The Seed of the Church

This morning's sermon text is Acts 7 verse 54 through chapter 8 verse 4. Now when they heard this they were cut to the quick and then began gnashing the teeth at him But being full of Holy Spirit he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God And he said behold I see the heavens opened up and the son of man stand at the right hand God But they cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears and rushed at him with one inels When they had driven him out of the city they began stoning him and The witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said Lord Jesus received my spirit Then falling on his knees he cried out the loud voice Lord do not hold this sin against him having said this he fell asleep Saul was in hurry agreement with putting him to death and on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him But Saul began ravaging the church entering house after house and dragging off men and women He would put them in prison Therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word The glass the grass withers and the flower fades But the word of our God stands forever

Please pray to me Oh, so Lord now we Pray for We pray for the kind of spiritual vision that you gave in the power of your spirit to Stephen our brother So that we would see the son of man By faith standing at your right hand in heaven right now So that all of our reflection all of our thinking all of our feeling Every impulse of our hearts in this room would be carried out in the presence of the one who stands and thrown Not high in your presence. Oh, Lord would give us An adoration That is deep and that grows out of this vision of Jesus Christ as he is now Would you grant to us to be faithful to him in the fullness of his might and the fullness of his Lordship and his Conquest as the Savior of sinners Lord would we see him by faith there in the place of triumph of Completed victory and would we give praise as those who have been rescued by him? So I pray especially for this all in this room Who have come? scorning and mocking as I once did and Would you have mercy on them? We worship you Lord Jesus for your sovereign power That we know and read in this text to take even those most opposed to you Even those who set themselves as your opponents And in the might which you wield as the Savior of sinners You transform them into your best proponents And so I ask you to accomplish that great drama now this morning in real lives for your own glory Well, we are privileged this morning to Witness through the lens of this text a Death in the family. I Say family because Stephen is my brother Stephen is my brother. He's your brother. He's our brother and So we need to see at the beginning that what we witnessed this morning is a death in our family and It's a privilege to witness this because our brother dies so very well. Oh He dies so well so graciously so passionately so Focused on the Lord Jesus and his glory so focused everywhere else except on himself You notice even in his dying moment just like the Lord He is Concerned that God would forgive those who are killing him for the sins that they are committing an awesome display of What happens in a life set free by Jesus Christ? Privileged because Stephen's life and his death so vividly display the majesty in the honor of Jesus Christ So it is a great privilege that God gives us through this text Last week we looked at Stephen's defense and we saw that Stephen was in front of the Sanhedrin because he had been preaching the truth He had been declaring the truth about Jesus Christ and about God's agenda to not simply be God's discontent God's discontent with any view that would suggest that he was the God of Israel only God is not satisfied We learn from Stephen's speech With being the God of Israel only God's plan from the beginning Was to be the God of the nations his agenda from the beginning was not to be confined to a particular place But for the knowledge of the Lord to fill the earth right as the waters cover the seas That's God's agenda and Stephen is killed ultimately for telling the truth about God's heart for the nations It's a very profound text on the cost of the church's global mission Because just as the sun himself had to suffer on the cross because of the Father's plan to reach the nation so Stephen the follower of Jesus Christ in The end is killed because of his assertion that the God of Israel is the God of the nations and So let's not mess around with what God is calling us a church to do Our mission statement in some ways is a plan to adopt if we're really serious about Jesus Christ's fame Spreading from the land of the ends of the earth Which is what Stevens agenda was we need to be prepared for the kind of opposition that Stephen himself faces Now what's interesting about this passage as we move from the content of Stephen's defense to the cost of that defense is where Stephen focuses And it's obviously very important to Luke because he makes sure he tells us twice in verses 55 and 56 Let's make sure we see at the front end that Stephen is ultimately martyred for asserting that Jesus was right When Jesus stood before the same Sanhedrin in Mark 14 when he was unaccuse just like Stephen was and Jesus said and You shall see he looked the Sanhedrin in the eye and he said and you shall see the son of man Sitting with power at the right hand of God and that was the blasphemy that triggered his death sentence And now Stephen is in front of the same Sanhedrin and what's he doing? He's making exactly the same claim Do you notice that? Verse 55 what tells us but being full of Of the Holy Spirit he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said behold I see the heavens opened up and the son of man standing at the right hand of God Stephen is saying to the Sanhedrin Jesus was right and you were wrong And he seals his death sentence They can't even respond notice there they don't even deal with theological arguments They just grab them they cry out like animals and they drag him outside of the city and they stolen him to death At least the Sanhedrin here's one thing that struck me as I was driving to church this morning That I appreciate about the Sanhedrin in this episode at least they know That when we say That Jesus is at the right hand of God it matters it should matter It should change the way our hearts respond to situations the last fact in the universe That you could ever be neutral in front of is the asserting that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God and the Sanhedrin knew it Do we doesn't provoke a reaction in us either of joy or of anger? I would that you would be angry when I say that at least I would know them that you understand the states of the assertion right oh How much easier it is to deal with an unbeliever who? Who actually wants to engage in an argument? How much harder it is to talk to an unbeliever says Happily matters because either Jesus is at the right hand of God right now or he isn't Unbelievers, I want you to hear this either he's there right now or he isn't there isn't a third alternative Either Steven is lying or he's telling the truth So how do you organize your life? Steven goes right to the heart of what it means to be a Christian Right to the heart of what it means to be a Christian if you're an unbeliever you're hearing you're saying what in the world Do these weirdos believe I'll tell you what we believe we believe that Jesus Christ the righteous one For who's coming the Old Testament prepared us that he is alive right now We believe that Jesus Christ in the flesh is live right now we believe that and We believe secondly that he is physically present at the right hand of God his father right now and He from that place is presiding over this assembly That's what we believe and so I'll give you the opportunity to exit if you find us crazy But those are the truths that organize our lives in this place Friends, what is the connection between those two things Jesus Christ is alive meaning he was resurrected He died the righteous one Steven tells us in verse 52 was murdered and betrayed Therefore for him to be alive now as Steven sees him means he was resurrected and He's physically present in that place next to the Father in his glory What is the significance of the connection between those two things the resurrection of Jesus and his present Intercession for us in heaven that is so important to understand that the resurrection is glorious. I love Easter morning Oh, I love Easter But the resurrection is that like the opening blossom it is barely the beginning of the glory of Jesus Christ as he Comes into the fullness of what he is entitled to it is at best the opening Movement of a symphony that God his father has written to declare his supremacy in history and God his father has tuned Every fact in history to play that symphony at perfect pitch and the resurrection is just the opening note So that now he is there in heaven as the king of his people and his place there in heaven as Steven sees and understands Establishes two things that you have you must you must grasp about the claims of Christianity first that Jesus is able as Darren prayed as a savior He is able as a savior and the fact that he's there at the Father's right hand having gone through the crucible of the cross having Overcome the curse having by his own authority picked his life up again from the grave and ascended into heaven Physically establishes that here and here alone is the redeemer of fallen humanity And so he has power as a savior to save any who will look to him But also he has authority as Lord to command and serve as master over all flesh believing flesh and Unbelieving and so this connection is so important to see because what Steven is saying and what I am trying to say to you this morning What I have felt so powerfully from this text this week as I have studied and prayed is that Jesus Christ is not to be trifled with He is not to be tripled with standing at the right hand of the father's throne He is not to be tripled He is the master and Stephen is declaring that with such power and it is that point the assertion of the mastery of Jesus Christ The Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is that which triggers his death

Jesus Christ Takes and holds the best ground in the universe, you know in the Civil War they used to talk About needing the good ground needing to find good ground the generals had to get the good ground in order to win the battle and the Person the army that held the good bound was the army that controlled the battle and what's the good ground the high ground? It's the high ground and Jesus Christ has ascended Stephen is reminding us to the best of all ground in the universe the highest place And he occupies that good ground for the good of his people and he is a master So powerful and so glorious you see Daniel 7 is right What Jesus has received as the son of man having been resurrected? He has gone into the presence of the father as the ancient of days and the ancient of days once Jesus has ascended to that right hand in heaven He has received from the father glory and dominion and a kingdom And that's what Stephen is asserting we need to grasp this my friends Because that's what we believe as Christians in all our thinking and in all our feeling About Jesus Christ. We must strive to be oriented oriented Shaped guided and powered by these facts of the present status and condition of Jesus Christ How often it's the case that I find myself in my mind drifting back to Jesus in the Gospels as though he were some kind of ordinary historical figure A great figure a glorious teacher a great hero and champion for his people how Hard it is sometimes to direct my mind to the things above where Christ is Seated at the father's right hand, and that that movement that directed the mind in faith to grasp Christ where he is now is So necessary to living the Christian life Please do not try full with Jesus as a believer or as an unbeliever What I want to do this morning is with you that's just an introduction I would what I want to do with you this morning Is I want to talk about the glory of Jesus Christ? We see it in this text and there are three aspects of the glory of Jesus Christ Are whether you're a believer or you're an unbeliever? I believe God wants to summon you to radical confidence in Jesus Christ through these three points this morning And the first is what we see in this text on display in such a wonderful way is the love of Jesus Christ We're also going to look at the providence of Jesus Christ and then the patience of Jesus Christ So where in a text Well in which one of Jesus Christ's own is brutally murdered where in the world do you find the love of God? I see it in two ways First you notice how this text unlike every other text in the New Testament that talks about the emphasizes that Jesus is Now I've been very sloppy in my language so far this morning. I have used being seated and standing at the right hand of God or changeably in my comments thus far But in the New Testament, this is the only place where Jesus is said to stand at the right hand of the Father It is ordinarily the case That when the New Testament writers talk or write about Jesus's Ascension and his exaltation they speak of him sting at the Father's right hand in glory And yet here this jarring note that is repeated twice that Jesus is standing this Shows us something about the heart of Jesus Christ that is wonderful You see here is a king who is engaged with his Man Stephen Here's a king who's not indifferent as Stephen is suffering unjustly Here's a king who is watching his child with such care that when the crowd drags him He is standing and watching when Stephen is even just in the presence of This Sanhedrin giving testimony to his Lord Jesus is engaged and is up from the throne and is watching Intently that shows me a lot about the love of Jesus Christ for his individual sheep That is a glorious picture of a king whose heart beats in Is synchronized with the concerns and needs of his people. That's who your king is by the way We should celebrate that He's not some distant relative who's ignorant about your current condition or what you're going through He is engaged with you if you belong to Jesus Christ and Stephen is benefiting from this vision of Jesus this confidence. He has that his Lord is a sympathetic High priest who rises as Stephen faces the challenges who gives testimony of Stephen's value even as Stephen is Testifying to the value of his king and So I want to encourage you If you are in that category of people And I know there are many of you in this category who are bearing up right now under oppressively have trials It should encourage you that the one who has the best ground in the universe who has taken that good ground and who holds it In the fullness of his might that he is not indifferent to your trials Christian He is engaged with your trials. He is wanting your confidence to be built upon his Engagement with your suffering. He wants you to be encouraged and to be made step-ass this morning by the knowledge that he is not mildly interested in your welfare He is passionately focused on you Does that make a difference to you? I believe it should He wants it to There's a second way that I believe Jesus's love the love of Jesus Christ is shown here for saint and that isn't Stephen's death That is in Stephen's death You notice how calm Stephen is as he goes to die here How gracious he is how generous he is he dies now Whether you're a believer an unbeliever you need to ask the question why how do you account for them? How do you account for the calm that Stephen demonstrates is it simple naivete? Does he not realize that when people pick up stones? It's gonna hurt when they hurl them at you Does he not realize that what he was saying before the Sanhedrin was It really his own death sentence. No Stephen clearly realizes that so how do you account? For Stephen's calm in the face of his death There's only one way to account for it and that is within the four corners of our worldviews Christians The the rights that we have as the followers of Jesus Christ to look at death and to understand death Very differently from an unbeliever right think about the apostle Paul my friends Philippians 1 21 and 23 right in Philippians 1 21 what does Paul say? To die is gain Now what must be true order for him to say that what must be true about the universe what must be true About Jesus Christ's protection of a saint what must be true about the inheritance? That exists for the saint after he or she dies What must be true about the limitations of this life and its significance in order for Paul to say for to me to live as Christ But you die is gain And then just two verses later he says to be with Christ is very much better Now what must be true? Not many Christians have meditated I think Upon the significance of death at least American Christians because we keep death at bay as much as we can even in the evangelical church Which is to our shame That we sanitize the inside of the church and the way our culture tries to sanitize The understanding of death, right? Why is our culture obsessed with youth? Why is our culture obsessed with prolonging physical life? Why? Because that's all there is and when the world view tells you that once you cross that boundary You got nothing then you better make the most of something you got right now and The gospel comes in and says radically different orientation Jesus Christ is the master of death He frees you from the tyranny of fearing death Hebrews 2 He has walked through death. He has conquered it mastered it subdued it so that now What it serves his purposes and I love that larger catechism question that I put on the reflection page I want you to look at that with me because this is how a Christian is supposed to think about death and the question is a very profound question question is if death is the wages of sin and If a Christian sins are forgiven then how come the righteous still die? It's an interesting question. Have you ever wondered about death? Look at the answer The righteous shall be delivered from death itself at the last day in the great resurrection and even in death before that day are delivered from the sting and curse of it so that Although they die yet it is out of God's love Now why why would God want your physical life to end? Why would it be a gift? For him to say stop beating How would that be a gift to a saint? To free them perfectly from sin and misery last three days the last three mornings I have gone out to my shed to work on this message and I have been bombarded By temptations to a spirit of anger so profound. I thought I was gonna throw up Stuff going on in my life so bombarded with anger so having to fight having to wrestle with that temptation Sweating literally crying literally. You know what when I read this larger catacombs in question I Pine for the day when I will no longer be subject to the temptation to get angry. Oh What a day What a day to be freed from vulnerability to temptation. Oh Those of you who wrestle with sin Those of you who've been on the ground in a full Nelson understands grip do you not long for the day When you will be freed from the misery of being vulnerable to temptation I long for my death in that respect and I know it is a gift of God's love to bring me there Because that death is also the gateway To make me capable as the answer says capable of further communion with Christ in glory Paul understood something Stephen understood it my friends further communion with Christ in glory. That sounds good to me And the love of Jesus Christ works even through the death of his saints to bring him to further communion with him in glory What a heart Jesus Christ has how that ought to just radically transform our approach to death. I love Jesus Christ For his power that he would take death which is our greatest enemy and he would make it serve his Purposes of love in the lives of his saints now that's power Now how about the providence of Jesus Christ? What do I mean by that? That's such a Presbyterian sermon heading Okay, and I'm not this isn't about church planning in Rhode Island either. Okay the providence of Jesus Christ what I'm talking about there is his government He is guiding all his creatures and all their actions and his sovereign power

his control over events and This passage presents that to us in such a dramatic way. There are two significant things to think about here. I mean by It's important to see that Jesus Christ always from his high ground from that best ground He has in the father's presence He is not a spectator in a reviewing stand at a parade just watching history Roll by him. He is the master of that history by his father's sovereign design He is the one who upholds all things He brews one tells us that includes events by the way in the word of his power He is the one who is before all things Colossians one tells us and that includes events He is designed by the father to have Supremacy in first place in everything including events by the way So I was not biblical overstatement for me to say in my opening remarks that the father has finally tuned all the facts in the universe The Bible tells us so that they play out the symphony of Christ's supremacy And that is very evident in these events in this chapter both from the timing of Stephen's death to the presence of a young man named Saul Who wrote those words? It blew me away to reflect on the fact that as the robes were being laid at Saul's feet. God Jesus Christ was preparing the author of the book of Romans So we must marvel at the lordship of Jesus Christ over events and this passage leads us to do that Let me show you two ways that I think are are very pethel the first is look at the immediate aftermath of Stephen's martyrdom There is both persecution and scattering Luke records two aftermaths Immediately look in chapter and chapter eight verse one Saul was in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death and on that day that same day the church had no opportunity to mourn and On that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem Now notice what happens when the persecution occurs and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles Now that should that phrase should should raise an echo in your mind Is that sound like anything when you hear the phrase Through the regions of Judea and Samaria linked together. Where does that take you in the book of Acts Kent? It's before chapter two one good Chapter one verse eight you remember when Jesus Why don't you turn with me there so we make sure that's on the on the screen when Jesus gives his Apostles a glimpse into what his plan is what his method is going to be for building his church from Jerusalem to the ends of the year And how is he going to reach the nations he marks out very clearly that the path to the remotest parts of the earth Goes through Judea and Samaria from Jerusalem look at one eight But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem Which is where we've been in this book up till now and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth So these events this scattering of the church Luke means for us to understand very clearly that this dispersion from Jerusalem Into all Judea and all Samaria is the finger This has the fingerprints of Jesus Christ on it His design from chapter one what if they would business is to the nations through Judea and Samaria Now what happens? The Lord who is standing and engaged at Stephen's martyrdom is now directing the Spreading of his people and the message about him into the places where he said they were to go an awesome picture of the providence of Jesus Christ and what's so interesting is that Saul is at the heart Of that plan a young man named small his name Saul So profound Luke wants us to see some things about him wants to introduce Saul to us at this point so that we're ready for chapter 9 Saul is the one at whose feet he was a young man angry a young man and at his feet the the witnesses who were going to stone Stephen they laid their robes and then he's in hearty agreement verse 1 Luke tells us we're putting Stephen to death and then he is the one who sets out to ravage the church To ravage the church like a wild animal Going from house to house To drag Christians out and to put them in Prison you know what I thought of as I heard that phrase from house The house later on I believe it's Acts 20 when Paul says that for three years night and day he went from house to house to teach the gospel and Luke Is preparing us to see a Jesus Christ here whose power is so Massive it's so much better than what we're accustomed to thinking about because you might ask you might say what is Jesus Christ doing when He's allowing his people to be slaughtered like this to be ravaged where is he okay? You say he's the sovereign master of a history Well, is he asleep? Did he turn his back on the sufferings of his people? What's he doing? He's building his church It's what he's doing chertelian was right The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church Because Luke makes it very clear here doesn't he the church suffers The church scatters and as the church scatters It carries the seed of the gospel and you notice my favorite word in this whole passage is the beginning of verse four therefore Therefore Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word that makes no sense The church is being ravaged. Therefore we'll preach the word The church is being ravaged. Therefore we'll evangelize How do you explain that Unless Jesus Christ is building his church? At all times and in all ways Jesus is the master builder of his church So unless you unless you fall into the trap of looking at these events in a snapshot perspective If you just look at verse three and a snapshot and say look there he is Jesus Christ failed his church He's allowing it to be ravaged by this animal named Saul if you just take a snapshot view of the significance of events You're going to think that Jesus Christ is failing in his promise to build his church But if you look at the larger Chain of events that flows out of this ravaging of the church you will bow down and worship under his power and authority Because the way you and I heard the gospel is because Stephen died. It's because the church was scattered No Stephen martyrdom no church being scattered no church scattered into Judea and Samaria No, no Saul converted no Saul converted into Paul no because no church in Antioch No church in Antioch the first missionary journey no first missionary journey no second missionary journey that means no converts in Europe No third missionary journey no gospel to Spain No epistles are the Romans no reformation

Jesus Christ Runs the show my friends and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of this church Jesus Christ was planting a manual press returning church With the drops of Stephen's blood so that ought to give us great hope Two applications here 41 has oh hope for the hard cases Will you hope for the hard cases in your life? You look you survey the relationships in your life and there are some folks you go There is no way that person will ever come to know the Lord Jesus Christ You give up emotionally you think I'm preformed for 24 years I'm tired When will the Lord rise up and draw them to himself? When I look at Saul and I think of the Master of Jesus Christ to take the one who was the leading opponent of him He is leading enemy and to turn him in to the leading proponent. I Say I will not substitute my wisdom for yours. I Will not impune your goodness. I will not impune your determination to reach I will not dishonor you by failing to continue to hope If you can take a saw you can take anyone the last thing in the universe I expected to happen to Mike Francis when I went to the University of California, Burby was that I would emerge Born again Wanting to give my life to Jesus Christ and so unbelievers in this room beware Jesus Christ will wrestle you to the ground. He is on the move. He has brought you here You are under his word. The spirit is Drawing you to him. So friends, we need to be hopeful and honor Jesus with our hope Keep praying like Stephen did Even in his last breath don't hold this sin against him. Why do you think that Stephen? Why do you think that Saul was converted? I'm convinced that one of the things Jesus used to convert Saul was at the very church. He was ravaging was praying for him Do you believe that? I? believe that so keep praying and Keep sewing the word Again, I mentioned this last week my own conviction. I can't prove this to you, but I am I am I am persuaded that the reason There's so much detail of Stephen's speech and defense before the Sanhedrin is because Saul was there and he was listening to every word and he Understood the argument because he knew his old testament and so he is recreating has recreated this argument for Luke So what that tells me is keep sewing the word Mike keep sewing the word in people's lives the seed of the word will not return void it may take a long time But so the word in hope Second application is Boundless hope in hardship my friends the church suffered here the church suffered greatly here But notice that the lordship of Christ is so securely in place that from Events that look like the church is going to be destroyed He built the church From those he took this is what's so amazing Jesus Christ hates this Lord who's exalted at the Father's right And he takes the worst energy of his enemies and what does he do he makes that energy he makes those enemies He makes all that hatred what does he just fend it off? No, he bends it to serve his purposes So it becomes the apostle to the nations That should give me hope that when I am in the midst of the darkest hardship. I can imagine Jesus Christ is not weak He is at work. He is at work to bring good for his people So we should honor him with hopeful hearts Now how about finally the patience of Jesus Christ and this for me is just feels so personally relevant to me the patience of Jesus First towards all and then toward you and me towards all It it is a striking thing to me that Jesus puts up with Saul ravaging the church Why why does he do that? Why why does he allow him to do that? Why does he why does he allow him to stand there as the robes are being laid at his feet? Why does why does he permit him to be in hard disagreement with hardy agreement with putting Stephen to death? Why does he endure that so much why does he give him such a long tether? Why does he allow to wander so far away from him? Why does he allow him to work with such passion in opposition to his Lordship? Why I think Paul tells us why in first Timothy 1 Verses 12 through 16 look look at these verses with me. They're in your outline Paul as he reflects on his life says this I Thank Christ Jesus our Lord It was strengthened me Because he considered me faithful Putting me into service even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor He does not whitewash his history yet I was shown mercy Because I acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant With the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus It is a trust worthy statement Meaning that that is calling you to faith Deserving full acceptance the Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all Yet for this reason for the reason that I'm the worst sinner That's what he's saying for the reason that I was a violent persecutor aggressor and blasphemer for that reason I was I found mercy so that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as Example for those who would believe in him for eternal life What Paul is saying is that he understands that the providence of Jesus Christ in his life was to allow him to go so far To work so passionately against the gospel so that when he was captured by the love of Christ He would stand for there's a trophy that Jesus Christ could hold up around the world and say look at my grace I don't just pick those who favor me. I pick opponents And I win them and I save them oh magnify my love and my mercy So how about you? Jesus Christ gave to Saul every day that he was alive breathing threats against the church He gave Saul every beat of his heart He gave him the intelligence. He gave him the strength of his hands to go grab Christians and drag them out of their homes and Put them into prison. He made him clever He gave them all the abilities that helped him to understand the Old Testament He kept feeding him. He said Saul you want to breathe here? Saul hungry have you had dinner? I open my hand and I feed you while you ravage my people Such patience unbelievers every beat of your heart is the property of Jesus Christ. It is his gracious gift to you You must understand him as patient toward you in the same way. He was patient with Saul You've lived lives that ignore him you live lives at the little and you live lives that offend his majesty and his honor because you just think He's an afterthought that offense him That is a crime in the universe and what does he continue to do does he say sunshine everywhere except on this person? No What does he do? He splits the rock in the wilderness and he causes abundant grink to come forward like the ocean depths for those who praise him and those who curse him So that no one in the universe will be able to say Jesus Christ was stingy So unbelievers let me encourage you To take hold of the patience of Jesus Christ and do what it is designed to do Which is to lead you to believe in him lead you to lay aside your history at his feet to lay aside your future at his Feet to give your life to him to realize as Saul did With a shocking self-awareness that all your life that you thought you had been living in the right way You in effect had been offending the majesty of God You have been living in a way that offended The greatest presence who sustained you in your whole life the one who was the most generous to you who was your constant companion Use the perfect patience of Jesus Christ this morning that we see in the example of Saul and his kindness to keep him going Use that patience as a guide as a beacon for you to have hope and to come to Jesus Christ do not trifle with him Do not trifle with him as some kind of spectator where you would sit here and say that's a great worry I can just keep on going as long as I want he's patient. You told me he's perfectly patient. Don't do that His patience is designed not to make you passive, but to make you very aggressive in your pursuit of him because here's a king unlike any other Who shows his love to his saints who is the master of history who holds the greatest Ground and territory in the universe at the Father's right hand who is guiding all events for the good of his people in his own glory And he is speaking to you from this text this morning to come to him to lay down the weapons to lay down the stones of your Devision in your opposition against him and to embrace and receive him for the great and generous king that he is Let me pray for you or Jesus. I do pray now For those souls that you will loosen their fingers around the stones Caused them to drop to the floor. I pray that this vision of your perfect patients in Saul's life and what you Demonstrated to each one of your people in this room We can all say amen and praise be to you for what we ourselves have experienced we know This patient's first hand and your kindness provide for us how I pray That by the power of your spirit that discovery of who you are would be may now By many in this room and that their eternal destinies would be changed as the outcome of what they've heard This morning I pray in Jesus name