been with Jesus.

- The boldness, the courage of the disciples, as they say, ‘they took note they had been with Jesus'