Well, welcome to our continuing
study in in the gospel according to Luke and we're in Chapter
12 today and this will be our second lesson in chapter 12 and
we're about Chapter 12 is about chapter wise about halfway through
the book of Luke that we started back in 2019. So Be warned So As we Look at chapter 12 here
this morning. We're in verse 4 through 12 or
the verses we're going to look at today and and then kind of remember the context
of where we are, that back in chapter 11, the Lord had begun this dialogue
with the Pharisees after He had given this sermon regarding
the evil generation that seeketh a sign and the Queen of the South
and the wisdom of Solomon, and the light under a bushel. And
then he finished that up, and a Pharisee sought to have him
come over for dinner. And he went over there and had
dinner with him, and he didn't have anything good to say to
those Pharisees. And he said, whoa unto you Pharisees. and woe unto you lawyers and
those that were there. And so that's the context of
where we're at today. And in chapter 12, there were a lot of people gathered
together and he said, beware of the 11 of the Pharisees, which
is hypocrisy. And he said, there's nothing
covered that shall not be revealed, nothing hid that shall not be
known. And remember, we spent some time looking at that Hippocrates,
that Greek word that was what they called stage actors that
wore masks in a play back in those days. And he said, there's
nothing hid. that will not be revealed, so
you can't depend on this false covering to hide your innermost
part there. And as he finished that, in verse
4 today, verse 4 through 12, very important words that he
says to his disciples. He says, I say unto you, my friends,
as opposed to, woe unto you Pharisees, woe unto you liars, is I say
unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I
will forewarn you whom ye shall fear, fear him which after he
hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you,
fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not,
therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say
unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that
denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, It shall
be forgiven him but unto him that blasphemeth against the
holy ghost it shall not be forgiven Remember in our earlier study
in luke. They accused him of casting out devils by by the
beelzebub and and he said but if I cast them out by the spirit
of god woe unto you that have believed that, that I cast them
out by Beelzebub. And he says, and when they bring
you into the synagogues and unto the magistrates and powers, take
ye no thought how or what thing you shall answer or what you
shall say, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that same
hour what you ought to say. So this valuable information
he gives to these disciples and certainly valuable to the church
as a whole here, and it has a lot to do with the fear of death,
and that should be the title of our message for today, fear
of death and how that applies to us. So before we start there,
our pastor Wells always says that scripture is the best commentary
on scripture. And we'll be looking at quite
a bit of Scripture that has to do with the verses that we just
read. But I'd like to turn your attention back to the very first
chapter of Luke, chapter 1, and read a couple of verses there
toward the end of chapter 1 that deal with Zacharias as he makes this prophecy about his
son. and what he will do, and he says
in verse 76, And thou, child, shalt be called prophet of the
highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare
his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by
the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our
God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. to give
light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to
guide our feet into the way of peace. To give light to them
that sit in darkness, and that's what the Lord does, and that's
the condition that we are in by nature. We're in darkness
and we're under the shadow of death, but he says the Lord takes
care of all that for us, for his people. So here we are in
chapter 12 and this block of scripture that we're looking
at today has much to do with death and just to kind of put
things in perspective here. He's talking to his disciples
and he says, he calls them my friends. And he kind of gives
them a warning. If you remember back to our study
back in chapter 9 of Luke, the lessons entitled, The Son of
Man Must. And He says over and over and
over again in the Scriptures, the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem,
the Son of Man must be betrayed, the Son of Man must suffer many
things, the Son of Man must be taken by the chief priests and
the scribes and taken and crucified and killed and rise again the
third day. So all those elements of the
Gospel. So He's telling His disciples, This is what's going to happen
to me, and it's necessary for the redemption of your sins.
I must do this to save my people from their sins." And of course,
they were kind of a little bit slow in coming along with that,
and many times they said, not so, Lord, not so, and we don't
want you to go and be killed. But he says, If I don't be killed,
then you have no part in this. It's necessary that I do this. So they're kind of faced with
that because they're nearing the time, they're nearing Jerusalem,
they're nearing all these things that are taking place, and they
have to be seeing these things happening. He said he's going to be taken
by them and by the religious folks and killed. And now he
just had supper with them. And he said a lot of bad things
to them. He says, woe unto you. Woe unto you because you're fakers.
You're religious fakers. You're hypocrites. He gives them
a warning about that, and we learned in that previous lesson
that they pretended to be what they were not. They were ultra-religious. They claimed to be morally superior. I thank God I'm not like other
men, especially this no-good sinner Republican tax collector
who's in league with the Romans and and they were I'm a strict
keeper of the law and and That means that that we and we
intend that we can we can be righteous before God by keeping
the law and that's what God requires for salvation that's what they
told the people and I You know in Romans chapter 7
it says that since keeping of the law equals death because
no one no one really can do that and the ones that said that they
they kept it were just liars to start with and these Pharisees
they and lawyers they considered themselves role models for society. You know, they loved to have
the greetings in the marketplace. They loved to sit in the most
prestigious seats in the synagogue so everybody could see them and
pattern themselves after their behavior, which was false. And in truth, the Lord says,
you're only whited sepulchers. You're just You make the outside
of the cup, but inside of the cup is dirty. And they appear
beautiful on the outside, but inwardly they're full of dead
man's bones. And the sin of the Pharisees, this
leaven that the Lord talks about was, you know, they caused men
to be persuaded that they were truly righteous and they were
the guide to the people to righteousness instead of pointing to Christ
in all the scriptures. And our pastor goes through the
Old Testament every week and points out Christ in the Old
Testament. And he said in Luke chapter 11,
verse 44 to these Pharisees, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you're as graves which appear not, And
the men that walk over them are not aware of them. They had everybody
fooled that they were the ones that had the scope on what was
correct religiously, and people weren't aware that they weren't. And he says, and you killed the
prophets. You killed the ones that came
and preached the gospel from the beginning of time. You killed
all of them, and you're going kill me here pretty soon. And
you know what? It's important for us to remember
that because he's telling these disciples, you know, you've got
to look at things from a different point of view than just here
now in this body in this world because he told them, you know,
you're not of this world. You're my people from eternity. And these Pharisees, these religious
folks, there is no depth that they will not sink to in keeping
up the pretension. They do not want to be unmasked.
And they actually convince themselves and believe that they are right.
And when they kill you, they think, the scripture says, you
know what? When they kill you, they think
that they are doing God a service. Paul was on his way to Damascus
with letters from these same guys to arrest the people that
were followers of Christ that were in Damascus. And he thought
he was doing the right thing. He thought he would, you know,
he had that, what the scripture called that zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. And so that's where we're at
here. And he says, I say unto you,
my friends, Boy, what a, if we could just get a hold of that
one sentence, that one part of that sentence, I say unto you,
my friends, you know, that's the view that God has of his
people from eternity. The eternal view of Christ, as
opposed to the lawyers where he said, and the Pharisees where
he said, woe to you. In John chapter 15, and I said
we were going to kind of go through a lot of scriptures because the
scriptures have so much to say about these issues of our relationship
to Christ and this issue of death and being killed. You know, we
live in a pretty blessed time where we're not really persecuted,
I would say at all, compared to the time in the Bible times that we're
looking at where they were scattered abroad and persecuted everywhere
and even the ones that were declaring the gospel in the Old Testament
were killed right and left. So in John chapter 15, There's a couple of verses we
want to read here in John chapter 15, so we'll just turn over there
and catch those. Now I was speaking to Norma,
so I don't know if we'll get all the way through this lesson
in one shot here today, but we'll go as far as we can and then
we'll pick it up. If we don't finish, we'll pick it up later,
but let's read in John chapter 15 and Let's start in verse 12 and read
a few verses. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. And he's speaking of this
love from eternity. I've loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you is from the
Old Testament. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And that's
how the Lord views His people, as His friends, and that He's
prepared to lay down His life for them. He says, You are my
friends if you do whatsoever I command you. And henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his
Lord doeth. But I have called you friends,
And here's the reason he does that. He says, for all things
that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you the
gospel. He has made known unto them the
gospel, and through the divine work of the Trinity has caused
them to believe and believe the gospel. And it's a process for them.
He says, you've not chosen Me, but I've chosen you and ordained
you that you should go and bring forth fruit. And that's an important
thing for us to keep in mind in the Scripture because He says,
you know, they're thinking, well, I'm probably going to be killed
if I keep following Him because they're after Him to kill Him.
They killed the prophets. We're doing the same thing. And
yet, important thing for believers to know is that until we have
fulfilled whatever purpose God has for us in this world, we're
going to be here until we have fulfilled that. And then that will be over for us. But
he says to these folks, I've ordained you that you should
go forth and bring forth fruit. So we look at that identification
of friends and that He's laying down His life for them. He's given them the manifestation
of the greatest love possible that He was going to lay down
His life. The man, Jesus Christ, come into flesh, become obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross, an awful death. In Philippians 2.8 it says that,
being found fashion is a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And we think
about what he left, what he was before that he came down. tabernacled with us, became obedient,
fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law, fulfilled everything
that was written in the scriptures, became obedient unto death. You know, all believers who truly
believe Him regarding the gospel, God calls them friends. That's
what the scripture tells us. You know, in James chapter 2
verse 23, the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he
was called the friend of God. Not because of all the good stuff
he did. He came from a bad place. And God called him out of that.
And he believed God, because God caused him to believe through
them, working with his mighty power. And because of that, he
called him his friend. And so back to our text here
in verse 4, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them
that kill the body, because you know that was on their mind.
We're probably going to be killed here. And after that, have no
more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom
you shall fear. Fear Him which after He hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
Him." So, you know, if I can do nothing else today but maybe
cause us to view how we are in this world and our relationship
to Christ, more from his viewpoint than from our viewpoint. Because
he views the death of his saints as precious. It tells us that
in the Old Testament, Psalm 116. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. You know, we're only here for
a short time, and however we exit this world, we're just not
here a long time. and however we exit, it's precious
in His sight. It means it's valuable to God. He esteems it very precious.
He can identify with that because He humbled Himself and came down
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He experienced death himself in payment for our sins. And
in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 says, for as much then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood. It kind of gives you
the idea that we have this relationship with God before we're, you know,
I've loved you with an everlasting love, we have this eternal relationship
with God, but yet we're born into this world and we're part
of this world says, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. So he has that identification
with us in that manner and yet he makes this differentiation
that this body is really temporary It's frail, the scripture says,
and we're like dust, and we're like the grass that comes up
and then it fades away. This body is physical. And and
because of the condition that we're in in this world because
of sin in the fall or this physical body that we're in Cannot be
suitable for eternal life in the kingdom of God and and we
know some things about The this body that we have in
this world the scripture says flesh and blood cannot reveal
Christ and but my Father which is in heaven, from Matthew 16,
17. Flesh and blood can't do that. It has to be a spiritual
connection there. Flesh and blood cannot accomplish
the new birth, but the Spirit of God accomplishes that. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
John 6, 63 says, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. So this body that
we have, this physical body, this flesh that we are enveloped
in cannot Link us to spiritual things.
It has to be spiritually done through the Spirit of God and
through Christ and through God the Father and he in first Corinthians
1550 Confirms this and he says now this I say brethren That
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God neither does
corruption inherit incorruption So we have that verification
there in the scriptures. And so as he's speaking to these
disciples, he says, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid
of them that kill the body. And he looks at it from this
eternal viewpoint of, it's hard for us to really grasp this concept
of eternality. because we just have this finite,
linear timeline that we experience while we're in this world. But
He's loved us from before the foundation of the world. He's
loved us from eternity on. We just kind of think of things
linearly, but it's in all directions, in all time, in all ways. And
that's why I think it's a good interpretation there in Jeremiah
where he says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. It
just, it doesn't deal with time in a direction really. It's just,
it's just an always kind of a term. And that's how he sees us. And,
and if we think about it in his viewpoint that we're in this
world, but he says, you're, you're in the world, but you're not
of the world. and you think of yourself in that respect and
in relation to this fear not them that kill the body and after
that have no more they can do to you if we look at Romans chapter
8 verse 38 he says nothing can separate us from the love of
Christ and God not death Death can't do that. Nothing can. He
has no powers, no principalities. There's a long list there if
you want to read that in Romans chapter 8 verse 38. But we're
never separated from Him. Even though we may be alive in
this world one second, in the next second we've crossed over
into eternality with Him in this heaven, It's not that much of a change
from his viewpoint, although he knows and has experienced
death and he knows what kind of a traumatic thing that is
for us. But when we become believers, we kind of lose that traumatic
aspect of it. And we know kind of what to expect
because the scriptures tell us that. And we know how our relationship
is with him. He says, remember, are not five
sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten
before God? Even the very hairs of your head
are numbered. That's how valuable you are.
That's how He looks at you. He knows how many hairs you have
on your head and every aspect of you. And so believers then have a unique
view of themselves in this world after the new birth. They say,
well, I'm just passing through. I'm just here for whatever purpose
the Lord intends for us. And we don't always know what that
is. And in our life prior to the rebirth, we have an entirely
different view of it. And we think in terms of, well,
I'm in this world, I just have to deal with things in this world. I just have to deal with things
today. I only have to worry about today. I only have to worry about
tomorrow. I only have to do what I need to do to do the best I
can for myself in this world. But the scripture says that,
you know, if we have hope in this world, if that's our only
hope, we're most men or most miserable because that's It's
not very much, and you know, people that are caught up in
that, it's just a scorecard deal with them. Well, I have this
much, I need more. And when they get to that stage,
they say, well, that wasn't enough, I need more, and I need more,
and I need more. And all the, my dad always used
to say, fulfillment is disappointment. When we get there, it wasn't
what we expected. But you know, with Christ, It's
always better. It just gets better and better
and better. It just gets more and more and
more. And as we look at the Scriptures and we just try to see more and
more of Him, He's pleased to reveal more and more of himself
in all the things that we look at in the scriptures. And boy,
it's just so wonderful as our pastor's going through the Old
Testament and he's pointing out, well, this is talking about Christ.
This is talking about Christ. This is talking about how he
redeems his people. And someone's coming. Someone's
here. Someone's coming back. And all
those lessons that we've been blessed with here lately. And
so we believers then have a unique view of ourselves in this world
after the again after the new birth. And we're going to read
some scriptures now from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 as this explores how
we view ourselves from this eternal viewpoint that Christ gives to
us. I say unto you, my friends, be
not afraid of them that kill the body. In 2 Corinthians 4,
verse 1, and we're going to read down quite a ways here through
verse 18. Therefore, saying we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. He's describing
how he feels after the new birth. Because if you're just in this
world without that, it's pretty daunting. He says, but we've
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. He had a, one of the things that
we know is that We're here for a purpose of God and we're gonna
be here until that's fulfilled and not one minute longer, not
one minute less. It says in verse six, for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. And then he says this really
interesting thing here. He says, but we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us." Boy, what a mouthful there is in that. It's not of
him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy. And we're in this earthen vessel
that's weak and frail and sinful. And he says, but, he said, we're
troubled on every side, yet we're not distressed. We're perplexed,
but we're not in despair. were persecuted but not forsaken
cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body for which we live for we which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh
so then Death worketh in us, but life in you. We, having the
same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed
and therefore I have spoken, we also believe and therefore
speak." And he's just saying, after we were born again, we
just preach the gospel and it's the difference between life and
death. knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you. So he has this eternal aspect
view of the life that we have here, the resurrection, and our
eternal relationship with God. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might be through the thanksgiving of
many redounded unto the glory of God. It's the same as in Romans
8, God is working all things for good to them who love God,
who are the called according to His purpose. Paul was there
with this Corinthian church, writing to them and saying, look
where I was and look where I am now, preaching you the gospel.
For which cause we faint not? But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Isn't that interesting?
You know, as we all get older and can't do what we could do
a couple days ago or years ago, we're kind of winding down in
the flesh, yet the inward man gets renewed day by day. The
more we learn about Christ, the more He reveals Himself to us
in the Scriptures, were renewed for our light affliction, which
is but for a moment." Boy, you think about all the things that
happened to him. Oh, I was beaten with rods. I was shipwrecked.
I was bitten by a snake. I was stoned. About three times I think I was
stoned and left for dead. He called it, that was my light
affliction. And he says, you know what? It
all turned out to be for the furtherance of the gospel, every
single bit of it. He says, our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, this physical temporal world, we look at the
things around us, the things, the physical things, we don't
look at those. After the rebirth, we see them,
but we see them in different eyes. We just see them for what
they are and in the physical aspect. We look not at the things
which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. And that's what we look for.
And because of the things written in chapter four here in 2 Corinthians,
we get the next thing that's recorded for us in chapter five,
because it says, for, or because of, we know, and we know absolutely,
it says in chapter five, verse one, boy, this is just wonderful
things for believers. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. Isn't that a wonderful viewpoint
for the Lord's people to have? And he said, for in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven. So he's making this contrast
between we're here in this physical body in this earth and he says,
you know, the things that I want to do I don't seem to do and
the things that I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing. And he says, I can hardly wait
to be clothed with my heavenly body so I don't have to deal
with that anymore. He says, but you know, right
now it's more needful for me to be here because my purpose
has not been fulfilled that God, you know, God says He's ordained
good works and we should do them. And I don't remember that scripture
exactly, but He has foreordained those works that we are involved
in. He says, so, In this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven, if so that being
clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that has wrought for us this selfsame thing is God, not
we had nothing to do with it. We were just recipients of this
wonderful blessing. Who also hath given unto us the
earnest of the Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident,
knowing that while we're at home in the body, we're absent from
the Lord in a physical way there. He says, for we walk by faith,
not by sight. Remember that he said we don't
look at the things that are seen, but the things that are unseen,
and there's several more scriptures that deal with that that we don't
have time to go into today, but you can look those up. He says,
we're confident, and I say, and willing, rather to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor
that whether we're present or absent We may be accepted of
him. We're always going about doing
what the Lord has ordained for us to do and You know, there's
there's many many things in the in the church. He says we're
all pieces of this body the finger the eye the nose, the ear, the
tongue, all parts doing what he ordained for us to do that
furthers the gospel. And so really, fear of death
to the body is really only feared by unbelievers. You know, he
said, if you go on down in 1 Corinthians 15, 55, he says, death, where's
thy sting? Where's I sting? He used to be
a big bugaboo for us, but now it's like, well, if I'm not here,
I know where I'm gonna be. For me to be with him is what
I'd rather have, but it's more needful for me to be here right
now. You know, in Hebrews 2.15 it says, Fear of death is a lifetime of
bondage. You're on bondage to that fear
of death. And the new birth releases you
from that. And the revelation of Christ
releases you from that. And we look at it from his standpoint
here in Luke chapter 12, I say unto you, my friends, be not
afraid of them that kill the body. They can't do anything
else to you. When they've done that, they've
done their worst. And we read earlier that they that do those
things think that they do God a service. They have a zeal toward
God, but not according to knowledge. And Revelation 12, 11 says, They overcame him by the blood
of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved
not their lives unto the death. They understood their relationship,
their eternal relationship in Christ. And so then this body
that they're in now in this world, it's just something we're in
for a time to accomplish the the work of the Lord that He
has ordained for us. And to the others, though, to
the unbelievers and the religious folks that are so against this,
so afraid of it, because it takes away from their power base, it
takes away from their economic power, it takes away from their their visibility as the religious
morality, the law keepers, the good works. So fear of death
to the body then is a tactical weapon employed by the religious
through all time to avoid the leaven of hypocrisy from being
discovered, which thing declaring the gospel does. You know, You
declare the truth of the gospel and that stuff shines up like
a dirty bird. It doesn't hold water anymore.
It brings it to light. That's what
that scripture says. It brings to light. He says there's
nothing going to be hidden. The light of the gospel is going
to shine on that and expose it for what it truly is. You know, these folks that he's
dealing with here, they employ death as a tool, but it never
really accomplishes their evil desire. You know, at the close
of chapter 11, it says, they were laying in wait for him,
seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might
accuse him. Well, the purpose of accusing him was so that he
could be put to death. and no other reason. And we see
this brought out through the scriptures time and time again.
Remember we said, which of the prophets have you not stoned
and killed? You know, even though their desire
is to get rid of you, and you know, we don't deal with that
in this country so much, and we don't deal with that in this
age so much, but back in those days it was a real thing. Paul
was on his way to Damascus to arrest them and bring them back
to Jerusalem to be killed, thrown in prison, killed, and so on,
we find in the New Testament. We have an example in Acts chapter
7 with Stephen. When they heard these things,
Acts 7, 54, when they heard these things, he took them all the
way back to Genesis and preached the gospel to them. and told them, here's what you,
woe to you Pharisees and chief priests. And when they heard
these things, they were cut to the heart, the physical heart. They were angry. And they gnashed
on him, gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. But he being full
of the Holy Ghost looked up steadily Steadfastly into heaven and saw
the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God And
said behold I see the heavens open in the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God and they cried out with a loud voice
and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and
cast him out of the city and stoned him and when we're talking
we're talking about like football size not like like my brother
and me used to throw at each other. Little stones, they were
like stones big enough to kill you. They stoned him and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose
name was Saul. Boy, what an impression that
must have made. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. You know,
that's, you think about Saul being there and in our present life, and if somebody
was stoning me, I don't know if I have the wherewithal to
say, lay not this to their charge. Because, you know, who would
have thought that Saul would go on to be who he was and be
used of the Lord like he was, but Stephen had that gift there. And you know, in Acts chapter
3, we're running out of time here, but the disciples Peter,
they healed a lame man that was at the gate, beautiful, and they
took exception to that. And you know what the interesting
part about that, I was reading that again yesterday, and I'll just kind of give you the
cliff note version here, because we're about out of time, but
they said, what do we do? They healed this guy, and everybody's
seen him for years. He's been there, crippled up,
laying there by the gate, begging. And they made him able to walk
through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said,
what do we do? We can't deny it because everybody
saw it. So what do we do? So the real
crux of the issue came to be that they said, what do we do
with these men? A notable miracle has been done,
we can't deny it, but that it spread no further among the people,
let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to
no man in this name, in the name of Jesus. And so they called them and commanded
them not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus. So that's,
they said, well, we had this big miracle done here, so right
away we leap to the conclusion that we don't want them doing
that anymore. We don't look at it and say,
oh my golly, what has happened here? What have we done? What have we been teaching? What
have we said? No, we don't want them to do that anymore. Don't
do that anymore. And you know, and Lazarus, Lazarus
died. And then after the Lord brought
him back, they wanted to kill him again. And I thought, well,
that's the dumbest thing ever on the planet, because he didn't
stay dead very long the first time. So why would you want a
repeat of that? So we're about out of time here.
So we're going to wrap it up for today. We still have a little
bit to go. He says, you're valuable. And then he goes on to say he
knows that they're going to be brought to trial. He knows they're going to have
to confront these priests and chief lawyers and Pharisees. And he says, don't worry about
what you're going to have to say. So we'll pick that up the
next time. And just want you to, if nothing
else, just kind of consider the eternality of your relationship
with the Lord and what come what may, nothing can separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ and we always have
to keep that view in mind and not look at things from just
the physical standpoint of we're only here and we need to do what
we need to do today. So, until the next time, thank
you for your attention and as always, be free.