3 Lessons in Courage From the Apostles

 

The Bible is filled with stories of courage and faith. What lessons can we learn from the apostles to help us grow in the courage we need today?

Many of the best-known stories of courage are found in the Old Testament of the Bible.

Joshua followed God’s admonition to “be strong and of good courage” as he led the Israelites into the land they were promised (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9).

David, as a youth, overcame Goliath (1 Samuel 17). As young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s idol (Daniel 3). And when still a young woman, Esther risked her life to save her people (Esther 4:16).

Hebrews 11 documents the stories of many of these faithful people.

These stories of faithful people in the Old Testament remain as timeless examples for us today (2 Timothy 3:16). But are there similar Christian stories of courage and faith in the New Testament?

The simple answer is yes! There are also accounts of people in the New Testament displaying great courage under the most difficult circumstances.

One of the most extensively documented and insightful stories of courage in this section of Scripture is that of the apostles—the men personally selected by Jesus for training during His earthly ministry.

The apostles’ initial lack of courage

During the 3½ years the apostles spent with Jesus, their courage was somewhat of a mixed bag.

They had the courage to leave their careers and follow Jesus in order to become “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). And Peter had the courage and faith to walk on water toward Jesus—at least for a short while (Matthew 14:25-31)!

As tensions between the religious leaders and Jesus intensified just prior to our Savior’s crucifixion, Peter vehemently said, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And the other disciples made similar statements (Matthew 26:35).

It sounded good. They all wanted to be courageous. The only problem was, when Jesus was taken into custody, they weren’t courageous.

Peter tried to stop the proceedings by pulling out his sword and taking a swing at the high priest’s servant, cutting off his ear (Matthew 26:51). But when Jesus told Peter to put his sword away so He could be arrested in order to fulfill Scripture, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled” (verse 56). Some later did follow to see what would happen to Him (John 18:15-16; Matthew 27:55-56).

Not knowing what to do under these circumstances, the apostles allowed their fears to prevail.

The apostles were strengthened by the Holy Spirit

After Christ’s death and resurrection, He told His disciples to go to Jerusalem and remain there until they were “endued [clothed, English Standard Version] with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

Just a few days later, when Jesus’ followers assembled in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, they received this promised gift—the Holy Spirit of God, which is a spirit of power (Acts 2:4; 2 Timothy 1:7).

The Holy Spirit came with physical evidence: a sound like a “rushing mighty wind” and “divided tongues, as of fire” that rested on each of them (Acts 2:2-3). Furthermore, they miraculously spoke in other languages (verse 4).

From this time forward, the power of God continued to be demonstrated as “many wonders and signs were done through the apostles” (verse 43).

Peter and John arrested

One of the miracles that the apostles were now empowered to perform was the healing of people who were sick or infirm.

Shortly after that momentous Day of Pentecost, Peter and John went to the temple. As they entered, Peter healed a man who had been lame from birth (Acts 3:1-10).

Instead of rejoicing and praising God that such an amazing miracle had occurred, the religious authorities became angry that Peter was publicly giving credit to Jesus for this supernatural event. They became so angry that they arrested Peter and John and “put them in custody until the next day” (Acts 4:3).

The courage of these apostles to face the same religious authorities who had just recently orchestrated Jesus’ death was now going to be tested.

This time they had God’s Spirit in them to help them face the vitriolic efforts of the Jewish leaders to put an end to their ministry.

Courage to face the Jewish religious authorities

The next day, when Peter and John were brought before an assembly of the most distinguished Jewish authorities, they were asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (verse 7).

Fellowship with brethren was an important foundation of early Christianity, and spending time with those who share our faith remains a powerful means of nurturing spiritual courage today.Instead of being intimidated, “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.” Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’” (verses 8-12).

The text doesn’t explain what John said or did, but we are told that the Jewish authorities marveled at “the boldness of Peter and John” (verse 13).

Realizing that they couldn’t deny that a miracle had occurred, the Jewish authorities decided to “severely threaten them” and command them “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (verses 17-18).

Peter and John’s courageous response was: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (verses 19-20).

3 keys for building and maintaining spiritual courage

After their encounter with the religious authorities, Peter and John were let go. What they did next further bolstered their courage to continue their ministry.

Acts 4:23-31 documents three key activities of the apostles that can likewise give us spiritual courage.

1: They met with fellow believers.

After Peter and John were released, “they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them” (verse 23).

Sharing what had occurred with the other apostles—people who shared the same commitment to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God—was surely encouraging to Peter and John.

It must have been uplifting to the other disciples as well to hear how the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit healed the lame man and how God had guided the events so the Jewish leaders were stymied in their efforts to stop the blossoming ministry of the apostles.

Fellowship with brethren was an important foundation of early Christianity, and spending time with those who share our faith remains a powerful means of nurturing spiritual courage today (Acts 2:42; Philippians 1:5).

2: They prayed for courage.

After hearing Peter and John’s report, the apostles prayed to God (Acts 4:24). In their prayer they recalled that David had prophesied that rulers would gather together “against the LORD and against His Christ” (Psalm 2:2) and noted that this had indeed occurred (Acts 4:27-28).

They then prayed, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus” (verses 29-30, emphasis added throughout).

In addition to asking for courage to boldly speak God’s word, they also asked that they might continue to do miracles in Jesus’ name.

3: They focused on the future.

It is important for us to notice another component of their prayer: they asked for help to fulfill the commission Jesus had given them to preach the gospel to all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). They were not trying to get out of their commitment; they were focused on the future!

Perhaps this teaching of Jesus was etched deeply into their minds: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

After their prayer, we read that “the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

These three key activities bolstered the apostles’ spiritual courage, and they remain powerful lessons for us today.

Faith and Faithfulness in the Bible

 

The Old Testament is filled with stories of faith, but the word is scarcely found. Instead, faithfulness is stressed. Can we learn anything from this nuance?

Some have wondered why the word faith occurs so rarely in the Old Testament.

In a few versions of the Bible, including the King James Version and New King James Version, the word appears in two passages, Deuteronomy 32:20 and Habakkuk 2:4. However, the two Hebrew words translated faith in these passages are from the same root word, and they are often translated as “faithful” or “faithfulness” in other passages.

It might seem strange that the word faith is so scarce in the Old Testament. Surprisingly, we never see the word in the account of Abraham, the father of the faithful—and his story covers 15 chapters in Genesis.

The New Testament writers, on the other hand, used a Greek word for faith hundreds of times. They all viewed the Old Testament as Holy Scripture. So, what are we to make of this disparity? And can we, then, come to a better understanding of the New Testament concept of faith by considering the Old Testament focus on faithfulness?

Faith, faithfulness and covenants in the Old Testament

Although the word faith rarely appears in many translations of the Old Testament, the concept is everywhere. Noah acted in faith when he built the ark. When called on to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham obeyed, acting in faith. Moses acted in faith while leading the Israelites out of Egypt. And Hannah acted in faith when she gave up her son Samuel to fulfill her vow to the Lord.

Furthermore, Abraham, Moses and David were all described as faithful men. And Hebrews 11 documents a long list of people in the Old Testament who had faith.

Clearly, the concept of faith fills the pages of the Old Testament, even though the exact word does not.

To see the emphasis on faithfulness in action, consider the nature of God’s relationship with His people in the Old Testament, particularly with the nation of Israel. The Bible describes these relationships in terms of God’s covenants.

Simply put, a covenant is an agreement. It is comparable to what we might call a contract today. God entered into a formal covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:4-6). For most of us, when we think of a covenant in the Old Testament, it is this one that first comes to mind.

But this is not the only covenant God made. He also entered into covenants with Noah (Genesis 6:17-19) and Abraham (Genesis 15:1, 18; 17:1-22). He was already in a covenant relationship with Israel, the descendants of the patriarchs, before the Mount Sinai covenant (Exodus 6:3-5).

God’s covenants can help us see the connection between faith and faithfulness in action. As explained in Zondervan’s Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, “The focus of God’s faithful dealing with His people and their response to Him is in the covenant relationship which He established with them.”

The faithfulness of God

The word covenant appears in the Old Testament more than 280 times. Some of those instances are agreements between human beings, such as the one Abraham entered with Abimelech, the king of the Philistines (Genesis 21:22-34), or the one Jacob made with his father-in-law, Laban (Genesis 31:43-55).

Many of the covenants, however, are between God and humans. In all of those cases, God makes promises. In His first covenant with Noah, God promised to keep Noah and his family, as well as two of every animal kind, alive during the coming global flood (Genesis 6:17-19). When God promised to multiply Abraham’s descendants and make him the “father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4), He did so in a covenant.

Scripture demonstrates that God is true to His word. We read that “God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24) just before He appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3).

It is the word faithful that describes God keeping His covenant promises: “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Faithfulness and faithlessness in Israel

God’s faithfulness is only one side of His covenants. Most of them also required something of God’s people. At Mount Sinai, for example, God’s promise to make Israel “a special treasure to Me above all people” depended upon Israel obeying Him (Exodus 19:5).

The Father loves us, and for that reason, we should not worry, nor should we be afraid.Unfortunately, when we read through the history of Israel, we see a cycle that begins with Israel’s faithlessness, followed by withdrawal of God’s blessing and protection, and ending in cries for deliverance. Once delivered, Israel quickly forgot God, setting itself up to repeat the cycle. This pattern is especially evident in the book of Judges.

The Bible pictures this faithlessness toward God as harlotry (Judges 2:16-18) or adultery (Jeremiah 3:8-10). The metaphor is an apt one because adultery is an illicit relationship by which an individual is unfaithful to a spouse, just as Israel was unfaithful in its covenant relationship with God.

This metaphor is the central message in one entire book of prophecy. God commanded Hosea to “take yourself a wife of harlotry” (Hosea 1:2). Gomer, Hosea’s wife, pictured faithless Israel, while Hosea pictured God. Marriage is a covenant relationship, so the imagery perfectly fits the faithlessness of God’s people.

A New Covenant

The faithlessness of ancient Israel proved God’s point that they did not have “such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:29). So He revealed the next stage in His plan. God used Jeremiah to declare His intent to enter into a New Covenant with His people:

“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33; see our online article “The New Covenant: What Is New About It?”).

The book of Hebrews cites this passage (Hebrews 8:8-10), first explaining that God replaced the Old Covenant with Israel and Judah after “finding fault with them” (verse 8). The fault was not with the agreement or God’s laws, but with them.

The New Covenant is “a better covenant” because it “was established on better promises” (verse 6), including the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit to make a new heart possible.

What is New Testament faith?

Now that we have considered faithfulness in the context of covenants with God, we can see a connection to faith as it is pictured in the New Testament.

Contrary to what some individuals think, faith is more than belief in Jesus. The Greek word includes the concept of trust, and that aspect is obvious in Christ’s teachings when He used the expression, “O you of little faith.”

What James was saying is that faith is built on faithfulness.In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used these words as He taught the crowds not to worry, but to trust in the Creator God (Matthew 6:28-30). Jesus used the same expression after He had calmed the storm-tossed sea that so frightened His disciples (Matthew 8:23-27), and again when Peter began to sink into the sea after walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33).

In each of these cases, faith in God is more akin to trust. The Father loves us, and for that reason, we should not worry, nor should we be afraid.

Faith and the New Covenant

We have a loving Father, and He offers us a New Covenant. Are we without responsibilities in this covenant, as so many professing Christians believe today? Of course not! In fact, our faith in God is an outgrowth of how we approach our covenant relationship with Him.

Let’s take a look at a familiar example in a nonreligious setting—taking out a loan to purchase a home. If you make your payments consistently, then the idea is that you can have faith that the lender will not foreclose. (Of course, trust in human institutions is eroding, but that’s the way it’s supposed to work.) On the other hand, if you fail to make the payments in a timely fashion, you cannot have that same faith.

The same is true in our covenant relationship with God. Our obedience matters. Christ told His followers in the Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

In discussing how faith and works intertwine, the apostle James wrote about this very idea: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).

What James was saying is that faith is built on faithfulness. First, we come to recognize and appreciate the faithfulness of God. He has proven Himself throughout the pages of Scripture and (for the mature Christian) in life’s experiences.

And second, we strive to live according to God’s will, faithfully keeping our part of the covenant with Him. These “works,” as James called them, give us confidence. We would not be performing those works if we had no faith, so those works demonstrate our faith. More than that, they also demonstrate our faithfulness.

What we see is that faith—true faith—cannot exist apart from faithfulness. And faithfulness—the faithfulness of God as well as our faithfulness to Him—is the ground of our faith.

You can study this further in our online article “Is the Fruit of the Spirit Faith or Faithfulness?”

How Could Jeremiah Declare, “Great Is Your Faithfulness”?

 

Lamentations is filled with images of destruction, loss and grief. Strangely, in the middle of this sobering book, the writer asserts that God is faithful.

It was a time of incomparable grief and confusion. How could anyone declare that God was faithful when He had not delivered His people from the invading enemy?

The handful of Jews who remained in the land had seen personal property confiscated or destroyed, and they had lost friends and family to famine, disease and warfare. They had lost their country. Their beloved capital city Jerusalem was destroyed, and God’s temple lay desolate.

Yet, in the middle of Lamentations, a book of national mourning written shortly after this destruction, a remarkable passage asserts God’s faithfulness. To understand how anyone could have such hope, we must first look more closely at the events that led up to this moment.

From faithfulness to destruction

In 609 B.C., a little more than two decades earlier, Judah’s last righteous king died. According to the biblical account, Josiah’s death came at the hands of Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 23:28-29). Though righteous, the Judean king foolishly opposed the Egyptian army, which was on its way north to help the remnants of the Assyrian army make their last stand against Babylonian forces at Carchemish.

At this time, the tiny kingdom of Judah was caught between the superpowers of the time—Egypt to the south, and the rising Babylonian threat to the north. The four kings of Judah who followed Josiah became enmeshed in power politics, neglecting the only real security they had, the Almighty God! Rather than listen to God’s warnings, as issued through His prophet Jeremiah, these kings tried to play the major powers against each other.

Jeremiah, who was quite young when he was called to be a prophet during Josiah’s reign (Jeremiah 1:2-6), continued in his role through the tumultuous decades leading to the destruction of the nation. Warning after warning went unheeded. The result was catastrophic, but the prophet survived, witnessing the very destruction he had prophesied.

As God’s prophet who dealt directly with the last kings of Judah, Jeremiah was in a unique position to see what had happened to the nation and to understand why. He may well be the author of Lamentations, though the book itself does not indicate who wrote it.

Lamentations as poetry

Now that we have considered the events that led to this calamity, we should look at the book of Lamentations itself. It is a book of mourning, but it is also a book of poetry. Hebrew poetry has some characteristics that can help us recognize the author’s intent.

Regardless of what befalls an individual, he or she must remember that God is faithful. He acts in judgment, but He also extends grace and mercy to the humble and obedient (Isaiah 66:2).The most striking feature is that the first four chapters are acrostic (each verse begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet). Explaining why the author may have chosen this technique, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible notes, “By proceeding from aleph to taw the author achieved an emotional catharsis, a complete statement of grief” (Vol. 3, p. 863). (Aleph and taw are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.)

Another factor is the imagery of the book, which is quite dramatic. For instance, the writer personifies Jerusalem as a widow (Lamentations 1:1), or as a woman spreading her hands in unanswered prayer (verse 17; Zion is another name for the city, based on its geography).

And there are many shocking descriptions of the horrors the survivors had experienced, or at least witnessed. During the siege of the city, children begged for food (Lamentations 4:4), but even worse, mothers “cooked their own children” (verse 10).

What is more significant poetically is the chiastic (inverted parallel) structure of the book. Hebrew poetry often pairs components of a poem in this way. The first and last parts are paired, as are the second and next-to-last items, the third and third-from-last, and so on. The idea is to make the reader work toward the most important element, which is in the center of the structure.

Many scholars see the book as having this type of structure. Though there is no universal agreement on the specifics of that structure, we can see that when the author of Lamentations boldly declares, “Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23), the placement of this thought is no accident. It comes close to the center of the book, emphasizing the concept.

God’s faithfulness to His word

Lamentations is not only an expression of grief, but also an acknowledgment of the cause of all Judah’s suffering. The people had rebelled against God (Lamentations 1:18). They refused to heed the warnings God sent through Jeremiah, so God “afflicted” the nation (verse 5) for its sins (verse 8). The book does not blame the Babylonians for destroying the temple. It recognizes God as the One who did “violence to His tabernacle” (Lamentations 2:6).

The book’s author concludes that none of what happened was due to capricious anger. He very clearly states, “The LORD has done what He purposed; He has fulfilled His word which He commanded in days of old” (verse 17). This is an important thought leading up to the declaration “Great is Your faithfulness” in the next chapter.

We humans tend to think of God’s faithfulness only in terms of blessings He has promised. But God has also promised punishment for those who disobey, and He is true to His word, whether blessing or warning. More than a century before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, Isaiah wrote, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Unfortunately, God’s faithful children can get caught in events around them because they live or work among the disobedient. They may suffer when they have done nothing to deserve such punishment. Jeremiah certainly suffered, yet he remained faithful to God.

Response of the faithful

Chapter 3 moves away from national mourning to personal mourning. The first part is a catalog of ways in which the author feels abandoned by God. The writer feels “surrounded . . . with bitterness and woe” (verse 5) and claims that God ignores his prayers (verse 8). He has even come to the point at which hope fails (verse 18).

Then, almost as though willing himself to remember, the author sets the stage for his profound declaration, saying, “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope” (verse 21). After reading more than two chapters of grievances, the reader is stunned by this statement. How could someone cling to hope so tenaciously?

He does so by remembering the past and looking beyond the present. He does so by remembering the character of the God he has worshipped all his life. He remembers that he has personally survived the catastrophe because of the “LORD’s mercies” (verse 22), and he once again asserts that “the LORD is my portion” (verse 24).

It is in the midst of these two verses that the writer gives us what is most important to remember—words addressed to God in a moment of humble acceptance: “Great is Your faithfulness” (verse 23). Regardless of what befalls an individual, he or she must remember that God is faithful. He acts in judgment, but He also extends grace and mercy to the humble and obedient (Isaiah 66:2).

Is God faithful today?

The writer of Lamentations set a wonderful example of faith in the midst of great trial. He did not blame God for the troubles of the nation, though it seemed that God had abandoned him personally (Lamentations 3:1-20).

We, too, might question why God has seemingly abandoned us. When we feel that way, we can pray to God directly about it. He wants us to communicate our deepest thoughts and feelings to Him. But, like the writer of Lamentations, we have to remember God’s past faithfulness (verse 21).

Lamentations actually provides some practical advice for anyone in this situation. First, we must be patient. We must be willing to “wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD” (verse 26). In fact, we are told three times in three verses (verses 25-27) that waiting is good.

The next three verses describe the second step—adopting an attitude of humility before God. Recognizing that “God has laid it on him” (verse 28), the writer prostrates himself in total submission, putting “his mouth in the dust” (verse 29). He is willing to accept whatever comes his way (verse 30).

The third step is understanding that “the Lord will not cast off forever” (verse 31). When we face setback, loss, grief and anguish, we should will ourselves to remember God’s faithfulness. We should wait on God. We should humble ourselves in reverent submission. And we should understand that God will not ignore our plight.

These are important thoughts at all times, but especially as our world draws closer to the end of the age. We might find ourselves watching the inevitable collapse of a sinful world, just as Jeremiah watched the inevitable collapse of a sinful nation. And that is the very time to declare to God, “Great is Your faithfulness!”

For further study, see our articles “God’s Promises: Rock-Solid Hope and Assurance” and “How to Grow in Faith.”