Be Audacious

We need to be audacious in our witness and willing to go to battle

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In English the noun ‘audacity’ and the adjective of that noun ‘audacious’ can have both a positive and a negative meaning. In the dictionary audacious is said to be 1) being bold or daring 2) having rude or disrespectful behaviour. Audacity is said to be 1) A willingness to take bold risks 2) disrespect or impudence. I have, in my lifetime, heard the words used mainly in a negative way. As a teacher I have heard ‘audacity’ used many times and may have used it on occasions myself in such expressions as ‘How can you have the audacity to speak while I am speaking?’ or ‘He had the audacity to answer me back.’  Recently, however, I have heard it used a couple of times in the positive way when it comes to our walk with the Lord and our witness to other people. Someone said to me ‘We need to be more audacious in our witness.’ My immediate reaction was ‘How true that is’.

Charles Spurgeon, once said, "To be a Christian is to be a warrior." A warrior is not a passive bystander but someone who has active engagement. We need to be audacious in our witness and willing to go to battle. We say we believe Jesus is the Messiah and is the only way to spend eternity with God but are we willing to assert this belief in the face of opposition? We are often able to talk enthusiastically to people about a new car, a hobby, a film we’ve seen or a bargain we have bought but do we have the same enthusiasm when we talk about our faith?  Satan knows he has lost us when we become Christians but he still wants to shut us up. He wants us to stay in our holy huddle and never come out. Do we want the world’s approval or God’s?

In 1 Thessalonians 2:4 it says: But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester once preached before King Henry VIII. The king was very upset by the boldness in the sermon and ordered Latimer to preach again on the following Sunday and therefore have the opportunity to apologize for the previous Sunday’s content. Latimer began his sermon on this Sunday by saying: “Hugh Latimer, do you know before whom you are to speak this day? To the high and mighty monarch, the king’s most excellent majesty, who can take away your life, if you offend him. Therefore, take heed that you do not speak a word that may displease. But then, consider well, Hugh, do you not know from whence you came—upon whose message you are sent? Even by the great and mighty God. Who is all-present and Who beholds all your ways and Who is able to cast your soul into hell! Therefore, take care that you deliver your message faithfully.” He then preached the same sermon he had preached the preceding Sunday, and with considerably more energy. People awaited this man’s punishment. The King asked him how he dared to speak the same audacious words again and was told by Latimer that he had no choice but to speak the words of truth God wanted him to say. The King went away saying he was blessed to have such an honest servant.

There are many examples of people who have been audacious in their witness to the truth. Some have ended well like the above example but some not so well but the bible tells us in no uncertain term that we have to speak out the truth with audacity.

In the bible Peter is a great example to us. He began, at the arrest of Jesus, by denying, three times that he knew Jesus. He was worried about his own safety and what men could do to him. Skipping forward to just a few weeks later, after he had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he stood in front of a crowd of people and proclaimed the gospel to them with gusto. What a difference!

Later in Acts we hear that he and John started teaching the people openly and had previously healed a man through the Holy Spirit. The Sadducees and the Temple guard were disturbed by their teaching about the resurrection of Jesus and put them in prison until the next day. They were brought before the rulers and elders and teachers of the law and still they didn’t stop preaching. 

Acts 4:8-13 says: Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is ’the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

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Wow! Such boldness, such audacity. I read in someone’s sermon recently: ”You don’t have to be dynamic to be used, you simply have to be available and you don’t have to do magnificent things, we have to do common things with magnificence!” Now I know many people in our fellowship who are audacious witnesses but if only that were true of me. I have to admit to writing this blog mainly for myself. I am really bad at witnessing. I am often tongue – tied, worried about upsetting someone, frightened of rejection. All the things that this blog is telling us not to be. I hope and pray that having to think deeply about this subject to bring this blog it will help spur me into action to do what I am exhorting others to do. Scripture tells us not to be fearful of what to say, because as it says in Luke 12:12: For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

Let us also remember this from Matthew 10:32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”

I am going to finish as I started with some wise words from Charles Spurgeon. He said: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay.”

Father, help us to carry out our calling with boldness. Help us to stand firm in our belief in Jesus as the Messiah. Let us assert the truth of the Gospel with confidence and live it out with integrity. Help us bear witness to it with courage and boldness for in doing so, we become true warriors for Christ, living out our faith with audacious conviction. Amen.

Author: Thelma Cameron

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