“Christ’s Call to Courage” | Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Let's pray together. Father, we are glad to be here with your people. And I know that there are some folks here watching that could use some encouragement. They're afraid.

They're filled with anxiety right now. And we pray as we look in your Word that we will get that biblical perspective and understand that you are with us in whatever we are facing. So we commit this time of Bible study to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You can all be seated. But today I want to talk to you about Christ's call to courage. And I'm going to be looking at Acts 23. So why don't you turn over there with me. Acts chapter 23.

Again, the title is Christ's Call to Courage. So just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. We all survived a modern pandemic in our lifetime, one of the most devastating of all time.

We were just catching our breath. And now it seems as though the world is on fire. We have this blistering attack on Ukraine by Russia under President Putin. It's a powder keg that could literally threaten the whole world. And this situation has escalated at an alarmingly fast pace. A Russia entrenched in Ukraine now has threatened to use biological and chemical weapons. They've even threatened to use the nuclear option. And some have warned about a potential World War III.

I can't believe we're talking about this right now. Last time I heard talk like this was when I was in elementary school and there was a great conflict between the United States and the then Soviet Union being led by Nikita Khrushchev. And we were led by President Kennedy. It's called the Cuban Missile Crisis where the Soviets or the Russians were putting their weapons over in Cuba, which is striking distance from America because of Florida there on the coast.

And so there was this big confrontation and there were headlines about a nuclear warming happening. These kids literally went through these bomb drills. And we were told by our teacher, if there's an atomic blast, get under your chair or your desk.

Like that would have stopped at all. We're good. We're under the desk. Because the whole thing is crazy. And so there's a lot of anxiety in our country right now. Many are filled with stress, anxiety, fear because of COVID inflation. This conflict in Ukraine, I read just the other day, psychologists have now coined a new phrase called doomsday anxiety. What is doomsday anxiety? They say, quote, it's the fear or worry about the end of the world or life as we know it. Symptoms include chronic nightmares, an underlying feeling of fear, an obsession with the news, or doom scrolling through online media.

Have you ever done that? Doom scrolling. You're just flipping through your news feed. Bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. And it's affecting people. So what are we doing? How are we acknowledging this? Some people are just partying away.

Spring break, man. Party like it's 1999, as Prince told us. We shouldn't party like it's 1999.

We should pray like it's 2022 because these are real problems. So why do I bring this up? Because this can bring discouragement. This can bring fear.

This can bring anxiety. And you might be surprised to know you're not the first Christian to ever feel this way. Even the great apostle Paul got down at times. So in this message, we're gonna see what Jesus said and what Jesus did to revive Paul in this message. Now, my last message in the book of Acts that was titled How to Live a Meaningful Life, we looked at Paul's farewell to the elders of Ephesus. He knew he would never see them again.

And among other things, he said, my hope is to finish my race with joy. After that, he left them and he was staying with Philip, the evangelist. And Philip had a friend known as Agabus the prophet.

And Agabus was a pretty dramatic guy. He wrapped himself up and he said, this is what's gonna happen to you, Paul. If you get in that boat and go to Jerusalem, you'll end up in prison. I was like, okay, you're kind of overdoing it a little bit.

But I get the message. But then Paul says to Agabus these words, he says, listen, I am ready to die if necessary in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now understand, Paul has already been to heaven at this point. And many scholars believe it was probably after he was stoned after he had preached.

Not that kind of stoned. And left her dead and then came back to life. We know at some point, Paul went to heaven. He writes about it in Corinthians where he was caught up into the third heaven and saw things that he cannot even describe.

Then he came back to earth. So Paul has seen glory. He's not afraid to die. He even said to the believers in Philippi, I want to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, it's important for me to stay here with you. So Paul wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid of suffering. He wasn't afraid even of death itself. How do you stop a man like that?

Answer, you don't. And thank God for it. We need more men and women like that today. So now we find the apostle has been arrested just as Agabus the prophet had warned and he's in jail. And so the story starts in Acts 23 starting in verse 10. There arose a loud outcry, and the scribes of the Pharisees' party arose and protested, saying, We find no evil against this man. Speaking of Paul. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. Now there arose a great dissension in the commander, fearing that Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring them into the barracks. Verse 11, But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, you must also bear witness in Rome. Start there.

Stop there, rather. So here's Paul in prison again. Paul's middle name could have been trouble.

There was never a dull day in the life of this man. Everywhere he went there was either a riot or a revival. But of course he and the others turned their world upside down. But here he is now in this Roman dungeon, and he was probably feeling discouraged, and I think that's because of what Jesus said to him in particular. So if you're discouraged and you're frightened about your future right now, then hopefully these words of Jesus will bring comfort to you as well. Look at verse 11.

It says, The following night the Lord stood by him. Maybe Paul had second-guessed this decision. I mean, he's in shackles in jail. Maybe he thought, oh, man, I should have listened to Agabus.

I mean, is this really a good thing? Is this where God wants me to be? So Jesus himself shows up. He doesn't even dispatch an angel. Jesus says, hey, I'm here right beside you.

Everything changes when you become more aware of the fact that wherever you go, Jesus is there with you. Years ago I was a kid living in New Jersey, and I had a little cowboy thing going on, a little cowboy hat and some little guns, you know, cap guns. So I'm walking down the street, firing my little cap guns, and these guys, hoodlums is what I would call them, came up, hey, what are you doing? And they took my guns from me and pushed me on the ground. So I went home, cried, and then I found my brother who was a lot bigger than me. I said, will you go back with me so we can get my guns back? And so I go walking down the street, and I see these guys shooting my little cap guns. My brother standing with me, he walks over.

I think he pushed one of them to the ground, took the guns back, and I was so happy. But here's my point. I had a lot more courage when my big brother was with me.

So here's the point that I'm making to you. Wherever you go, you'll have a lot more courage when you know Jesus Christ is with you standing by your side. But then Jesus says, be of good cheer.

What an interesting thing to say. You know, when someone is feeling down, it's not always the best thing to say, be of good cheer. Or hey, you know, smile, be happy. You know, you even sing to them, hey, gray skies are gonna clear up, put on a happy face. And they wanna smack you.

And they say to you, hey, keep my wife's name out of your mouth, you know. Wrong story. Okay. Too soon? Don't slap people, just don't.

Not a good idea. But it doesn't make you happier when someone tells you to be happy. In fact, when you're down and someone says, cheer up, it makes you even a little bit more miserable.

But actually, Jesus was not saying, cheer up to Paul. If you translate this word more accurately, it would be, hey, Paul, have courage. Big difference from just cheering up to having courage. Well, what is courage? Courage is bravery, fortitude, courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, or the threat of death.

And I don't think it necessarily comes naturally to a lot of people because we're all afraid at times. So we try to muster courage up. But to one person to find courage this way, quote, courage is fear that has said its prayers.

I like that. Mark Twain said, courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear. So you might be afraid, but you master your fear and it turns into courage. Those that service every day in law enforcement have courage. When they put that uniform on and strap on that Sam Brown and they go out there representing us, defending us, that takes courage.

Those that service in our military have that same courage to be willing to put everything on the line for us. I think of Private First Class Ross McGinnis. I read about him in the newspaper. He was perched in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee when a grenade whizzed past him into the truck carrying four of his fellow soldiers. In a split second, McGinnis did the unthinkable. He shouted a warning to the other soldiers and threw himself on the grenade.

He absorbed its full impact and tragically died. But all four of those men survived. That was an act of amazing courage. And it happens every day, but there's different kinds of courage. There's moral courage as well. The courage to stand up for what is true in a world that is filled with lies. For instance, it took courage for young Stephen to speak and to preach the gospel to those who were about to put him to death. It took courage for Daniel to pray when suddenly it was against the law to call on God. It took courage for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to not bow before that golden image of King Nebuchadnezzar. And we need that courage today to stand up.

Now listen, if you stand up for what is true, you might get canceled or worse. But we need more people to have that courage today. It takes courage to honor the vows you made to your husband or wife to be, for better or for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, to death do us part. Those are the vows I used. People write their own vows now.

And some of them get a little odd, really. But if you make that vow, I'm gonna be with you for the rest of my life. That takes courage to honor those vows. But it also takes courage to remain sexually pure when you're a single person. To avoid that temptation, to capitulate to the pressure of others and so forth. But where do we get this courage?

Well, now we're gonna find out. Because God wants to give you that courage as well. This particular phrase of Jesus, have courage, is used multiple times. He repeated this phrase in three different sets of circumstances. Number one, he said it to a man who was a paraplegic in Matthew 9. This man was carried to Jesus and laid before him. And Jesus looked at him and said, be of good courage. Your sins are forgiven. The guy probably thought, well that's nice my sins are forgiven, but I was kind of wanting to get up and walk again. And then they start debating, the religious leaders, who can forgive sins but God alone.

Jesus says, I hear what you're saying. Just so you know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, I say to this man, rise up and walk. And then he looked to that paraplegic and he said, have courage. Your sins are forgiven.

And the man got up and walked again. So his forgiveness brought courage. And sometimes we are crippled by our own sin. We've done something wrong. We've said something wrong. And we're paralyzed by it.

We feel we can never recover from it. And the devil is there exploiting the opportunity. The accuser of the brethren, as he's called in scripture, saying, you're not worthy to talk to God. You shouldn't read your Bible. You shouldn't pray. You shouldn't go to church.

You're a failure. And we have to not listen to that voice. The Bible says, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Listen, you might be disabled by your sin right now, but you've been forgiven by God and restored, so get up and walk.

Get up and walk forward. Don't live in the past. Jesus put himself between that man and his sin.

The second time Jesus uses this phrase, be of good courage, is with a woman who was struggling to reach him when there was a large crowd surrounding him. And she had a medical problem. She had spent all of her money on doctors. None of it had worked. And she reasoned in her mind, if I can touch the edge of his robe, I will be healed. And so she reaches through and touches it, and boom, she's healed right in that spot. Jesus stops and says, who touched me? It's like, everyone touched you, Jesus. What do you mean, who touched you?

He says, I perceive that power has gone out of me. So the crowd parts. There's that woman.

Hey. But Jesus didn't want to rebuke her. He wanted to commend her.

And then I love his words to her. He says, be of good courage, daughter. Your faith has made you well. So forgiveness brings courage, and power gives courage. Jesus gave her this power.

I perceive power has gone out of me. And the word used there for power is the same word used in Acts 1-8 when it says, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be witnesses for me and Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The power of the Holy Spirit. That's why it's a good thing when you get up in the morning to say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit, because that will give you the courage you need.

And we're promised in Acts 2-39, this promise of the Spirit's power is unto you, your children, all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call. Listen to this. God will give you what you need when you need it. You might know of someone who is suffering right now, and you think to yourself, man, if a doctor told me I had cancer. Or if I found out a loved one had died. Or if some other thing happened to me like that, I don't think I could handle it. Listen to this. God will give you what you need when you need it.

Not necessarily before, but never after. He will give you what you need. That courage comes from Him, and it will come to you as well. But you must say, Lord, fill me with your Spirit.

I need this courage. The third use of this phrase is something Jesus said to the disciples on the storm-tossed Galilee. They're out there, and a big storm comes, and they start freaking out, and they think they're going to die. And here comes Jesus walking to them on the water, and they think it's a ghost, the Bible says, which is kind of humorous to me. It's a ghost.

And it turns out it wasn't Casper. It was Christ. Coming to them in their hour of crisis.

And what does Jesus say? He says, be of good courage. He put himself between them and the thing that frightened them. A while ago, I was walking with my granddaughter, Allie, and there's this some guy that has a dog off the leash.

And this is a pretty aggressive dog. And he came at us barking, showing his teeth, and immediately I stepped in front of her and pushed her behind me, and I said to this guy in a very loving Christian way, put that dog on a leash right now. And so he did, and everything was okay.

But Allie was very scared. And then afterwards, she said, Papa, thank you for saving my life. Well, I don't think I saved your life, but you're welcome.

I just instinctively did what any normal parent would do, or grandparent. I put myself in the way of danger, if you will. But that's what Jesus is saying to us, that he puts himself in that place.

Don't have to be afraid. So, his forgiveness gives courage. His power gives courage. And finally, his presence gives courage. You see, God reminded Paul that he was not alone. Verse 11 again says, the Lord stood by him.

Even though the local Christians did not help him, the Lord had come to visit him. Later, in his last epistle, Paul wrote, everyone has abandoned me. Have you ever felt that way? As though everyone has abandoned you. You feel as though your family has abandoned you. Your friends have abandoned you. Even your dog has abandoned you. Your cat, even though you have one, was never with you. Cats abandon you the moment they come into your home. They disappear for two weeks, no explanation. Where have you been?

What are you doing? But I digress. But maybe you feel as though the Lord has abandoned you. Well, listen to this.

It's not true. God will never abandon us, and I'll tell you why. Because when Jesus hung on the cross, you remember he gave seven significant statements. And one of those statements was, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the moment that most scholars believe that the sin of the world was placed upon Jesus, and he was bearing it in our place.

So, in a sense, the Father turned his face away from Christ. But, listen, Jesus was forsaken so you might be forgiven. Jesus faced the brunt of that sin for you and became a substitute for every sin you and I have ever committed. And because of that, I will never be forsaken. I will never be abandoned by God. Jesus himself said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

So he's saying this to Paul, I am with you. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now in a hospital room. I called a young man the other day at his sister's request. He said, would you call my brother? He's in the hospital. His vital organs are failing.

We don't even know if he'll make it. And he needs to get right with the Lord. I'm pretty reluctant to call people when someone else requests it because I've done it in the past. And they'll answer, and I'll say, hi, I'm Pastor Greg, and I wanted to talk to you.

And they're like, well, I didn't want you to talk to me. Oh, okay. But in this case, the young man was happy to talk to me, and we discussed his situation a little bit. And he said, I feel like God has abandoned me.

I said, well, he hasn't. He's with you in that room right now. And you need to commit your life to Jesus Christ, and he did that. I said, call your sister and tell her what you did.

So she texted my wife a little bit later and said, my brother just called me. And he said, he feels Jesus is with him. He's been forgiven of his sins. And that's what the Lord can do in a hospital room. He can come and change your heart. So if you're in a hospital room or you're in a jail or you're in a prison, better to be in a prison with Jesus than anywhere else without him.

Right? Better to be in a storm with Jesus than anywhere else without him. Isaiah 43 says, when you go through deep waters and great trouble, God speaking, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up, and the flames will not consume you. I talked to a lady before our last service, and she's one of the volunteers that helps here at our church. And she told me about her cousin. She said, he's in prison right now, and he watches you all the time online. And I said, well, let's make a video for him. And so she filmed me, and I just said, hey, I want you to know that Jesus is with you right where you are. And I pray that when you get out of prison that you will honor and serve the Lord and find his plan for your life.

And it's just great to know that God can bring that hope. Sitting in our congregation right now is my friend Michael Franzese. And Michael, of course, many of you know, was once a member of the Colombo crime family. He was ultimately going to probably become the Don of the Family, the Godfather. And because he wouldn't rat anybody out, they sent him to prison. And there in prison, in solitary confinement, Michael came to put his faith in Jesus Christ. And a guard gave him a Bible, and he started reading it. And then later, when he got out, I had never heard of him before. Someone said, there's some guy who says he was in the mafia and was in prison, and he wants to talk to you.

I'm immediately concerned. I said, did he use the phrase whack at any point or sleeping with fishes? Because I've heard these things in movies. No, he's a Christian, and he wants to meet you. I think, Christian, you were never in the mafia.

Give me a break. I think this guy's making it up. So I meet him, and he's the real deal. And if you Google his name, you'll realize everything he tells you in his story is true.

But God transformed him. But he was with him in the darkest of places. And wherever you are right now, the Lord is with you if you put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Great to know. When the Bible says the Lord stood by him, it was a reminder to Paul that, buddy, I know where you are, okay? I haven't forgotten about you. I haven't abandoned you.

I'm standing beside you right now. Sometimes we lose things. I lose things all the time.

It's ridiculous. I have this little thing called an AirTag. You know what that is?

Made by Apple. So I put it in my wallet. I misplaced my wallet.

Where is it? So I go to find my whatever, whatever you put it in, find my wallet, and it beeps. It's like one foot from me under my backpack. Oh, brother, okay.

So you feel like an idiot. God is tech, if you will, that's far more sophisticated than that. He knows where you are at all times. The psalmist said if I go to the depths of hell, you're there. If I go to the heights of heaven, you're there. Where can I flee from your presence? The fact is you should never want to flee from God's presence. You should rejoice that his presence is always with you, that he is there with you as well. And so the Lord comes to Paul, and he gives him the comfort he needs. Here's the thing. Paul did not know what was going on outside.

As it turns out, there were 40 men who had taken an oath to not eat or drink until they killed Paul. You know, sometimes ignorance is bliss. You know, I don't know what plots the devil, his hats that might involve me or you. All I know is greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world, right? I'm glad I don't know everything that everyone has ever said about me that doesn't agree with me or has some issue or whatever it might be. I don't know all these things. The Lord does.

Paul didn't know. But God gives us information when we need the information. You know, the military has a term on a need-to-know basis.

So, maybe it's above your pay grade, so to speak, and you don't know all the intricacies of a particular battle plan, for instance, but they will tell who needs to know. And God gives us what we need to know on a need-to-know basis. But here's another thing that I love about this. God still had a future for Paul.

It wasn't over. Again, verse 11. Be of good cheer, Paul, as you've testified for me in Jerusalem, you must also bear witness at Rome. So the Lord's saying, I know where you are, and I have plans for you, and I have a future for you. Now, let's be honest. What was that future?

Well, he went to Rome, he appeared before Caesar, and ultimately was beheaded according to church tradition. Not a very bright future. How does that work out? I think sometimes we think everything's gonna work out perfectly and we'll tie a nice little bow on it and we'll say, and they lived happily ever after. But the reality is, life doesn't work that way, does it? Here's my objective. My objective is to be faithful to what God has called me to do. My life has been given to me by God. Your life has been given to you by God. My objective, your objective, our objective is to find the will of God and walk in it and be faithful. Because one day when I stand before Jesus, he will not say, well done, good and successful servant. He will say, well done, good and what?

Faithful servant. I suggest to you there are some things that we would call a success today that may be looked back on later as a failure. I also suggest to you there are some things you might think is a failure today that will be looked upon as a success later.

But we don't know until a little time passes. But we need to focus on what God has set before us and we should not put a period where God has put a comma. There was a future for Paul. And there is a future for you. One of my favorite verses, I quote it so often, I'm slightly obsessed with it, is Jeremiah 29 and 11. Where the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. I like that verse so much that when I gave my son Christopher a watch for his 21st birthday that I don't, I inscribed that or had it inscribed on the back of the watch. You probably know that my son tragically went to be with the Lord 14 years ago. We just celebrated what would have been his 47th birthday. They gave me a little plastic bag after he died and then it was his wallet, his keys, and his watch.

I took the watch out and I held it in my hand and I flipped it over and I saw that inscription. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. I thought, where's the future for him? Where's the future for me? Then I just had to remind myself that it's not all about our life on earth. Our ultimate future is in heaven. That is where it all comes together, you see. The Christian is in a win-win situation because to live is Christ, Paul says, and to die is gain.

That's the ultimate future. I just want you to know God has a plan for you and your future as well. Be courageous.

Let's review. Number two, Paul realized he was not alone. Number two, God knew where Paul was and he was there with him.

Number three, God had a future for Paul and God has a future for you and he has a future for me. So don't be filled with fear, worry, and anxiety. Be of good courage. Be of good cheer.

God is with you, promising you a certain future. When I think of courage, I can't think of a greater example of it than Jesus Christ himself. He had moral courage when he stood up for what was right and true.

He never for a moment compromised his Father's word. He displayed raw physical courage when he went to the cross and endured the beating, endured the scourging, endured the crucifixion, and died there in our place. He withstood the withering criticisms, the harsh treatment, the beating. He courageously bore all the sin of the world for us. So he is our example as the one to follow because Hebrews 12 says, Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and now was set down on the right hand of God. And then it goes on to say, Consider him that endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Consider him. Remember Jesus. You're weary. You're discouraged.

You're afraid. Remember Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. You don't have to go through life afraid, worried, filled with anxiety. Jesus says, Be of good courage and don't be afraid. See, the key is you want Jesus to come into your life. That's where this courage comes from. I just flew in from Alabama, and boy are my arms tired.

Okay, that's a drum and a cymbal, by the way. And then I had to buy a ticket, and then I had to go through security, and then I had to take this seat that was assigned to me and fly to my destination, which is California. God has a destination for you.

It's called heaven. He's prepared a place for you, but you need your ticket. You say, Okay, how much does it cost?

You couldn't afford it. Good news, it's already been paid for. Jesus paid for your ticket, if you will, when he died on the cross and shed his own blood. But you have to get the ticket. Now in this case, I have it on my phone, you know, it wasn't a paper ticket, it was there, and I take the QR code and they scan it, and I get on the plane.

So it's there. It's a gift from heaven for you, but you need to take it as your own and ask Christ to come into your life. And I think I'm talking to somebody right now that is very afraid of their future, and they're very down, and they're very discouraged, and they feel abandoned. But I want you to know that can all change literally in a moment.

It can change in an instant, no matter how young you are or how old you are. Just the other day, our pastor told me that we did a service for a lady that was in her late 90s. And this lady came to our church and committed her life to Christ in her early 90s.

That's just amazing. Because when you're that old, you're pretty set in your ways, okay? But God got hold of her and now she's in heaven, and so you might be in your 90s, you might be nine. Wherever you are in life, you need Jesus, and He's here for you, and He's ready to come into your life. So I would like to close with a prayer and give you an opportunity to ask Christ to come into your life so you don't have to be filled with fear.

You don't have to be filled with anxiety. You can enter into this relationship with a God who loves you and has a plan and a purpose for your life. He's just a prayer away. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. You have to call out to Jesus and ask for His help. Ask for His forgiveness.

Take that lifeline, if you will, that's been dropped from heaven and say, Lord, I believe in you and I accept your forgiveness and I turn from my sin. If you want to do that, you can do it right now as we pray together. Let's all bow our heads and pray, Father, I pray that you will speak to every person here, every person that is listening or watching, wherever they may be.

If they don't know you yet, help them to come to you right here, right now. Pray this prayer after me. If you want to go to heaven one day, if you want your sin forgiven, if you want a second chance in life, pray this prayer with me now, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.