Of all the characters in the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” my favorite has always been the Cowardly Lion. And probably my favorite thing about him is his speech about courage. You know, “What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.” And “What puts the ‘ape’ in ape-ricot? Whatta they got that I ain’t got?” You guessed it, courage.
One thing that Christians need in order to live as godly people in a God-less culture is courage. You’re not going to be able to get instant courage from the Wizard. The kind of courage we need comes from God, and he gives it to all who ask.
Keep in mind that courage is not the absence of fear. There will be many times in life when you are asked to say or do something that requires courage, and you’ll be afraid. Courage means doing what you know to be right even when you’re full of fear. Courage means speaking up for Jesus even when the consequences of doing so are very real.
There’s a story in Acts that involves two of the disciples, Peter and John. One day they were walking to the temple to pray, and they passed by a man who had been lame from birth. The man was begging for money, which was his only means of survival in that day. Peter, instead of giving the man money, told the man to get up and walk. Peter took the man by the hand, and the man stood up and walked! Remember, he had never walked in his life. The Bible says this man “entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8). It’s incredible!
When the crowds of people realized that this man was the same guy who’d been lame from birth, they were astounded, and so they ran to Peter and John, which gave Peter the perfect opportunity to do a little preaching. It’s a fantastic sermon (Acts 3:12-26) and worth the read if you haven’t looked at it in a while.
Of course, the Jewish religious leaders who had crucified Jesus didn’t like the message. They were “greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead” (Acts 4:2). So they did what Jewish leaders did in those days, they arrested Peter and John and threw them in jail.
The next day, the Jewish leaders gathered together and brought Peter and John before them to answer a few questions. This allowed Peter to preach again, so he did, ending his message with the words, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Those are very important words.
Well, the religious leaders didn’t like this kind of talk. But they couldn’t argue with Peter, because the man who had just been healed was standing, not sitting, but standing, right there beside Peter and John. Whether they believed anything Peter said, they couldn’t argue with the fact that this man couldn’t stand up the day before, and here he was standing right there in front of them.
And catch this, the Bible says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
I wonder how many people around us are astonished at our boldness and can tell that we have been with Jesus?
The word “boldness” in verse 13 is important. It refers to the courage to speak out even when doing so is dangerous. It’s a confidence that only comes from God, and that kind of courage and confidence is desperately needed today.
After Peter’s speech, the leaders went into a secret meeting to talk about all this, and then they called Peter and John back into the room and told them not to “speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (v. 18).
If you were Peter or John, what would you have done? I know the Sunday School answer is that you wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus, but in all seriousness, knowing yourself as you do, what do you honestly think you would have done?
You’ve already spent a night in jail. Your Lord and Savior has been murdered by these very same people. More Christians are inevitably going to lose their lives at the hands of these people. All you have to do to be safe is to stop talking about Jesus.
Don’t just put yourself in their shoes in first-century Jerusalem. What would you do now? How would you respond today if your company or your school issued a ruling that anyone talking about their faith would be terminated or expelled? If you own a business, what would you do if your customers threatened to boycott you if you ever mentioned Jesus?
How many of us would have the courage to stand up for Jesus at the cost of our livelihoods, or even our lives?
Maybe what you fear is not the loss of a job or your life. What keeps you from talking about Jesus is that you’re afraid you’ll lose a friend. You don’t want to hurt or offend the people you care about. You know that if you take a stand, though, you may come off as being hurtful. Let’s face it, some people think that Christians, because of our beliefs, are unloving and hateful people.
I’m sure there were a lot of similar thoughts running around in the minds of Peter and John, but here’s how they responded:
But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20).
They didn’t say, “We can’t stop talking about what we believe.” They had seen Jesus, they had heard Jesus, they knew what had happened. Peter had walked on water. John had watched Jesus die. They had both seen the empty tomb, had hung out with Jesus after his resurrection and had watched as he ascended into heaven. They had seen the power of the Holy Spirit, they had watched him move over the people, bringing multitudes to salvation. They knew the power of God and had experienced his love and majesty for themselves.
And they could not keep silent.
They told the leaders, “We saw Jesus dead, and then we saw Jesus alive. You do to us whatever you have to do, but we are going to tell people what we have seen!”
If you’re a believer, you’ve seen Jesus at work as well. You know firsthand the difference he has made in your life. You’ve seen God do incredible things. You’ve felt his comfort when you were afraid or worried or depressed. You recognize all the good things in your life as gifts from God. You’ve experienced his presence and his ability to give you inner joy whether times are good or bad. Pause for a moment to reflect on how your life would be different if you didn’t know Jesus.
Can you now stop telling about the things you have seen and heard?
There are people all around you who desperately need to know Jesus. They need you to refuse to be silent, even when there are consequences for doing so. They don’t need you to preach. They certainly don’t need you to be obnoxious about your faith. They just need you to have courage, trusting in your Savior to help you stand for him and, whenever the opportunity arises, to share what he means to you.
If the world demanded that you keep silent, would you keep silent, or would you have the courage to speak?