May 31, 2026 - The Way: Acts 4:23-31

Listen as we continue in our series on the book of Acts as we hear from Darren Chmelyk on Acts 4:23-31.

For further information about Fort St John Alliance Church, check out our website fsjalliance.ca

Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the Way of Jesus together, and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week, we gather as a community to worship, learn from God’s Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Fourth St. John Alliance Sermon Podcast. I'm Nai Perry, the youth pastor here at the church. We're so glad you've joined us today. Our desire as a church is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, live on a mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us. Each week we gather as a community to worship and learn from God's Word and to be encouraged in our walk with Christ. In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service. Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St. John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith. Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Well, good morning. For those that don't know me, my name is Darren. I'm Dara's dad. And Holly's too. I'm part of the preaching team here at uh Fort St. John Alliance. We've been going through the book of Acts. The study of the early church. That's um, in my opinion, really exciting. I uh I really like the book of Acts. Although sometimes when I read through it, I get kind of embarrassed. Um when I see all the things the early church went through and what the Holy Spirit did through them, I kind of feel spiritually less, if that makes sense. I feel like I'm missing the mark or falling short. Just missing something. You know, the last verse in our text, verse 31, it says, They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly. They spoke the word of God boldly. You know, we're studying the beginning of the church, but for the moment, I want to skip ahead and look at the end. I have a question for you. At the very end, the very end of time, judgment day, who is sent to the fires of hell first? First on the list, before murderers, before liars, before sexual offenders, is cowards. Revelations 21, 8 says, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually mortal, those who practice magic arts, the idolators, and all liars, they'll be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The cowardly are listed first to be judged. When I read that, it's like a shot in the face. I don't know if you guys ever took a poke in the nose before, or maybe maybe you got hit in the face with a baseball, or maybe you ran into something. But when you get smacked in the nose, it dazes you, it stuns you. Right? Your eyes water immediately. If your nose is broke, your eyes will go black, your nose bleeds. It hurts. And that's kind of how I feel when I read that verse in Revelations and I see that word cowardly. You see, I had to look it up. I had to define that word. I had to see what does it really mean? What does it mean in the Greek? What did they really intend with that word? This is what it means. Cowardly. Faint-hearted, lacking courage. I was disappointed. You see, I wanted it to be worse. I wanted it to be something that I wasn't. I wanted it to be something I couldn't relate to. But unfortunately, I can. And unfortunately, I think probably most of us can. We've all been faint-hearted. They spoke the word of God with boldness. Nate shared last week how Peter and John were dragged into court, told not to preach in the name of Jesus, yet these unschooled and ordinary men unwaveringly stood their ground. Boldness was an attribute of the early church. It is to be an attribute of the church in every generation. It was the mark of the early church in Acts. But it wasn't always. Godly boldness in our culture today. But let's pray. Father, I am thrilled when I consider how you worked through the early church with the power of the Holy Spirit. You worked so much that you changed fearful people into people of great boldness. Lord, we would pray that you would do that in our souls today. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So what would you do if you were dragged into jail, put in jail, and then dragged into court unjustly? What would you do upon your release? Most of us would probably go hire a lawyer, right? We'd file a complaint. That's probably what I would do. Some of us might call our MLA, talk to our local politician and say this is unjust. Others would maybe just go home. And yet some might even go to the pub and have a beer and go, whoo, that was close. Jeez, maybe we should tone it down. Maybe not talk about Jesus quite as strong. Be a little bit more generic. But that's not what Peter and John did at all. They went back to their own people, to fellow followers of Christ. That's what it says. Immediately, on the release, immediately they went back to their own people. The first place Peter and John went after a night in jail was to church. Now there's a good chance it wasn't the whole church, because we know by now from our recent studies that 3,000 were added to the believers in one day. So more than likely it was a smaller group. Maybe their closest brothers and sisters, probably family members praying for the release. But here, right at the top, very quickly in the sermon, we hit on the first important lessons of how boldness in the early church was cultivated. It was cultivated in unity. It was fostered in a spirit of togetherness. When I was a young lad, my family moved to a different community. It was a small community and it was it was fairly rugged. And it turned out that new kids weren't actually really welcome. And I was the new kid. So on my way home from my first day of school, a bunch of kids stopped me. They made a circle around me. I was standing amongst them. I had a broken arm from a bicycle accident, yes, for those that know me. And I stood amongst them as they were getting increasingly aggressive. And I was waiting for the ritual new kid beating. And then all of a sudden, the circle pushed back. And there was my three brothers and my two sisters. And they had some friends that they managed to make that day. And all of a sudden, my confidence grew, my courage came back. Because I was no longer alone. The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes reminds us a cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Two are better than one. If either falls down, the other can help them up. God does not intend for us to walk through this journey alone, but to face the trials of life or the attacks of this world with one another. The author of the book of Hebrews reminds us not to forsake the gathering of our people. He tells us we do it so we can encourage one another. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spurn one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another all the more. We gather as a body of Christ for many reasons, but one of them is as a reminder that we're not alone, that there are fellow believers. And we are encouraged. One preacher said it this way, I thought it was clever. He said, We are encouraged. On the release, immediately they went back to their own people. Back to fellowship. And when they got there to their own people, what did they do? They prayed. They raised their voices together to God. And immediately in the midst of their prayer, they're reminded of the word of God, the word of God that came to Israel through the lips and the pen of David in the second psalm. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Those words given to David centuries earlier reminded them that what was happening to them was nothing new. It was nothing unusual. And in fact, that they should expect hostility and persecution. But it also reminded them that ultimately God was in charge and that his purposes would prevail. They turned to Scripture for wisdom. And they reminded themselves of the sovereignty of God. They asked God for courage and strength, and they experienced the presence of God. In other words, they worshiped. My brothers and sisters in Christ, we don't come to church to escape the world, but rather to encounter God, to turn to Him and hear from Him and be shaped by Him in light of what happens in this life. And when we do that, God meets us and fills us with whatever need, whatever we need to face our realities. The church was meant to be a spirit-filled community, filled with the Word and inspired by worship to engage in the real world. They raised their voices to prayer in God. And I would imagine that after a night in jail, it was pretty emotional. They didn't try to figure things out on their own. They didn't say, hey, what does this mean to you? No, they turned to God. What's interesting is in verse 24, the word that is used for God there in the Greek, it's despote. It's where we get our English word despot. And it literally means one who has absolute and final authority. They went on to say, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea. You spoke by the Holy Spirit. You descended before you decided beforehand what should happen. They reminded themselves that the chief priests and the elders were not calling the shots. The Romans were not ruling the day. God and God alone was in charge. Their lives and families and church were in God's hands. And he could be trusted. They needed to know that. But you know, nothing has changed. He is still in control. I think it must have been confusing at times. Let's just think about the disciples' experiences. In the beginning, they meet Jesus, they're drawn to him, not really fully understanding who he is, drawn to him, wanting to be with him, standing in awe of him, watching him heal, feed thousands, listening to him teach. Imagine what it was like to be in the boat the night he calmed the storm. The disciples' lives were in were in jeopardy. They were in danger from the destructive forces of nature. And they were afraid. And they woke Jesus. And they said, Don't you care if we drown? And Jesus gets up. And he doesn't speak to them. Instead, he speaks to creation. He says, Peace be still. And the waves and the wind cease. The fourth chapter of Mark records that at that point the disciples were terrified. And they said, Who is this man? Who even the wind and the waves obey? Who was he? He was the sovereign God. Jesus Christ is the same today and tomorrow. Ah, sorry. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Together they delved into the Word of God. They focused on his attributes and they prayed. And what happened? The place was shaken. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the Word of God boldly. I wonder why the Holy Spirit shook the place. I have a theory about it. I think it's because those disciples, those early Christians, didn't pray for protection. They prayed for proclamation. How do we deal with faint heartedness? We do it together in prayer and in the word filled with the Holy Spirit. Our nation is changing. The culture we live in can be hostile to Christians and to the truth found in the Bible. There are people working towards making using at least parts of the Bible illegal. I listened to some debates in Parliament between MPs, and it was very clear. Some say outright that verses that offend should not be used in public. Peter and John were brought before the Supreme Court of Israel, where they were commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus. To which they responded, saying, Whether it be right to obey God or man, you be the judge. And they made it clear that they were not going to submit to that rule. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Boldness. The character of the first century Christian church was marked over and over and over again with unparalleled boldness. And yet, just weeks before this moment, when lanterns were appearing in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the soldiers came to rest Jesus, his disciples fled in panic. At Calvary, when Christ was being crucified, John was there. So was Mary. But where were the others? Yet we see this sudden transformation. Just a few days before, when they're in the upper room hiding, cowering, terrified, locking the door in fear of the Jews. Now they're standing up against the highest authority in the land, fearlessly. So what happened? Well, two things, right? The resurrection and Pentecost. Tim Keller points out that every sermon the disciples preached was around the resurrection. The resurrection solidified the faith of the early church when they saw the empty tomb, when they saw the risen Christ, when they saw his victory over death and over his enemies. A faith was kindled in the apostles and the disciples that the whole world, with all its threats, could not put out. And God added to that faith. He gave the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to proclaim the word of God fearlessly into the whole world. That's the same Holy Spirit that you received when you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Boldness. Boldness, boldness. They spoke the word of God boldly. But what does that mean? What does it mean to speak the word of God boldly? As I said already, there are those that are very offended at the Word of God. But I wonder if there aren't more that are offended of how the Word of God is sometimes spoken or shared. I don't think we should ever water down the gospel. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching and rebuking. And people need to hear the truth, even if it hurts their feelings or is offensive or makes them uncomfortable. But at the same time, we have to remember what it says in the book of Hebrews. For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. Sharper than a two edged sword. My point. Is that the word of God cuts deep? So we need to use some tact. You know, my father owned a riverboat. Um, I spent a lot of time on the rivers up north hunting and fishing and boating. We were once on the river with uh one of my uncles and a cousin, and uh, if I remember right, a family friend was there. Another boat came by and it recognized us and it stopped. And it was it was people that my uncle was friends with. But my father knew them as well. This was back in the 70s, and it was not long before the men in the other boat pulled out a bottle of whiskey, and they offered a drink to my uncle and to the others. My father sat quietly on the side of the boat at the back. One fellow who actually knew my father fairly well made a comment that my dad wasn't drinking. But he knew my father was a Christian, and he knew that was why. But he basically said that my father probably thought they were a bunch of sinners and they needed to repent. And my father calmly looked at him and said, Have you thought about it? Because you should. And the boats went silent. The guy said, You know I have. And I know it's the truth. But I'm not quite ready to commit. If I remember right, after my father shared a bit more, the man dumped his drink into the river. The driver of the boat the man was in pushed off. And they waved goodbye and they left. I heard later on that that fellow got quite ill. But before he died, he did give his life to the Lord. In those moments on that boat, my father wasn't mean, he wasn't insensitive, he wasn't condescending, but he was bold. Bold enough to tell the truth that day. And we need that boldness. I'm not talking about being brash or foolhardy or being that obnoxious stereotype, born-again Christian that's unnecessarily offensive and in people's face. But I am talking about being done with cowardliness and living the proclamation of the gospel with the boldness that characterizes a Christian who has really been persuaded of the resurrection of Christ, that has been filled with the Holy Spirit. So that there's no distinction between what we as a church body proclaim on Sunday, that what we sing about, talk about, and celebrate together is not just left here, but brought into our daily life. That we live with conviction. The early church prayed for proclamation, not protection. They prayed for boldness. And by doing so, they moved closer to the Lord. We're inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that moved them outward into the world. That's what we see happening in Acts chapter 4. The early church is gathered for worship, then scattered for witness. They were filled with the Spirit so they could speak the word boldly. We as a church need to maintain that same rhythm: gathering, scattering, withdrawal, involvement, empowered on Sunday so we can be engaged on Monday. That's how we're to navigate the present. That's how we can influence our culture and the world today. You know, I said I wanted to define boldness today. Define godly boldness. You know, fears are real. Fears are not just some delusions in our mind. I'm sure the fears of the early church felt that the fears that they felt were every bit as real as what we feel today. Fear of loss of relationship because of our faith, fear of getting canceled, fear of looking stupid. And for some of us that we serve with, there's a real fear of getting killed. But the church called on Jesus in the face of persecution, and the Holy Spirit filled them with power. Our fears do not disqualify us from having the Holy Spirit work through us. When I share the good news, Jesus says in Mark's gospel, that I should not worry. I should not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given to you at the time. For it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Godly boldness at the core is essentially to courageously say yes to what the Spirit is saying, to how he's leading. Godly boldness, together in prayer and in the word, we act on the Holy Spirit's prompting. That's what I think is the definition of godly boldness. The Holy Spirit is always speaking to us. Just like the wind here in the north peace is always blowing, the Holy Spirit is always speaking. But when we hear him, do we act? When he's prompting you, when he's nudging you to certain things or leading you to certain places, do you allow him to interrupt your agenda? Or are you just too distracted with your own concerns and too busy to listen and obey? We can have boldness. Because of the resurrection, because of the empty tune, because of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit we have, because we're not alone, because we have the Word of God, together we can be as bold as the early church. And we'll pray. Holy Spirit, regardless of how any of us feel today, enable us to open our mouths and tell others about you. Father, help us to live this day to the full, being true to you in every way. Jesus, help us give ourselves away to others, to be kind to everyone we meet, yet firm in the Word. Spirit, help us to love the lost and proclaiming Christ in all that we do. Amen.