The History of the Church

Standing Firm

Here we are jumping into a narative about a clash of two sides - the sharing of God’s truth and the resistance of God’s truth;

If we look back a few verses we see Steven confronting the religious leaders, the sanhedrin, about their faith - he was not confrentational just honest;

Why would Steven do this - because that is what he, and every believer, are instructed to do - share the truth of Christ;

How firm are you stand in your faith?

Anger

It’s amazing how quickly people can get angry, I know because I can have that tendency,

But why did these religious leaders get so angry at Steven - maybe because truth cuts deep into their hearts;

Truth hurts especial if it goes against our wants and desires, by Steven declaring Christ was in a position of authority in heaven they became stirred with outrage and wanted blood - his blood;

To them thye held the truth of God passed down by theirs fathers but even their fathers did not want the truth of who Jesus Christ would be and was;

Why, because this would disrupt everything they believed and change everything about how they worshipped;

Do you get angry with change?

Distruction

Have you ever told someone “don’t kill the messenger”;

There was a message that had been proclaimed from the beginning and that message was and is Jesus Christ;

They did not like the message because it did not fit in with how they felt things should be - so distruction of the message was better - it failed but to them it was better;

Steven became the first martyr for the message because he chose Christ first and last;

“Stephen seemed to be the first Christian leader to grasp that the gospel has a radical missionary energy to it. He realized that the gospel of Jesus means that God’s presence is not tied to one land or people” (Tim Keller, Evangelism: Studies in the Book of Acts [New York: Redeemer Presbyterian, 2005], 72).

Steven held firm to the truth that Jesus was the Son of Man, the Messiah, and God in the flesh - he was willing to do whatever it took to shout this from the roof top;

This is one of the most important lessons from the history of the church: we are called to remain faithful until the end. Ministry Pass

When truth is declared or faith moving forward challenges will become the norm - are willing to withstand the attempt of distruction?