A Little Too Friendly With The Enemy- Acts 4

The believers in Acts had no desire to court the world... they weren't strategizing about how to engage the government officials with the gospel or think of creative ways to draw crowds... They weren't using their energies to pander to the world. They actually prayed to God using Psalm 2.

Why do the nations rage

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together

against the Lord

and against his Anointed One.

The point of the psalm is that the world is opposed to our King Jesus. It is not a popular message to bid the world, "come and die," or, "humble yourself so that God can raise you up," or the most offensive one, "submit to Jesus." That is like a punch in the face to a worldling's ego. So, the believers prayed, "consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness... after their prayer, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly" (Acts 4:29,31). They weren't pleading to have God make their message more appealing. They weren't groveling that God would make the task easier. What they were saying was, 'even if we have to die, make us bold! If it gets harder and we are all getting martyred, don't let us chicken out!' God honored their prayer with His presence, the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly.

Here is my question for you... are you bold for Jesus? Not annoying, some "christians" are annoying... but are you BOLD? Will you openly talk about Jesus and proclaim Him even though the world is opposed? The nations plot against Him. Satan is the prince of the earth and we live in his domain. He hates Jesus. So, are we befriending our enemy? Or are we proclaiming the Gospel boldly in the face of suffering. I have a better inheritance and an abiding one! Take my life! Make my day! Usher me into the courts of heaven. Spew your venom on me and earn me a bigger crown... Let's man up to the gospel and be willing to be bold like the early church was... bold enough to live this thing out.

Are you willing to separate yourself from the world? I know that seems closed minded and legalistic and many other negative things. But, I am sick of Christians playing the relevant card. People want to be relevant so they adopt the pattern of the world to try to minister to the world. I am not sure that works. Like the example of evange-dating. We would never tell students to date someone that isn't a believer with hopes that they can be converted. It doesn't work. You end up doing things that you shouldn't and giving Christianity a bad rep because there is no noticeable difference. So, I think we should do what the bible calls us to and be "called out" and "sent in." Called out of the world to be noticeably different and even opposed, and sent in to be missionaries to our families and friends and coworkers. 

Here is my point. Don't date the world and call it ministry. Don't justify your worldliness by saying you are relevant. Be different. Be bold. In the end that will save more people than any carnal approach you can possibly take. Let's pray that God would make us bold. Pray that we would proclaim Him... and we wouldn't change our strategy because it is hard but we would trust God that He will draw men to himself.