John 16:33 CSB – I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
Luke 5:33-35 CSB – Then they said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but yours eat and drink.”
34 Jesus said to them, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? 35 But the timewill come when the groom will be taken away from them—then they will fast in those days.”
Jesus: Courage to Stand for Truth—despite hostility
Luke 18:11-12 CSB – …praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
Matthew 22:37-40 CSB – He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
James 2:12 CSB – Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
Courage = standing with Jesus despite hostile opposition & consequences
Matthew 10:32-34 CSB – Jesus said, ….everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven. 34 Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Jesus: Courage to Be Flexible – when others were ridged
Luke 5:36 CSB – He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old.
Luke 6:37-39 CSB – And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Romans 3:20 CSB – For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
Matthew 5:17 CSB – “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
James 2:12 CSB – Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17 CSB – Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Luke 6:1-2 CSB – On a Sabbath, he passed through the grain fields. His disciples were picking heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
Jesus Courageously Responds to inflexibility with a History Lesson
Luke 6:3-4 CSB – Jesus answered them, “Haven’t you read what David and those who were with him did when he was hungry— 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? He even gave some to those who were with him.”
It takes courage to be flexible when people are judgmental
Jesus had more than courage. Jesus had Truth
2 Peter 3:15-16 CSB – ….our dear brother Paul has written to you according to the wisdom given to him. 16 …. There are some things [he writes that are] hard to understand in them. The untaught and unstable will twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.
Jesus: Courage to Lovingly Confront—when others threatened
Luke 6:6-7 CSB – On another Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7 The scribes and Pharisees were watching him closely, to see if he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they could find a charge against him.
Luke 6:8 CSB – But he knew their thoughts and told the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand here.” So he got up and stood there.
Luke 6:9 CSB – Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
Luke 6:10a CSB – After looking around at them all, he told him, “Stretch out your hand.”
Luke 6:10b-11 CSB – He did, and his hand was restored. 11 They, however, were filled with rage and started discussing with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Loving confrontation requires courage
Matthew 18:15-16 CSB – “If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established.
