Courage and destiny
The courage of easter.
This week we celebrate a man about 33 years of age – not just a good man but a great man – Jesus – son of God – Young man with an extraordinary reach. His reputation had stretched wide and far. Politicians – Kings and other powerful rulers heard of him and were stunned. They itched to meet him. His reach went out and touched the hearts of the common man and lower than that they reached down into the hearts and illnesses and, yes, the brokenness of the poorly born, the sick and disadvantaged the rejects and untouchables. His love had reached out and touched lepers his seemless relationship with his Father meant Lepers were healed – blind men celebrated the gift of light and the deaf, once again engaged in the reception of the beauty of sound.
Young man - confident – popular - with his future ahead of him
But his reputation also stretched out to those who were the keepers of the faith. The religious bigots and leaders of his day. Sincere men, but sincerely wrong – They danced to a different tune and desired that this man this Jesus would just dance to their music also.
The tempo of the drum beat beat out it’s tune that day to an excited city. Jerusalem was preparing for the Passover. A day when the Jews remembered how God had blessed them in the past and surely would do so into the future again. Blood had been spilled and they longed to remember just how blessed and safe they were because God had passed them over and death had spilled into Egypt that day Oh so long ago but they, His chosen people had been spared and here they were as they had been and ever would be. The redeemed the favoured the beautiful people basking in the sun of God’s favour.
Or would they? Because He who came. This young man who broke all their conventions walked to adifferent drum beat.
No yesterdays song here.
This Jesus – sinless son of God walked to a different drum beat and this day would be no different. While the city anticipated – here he came. Not - flinching – apparently living in the moment and the drum beat was the clip clop clip clop of a colts feet on the Middle eastern cobblestones.
Just a day before knowing what would happen –( WE read
Luke 19:41-44English Standard Version (ESV)
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem)
(41 And when) he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
What Jesus spoke of that day happened just 70 years later.
This was no ordinary day in Jerusalem God was now asking his people to march to the tune of a different drum. History was changing as it often does – here they were at a crossroads as people often are in history as we are at this moment history is beckoning Christianity right now at the crossroads of civilisations to a new courageous walk that is both ancient and new. But who will dare to walk to the new beat of God’s drum?
Habit – pride and stubbornness often combine to stop change but change was coming – Ready or not and Jerusalem was not ready. But are we?
Clip clop clip clop – the haunting sound of the colts foot prints on the cobblestones announced the change and people noticed and people responded.
Suddenly there was activity everywhere
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna![a]”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b]
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
The scholars should have known Zechariah had encouraged them to watch for this moment:- (Zech 9:9 [NASB77]) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The city knew for a moment they glimpsed it, the King had come but in the blink of an eye distracted by normality they missed it. As Jesus had said, the results of temporary sight were profound - “ they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” This was the moment but people didn’t get it not really but The King had come he was in the city.
He knew all along he wouldn’t be recognised.
He knew there would be trouble.
He already knew he would die.
But he ALSO KNEW that this was his fathers will.
So the 33 year old man – Jesus of Nazareth rode into the city and by so doing rode into an ambush that would lead to his death.
That is courage – Jesus presents courage in it’s most beautiful form.
The thing we learn about courage here is that Courage – real courage – Dives in – Not because of what might happen. Real courage plunges in because it is what God wants so courage takes a deep breath and just does it.
In the worlds eyes earthly courage is often lauded and promoted Alfred Lord Tennyson says in his famous poem the charge of the Light Brigade
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.
VI
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
That charge is largely forgotten but one man on a colt riding into Jerusalem has never been forgotten.
First lesson about courage this morning is – courage is unrestrained when the right thing is required.
The second lesson Jesus teaches us about courage is: Courage persists in God’s way.
Jesus has no hesitation in causing a near riot in the temple in order to expose the corruption and the reduction of God’s house to a shady business/
In those days it seems people could bring their own sacrifices into the temple but the priests – the religious examined them and would find fault with them in order to sell them their sacrifice at greatly inflated prices.
Like shady car dealers in the name of religion they didn’t hesitate to rip off their fellow Jews and Jesus saw tight through it. If he hadn’t set himself up before he certainly did now.
The scattered tables and animals ensured that he now had a target on his back with plenty willing to fire the first shots at him
Courage – true Christian courage does not hesitate to stand up for the truth in fact love stands up for the truth.
Love says Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Such courage must be the characteristic of the Christian church today.
We saw it in past Generations in people like William Wilberforce and we must see it today.
Wilberforce "So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition."
In the late 1700s, when William Wilberforce was a teenager, English traders raided the African coast on the Gulf of Guinea, captured between 35,000 and 50,000 Africans a year, shipped them across the Atlantic, and sold them into slavery.
By the late 1700s, the economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought anything could be done about it. That handful included William Wilberforce.
Elected to Parliament in 1780, where he formed a lasting friendship with William Pitt, the future prime minister. rBut he began to reflect deeply on his life, which led to a period of intense sorrow. "I am sure that no human creature could suffer more than I did for some months," he later wrote. His unnatural gloom lifted on Easter 1786, "amidst the general chorus with which all nature seems on such a morning to be swelling the song of praise and thanksgiving." He had experienced a spiritual rebirth.
He abstained from alcohol and practiced rigorous self-examination as befit, he believed, a "serious" Christian. He abhorred the socializing that went along with politicking. He worried about "the temptations at the table," the endless dinner parties, which he thought were full of vain and useless conversation: "[They] disqualify me for every useful purpose in life, waste my time, impair my health, fill my mind with thoughts of resistance before and self-condemnation afterwards."
He began to see his life's purpose: "My walk is a public one," he wrote in his diary. "My business is in the world, and I must mix in the assemblies of men or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me."
In particular, two causes caught his attention. First, under the influence of Thomas Clarkson, he became absorbed with the issue of slavery. Later he wrote, "So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition."
Wilberforce was initially optimistic, even naively so. He expressed "no doubt" about his chances of quick success. As early as 1789, he and Clarkson managed to have 12 resolutions against the slave trade introduced—only to be outmaneuvered on fine legal points. The pathway to abolition was blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, entrenched bigotry, international politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear. Other bills introduced by Wilberforce were defeated in 1791, 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805.
When it became clear that Wilberforce was not going to let the issue die, pro-slavery forces targeted him. He was vilified; opponents spoke of "the damnable doctrine of Wilberforce and his hypocritical allies." The opposition became so fierce, one friend feared that one day he would read about Wilberforce's being "carbonated [broiled] by Indian planters, barbecued by African merchants, and eaten by Guinea captains."
Prime minister of philanthropy
Slavery was only one cause that excited Wilberforce's passions. His second great calling was for the "reformation of manners," that is, morals. In early 1787, he conceived of a society that would work, as a royal proclamation put it, "for the encouragement of piety and virtue; and for the preventing of vice, profaneness, and immorality." It eventually become known as the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
, Wilberforce—. gave away one-quarter of his annual income to the poor. He fought on behalf of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. He helped found parachurch groups like the Society for Bettering the Cause of the Poor, the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Antislavery Society.
When healthy, however, he was a persistent and effective politician, partly due to his natural charm and partly to his eloquence. His antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in 1807: Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. He then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery in the British Empire was abolished. Wilberforce's health prevented him from leading the last charge, though he heard three days before he died that the final passage of the emancipation bill was ensured in committee.
Jesus himself inspired this courage and countless other men and woman who swirl around world history. Jesus wants to make you courageous for him in your life in your world.
Thirdly courage is not afraid of confrontation - 27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”
31 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
2 Timothy 1:7New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)
7 For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.
Courage is incredibly brave and Jesus does it not just by the flesh but the Spirit.
In the Spiritually anaesthetised world we live in people today need courageous men and women who will lead the charge into recovery. Imagine a recovery room in a hospital room where the staff as well as the patients are all asleep. We need to wake up to be courageous like Jesus.
Gideon did not realise how courageous he was when the angle came to him and said. The Lord is with you brave and mighty man Judges 6 verse 12. He didn’t feel brave nor did he feel mighty. His nation was subdued by the Middianites. But his courage came from God who instructed him step by step until the victory was realised.
You might think that you are not that courageous and could never do this thing or that thing. But the truth is if you have God on your side of course you can do it.
Jesus in these passages this morning models courage for us and he models it for you.
You might feel that such courage is impossible
"Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" Matthew 19:26
Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God's call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him." Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, "The world has yet to see ... with and for and through and in ... a man!" Varley meant any man! Varley didn't say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, he'd be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he'd never realized before.
It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master's feet and say to Him, "Send me! Use me!"?D. L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends out men and women trained in service for God.Are you an ordinary man or woman in whom God wants to do extraordinary things? God desires that for every child of His. Ask God to do extraordinary things in your life. Begin today to trust Him to accomplish great things for His Kingdom through you.
Os Hillman • Biographies
