Madison Church
Madison Church
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage: What Happens When the Spirit Moves
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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Welcome to Madison Church Online. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor. We all have moments when speaking up feels risky. For some of us, a lot of risk saying anything. For others of us, we might need to tighten our filter up because we're just always talking. But there are conversations we all want to avoid. There's truths that we withhold. There's many moments that we stay silent when we shouldn't. Now it's not because, in the case of faith, it's not because we don't believe. A lot of times it's because it's scary or frightening, it means awkwardness. We want to follow Jesus, but not if it means awkwardness, rejection or being misunderstood. And that's why the part of Acts we're reading out of today Acts, chapter 3, is so important. It shows us what happens when ordinary people people like you and me watching, you're listening online ordinary, everyday people are filled with the Holy Spirit and find themselves in situations where there's real-life pressure, real-life pressure. So we are in week two of our series Activated and we're tracing how the Holy Spirit moves through us, through people like the disciples, but the early church and us.
Speaker 1:Today and so far in Acts we've studied Jesus' call. He said to wait for the coming of the Spirit, which is what we talked about a couple weeks ago, and it would birth this new kind of community, a faith community, a church that was devoted, that was vibrant, full of wonder and growth. But now the story is starting to shift in Acts, chapter 3. It's going to take us into a tension that the Spirit has come. The church is growing, but so is the resistance. So is the resistance. The culture doesn't applaud what they are doing. The culture pushes back, and this is where the Spirit's work gets real, because being activated by God isn't just about power and it's not just about community. It's about courage, not just in safety, but courage in resistance. So today we're going to see what that looked like in the lives of Peter and John, and I want you to ask what would it look like in your life? So here's the big idea that will guide us today the Spirit gives us courage to speak, not just in safety, but in resistance, so that Jesus can be known through ordinary acts of faith. What does courage actually look like? So if I were to ask you to define it, I bet there's going to be several different definitions in the room. We're going to find our first answer not in a moment of spotlight, but in an ordinary prayer walk.
Speaker 1:Peter and John are just going out about their day. It's three o'clock, which means it's the set time of prayer for Jewish people, and they were heading 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 his life. Every day friends laid him at the entrance of the temple to beg. This would have been his only way of surviving. There were no social services or programs to help. So he does have some good friends who are putting him in a position where, hey, better than nothing.
Speaker 1:He wasn't a stranger there at the temple. People would have expected to see him. But as it happens, when you see so many people all the time, you kind of stop seeing them, don't you? They've just kind of become part of the background. You just expect them to be there. And you stop at some point seeing an actual human and you just see something, someone easy to ignore, someone to step around because he's in your way. Maybe that day you're feeling generous and you give him a couple coins so he can buy something to eat, but he is definitely not someone to see. And then that's when we read in verse 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 of Nazareth. Walk, and taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk, and the man praises God. He walked straight into the temple, a space he had been excluded from his entire life. To the original audience, this wasn't just a physical healing or transformation that took place. It was a disruption In their world. Disability often carried a spiritual stigma. This man wasn't just physically broken. Their religious belief was that he was religiously unclean, but now, in Jesus' name, he's restored to wholeness and community.
Speaker 1:I want to take a little sidebar here with you and have a word about disability, because I think passages like this are often misunderstood. Passages like this are not to imply that people with disabilities are somehow broken or incomplete or waiting to be fixed. Amos Young is a theologian and a disability scholar who grew up with a disabled brother. He writes disability should not be viewed as a curse or something to overcome in order to be fully human. Rather, disability opens us up to see the humanity of all people, disabled and non-disabled alike, as made in the image of God. Young argues that the church is not 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 to demand physical healing from God every time we encounter disability. The miracle in this story is that Peter and John saw this man and they saw the image of God on him. They noticed, they stopped, they didn't pass by, they didn't avoid him. They offered what they had and in this case it was the presence of Jesus. And yes, in this story, healing occurs, but the greater act was that dignity was restored and community was reclaimed.
Speaker 1:We don't live in a temple-centered world, but I know that we still overlook people. Every single one of us me, you, online we overlook people. We still pass by pain that we can'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 own life the co-worker who is always on edge, but we don't bring it up. We tell ourselves, it's none of my business, like, I don't want to deal with that. The student who sits alone. But we tell ourselves, oh, it's just because they're shy or somebody else will go sit by them, but that's not my responsibility. Think of the parent struggling in public with their child and instead of compassion we offer judgment, maybe not aloud, but privately. And what Peter and John do? It's not flashy, they simply saw someone and stopped and offered Jesus. And that's where spirit-filled courage begins. Not with the platform, not up here, not with a microphone, but with regular compassion, with presence.
Speaker 1:The sealed man doesn't quietly disappear into the crowd. He clings to Peter and John. He's walking, leaping, praising God, and naturally, as you do, people take notice. This man that I learned to ignore is now walking right in front of me, leaping. He's being very loud, and the crowd gathers. They're stunned. How did this happen? And some thought Peter and John had performed like a magic trick, as it were, like they must have been a sorcerer, because we know he couldn't walk and now he can. Or maybe Peter and John tapped into some sort of spiritual force out there. But Peter makes waste no time redirecting their attention. He says why do you stare at us as if it's by our own power that we made this man walk? And then he preaches, as Peter does, directly and compassionately. He says you killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this by faith in the name of Jesus. This man, whom you see and know, was made strong. How? Not by Peter, not by John, not by me, but by Jesus.
Speaker 1:To those listening, this wasn't just abstract theology, it was personal. Many had been in the crowds calling for Jesus' death and now they are standing there watching his followers do amazing things. And maybe they weren't the kind that called for Jesus's death, but perhaps you were in the crowd and you didn't say anything to defend Jesus. You weren't an ally, you just stood by. Peter names their guilt, but he does not shame them. He invites them into the realm of grace.
Speaker 1:Repent, so that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord. Even if you stood by and did nothing when you should have repent, jesus still loves you. There's still grace, there's still forgiveness, even if you were the ones who called for his death. Repent. You're seeing it now with your own eyes. There's still love, there's still grace, there's still forgiveness.
Speaker 1:Now, he doesn't soften the truth. He still says yes, you are responsible for what you did. You did that, it happened. But he doesn't weaponize that truth against them. He connects Jesus to everything they already believed in, from Moses to the prophets, and he tells them the story, always pointing them to the moment that they are in. And I want you to realize. What started off as a healing of a man became a witness to Christ. A door was opened and Peter walked through it. Now we may not find ourselves preaching to crowds like that, but we still find ourselves in conversations where somebody is asking, even without words where can I find hope? Think about the coworker, the student, the parent, yourself, me. You may not be saying it out loud, but where can I find hope? The Spirit gives us courage to speak, not about ourselves, but about Jesus, who was crucified and risen, and now we are full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1:As Peter is still speaking to the crowds about Jesus, the authorities show up. They got to shut it down. This is getting out of hand. The priests, the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees arrest Peter and John on the spot because they were proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, and this was a message that deeply bothered the Sadducees. Now you might recognize that word they're Pharisees and they're Sadducees, but you might not know the big difference between these two. They're both very religious leaders with a lot of influence in the temple. But the Pharisees believed in resurrection and judgment. So they believed that someday we'll all be resurrected and be with God and there will be a judgment for those who aren't resurrected from the dead. But the Sadducees did not. They rejected anything outside of the first five books of the Bible, of our Bible. They denied any future resurrection. So Peter's message wasn't just bad theology to them.
Speaker 1:If Peter is right, if Jesus is who he says, he is their entire worldview. Everything that they've built, their parents built, their grandparents built everything they believed crumbles. So you can imagine it's not that difficult to imagine is it when the thing that you've held onto 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 already believe than to step out and listen and hear and look at the facts Again. This is something that we're dealing with today, modern times.
Speaker 1:The next day, peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin. This is the same court that condemned Jesus, and now two untrained fishermen stand where Jesus once stood. You can imagine the pressure. The stakes are high, but Peter, filled with the spirit, speaks with clarity. He says salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Speaker 1:And when they saw the courage of Peter and John, it's funny. Luke's like you know the reputation here as he's writing is like what do people think about Peter? And John like you know the reputation here as he's writing is like what do people think about Peter and John? Stupid, ignorant, uneducated, like not great with words, can't read, I mean just like illiterate, like backwards. And Luke's like okay, got it, got it.
Speaker 1:But it says that they were amazed because, despite all of those facts, the things that we knew about them, all their shortcomings, all their weaknesses, they were bold and confident. And they conclude on their own the only thing that that could be is that these men were with Jesus. It wasn't education, it wasn't training, 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 away and we can just all forget about this. But Peter and John respond. We cannot help speaking about what we've seen and heard. It wasn't an option. They were like you can leave and all of this goes away, and they said we can't, which had implications for them.
Speaker 1:For the early church, though, obedience to Jesus didn't bring applause. It wasn't celebrated as we might 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 it tells us that courage isn't the absence of fear. Okay, courage is not the absence of fear. It's faith that stands in the middle of it. Faith that stands in the middle of it, it's the tension of refusing to join in on gossip or unethical practices at work, knowing that that might affect how your bosses see you, how your co-workers treat you. It's the courage it takes to admit you're a Christian and a friend group where that label is loaded with all sorts of negative assumptions. It's showing up for someone who's hurting, even when you don't have the right words and you can't offer a solution. This is the kind of courage we are talking about.
Speaker 1:After their release, peter and John, they don't hide, they don't regroup in fear. They don't think we got to start making some big changes, Otherwise we're going to get in big trouble. They return to their people, their community, and they share everything that had happened about the chief priests and what the elders had said, and what happens next is one of the most powerful moments in the early church. I think it gets overread and overlooked, so I want to point that out right now, after all of this has happened. It's blown up, it's overflowed. Now they're in trouble. They've made a name for themselves.
Speaker 1:They pray, and they don't pray for safety. They don't pray for comfort. They don't even pray for safety. They don't pray for comfort. They don't even pray for justice. God, I know I'm right, I'm doing 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, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Speaker 1:This is a shift in the early church. This moment, right here, we are not running away and hiding after Jesus was killed Again. We're not doing that. And now that we're the ones who could be killed, we will still go out. This is a huge step for them. They name the risk, but they don't ask to escape it. God, you know what they're saying. You know they're threatening us. Please don't let harm come my way. Please steer us clear of that.
Speaker 1:Nope, they say, despite all of the threats and everything, help me stay faithful in it. And I wonder in our personal lives, honestly, in my life, how many times am I praying to get out of something, to get through something, when my prayer should be to be faithful in something? And this isn't a private prayer. It's not like Peter and John get together and do so quietly and privately. They do it with their church community, those early believers Together. They lift up their voices. Opposition isn't new. God's people have always faced resistance, but God's rule hasn't changed and he is still sovereign. As they finish praying, something extraordinary happens. It says in verses 30, 31, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. They're filled again with the Holy Spirit, not a new baptism, but a fresh empowering, a refill, as it were. And they go out and they speak the Word of God boldly. For the early church, this was a moment that reinforced the truth. They were just beginning to understand.
Speaker 1:Boldness is not a personality trait. It's not a personality trait. You might think. Well, I was just not born that way, I'm not gifted in that way. Boldness is the result of prayer, spiritual boldness, and it's a sign of a spiritual community that backs us up. Now we may not face threats like theirs we're not going to be arrested for meeting here this morning but we still face hesitation, we still have fears. A lot of us struggle with self-doubt, and what is needed or what isn't needed what isn't needed is more confidence in ourselves. It's a deeper dependence on the Spirit who empowers us. Boldness isn't something we force. It's something God forms in us, especially when we seek God together.
Speaker 1:What we've seen in Acts 3 and 4 isn't a one-time burst of early church courage. It's a pattern embedded in the whole biblical story. Again and again, god empowers ordinary people to speak and act with boldness, even when the cost is high. And maybe if Luke was writing a story about us today, he would bring up different things Stupid, uneducated, illiterate, silly took themselves too seriously. I don't know, but we see that this pattern that the Spirit comes and fills us and gives us the courage Not a natural confidence, but a courage, and a confidence that comes from knowing our God is still sovereign.
Speaker 1:Jesus modeled this perfectly. He confronted injustice, he spoke truth with compassion and he walked toward the cross, not away from it, walked toward the cross, not away from it. And then, as promised, he sent his spirit, not just to comfort but to empower. Paul, who traveled with Luke, knew what it meant to face resistance, and he wrote this to his young disciple, timothy. He says for the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power and love and self-discipline. And that's the kind of courage the Spirit still gives to us today.
Speaker 1:And no, most of us are not standing before religious councils or facing arrests, but it still takes courage to follow Jesus in this world. What I mean is it takes courage to initiate a hard or difficult conversation that you know needs to happen, that will lead to resolution of conflict. That's outstanding. It's going to take courage to stand for what's right when everyone else doesn't care. It's going to take courage to admit you are struggling, whether that's with addiction or behavior issues, whatever it might be. It takes courage to open up. It takes courage to invite someone into church or into your life. It takes courage to forgive someone when it feels undeserved. It takes courage to forgive someone who isn't asking for forgiveness.
Speaker 1:And so here's my question Will we start to pray and ask God for boldness, not safety, to be faithful, not to get out of the situation, not for easier circumstances, but for spirit-empowered courage to step forward in the pain anyway Right now. We're going to head into communion in a moment, but name the place where you need boldness. If it's easier, you can bow your head and close your eyes, but where's the place that you need boldness? Ask God to meet you there, not by removing the pressure, but by filling you with power and love and self-discipline. In that early church they didn't pray to escape risk. They prayed to stay faithful in it. Peter and John didn't stand out because they were impressive. They stood out because they had been with Jesus and you have been too and when pressure came, they didn't retreat, they didn't run away and they didn't hide.
Speaker 1:The book of Acts isn't a record of something God did 2,000 years ago. It's a vision of what he is still doing today, what he still does through you and through me. And let me just point this out Courage 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, a world the city of Madison that's looking for healing, truth, hope and, by God's design, you and I, we're part of that. We are the church, we are his people, we are part of the plan to bring truth and healing and hope to those around us. Which means the question isn't just what did Peter and John do, it's what is the Spirit inviting you to do? Do, it's what is the Spirit inviting you to do.
Speaker 1:Cs Lewis once wrote courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. So, when the moment comes this week, when you're tempted to stay quiet, when you're tempted to blend in or tempted to wait for perfect clarity, ask for boldness. Instead, ask God to fill you again. Ask God to help you remain faithful in it, because your courage might actually be the answer to someone else's prayers. Your courage might be the answer to someone else's prayers, and our collective courage as a church is what God uses to reach the place that we call home. This is what it means to be activated, not just stirred, not just fired up this morning, but assent people who leave this place Not just inspired but empowered. So let's be a people who say yes to the Spirit on Monday mornings, on Friday nights, on boring Wednesday afternoons. And let's go, win and do as God leads. Let's pray.
