ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
COURAGE
DR. JIM DIXON
HEBREWS 11:32 12:4
DECEMBER 11, 2011
One of the fears of this modern world is the fear of nuclear meltdown. That was the great fear recently in Northeastern Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. Many of you can remember Three Mile Island, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1979, and what happened there and what almost happened there. Many of you can remember Chernobyl in Ukraine in the former Soviet Union in 1986 and what happened there. Perhaps some of you can remember Chalk River, Canada. Chalk River, Canada was 1951; this was in the early days in the development of nuclear reactors. In Chalk River in 1951 there was a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor and radiation was leaking and everyone feared the worst.
They brought in an expert to Chalk River in 1951, and this was a young United States Navy Lieutenant, 26 years old, had been trained in the Naval Academy. He had performed excellently in education and his academic career was impressive. He was an expert in nuclear fission and knew how to disassemble nuclear reactors. He had served with the Atomic Energy Commission; he had high security clearance. This 26-year-old lieutenant was brought to Chalk River, Canada. He knew the dangers. He knew that he would be covered with a protective suit but that his body would still be bombarded with radiation and that the maximum amount of radiation that the human body can safely absorb in one year he would receive in a matter of seconds. He knew that there was the possibility that he would become sterile. He knew there was the possibility that he would be afflicted with cancer as a result. He knew that he might actually die in that manmade hell. Yet, he went. This 26-year-old man went. He went to disassemble the nuclear reactor at Chalk River.
He disassembled every part; he did it perfectly; he did it successfully; he saved the day; he saved so many lives. He himself did not become sterile, he did not acquire cancer, and he did not die. In fact, that 26-year-old still lives today. He is 86. Sixty years later he still lives today. He went on to become the governor of the state of Georgia and went on to become the President of the United States of America. His name is Jimmy Carter. Whatever your politics, whatever your view of the Carter presidency, there is absolutely no denying that Jimmy Carter showed great courage that day.
Perhaps, as you are approaching Christmas, you could use a little courage. I don’t know what you are facing. I don’t know what your potential meltdown is. I don’t know what you are facing economically; I don’t know what your financial struggles are. I don’t know what your health issues are, what diseases you might be facing. I don’t know what you are dealing with relationally, what relational brokenness you might be struggling with. I don’t know what you are facing in this world. I know that this world brings challenges to all of us. Maybe, this Christmas, what you want is courage. The early church so valued courage that the declared courage one of the seven cardinal virtues. They knew that you could not live for Christ, you could not live for Christ on this earth and in this fallen world without great courage. This morning, we have two teachings. The first teaching is this: we need courage to transform the world. It takes courage to transform the world.
I am sure that many of you have heard of the Valley of Elah. The Valley of Elah is in Israel, it is fifteen miles from the town of Bethlehem. The Valley of Elah is where David met Goliath. Goliath was the Philistine champion. He was not a Philistine by blood. His racial derivation is often debated by scholars. In the Bible three races of giants are mentioned, the Nephilim, the Rephaim, and the Anakim. Most scholars believe that Goliath was one of the Anakim or perhaps one of the Rephaim. He was a big man. He was six cubits and a span we are told in 1 Samuel chapter sixteen, six cubits and a span. Scholars debate about how to render six cubits and a span into our measurements today. Guesstimates range from six foot ten inches tall to nine feet six inches tall.
Any way you look at, Goliath was a big dude. He was a huge guy. He was the champion of the Philistines. His armor weighed 125 pounds. On that day when David met him, he had 51 pounds of additional armor, more than 170 pounds. It must have been a bummer getting dressed in the morning. Now David was a shepherd boy. We are told in 1 Samuel 16:6 that God doesn’t look on the outside. God doesn’t care about our height, he doesn’t care about our size, and he doesn’t care about our appearance. It says in 1 Samuel 16:6 that the world looks on the outside and God looks on the inside. God looks at the heart and God loved David’s heart. God chose David for this moment, that he might be the champion of Israel.
So, he went to the Valley of Elah to face the giant Goliath. You can almost hear the voice of Goliath echoing through the Valley of Elah as David approached. Goliath looked at David, and we are told in 1 Samuel 17, when he saw David, he noticed that David has rosy cheeks and was fair to look upon, and that offended Goliath. You hear the words of Goliath, “Am I a dog that you should come after me with a stick? Do the men of Israel mock me to send a child against me? Turn back, lest I feed your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” The Hebrew can be rendered, “Come to me and I will feed your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.”
Then the words of David, and you see the courage that was in David. The words of David: “You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a shield. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will smite you down and the world will know there is a God in Israel.” Wow, the courage of this shepherd boy! You know what happened and how David, by the power of God, prevailed. So much was at stake that day, you understand. History was at stake; the future of Israel was at stake. The champion of the Philistines met the champion of Israel. The agreement was that the people of the loser would serve the people of the winner. The people of the loser in perpetuity would become slaves to the people of the winner. Literally, Israel would have become a slave nation to the Philistines in perpetuity if David lost. It changed the course of history because of courage. It takes courage to impact history and to change any part of the world.
This last Wednesday we remembered 70 years ago and Pearl Harbor. We remembered how at 7:55 a.m. December 7, 1941, the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. We remembered that the United States Imperial fleet was devastated. We remember that 21 of our battleships, battle cruisers, battle aircraft carriers were either damaged or destroyed and over 300 of our airplanes, our warplanes were destroyed. Thousands of lives were lost. You remember when you go to Pearl Harbor the U.S.S. Arizona memorial that is a watery grave for a thousand soldiers who died that day.
Our nation rallied and with great courage confronted the enemy. You know the story. You know that ten million American men were drafted into military service, but beyond that many volunteered. Five million American men volunteered for military service, willing to die because there was a clear and present danger and there was evil on the earth. They were willing to die for their country and willing to die for the good and the light. Three hundred and thirty-six thousand American women volunteered for military service in non-combat capacity, six million American women left their home with courage to work in factories to fuel the war machine. It took courage. With that courage we were able to transform part of the world and to change the course of history by the grace of God and to stop the Nazi movement and a mad man named Adolf Hitler who was surely demon possessed. He was gassing and incinerating millions of Jewish people. It takes courage. It takes courage to serve the cause of Jesus Christ. It takes courage to serve the church of Jesus Christ. It takes courage to serve Christ in this world and to make the world a better place.
Some of you have heard of Telemachus. Telemachus was a Syrian monk. According to Theodoret, who was the early church history scholar and early church historian, Theodoric tells us it was January 1, 404 AD, when Telemachus became the last martyr in the Roman coliseum. On that day in the Roman coliseum, as had occurred on so many days in the centuries prior, there had been gladiator combat and many were killed. According to Theodoret, Telemachus, this Syrian monk went down onto the floor of the Flavian Amphitheater, onto the floor of the Coliseum in Rome, and he cried out to the crowds, “No more. In the name of God, no more. In the name of Christ, no more. No more blood. No more death. No more violence.” The Roman people had a blood lust. They were literally, culturally addicted to violence.
Constantine the Great had sought to ban gladiator combat and he failed because of the blood lust of the Roman people. Here we are at January 1, 404, according to Theodoret, Telemachus is on the arena floor saying, “Stop in the name of Christ.” The people in their blood lust, the Romans were so mad, they were so angry that they ripped up their marble seats in the Flavian Amphitheatre and began to throw them at Telemachus. According to Theodoret, Telemachus was stoned to death that day. According to Fox’s Book of Martyrs, once Telemachus was killed in the Roman Coliseum there was a great silence as people suddenly realized they had killed a Syrian monk. People walked out of the Roman coliseum in silence. That was, according to Theodoret, the last day of gladiator combat and the final martyr in the Roman Coliseum.
Now, today, most historians think that the story isn’t entirely true. Today, most historians believe that gladiator combat continued in amphitheaters throughout the Roman world and in Hippodromes throughout the Roman world. They believe that gladiator combat continued for a time but they acknowledged Honorius, the emperor of the Roman Empire. Once he received word of the martyrdom of Telemachus, Honorius, the Roman Emperor, banned gladiator combat and that was the beginning of the end. Courage to transform the world. We need that courage today.
In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States of America in a Roe v. Wade decision made abortion legal in America, virtually wholesale abortion. You have seen, you know of the blood bath that has resulted with 55 million babies now killed. I hope you understand this isn’t primarily a political issue; this is primarily a moral issue and very much a biblical issue. I know there are political ramifications. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. I have said that many times when Christ comes back, he isn’t going to be riding an elephant or a donkey. He is not a Republican or a Democrat but we need to follow him and we need to have the courage to follow him. You might be thinking, “Well, maybe abortion is okay because it is just a fetus. Maybe it is just fetal tissue. Maybe there is no soul. Maybe there is no soul in the fetus.”
There is, throughout church history and Christian theology, great discussion about the soul as it relates to the fetus. You can look at church history and traducianism is the belief that the soul is passed on through the parents. In some forms of traducianism, the belief is the soul is passed on by the father to the child and in other forms of traducianism the soul is passed on by the mother to the child and in still other forms of traducianism, the soul is passed on from the mother and the father to the child, passed jointly. So, when the egg is fertilized, and you have the zygote, the soul is already there because the soul has been passed on from the parents to the offspring, the soul is there when the egg is fertilized. That has been one view through Christian history.
The other view has been Creationism. This is not Creationism as it relates to cosmology and the creation of the universe. This is creationism as opposed to traducianism. In creationism there is the belief that the soul is not passed on by mom and dad, from the parents, but it is created by God that God creates every soul and God implants the soul in the child. Creationism is the belief that God creates the soul and plants it in the fetus. Some creationists believe that God plants the soul in the fertilized egg, in the zygote so that from the very beginning the soul is there. Other creationists believe that the soul is planted in the first trimester, still others believe it is in the second trimester, still others believe it is in the third trimester, some believe the soul is given at the moment of birth. Throughout the greater sweep of Christian history, you have this diversity of perspectives with regard to the soul and the fetus.
Here is what I don’t understand, but I know some of you, somehow as you try to process this and think it through, you conclude that therefore abortion is okay. I don’t understand that. I don’t understand how you can conclude that abortion is okay because wouldn’t you rather err on the side of caution? Do you want to take any chance that you are destroying or killing or impacting the soul? Do you want to take any chance that you are taking a true full human life? Why not err on the side of caution? Abortion is so scary. I know that when someone has an abortion that God is rich in grace and where there is repentance, I know God forgives. I am not here to judge you. I also know that sometimes there is danger to the life of the mother so that you have two souls involved, the soul of the child and the soul of the mom. I understand the complexity of that. I also understand that we live in a tragic fallen world where there is gross fetal deformity, rape and incest and we must have compassion for these things. I think you know that 98 percent of the abortions in America have nothing to do with danger to the life of the mother, gross fetal deformity, rape or incest. The overwhelming majority of abortions in America are simply belated efforts at birth control in a society that has become increasingly promiscuous. Somebody has to stand up and say, “No more. In the name of God, no more. In the name of Christ, no more!” Fifty five million babies.
For a period of time, I was privileged to serve on the national board for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. One year, we had a meeting in Washington DC. In that meeting at Washington DC, Dan Quayle came to join us. He was at that time Vice President of the United States. He came to spend time with us, a professing believer in Jesus Christ. I know that Dan Quayle was often ridiculed by the press and by the media and by the Democrats and sometimes by Republicans as well. I know that Dan Quayle sometimes made some unintentionally funny statements. But I really believe that Dan Quayle has a really, truly good heart. He is a lot more intelligent than some people give him credit for. His battle over the Murphy Brown issue and the culture wars, he was right. Hollywood should not glorify birth out of wedlock. Hollywood should not encourage out of wedlock births. Dan Quayle was right.
Now we have reached the point in the United States of America where 41 percent of our babies born are born out of wedlock. Do you realize, have you ever thought through the generational impact of that over time and how that impacts the lives of future generations? This is a scary time. As a nation, we have rejected Judea-Christian values. We need people of courage to stand up and challenge the culture and to speak for God and say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” It seems like in this culture all of human sexuality is being redefined. You just see Christians cratering to the culture. Oh, is courage needed today. I think it takes courage just to be a Christian. Just to accept the gospel and the call of Christ takes courage.
One of my favorite stories concerns Jean Francois Gravelet, Jean Francois Gravelet was a Frenchman and he is really known to historians as the greatest tightrope walker in world history. He took the title of the Great Blondin because he had blonde hair that went all the way down his back. He was striking in his appearance. He came to Niagara Falls in 1858. In 1858 he arrived from Europe and he saw Niagara Falls for the first time and his thought was, “I have got to get a rope and I have got to tight rope across this thing.” Now, very few people have that thought when they stand at Niagara Falls, but that was his thought.
The next year, 1859, Gravelet returns to Niagara Falls and he has a 1300-foot rope. He wass sponsored by P.T. Barnum and 10,000 people have shown up. A 1300-foot-rope is more than four football fields in length. That rope was designed to go from one cliff to another cliff spanning over Niagara Falls 200 feet above the rocks below. Everybody could not speak. They were just fascinated as they watched him walk across that rope and risking death. He walked across the rope successfully and it looked easy. In fact, he wanted to show them how easy it was because that same day he went across that 1300-foot rope on a bicycle. Then he got stilts and went across the rope on stilts.
The next year, which was 1860, Gravelet came back to Niagara Falls. He did it again. He got a wheelbarrow and took the wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls, across the rope. He put a stove in the wheelbarrow and stopped midway over the falls. He cooked an omelet and ate it while he stood there on the rope. He brought the wheelbarrow then to the other side of Niagara Falls and the crowd was there applauding. Amongst the crowd was the Prince of Wales, who had come from England, the Prince of Wales who would become King Edward VII, the King of England. Gravelet went up to him and said, “Sir, get in the wheelbarrow.” He said, “No.” He said, “No,” he would not do it. He invited Gravelet to come to London to perform there, which he did. He performed in London for many years. Gravelet died at the age of 71 in his bed, sleeping.
This story has often been told of the wheelbarrow and the Great Blondin and how it kind of relates to your response to the gospel. It really is true that when Jesus calls us it is kind of like saying, “Get in the wheelbarrow.” I think that in everybody who hears the gospel have their doubts, but I think God also plants seeds of faith and it takes courage to respond to the faith that God has placed within you and to commit your life, to commit your tomorrows, to commit your soul, to commit eternity to Christ and to receive him as Lord. It takes courage. It takes courage to live for him. It all begins with courage and the courage never ends. Courage not only enables us to transform the world, but it enables us to resist conformity to the world. It keeps the world from transforming us. If you have got courage, you can resist the transforming power of the world. You can resist conformity to the world. Before we close, as we just have a few more minutes, I just want to comment on the fact that it really requires courage for us to resist the transforming power of the culture. The Bible says, “Do not be conformed to this world.” That is Romans chapter 12:2.
Chariots of Fire was a great movie. It won the Academy Award for best picture. It told the story of the 19 24 Olympic Games in the city of Paris. The movie really focused on Harold Abrams and Eric Liddell, Eric Liddell particularly. He was a Scotsman who had a deep love for Jesus Christ who accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and who wanted to serve Christ in his lifetime. Ultimately, Eric Liddell, after the Olympics went on to be a missionary in China. He died in a prisoner of war camp serving Jesus Christ, faithful to the end with amazing courage. He showed that courage at the 1924 Olympics. He was, perhaps, the fastest man in the world and favored by many to win the 100-meters in that 1924 Olympic games. But the 100-meters was contested, the finals, on a Sunday, on the Lord’s Day, on the Sabbath and he refused to run. He quoted the fourth commandment amongst the Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment of the Decalogue: You shall remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all of your work, but the Sabbath is set apart, sacred, holy to the Lord. Eric Liddell said, “I honor the Lord on the Lord’s Day and I will not run.” People said, “You are crazy. Don’t be a legalist. This is a chance to get a gold medal.” He refused to run and the world was shocked.
By the grace of God, through an amazing turn of events, he was allowed to run in the 400-meters. It was not his strongest event, but he ran in the 400-meters and he won, which was contested on a different day. He won a gold medal and set an Olympic record; he won the 400-meters in 47.6 seconds, a new Olympic record. His story is an amazing story. It was courage to resist conformity to the world. The world just says, “Every day is the same.” The world doesn’t care about the Lord’s Day; the world doesn’t care about Sunday. You drive out of your neighborhoods and you see everybody sleeping in or, in the summertime, getting ready to play golf. You are a Christian; you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Whatever you think of the stance that Eric Liddell took, whatever you think of his view of the Sabbath, even if you disagree, you have got to admit he had great courage.
You also have to admit that it takes courage to resist the pull of the world and the effort of the world to conform us to its patterns and to its ways. I think even it takes courage just to resist sin in our lives. It takes courage just to resist addictions. It all takes courage. I hope you understand if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, there is grace and there is mercy, but he also demands courage in this lifetime. As we serve Christ and follow Christ, we are to take sin seriously and there is this struggle for sanctification that he expects us to engage in. He expects us to fight the good fight Whatever sin you are dealing with, you can’t just acquiesce, you can’t just embrace it, you have got to fight the good fight. Whatever you are addicted to, you can’t just acquiesce, you can’t just crater, you can’t just embrace your addiction, you have got to fight the good fight.
So, if you are a follower of Christ there is this demand for courage that whatever is in your life that you know displeases Christ, you fight against it. There is this quest for holiness. If you fail and if you fall, you get back up and you fight again and you come in confession again and again, but you can’t just crater. We need courage in every area of our life and courage to confront the world. I think sometimes, what is hardest is when we feel like we are on the losing side of some issue. I think as Christians if you think, “Well, Christians are losing this battle in the culture; I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history, so I am not going to fight this fight.” You don’t have the courage to fight a fight you think you are going to lose. I understand that, but I hope you understand that this displeases Christ because he calls us to stand for what is right, no matter what the cost. Even if in this world, we fail, we will be rewarded in the next. I am not concerned about being on the wrong side of history; I don’t want to be on the wrong side of eternity. The key is living for Christ. You understand that the prophets of old were almost never on the winning side. Go through your Old Testament and look at the Major and the Minor Prophets; they were kicked out of town, they were stoned, some of them were killed, but you know that when they got to heaven they received a prophet’s reward, faithful unto death. The call that is upon us is to stand for Christ no matter what the cost and no matter what the drift of the culture, but to stand for the truth of Holy Scripture and the Word of God and do it as best we can with love.
I know many of you have travelled to San Antonio, and Barb and I have gone to San Antonio and to some Christian conferences there. We were there at the River Walk. If you have ever been in San Antonio, you go down on the River Walk. It is kind of fun; it is a cool area. There are a lot of shops and some great restaurants and some boats that run on the river. We were there in the summertime; it was very hot as San Antonio often is. We had never seen the Alamo, so we decided to go up out of the River Walk and we did. Going up to the Alamo it was so hot, about 100 degrees, we couldn’t believe it. I think most of you know the story of the Alamo and what happened in 1836. You know that Santa Anna and the armies of Mexico had 5000 soldiers and the Alamo had 182. Five thousand against 182. The 182 were led by Colonel William Travis. There was Davey Crocket and Jim Bowie and many, many famous people.
The person who most interested me was James Bonham. James Bonham was at the Alamo, a friend of Davey Crocket, a friend of Jim Bowie. James Bonham was asked to go and get help. The battle had waged for almost thirteen days, 5000 against 182 and yet it had gone for almost thirteen days. Colonel Travis had sent James Bonham to Goliad, 90 miles away, where there was a military garrison to ask for help and that soldiers would come help fight the fight for the Alamo and for Texas and for independence. James Bonham secretly made his way behind enemy lines and made it all the way to Goliad and made his appeal for help and they refused to help, they refused to send soldiers.
So what did James Bonham do? He is free. He could have just lived the rest of his life, he could have just fled the scene, but no, without help he still returned to the Alamo to die with his friends. He got back to the Alamo just before March fifth; it was the night of March fifth and into the morning of March sixth that they all died in the Alamo. You might think, “Well, how stupid.” You see if you really believe in something you give your life to it. Ultimately the cause for Texas independence prevailed and under Sam Houston the armies of Santa Anna were conquered. But, you see, in this life we do have the promise of victory in Christ and we know ultimately, he is coming back. Jesus said, “In the world, you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
For many years I didn’t understand that statement because it is really a mistranslation of the Greek. I thought Jesus was saying, “Don’t worry be happy.” I thought he was saying, “In the world you will have tribulation, but party because I have overcome the world.” That is not what he said. The Greek word is tharseo and it is the word for courage. “In the world you will have tribulation but have courage because I have overcome the world.” We live out our days in that confidence that he has overcome and that he has sealed us for eternity and that we have eternal life and that we have blessings that await us and, in this life, we serve the cause of the kingdom of heaven. It takes courage.
I know our time is up. I know many of you are aware that as you look back on the history of Rome and you think about all the Roman emperors you think of the bad ones. You think of Nero and Caligula, and they were indeed bad. You might think of Domitian also, who ascended the throne of Rome in 81 AD and began to persecute the church of Christ. For fifteen years, horrendous persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Domitian. Throughout the Roman Empire Christians were brought before Roman authorities and they were told to confess that Caesar is lord and Christians refused. Their simple response was, “Jesus is Lord.” Many of them died; they were executed.
That took incomprehensible courage. You might think, “Courage is something the first century church needed.” It is something that the church in every generation needs. I know many of you today are going to watch the Bronco game. I know that it is at 2 p.m. I just happen to know that. The nation, the United States, right now is really kind of fascinated with the Broncos. We were out in California and we got the San Diego Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Desert Sun and they all had headlines again and again and again about the Broncos and Tim Tebow. The nation is just watching.
Some people hate Tim Tebow with great vitriol and some people love him. He is unorthodox and because he has a unique skillset, he is a unique kind of quarterback. But there are a lot of people who really have an irrational dislike for him. What has he done? He is a nice guy. He ends a lot of his interviews with “God Bless,” and we all know how “horrible” that is. On occasion he does talk about his love for Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior. I couldn’t be more proud of him. I thank God for his courage. There is an interview, this weekend, in the Wall Street Journal with Tim Tebow and the headline is, “God’s Quarterback.” It is the Wall Street Journal, a secular publication. In the interview Tim Tebow says, “God doesn’t care about football. God doesn’t care about who wins or loses, but God does care about football players because God cares about people. God cares about all people.” That is well said. I believe God has given Tim Tebow a platform and I believe Tim Tebow has the courage to speak from it. It is courage to, at least, transform part of this world and it is courage to resist conformity to the world’s ways. I think we should be asking ourselves how are we doing? How am I doing? How are you doing? Do we have the courage to stand for Christ in our generation? Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.