The Journey: Is An Invitation 2-18-2020

By Dean Foster

February 18, 2020

The Journey: is an invitation

⁸And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Acts 8:9

On a previous Journey we saw that after God saves, He sends us. To review: He grabs us by the collar and pulls us back from the edge of the abyss. Then He points us in the right direction and says, "Go!" If we humble ourselves and do as He says, it works and the adventure begins.

Welcome to The Journey.

Early on in his book Wild at Heart, John Eldredge sets the tone when he writes: "Eve was created within the lush beauty of Eden's garden. But Adam, if you'll remember, was created outside the Garden, in the wilderness. In the record of our beginnings, the second chapter of Genesis makes it clear: Man was born in the outback, from the untamed part of creation. Only afterward is he brought to Eden. And ever since then boys have never been at home indoors, and men have had an insatiable longing to explore."¹

God made the masculine heart and set it in the chest of every man to help him hear with his heart when Jesus says, "Come, follow me."

The message of Eldredge's book though, is that for the last thirty years or more society and the church has been wringing the masculine heart out of men in a misguided attempt to make us into "nice guys" and "mature Christians" by teaching us what a "nice guy" Jesus was. I know, "Better read it again!"

The church went off the tracks encouraging Christian men to be nice, polite, guys, always acting properly in public. Churches asked for Christlike behavior from their men. Simmer down and try to be more understanding of others.

Like I said, somebody better read it again. Or ask the money changers Jesus found selling birds in the temple courts how nice of a guy he was that day. Ask any of the squad of Pharisees how polite Jesus tended to be with them when saying straight out what he thought of their behavior. Jesus was radical in the way he looked at the world and understood other men and that rarely caused him to "simmer down."

Jesus was a fighter with a masculine heart like the one he gave us. He came to earth defining the words bravery and boldness. God sent him to us expecting, ready and some would say, looking for a fight because Father Son and Holy Spirit knew there was going to be one (Mt.10:34).

God sent His Son to save us, redeem us, and wake us up. The battle isn't brewing, the battle isn't coming, the battle is happening and when Jesus talked about the fight in Matthew, he said two things:

"³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."(Mt. 10:38&39)

When the religious leaders at the synagogue heard that Stephen was at it again, they immediately knew who he was and where he was. Stephen was a man full of God's grace and power, performing great wonders and signs among the people. He was telling other Jews and anyone who would listen the difference that believing in Jesus of Nazareth had made in his life. He was one of the first evangelists on the hardened streets inside the walls of Jerusalem. The religious leaders must have seen Stephen as an imminent threat. He was!

Stephen was one of seven chosen to minister to the needs of the neglected in the early church. By design and circumstance God placed him in perfect position among the brothers and sisters of the growing church. Just the place where his wisdom, holy boldness, and the power of the Holy Spirit within him would bear the most fruit.

As the word of God spread, the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem. More and more were coming to understand the faith.

Religious Leaders must have found it difficult to argue with Stephen. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. Failing that, they secretly recruited men to accuse him of blasphemy and hauled him before the Sanhedrin. They'd let him defend himself before the council. (Pridefully, they thought they would finish his influence there.) They'd see how far his fantasies about this Jesus got him.

The Sanhedrin members got more than they expected though. The Holy Spirit gave Stephen the words and his speech told the religious leaders how God had always been there for Israel again and again. He told how God had pursued them as a chosen people and yet they had killed His messengers and finally even murdered His Son.¹

"You stiff necked people," Stephen shouted. "You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!"

When they heard him saying those things out loud the religious leaders grabbed Stephen and dragged him outside the city walls to a rocky place. A deep hole would have already been cut out of the ground there and they threw him in it. Convinced they were carrying out justice, the people would have gone along to help throw large stones at Stephen in the hole. They pulled large stones out of the ground and heaved them down at him.

As he continued to talk about his savior some might have noticed that his face was like that of an angel. It made them pause and hold on to their rock a little longer. He must have batted the smaller rocks away to protect himself. A heavy rock hit him in the head, then another. Stephen crumpled to the ground, lifted his eyes toward heaven, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then crawling to his knees, he cried out, "Father forgive them. They don't know what they do." And when he had said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:60)

As the crowd broke up and walked back toward the city, I feel sure there was at least one who hadn't thrown any stones that day. One who didn't turn back right away. At least one who had only watched and heard it all happen; the faith of a masculine heart, alive with love and courageous to the end. There must have been one, perhaps the last to leave the stoning pit where they martyred Stephen, at least one who accepted the invitation.

This is The Journey.