A life changing event

Sermon notes from Sunday 14 May 2017

Acts 9 verses 1 - 16

A life changing event.  Saul was standing guard over the clothes of the man who had been stoned, Stephen.  The impact of that death changed not only his life but the course of the church.  We can see Saul standing watching, probably thinking it was a job well done.  In chapter 9 verse 1 we see the impact it had on Saul of Tarsus.

He is on a murderous campaign.  He set out with the aim of finding anyone who walked in the Christian way, whether they were men or women to bind them and bring them to Jerusalem.  It didn`t matter who they were.  They were arrested.  He wanted to put down the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Today we will hear that same idea coming across our airwaves.  Any religious topic that is raised people will ring in for their own comment.  Saul knew nothing of the grace of the Lord in his life.  He asked for the authority to be given to him that if he found anyone believing in the Lord Jesus that he might bring them back to Jerusalem.  This is a young man going out on a murderous campaign.  Maybe as you come into this meeting you are not saved, not trusting in Christ today.  All that is going to change as you face the claims of Christ on your soul, that you are not ready for heaven.  "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his" (Numbers 23 verse 10).  You are beginning today to see something of the cross of Calvary.  The nature of your sin would take you into the caverns of the damned but today you are going to have a change of life.  God was about to change this young man`s life on the road to Damascus.  He was blinded by the devil just like anyone of us.  Dear knows how deep we could go into sin.  This young man was religious to the back teeth.  He knew the Old Testament scriptures back to front.  A man who would read and pray in the synagogue.  This was going to change his life for all eternity.  Are you saved today?  Are you going on with God?  Have you turned your life around through the grace of God?  A young man deceived and deluded.  Acts 22 verses 3 and 4.  The scene of Stephen`s execution didn`t matter, whether young, old, sick or well, man or woman, he hated the name of Jesus Christ.  Acts 8 verses 1 and 3.  "He made havoc of the church."  Paul stands before Agrippa in chapter 26 verse 9.  Here`s this young man on a murderous campaign.

A miraculous conversion - chapter 9 verse 3 "as he journeyed."  What was going through his mind?  He was travelling some 150 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus.  God was working on his heart.  Verse 5 when God brought him to his knees, God was bringing to his mind things that had happened in days past.  All the churches were praying for this man maybe night after night but we don`t see anything happening afterwards.  We don`t know that.  We do not know what God is doing behind the scenes.  Here was a man who went into the priest`s office fuming, heading off with all his people with him, heading to Damascus.  Little did they know that God was dealing with him.  Maybe God has been dealing with that heart of yours.  Maybe through various events coming back to your mind again.  Maybe you are remembering them from days past or maybe even someone getting saved.  God knows the heart.  Here we read Saul sitting on his knees.  "Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me?"  Saul asked who he was.  The Lord replied "I am the one you are persecuting, it is hard to kick against the pricks."  The idea of kicking against the pricks is of a farmer tying the oxen to the plough.  When the ox stepped out of the path the farmer had a stick with a sharp prod on the end of it.  When the ox didn`t like the prod it would begin to kick back.  God comes to you and I with conviction.  He brings things back to our remembrance.  You remember being told you needed to be saved.  You were almost convicted to be saved but somehow you couldn`t go through with it.  God reminds you of it.  You try to put it out of your mind and that is impossible.  Perhaps it was the words of Peter from Acts 4.  The apostles were arrested, beaten, mistreated, abused and told not to preach in this name again.  Saul was probably one of the people standing there watching the disciples being beaten.  When Peter spoke his face was like an angel.  No doubt Saul heard what Peter had to say. Maybe he looked into his face.  One thing he couldn`t deny - there was something different about this man.  This was a man who brought the presence of God with him.  Peter was defending the gospel.  "There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4 verse 12)  Maybe Saul had been let down by the words of Gamaliel.  He had taught him, he had listened to Gamaliel, now he listens as Gamaliel stands to his feet.  He was a great teacher of the Old Testament.  Acts 5 verses 38 and 39 "let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it."    Maybe the call of God comes on you, gives you a redirection of your life.  Acts 5 verse 40 something strange happened.  Whilst the apostles were being interrogated something in the atmosphere changed.  Paul probably wondered to himself `have you gone mad, are you going to believe in this false doctrine?`  God is bringing pressure on him.  No doubt as he watches Stephen being put to death, hearing this young man praying for the crowd around him "do not lay this sin against them." (Acts 7 verse 60)  God is coming now on the road to Damascus and Saul is fighting against God`s word.  God is asking him to change.  Will you continue on that road, why will you not turn?  He stands and beckons and pleads that you might come and trust him as Saviour and Lord.

A marvellous change.  Verse 8 "but they led him by the hand."  He wouldn`t have done that when he headed off down that road.  God has been dealing with him.  This raging bull is now an obedient puppy.  He has been saved.  A great change has come into his life.  His anger, frustration, fierceness has gone.  When a man gets saved there is an amazing change.  That change makes the sincerity of the conversion.  Ananias said of him "I have heard much of this man and the evil he has done."  The disciples when they heard of this - verse 31 "they had rest".  He caused a row in chapter 8 verse 1.  When God came and changed his precious soul the Lord gave rest to the church.  Not to ransack the churches now but to preach to them.  Galatians 1 verse 22 "I was unknown to the churches in Judea but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.  And they glorified God in me."  Watching Stephen die then headed off to arrest more Christians and put them into prison but God saved him and done a mighty work in his heart.  Salvation is of God.  He calls you to himself.  God who saves, changes, transforms, gives that new life.

A missionary calling.  Acts 9 verse 6 "what will thou have me to do?"  Here`s an event that changed the whole course of the church of Jesus Christ.  The salvation of one man.  What has changed in my life from the moment of my conversion?  In your life, in your circumstances, in the place where God has placed you?  In that family, in that community, in that work place?  In Acts 13 verse 2 the Holy Spirit said to the prayer group "separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have them to do."  Is God speaking to you about your service today?  Why not surrender your all to him today.  Give your life, your heart, your all to him and hold nothing back.

A life changing moment

Sermon notes from Sunday 7 May 2017

Acts 7 verses 54 - chapter 8 verse 8

I was listening to a programme and a lot of it was dedicated to a young

man who spent some 32 hours on a surf board.  It was thinking about fears he had, what was going on all around him, could see no hope whatsoever.  It was a life defining moment.  Things that happen to us that mean life could never be the same again.  That young man`s mind will go back to that day drifting along in the sea with no hope until he saw the helicopter in the skies.  Or think of the young racing driver who was in an ordinary race at 120 miles per hour coming around the track when all of a sudden there was a stationary car.  He lived to tell the tale but lost both his legs.  These are life changing moments.  Life defining moments.  We have also a life changing moment for the young man called Saul who later became Paul of the apostles.  It was not only a life defining moment for him but for the church of Jesus Christ.  A changing of the course for the church.  Chapter 8 verse 1 there was great persecution caused by Saul.  A religious zealot who had been brought up in the Jewish religious faith.  There came a moment when that all began to change.  It happened as he stood and watched Stephen being stoned to death. Saul guarded the clothes of them that stoned Stephen.  Look at Acts chapter 22 verses 19 and 20.  Not only was Saul standing by but he was watching.  "I kept the raiment of them that slew him."  Standing in this religious crowd, they had quizzed Stephen, tried to get him to recant of all he believed in then lifted the stones to stone him.  If we could lift our eyes away from the scene we would see Saul standing on the opposite side watching all that was going on.  Here was a man being stoned to death at his request.  There was something there that left a mark on Saul`s life.  Have you ever had a life changing moment experience?  Look at the experience Saul had.

Saul witnessed the cause for which Stephen was stoned.  This religious zealot cannot see the gospel of saving grace.  Something had to happen.  For us when we come under the teaching of the gospel the Holy Spirit had to come and take that veil off our faces, lift it up so that we might see.  Don`t think that just because you are saved you are any better than anyone else.  A life defining moment happened.  Have you ever really thought about that moment when your last breath is about to be taken where will your soul be in eternity?  Saul witnessed something definite and real.  He signed the consenting note for Stephen`s death.  In Acts 6 we are introduced to this man Stephen. A conflict had arose in the church.  The Grecians felt they were being left out.  When did this happen?  "when the number of the disciples was multiplied."  When we see God working in a situation we also see the devil rising in opposition.  He starts the murmuring among the church members.  What was the answer to it?  We find men like Stephen stepping forward.  Verse 3 the apostles speaking to the laymen of the church.  They are described as "of honest report".  In other words they had a good name in society.  They were "full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom."  They wanted to appoint some over this business.  Ordinary men with special qualifications to sort out this murmuring in the church.  They had a longing desire for the things of God.  It is only when this desire is evident that we can know the working of the Holy Ghost within us.  Paul commended Priscilla and Aquilla - why - because when times were difficult for Paul these two would have laid down their lives for him.  We are talking here about real commitment, ready to die for the cause of Jesus Christ.  That is the sort of thing the unsaved are looking for.  Men and women prepared to see us not just taking up a pew on a Sunday morning but prepared to do something for the Lord in the rest of the week.  Paul referred to Mary and said "she bestowed much labour on us."  Not everyone is called to preach but that should not exclude us from whatever task God would have us to do.  The local fellowship is not just about the evangelist or the Sunday School teachers but the body of Christ working together to see men and women saved. In verse 2 the apostles have gathered together as a fellowship but now there is a division, a dispute has arisen.  They realised they couldn`t do their own work and try to sort out this division too.    They would have to leave the study of God`s word and prayer.  They were not being big headed but they could see what was happening.  The enemy, the devil was involved in this.  The devil was trying to take away the word of God from their midst.  The apostles were asking them to choose out men full of the Holy Ghost, dedicated and consecrated to the Lord.  Are you and I today like that?  Here was a man ready to die for Christ.  As Saul of Tarsus watched this stoning he could see the same thing.  Agabus took Paul`s girdle and wrapped it around both his hands.  He then said that the person who wore this girdle would be bound, fettered, chained and imprisoned all because of the gospel.  The church turned to Paul and told him not to go down to Jerusalem because of this.  Paul said he was prepared to die for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saul witnessed the calmness in Stephen`s suffering.  Stephen had a calmness in his approach to settling the dispute in the church.  That calmness only comes from the Spirit of God.  In chapter 6 verse 8 he was standing firm even at the point of death.  God was using him so very well that even the devil took notice of him.  The devil stirred up religious momentum that he had him arrested and stoned to death.  Think of Nehemiah in the Old Testament.  The word came to him that Jerusalem had been torn down and the people were not attending the place of worship.  God`s word came to Nehemiah that he wanted him to do the work but Nehemiah pleaded with God that he was not able.  He was only a cupbearer in the king`s palace, how could he do such a job.  When God is in something, when he separates us we can do it with his help.  When Nehemiah went down the enemies were grieved.  They saw a man who cared for the welfare of the people.  What a wonderful testimony.  Not out to make a name for himself or to become rich.  He left a great job in the palace serving the king, no doubt had a great wage and prospects but he left it all to go and serve the Lord.  He went and undertook the job God called him to.  Here is Stephen, when the enemy was in the church telling lies and stories, when they tried him and could not find anything to accuse him of.  Chapter 6 verse 10 they were able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.  They were clever, asking him great theological questions but Stephen`s face shone like an angel.  The God who could make the calmness on his soul at the point of his death is the same God we have today.  You are afraid becaue there is something you have to decide today, let God take control and charge.

Saul witnessed the confession Stephen made - Acts 16 verse 15.  He was faithful to the end.  He started well, ran well and finished well.  Here he was being stoned and it was at that point that he looked up into the heavens and saw the glory of God.  He could see the Lord Jesus standing waiting on him.  What a great vision he had.  Imagine if that was our vision on the day we die.  Now contrast it with the sinners death.  Not saved, not born again of the Spirit of God, what do they see?  Not the glory of the Lord.  Before them is only darkness, a lost sinners hell for eternity.  A life defining moment is what you can have today if you come to Christ, trust him as Saviour and Lord.  There were men and women years ago burned at the stake for their faith.  Men like Martin Luther who led the great Reformation.  They died to give us liberty.  We should never give up that freedom to worship, to give out the tract on the streets so that men and women might be saved.

Saul witnessed a great challenge.  Did he leave this scene in bitterness?  Knowing the last breath was about to leave his body?  No, he said "Lord lay not this sin against their charge."  A young man of grace and compassion.  Could we pray for those who would hurt us as this young man prayed?  This was a life changing moment for Saul of Tarsus.  He would never forget about that moment in the future.  I trust God has brought you to a place where you will never ever forget because he wants to do something in your life from here on.  The pastor will never do it nor the evangelist, nor coming Sunday by Sunday - only the Lord can do it for you this very moment.

A life changing event - what God can do with a failure

Sermon notes from Sunday 21 May 2017
Exodus 3 verses 1 - 10

I want us to continue with the thought of life changing events or moments.  Moments that have the potential to shake us to our very boots, to change the direction of our lives.  We thought firstly of Saul of Tarsus who stood one day and watched the young man Stephen being put to death.  He actually commissioned it, watched him being stoned to death.  I would imagine that scene never left his mind.  It changed his total perspective.  It would be very difficult to ever get that out of his mind.  He carried that with him until the day on the Damascus road and God brought him to his knees.  That is when we see him converted by the grace of God and changed by the power of God.  Here was the persecutor of the church becoming the preacher of the church.  He loved to imprison people yet he came now to set people free.  Here we now find Moses out in the desert.  A shepherd living amongst his family and loved ones.  He is out there because of his impatience and failure.  He tried to do something in his own ability.  After his failure he ran away.  When we feel we have let God down we run away and hide.  Just like Adam did in the Garden of Eden.  There was no sin there in the beginning, everything was beautiful.  Every tree was there for food but there was one tree that they were not allowed to eat.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they fell from grace.  When God came down into the Garden in the cool of the day what did he find?  He found them hiding.  Never allow failure to bring defeat in our lives.  Today let us see what God does with failures.  We need to learn we can do nothing in our own strength and ability.  We need God`s Holy Spirit living and dwelling and filling our lives to the uttermost.  How does God deal with a failure?

For Moses it was an unusual event.  Moses was in the wilderness.  He had been living here for 40 years and had never seen anything like this before in his life.  It was the most normal of days.  Moses was leading his flock to the brook when all of a sudden out of the routine God breaks into his life.  He used a little bush, a thorny bush.  As Moses comes alongside it he sees it is on fire but what is so strange was that it did not burn away.  Imagine the dryness of the desert but this bush did not burn away.  Under extreme heat it should have gone up in a gulf of flames and then be gone.  He was stopped for a moment just to look at it.  Verse 3 "Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight."  It caught his attention, it was the most unusual thing he had ever seen.  This bush was not burned away.  The day was only beginning for Moses but something else happened.  God spoke out of the midst of this bush.  "Take off your shoes for the place you are standing on is holy ground."  Moses is going to examine what is happening.  Maybe there is something in your life that is going to change the direction of your life.  Maybe you haven`t taken time to examine it.  That is what God will use to change the direction and course of your life.  A life changing moment.  Think of Jairus. The Bible describes him as a ruler in the synagogue.  He got up and read the scriptures, prayed, invited others to preach the word of God.  He had a great desire for the word of God.  He might not have been saved.  The Jews did not have a lot of time for the Lord.  Something happened in Jairus` home.  He had a daughter who was sick and the first person Jairus thought of was Jesus.  Sometimes when something unusual happens in our lives that we cannot cope with the first thing we do is pray.  Sometimes we set God aside after we come through such a time and never think of him again.  It changed Jairus` attitude.  Maybe there is something in our lives today, in our family, in our home that we have taken for granted, never stopped to wonder why.  God allows things to happen in his providence, not to question him but to follow him.  Remember Peter staying with Simon the Tanner in Acts 9.  He went up to the roof top because it was the time of prayer.  Something unusual happened up there.  As he stood there he was hungry.  He didn`t go back down to satisfy his hunger but continued in his prayer.  He fell into a trance and had a vision of a sheet being let down from heaven with all manner of unclean animals on this sheet.  The Lord said to him "rise, kill and eat."  Peter was angry and replied "not so Lord."  Peter was Jewish and they did not eat anything unclean.  While he thought on this vision God would change the course of Peter`s life.  He would go to the Gentile people to preach the gospel, those deemed as unclean by the Jewish nation.  Normally he would never go into a Gentile home.  God was sending him to Cornelius.  God was changing the course of his direction.  What about us?  Is there something happening in our lives today?  Has God allowed something into our lives that is making us question whether we have to change.

It was an unmerited event.  God was working out his purpose in Peter.  He did it too in Paul`s life as he preached to the Gentiles.  40 years previously Moses had vacated the position of living in Pharaoh`s house.  As a baby he should have been put to death under Pharaoh`s decree yet he was cherished and loved by his parents.  When they could not hide him any longer they made a basket, an ark of bulrushes and set him in it and placed the ark in the river.  Pharaoh`s daughter found him and she took him as her own son.  He was educated in all the mighty wisdom and practices and teachings of Egypt.  There came a time when he forsook all that associated himself with his own people.  For 40 years he had been placed in the palace.  God has set him down there for a reason.  Acts 7 verse 25 "for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hands he would deliver them but they understood not."  He saw an Egyptian fighting with a Gentile and put him to death one day.  He buried him in the sand but the next day he saw 2 Gentiles fighting.  One of the men turned to Moses and asked him "are you going to put me to death like the Egyptian?"  As a result Moses ran away.  Now he is out in the wilderness and felt a failure.  God doesn`t leave us as failures.  He does something that is so unmerited.  Maybe you feel you have let God down.  God asked you to do something and you didn`t do it.  You had every intention of doing it but didn`t go through with it.  You feel a failure, have let God down.  He is the God of the second chances.  He came again just as he did with Moses.  Moses spent 40 years in Egypt learning to be something, 40 years in the wilderness learning to be a nobody and for 40 years God showed him what he can do with a nobody.  He is the God of the second chance.  Peter forsook the Lord at his death but when the Lord rose the third day he told the women to go and tell his disciples "and Peter."  He was not to be left out.  We would go to those who we would feel ought to know but God wants us to go to his own people.  Jonah forsook God and ran away from God.  God brought everything to pass just to bring him back to himself.  We are not worthy of the mercy of God.  God offers his free and full salvation today.  You don`t deserve it but he asks will you accept him.  Have you ever come to the cross of Calvary?  What are you going to do with your sins today?  The sin you were born with.  There is a place for your sin outside Jerusalem at the foot of the rugged cross where the perfect lamb of God died for our sin.  Jacob realised he merited nothing of God but God showered him with his love and mercy.  He will do something that will change the course of life for ever.  He is giving you a second chance - will you take it?  To be his child of God, to be his servant of God.

It was an unthinkable event.  Something that could not be explained.  God is using something this morning that is in your life.  After 40 years he was taking Moses from the sheepfold to go down into Egypt to do a mighty task for him.  God wants to save you, he wants to use you.  This man was 80 years of age.  Maybe he thought he was past it.  God is going to change the course of Moses` life for the next 40 years.  God will use Moses to lead the children of Isarel to the promised land.  If you were to give your life, your soul he would use it and bring many to Christ.  Many say they are too old for things of God.  God was asking something unthinkable of Moses.  He is asking the same of you too.  Maybe you never thought God will ever challenge you in that way.  He is asking you to see the unthinkable.  Moses was a shepherd tending the sheep.  In the eyes of every Egyptian a shepherd was an abomination.  God would use him and take him into Pharaoh`s house.  An abomination means to be disgusting, abhored.  God comes today and puts his finger on your life.  There is no-one else.  Surrender your all.

It was an unexpected event.