22.06.06

Be a Hero! (1 Corinthians 16:13)

Posted in Miscellaneous Sermons at 7:04 am by dowboy

As I talked about in my lecture on Sunday night on the Da Vinci Code, the society in which we live has moved from being one dominated by institutions like the government and the church, to being one which is deeply suspicious of all authority structures and all figures representing them. We are instantly suspicious of, and cynical about Glasgow’s governmental structures and possibly even the religious institutions which dominate our culture. We are members of a society which has a powerful anti-authority mood. And yet, in the Christian church, and in particular the Scottish Presbyterian Church, the one thing we distinctly lack are real leaders – and not just leaders in the sense of decision-makers, but leaders in the sense of role models. One of the biggest complaints I hear from Christian young people is that they lack older role models, those who will model what being a Christian in 21^st Century Scotland is all about. And so, I thought I would encourage us all here tonight, and especially those in positions of leadership in the congregation, to start being role models.

In 1 Corinthians 16:13 Paul uses a word which is used nowhere else in the New Testament – it is the Greek word andrizomai – which means, ‘be a man’. The word itself is used often in Classical Greek literature to talk of the ancient Greek heroes – the likes of Hercules, Achilles and so on. It is also used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, a translation we know as the Septuagint – a translation made about 200-300 BC, just after the production of the Greek epics. So, I believe, when this word is used in Scripture, God wants us to understand its meaning as being this – ‘act like heroes’, or ‘be heroes’. It is my contention that the biggest need of the Christian church is that all of us, in whatever station God has placed us, whether in the world, at home or in the church, must take up the challenge and act like heroes. As such, what I am doing tonight is a word-study of this Greek word andrizomai from the Bible, and pulling together the different strands of its meaning into a cogent whole.
I want to see three aspects of the heroic pattern of life which God calls us to in 21^st Century Glasgow: first, the pressing need of Heroic Leadership; secondly, the pressing need of heroic living and lastly, today’s pressing need for heroes, where I will seek to apply this teaching into our day to day lives.
[A] The Pressing Need of Heroic Leadership
For this section, I want to turn to the historical section of the Old Testament, and I want to say 4 things about heroic leadership:
1. God’s People Want Heroic Leadership – In Joshua 1:18, Joshua has presented the people with the challenge of crossing the Jordan and taking possession of the Land which God has promised them. He explained to them the hazards which lay ahead of them and the battles they would need to fight. In response, the Israelites say to their leader Joshua, “Be strong and courageous” – literally, “Be heroic and courageous”. God’s people are looking for strong, heroic leadership – leadership which is faithful to God, decisive and first into battle. We may live in a post-modern world with a strong anti-authority mood, but, in reality, God’s people want, and will respond to strong, heroic leadership. Are we willing to provide such faithful and heroic leadership?
2. God’s Leaders Need to be Heroes – It is easy to be act like a hero when there is nothing to be heroic about, but God’s leaders, those whom God has chosen to lead and shepherd His people, often find their heroism tested. In Deuteronomy 31:23, the dying Moses is giving his successor Joshua instructions for how he is to lead the Israelites, the people of God, over the Jordan to take possession of the land of Canaan. And in view of the challenge that presented to Joshua’s leadership, Moses commands him saying, ‘Be strong (be a hero) and courageous.’ 500 years later, at another death bed, this time the death bed of David, King David gives his son Solomon instructions for how he is to build the temple in Jerusalem, the temple in which God is to be worshipped. And in view of the challenge that will present to Solomon’s leadership, David says to him in 1 Chronicles 22:13, ‘Be strong (be a hero) and courageous.’ In both situations, God’s leaders are being commanded to act like men, to be heroes – to single-mindedly put into practice God’s will for God’s people and to lead the people, in the first instance into the land which God had promised them, and in the second instance, into the worship of God. How today, we need to be heroes in these areas too – in the first instance, teaching the people of God about all that they possess in Christ, about their justification, sanctification, adoption and on an on – about how God has blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And we also need to be heroes in leading God’s people into the presence of God and teaching them how to worship Him, both in terms of the lives they lead and the praise they worship God with. God’s people don’t need wimps, but heroes. Are we willing to provide such heroic leadership?
3. God’s Leaders Need to be Strengthened – those of us in position of leadership lack, in ourselves, I am sure we would all admit, the ability to be heroes who will courageously lead God’s people. Joshua and Solomon certainly felt like this – both welcomed their leadership roles with trepidation. And yet, God provided them with the strength they needed. In Joshua 1:1-9, Moses has died, and God speaks to Joshua commanding him three times in these verses to be a hero. But then, in vs. 8 and 9 God provides the means by which Joshua is to lead – and it all revolves around the Word of God – what the Lord calls, ‘the Book of the Law’, and what we would call ‘the Bible’. If Joshua would be heroic, God tells him to do four things:

• Speak the Word – ‘do not let it depart from your mouth’. Our people need leaders who are familiar with the Word of God and are able to apply it into everyday life. And so, in our own spiritual lives, the Bible must form our staple diets – we must love it and be prepared to speak it.
• Meditate on the Word – ‘you shall meditate on it day and night’. If we would be effective leaders and heroes to God’s people, our blood must run Bibline – the Word of God must become the lingua franca of our day to day interactions and thought processes; it must be the lens through which we view the world.
• Do the Word – ‘be careful to do all that is written in it.’ There is nothing worse than hypocritical leadership, the kind that says, ‘do as I say, not as I do’.  God will strengthen us through the doing of His Word – as we do it, He will fill us with His grace and strength and make us His heroes.
• Believe the Word – ‘the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’. Faith in God, trust in God, is at the heart of all good Christian leadership. We rely not on our own strength, because at best, we are jars of clay; rather, we rely on the ongoing strength and presence of the Lord with us.

So, in order to be heroes for God, we need to live, breathe and believe the Word of God – not the words of other people, for so often, we can be fickle in our conversations, our complements and our advice, but we must do what the Bible says.
4. God’s Leaders Need to Strengthen God’s People – God’s leaders aren’t to hoard the strength God gives them, but rather to use it to strengthen God’s people. One example of this is in 2 Samuel 10:12, where Joab, commander of the armies of King David, is facing the armies of the Syrians – 33,000 foot soldiers to the rear, and the army of the Ammonites in his front. Joab, faced by such enormous armies, splits his forces into two – he takes half of his army and fights against the Syrians; the other half of the Israelite army he places under the generalship of his brother Abishai and says to him, “Be of good courage (be a hero)”. Here we see one of God’s appointed leaders encouraging one of God’s people to be strong in the Lord and to fight heroically. Again, in 2 Chronicles 32:7, the armies of Israel are besieged within the walls of Jerusalem faced by the numberless hordes of the Assyrian King Sennacherib. But King Hezekiah, God’s fearless leader, gathers his beleaguered people together and says to them, ‘be strong (be heroes) and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed.’ As God’s people look out over so many challenges and obstacles which they face in their work, church and home lives, their crying need is that God’s heroic leaders will challenge them and strengthen them to be heroes also. Are we fulfilling this aspect of our leadership duties – making heroes of our people?
[B] The Pressing Need of Heroic Living
For this section, I want to turn to the Psalms, where the word andrizomai is used twice. And I want to say two things about its use there:
1. God’s People Need to be Heroes – In Psalm 27, God’s people are victims of their enemies. In vs. 12 these enemies are described as being false witnesses, spreading lies about God’s people, and those who breathe out violence towards God’s people. In this context of unjust and violent opposition, God, in vs. 14, calls upon His people to be strong (heroic) and courageous. In Psalm 31, God’s people are besieged by their enemies, alarmed and feeling alone. But again, in this context of opposition, God tells his people to be heroic and courageous. See the need God’s people have! We face two kinds of enemies – enemies within (sin and corruption) and enemies without (persecution and worldliness). And so often, these enemies besiege us and make us helpless – they use violence to subdue us and to stop us from standing up for God and living for Him. How we need heroes today in our workplaces, in our churches, in our homes, who will go against the flow and stand up for Christ!
2. God’s People Need to Be Strengthened – I’m sure we all feel afraid at the thought of standing up against our own carnal desires, the world at odds with us, and the devil who wants to kill us. I’m sure we can all echo the words of Paul – ‘who is sufficient for these things’. That’s the way King David felt too, but he knew where to go to be strengthened. In Psalm 27:14 he encourages God’s people to wait upon the Lord, or to hope in the Lord. We find heroic strength through our hope in the Lord’s goodness to us. How we need this perspective – to hope not in ourselves and our abilities to extricate ourselves from tricky situations, but to hope in the LORD and His wonderful deliverances on our behalf. And then in Psalm 31:23, King David reminds God’s people to remember God’s faithfulness and God’s covenant promise – he tells them, ‘the Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.’ God’s Word is here telling us to find strength in the knowledge of God’s complete commitment to us – that He will preserve us according to His faithful promises, and He will punish and destroy all our enemies.
What challenges are you facing at the moment? What enemies are besieging you and opposing you? Be strengthened by hoping in the Lord Jesus Christ and by remembering the gracious covenant promise of God that He who did not spare His one and only Son, how will he not, along with Him, graciously give us all things. Remember what Paul said, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’ He will supply us with the strength we need to be heroes in the midst of our enemies.
[C] Today’s Pressing Need for Heroes
There has never been a need for heroes in the faith as much as there is today. And so, in closing, I want to apply the word andrizomai and challenge us to be heroes in three areas:
1. In the Face of Opposition – in February 155AD, the bishop of Smyrna, a man called Polycarp, was facing death for his faith in Christ. Before a crowded stadium, Polycarp was to be burned to death. As he was brought in through the gates of stadium and saw the crowd gathered in anticipation of his death, making a noise over which nothing could be heard, and the pyre which had been prepared for him, he heard a voice from heaven saying to him, “Be strong Polycarp, and play the man (or be a hero)”. Strengthened inwardly, Polycarp went joyfully to a martyr’s death. We live in a society which is becoming steadily more anti-Christian. Christians are already mocked for their faith in Christ, but I am convinced that it will not be long before Christians here will be imprisoned and deprived for naming the name of Christ. And so, we have great need of standing firm and being heroes in the faith.
2. In the Face of Difficulties in the Church – Corinth was a church in a mess – it was divided against itself; the leadership didn’t believe in the power of the gospel; there was rampant sexual immorality and idolatry; the services of worship were disordered and dysfunctional; no-one understood or believed in the resurrection from the dead of all believers. It was into this church setting that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 16:13, stirs up the Christians to act like heroes.  We are to be strong, despite any internal troubles within the Church – we are to stand firm upon the gospel of grace, the power of God unto salvation. Our church faces difficulties, problems which may dishearten and trouble us, but into this situation God tells us to stand firm and be heroes for Him.
3. In the Face of Hard Providences – Daniel had many visions, and one of them disturbed him deeply. In Chapter 10, he had a terrifying vision of a man, a man we believe to be the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. But that vision left him with no strength. Daniel was terrified – he didn’t know what was in front of him or what this vision meant for God’s people. That’s just like us, we tremble at God’s providence in our lives – we are fearful and left with no strength when we consider tomorrow’s problems. But, in vs. 18-19, Daniel is strengthened – and what is it, or who is it that strengthens him? It is ‘one having the appearance of a man’ – it is the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus speaks to him and assures him of three things: first, the love of God to him; secondly, the peace of God with him; thirdly, the sovereignty of God for him. Can we not identify and be strengthened by these things too? In the midst of our painful providences, can we not find strength as Jesus Himself, through the power of the Holy Spirit, makes His presence known to us and whispers into our minds by His Word – ‘I love you; my peace I give to you; all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me’. Are not heaven’s resources available to us? What is to stop us being heroes?
How our church needs good role models – both male and female! We have far too many spiritual wimps and not enough spiritual heroes!  We need more real men – men like Jesus Himself who will set His face like flint and walk towards the cross; men and women who will spend and be spent to win others for Christ. Do you dare, do I dare, to travel the road of heroism? Do you dare to stand up for Christ wherever you are and whoever you are with? Do you dare, if you are a man, to go against the flow and be a loving husband and a faithful father? Do you dare, if you are a woman, to be a loving wife and a faithful mother? Do you dare to live on the edge for the Lord Jesus Christ? The greatest influences upon my life were men who were spiritual heroes in Christ. So would you do this and successive generations the greatest favour you could possibly do them, and be a hero of Christ, for Christ and in Christ? AMEN

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