"Gracious Aggression": The Apostolic Approach to Proclaiming the Gospel

Recently I preached a sermon on Acts 4:1-12.  Here's the setting:  

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost,  and his presence was unmistakable.  Acts 2:43 says,  “And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”  Chapter three provides a perfect illustration of this.  Peter and John are headed to the temple to pray, where they encounter a lame man begging for alms.  Peter and John have no money, so instead of giving the man alms, they give him legs!  Word gets around, and before you know it, a crowd has gathered.  Peter preaches essentially the same message he did at Pentecost.  He points the people to Jesus, saying, “You killed him, but God raised him up, and he is the one who has healed this man.  If you repent, God will blot out your sins, he will bless you with times of refreshing, and he will bring you into his eternal kingdom. – It was a great miracle and a great message, but it was met with great annoyance.

Here's the first part of the text -- Acts 4:1-7:

4 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem,6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” 

Can you imagine being in such an intimidating situation?  After all, this was the same mob who had condemned Jesus to death just a few months earlier!  How on earth would the disciples respond?

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Peter's response is nothing short of astounding.  Everything about his response is connected to the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit.  Peter was filled with the Spirit, and his words flowed from the Spirit.  Instead of backing down in this intimidating situation, Peter declared the gospel with great boldness.  In R. Kent Hughes' commentary, he referred to this type of response as "gracious aggression."  What a great term!

So much more could be said about this passage, and I've included a lot of it in my sermon.  But here I simply want to share a four-point answer to the question, How can we respond with "gracious aggression" to those who oppose the gospel?

1. Expect opposition.

Jesus said, “Students are to be like their teacher. If they have treated me, the Master, this way, then how much more will they malign you!” (Matt. 10:25).

2. Be willing to suffer.

In his first epistle, Peter writes, “if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you” (1 Pet. 2:20 NLT).  Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12).

3. Be filled with the Spirit.

Saturate yourself with the Word of God, and go to him in prayer, asking him to grant you boldness and clarity in presenting the gospel (see Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:5-6).

4. Share the gospel boldly.

Take advantage of every opportunity God gives you to speak up for Jesus, believing that the Holy Spirit will give you the words and the wisdom necessary to be a faithful witness for him.  

Of course the bottom line is, do you care enough to witness to the lost?

The Insidious Evil of Gossip

Insidious. Folks see that word, and the first thing they think of is the popular horror flick that's been around a few years. In fact, the third installment is now in theaters (not that I'm recommending you go see it!).

Insidious. Interesting word. It's an adjective that means "proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects."

What comes to my mind when I think of that word is not a horror film, but hurtful speech - namely gossip. In his book, Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate, Jerry Bridges defines gossip as "the spreading influence of unfavorable information about someone else, even if that information is true."

Gossip is the spreading of unfavorable information

about someone else, even if that information is true.

A main motive behind gossip is to make ourselves look good by making another person look bad. We can even mask gossip by passing along the information as a "prayer request."

Bridges points out, "Closely related to the sin of gossip is the sin of slander. Slander is making a false statement or misrepresentation about another person that defames or damages the person's reputation."

Slander is making a false statement

or misrepresentation about another person

that defames or damages the person's reputation.

Political campaigns are notorious for slandering opponents by taking certain statements out of context or using sly innuendos. The same sort of thing happens in business in order to gain an advantage over the competition. Sometimes the competition is another business; often it is another colleague in the same corporation.

I wish I could say that this sort of back-stabbing, critical speech, negative talk, etc., occurs only "out there" in the secular world, but unfortunately it happens all too often in Christian circles. As Jerry Bridges notes, "In a Christian organization or a church, we can seek to gain an advantage over someone else by slandering that person." As one who has been in a local church and Christian School environment for most of my life, I have seen negative talk wreak more havoc than anything else in the body of Christ.

"How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell" (James 3:5-6). While some people are clearly malicious gossips and slanderers, others are simply busy-bodies who like to be "in the know" and pass on what they do know (or think they know). They think passing on information about someone else isn't that big of a deal, that it doesn't make all that much of a difference. But the following video clip from the movie Doubt illustrates otherwise.

Many professing Christians are guilty of murder, having assassinated the reputation of another person. Or at the very least they have called their character into question by innuendo. Read your Bible, and you will see that where Scripture talks about "grieving the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 4:30) and "stifling the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19), the surrounding context always has to do with sinful attitudes and speech. (To see other verses on the subject of gossip, click here.)

Yet these are the very sins that are allowed to go unchecked in the body of Christ and in our individual lives as believers.

Nevertheless, God says we are to have a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to gossip, slander, and other sinful speech.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God....

- Ephesians 4:29, 30

To grieve "to make sorrowful." We have to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person, not just a power or influence. Would you want to hang out with someone who constantly makes you feel sad or sorrowful?

To quote Bridges again,

We not only sin in our speech about one another but we also sin when talking to one another. This sinful speech includes harsh words, sarcasm, insults, and ridicule. The common denominator of all these forms of negative speech is that they tend to put down, humiliate, or hurt the other person.

Yet Scripture says that we are to speak only those things that are "good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear" (Eph. 4:29).

So what can we do to change course? How can we create a culture of encouragement without our sphere of influence?

1. Pray about it.

Confess your sins of speech to God. Tell the Holy Spirit how sorry you are for grieving him. Ask him to fill you with his empowering presence. Express your desire to please him, as David did in Psalm 19:14: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

2. Process your thoughts.

"Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a a fool than for him" (Prov. 29:20). No wonder Scripture says, "Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:19). Learn to think before you speak. Develop the habit of asking yourself three questions before passing on information about someone else?

• Is it true? Don't answer that question too quickly. Are you sure you have your facts straight and aren't making assumptions? Are you embellishing the facts or putting your spin on things?
• Is it kind? Just because something is true doesn't mean that it needs to be said. Is it truly helpful or constructive? Will it build others up? Will it administer God's grace to them in that moment?
• Is it necessary? Is the person to whom you are speaking truly part of the problem or part of the solution? Why exactly are you about to share this information with them? Does it really need to be said?

3. Promote positive speech.

Do what you can to build a culture of encouragement. Negatively, this means refusing to listen to gossip, slander, and other forms of unnecessary, negative speech. Positively, this means looking for opportunities to encourage other people, offer sincere compliments, say kind things to them and about them to others.

Just as we have no idea of the damage that destructive speech can cause, so we also can scarcely imagine the difference that an encouraging word can make in the life of another person. I leave you with these words from William Barclay:

One of the highest duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to laugh at men's ideals. It is easy to pour water on their enthusiasm. It is easy to discourage others. But we have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the one who speaks such a word.