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The Opportunity of Persecution - The Blueprint Series
42 Plays4 months ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the true cost of following Jesus and the importance of unwavering devotion to Him. He delved into the significance of maintaining the biblical message's integrity without compromising to make Jesus "cool" or more palatable to the modern world. Through the story of Stephen's martyrdom, Barron highlighted the need for Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit, ready to face persecution, and to boldly proclaim the gospel. He reflected on the importance of embracing one's roles, especially on Father's Day, and challenged everyone to live courageously like Jesus, emphasizing the transformative power of surrender and the importance of commitment and obedience in spreading the gospel. Barron concluded with a call for personal accountability and the need to be deeply rooted in God's word and driven by the Holy Spirit.
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Transcript
Celebration and Invitation to Baptism
00:00:00
Speaker
Good morning, church. So glad to have you with us this morning. Man, just as you have heard over and over again, my heart is full after everything we have experienced. Not just this week, but over the last few weeks. In fact, during the next service, we'll be baptizing three new believers. Well, two new believers and one rededicating her life. ah One is a teenager and another is a couple that made decisions to follow Jesus last week. So we celebrate that. and Just the continuation of God's Spirit continuing to move through our congregation. Two weeks from today we're going to be doing baptism out at our house like we've done before. I forgot to mention that at the first service, but I want to mention it now. if Some of you are thinking about, praying about, talking about baptism or a decision to follow Christ.
00:00:44
Speaker
um Feel free to contact the church office, grab one of the staff, and just ah have a conversation with them about what that looks like. We'll give you more details about ah the event, may anticipating a lot of the decisions out of VBS will be a part of that that day, and then there are some other people who are awaiting baptism who will be there as well. So ah continue to pray for that.
Masculinity and God-designed Roles
00:01:02
Speaker
So yesterday, as I was beginning my vacation Bible school recuperation plan, I sat down, started reading the Word, and God led me to something that I really wasn't anticipating doing today, but I feel like it needs, it's like it's like a great preface to everything that we're just about to talk about here in the book of Acts this morning. um First Chronicles chapter 26, I came across one of those passages. If you know anything about Chronicles, there's a lot of passages in there or which are the skip over passages. You know what I'm talking about?
00:01:34
Speaker
So and so we got this person and this person had this son and this person had seven sons and none of the names I can pronounce. So I just kind of skim over those parts. And I was just about to do the same thing that so many of us have a tendency to do, to skip over that little part. And right in the middle of it, in verse six, it says this, also to his son Shemaiah was born sons who ruled their ancestral families because they were strong, capable men. because they were strong, capable men. I wanna say something to you, and this is, again, just leading into the sermon this morning. and The culture around us has tried to take masculinity away from men. They call masculinity toxic. That's the word they like to use. There's absolutely nothing wrong with a man being masculine. In fact, it is the design of God that men are masculine and women are feminine. The problem is when a man becomes abusively masculine or ah
00:02:28
Speaker
excessive in their masculinity just like when women become radically feminist in their thinking. Both of those are wrong but you do not take away the masculinity of a man or the femininity of a woman and not create problems in the home the way God designed it. In fact in the society the way God designed it. And so what has happened is in our culture is that we have made men feel sorry for being men. We have emasculated them and turned them into a bunch of sissies.
00:02:56
Speaker
morocco ah but Let's be honest, and we we tell them, you know, you should be in touch with your feelings, you should be emotional, you should be all these kinds of things. That's the kind of, that's a true man. I would argue that a strong man knows his emotions and knows when it's right to use those emotions and when it's right to control those emotions. That's what real masculinity looks like. God in the beginning created man. He created woman. He created them to be unique personalities. Men and women are equal, but they are completely different in their roles. It is not my goal to be like Lisa and thank God it's not her goal to be like me. Because if she were like me, one of us would be unnecessary, right?
Restoring Godly Leadership
00:03:35
Speaker
The reason I say all that is men today is Father's Day and I want to say something to you as guys. The problems we're having in our culture by a large portion can be pointed back to the fact that our men have forgotten how to be men in this country. They have forgotten how to stand their ground for what is right. They have coalesced and compromised and done everything they can to make themselves feel more comfortable in a culture that's pushing us towards hell instead of towards heaven. And because we're doing that, our homes are falling apart, our kids don't know what's right and wrong, they don't know what's up and down. They aren't secure because they don't have a strong dad in the home guiding, protecting, and leading the home. And it's time that we, all of us, apologize to God for what we have allowed the culture to tell us to do and get back to what the word of God teaches us to do. We can't expect our kids to be good kids if we don't give them a role model.
00:04:29
Speaker
So today we turn to the life of Stephen, one of the best examples of a Christ follower I can think of, one who literally gave his life because of his willingness to follow God.
00:04:42
Speaker
Growing up as a kid, I was one of those just like you who had all kinds of role models, right? People I wanted to be like. When I was younger, it was Dominique Wilkins. If anybody knows who Dominique Wilkins, he can jump six feet higher than me and shoot a three-pointer better than me. But I still thought someday I would be him. So my mom and dad bought me basketball goals and even Nerf hoops inside so I could slam the basketball goal thinking someday I would be able to do that. And then one day somebody looked at me and said, you're too white and too short, you'll never be Dominique Wilkins. So I decided, okay, I'm going to be Bob Horner, who was the third baseman for the Atlanta Braves.
Role Models and Sacrifice for Faith
00:05:14
Speaker
And I turned my attention to that. And somebody said, one day, you're too weak to be Bob Horner. And I said, okay, what do I do now? And then I began to grow up and realize that there were other people in my lives who were sent to be godly examples to me, starting with my dad.
00:05:29
Speaker
and the uncles that I was blessed to have in my family. A football coach who lovingly guided me and taught me what it meant to sacrifice and to work and to struggle in order to get to the things you want. Teachers who were great examples to me. And suddenly it was like, okay, now my models are different. I realized that my role models aren't based on how much paycheck they can earn or how much notoriety they get. It's on the substance of their souls and the value they provide for us. Today, I'm gonna ask you to think about something really, really hard. It's kind of the background for this whole sermon. I want you to ask yourself, male and female, this isn't just about men today, male and female, do you really want to be like Jesus? Do you really want to be like Jesus? Because the unwritten part of that phrase is this, to be like Jesus costs you everything. It costs you everything. Your career is no longer yours.
00:06:29
Speaker
Your family is the gift that God gave to you to give back to him. Your character comes from him. Your dreams are exchanged for the ones he has for you. You see, being the follower of Jesus Christ costs you everything, so this question's gonna come back again, but I want you to think about it as we look into the life of Stephen, do you really, really want to be like Jesus?
00:06:59
Speaker
Paul addressed this question a little bit before we get into the book of Acts, Paul in a a passage in Philippians where his right to encourage the Philippian people wrote this. He said, My goal is to know Him, Jesus, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead. Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do
00:07:34
Speaker
forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Paul was saying, look, I'm pursuing Jesus. That's my primary goal. I know I won't always get it right, but I don't spend time looking back and and looking at those failures as mistakes or excuses. God forbid that we make our mistakes excuses for not continuing to move forward. God forbid that we point our finger at everything else in the world and say, this is the reason I'm that way. This is the reason I act like this. These are the reasons why I don't do better. You are responsible for your life. You are responsible for the decisions you make. You can't blame your childhood for who you are. You have to take responsibility. The clear message of Scripture is you will answer to Jesus Christ for who you are. Nobody else will.
00:08:30
Speaker
Your past may be an obstacle to overcome, but it may just as likely be a testimony to be used by God for his greatness. The fact that somebody hurt your feelings, get on your big girl panties and get over it.
00:08:48
Speaker
That made y'all a little uncomfortable, didn't it? We just went straight to women's underwear right here in the middle of the service.
00:08:56
Speaker
But it is time to quit pointing the finger at everything else and realize that it is a one-on-one personal relationship with Jesus Christ that is the answer to everything we are looking for. And we can't keep blaming society and culture around us for these things. So growing more like Jesus was Paul's aim, it was the aim of Simon Peter and John and James and all these other guys, and it should be ours as well. It was definitely that of Stephen. So let's take a look at the story
Stephen's Faith and Martyrdom
00:09:26
Speaker
of Stephen. Now, if you paid attention this morning, it goes from Acts chapter six, verse eight, all the way to chapter eight, verse three, because there's this long sermon that Stephen preaches right in the middle. I'm not gonna read all that this morning. We're gonna break it down into the Reader's Digest condensed version for you so you can get the full story. But ah we'll start with verse eight of chapter six. It says, now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
00:09:50
Speaker
Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Friedman Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and alex alexander Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen. They picked a fight with him. But it says they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the spirit by whom he was speaking. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. They stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, so they came and seized him and took him to the Sanhedrin. They also presented false witnesses who said, this man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law.
00:10:30
Speaker
For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us. And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel." Stephen, as we've referenced in the last few weeks, was the first Christian martyr, the first one in human history. Persecution of the church had broken out early on in the story of the church. It began with threats where they were telling them, don't say this anymore, don't talk about this man anymore. It turned into floggings and imprisonment and eventually would turn in to the stoning of Stephen as the first martyr, but eventually many others would give their lives all because they just wanted to be like Jesus. So again, I hope we wrestle with this question. Do I really want to pay the price to be like Jesus?
00:11:22
Speaker
Paul would say this later in Galatians, he said, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved himself and gave himself for me. Paul's speaking about one very key element that impacts all of us in our ability to follow after Jesus and to live like Jesus, and that is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. You will not be able to, by your own strength, your own fortitude, be like Jesus. You will never be able to have the character of Jesus without the spirit of Jesus being inside of you. You just can't do it.
00:12:01
Speaker
Many times when we fail, when I make bad choices, when I allow sin into my life, it's because I've fallen back into that mode of trying to do things myself, trying to handle things myself and be in control of my own life. But if we're going to pursue Christ's likeness, we have to be united to Jesus. And through that, we become more like Christ. So I wanna talk about some ways that this story shows us that Stephen points the way to Jesus, things that we can do that would help point others to Jesus by the way we live our lives. First of all, it says he was empowered by the Holy Spirit.
00:12:38
Speaker
If you look at verse eight of chapter six, it says, now Stephen was full of grace and power, all of which who come from the Holy Spirit. Earlier in verses three and five, the passage we read last week, we saw that Stephen was chosen to be one of the first deacons in the church, primarily because of his reputation and being filled with the Holy Spirit. The importance of that statement cannot be overstated because whatever it is that fills you is what's going to control you. whatever it is that fills you is what's gonna control you. Do you fill yourself with things that don't benefit you, that don't grow you, that don't stretch you, that
Guidance of the Holy Spirit
00:13:20
Speaker
don't train you? Proverbs 4.23 is a passage I used to use with my students all the time when I was in student ministry. Above all else, guard your heart because it's the wellspring of life. Today, in modern terms, we would say, junk in, junk out, right?
00:13:34
Speaker
You keep filling your life with all kinds of empty promises. You keep filling your life with all kinds of corrupt things. You keep trying to put temporary things where only permanent things can feel. You will find that all you will get back is junk in return. So a question I need to ask you as a true follower of Jesus Christ today is, are you asking God daily to fill you with His Spirit? Are you asking him daily to give you faith, power, and wisdom to live the life he's called you to live? Because again, you are controlled by what fills you. If your life is filled with jealousy, then every time somebody else succeeds, you're gonna be infuriated by it. If you're filled with lust, then your life's gonna be directed by your sexual desires, and they're gonna take you places you don't want to go. You'll find yourself in the arms of people you don't belong with.
00:14:28
Speaker
If you allow anger and bitterness to exist, your thoughts will become murderous and you will become contentious. You are controlled by whatever fills you. And that's why the Bible encourages us over and over again. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled with His Word. Let those things control who you are and the way you think. The second thing we see is that he spoke with incredible wisdom. Most scholars believe that likely Saul was a part of this freedman's synagogue that was mentioned here that began to oppose paul ah oppos Stephen as he was teaching about Jesus. And so Saul and these other guys would come and they would try to challenge Stephen and try to get into debates with him thinking they could surely put him in his place, especially Saul because Saul was very highly educated in Jewish tradition.
00:15:17
Speaker
So they would debate with Stephen, but the Bible says clearly that not one person could withstand Stephen's wisdom. Paul would later share this story with Luke who would write down the account of what happened so it could be recorded. So what gave Stephen such confidence to stand up in front of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of his day? He had had no evangelism training. He had no schooling at a Bible college or a seminary. His confidence came in his belief in the promises of Jesus. Look at this, Luke 12, Jesus is very kind to give us the heads up on what was gonna happen. He said, but before all these things, they will lay their hands on you, they will persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to bear witness. Okay, stop right there and make sure we don't miss that phrase.
00:16:13
Speaker
He literally has just said to every single one of us, if you speak my name, if you profess to follow me, they will lay their hands on you and begin to persecute you. And in the very next sentence, he says, this is gonna give you an opportunity. You see, we constantly see persecution and opposition as something that's against us and and could hurt us. and those kind God on the other hand says, I'm making you be persecuted so that you will have an opportunity to speak my name in front of the people who need to hear it the most. That ridicule you'll face at work for trying to start a Bible study is so that you can be more resolute in speaking the name of Jesus without fear.
00:16:52
Speaker
that conversation you're having with a family member who doesn't know Jesus and doesn't want to hear about Jesus, that's an opportunity for you to turn up the heat a little bit and live like Jesus and speak more about Jesus so that people are forced to make a decision whether or not they're gonna choose to follow Him themselves. This is an opportunity to bear witness.
Sharing Faith with Confidence
00:17:12
Speaker
He goes on and says, therefore, make up your minds not to prepare your defense ahead of time. Any of y'all ever done that? Know you're going to have a conversation with somebody in the next day. You've been trying to witness with them. You know it's going to be a cool opportunity. So you lie awake all night going, OK, if I say this, he'll probably say this. And so I need to respond with this. And what's that verse that they taught me in vacation Bible school that prepares me for this, right? And you're doing all of that. And all you do is waste your night's sleep preparing for something that Holy Spirit's already ready to handle for you.
00:17:41
Speaker
Now here's why that's important because the Holy Spirit doesn't give you gospel conversations, opportunities. He doesn't give you those moments unless he knows that the person who's receiving it is ready for it. Get that? You see, you're preparing yourself for a conversation thinking that person is absolutely gonna shoot you down, but the Holy Spirit's going, no, I've got them ready. Now that doesn't mean that every person's gonna respond. It doesn't mean that every person's gonna fall on their knees and accept Jesus, but what it does mean is that you inch them closer and closer to the cross because the Spirit's already prepared the soil where you're gonna lay the seed. And he's gonna make sure you have the right seed to lay in the heart of that person.
00:18:23
Speaker
Make up your minds not to prepare your defense ahead of time, for I will give you such words and a wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict." How many of you ever had that moment? You're in an opportunity, you know, it's a complete stranger, maybe a friend, who knows, you're in this conversation and you walk away from it and you go, that was a perfect opportunity for me to talk about Jesus. That was a perfect opportunity for me to invite them to church. It was a perfect opportunity for me to tell them about my faith. In that moment, I can guarantee you one thing's gonna happen and one thing needs to happen. The thing that's gonna happen is Satan is going to belittle you in that moment and tell you, you're worthless, you should have done better without sorry follower of Jesus you are, because you didn't open your mouth in that moment. What needs to happen is you need to, in that moment, commit yourself to go, you know what? I'm gonna prepare myself to be ready the next time.
00:19:17
Speaker
And that starts by surrendering my heart more deeply to what the Spirit wants to show me and teach me. Because the more you resist the Spirit, the more numb you become to the Spirit's direction in your life. It's important that you listen and important that you respond when the Spirit tells you to. You see, Stephen jumped fearfully as fearlessly into this gospel conversation because he knew it would not be him that would be handling the conversation. It would be the Holy Spirit of God. We should always talk about Jesus with confidence because as our vike vacation Bible school kids learned this week, God is always present. He is forever there. We should not, however, word of caution, we should not, however, use God's promise to be there and to speak for us as an excuse not to be in the Word.
00:20:06
Speaker
You see, those who are used by the Spirit are the ones who've already been prepared by the Spirit for that opportunity. The more you're in the Word, the more you know how to give an answer for the questions that are asked. As Paul in Ephesians says, you know what? Be prepared in season and out of season to give a reason for the hope that you've been given. You've got to be in the Word. If you know the Word, then the Word spills out of you when the opportunity comes, when the Holy Spirit opens that door. Stephen was ready, and that's what the entire chapter seven is all about, is Stephen speaking the history of what had happened among the Jewish people.
Lessons from Trials and Gospel's Spread
00:20:41
Speaker
The third thing we see here is that Stephen experienced a trial very much like Jesus' trial.
00:20:46
Speaker
You see, because they can't handle Stephen's wisdom, they do the same thing they did with Jesus. They go out and invent a bunch of lies against him. They gather false witnesses against him. And what happens is they now have a sham trial to try to convince him convict him of being guilty. They tried to say that he was teaching against the temple and teaching against the law. And that was not Stephen's story at all. Stephen was simply reminding them, if you want to get to Jesus, it's not through a building. If you want to get to Jesus, it's a matter of you just simply coming and receiving what He has already freely given you. Friday night, we had over 320 people out on our campus celebrating family night for vacation Bible school. And as I was standing at the end of the driveway, watching people come up, I was amazed at how many new faces were coming in because I was going, don't know you, don't know you, don't know you. I think you look familiar. And that was kind of my story all night long, but I was amazed at how many people came up to me and even to Lisa. And one of the first things that they would ask is, when are you building your building?
00:21:44
Speaker
Where do you start in your building? And there was a sassy side to me.
00:21:51
Speaker
I know you are surprised, but there was a sassy side of me that wanted to go, we don't invite you to a building, we invite you to a church. We are the church. And what you want is not a six million dollar building, what you want is 600 people who love you like my people will love you. And what was cool was that as they were leaving that night, I didn't even have to say that. They got it. Many of them came back by and said, this has been such an amazing and refreshing experience for us just hanging out with your people. I told one of them, I said, when Lisa and I walked up this morning, or this afternoon to get ready for this, one of the first things I said to Lisa was, I love that I pastor a church where they love just hanging out together. We didn't have to have an agenda Friday night. There was no planned program. The kids sang some songs and stuff like that, but the pastor didn't preach.
00:22:36
Speaker
I know you're surprised. We just got together and had fun and fellowship with one another. And people are are drawn to that. They love that. They are encouraged by that. It's never been about a building. God may never give us a building. We may never, ever darken the doors of a new place. We're going to celebrate the fact that God gave us a skating rink that still stands. We're gonna celebrate that this place becomes holy ground for many of us week after week after week, but what we're gonna continue to do is we're gonna continue to engage people with the truth of the gospel, because that's what changes their lives, not fancy halls or nice glass doors, not big sound systems or bigger stages. What engages people is the life-changing word of God.
00:23:22
Speaker
If someone wants forgiveness, all they have to do is embrace the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And that's what Stephen was telling them. He was saying, look, as sinners, you need to know the good news. But be reminded that as sinners are are shown the good news, you and I will receive more opposition, we'll face more shame, more exclusion, more ridicule, more physical harm as the world changes around us. It's always been this way and it always will be. Here's the word of caution. We cannot give in to the temptation to make Jesus seem more cool or make Jesus more acceptable to the world. We've not been given that permission.
00:24:05
Speaker
I would submit to you that most most of the churches in America have become weakened because of the fact that they've tried to soften Jesus just a little bit. Maybe if we make him seem a little more cool. Maybe if we seem him a little bit more accepting. Maybe if we widen the door for him. You know what Jesus himself said about that? Wide is the way to destruction. Wide is the way to eternal peril. It's the narrow way. So Jesus didn't give us permission to widen the door. If anything else, he said, you need to make sure that door stays exactly the way I prescribed it to be. When we teach the gospel, we have no permission to say anything other than Jesus accepts those who will come, but he refuses to leave them in their sin.
00:24:54
Speaker
Jesus has always said people would hate us for following him. It's true.
00:25:01
Speaker
but we can't change the gospel to make it more acceptable. Saw a sign this past week on something. It was a church in Rhode Island. I hate church signs, by the way.
Humor and Accuracy in Church Messages
00:25:15
Speaker
When we built our new building, we were not putting a church sign out there, one of those changeable church signs. Because the last thing I want is one of those signs that says, so the best way to be a Christian vitamin is be one.
00:25:28
Speaker
Y'all seen those? They drive me crazy. And nothing drives me even crazier than those signs where they misspell words on the sign. I wanna go, wait a make every Christian in America look illiterate. You know? I got sidetracked. So anyway, there's a sign up in Rhode Island that says, Jesus had two fathers, he turned out okay.
00:25:53
Speaker
That's not even biblical, guys. There's only one Father of Jesus. His name is Yahweh, Jehovah, ah God. He is the only Father of Jesus. Joseph was blessed to become his stepfather. Okay? So let's clarify that. Let's be real about it. But that's a church trying to make the door wider so people feel more accepted. Let's don't try to change anybody with the gospel. Let's just tell them that they're okay as they are. That's deadly, guys. The most unloving thing you can do to somebody who is on fire is say, you'll be okay. You'll be all right. The flames will go out in a moment.
00:26:32
Speaker
because what's gonna happen is they're going to die physically. If you and I are willing to speak lovingly to people to tell them that there is a God and that he has a standard of righteousness, then we don't love people at all. Gotta find where it was in my notes, because that wasn't part of the sermon. Okay. ah
00:26:55
Speaker
So the fourth thing. Jesus and Stephen both preached the Old Testament. Now you're probably going, why in the world do you mention in that? I mean, that's pretty cool, but why in the way you mention it? Because if Jesus needed scripture to teach truth, you and I better rely on scripture ourselves. We better rely on scripture ourselves. Now the point of Stephen's story here as he's preaching the sermon is he goes all the way back to the very beginning of history, human history, and he lines out how God created the world, how he established a relationship with Abraham and then eventually Moses and all these people. He set up these commandments, these rules, how he did all these things, but over and over again he keeps emphasizing, but you kept disobeying. You kept rejecting the truth. You kept rebelling. and eventually you are to blame for putting Jesus to death on the cross. But what he and Jesus were both consistent in saying when they taught these people of the Sanhedrin was this, you're missing the whole point of the Bible. It's not about rules, it's not about regulations, it's not about what choices you make other than one choice and that is the choice to follow Jesus and accept him as your Savior.
00:28:03
Speaker
Jesus even told the religious leaders, you're missing the whole point of the Old Testament. Look at this in John 5.39, it says, you pour over the scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them and yet they testify about me. He's saying, you guys memorize the scripture. you be You're very proud of the fact that you know all of this stuff and yet you're missing the point. The point is that the Old Testament always pointed forward to me. I am the answer to your life's problem, not the Ten Commandments. I am the answer to your life problems, not food rituals that you think are going to keep you cleansed. It's always been about me. And he goes on and he says, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life. Life has always been, will always be found in Jesus alone.
00:28:51
Speaker
So all the way through the chapter seven, Stephen gives his defense. He preaches the sermon. He talks about the patriarchs in Egypt and how Moses led them out and how they still rejected the idea that there eventually would be a Messiah, how they continue to rebel against God over and over again. And then they get to the very end of the message, and this is Stephen's words. He says, you stiff-neck people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. I'm gonna try starting every sermon with that and see how y'all like it. You hard-headed sons of guns. What are y'all doing? You are always resisting the Holy Spirit as your ancestors did. You did also. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? Man, he's getting real right now. He's he's laying out facts for him. He's saying, let me go through the list of prophets that God sent to you, every single one of you persecuted by you or even put to death by you.
00:29:46
Speaker
He says, they even killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. So now the blame's on you. You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it. When they heard their things, these things, they were enraged and gnashed their teeth at them. I don't know what that means. I don't know what gnashing your teeth. I don't know if they...
00:30:11
Speaker
I know some of you are driving driven crazy by that when somebody chomps with their mouth open, you know, chips and stuff, but this I don't know what that means. They gnash their teeth. Verse 55, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, listen, all the way to the very last moments of his life, the characterization of his life was that he was following God. and was full of the Holy Spirit. He gazed into heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, look, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears and together rushed against him.
00:30:46
Speaker
They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And while they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And after saying this, he fell asleep. You're hearing a lot of similarities there between the death of Jesus and the death of Stephen. He says, I'm committing my spirit to you, Lord. This has always been about you. This has always been about your sovereignty. This has always been about your glory all the way to the very end. This is about you, receive my spirit. And he also goes so far as to say the very words of Jesus when he says, Father, do not hold this against them, but forgive them for what they're doing.
Stephen's Martyrdom and Jesus' Approval
00:31:35
Speaker
But here's what I wanna highlight.
00:31:37
Speaker
all the way through Scripture, Genesis through Revelation, most of the time when we are given this glimpse into heaven, we hear this phrase, Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father, right? That's not what it says here. It says Jesus was standing. Now I've thought about that a lot. There's a lot of writing going on about that. Y'all know Ricky Clardy. read Claudia the treasure of our church, Mr. Even Kill. I mean, his emotions don't go up, they don't go down. I mean, we could have a $5 offering or a $15 million dollars offering in his knife if he's not gonna let you know. It's just gonna be right there.
00:32:18
Speaker
Well, two years ago, when the Braves were in the World Series, Ricky's a big Braves fan, as am I. Lisa and I invited Ricky and Mila over to watch one of the games with us. And 30 minutes beforehand, my wife started in going, baby, you gotta be real calm now. they They're real calm people. You cannot be going freaky in front of them and just acting all crazy. I said, okay, babe. So come in, we're like six or seventh inning. It's getting real intense in there. I'm sitting on my hands trying to be a good husband. And right in one of the key moments, Ricky Clarity jumps up going,
00:32:52
Speaker
And I thought, who is this man and where did he come from? What has he done with my treasure? I was blown away and that's the way it was the whole night. Ricky was, go he had had to foam Tomahawk too. He was this man going at it. I was like loving that, it was awesome. Guys, do you want to know what I hear right here? I see in this moment, Jesus stands up, he's gathering the angels over, he's going, that's my boy. That's my boy. Look at the way he lives. Look at the way he's speaking my name. Look at how he's preaching truth unafraid before everybody. Everybody wants him dead and he's still bold. He's standing there not for one minute compromising anything I've given him. He's living like me and he will die like me and in his honor I will stand before my father. I want to be that kind of guy.
00:33:44
Speaker
I want to be the kind of guy that right now that Jesus is standing in front of God going, look at that boy go. Look at that boy go. He's living just like I want him to live. He's giving up the things he doesn't need. He's following me with those whole heart. He's submitting every way. And when I get through that last few minutes of my life and I die, I want to walk into heaven and hear Jesus look at God go, I can sit down now.
00:34:12
Speaker
Because that didn't happen accidentally. Happens because you choose to die to yourself first. Happens because you quit making excuses for who you are and start accepting responsibility for what you need to be. It's because you quit quit being a fan of Jesus and you start being a follower of Jesus. You know what I'm talking about? There's a lot of guys who say, oh, I'm a fan of the Green Bay Packers, name one quarterback. Well, I don't know any of them. What was their last ball game? I couldn't tell you the score. You ever been to the game up there at Lambeau Field? No, no, never been there. What kind of fan are you? You see true followers, true followers, they reflect Jesus in everything all the way to the last minutes of their life. Those last few minutes, Stephen was still described as being full of the Holy Spirit.
00:35:12
Speaker
There's two things I think are important that you hear here. No, let's make it two. Let's make it two. Number one, God is sovereign over persecution. I think Chris prayed this a minute ago when he was praying our offering. yeah God is sovereign over every second of your lives. He has control. He can move things wherever he needs to. He can rearrange the hearts of men. He can change the personalities of people. He can convict people. He can pull back from people. He can do whatever he chooses to do. Notice what he does in this story, which is so incredible. In Acts 8, verse 1, Stephen has been put to death and the church is dispersed, which becomes a fulfillment of Acts chapter one, verse eight, where Jesus says, go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. If Stephen doesn't die, you and I very well may not be here today. It is Stephen's death that spins sends the church out to do the church's work. And God said, you know what? I will trade Stephen's life so that the rest of the Mideast can know who Jesus is.
00:36:14
Speaker
I will gladly receive my child home so that others may know what opportunity is there before them because of the gospel. I wanna be a guy who's willing to die so that others may live.
00:36:32
Speaker
And if God comes to me and says Ridley, your life will be required so that some little kid in Africa comes to know Jesus I wanna say, Jesus, tell me when.
00:36:51
Speaker
If Jesus says to me, Ridley, I want you to give up everything I've given you so that some homosexual in downtown Chicago learns that that's not what's gonna fulfill his life. It's only me that will give him hope. I wanna say, God, how do I give it all to you?
00:37:12
Speaker
We pray a lot around here about how we want this community to be changed by who we are. And it's really not that hard. It starts with letting Jesus change who you are.
00:37:26
Speaker
And then guess what will happen? The world will start to see his people full of the Holy Spirit. And there will be no way they can deny, no way they can deny the reality of who he is and what he's done for them.
00:37:42
Speaker
And if you're sitting here saying, man, there's no way God could ever do anything like that with me, let me make my second point.
Saul's Transformation
00:37:51
Speaker
At the end of the story, it says that the men who were stoning Stephen and putting him to death were laying their coats at the feet of Saul.
00:38:03
Speaker
If God can take a terrorist and turn him into an evangelist, he can do anything with you.
00:38:11
Speaker
The very man who opposed Christianity with his very life and was putting people to death with the approval of the religious leaders in the next few pages will suddenly become the greatest evangelist the world has ever seen. He just had to surrender. Will you pray with me?
00:38:37
Speaker
Father, We like to sing an old hymn, a favorite hymn that says, just as I am, without one plea. Just as I am. Well, what does that mean? I think what you're doing is you're inviting us to come in and to receive, to receive freely the gift that you have given us without it any stipulations other than just we die to ourself.
00:39:06
Speaker
Lord, we don't clean up to come to Jesus. We come to Jesus to receive the cleaning we need.
00:39:14
Speaker
Steven set out to be like Jesus. I pray that this morning others in this room will do the same. Rearranging their priorities, rearranging their lives, rearranging who they are so that you can make them what you want them to be. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
00:39:36
Speaker
I said the question I want you to think about was this one. Do you really want to be like Jesus? Because here's the starting reality. Sometimes Christ-like living leads to Christ-like dying.
00:39:51
Speaker
Jesus gladly laid down everything so that you and I could have this opportunity to sit here today. Laid down his life so that you and I could have that open invitation to receive the finished work on the cross for our sins.
Call to Spiritual Leadership
00:40:03
Speaker
He died a death that you and I deserve to pay so that you and I could live a life we couldn't possibly deserve.
00:40:13
Speaker
Suffering sometimes will be inevitable as we choose to follow Jesus, but the great news is that the mission of God is unstoppable. I gotta imagine that that day, standing there in the streets of Jerusalem, that Saul himself probably thought, this will be the end of it. Stephen will die and the rest of the church will scatter and we'll never hear about this Jesus again. Little did he know in just a few short weeks on the road to Damascus, he would find out how unstoppable the work of God really is.
00:40:53
Speaker
The invitation this morning is for you to receive Jesus Christ. If you don't have a relationship with him, now's the time for obedience. Not tomorrow, not next week, not even this afternoon after lunch. Now is the time to respond. But for most of you in this room, it's not about will I follow him. The question is how well will I follow him?
00:41:21
Speaker
Most of us have a faith that's kind of like a start and stop, like an old bad card, it can't keep running. We start, we stop, we start, we stop. And I think most of us in here would admit there's work to be done because Paul said the same exact thing. I realize I haven't arrived yet. I realize I haven't grabbed a hold of it yet, but I quit looking back and I look forward. I don't beat myself up about my past because I can't do anything about it, but I can make the choices to move forward in Christ Jesus. But that only happens with surrender.
00:41:57
Speaker
So as we stand and invite you to sing, we're singing a familiar song. Spirit leads you, come talk to one of our staff, come to this altar. Dads, maybe it's time for you to step up and start doing what you're supposed to do as a dad. Your wife is sitting at home going, I wish he'd lead. I'd wish he'd pray with me. I wish he'd take the kids and read devotions with them. I wish he'd quit trying to be best friends with my kids and raise my kids as a dad.
00:42:31
Speaker
Sky's speaking to you this morning. Do not hesitate. Respond as he leads you. Let's stand and sing.