June 4, 2025 • 24 mins
What does courage look like when following Jesus means facing resistance? Pastor Stephen Feith takes us through Acts 3-4, where we discover that spiritual boldness isn't reserved for the naturally confident or specially trained—it's available to every believer who depends on the Holy Spirit.
The journey begins with Peter and John noticing a disabled man whom everyone else had learned to ignore. This simple act of seeing someone reveals how spiritual courage often starts: not with grand proclamations, but with compassionate presence in ordinary moments. When healing occurs and crowds gather, Peter redirects attention away from himself and toward Jesus—demonstrating that true boldness points beyond ourselves to Christ.
Opposition arrives quickly as religious authorities arrest Peter and John for speaking about resurrection. Standing before the same council that condemned Jesus, these "uneducated, ordinary men" speak with astonishing clarity. The authorities recognize they "had been with Jesus"—revealing the true source of their courage wasn't natural confidence but spiritual connection. Most remarkably, after being threatened and released, the early believers don't pray for safety or easier circumstances—they pray for greater boldness to continue speaking truth despite the risks.
This pattern challenges our typical responses to pressure. How often do we pray to escape difficult situations rather than asking for faithfulness within them? Whether it's initiating a hard conversation, standing for what's right when it's unpopular, admitting our struggles, or extending forgiveness, the Spirit offers not timidity but "power, love, and self-discipline."
As C.S. Lewis wrote, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." Your courage might actually be the answer to someone else's prayers. Subscribe now to explore how the Spirit activates ordinary people for extraordinary impact in a world that needs the hope only Jesus provides.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Madison Church Online.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor.
We all have moments whenspeaking up feels risky.
For some of us, a lot of risksaying anything.
For others of us, we might needto tighten our filter up
because we're just alwaystalking.
But there are conversations weall want to avoid.
There's truths that we withhold.
(00:24):
There's many moments that westay silent when we shouldn't.
Now it's not because, in thecase of faith, it's not because
we don't believe.
A lot of times it's becauseit's scary or frightening, it
means awkwardness.
We want to follow Jesus, butnot if it means awkwardness,
(00:46):
rejection or being misunderstood.
And that's why the part of Actswe're reading out of today Acts
, chapter 3, is so important.
It shows us what happens whenordinary people people like you
and me watching, you'relistening online ordinary,
everyday people are filled withthe Holy Spirit and find
themselves in situations wherethere's real-life pressure,
(01:10):
real-life pressure.
So we are in week two of ourseries Activated and we're
tracing how the Holy Spiritmoves through us, through people
like the disciples, but theearly church and us.
Today and so far in Acts we'vestudied Jesus' call.
He said to wait for the comingof the Spirit, which is what we
talked about a couple weeks ago,and it would birth this new
(01:31):
kind of community, a faithcommunity, a church that was
devoted, that was vibrant, fullof wonder and growth.
But now the story is startingto shift in Acts, chapter 3.
It's going to take us into atension that the Spirit has come
.
The church is growing, but sois the resistance.
(01:51):
So is the resistance.
The culture doesn't applaudwhat they are doing.
The culture pushes back, andthis is where the Spirit's work
gets real, because beingactivated by God isn't just
about power and it's not justabout community.
It's about courage, not just insafety, but courage in
(02:14):
resistance.
So today we're going to seewhat that looked like in the
lives of Peter and John, and Iwant you to ask what would it
look like in your life?
So here's the big idea thatwill guide us today the Spirit
gives us courage to speak, notjust in safety, but in
resistance, so that Jesus can beknown through ordinary acts of
faith.
(02:34):
What does courage actually looklike?
So if I were to ask you todefine it, I bet there's going
to be several differentdefinitions in the room.
We're going to find our firstanswer not in a moment of
spotlight, but in an ordinaryprayer walk.
Peter and John are just goingout about their day.
It's three o'clock, which meansit's the set time of prayer for
(02:56):
Jewish people, and they wereheading to the temple to pray.
And at a gate called beautiful,they see a man being carried in
.
He's never walked a day in hislife.
Every day friends laid him atthe entrance of the temple to
beg.
This would have been his onlyway of surviving.
There were no social servicesor programs to help.
(03:17):
So he does have some goodfriends who are putting him in a
position where, hey, betterthan nothing.
He wasn't a stranger there atthe temple.
People would have expected tosee him.
But as it happens, when you seeso many people all the time,
you kind of stop seeing them,don't you?
(03:37):
They've just kind of becomepart of the background.
You just expect them to bethere.
And you stop at some pointseeing an actual human and you
just see something, someone easyto ignore, someone to step
around because he's in your way.
Maybe that day you're feelinggenerous and you give him a
(03:58):
couple coins so he can buysomething to eat, but he is
definitely not someone to see.
And then that's when we read inverse six that Peter said
silver or gold I do not have,but what I do have I give you In
the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth.
Walk, and taking him by theright hand, he helped him up and
(04:18):
instantly the man's feet andankles became strong.
He jumped to his feet and beganto walk, and the man praises
God.
He walked straight into thetemple, a space he had been
excluded from his entire life.
To the original audience, thiswasn't just a physical healing
or transformation that tookplace.
(04:39):
It was a disruption In theirworld.
Disability often carried aspiritual stigma.
This man wasn't just physicallybroken.
Their religious belief was thathe was religiously unclean, but
now, in Jesus' name, he'srestored to wholeness and
(05:01):
community.
I want to take a little sidebarhere with you and have a word
about disability, because Ithink passages like this are
often misunderstood.
Passages like this are not toimply that people with
disabilities are somehow brokenor incomplete or waiting to be
fixed.
(05:22):
Amos Young is a theologian anda disability scholar who grew up
with a disabled brother.
He writes disability should notbe viewed as a curse or
something to overcome in orderto be fully human.
Rather, disability opens us upto see the humanity of all
people, disabled andnon-disabled alike, as made in
(05:43):
the image of God.
Young argues that the church isnot whole without people who
have disabilities.
They're not people to fix,they're people to welcome, to
honor, to learn from.
The miracle isn't a model todemand physical healing from God
every time we encounterdisability.
(06:05):
The miracle in this story isthat Peter and John saw this man
and they saw the image of Godon him.
They noticed, they stopped,they didn't pass by, they didn't
avoid him.
They offered what they had andin this case it was the presence
(06:27):
of Jesus.
And yes, in this story, healingoccurs, but the greater act was
that dignity was restored andcommunity was reclaimed.
We don't live in atemple-centered world, but I
know that we still overlookpeople.
Every single one of us me, you,online we overlook people.
(06:49):
We still pass by pain that wecan't easily solve.
If that's a problem I can't fix, I'm just not going to deal
with it.
Think about this in your ownlife the co-worker who is always
on edge, but we don't bring itup.
We tell ourselves, it's none ofmy business, like, I don't want
to deal with that.
The student who sits alone.
(07:09):
But we tell ourselves, oh, it'sjust because they're shy or
somebody else will go sit bythem, but that's not my
responsibility.
Think of the parent strugglingin public with their child and
instead of compassion we offerjudgment, maybe not aloud, but
privately.
And what Peter and John do?
It's not flashy, they simplysaw someone and stopped and
(07:32):
offered Jesus.
And that's where spirit-filledcourage begins.
Not with the platform, not uphere, not with a microphone, but
with regular compassion, withpresence.
The sealed man doesn't quietlydisappear into the crowd.
He clings to Peter and John.
(07:55):
He's walking, leaping, praisingGod, and naturally, as you do,
people take notice.
This man that I learned toignore is now walking right in
front of me, leaping.
He's being very loud, and thecrowd gathers.
They're stunned.
How did this happen?
And some thought Peter and Johnhad performed like a magic
(08:18):
trick, as it were, like theymust have been a sorcerer,
because we know he couldn't walkand now he can.
Or maybe Peter and John tappedinto some sort of spiritual
force out there.
But Peter makes waste no timeredirecting their attention.
He says why do you stare at usas if it's by our own power that
(08:38):
we made this man walk?
And then he preaches, as Peterdoes, directly and
compassionately.
He says you killed the authorof life, but God raised him from
the dead.
We are witnesses of this byfaith in the name of Jesus.
This man, whom you see and know, was made strong.
(08:58):
How?
Not by Peter, not by John, notby me, but by Jesus.
To those listening, this wasn'tjust abstract theology, it was
personal.
Many had been in the crowdscalling for Jesus' death and now
they are standing therewatching his followers do
(09:20):
amazing things.
And maybe they weren't the kindthat called for Jesus's death,
but perhaps you were in thecrowd and you didn't say
anything to defend Jesus.
You weren't an ally, you juststood by.
Peter names their guilt, but hedoes not shame them.
He invites them into the realmof grace.
(09:41):
Repent, so that the times ofrefreshing may come from the
Lord.
Even if you stood by and didnothing when you should have
repent, jesus still loves you.
There's still grace, there'sstill forgiveness, even if you
were the ones who called for hisdeath.
Repent.
You're seeing it now with yourown eyes.
There's still love, there'sstill grace, there's still
forgiveness.
Now, he doesn't soften the truth.
(10:02):
He still says yes, you areresponsible for what you did.
You did that, it happened.
But he doesn't weaponize thattruth against them.
He connects Jesus to everythingthey already believed in, from
Moses to the prophets, and hetells them the story, always
pointing them to the moment thatthey are in.
And I want you to realize.
(10:24):
What started off as a healingof a man became a witness to
Christ.
A door was opened and Peterwalked through it.
Now we may not find ourselvespreaching to crowds like that,
but we still find ourselves inconversations where somebody is
asking, even without words wherecan I find hope?
(10:46):
Think about the coworker, thestudent, the parent, yourself,
me.
You may not be saying it outloud, but where can I find hope?
The Spirit gives us courage tospeak, not about ourselves, but
about Jesus, who was crucifiedand risen, and now we are full
(11:12):
of grace and truth.
As Peter is still speaking tothe crowds about Jesus, the
authorities show up.
They got to shut it down.
This is getting out of hand.
The priests, the captain of thetemple guard and the Sadducees
arrest Peter and John on thespot because they were
proclaiming that Jesus had risenfrom the dead, and this was a
message that deeply bothered theSadducees.
(11:33):
Now you might recognize thatword they're Pharisees and
they're Sadducees, but you mightnot know the big difference
between these two.
They're both very religiousleaders with a lot of influence
in the temple.
But the Pharisees believed inresurrection and judgment.
So they believed that somedaywe'll all be resurrected and be
with God and there will be ajudgment for those who aren't
(11:54):
resurrected from the dead.
But the Sadducees did not.
They rejected anything outsideof the first five books of the
Bible, of our Bible.
They denied any futureresurrection.
So Peter's message wasn't justbad theology to them.
If Peter is right, if Jesus iswho he says, he is their entire
worldview.
Everything that they've built,their parents built, their
(12:15):
grandparents built everythingthey believed crumbles.
So you can imagine it's notthat difficult to imagine is it
when the thing that you've heldonto and believed in, boy?
When that thing starts to fall,when people start to poke holes
in that, you get real defensive, real irritated, because it's
easier to defend what I alreadybelieve than to step out and
(12:37):
listen and hear and look at thefacts Again.
This is something that we'redealing with today, modern times
.
The next day, peter and John arebrought before the Sanhedrin.
This is the same court thatcondemned Jesus, and now two
untrained fishermen stand whereJesus once stood.
You can imagine the pressure.
(12:57):
The stakes are high, but Peter,filled with the spirit, speaks
with clarity.
He says salvation is found inno one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given tomankind by which we must be
saved.
And when they saw the courage ofPeter and John, it's funny.
Luke's like you know thereputation here as he's writing
(13:19):
is like what do people thinkabout Peter?
And John like you know thereputation here as he's writing
is like what do people thinkabout Peter and John?
Stupid, ignorant, uneducated,like not great with words, can't
read, I mean just likeilliterate, like backwards.
(13:40):
And Luke's like okay, got it,got it.
But it says that they wereamazed because, despite all of
those facts, the things that weknew about them, all their
shortcomings, all theirweaknesses, they were bold and
confident.
And they conclude on their ownthe only thing that that could
be is that these men were withJesus.
(14:02):
It wasn't education, it wasn'ttraining, but they did follow
Jesus.
They had been with Jesus.
The council threatens them,demands their silences.
You know what?
Guys just shut up and go awayand we can just all forget about
this.
But Peter and John respond.
We cannot help speaking aboutwhat we've seen and heard.
It wasn't an option.
(14:23):
They were like you can leaveand all of this goes away, and
they said we can't, which hadimplications for them.
For the early church, though,obedience to Jesus didn't bring
applause.
It wasn't celebrated as wemight think.
As fast as the movement grew,we might think that it was
trendy, but actually it wasn't.
There was a ton of pushback.
It brought pressure, but ittells us that courage isn't the
(14:47):
absence of fear.
Okay, courage is not theabsence of fear.
It's faith that stands in themiddle of it.
Faith that stands in the middleof it, it's the tension of
refusing to join in on gossip orunethical practices at work,
knowing that that might affecthow your bosses see you, how
(15:08):
your co-workers treat you.
It's the courage it takes toadmit you're a Christian and a
friend group where that label isloaded with all sorts of
negative assumptions.
It's showing up for someonewho's hurting, even when you
don't have the right words andyou can't offer a solution.
This is the kind of courage weare talking about.
(15:31):
After their release, peter andJohn, they don't hide, they
don't regroup in fear.
They don't think we got tostart making some big changes,
Otherwise we're going to get inbig trouble.
They return to their people,their community, and they share
everything that had happenedabout the chief priests and what
the elders had said, and whathappens next is one of the most
powerful moments in the earlychurch.
(15:52):
I think it gets overread andoverlooked, so I want to point
that out right now, after all ofthis has happened.
It's blown up, it's overflowed.
Now they're in trouble.
They've made a name forthemselves.
They pray, and they don't prayfor safety.
They don't pray for comfort.
(16:12):
They don't even pray for safety.
They don't pray for comfort.
They don't even pray forjustice.
God, I know I'm right, I'mdoing the right thing, so just
help them see that.
Nope, none of that.
They pray for boldness.
They go to God.
They say now, lord, considertheir threats and enable your
servants to speak your word withgreat boldness.
(16:36):
This is a shift in the earlychurch.
This moment, right here, we arenot running away and hiding
after Jesus was killed Again.
We're not doing that.
And now that we're the ones whocould be killed, we will still
go out.
This is a huge step for them.
They name the risk, but theydon't ask to escape it.
(16:59):
God, you know what they'resaying.
You know they're threatening us.
Please don't let harm come myway.
Please steer us clear of that.
Nope, they say, despite all ofthe threats and everything, help
me stay faithful in it.
And I wonder in our personallives, honestly, in my life, how
many times am I praying to getout of something, to get through
something, when my prayershould be to be faithful in
(17:21):
something?
And this isn't a private prayer.
It's not like Peter and Johnget together and do so quietly
and privately.
They do it with their churchcommunity, those early believers
Together.
They lift up their voices.
Opposition isn't new.
God's people have always facedresistance, but God's rule
(17:41):
hasn't changed and he is stillsovereign.
As they finish praying,something extraordinary happens.
It says in verses 30, 31, afterthey prayed, the place where
they were meeting was shaken andthey were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the wordof God boldly.
They're filled again with theHoly Spirit, not a new baptism,
(18:05):
but a fresh empowering, a refill, as it were.
And they go out and they speakthe Word of God boldly.
For the early church, this wasa moment that reinforced the
truth.
They were just beginning tounderstand.
Boldness is not a personalitytrait.
It's not a personality trait.
You might think.
(18:25):
Well, I was just not born thatway, I'm not gifted in that way.
Boldness is the result ofprayer, spiritual boldness, and
it's a sign of a spiritualcommunity that backs us up.
Now we may not face threatslike theirs we're not going to
be arrested for meeting herethis morning but we still face
hesitation, we still have fears.
A lot of us struggle withself-doubt, and what is needed
(18:48):
or what isn't needed what isn'tneeded is more confidence in
ourselves.
It's a deeper dependence on theSpirit who empowers us.
Boldness isn't something weforce.
It's something God forms in us,especially when we seek God
(19:10):
together.
What we've seen in Acts 3 and 4isn't a one-time burst of early
church courage.
It's a pattern embedded in thewhole biblical story.
Again and again, god empowersordinary people to speak and act
with boldness, even when thecost is high.
And maybe if Luke was writing astory about us today, he would
(19:31):
bring up different things Stupid, uneducated, illiterate, silly
took themselves too seriously.
I don't know, but we see thatthis pattern that the Spirit
comes and fills us and gives usthe courage Not a natural
confidence, but a courage, and aconfidence that comes from
(19:54):
knowing our God is stillsovereign.
Jesus modeled this perfectly.
He confronted injustice, hespoke truth with compassion and
he walked toward the cross, notaway from it, walked toward the
cross, not away from it.
And then, as promised, he senthis spirit, not just to comfort
(20:19):
but to empower.
Paul, who traveled with Luke,knew what it meant to face
resistance, and he wrote this tohis young disciple, timothy.
He says for the spirit God gaveus does not make us timid, but
gives us power and love andself-discipline.
And that's the kind of couragethe Spirit still gives to us
today.
And no, most of us are notstanding before religious
councils or facing arrests, butit still takes courage to follow
(20:40):
Jesus in this world.
What I mean is it takes courageto initiate a hard or difficult
conversation that you knowneeds to happen, that will lead
to resolution of conflict.
That's outstanding.
It's going to take courage tostand for what's right when
everyone else doesn't care.
It's going to take courage toadmit you are struggling,
(21:04):
whether that's with addiction orbehavior issues, whatever it
might be.
It takes courage to open up.
It takes courage to invitesomeone into church or into your
life.
It takes courage to forgivesomeone when it feels undeserved
.
It takes courage to forgivesomeone who isn't asking for
(21:24):
forgiveness.
And so here's my question Willwe start to pray and ask God for
boldness, not safety, to befaithful, not to get out of the
situation, not for easiercircumstances, but for
spirit-empowered courage to stepforward in the pain anyway
(21:48):
Right now.
We're going to head intocommunion in a moment, but name
the place where you needboldness.
If it's easier, you can bowyour head and close your eyes,
but where's the place that youneed boldness?
Ask God to meet you there, notby removing the pressure, but by
(22:12):
filling you with power and loveand self-discipline.
In that early church theydidn't pray to escape risk.
They prayed to stay faithful init.
Peter and John didn't stand outbecause they were impressive.
They stood out because they hadbeen with Jesus and you have
(22:32):
been too and when pressure came,they didn't retreat, they
didn't run away and they didn'thide.
The book of Acts isn't a recordof something God did 2,000 years
ago.
It's a vision of what he isstill doing today, what he still
does through you and through me.
(22:53):
And let me just point this outCourage isn't about charisma,
courage is about surrender,courage is about saying yes to
the moment right in front of you.
We still live in a culture, aworld the city of Madison that's
looking for healing, truth,hope and, by God's design, you
(23:14):
and I, we're part of that.
We are the church, we are hispeople, we are part of the plan
to bring truth and healing andhope to those around us.
Which means the question isn'tjust what did Peter and John do,
it's what is the Spiritinviting you to do?
Do, it's what is the Spiritinviting you to do.
(23:34):
Cs Lewis once wrote courage isnot simply one of the virtues,
but the form of every virtue atthe testing point.
So, when the moment comes thisweek, when you're tempted to
stay quiet, when you're temptedto blend in or tempted to wait
for perfect clarity, ask forboldness.
Instead, ask God to fill youagain.
(23:55):
Ask God to help you remainfaithful in it, because your
courage might actually be theanswer to someone else's prayers
.
Your courage might be theanswer to someone else's prayers
, and our collective courage asa church is what God uses to
reach the place that we callhome.
This is what it means to beactivated, not just stirred, not
(24:20):
just fired up this morning, butassent people who leave this
place Not just inspired butempowered.
So let's be a people who sayyes to the Spirit on Monday
mornings, on Friday nights, onboring Wednesday afternoons.
And let's go, win and do as Godleads.
(24:41):
Let's pray.
Welcome to Madison Church Online.
I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor.
We all have moments whenspeaking up feels risky.
For some of us, a lot of risksaying anything.
For others of us, we might needto tighten our filter up
because we're just alwaystalking.
But there are conversations weall want to avoid.
There's truths that we withhold.
(00:24):
There's many moments that westay silent when we shouldn't.
Now it's not because, in thecase of faith, it's not because
we don't believe.
A lot of times it's becauseit's scary or frightening, it
means awkwardness.
We want to follow Jesus, butnot if it means awkwardness,
(00:46):
rejection or being misunderstood.
And that's why the part of Actswe're reading out of today Acts
, chapter 3, is so important.
It shows us what happens whenordinary people people like you
and me watching, you'relistening online ordinary,
everyday people are filled withthe Holy Spirit and find
themselves in situations wherethere's real-life pressure,
(01:10):
real-life pressure.
So we are in week two of ourseries Activated and we're
tracing how the Holy Spiritmoves through us, through people
like the disciples, but theearly church and us.
Today and so far in Acts we'vestudied Jesus' call.
He said to wait for the comingof the Spirit, which is what we
talked about a couple weeks ago,and it would birth this new
(01:31):
kind of community, a faithcommunity, a church that was
devoted, that was vibrant, fullof wonder and growth.
But now the story is startingto shift in Acts, chapter 3.
It's going to take us into atension that the Spirit has come
.
The church is growing, but sois the resistance.
(01:51):
So is the resistance.
The culture doesn't applaudwhat they are doing.
The culture pushes back, andthis is where the Spirit's work
gets real, because beingactivated by God isn't just
about power and it's not justabout community.
It's about courage, not just insafety, but courage in
(02:14):
resistance.
So today we're going to seewhat that looked like in the
lives of Peter and John, and Iwant you to ask what would it
look like in your life?
So here's the big idea thatwill guide us today the Spirit
gives us courage to speak, notjust in safety, but in
resistance, so that Jesus can beknown through ordinary acts of
faith.
(02:34):
What does courage actually looklike?
So if I were to ask you todefine it, I bet there's going
to be several differentdefinitions in the room.
We're going to find our firstanswer not in a moment of
spotlight, but in an ordinaryprayer walk.
Peter and John are just goingout about their day.
It's three o'clock, which meansit's the set time of prayer for
(02:56):
Jewish people, and they wereheading to the temple to pray.
And at a gate called beautiful,they see a man being carried in
.
He's never walked a day in hislife.
Every day friends laid him atthe entrance of the temple to
beg.
This would have been his onlyway of surviving.
There were no social servicesor programs to help.
(03:17):
So he does have some goodfriends who are putting him in a
position where, hey, betterthan nothing.
He wasn't a stranger there atthe temple.
People would have expected tosee him.
But as it happens, when you seeso many people all the time,
you kind of stop seeing them,don't you?
(03:37):
They've just kind of becomepart of the background.
You just expect them to bethere.
And you stop at some pointseeing an actual human and you
just see something, someone easyto ignore, someone to step
around because he's in your way.
Maybe that day you're feelinggenerous and you give him a
(03:58):
couple coins so he can buysomething to eat, but he is
definitely not someone to see.
And then that's when we read inverse six that Peter said
silver or gold I do not have,but what I do have I give you In
the name of Jesus Christ ofNazareth.
Walk, and taking him by theright hand, he helped him up and
(04:18):
instantly the man's feet andankles became strong.
He jumped to his feet and beganto walk, and the man praises
God.
He walked straight into thetemple, a space he had been
excluded from his entire life.
To the original audience, thiswasn't just a physical healing
or transformation that tookplace.
(04:39):
It was a disruption In theirworld.
Disability often carried aspiritual stigma.
This man wasn't just physicallybroken.
Their religious belief was thathe was religiously unclean, but
now, in Jesus' name, he'srestored to wholeness and
(05:01):
community.
I want to take a little sidebarhere with you and have a word
about disability, because Ithink passages like this are
often misunderstood.
Passages like this are not toimply that people with
disabilities are somehow brokenor incomplete or waiting to be
fixed.
(05:22):
Amos Young is a theologian anda disability scholar who grew up
with a disabled brother.
He writes disability should notbe viewed as a curse or
something to overcome in orderto be fully human.
Rather, disability opens us upto see the humanity of all
people, disabled andnon-disabled alike, as made in
(05:43):
the image of God.
Young argues that the church isnot whole without people who
have disabilities.
They're not people to fix,they're people to welcome, to
honor, to learn from.
The miracle isn't a model todemand physical healing from God
every time we encounterdisability.
(06:05):
The miracle in this story isthat Peter and John saw this man
and they saw the image of Godon him.
They noticed, they stopped,they didn't pass by, they didn't
avoid him.
They offered what they had andin this case it was the presence
(06:27):
of Jesus.
And yes, in this story, healingoccurs, but the greater act was
that dignity was restored andcommunity was reclaimed.
We don't live in atemple-centered world, but I
know that we still overlookpeople.
Every single one of us me, you,online we overlook people.
(06:49):
We still pass by pain that wecan't easily solve.
If that's a problem I can't fix, I'm just not going to deal
with it.
Think about this in your ownlife the co-worker who is always
on edge, but we don't bring itup.
We tell ourselves, it's none ofmy business, like, I don't want
to deal with that.
The student who sits alone.
(07:09):
But we tell ourselves, oh, it'sjust because they're shy or
somebody else will go sit bythem, but that's not my
responsibility.
Think of the parent strugglingin public with their child and
instead of compassion we offerjudgment, maybe not aloud, but
privately.
And what Peter and John do?
It's not flashy, they simplysaw someone and stopped and
(07:32):
offered Jesus.
And that's where spirit-filledcourage begins.
Not with the platform, not uphere, not with a microphone, but
with regular compassion, withpresence.
The sealed man doesn't quietlydisappear into the crowd.
He clings to Peter and John.
(07:55):
He's walking, leaping, praisingGod, and naturally, as you do,
people take notice.
This man that I learned toignore is now walking right in
front of me, leaping.
He's being very loud, and thecrowd gathers.
They're stunned.
How did this happen?
And some thought Peter and Johnhad performed like a magic
(08:18):
trick, as it were, like theymust have been a sorcerer,
because we know he couldn't walkand now he can.
Or maybe Peter and John tappedinto some sort of spiritual
force out there.
But Peter makes waste no timeredirecting their attention.
He says why do you stare at usas if it's by our own power that
(08:38):
we made this man walk?
And then he preaches, as Peterdoes, directly and
compassionately.
He says you killed the authorof life, but God raised him from
the dead.
We are witnesses of this byfaith in the name of Jesus.
This man, whom you see and know, was made strong.
(08:58):
How?
Not by Peter, not by John, notby me, but by Jesus.
To those listening, this wasn'tjust abstract theology, it was
personal.
Many had been in the crowdscalling for Jesus' death and now
they are standing therewatching his followers do
(09:20):
amazing things.
And maybe they weren't the kindthat called for Jesus's death,
but perhaps you were in thecrowd and you didn't say
anything to defend Jesus.
You weren't an ally, you juststood by.
Peter names their guilt, but hedoes not shame them.
He invites them into the realmof grace.
(09:41):
Repent, so that the times ofrefreshing may come from the
Lord.
Even if you stood by and didnothing when you should have
repent, jesus still loves you.
There's still grace, there'sstill forgiveness, even if you
were the ones who called for hisdeath.
Repent.
You're seeing it now with yourown eyes.
There's still love, there'sstill grace, there's still
forgiveness.
Now, he doesn't soften the truth.
(10:02):
He still says yes, you areresponsible for what you did.
You did that, it happened.
But he doesn't weaponize thattruth against them.
He connects Jesus to everythingthey already believed in, from
Moses to the prophets, and hetells them the story, always
pointing them to the moment thatthey are in.
And I want you to realize.
(10:24):
What started off as a healingof a man became a witness to
Christ.
A door was opened and Peterwalked through it.
Now we may not find ourselvespreaching to crowds like that,
but we still find ourselves inconversations where somebody is
asking, even without words wherecan I find hope?
(10:46):
Think about the coworker, thestudent, the parent, yourself,
me.
You may not be saying it outloud, but where can I find hope?
The Spirit gives us courage tospeak, not about ourselves, but
about Jesus, who was crucifiedand risen, and now we are full
(11:12):
of grace and truth.
As Peter is still speaking tothe crowds about Jesus, the
authorities show up.
They got to shut it down.
This is getting out of hand.
The priests, the captain of thetemple guard and the Sadducees
arrest Peter and John on thespot because they were
proclaiming that Jesus had risenfrom the dead, and this was a
message that deeply bothered theSadducees.
(11:33):
Now you might recognize thatword they're Pharisees and
they're Sadducees, but you mightnot know the big difference
between these two.
They're both very religiousleaders with a lot of influence
in the temple.
But the Pharisees believed inresurrection and judgment.
So they believed that somedaywe'll all be resurrected and be
with God and there will be ajudgment for those who aren't
(11:54):
resurrected from the dead.
But the Sadducees did not.
They rejected anything outsideof the first five books of the
Bible, of our Bible.
They denied any futureresurrection.
So Peter's message wasn't justbad theology to them.
If Peter is right, if Jesus iswho he says, he is their entire
worldview.
Everything that they've built,their parents built, their
(12:15):
grandparents built everythingthey believed crumbles.
So you can imagine it's notthat difficult to imagine is it
when the thing that you've heldonto and believed in, boy?
When that thing starts to fall,when people start to poke holes
in that, you get real defensive, real irritated, because it's
easier to defend what I alreadybelieve than to step out and
(12:37):
listen and hear and look at thefacts Again.
This is something that we'redealing with today, modern times
.
The next day, peter and John arebrought before the Sanhedrin.
This is the same court thatcondemned Jesus, and now two
untrained fishermen stand whereJesus once stood.
You can imagine the pressure.
(12:57):
The stakes are high, but Peter,filled with the spirit, speaks
with clarity.
He says salvation is found inno one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given tomankind by which we must be
saved.
And when they saw the courage ofPeter and John, it's funny.
Luke's like you know thereputation here as he's writing
(13:19):
is like what do people thinkabout Peter?
And John like you know thereputation here as he's writing
is like what do people thinkabout Peter and John?
Stupid, ignorant, uneducated,like not great with words, can't
read, I mean just likeilliterate, like backwards.
(13:40):
And Luke's like okay, got it,got it.
But it says that they wereamazed because, despite all of
those facts, the things that weknew about them, all their
shortcomings, all theirweaknesses, they were bold and
confident.
And they conclude on their ownthe only thing that that could
be is that these men were withJesus.
(14:02):
It wasn't education, it wasn'ttraining, but they did follow
Jesus.
They had been with Jesus.
The council threatens them,demands their silences.
You know what?
Guys just shut up and go awayand we can just all forget about
this.
But Peter and John respond.
We cannot help speaking aboutwhat we've seen and heard.
It wasn't an option.
(14:23):
They were like you can leaveand all of this goes away, and
they said we can't, which hadimplications for them.
For the early church, though,obedience to Jesus didn't bring
applause.
It wasn't celebrated as wemight think.
As fast as the movement grew,we might think that it was
trendy, but actually it wasn't.
There was a ton of pushback.
It brought pressure, but ittells us that courage isn't the
(14:47):
absence of fear.
Okay, courage is not theabsence of fear.
It's faith that stands in themiddle of it.
Faith that stands in the middleof it, it's the tension of
refusing to join in on gossip orunethical practices at work,
knowing that that might affecthow your bosses see you, how
(15:08):
your co-workers treat you.
It's the courage it takes toadmit you're a Christian and a
friend group where that label isloaded with all sorts of
negative assumptions.
It's showing up for someonewho's hurting, even when you
don't have the right words andyou can't offer a solution.
This is the kind of courage weare talking about.
(15:31):
After their release, peter andJohn, they don't hide, they
don't regroup in fear.
They don't think we got tostart making some big changes,
Otherwise we're going to get inbig trouble.
They return to their people,their community, and they share
everything that had happenedabout the chief priests and what
the elders had said, and whathappens next is one of the most
powerful moments in the earlychurch.
(15:52):
I think it gets overread andoverlooked, so I want to point
that out right now, after all ofthis has happened.
It's blown up, it's overflowed.
Now they're in trouble.
They've made a name forthemselves.
They pray, and they don't prayfor safety.
They don't pray for comfort.
(16:12):
They don't even pray for safety.
They don't pray for comfort.
They don't even pray forjustice.
God, I know I'm right, I'mdoing the right thing, so just
help them see that.
Nope, none of that.
They pray for boldness.
They go to God.
They say now, lord, considertheir threats and enable your
servants to speak your word withgreat boldness.
(16:36):
This is a shift in the earlychurch.
This moment, right here, we arenot running away and hiding
after Jesus was killed Again.
We're not doing that.
And now that we're the ones whocould be killed, we will still
go out.
This is a huge step for them.
They name the risk, but theydon't ask to escape it.
(16:59):
God, you know what they'resaying.
You know they're threatening us.
Please don't let harm come myway.
Please steer us clear of that.
Nope, they say, despite all ofthe threats and everything, help
me stay faithful in it.
And I wonder in our personallives, honestly, in my life, how
many times am I praying to getout of something, to get through
something, when my prayershould be to be faithful in
(17:21):
something?
And this isn't a private prayer.
It's not like Peter and Johnget together and do so quietly
and privately.
They do it with their churchcommunity, those early believers
Together.
They lift up their voices.
Opposition isn't new.
God's people have always facedresistance, but God's rule
(17:41):
hasn't changed and he is stillsovereign.
As they finish praying,something extraordinary happens.
It says in verses 30, 31, afterthey prayed, the place where
they were meeting was shaken andthey were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the wordof God boldly.
They're filled again with theHoly Spirit, not a new baptism,
(18:05):
but a fresh empowering, a refill, as it were.
And they go out and they speakthe Word of God boldly.
For the early church, this wasa moment that reinforced the
truth.
They were just beginning tounderstand.
Boldness is not a personalitytrait.
It's not a personality trait.
You might think.
(18:25):
Well, I was just not born thatway, I'm not gifted in that way.
Boldness is the result ofprayer, spiritual boldness, and
it's a sign of a spiritualcommunity that backs us up.
Now we may not face threatslike theirs we're not going to
be arrested for meeting herethis morning but we still face
hesitation, we still have fears.
A lot of us struggle withself-doubt, and what is needed
(18:48):
or what isn't needed what isn'tneeded is more confidence in
ourselves.
It's a deeper dependence on theSpirit who empowers us.
Boldness isn't something weforce.
It's something God forms in us,especially when we seek God
(19:10):
together.
What we've seen in Acts 3 and 4isn't a one-time burst of early
church courage.
It's a pattern embedded in thewhole biblical story.
Again and again, god empowersordinary people to speak and act
with boldness, even when thecost is high.
And maybe if Luke was writing astory about us today, he would
(19:31):
bring up different things Stupid, uneducated, illiterate, silly
took themselves too seriously.
I don't know, but we see thatthis pattern that the Spirit
comes and fills us and gives usthe courage Not a natural
confidence, but a courage, and aconfidence that comes from
(19:54):
knowing our God is stillsovereign.
Jesus modeled this perfectly.
He confronted injustice, hespoke truth with compassion and
he walked toward the cross, notaway from it, walked toward the
cross, not away from it.
And then, as promised, he senthis spirit, not just to comfort
(20:19):
but to empower.
Paul, who traveled with Luke,knew what it meant to face
resistance, and he wrote this tohis young disciple, timothy.
He says for the spirit God gaveus does not make us timid, but
gives us power and love andself-discipline.
And that's the kind of couragethe Spirit still gives to us
today.
And no, most of us are notstanding before religious
councils or facing arrests, butit still takes courage to follow
(20:40):
Jesus in this world.
What I mean is it takes courageto initiate a hard or difficult
conversation that you knowneeds to happen, that will lead
to resolution of conflict.
That's outstanding.
It's going to take courage tostand for what's right when
everyone else doesn't care.
It's going to take courage toadmit you are struggling,
(21:04):
whether that's with addiction orbehavior issues, whatever it
might be.
It takes courage to open up.
It takes courage to invitesomeone into church or into your
life.
It takes courage to forgivesomeone when it feels undeserved
.
It takes courage to forgivesomeone who isn't asking for
(21:24):
forgiveness.
And so here's my question Willwe start to pray and ask God for
boldness, not safety, to befaithful, not to get out of the
situation, not for easiercircumstances, but for
spirit-empowered courage to stepforward in the pain anyway
(21:48):
Right now.
We're going to head intocommunion in a moment, but name
the place where you needboldness.
If it's easier, you can bowyour head and close your eyes,
but where's the place that youneed boldness?
Ask God to meet you there, notby removing the pressure, but by
(22:12):
filling you with power and loveand self-discipline.
In that early church theydidn't pray to escape risk.
They prayed to stay faithful init.
Peter and John didn't stand outbecause they were impressive.
They stood out because they hadbeen with Jesus and you have
(22:32):
been too and when pressure came,they didn't retreat, they
didn't run away and they didn'thide.
The book of Acts isn't a recordof something God did 2,000 years
ago.
It's a vision of what he isstill doing today, what he still
does through you and through me.
(22:53):
And let me just point this outCourage isn't about charisma,
courage is about surrender,courage is about saying yes to
the moment right in front of you.
We still live in a culture, aworld the city of Madison that's
looking for healing, truth,hope and, by God's design, you
(23:14):
and I, we're part of that.
We are the church, we are hispeople, we are part of the plan
to bring truth and healing andhope to those around us.
Which means the question isn'tjust what did Peter and John do,
it's what is the Spiritinviting you to do?
Do, it's what is the Spiritinviting you to do.
(23:34):
Cs Lewis once wrote courage isnot simply one of the virtues,
but the form of every virtue atthe testing point.
So, when the moment comes thisweek, when you're tempted to
stay quiet, when you're temptedto blend in or tempted to wait
for perfect clarity, ask forboldness.
Instead, ask God to fill youagain.
(23:55):
Ask God to help you remainfaithful in it, because your
courage might actually be theanswer to someone else's prayers
.
Your courage might be theanswer to someone else's prayers
, and our collective courage asa church is what God uses to
reach the place that we callhome.
This is what it means to beactivated, not just stirred, not
(24:20):
just fired up this morning, butassent people who leave this
place Not just inspired butempowered.
So let's be a people who sayyes to the Spirit on Monday
mornings, on Friday nights, onboring Wednesday afternoons.
And let's go, win and do as Godleads.
(24:41):
Let's pray.
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