Welcome back to FCA. If you haven’t been here these last few weeks, we’re doing a book study on Acts. And as we study this book as a group, I’ve been encouraging you to go home and read the book as well. Also as we do this study we’re beginning to see some emerging themes evolve, the first being the power and presence of Gods spirit in people’s lives. And what we’re also seeing is that the power and the presence of God are no longer for a select few, but it’s for everyone. In Acts we see that God begins to invade people’s lives. This is a very significant change, because up to this point it had been about people going to connect with God at a certain place, through priests and only at certain times, but God was like “ah” I want to change things up, I want to invade every part of your life. I want to have an intimate relationship with you, through my Spirit. And just like the early church God wants to do that through you and me. God wants to invade our lives with his power and with his presence. We’re also seeing in Acts that the power has a purpose. It’s not just for us to feel good about ourselves, to feel anointed; it’s for us to fulfill the great commission. It’s to go into the world and share the word and create disciples of all people and to fulfill what Jesus commanded us to do. Today were going to look at another theme that is emerging. It’s a very important component that the early church had in their lives that you and I must have in our lives today. In fact without this our faith is going to be ineffective. And your relationship with Jesus isn’t going to be everything that it was created, and supposed to be without this. In fact if you could take this and apply it to just about anywhere in your life and find blessing and success, whether it’s to your marriage, your job, or even a diet. Yeah were talking about commitment. We’re not talking about making commitments, that’s easy, we’re talking about keeping commitments. We’re talking about becoming people of commitment, and when we become people of commitment, spiritually that is something God can honor. That is something God can use, if I’m not committed to God and his ways, he can’t really use me like he could if I were fully committed to him.
Last week we saw in Act’s chapters 3&4 the church boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ; thousands are coming to know him. And the spiritual leaders are getting mad the Pharisees are getting mad, and they’re coming against the people of God. What do you do when someone comes against you because of your faith in Jesus? Has that ever happened before? Where people come against you because you’re taking such a stand for the things of God. Do the people at your work or at your school even know that you’re a Christian? I believe they should. What we see in the early church was that they were bold in what they believed, and they were committed to Jesus. In Acts chapter 6 we see some problems that are going on in the church; certain groups of widows feel like they are not getting the right amount of distribution of food. And the Apostles are trying to preach the word and disciple people, and serve food, so they were like let’s choose 7 men that are full of the spirit of God and let’s let them help us out with this. And in verse 5 we see that they chose Stephen, verse 5 reads “Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit)…” and in verse 8 we also see “Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.” Now we don’t know much more about Stephen up to this point. Except that he was full of Gods power, full of the Holy Spirit. Scholars believe that he might have been saved on the day of Pentecost. This means that he was very young in his walk with Jesus, but full of God’s power and presence in his life. And he is doing these great signs and wonders, speaking boldly and then look what happens. In verse 9 he begins to argue with some spiritual leaders. In verse 10 we see that “None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.” There is a very important message in that line there. It shows that the spirit of God gives us wisdom when we speak. When you go to speak for God it’s not just based upon what you can say, the spirit of God will speak through you. When you share your faith with others about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will speak through you.
Well we see that the leaders couldn’t stump Stephen and so they had to start spreading lies about him, saying that he had blasphemed against God, and against Moses. And so they seize him, and of course Stephen denies it. And he goes into this long sermon all the way into chapter 7 and at the end of chapter 7 look what happens. In verses 54-60 “The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And he told them, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand!" Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.” We’re going to talk about him next week; we’re going to see his encounter with Jesus and his name change to Paul. But right here his approving and leading this charge against Stephen. “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He fell to his knees, shouting, "Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" And with that, he died.” What a life. What a bold life lived for what he believed in. Stephen lived a committed life and 3 things that we can see is that #1 A Committed Life: STANDS OUT in a crowd. A committed life is going to stand out its going to stand above the rest of the crowd. We understand that in our culture, we get this. We celebrate commitment in our culture, I mean if you are really committed to kick a ball, shoot a ball, and throw a ball, if you do anything with a ball we are going to pay you lots of money because we want your autograph. We celebrate commitment; nobody stands in line for average. When you and I live a life that is spiritually committed to the things of God it’s going to stand out above the crowds, you’re going to go against the flow of culture. You stand up for your beliefs and you’re going to stand out in a crowd.
The second thing we see is that A Committed Life: Makes the opposition ANGRY. Just like Stephen he was committed, and he made the opposition angry. Who’s your opposition? Your opposition is the enemy, you have a real enemy. Jesus talked often about our real enemy the devil. He comes to rob, kill, and destroy. We have a real enemy, and when you are committed it makes him mad. Now as long as you live a undefined life/ straddling the fence, you’re no threat to him. But the moment you decide that “I am going all out for God; I’m going to live for Jesus Christ, and give him everything I’ve got.” Just plan on a battle, plan on a fight.
The third and final thing we see from Stephen is A Committed Life: Has eternal IMPACT. We all want our life to count don’t we? We want it to matter that we’ve been here. We only live once and we want it to make sense. Everybody wants their life to count, but let me tell you that nothing is going to matter more than the spiritual legacy that you leave behind. Nothing else is going to matter. You can make lots of money and pass it on to your children, and your grandchildren, but let me tell you when you die they’re going to spend it all. It’s going to be gone right? It may take them a while, it may take them a day but it’s going to be gone. But you build a spiritual legacy, you build the kingdom of God in peoples’ lives, you lay a foundation where people get to know God and get to walk with God. Man that never ends that’s got an eternal impact that keeps going. The early church lived with this in mind. They were Kingdom builders. Their commitment to Jesus Christ laid the foundation for faith to spread throughout the known world. It’s because of them that we are here today. So let me ask you what are you committed to? Are you committed to God? If so, what impact will you leave on the generations to come? If not then why not start committing yourself today? Why not begin living today committed to sharing the love of God to your friends and family? Today is a great day to do that. Thanks again for reading hope you enjoyed this week’s lesson. Next week is Easter so we will be taking a little break from Acts, but you still won’t want to miss out.
Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that’s for Jesus!
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