The Courage of the Apostles in Acts

Courage - meaning.........1- the ability to do something that frightens one. 2-strength in the face of pain or grief. I like the second defintion more.

Courage is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Physical courage is bravery in the face of physical pain, hardship, death or threat of death, while moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, discouragement.

There came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium. They won over the crowds, and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, for they thought he was dead. While the disciples stood in a circle round him, he got up and he went into the city; and on the next day with Barnabas he went away to Derbe.

In the midst of all the excitement at Lystra, some Jews arrived. They may have been there for one of two reasons. They may have been deliberately following Paul and Barnabas in a determined attempt to undo the work that they were doing. Or they may have been corn merchants. The region round Lystra was a great corn-growing area, and they may have come to buy corn for the cities of Iconium and Antioch. If so, they would be shocked and angry to find Paul still preaching and would very naturally stir up the people against him.

Lystra was a Roman colony, but it was an outpost. Nevertheless, when the people saw what they had done, they were afraid. That is why they dragged what they thought was Paul’s dead body out of the city. They were afraid of the strong hand of Roman justice, and they were trying to get rid of Paul’s body in order to escape the consequences of their riot.

The outstanding feature of this story is the sheer courage of Paul. When he came to his senses, his first act was to go straight back into the city where he had been stoned. It was the great Methodist John Wesley’s advice: ‘Always look a mob in the face.’ There could be no braver thing than Paul’s going back immediately among those who had tried to murder him. An action like that would have more effect than 100 sermons. People were bound to ask themselves where Paul got the courage to act in such a way.

2 Corinthians 11:24-

Question - Do you think they would have been willing to endure these punishments without expereincing Jesus and having a relationship with him?

They were all filled and baptized in the spirit, they were all radically charged to spread the Gospel.

What are we willing to do in the face of phyical pain, harship, death, or opposition?