I have had several verses that I keep
reading and praying over this year Acts 4:31 is one of them.
Acts 4:31
“31 When they had
prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak God’s message
with boldness.”
Are we supposed to be
afraid? No!
Are we supposed to be
bashful? No!
Are we supposed to second
guess ourselves? No!
We are supposed to carry
God's message to everyone with boldness. That means we approach every
opportunity to share the amazing grace we have been given with
boldness, but also with Love. We need to remember that we are to love
people, not beat them upside the head with our Bibles. We are
supposed to be lovers not thumpers! Bold, Not Brash.
Hebrews 4:14-16
“14 Therefore, since we
have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus
the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. 15 For we do not
have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper
time.”
Not only are we supposed
to carry God's message with boldness, we are told to approach God
with boldness. Now, Moses sinned by not following God's directions
exactly as he was supposed to. He did not get into the promised land
because of his sin. Yet, we see in verse 16 that we can draw near to
the throne of grace, despite our sin. He could not get into the
promised land, but we can approach the throne of grace. Nothing we
have done could open that door for us, it is all due to what Jesus
did for us. Thanks to Jesus we can approach the throne, thanks to
Jesus we have a message to share, but we need to know our limits.
Moses was brash when he hit the rock, we need to know our limits, but
be bold. We have to be careful to be Bold, Not Brash.
Hebrews 5:1-4
“5 For every high priest
taken from men is appointed in service to God for the people, to
offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently
with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he is also
subject to weakness. 3 Because of this, he must make a sin offering
for himself as well as for the people. 4 No one takes this honor on
himself; instead, a person is called by God, just as Aaron was.”
When the Hebrew people
first entered the wilderness God began the process of teaching them
many things. One of the things that was necessary was for Aaron and
his sons to be consecrated, or prepared for their service to God.
They were called by God to be the priests for His people and they
needed to follow the process exactly as God had laid out. They had to
be physically clean and spiritually clean. They had to washed with
water and cleansed through several sacrifices.
In the Old Testament we
find several types of offerings that can sometimes be hard to
understand since we do not deal with them today.
The Sin offering is to
atone for a specific sin where they were not able to take care of it
on their own.
A Burnt offering is a
general offering for sin that allowed unholy people to go into the
presence of a holy God.
With the sin and burnt
offering the person making the offering is not allowed to eat any of
it since we cannot truly offer anything to God to cover our sins.
The Grain offering
obviously has no blood so there is no forgiveness of sins from it. It
is truly about faith. The burnt offering allowed people to approach
God while the grain offering was to show their faith. Remember it is
impossible to please God without having faith.
A Peace or Fellowship
offering is not about making peace with God, as that is what happens
with the Burnt offering. The peace offering is a way to celebrate or
enjoy the peace one has with God.
Now when we pick up with
Aaron and Moses they had performed some of these offerings.
Leviticus 9:22-23
“22 Aaron lifted up his
hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after
sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship
offering. 23 Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting. When
they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord
appeared to all the people.”
All the people were seeing
the glory of God with their own eyes. Nothing was hidden from them.
Aaron made the offerings exactly as God wanted the high priest to do
and God was responding to Aaron's obedience. The glory of God
appeared as Aaron and Moses came out of the Tent of Meeting.
Mosses and Aaron followed
God's steps to the letter of the law in these sacrifices and God was
pleased. We need to make sure we are doing what God is telling us to
do. He wants to SEE our faith, and I emphasize the SEEING part of it.
He wants to hear that we love Him, He wants to know us, but all of
that should result in seeing our faith in action. Are you doing what
God wants you to do? Are you following the path that God has laid
before you?
Leviticus 9:24
“Fire came from the Lord
and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.
And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown on the
ground.”
The people 'shouted and
fell facedown on the ground'. They were in awe of the Glory of God.
They realized how Awesome God is and what their rightful place was.
They fell on their faces out of reverence to God. The people had a
constant reminder of God's glory.
While we have seen that we
are to approach the throne of grace with boldness, we also need to
remember who we are and who God is. We are here to worship and serve
Him, not the other way around.
Leviticus 10:1-3
“10 Aaron’s sons Nadab
and Abihu each took his own firepan, put fire in it, placed incense
on it, and presented unauthorized fire before the Lord, which He had
not commanded them to do. 2 Then fire came from the Lord and burned
them to death before the Lord. 3 So Moses said to Aaron, “This is
what the Lord meant when He said: I will show My holiness to those
who are near Me, and I will reveal My glory before all the people.”
But Aaron remained silent.”
Some people take that
boldness and turned it into brashness. They were trying to manipulate
God's glory for their own glory. They had witnessed the glory of God
and now wanted to get God to respond the same way but by doing things
their own way. Their confidence in God had turned into arrogance.
These guys had seen God do amazing things, they saw Him on a daily
basis, they were priest and had been instructed in what they were
supposed to do. Yet they had this crazy idea that they could 'call
God' when ever they wanted to, they could do it their way not God's
way. A very bold move, but also a very brash one.
How often in our
'infinite wisdom' do we think we know best and try to do things our
way? Way to often. We think we know the best way to do something or
what is the right path for us to follow. Sometimes we are lucky and
things turn out ok, but there are a lot of times taking things into
our own hands is not a good thing. Thankfully those of us sitting
here have not experienced the same results as Aaron's sons but I am
sure we all have a story or two to tell about when we tried to do it
our way and things did not work out as we planned.
How about when we share
our faith with non-believers? I think Nadab and Abihu would be the
type of people who would go door to door and flat out argue with
people. They would tell them that they were wrong for not going to
church. They would come across as being superior to the people they
were witnessing to. They would be just like your a-typical Bible
Thumpers and Holy Rollers. Bold? Yes. Brash? Absolutely.
They have it wrong, we are
to be Bold, Not Brash. When we share with people we need to find
common ground, find something we can connect with them on. It is
through that connection that we can share what Jesus has done in our
lives, share how He has saved us, and look for that door to share
what Jesus can do for them. Afraid or bashful? No! Bold? Yes, but not
brash.
Whenever we want to take
things into our own hands we need to remember the Lord's Prayer.
Matthew 6:9-13
“Our
Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. 10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our
daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors. 13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us
from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the
glory forever. Amen.]”
We need to be seeking
God's will not our own.
Leviticus 10:8-11
“8 The Lord spoke to
Aaron: 9 “You and your sons are not to drink wine or beer when you
enter the tent of meeting, or else you will die; this is a permanent
statute throughout your generations. 10 You must distinguish between
the holy and the common, and the clean and the unclean, 11 and teach
the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given to them
through Moses.”
Everyone needs to realize
there is a difference between holy and common, a difference between
God's way and our way. The priests were tasked with teaching everyone
the difference and how they were to act. They were to be bold and
stand with authority, but they need to not be brash and take things
into their own hands.
Hebrews 5:5-6
“5 In the same way, the
Messiah did not exalt Himself to become a high priest, but the One
who said to Him, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, 6
also said in another passage, You are a priest forever in the order
of Melchizedek.”
Jesus is our high priest
and He has told us that we to are to share with others. We are to be
bold.
Matthew 28:19-20
“19
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20
teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And
remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We are to be bold and
teach others as we have been commanded. Teach them what? 'everything
Jesus has commanded us.' Boldly teaching. God's will not ours!
Many people want to
approach God on their own terms. Yet, He has been pretty clear what
He expects. We have no right to demand God to come to us how we want,
we need to bend to His will. Thankfully we can approach the throne of
grace with boldness, but only because Jesus has already shown us the
way.
John 14:6
“6 Jesus told him, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me.”
Jesus paved the way for
us, but we need to remember that it is God's throne we are
approaching, not ours. Bold, Not Brash.
To often we try to do more
for God than He asks. We try to work out every little detail
ourselves, make sure we have all the money, all the resources, the
time, etc... We try to do it all without Him. We need to remember
that it is His will, not ours and through His will He wants to do
more through us than we can even begin to imagine.
Are you doing what you
know God wants you to do? Do it boldly.
Are you doing the things
you think He wants you to do? Do it boldly, but seek His leading.
Are you doing what you
want Him to allow you do do? Stop, don't take matter into your own
hands.
Be Bold in your faith. Let
it lead to action. Do not be brash, let God guide you.
Thank you for reading. I pray that God truly blesses you!
Robert
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