Embarrassed Believer or Person of Impact?
Scripture Reading: Acts 6:1-15
Text: Acts 6:2-10; 7:54, 57-59
Sermon Idea: Are you an embarrassed believer or person of impact?
All followers of Jesus can be high impact people because of the purpose and power of God in their lives.
We can and should be high impact people to others. Take for instance a man named Vinnie Skutnick. On a cold, dreary, wintery morning, a flight attendant was going down for the count in the freezing waters of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. She was one of those on Air Florida=s ill-fated flight 90 that had crashed into the 14th Street Bridge.
Vinnie Skutnick was standing on the bridge watching as the flight attendant was struggling to stay alive. He took off his overcoat, heavy boots and dove into the Potomac. He swam to the flight attendant, found her, and lifted her head and shoulders out of the water. He whispered in her ear, AYou will live.@ And she did!
Asked why he risked his life to save the stranger, he replied, AI couldn=t save everybody, but I knew I could make a difference to one person.@ Vinnie Skutnick couldn=t be a high impact person to everyone but he could be a high impact person to that flight attendant (Unknown Source).
In life there are Ahigh impact people@ who impact multitudes of people. Most of us will never do that. However, we can be people of high impact if it is only to a few. As a matter of fact, God intends for us to be people who influence the outcome of another person=s life and be a person of high impact.
Is it possible? I know it is. We can learn some of the principles that can make us Ahigh impact people@ from Scripture=s brief account of the life and death of Stephen. Let=s read it together. (READ ACTS 6:1-15).
Stephen was a person of influence who joined with God to make him a high impact kind of person. We can embrace some of the things it will take to be a high impact person ourselves. First we must believe that it is possible.
I. BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE. (Acts 6:2-7)
Listen to this list of people. John Grisham, George Gallup, John Maxwell, Yvonne Peavey, James Dobson, William Booth, Milton Villarreal, Hal Linhardt, Michael Jordan, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Sandra Purnell. All of these people have one thing in common. You may ask what it is? They are male and female. They are young and old. Some are living and some have died. Some are well known and some are not. What is the one thing they have in common? They have been, or are people of influence.
Some, of the people you may recognize, others you don=t. Yvonne Peavey and Sandra Purnell were my third and sixth grade teachers. Milton Villarreal was a man who was a father to me when I had none. Hal Linhardt was a pastor of ours. All of these people had an influence on my life.
All of us in this room are people of influence. However, we are not using that influence to its maximum impact. Hugh Hewitt in his book, The Embarrassed Believer goes into great detail to demonstrate that we, as Christians, are not reaching our potential in influencing those around us.
Here is what I want all of us to see. God can take our influence and make us high impact people for Him.
Stephen was a person of influence and high impact. He was living, breathing, walking, talking evidence that Jesus was real and made a difference in a person=s life. I wish I could have been in Jerusalem while he was alive and heard him tell how Jesus was all the Scripture said He was. I wish I could have heard his testimony about how he came to know Jesus as his Messiah and Master. We don=t know how it happened but it is obvious that Stephen was a dynamic believer and a person of high impact.
Look at what he did. When he walked among the people, God worked through him to do Awonders and signs.@ Those were things so strange that people marveled. They were divine operations that aroused the imagination and the understanding. Stephen was a Ahigh impact@ person! He attracted the crowds of people.
Look again. In Jerusalem there was a synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen. When some from that synagogue engaged Stephen, they were not able to refute Stephen. He was too overwhelming!
Why was he so powerful? The answer is found in one word. The word is Afull.@ Listen to these words from verses three, five, and eight. In verse three, he was one of those who were Afull of the Spirit and wisdom.@ In verse five, he was described as Afull of faith and of the Holy Spirit.@And in verse eight, he was described as Afull of God=s grace and power.@ In a word, Stephen was a man Afull of God.@ God had control of his life and made him a high impact person!
That is still possible.
You and I can be people of influence for Christ. The idea that the dynamics of Christian living are reserved to a few believers is not true. All of us have the potential of being dynamic Christians who influence others!
The key is for Jesus to live His life through us as we give Him freedom to access every arena of our lives and take control. He will make us powerful and high impact people for Him!
You can be a high impact person for Christ. And you will be on your way if you begin with knowing it is possible through the Holy Spirit having control of your life on a daily basis.
A person of high impact believes it is possible.
Second . . .
II. ANTICIPATE OPPOSITION. (Acts 6:8-10)
If we become people of influence for Christ, we will experience opposition.
Stephen was making a difference in the lives of the common people and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. However, not everyone was excited about it. He was opposed by some of the Jews from the Synagogue of Freedmen. The name indicates three things about the people who attended the synagogue. One, they were probably former slaves or descendants of former slaves. Two, they were Jews who spoke Greek as their language. And, three, they were from the North African and Asian dispersion. Those Greek speaking leaders in the Synagogue of the Freedmen were unable to refute what Stephen said.
So, when they could not refute him or his words, they slandered him. They said Stephen was blasphemous against Moses and God. That kind of accusation was enough to get a person killed! They stirred up the elders and the people against Stephen. They framed him.
If you and I are going to be people of influence and high impact, we will experience opposition! Stand for God in the power of the Holy Spirit and you will find others standing against you.
In March 1996, the Los Angeles Times, kicked off its annual spring training coverage of the Dodgers with the usual compliment of articles about the newcomers and veterans, who are supposed to help the team win a championship. One of those new comers, Greg Gagne, a veteran shortstop, was captured in the article as an evangelical Christian. The story was predictable. A troubled youth finds Jesus and lives out his faith in an environment usually very hostile to believers C the clubhouse. The headline was classic: AHeaven Help Those Who Underrate Gagne.@ Gagne is quoted as saying he knows the snickers and the scorn are constantly there; he chooses to ignore them (Hewitt 28).
We can anticipate opposition when we allow Christ to use our lives and influence to make us high impact people.
A person of high impact believes it is possible to make a difference, anticipate some opposition, and third, they . . .
III. PAY THE PRICE. (Acts 7:54, 57-59)
Stephen paid a price to make a difference and be a
person of influence. When he was framed by his accusers, he didn=t make an elaborate defense of his life. Rather, he chose to preach a sermon! Wow! That would be the last thing most would do but Stephen was committed to something and someone greater than he was. His union with Jesus was compelling and he was willing to pay the price necessary to get the message to those Jews. He knew the power of the Word of God. So, he told the narrative of the history of Israel. Then he turned to his accusers and said, (READ ACTS 7:51-53).
That wasn=t all they did! They began to stone him. It was terrible to be stoned to death. The stones weren=t just little rocks. They were often large rocks that would break bones when they struck a person=s body. The pain and horror of such an experience were too much for us to enter into.
Imagine we are there. First, a large stone is hurled against Stephen=s chest and we hear the crushing of the bones. Then large whelps appear on his body as smaller stones are thrown. Across his head large bumps appear where the rocks have struck him. Blood pours from his body as the stone strikes him. We can hear the cries and groans from within him. He is dying and we are there sensing the awful injustice that is happening. Indeed! He is paying a price to make a difference and be a high impact person. He=s giving his life!
High impact people pay prices!
On February 12, 1997, a dozen, Egyptian Christians were gunned, down by terrorists in a city just a two-hour drive from Cairo. Another 13 were murdered a month later in a different city. Egyptian Christians practice their faith with a real sense of the peril at their elbows.
What are some prices we are called upon to pay to be a person of great influence for Jesus and make a difference in the lives of others? Probably we aren=t going to be called to give our life. But it could be, we are called upon to live a life characterized by greater discipline. Or could it be some sacrifice? What price is God calling you to make to become a person of high impact for Him?
Remember. People of high impact and influence are people who pay a price.
To be a person of high impact believe it is possible to make a difference, anticipate some opposition, be willing to pay the price.
As Hugh Hewitt says, AIt=s about changing lives. The EB is a believer. He or she has faith. They have salvation in fact. And as their lives are measures of genuine joy.@
That is true! And encourages us to pay the prices necessary to be high impact people!
Stephen couldn’t be stopped! He wasn=t to be defeated. They couldn’t refute his words so they framed him. He took the occasion to recount in narrative form the history of Israel and their opposition to the prophets God sent them and how they murdered Jesus. Then they stoned him. We might think that would be the end of it. But it wasn=t!
He was a person who had given his influence to God and became a high impact person. It was worth it because:
1) He saw what other didn=t. Stephen was full of God. He gazed right into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Now listen to his words as he cried out, (READ ACTS 7:56). He saw what those around him didn=t see.
2) He did what others couldn=t. Then he called on God and said, (READ ACTS 7:59-60). Finally after crying out in a loud voice he died. He like his Lord before him, was able to forgive those who were killing him.
3) He received what others won=t. Stephen; saw Jesus standing beside the right hand of the Father. Normally, He would be pictured as sitting but He was standing to give the first martyr a special welcome.
Imagine being received by the Lord!
But that isn’t the end of the story.
Standing by consenting to Stephen=s death was a Pharisee named Saul. After Saul was converted to Jesus and became the Apostle Paul, he referred to the death of Stephen as part of his own testimony of coming to Christ.
Know this. What we do to influence others for God and good will be worth it all!
1) We will make a difference in another=s eternal destiny.
2) We will leave a legacy that the stock market can=t take away.
3) We will build something that will await us when we get to heaven.
4) And, we will please our blessed Lord Jesus.
Here is a prayer we can pray. Lord. I want to be a person of influence. I believe You want to be a person of influence. I believe You want to use my influence and make me a person of high impact on others for your sake. Whatever the price, I am willing to pay it. Here is my life=s control. I release it to You right now.
Tonight we have heard about what it take to be a person of impact. We shrink back from becoming a person of impact because it will require a great deal. As we sing the song, AI=ll Not Turn Back,@ allow the words of this song and the Holy Spirit to impact your life so that you can impact others.
Works Cited
Barker, Kenneth. Ed. Reflecting God Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000.
Bence, Philip A. AActs@ A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Indianapolis: Wesleyan, 1998.
Butler, Trent C. ed. Holman Bible Dictionary. Nashville:
Holman, 1997.
Douglas, J. D., and Merrill C. Tenney, eds. New International Bible Dictionary. Revised ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987.
Hayford, Jack W. Hayford=s Bible Handbook. Nashville: Nelson, 1997.
Hewitt, Hugh. The Embarrassed Believer. Nashville: Word, 1998.
Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
Radmacher, Earl. Ronald B. Allen & H. Wayne House. Nelson=s New Illustrated Bible Commentary. Nashville: Nelson, 2000.
