A Disciple is Courageous

Review:

1. To be a disciple is to be a learner, one who follows a teacher

2. God can use your yesterdays to uniquely equip you to follow him today.

3. Part of being a disciple is to struggle to overcome our problems and weaknesses with God’s help.

Preview: The ten characteristics of a disciple in 2 Timothy:

A disciple is…

1. courageous 5. set apart 8. hopeful

2. disciplined 6. exemplary 9. vulnerable

3. durable 7. biblical 10. dependent on God

4. pure

There are four things that I want to tell you about Christianity and courage:

1. the need for courage

2. the basis of courage

3. the development of courage

4. the examples of courage

1. The Need for Courage:

2 Timothy 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel

A Sunday School teacher once asked her class of third graders to name their favorite Bible story. A little boy named Johnny spoke up and said “I like the one where everybody loafs and fishes.” That seems to be the picture that many people have of the Christian life. Everybody loafs and fishes. But it isn’t so. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an easy life.

The Gospel brings us face to face with two things that are utterly at odds with our culture’s value system. These two things are shame and suffering. If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are going to have to become acquainted with shame and suffering.

People in our culture avoid shame and suffering like the plague. Shame and suffering mark you out as a loser. This aversion to shame and suffering has actually affected the way some Christians preach the gospel. Nowadays, many preach a gospel of popularity and prosperity, a gospel of pride and profit. “Come to Jesus and you’ll be hip” They glory in the testimonies of celebrities from the entertainment world or the sports world, because they think that somehow you can be a celebrity in the eyes of the world and also be a disciple of Jesus Christ at the same time. They want the best of both worlds. This comes in many forms. Let me show you a catalog for “Christian sportswear” that came across my desk a little while ago.

read Dunamis catalog.

Some churches present the gospel as an all-American get-rich-quick religion. Many Christians look with admiration and envy at Christian entrepreneurs such as Mary Kaye and the Amway crowd as the perfect blend of financial success and spirituality.

read Stock Market ad.

But when you read what Paul says about shame and suffering and the Christian life here in 2 Timothy, you’re reminded of the words of Winston Churchill, who on May 13, 1940 told the British Parliament “I have nothing to offer but blood, toils, tears, and sweat.”

If you are going to truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are going to be tempted to be ashamed of him, and tempted to be afraid to suffer for him.

Jesus said in John 15

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

Samuel Rutherford was a great Scottish theologian of the 17th century. He wrote the Westminster Shorter Catechism. He was a man who was condemned as a traitor by King Charles II for refusing to acknowledge the divine right of kings. Rutherford knew all about shame and suffering as a disciple. He said about being a Christian…

“If we were not strangers here, the hounds of the world would not bark at us.”

The great need of this day is for Christians who are courageous. People who will swim upstream against the flow of a culture that is obsessed with pride and profit. Disciples of Jesus Christ who will stand up and not be afraid to testify for the Lord Jesus, whatever the cost.

So the number one item in the disciple’s survival kit is courage. But the next question is “How do we get it? Where does it come from?”

2. The Basis for Courage

Look again at verses 8-11 in 2 Timothy 1…

2 Timothy 1:8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.

Our courage as disciples of Christ comes from two things:

1. the power of God

2. the purpose of God

God gives you the power to stand for Him when your backbone is weak and your knees are like Jell-O. God has given us the power to testify for Him.

I ran across an extraordinary story this week. It is the story of a man named Bruce Olson. Bruce Olson is a missionary to the Indians of northern Colombia. He has worked there for 28 years. On Oct.24, 1988, Olson was kidnapped by two dozen armed guerrillas of the Communist Union of the National Liberation Army. He was accused of being a CIA agent and having been responsible for the deaths of thousands of natives.

Olson was shunted from base to base in the Colombian jungle. In each place, Olson won the trust of the rebel soldiers. He taught them to read. He began Bible studies with them. He introduced them to Jesus Christ. When his effects on the soldiers became known to the leaders of the camp, he was quickly moved to another camp, where he simply started the process all over again. Olson conducted Bible studies with over 200 guerrilla soldiers and saw about 60% of them come to faith in Jesus Christ.

During his captivity, Olson became very ill and began hemorrhaging internally. The soldiers begged their superiors to release him, but permission was denied. Instead, the soldiers gave their own blood to him for transfusions.

The Communist leadership repeatedly pressured Bruce Olson to confess to being a CIA spy and a murderer. Finally, when he refused, he was ordered to be executed. He was tied to a tree. Before him stood 15 guerrillas who formed the firing squad. Many of them were dear friends of his who he had led to Christ. But they had no choice but to follow their officers’ orders, so with tears streaming down their faces, they fired. Unknown to them, their officers had loaded the guns with blanks, in the hopes that they could terrify Bruce Olson into a last minute confession.

Soon after, the leaders decided to release him. When they did, one of the officers told him “We will never forget you. You are the first person in our camp that we have captured that has been a friend and understood us. We esteem you.”

Bruce Oson, in recounting his harrowing story, said that he did a lot of praying when he was in captivity. But his prayer was not “Lord liberate me.” it was “Lord, make me effective for you where you have placed me.”

That is courage that comes from the power of God.

Our courage as disciples also comes from knowing the purpose of God which is described in these verses. As Paul describes the salvation that God has accomplished for us, it is evident that our salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. And that gives us reason to be courageous. If our salvation were based in part on us - on our doing a certain amount of good works, or going through certain rituals - then we wouldn’t be able to have confidence in it. We wouldn’t be able to be courageous. A gospel that is based in any way on human works can only breed fear and insecurity.

The courage that we need as disciples comes from the power of God and from the purpose of God. But how do we develop this courage in our lives? How can it grow?

3. The Development of Courage.

Courage grows as we do two things:

1. as we get to know Jesus better

2. as we keep sound doctrine

Look at verse

2 Timothy 1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.

Paul was not ashamed because he was assured. He knew who it was he trusted. Paul was confident of God’s character because he had come to know him.

Over the last few months we have been hearing about the woes of the savings and loan industry. There has been mismanagement and outright embezzlement going on in the highest levels of leadership. The result has been that many people have pulled their deposits out of these financial institutions. In spite of the fact that the government has stepped in to stem the crisis, people have lost confidence. So their not willing to venture their trust and their savings.

Paul says in verse 12 “I trust God so much that I have invested the most precious thing I have in Him - my very life. And I am confident that He will guard that deposit for me.”

And look at verse

2 Timothy 1:13-14 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Paul is telling Timothy here to be a man of the Word. Keep sound doctrine. Guard the gospel - that is the good deposit that was entrusted to him.

A disciple must be a man or a woman of the Word. We must dwell in the Word. If you are not in the Word on a regular, consistent basis, then you won’t be able to stand with courage as a disciple. You’ll be about as strong as a beach condo in a hurricane. You may look good on the outside when the sun’s shining, but when the storms of life begin to blow, if you are not in the Word, you’ll come to pieces.

4. The Examples of Courage:

2 men who lacked courage; 1 man who had it.

2 Timothy 1:15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.

2 Timothy 1:16-18 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

1. The need for courage

2. The basis for courage: the power of God; the purpose of God

3. The development of courage: know Jesus; dwell in the Word

4. The examples of courage: Phygelus and Hermogenes - negative

Onesiphorus - courage