3-4 Boldness In Witness

And this is why those who heard the preaching of Peter and John took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). They saw their “boldness”, and realised they had been with Jesus; for the very same Greek word is used in description of the Lord’s “boldness” in witness (Mk. 8:32; Jn. 7:26; 11:14; 16:25,29; 18:20), and on the cross (Col. 2:15). Note too how they spoke of themselves as God’s servants in the same breath as they speak of Jesus as being His Servant (Acts 4:29,30). They realized that all that was true of the Servant was true of them too. Paul saw the Lord’s “boldness” as an imperative to him to likewise be “bold” in preaching (Eph. 6:19). This is why Peter spoke [s.w.] ‘boldly’, as did all the early church (Acts 2:29; 4:29,31). We all find it hard to be bold in witness, and yet in this as in all spiritual endeavour, ‘thy fellowship shall make me strong’. A deeper sense of the presence of Jesus, a feeling for who He was and is, a being with Him, will make us bold too. Even Paul found it hard; he asked others to pray for him, that he would preach “boldly” [s.w.] as he ought to (Eph. 6:19); and their prayers were heard, for in his imprisonment during which he wrote Ephesians, he preached boldly (Acts 28:31 s.w.); indeed, boldness characterised his whole life (Phil. 1:20 s.w.). In passing, we note how Paul felt spiritually weaker than he was; he felt not bold, when he was bold; and we see how the admission of weakness to others and their prayers for it can grant us the victory we seek. The point is, who the Lord is, we are. Or, we must be. If He was bold, if He was apt to teach and patient, so must we be; indeed, so are we, if we are truly in Him. Likewise, all the Father is, we are to manifest if we bear His Name.

In a simple example, David writes that the righteous are to be upright as the cedar and palm trees, because Yahweh is upright (Ps. 92:12,15). This is why bearing the name of Christ is in itself an imperative to witness it. Thus “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” is used as a metonymy for ‘the preaching of Christ’ (Acts 15:26; 3 Jn. 7; Mt. 24:9 cp. 14). We are baptized into that Name and thereby it is axiomatic that we become witnesses to it. The Lord Jesus was the light of the world; and by doing “all things without murmuring and disputing…blameless and harmless [as the Lamb]…ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life” [i.e. the Lord Jesus; Phil. 2:14-16]. The way he put everyone out of the room, turned to the body and said “Tabitha, arise”, and she rose up, is exactly the way the Lord acted (Acts 9:40 cp. Lk. 8:54).  Peter told Aeneas: “Jesus Christ healeth thee” (Acts 9:34 RV) when of course it was Peter standing there healing him. Likewise the way Peter beckons to the disciples to hold their peace, declares how the Lord had brought him out of the prison and death, tells them to go and shew these things to the brethren and then goes “unto another place” is a reflection of the Lord’s behaviour after His resurrection (Acts 12:17 cp. Mt. 28:19). Consciously and unconsciously, confirmed by providence, Peter was living out the fact he was in Christ; he was showing the risen Lord to men and women by his words and actions.