The Courage to Tell Our Story by Rosie Best (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

Pray with me.

How are doing in spreading the good news about Jesus?  Have you had opportunities to share what Jesus is doing in your life? Would anyone like to share? What about those of you who haven’t shared? What’s holding you back? (there may be a spontaneous response to what is said that follows!)

What holds you back?  Usually it’s fear. I want to say to you that it’s God’s job to show up; you don’t control him or tell him what to do; you invite him in. He will always show up, perhaps not in the way you thought.

I was in Atlanta last weekend. We went to visit a former student, at least that was the plan. Unfortunately, a medical emergency had pulled the student back to Toledo and she is currently looking after her mom in Toledo Hospital. More on that in a moment. So Linda and I traveled to Atlanta and had a great time, but instead of visiting with people, we got to see the Museum of Human and Civil Rights, and also the birthplace of Martin Luther King. We heard sound tracks of his preaching, and saw photos of him standing up for civil rights, intense pictures of him sitting in prison, and then photos from the assassination site. I bought a book of MLK’s sermons, because I find his oratory so inspiring. When I look at someone like Martin Luther King, I wonder what I have to offer the world. I wonder whether any of you have felt intimidated like that by someone? Here’s the good news though, Jesus does not require or expect us to be anything but the person that we are in order to be witnesses. I need to say that again… Jesus does not require or expect us to be anything but the person that we are in order to be witnesses.

So what is your story? I used to think that I would like to have a bolder testimony. You know, I was a mass-murderer, but Jesus saved me… Can anyone relate to this? I mean, the fact that I became a Christian as a result of a school Christian Club week away in Cornwall just doesn’t sound very BIG. But again, BIG isn’t the point. So, let’s look at what leads up to today’s reading.

It was a day like any other. The beggar was sat at the Beautiful Gate at the entrance to the Temple. It’s 3pm service time and Peter and John arrive and the beggar asks for money. This is when the narrative changes, suddenly it’s not a day like any other day anymore because Peter and John don’t have money and in the words of the children’s bible song Peter said,

 “Silver and Gold have I none, but such as I have I give thee, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

Now back to the bible version for a moment it says “Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And AS HE DID, THE MAN’S FEET AND ANKLES WERE INSTANTLY HEALED AND STRENGTHED.

The song goes on to say “he went walking and leaping and praising God, walking and leaping and praising God, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

It’s interesting the details that are put in the story isn’t it? It’s the right hand… interesting… Peter then seizes on the opportunity in front of him and calls on the people around him “Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away. Then the Lord will provide a season of relief from the distress of this age and he will send Jesus Christ” (Act 3:19-20). By the end of that day, it says, their number was increased to about 5000 but Peter and John spent the night in prison.

So our reading for today starts the next day. Peter and John are brought in front of the Leaders, elders and legal experts… and Caiaphas and Annas (the high priest) and others from the high priest’s family (details again… we have the names John and Alexander). And what does Peter do? He simply states what it is that is going on. “It’s because a sick person was healed that we are here.” You see, Peter, has turned everything upside down. No longer will the people walk in to the Temple and see this man (a man crippled since birth). He is now up and walking and leaping. What a sight that would be to see!

And again Peter INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT says “Leaders of the people and elders, are we being examined today because something good was done for a sick person, a good deed that healed him? If so, then you and all the people of Israel need to know that this man stands healthy before you because of the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene.”

And this speech, was so impressive to people, THEY COULDN’T TAKE THEIR EYES OFF HIM. They were so confident, so sure of themselves! And why? They recognized them as companions of Jesus. They weren’t trained in any formal manner, nor were they educated, but they had a relationship with Jesus.

And this is still the confidence which we are asked to be bold in today. I stand in the same faith that I acknowledged when I was 12 years old. When the older student asked if we were willing to commit our lives to Christ, and at that age, I said, “Yes!” I cried, and understood that I was forgiven. It’s an ongoing act, I fail so many times, and yet I get back up to try again. My confidence can never be in the degrees that I hold, or in any training that I do. My confidence is in Jesus – the risen Lord.

So, what is your story? What are the ways that you have seen God at work in your life? What are the areas where you need to see hope at this time? I know that there is a young woman in a hospital room that is praying and believing for her mother to be healed. I also know that miracles do happen and that it is not impossible for God to intervene and raise someone up. I am standing with my sister in Christ, knowing that what God has done before God can do again. As I stood in the hospital yesterday, I prayed. I would have loved for her mother to stand up and start praising God, but that has yet to happen.

It takes courage to stand up. It does. It takes fighting back the fear. The fear of feeling foolish, the fear of being laughed at, the fear of being rejected. But God asks us to stand up for what we believe. If God used the disciples who are described as:

Common English (CEB) uneducated and inexperienced

Contemporary English (CEV) ordinary men and not well educated

English Standard (ESV) Uneducated, common men

Jubilee Bible (JB) unlearned and ignorant men

Living Bible (LB) uneducated non-professionals

Modern English Version (MEV) illiterate and uneducated men

Then God can use anyone of us --- not because of what we know --- but because of WHO we know.

WANTED: Unschooled, ordinary people who have spent time with Jesus. It’s the same criteria for service that was in place for the disciples whose stories are told in the Acts of the Apostles.