Please note all Bible verses are copyrighted and are shown here for ease sake.
Introduction
I asked at supper what were some ideas on what to talk about and William said to speak on courage. I questioned him a bit and it was courage in sharing the gospel message. This lesson is for William, today as we look at courage.
When we look at sharing the Gospel message, we see that this is so important to God that He established the role of an evangelist within the church to help equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. In Ephesians 4:11-13.
11 And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as [d]pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the [e]saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the [f]knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature [g]which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
An evangelist is a person who is a proclaimer of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Philip was an evangelist and so was Timothy. In 2 Timothy 4:5 Paul tells Timothy:
5 But as for you, use self-restraint in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Paul encourages Timothy to fulfill his ministry as an evangelist even if it means enduring hardship. Of course, Paul was no stranger to hardship as he worked as an Apostle and an evangelist.
When we look at these great proclaimers of the Gospel of Christ, we see an occupation that certainly requires courage. Paul for example, was stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked and martyred, for fearlessly proclaiming the gospel of Christ.
You might think, “I have not been called to be an evangelist.” No, you may not be in an evangelist role within the church, but you are called to always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. 1 Peter 3:15. We may not travel from town to town preaching the good news, but we proclaim within our communities that blessed hope that has been given to us through Christ Jesus our Lord!
Today, we are going to look at three courageous men and draw some wisdom from their lives that will help each one of us become more courageous in sharing the hope that dwells within us. The first man I want us to look at is a mighty warrior named Gideon.
Gideon Judges 6:11-16
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the [g]oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.” 13 Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.” 14 And the Lord [h]looked at him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” 15 But he said to Him, “O Lord, [i]how am I to save Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” 16 Yet the Lord said to him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will [j]defeat Midian as one man.”
I love this story! Israel has rejected God once again. God has lifted his hand of protection from them. Once His hand is removed, here come the Midianites to cause mayhem. They are terrorizing the countryside. Robbing the people of their food and wealth and leaving Israel in abject poverty. Life was intolerable for Israel. Finally, Israel calls out to the Lord.
Here comes the angel of the Lord into the next scene and there is Gideon hiding out in the bottom of the wine press trying to thrash his wheat so the Midianites would not come and take it from him. What is the title the angle gives to Gideon? A valiant warrior! Gideon is not thrashing his wheat in the open with his sword strapped to his side ready to take on the dirty dog oppressors who would dare try to take his wheat. He is hiding! Gideon is not buying it. If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where is this Lord who performed all these miracles of old? God must have gotten tired of us, because we are an abandoned people.
Have you ever felt like Gideon?
"God I read about Egypt, Moses, Elijah and Elisha and all these great things you have done, but where are you now? I don’t see your strong arm working on my behalf. I am a weakling hiding out because everyone is out to get me."
Have you ever been there? I know I have. I don’t feel courageous.
Guess what? God uses broken vessels! Do you want to be courageous when you feel broken and weak? Here is the first point we need to remember. You might want to underline this verse in your Bible and put this to memory.
You ready for this one?
14 And the Lord [h]looked at him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?
Go in the strength of yours. How much strength do you have Gideon hiding in the bottom of the wine press? That is all you need. Go in that amount of strength. How is that possible? Because the reality is, God has sent us. We just need enough strength to go. God will take care of the rest. If you want to have courage to go and proclaim the gospel, you don’t have to be a super hero. You do not have to run around in leotards and a facemask. You go in the strength of what you have and trust the Creator to do the rest! Amen? Amen!
The next man we are going to look at is Eleazer.
Eleazer the Son of Dodo the Ahohite 2 Samuel 23:9-10
Now you might be wondering who is Eleazar (L-E-A-zer). Eleazar is the son of Dodai (doe-die) the Ahohite (Uh-hoe-height). That should clear everything up! He is one of David’s mighty men. Unlike Gideon, this is a man of valor. A skilled warrior. We read about him in 2 Samuel 23:9-10
9 Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty warriors, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim[d] for battle. Then the Israelites retreated, 10 but Eleazar stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.
Here is the army of Israel taunting the Philistines and the Philistines attack when they are in a barley field. The army sees the trap and they retreat, but not Eleazar. He stands his ground. Swinging his sword. Dropping Philistine after Philistine. The bodies of the fallen adding up until there was no one left to fight against him. The troops gather up and come back, but the battle was over and the only task left was to strip the dead.
I picked this story because there is a strong metaphor in the sword. Eleazar had gripped his sword for so long that after the battle he could not let go of it. His hand was frozen to his sword. If we want to be courageous warriors of the gospel message then we need to cling to our sword, the words of God. When we armor up we must not forget our sword which is the Spirit, the Word of God. The Word of God is living, it is active, it is sharper than any two-edged sword. The sword we use is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It exposes people. Hang on to the Spirit of God. There is supernatural power here folks. Not our power, but His power. What an amazing weapon we have.
Do we need to know every in and out of scripture? No way. It is not our ability. It is not our mental prowess of understanding of these words. We cling fast to the promises of God and we go and we let the Spirit of God work. Don’t ever go in your own strength, but rather cling to the Word of God and let His word work in people’s hearts.
Go in your strength. Never let go of your sword and the third person we are going to look at today is Jonathon.
Jonathon son of King Saul I Samuel 14:1-23
This is another amazing story. In 1 Samuel 13, Saul gets rebuked by Samuel for taking matters into his own hands by making the sacrifice that Samuel was to make when he arrived. The troops of Saul are quaking with fear. They were fearful for good reasons. The Philistines had 3,000 chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
Saul had 600 troops. Not only that the Philistines had taken away all of Israel’s blacksmiths. Therefore, in this 600 troop army only Saul and Jonathan had a sword and spear. This was an armless army. There they were in Gibeah and the Philistine outpost was on the other side of a pass where they would have to travel past two cliffs.
Jonathon gets a bright idea. He tells his armor bearer that he intends to sneak out and go over the Philistine outpost. He tells his armor bearer in 14:6 that, “Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.” Jonathon has an amazing armor bearer who basically says OK, I’m with you all the way!
They sneak out of camp and head on over and let’s continue the story starting in verse 8.
8 Jonathan said, “Come on, then; we will cross over toward them and let them see us. 9 If they say to us, ‘Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. 10 But if they say, ‘Come up to us,’ we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.”
11 So both of them showed themselves to the Philistine outpost. “Look!” said the Philistines. “The Hebrews are crawling out of the holes they were hiding in.” 12 The men of the outpost shouted to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come up to us and we’ll teach you a lesson.”
So Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, “Climb up after me; the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.”
13 Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet, with his armor-bearer right behind him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor-bearer followed and killed behind him. 14 In that first attack Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed some twenty men in an area of about half an acre.
Absolutely amazing. You might be thinking but that was only 20 slain out of a huge army. This is not the end of the story.
15 Then panic struck the whole army—those in the camp and field, and those in the outposts and raiding parties—and the ground shook. It was a panic sent by God.[a]
This panic put the entire Philistine army in total confusion and the Philistines started fighting themselves. A great victory was achieved that day. In this story we see Jonathon going in the strength that he had. He clung to the words of God, trusting that the Lord can deliver us whether it is by many men or just a few and in this case the few was two!
The point I want us to take out of this story is that God is already working. God was working in the Philistine camp before Jonathon and his armor bearer ever showed up. Jonathon starting to climb up said; the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel. God had already prepared the army of the Philistines for defeat.
We often think that it is all up to us. If I say the wrong thing then I will turn them off to Christianity for the rest of their lives. Alternatively, you might think that their heart is hard and the only thing to gain is ridicule and retribution. How prideful are we? God has already been working on their heart. God will use His Spirit through you, to impact the society. God is already there! Our job is to go and cling to His Spirit and watch Him work.
Closing
Did Gideon have the strength to defeat Midian? Not on his own. Did Eleazer, as mighty of a warrior as he was, have the strength to defeat an entire army on his own? Not a chance. Did a 600 man unarmed army have a chance against an army so huge it could not be counted? They should have just surrendered.
Do you want to be courageous for God? It is really simple to do. Go in your strength, Cling to the Word of God and understand that God is already at work in people’s hearts, we are just the broken pot that God uses to demonstrate His glory.
I would like to close with words from 3 other courageous men. Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego from Daniel 3:16-18
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
God may save us or he may not, but that is not the point of being courageous. To be courageous we go, we cling to His Words, and we trust that God is already there working out His glory in peoples lives. GO, CLING, and TRUST.
