Members of the 4th grade class at Spring Hill Elementary School in McClean, Virginia were asked the question: "What Is Courage". Their answer was: "Having faith. Being brave. Doing something when you’re scared of it. Doing something when you think you can’t. Trying something that you’ve never done before. Being nice to people with disabilities. That’s courage!"
This morning I want to talk about the subject of Christian courage. C.S. Lewis said, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
According to Acts chapter 4, verse 13, the Jewish leaders saw the courage of Peter and John. Not too long ago Peter denied that he even knew Jesus not once but three times. Now he is regarded as courageous by the same people who ordered the death of Jesus Christ. What caused this change to happen?
Let’s review the events in Acts and see what has occurred. In Acts chapter 2 we know the believers received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Then after that amazing infilling the Holy Spirit gave special courage and wisdom to Peter which we hear about in Acts chapter 3 and 4. With John by his side, Peter healed a crippled beggar, preached the first Christian sermon, spent a night in prison, and then gave testimony to the truth and power of Jesus Christ in front of the same people who ordered the death of Jesus Christ. Amazing!
What helped Peter and John to demonstrate such great courage? What will help you and I live Christian lives of courage? Let’s look first at some things that Peter and John had going against them. The absence of these things in their life shows that they hold no connection to living a life of courage.
A. Money
Peter and John were not wealthy men. Before they healed the crippled beggar in Acts 3:6, Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have...”
Imagine that you lived in a time before credit cards. Some of you here may remember that far back. Would it bring you confidence to have some money in your pocket? It may bring you confidence, but it won’t bring Christian courage.
It’s like Henry David Thoreau said, “Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.” Living a courageous Christian life has nothing to do with the amount of money in your bank account.
B. Freedom
Peter and John found themselves without freedom to do as they pleased, for in Acts 4:3 it says, “[The rulers] seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.”
Even going to jail and losing their freedom didn’t stop Peter and John from having courage. Do you ever feel strapped by the government and laws of our world? No matter what our freedoms are or aren’t, we can still have courage. When Peter and John kept their courage in jail they experienced God’s help over their circumstances.
C. Education
In Acts 4:13 it says the Rulers and Elders, “realized that [Peter and John] were unschooled, ordinary men”
This doesn’t mean that Peter and John didn’t have wonderful minds. In their day anyone who didn’t have special training in Greek rhetoric was considered unschooled.
The level of our formal education doesn’t have to stop us from serving God. There’s nothing wrong with having formal education, but it doesn’t have any power to make us a courageous Christian.
Like Jesus said in Matthew 11:25, “I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
What is the source of courage then? Money, freedom, and education aren’t excuses for not having it. Peter and John demonstrated that a relationship with God is the only source of true courage. The same is true for us today. No set of resources, conditions, or experiences will ever help us live a life of Christian courage without a dynamic relationship with God.
Let’s see how Peter and John showed that they had a dynamic relationship with God as they displayed the example of Christian courage for us. In every situation where Peter and John were challenged and needed courage their close relationship with God was revealed.
I. They Were Filled with the Holy Spirit
In Acts 4:8 when Peter and John faced the questions of something like a 1st Century Grand Jury we hear, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them...”
Now we know that Peter had the Holy Spirit in him already. That happened on the Day of Pentecost. But when Scripture says “filled with the Holy Spirit”, it refers to a special moment of inspiration where our relationship with God in our inner spirit rises to the world of action. For example, Jesus was talking about this special inspiration in Matthew 10:19-20 it says, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
We all have a relationship with God, but what matters is what that relationship is like when under fire. The challenge for us is to draw so close to God that his courage and our courage become the same thing. We need a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.
In his book The Counselor, A.W. Tozer said, "Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON. He is not enthusiasm. He is not courage. He is not energy. He is not the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of cold weather. Actually, the Holy Spirit is not the personification of anything...... He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will and intelligence. He has hearing. He has knowledge and sympathy and ability to love and see and think. He can hear, speak, desire, grieve and rejoice. He is a Person."
You and I are called to live in right relationship to the person of the Holy Spirit. By knowing Him we will know courage.
A second way that Peter and John demonstrated courage is:
II. They Had a Relationship With Jesus Christ
In Acts 4:13 it says that when the Rulers and Elders, “saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
Why did the rulers note that Peter and John had been with Jesus. It was probably because Peter and John were reminding them a lot of Jesus. A good student becomes like the teacher.
Just like Jesus they had performed a physical miracle of healing. Just like Jesus they seemed to have a supernatural way to respond effectively to their accusers, even though they weren’t trained in Greek rhetoric. Just like Jesus they seemed able to persuade the crowds to listen to their message of love instead of their religious traditions. Just like Jesus they weren’t afraid to go to jail or suffer. Just like Jesus they brought peace and didn’t fight with anything but the power of their words and life. Just like Jesus they taught that people could receive forgiveness of their sins. All of this must have put the religious leaders in an uneasy position. Here we go again. We got rid of Jesus and now we have to worry about his followers who seems to bear so much of a resemblance.
When others see your witness do they take note that you have been with Jesus?
If we want to live a life of courage, we must spend the time with Jesus, so we can be just like Him. There’s talk that Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes of all-time, might possibly come out of retirement and play professional basketball again. One of Jordan’s slogans is “Be Like Mike”. Our goal as followers of Christ is to “Be Like Christ”. We often think of experiences like Daniel in the lion’s den or David facing Goliath as profiles of courage, but in the day and age in which we live being like Christ in itself will take great courage.
A third and final way that Peter and John demonstrated courage as they had a relationship with God is:
III. They Were Acting Out of Obedience to God
In Acts 4:19, when challenged not to speak anymore about Jesus, Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.”
Not too much time later Peter and John and the rest of the apostles were put to the same test when they were arrested, put in jail, and forbidden to preach about Jesus. In Acts 5:29, they said similar words, “We must obey God rather than men!”
Peter and John are saying our relationship to God is more important than our relationship to any man. No matter what you demand of us, we won’t do it, if it forces us to disobey God. Is your relationship with God like that? Do you live by what the prophet Samuel said in 1 Samuel 15:22, “To obey is better than to sacrifice.”
What Peter and John are saying is radical not because of their call to obey God but what that obedience involved. Not very many people were atheists and would encourage disobeying God. Famous philosophers like Socrates often stressed obeying God over people. To put God over people would have been understood by the reader of the Bible as a sign that Peter and John were standing up for right.
And what made the religious leaders so mad was that Peter and John had the courage to say that obedience to the living God for them meant preaching Jesus Christ who was crucified and raised on the third day so that we might have forgiveness from our sins. The religious leaders preferred to think of Jesus as still dead.
That is the key right there. If we want to be confident that we really have Christian courage under the fire of the Holy Spirit, we must always be certain that the fruit of our life carries the message of Good News that Jesus Christ died for our sins and He is risen indeed! He has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Jim Elliot, and four others, were killed by the Auca Indians of Ecuador in 1956, while they were trying to evangelize them. The 5 men served as missionaries and put their life at risk for one reason alone. They believed God had called them to try and reach a people who did not know about Christ. In the journal writings of his shortened life, Jim Elliot said, "Wherever you are at, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
By the grace of God and the Holy Spirit we can have courage to live a relationship with God that places our will in the center of God’s will for our life. Then we can truly have courage under fire.
