Courageous Faith

Fear is a real thing:

I have a fear of speed bumps: I am slowly getting over it

I have a fear of stairs: I always feel they are up to something

I had a fear of German Sausage: I guess I just fear the wurst

We have been answering the question of “who are we” for the past couple of weeks which has prompted me to study the early church. It’s been fascinating for me to read through the book of Acts looking for hints to the DNA or the culture of the believers who first heard the good news of Jesus.

There are so many thoughts that could be pulled from the scriptures, but for tonight I have one that I hope will encourage you.

My hope is that you when you leave here tonight you’ll feel refreshed, challenged, and motivated because we are just as much a part of the church as the early believers were. We get to add to the story of the church. It’s so cool!

We, like the early followers, can live in the same faith and trust that propelled the church forward and changed the world for good.

Tonight our main focus is going to be on having Courageous Faith.

Courage and Faith kind of go hand in hand don’t they? You can’t have one without the other…Courage is the ability to do something even when you are frightened. Faith is TRUSTING that God is got you covered.

When I was a kid I attended a christian school. Now, my folks didn’t ever have much money but they did have much kids! Which meant they really couldn’t afford christian school. Well, by the grace of God the school waived our tuition if we committed to be the janitors for the whole school. It wasn’t fun, but looking back I am very thankful that God allowed me to attend that school.

More often than not, we’d be cleaning late at night because of basketball games or plays or whatever was going on.It was usually after 10:00 pm when we got done cleaning.

My job was to take all the big bags of trash to the back parking lot in the pitch black all by myself. To a sixth grader this was probably the biggest scariest thing you could have asked me to do! I remember being so scared I would hurl those bags up in the air not caring if they made it into the dumpster and then take off like a wild man back to the safety of the school.

I had no courage. I didn’t have the ability to overcome my fear. When morning came and trash was all over the ground, I’m not proud to tell you, I never took ownership of my fear. I just blamed it on raccoons!

I bet we all have stories about fear…stories of times you’ve been paralyzed with fear that you just couldn’t overcome.

I have good news for you! As believers, we get to live in faith instead of fear.

Courage not in cowardice.

We serve the one who can give us the strength to do what we might be afraid to do.

We can walk in boldness when it comes to our purpose in the kingdom of God.

I want to read a portion of scripture from Acts 26 that I think will give us an idea of how and why it’s important for us to have Courageous Faith.

Acts 4:1–22 NLT

1 While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the Temple guard, and some of the Sadducees. 2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. 3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning. 4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000. 5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. 7 They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. 11 For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ 12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” 13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. 15 So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves. 16 “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. 17 But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” 18 So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” 21 The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God 22 for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.

What a great portion of Scripture. I want to pull out some thoughts for us to think that might help you have Courageous Faith.

My first thought for you is that...

Courage is ACTING in the Face of Fear

Having courage doesn’t mean you don’t have fear. It means that you act in-spite of the fear.

We can overcome fear by stepping out in faith to do what God wants us to do—no matter how we feel!

This passage of scripture reminds us that not everyone was happy the church was growing so fast. Many of the Jewish religious leaders wanted the disciples to stop and keep this message about Jesus to themselves.

But they wouldn’t.

Now this doesn’t mean they weren’t afraid. In fact I would guess that they were afraid of these religious leaders. They had good reason to be fearful didn’t they? I mean they are doing exactly what Jesus was doing and even more because they were proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead knowing full well that these same people pushed to have Jesus crucified.

That would be terrifying to know your life could be threatened because of your faith in Jesus. But that fear didn’t stop them. Their courage was grounded in faith that pushed them into action.

I can’t help but think about our lives today. When was the last time we stepped out in faith the way Peter and John did that day? They were just people like you and me who had a relationship with Jesus that transformed their lives.

The background to this whole scripture is that they prayed for a crippled man who was miraculously healed. Everyone in the city knew this beggar man and they started praising God and started listening to these men preach and teach about who Jesus was.

It occurs to me that we need to look for opportunities to bring Glory to God in our daily lives that will point people to Jesus.

This is how the church grew! God and Jesus were lifted up and people wanted to know the truth.

In the face of embarrassment, harassment, danger, fear, we must be willing to bring the light of Christ with us into every situation.

My wife works for a big ol’ corporation were she feels that sometimes Christianity isn’t really accepted. She has had to be courageous in some areas and let people know how she believes and what God means to her. There was a lady on her team who ended up with some pretty major medical issues. She called my wife and asked for prayer because she knew she was a person of faith.

Now, Kristen doesn’t stand up in the cafeteria and preach that all those sinners are going to hell in a hand-basket, but when the opportunity comes up she has made it very clear about her faith.

We need to know that even in difficult situations we can ACT in our faith. It is WHO we are. We must be determined not to compromise just to keep the status quo. More often than not when you are under pressure in your faith there is someone who God is trying to reach.

I say, if it brings honor to God, let’s do it at whatever the cost to us personally. It might take courage, but people hang in the balance.

If you saw a baby crawling to the edge of the cliff would you stand there and let it happen because you were afraid of heights? No way! You’d jump into action and do whatever you could to intercede.

Courage is ACTING in the face of Fear.

We need to take note of Peter and John that day. Even though they knew there could be trouble by praying for the crippled man, and by proclaiming the Good news of Christ they pressed forward.

I like what Peter said after the man was healed.

Acts 3:12 NLT

12 Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?

He said, what is so surprising about this?! OUR lives should be filled with us saying to others, “What is so surprising about this” because God is wanting us to walk in courageous faith.

Verse 16 tells us how this miracle happened.

Acts 3:16 NLT

16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.

For some reason we get the idea that WE have to do the heavy lifting.

Nope.

Jesus is the one who is really on the hook. We must have faith that He is going to accomplish what He wants done in any situation of our lives.

What we don’t want to do is miss the opportunity because we are afraid of what people might think or what might be done to us.

We should strive to be people of courage who act in the face of fear. Which brings me to my second point.

Courage is Natural when you have a Relationship with God

Those men of God had a relationship with Jesus. I mean they saw Him while He was living, they were taught by Him after He was risen from the grave. It’s absolutely true that they KNEW Jesus and therefore KNEW God.

This obviously impacted how they lived. They couldn’t be silent about this relationship they had with Jesus!

They told those religious leaders who wanted to shut them up:

“We won’t stop. We won’t keep quiet. After all God has done for us, how could we? We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard,”

This really made the religious leaders mad. But that didn’t matter to Peter and John. They were more concerned about pleasing God than pleasing people because they KNEW God.

Acts 4:19 NLT

19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?

Do you know this same Jesus that these men knew?

Are you envious about the time they got to spend with Jesus?

I’ll be the first to admit that I am! It may not be right, but I say to myself “If I was in their shoes I bet I’d be out there hustling too!”

Well, you know what? I am convinced that they would much rather be in our situation.

We have a much better picture of who Jesus is today than those men had back at the time they lived. Even though they saw Jesus face to face I think we have a better understanding of the Kingdom of God.

Think about it - We have the whole Bible. We have thousands of years of testimonies, miracles, and witnesses.

Just remember Hebrews 11 which reminds us of the rich heritage of faith filled witnesses to God’s great love, mercy, grace, and faithfulness who have gone before us as an example.

That’s why Hebrews reminds us in chapter 12: 1 that we are surrounded by these testimonies:

Hebrews 12:1 NLT

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Wouldn’t you think that with all the KNOWLEDGE we have about Christ and what He has done, is doing, and wants to do that we would be a little more courageous? Maybe out attitude should be a little more like Peter and John that day who said they couldn’t help but do the Lord’s work?

The truth is that our relationship with God should naturally push us in the direction of courage.

Peter and John said they couldn’t help it, they had to do Gods’ work! Why, because they knew God. They had relationship with God.

How’s your relationship with God?

Let’s take a test tonight…Just kidding. But I do want to ask you if it’s the most important thing in your life right now.

Is your time spent with the Lord the most important part of your day?

Is coming to church to worship with friends the most important part of your week?

Is praying for the sick, the needy, the lonely, the helpless more important than your own needs?

Our relationship with God is important to us, but I’d dare say it’s even more important to someone else.

How did Jesus say people would know that we have a relationship with Him?

John 13:35 NLT

35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

That day Peter and John saw a beggar man asking for money. It would have been so easy to walk past him, but instead they prayed for his healing knowing full well that it could have put them in jail.

Courage is acting in the face of fear because you have a relationship with God.

Acts 4:20 NLT

20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

They just couldn’t stop because the encounter they had with Christ was what dominated their lives.

They may have had fear, yes, that would be normal and expected, but they knew the truth.

Romans 8:31 NLT

31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

This is the relationship we have!

We don’t need to live in fear. Yes, bad things might happen. God may even allow you to go through difficult circumstances, but one thing we know is that He is on our side.

His love will never forsake us!

Romans 8:39 NLT

39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Like Peter and John that day we must have the same attitude.

Acts 4:19–20 NLT

19 But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? 20 We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

We have courage to act in the face of fear because we have a relationship with Jesus and because...

Courage is comes with the Holy Spirit

It’s very clear where Peter found his boldness in this situation. The Bible tells us exactly why he spoke with boldness in the face of potential death!

Acts 4:8 NLT

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people,

It says that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.

We could be tempted to skip over this really important note. But I think it’s critical if we are going to live a life with courageous faith. Peter had the Holy Spirit of God.

If we are going to have courageous faith it sure would be nice to know if we are filled with the same Holy Spirit.

Remember Jesus promised to give ALL believers the Gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7–9 NLT

7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.

And what He promised happened. The Holy Spirit did come in Acts 2

Acts 2:4 NLT

4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

We know what happened, those followers filled with the Spirit went out and started preaching. Everyone heard and some were convicted and came to faith in Jesus as Lord. The church was officially off the ground and it has been expanding ever since.

The Holy Spirit give believers courage, boldness, and faith that burns in them like a fire. The Holy Spirit is imparted by God that empowers us to be MORE than what we ARE.

Peter and John weren’t special by any standard of the day.

Look at what those religious leaders said about them:

Acts 4:13 NLT

13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

Ordinary men with no special training. They saw the boldness which was the gift of the Holy Spirit in their lives!

Once you have made Jesus the Lord of your life you now have been given the Holy Spirit. You can be filled with boldness and empowered by Him to, do and say, what you normally would not be able to in your own strength.

To be a Christian mean you have the Holy Spirit living in you:

Romans 8:9 NLT

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

Courage is a gift of the Holy Spirit when we submit to His control.

Galatians 5:16 NLT

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be empowered and controlled by the Spirit, to experience renewal, obedience, boldness to witness and share the gospel, and freedom from the power of sin.

Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit when he boldly proclaimed the truth of God.

For us today, we need to listen to the voice that guides, directs, and empowers us to have courage in every situation we face.

I hope that you find the courage to act in the face of fear because of the relationship you have with Jesus and because the Holy Spirit has filled you with His strength.

We aren’t in this thing alone.

I really believe that we should be having more experiences like what we are studying tonight. My prayer is that some is this room would have the courage they need to overcome.

I can still remember the fear of walking outside with that trash bag all alone. During the daylight hours I had no problem, I was Mr. Courage. But something about the dark. The unknown would stop me in my tracks. Nothing had really changed, it was just dark. I had no reason to fear.

Being a follower of Christ is like someone turning the lights on and you get to see clearly for the first time.

Listen, we have no reason to Fear. Christ has paid it all. No man can take away your eternity. It’s time like no other to rise up in courage and face the task at hand and say like Peter: We won’t stop. We won’t keep quiet. After all God has done for us, how could we?