Building the Church (8)
Building the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The High Cost of leadership
The High Cost of leadership
Welcome back
I hope everyone had a good week
How did you see God move this past week?
How would you define courage?
I think we think sometime it some epic act in war or a great act of heroism.
At its core, courage is standing up or doing what must be done even when you may be alone.
There was a test conducted by a university where 10 students were placed in a room. 3 lines of varying length were drawn on a card. The students were told to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the longest line. But 9 of the students had been instructed beforehand to raise their hands when the instructor pointed to the second longest line. 1 student was the stooge. The usual reaction of the stooge was to put his hand up, look around, and realizing he was all alone, pull it back down. This happened 75% of the time, with students from grade school through high school. The researchers concluded that many would rather be president than be right.
As we continue our journey through Acts, we have seen the amazing growth of the church and beginning of the opposition.
The religious leaders are starting to see this movement as a threat, and it will build to include the secular world.
Just like then, we need men and women to stand today with courage.
It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.
A.A. Hodge
The High Cost of leadership
The High Cost of leadership
So how do we stand?
How do we answer?
That’s what I want to dive into today.
Let’s pray.
Standing by Knowing
Just to catch up
Stephen had been appointed to serve
And serve he did
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
He was causing a stir and people didn’t like it.
Bringing light to darkness will always bring a response.
11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak 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 will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Standing by Knowing
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
Be ready to be questioned
1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
Be ready to be questioned
Our lives, actions and words should cause people to question.
Be ready to answer
2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me.
Be ready to answer
Stephen is about to give the longest address in all of Acts.
He knew his faith.
He knew the what and the why and would answer all their questions.
Stephen is going to take these religious leaders on a journey through their history and lead them to the obvious outcome.
Abraham
2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
Joseph
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
Moses
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’
Joshua
44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,
David and Solomon
46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
The whole story
They misunderstood, they rejected, they disobeyed, they despised, they resisted
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Be ready for the cost
56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
Be ready for the cost
58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Be ready for the cost
I am not saying your faith will cost your life, but for so many today it does.
I love that it says Jesus was standing
Remember his declaration to this same council?
64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
This is the last time we see the Messianic term “Son of Man”
A shift was happening away from the Jewish leadership and way of faith.
The High Cost of leadership
The High Cost of leadership
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
The High Cost of leadership
The High Cost of leadership
There is a cost to following Jesus with everything
He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose - Jim Elliot
Next week - Acts 8
