Cut To The Heart
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The phrase cut to the heart is used in Acts in two distinct ways.
When the message of the Gospel is preached people will respond in one of two ways.
They will either accept what is being taught or deny it.
They will either be like Lydia who allowed her heart to be open to the message.
14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.
Or they will be like Pharaoh whose heart was hardened.
17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
When faced with the message of God there is a decision that has to be made.
Either to accept and love the truth like Paul.
When Paul was faced with the err of how he was living he decided to accept the truth.
1 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
Here is where Paul is going to have to make a choice.
4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Paul is faced with how he is living is kicking against the goads
He is about to be faced with the message of God.
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Paul is sent to Ananias where he will be taught what he must do.
16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
Paul heard what Ananias said and arose and was baptized.
18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
Paul did not argue, he did not make excuses, he simply arose and was baptized.
Paul was cut to the heart and had the right emotion and pressed toward the goal.
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.
16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Or to be like Hymenaeus, Alexander and Philetus and reject the message.
Hymenaeus and Alexander rejected the message and shipwrecked their faith.
18 This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,
20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Hymenaeus and Philetus would go on to teach a false message.
14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.
17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort,
18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
Alexander would go on to resist words of Paul and do him much harm.
14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works.
15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.
16 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.
In Acts 2:37 the people on the Day of Pentecost were cut to the heart.
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
In verse 22-23 Peter tells them that they had crucified and put to death the son of God.
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—
23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
In verse 36 Peter doubles down tells them again that they crucified the Lord.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
At this point the people on the Day of Pentecost could have become upset and refused to believe and perished because of their lack of love of the truth.
9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But instead they decided to have godly sorrow.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
This lead them to ask--
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
After they asked the question Peter continued to teach them.
40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
In verse 41 they gladly received his word and were baptized.
41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Peter was not easy on the People on the Day of Pentecost.
He told them that they had put to death the Son of God.
They allow the message to cut them to the heart and produce godly sorrow.
In Acts 7.54 we see the words cut to the heart again but in a much different way.
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
These people were cut to the heart and they were going to put Stephen to death for teaching them the truth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Peter told the people on the day of Pentecost that they had murdered Christ by crucifying Him and they responded with--
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Stephen told the people that they had murdered Christ and they did not respond with “What shall we do”?.
Stephen shared the word of God with them and they said he spoke blasphemous words...
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
They then seized him and brought him to the counsel were they accused him of teaching about Jesus.
12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
13 They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
15 And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
Stephen showed his bravery and courage and he did not back down from teaching the truth simply because they arrested him.
Stephen gives them a history lesson that goes from Abraham all the way through wilderness wanderings to show that they have resisted God at every opportunity.
From the time that Isreal became a nation they began to resist God.
Stephen says they rejected Moses.
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Moses tried to deliver them and they rejected him.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’
27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’
They rejected the law that Moses would deliver to them from Mount Sinai.
38 “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
They reject God’s deliverance and desired to go back to Egypt.
39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
They rejected God and turned to idols.
40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
This idol worship continued into the wilderness wanderings all the way through time of Joshua and the judges thru the time of the kings all the way to the time of
Babylonian captivity.
42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
Stephen then brought this home and said you are just like your fathers and are rejecting God’s message.
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
Your fathers persecuted the prophets and killed those who foretold of Jesus’ coming and you actually put Jesus to death.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
This is the same thing that Peter accused the people on the Day of Pentecost of doing.
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—
23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
They were cut to the heart and had the right response and these people will be cut to the heart and have the wrong response.
The people here are going to hear the message Stephen just preached and be cut to the heart and become upset with Stephen instead of understanding they need to change. (Kill the messenger)
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
This did not stop Stephen from preaching still.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
They stopped their ears and stoned him.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Conclusion:
Everyone is going to be cut by the message of God because we all have sin in our lives.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
How are we going to respond?
Are we going to be upset with the truth
16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
The people that Stephen preached to became so upset with the truth that they stoned the messenger.
Or are you going to be like the three thousand souls who gladly received the word and were added to the church by Jesus.
Like the Nobel Bereans?
11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
You are going to have a response to the message of God.
The only question is how is God’s word going to Cut you to the heart.
9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
