Seizing the Moment
Acts chapter 6-8 selective
Do you know that you are special in God’s eyes? Really
You are special and unique to God and He has a ministry or job for you to do as a believer.
Each one of us has been given by the Lord talents to be used for kingdom work.
As a believer living right now, in this day of struggles and uncertainties you are called by God for this moment. Do you believe it?
Seizing the moment… that’s the title and that is what we will look at for a few minutes.
Turn to the book of Acts and I will catch up with you in a minute.
Some have this belief that the “Good old days” were better than today.
In some ways yes and some ways no!
The difference in a lot of cases is that technology does not let people hide as much as they use to.
Things were happening then, we just didn’t know about it.
This world is turning a deaf ear to the things of God but that does not mean we stop trying.
Pastor, they have gone rogue and no one cares about God like they use too.
Let me fill you in on a secret that I Learned from the bible - People hated Jesus when he walked this earth, why wouldn’t they hate Him now and hate his people also.
But God gave us a mandate to go and preach the gospel and leave the saving up to him. Amen?
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father today as we look into your Holy Word may your word come alive to us and fill us with hope.
We are living in tough times but we are also living in the most exciting times since the apostles first spread your word.
Would you today speak to our hearts and allow us to sense your presence and sense your anointing so that we would receive Holy boldness and strength to share your word with those we come in contact with in Jesus name! Amen!
The apostles were persecuted- They had targets on their backs just because they belong to the way- because they associated themselves with Jesus.
Check this out- even the religious people were after Jesus and his disciples.
They hated Jesus so much that their hatred for him reflected back on the people that associated with Him.
The Sadducees and the Pharisees were “filled with jealousy”
They arrested them (disciples) and put them in jail
(19-20) “But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. Go stand in the temple courts, he said, and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
They were again brought before the rulers and religious people and the Sanhedrin drilled them about Jesus and their teachings
(28) “We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood”
Peter replies- “We must obey God rather than men.”
It is not that God has changed his view on spreading the gospel, but the believers that are sent out are listening to man instead of God!
Peter again speaks for the group and says- “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey.”
Acts 5:33-39 Read from Bible
Gamaliel knew and was smart enough to know through history that if this was a human effort to revolt that as soon as the leader is killed that they would disperse and the movement would stop. But if it is God working in these men- that you would be fighting against God Himself!
Consider carefully what you do with these men! (35)
Gameliel was a well respected Pharisee. In the group of Sadducees and Pharisees there was different reasons they wanted the apostles to stop preaching- Sadducees were wealthy, politically motivated men that wanted everything for themselves and they (disciples) were cutting into their profits.
The Pharisees had no political agenda, but wanted to teach the law- the letter of the law. All 613 laws to others except when it came to themselves. They were exempt.
Gamaliel being respected and his grandfather being a respected Pharisee was given time to speak at the Sanhedrin.
I think it is funny, Gamaliel, his prized student and one that kept the law was Saul of Taurus (Paul) who later would bring the gospel to the Gentiles.
Make sure God is in it (Seize the moment)
If you are going to seize the moment- make sure God is in it. You have a responsibility to the gospel.
If you are trying to do things in your own strength, it will be limited to your own strength, but if God is in it and you are working in His strength, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH God!
Look at all the things 50-100 years ago people said would be impossible-
Flying in space
Going to the moon
Going underwater in a submarine
Being able to see things happening around the world at the exact moment it is happening!
Computers, cell phones, electric cars
Cures for deceases that took your life only a few years ago.
If God can use His creation to do some amazing things- how much more can God do for Himself? If God is in it, there is nothing impossible with God.
He tells each of us to go preach the gospel- tell your story, get involved in people’s lives. Give a rip!
It comes down to this verse and our thinking! “We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name”
Either we are going to listen to man and only worry about ourselves or we will be like Peter and reply “ We must obey God rather than Man”
We will trust that all things are possible when God is in it!
The world may be furious that we are so narrow in our thinking- putting a damper on what they have called a majority rule.
Jesus stated very clearly that He was the truth and no man comes to the Father but through Him
We are in a battle spiritually - in the world, in our hearts to see if we will put God first and proclaim His name to those that need Him in their lives.
If you cave without trying, the world never gets to see the Lord do some amazing things!
God is still able to do impossible things- He is just looking for some believers to take him up on it.
The people around you are looking to see if what you are saying is really what you believe.
They want to see if the God you keep talking about can do the things that you say He can.
(38) “Leave these men alone! Let them Go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
So the disciples leave the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they are free and worthy of suffering for Jesus.
The crowd is watching, the religious zealots that were furious are watching
There was persecution “that the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”
Conversions happen in times of trial and times of uncertainties. God can do great things during trying times!
We never fully know what God is doing. Even though we cannot see does not mean that God is not working.
We will read about Stephen being seized during this time of persecution.
This is where we see the second principal of seizing the moment for God to do something amazing.
Opposition arose
Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin
Scripture says that he is a spirit-filled believer (That makes a difference)
Acts Chapter 6:10 - “But they could not stand up against his wisdom or the spirit by whom he spoke.”
When God is moving, the devil will try to stop it-
“Then they secretly persuaded some men to be false witnesses.”
They stirred up trouble. They lied about what he was saying to fit their own needs.
Acts 6:15-
“All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently on Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”
They knew this man had the anointing of God on his life and that what he was accused of was a lie from the pit of Hell.
Stephen stands before them and the high priest asks “are these charges true?” He stands there under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and gives them a history lesson on the goodness of God right from their own scriptures.
He accuses the accusers
The God of Abraham spoke and Abraham obeyed and left his home and went to a land God would show him.
He (God) promised that our descendants would come from his seed and God did miracles in his life to provide a son.
That our own descendants would be strangers in the land and slaves but God would bring them out. (Egypt)
But God would be with them and He would keep his promise that the messiah would come through the seed of Abraham.
That God would bring them out of slavery through Moses and we know the stories of the Burning bush where god spoke to him and we know the story of the Red Sea experience of rescue.
Our forefathers rejected Moses and turned their hearts back toward Egypt
You have tried to build your own Gods made of Gold but God does not live in statues.
You have tried to put him in a building but God does not dwell in a building.
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts- there was never a prophet that you have not killed.
You have resisted the Holy spirit of God
You have killed the prophets predicting the coming of the anointed one and now you have murdered the anointed on.
You cannot stop the plans of God! You have received the law but you have not obeyed them!
They were furious! They were beside themselves! They have been slapped by the Holy Spirit of God. They attempted to do whatever they could to try to stop God who they cannot stop! The Holy Spirit of God!
To seize the moment-
There will be a cost to be Jesus disciple- (Seize the moment)
Salvation is free to those that accept Him because Jesus paid the price but being a disciple will cost each one of us.
2 Tim. 2:15
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
Luke 9:23
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
Galatians 2:20-
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Luke 6:40-
“A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.”
2 Corinthians 5:17-
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”
Hung in there as we wrap this up- look at Acts 7:54-8:1 Read from Bible
Stephen the first Christian martyr models for us Christ-likeness.
Standing up and speaking the truth lead to his death because to them the penalty for blasphemy was death.
To Stephen it was to be Christ-like and his focus was on the standing Jesus awaiting him.
To follow Christ, we will be asked to do things that we cannot do in our strength alone.
To be at the center of God’s will is to have peace that goes beyond understanding.
No one wants to die a death like that, but being a disciple is doing the right thing even if the right thing would take your life.
The verse ends with “And Saul was there, giving approval of his death.”
Saul, who later became the apostle Paul approved of the death of Stephen until he himself found the relationship with Christ that would change the world as they knew it.
To me, it shows us that none is ever to far from God that He can’t reach them if they want to be reached.
In these last days are perilous times and God has called each of us to respond to the gospel and share the gospel.
As we close-
God has a job for you and I – to seize the moment is to be sensitive to what God wants to do through us.
If we don’t speak how will they hear and if we don’t ask how can they come? If we don’t care, how will the love of Christ be shown to them?
