COURAGE
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 11:23–12:2
NOVEMBER 13, 1994
Three thousand years ago in the Valley of Elah, Goliath shouted these words to a shepherd boy. “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? Do the men of Israel mock me to send a child against me? Turn back, or I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field” (1 Samuel 17:43-44). The Bible tells us that David was not afraid. With courage he replied, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the mighty God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied…. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I will smite you, and the world will know there is a God in Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45-46).
This morning our subject is courage. Courage is a virtue that women and men need equally. It is a virtue often needed by Christians in this world. This morning I would like us to briefly examine four types of courage. First, the courage to believe. You cannot become a Christian unless you have the courage to believe.
In the year 1824, Jean Francois Gravelet Blondin was born in France. God gave him inordinate abilities with respect to coordination and balance. Jean Francois became one of the greatest acrobats in the world. By all accounts, he is the greatest tightrope artist this world has ever known. He had thick blonde hair and gave himself the name The Great Blondin. PT Barnum hired him and marketed him all over the world, and he became famous. He died in 1895 at the age of 71, asleep in his bed.
On June 30, 1859, ten thousand people gathered at Niagara Falls to see Jean Francois tightrope walk across Niagara Falls. The rope stretched 1,300 feet from the United States to Canada over the falls that cascaded downward 195 feet in a violent descent. In truth, many came to see him fall, but he did not fall. In fact, halfway across the rope, he took a bottle of wine from within his coat and drank some of it just to amuse the people. Then he continued across. Every year Jean Francois returned to Niagara Falls, the masses came. One year he went across with a stove in a wheelbarrow. Halfway across, he cooked an omelet. One year he went across on a bicycle, the wheels specially made. One year he went across that 1,300-foot rope on stilts. They were specially designed stilts, and it was amazing. One year he did cartwheels across the rope.
Every year when he went to Niagara Falls, he challenged the people by saying, “How many of you believe that I can put a person on my back and carry that person across the rope?” And every year the crowd shouted, “We believe. We believe.” But they really did not believe in the sense of the biblical word belief, not in the sense of the Greek word “pisteuo.” They had intellectual assent, but they did not believe to the point where they were willing to commit their lives. When Jean Francois said, “Who is willing to get on my back,” the crowd suddenly grew silent. When he said to the Prince of Wales, who was to become King Edward VII of England, “Will you get on my back?” the prince politely declined. On occasion a few people through the years said, “Yes, we’ll get on your back,” and Jean Francois always took them across safely.
The Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” What does it mean to believe? It does not mean mere intellectual assent. In the sense of intellectual ascent, the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19). The demons give intellectual assent to the facts of the gospel. They believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They believe Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. They believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. They believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sin of the world. They believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead with power and glory. They believe Jesus Christ is coming again. But it’s all intellectual assent. They refuse to commit their lives to the Son of God. It takes courage to become a Christian.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus was by the Sea of Galilee. He said to some fishermen, “Follow Me.” The Bible says they left their nets and followed Him. It took courage for them to follow Jesus. Jesus said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25). It takes courage to believe. It is a commitment of your life. As you sit there today, God asks you, “Do you believe? Is it mere intellectual assent? Or are you willing to get on board and follow Me?” It takes courage to believe.
Secondly, there is courage to obey. To become a Christian, we must have the courage to believe. But to live the Christian life, we must have courage to obey. Jesus Christ says to His people, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:14-16). This is the call of God upon the people of God to seek obedience.
You may know the story of the Arabian horses and how an Arab king centuries ago searched the world for one hundred of the finest mares. He brought those horses back to his native Arabia and trained them in obedience. He taught them to respond to the call of his bugle. This Arab king would blow the bugle, and the one hundred horses would come to him. Then he tested them. He put them in a corral on top of a hill overlooking a freshwater stream, and he denied them water. When their thirst was great, he opened the gates. Those one hundred horses thundered down that mountain, hoofs pounding clouds of dust. When they were almost to the water, this Arab king took out his bugle and blew it. Ninety-six of the horses continued into the water and drank. But four horses dug their hoofs into the earth, stopped, and returned to the king. From those four horses, he bred the great race of Arabians.
Jesus Christ is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is looking for a special group of people who hear His voice and follow Him. He says, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but do not do what I tell you to do?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus calls us to obedience. Every generation struggles with obedience, and I think obedience is particularly difficult for Christians living in those generations where the culture is hostile to Christian values and morals. We live in such a culture, in such a generation. It is tough for our young people who have committed their lives to Christ to follow Christ. Today, it is tough for all of us.
A survey was taken 40 years ago in 1954 about the factors that most influenced teenagers. In 1954, the survey showed that family was the primary influence on teenagers, church was second, school was third, peers were fourth, and television was fifth. That was 1954. The same organization took the same survey 40 years later in 1994, this year. Today, peers are number one, television is number two, school is number three, and family is number four. The church did not make the list.
I do not know what to make of surveys like that. I am sure you could question the results, but I do not think you can question this. Peer pressure is becoming greater and greater. The message “Just say no” is a hard message. It takes courage to say no when your peers are saying yes. It takes courage to say no when television programs are saying yes. It takes courage to say no when public schools are saying yes. It takes courage to live for Christ today. It does not matter your age.
We are all sinners, and we are saved by grace through faith. Yet, if we seek holiness, if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, when we sin, we are going to grieve. If we seek holiness, we are going to want to confess. Sometimes it takes courage to confess and repent and be healed. It takes courage.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 1 John 1:5-10. The Apostle John writes, “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” God is light. As His people, we are called to walk in the light.
What does it mean to walk in the light? Does it mean to live a life free of sin? No, because that is not possible. In fact, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and we are still in the darkness. To walk in the light means that we are in a quest for holiness. When we sin, we need to be willing to confess it, bring it out into the light, and seek God’s healing. Here is the tough part, biblically. If we are to walk in the light, this confession of sin is not a confession if we make it to God alone. That would be easy because God can keep a secret. This confession of sin, biblically, is a confession that to some extent as the Spirit guides we are to make to one another. The Bible says, “Confess your sins to one another that you might be healed” (James 5:16). It takes courage. We all need a few confidants in our life. It might be a spouse or a few close friends in Christ we trust to whom we can confess our sin. It takes courage.
It takes courage to believe if we are to become Christians, and then it takes courage to obey if we are to walk the Christian walk. A third kind of courage is the courage to witness. I must say that I think it is hard for many to have the courage to witness. In 1 Kings 17 and 18, we read about a man named Obadiah. Perhaps some of you have heard of Obadiah. There came a day when Obadiah encountered the great prophet Elijah. Elijah said to Obadiah, “I want you to deliver a message for me. I want you to go and give a message to King Ahab.” Obadiah did not want to go. He said, “I don’t want to deliver that message. I’m scared to death.” Why was he afraid? He was afraid because King Ahab was evil, and the king’s wife, Queen Jezebel, was equally evil. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had gone after foreign gods. They were worshiping Baal. It was because of this that the great prophet Elijah had brought a drought upon Israel. Rain had ceased, and the land was parched. King Ahab was enraged at this pesky little prophet. He wanted to kill Elijah, but Elijah hid. He hid in the Kerith Ravine and drank from the brook there. God fed him from the mouths of ravens. When the brook went dry, God told Elijah to go to the village and hide in the village of Zarephath near the town of Sidon. There Elijah ate from a jar of flour that never emptied.
King Ahab sought Elijah to kill him, and he could never find him. Every once in a while, a messenger would come to the king and say, “Elijah’s over here. Elijah’s over there.” The king would go and look, but Elijah was never there. Then King Ahab would kill the messenger. He became so enraged that he decided to kill all the prophets of Israel. It was Obadiah, who managed the king’s household affairs, who took a hundred of the prophets of God and hid them in two caves. So when Elijah came out of hiding and had a message for this wicked king and wanted Obadiah to carry the message to the king who had been killing previous messengers, it is no wonder that Obadiah said no. “What if the king comes to you and you’re not here?” Obadiah said to Elijah. Elijah said, “I swear by the host of heaven before which I stand, that I will be here to meet Ahab tonight.” And so Obadiah took the message, and this led to this final showdown between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal.
Some messages are hard to bring. Some people feel this way about the gospel even though it is good news. It can be a scary message to bring because the world has fallen, and a lot of people in the world prefer darkness to light. The Lord Jesus said that he is sending us forth as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16). The gospel message is at times scary, and that is why the Apostle Paul, when he wrote to Christians, would almost always say, “Pray for me that I might be bold in speaking forth the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19-20). In turn, Paul would pray for the Christians he wrote to that they would have this same boldness in their Christian witness.
In Acts 23:11, God spoke to Paul and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome.” God says, “You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the world” (Acts 1:8). And that is what He says to you today. “You shall be My witnesses.”
It takes courage, between you and me, and you must have the greater courage. It does not take a whole lot of courage to do what I do. None of you are going to leave here today and say, “I can’t believe Jim had the nerve to talk about Christ.” You are not going to leave here today and say, “I just can’t believe that guy had the guts to mention the Bible.” You expect that of me. You come here expecting this of me. It does not take a lot of courage to do what I do. But it does take a lot of courage to do what you are called to do. This church is a feeding station. Sometimes it is a hospital. Sometimes it is a counseling center. It is a respite from ministry. You are called to go into the world and do the work of ministry. You live on the cutting edge where the kingdom of Christ meets the kingdoms of this world. You have been called to be his witnesses, and this takes courage. I would not be faithful if I did not remind you of your call to be God’s witnesses.
Finally, there is the courage to persevere. It takes courage to believe, courage to obey, courage to witness, and courage to persevere. I do not know what you are going through right now. My guess is that a number of you are going through tough times. If you are not experiencing any tribulation, you are either very young or very fortunate. Many of you have experienced some major suffering, and you understand the need for perseverance. It takes courage because, like Paul, we want to reach the end of our lives and be able to say, “I fought the good fight. I kept the faith. I finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). Every week we pray for people in our congregation who are suffering, who have lost jobs, who are having trouble paying bills, who have lost loved ones, who have been diagnosed with very serious illnesses. It takes courage to face these difficulties. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. Take courage. I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Some translations use the phrase, “Be of good cheer.” The Greek word is “tharseo,” and it means bold. Be bold. Take courage. Christ has conquered the world. Whatever you are going through now, there is a call to perseverance and the courage of perseverance.
Rich Beach is a member of our church. He spoke at our Wednesday night service. We have prayed for Rich many times on Sunday mornings. Rich has cancer, and the cancer is spreading in his body. Doctors have told him that they cannot cure it medically. It takes courage to face that. Marsha, Rich’s wife, needs courage. Whitney, Stacy, and Chad, their children, need courage. God has used Rich mightily on this earth. Rich led Bob to faith in Jesus Christ when Rich was a youth minister at Colonial Presbyterian Church in Kansas City. Rich has founded ministries that are powerful in our society: Doulos Ministries, Shelterwood, Sky’s the Limit. The Apostle Paul said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body” (Philippians 1:21-24).
As we pray for Rich, there are many reasons to pray for healing—for the sake of the ministry and for his wife and children’s sake. For Rich, to depart is better; but for his wife and children, for the ministries of Doulos, Shelterwood, and Sky’s the Limit, we pray for healing. Bob is Rich’s best friend. Everyone is praying and trusting God will do mighty things. For all of us in this life, we do not know how long we have. Life is a mist. The Bible says, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25). That word is the good news that was preached to you.
The call of Christ is simply this: Be faithful until death. Persevere until death. There is a lot of joy in this life. Every day is a gift. There is also a lot of suffering. There are mountain tops, and there are valleys. There are good times and difficult times. We are called to have courage—courage to believe, courage to obey, courage to witness, and courage to persevere. Let us close with a word of prayer.