2020 was a rough year. There potentially has never been such a more profound understatement than that. Everyone from nearly every walk of life was affected by a pandemic, political turmoil seemed to increase every single day at an alarming rate, even our insects became deadlier. The most frightening part, however, was the fact that it was unprecedented. The closest events in recent memory to the Coronavirus pandemic were diseases such as Ebola or the Zika virus, which never came close to the same scale. For most of us in the younger generations, there was no easy answer as to how we were to handle these events.
This also applied to our church leadership. Many questions without easy answers were asked. How do we fellowship when we can’t even open our buildings? How can we continue to spread God’s word when doors, both literal and metaphorical, have been closing all around us? The strain and pressure were immense and in some ways is still at its peak as we face reopening.
However, throughout this past month as I’ve taken time to gather my thoughts and pull together lessons and information to share through this site, something important stuck out to me. While our particular situation may be foreign, God’s people have persevered throughout even the most difficult of times. They’ve been through plagues and politics, through economic failure, through wars and natural disasters. Ecclesiastes tells us “There is nothing new under the sun” (1:9). In fact, some of the times where God’s people have appeared the most courageous and strong have been times where they were under the most pressure.
The question then becomes apparent: How? How were they able to do God’s work during times that would like them to do anything but? How did they move forward? How could they thrive? These are answers that some today, people like myself, desperately crave.
In thinking about this topic and these questions, my mind was immediately drawn back to the book of Acts, specifically in chapter four. Historically, the Church has been newly formed and still facing stiff opposition from religious leaders and the Roman government alike due to it’s size and prevalence. Despite this, it is continually growing. Seemingly everywhere the apostles went proclaiming the Gospel more souls were added to the body. Peter and John are in Jerusalem, specifically speaking to a crowd in Solomon’s Portico, when suddenly they are arrested by the Sadducees and other religious authorities. Held in custody for a night, two of the biggest leaders of the church were incarcerated overnight to be tried the next day. The situation seemed at first grim.
Peter and John, however, were not dismayed. In fact, they were so unshaken by the events that had happened that they made their case to those in attendance. Even their account of Jesus was enough to cause those in the crowd to marvel. Which put the Sadducees in a tight spot. After all, the crowds were not in favor of their opinion. It would become difficult for any sort of punishment to be sentenced, as it would illicit a response similar to the ones they had feared months ago when plotting to get rid of Jesus. Adding to their troubles was the presence of a man who had been healed through Peter and John, a man lame from birth, who was walking as if he had never been without use of his legs.
Seeing these things, and being unable to deny them, they demanded that they be silent about Jesus. Peter still opposes them, asking whether it was better to serve God or to serve men. While nothing is recorded about it, I can only imagine the stunned silence emanating from the officials after Peter had finished asking his question.
Peter is probably one of the best examples to use to talk about boldness in the Bible. The headstrong lad who was willing to die fighting to keep his teacher from being captured after being betrayed. If there was an apostle to have all the confidence and conviction needed to carry out God’s work, it was Peter. However, it is what follows his arrest and release that I believe helps us understand boldness in a manner we can apply to today.
Having just stood up to the Sanhedrin to make his case as to why they cannot be silent about the Gospel when forbidden, Peter prays for boldness. Here is a man who was able to stand up to the power of decree and faced being given to the roman government to be dealt with as a disturber of the peace, praying for boldness. He prays in verse 29 “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word” (Acts 4:29). It almost seems counter intuitive. To Peter, this made perfect sense, because Peter knew his boldness came from somewhere else.
God’s people have been in lots of seemingly inescapable scenarios. Odds have seemed insurmountable, seas have seemed uncrossable, giants have seemed undefeatable. But throughout all of this, God has provided His people with exactly what they needed. Jesus tells us to simply “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Mat. 7:7). God has not left us without the tools we need to succeed.
With that being the case, we need to pray for boldness if we as a church are to reopen and continue to lead in God’s word. Right now, it seems a little insurmountable. We don’t know if the government will take us back to a mandatory lockdown. We don’t know if or how we could have youth rallies and other church events again. It seems like we’ve been held captive since the beginning of this pandemic. It will take boldness to face these fears, concerns, and challenges. It will take the type of boldness that allowed a man to stand trial and defend the Gospel to those who would want it silenced. Luckily for us, the God we serve, the God who equipped His people with boldness in the past, is the same “Yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:4).
2020 was a rough year, and the challenges 2021 presents can seem almost as insurmountable. However, we can find the boldness we need to face those challenges and thrive through them if we know where to ask, seek and knock. Pray for boldness as you go throughout this next week, that we may be able to get back to doing God’s work.
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