Sermon Tone Analysis

Are actions and feelings connected to beliefs?

Who among us would say that our actions are connected to our beliefs?

Is it not true that, driving down the road, we fly along at 70 mph believing that the speed limit is so?

Then seeing the sign that says 65, we choose to keep the lead foot at 70, beginning only slightly to feel somewhat guilty.

Only slightly though - we are quite good at justifying ourselves.

Now the men at work sign comes and the limit reduces to 55.

We slow to 65.

We have acted based on a belief that the speed limit reduced - we saw the sign.

We also feel slightly more guilty because we did not reduce speed sufficiently.

Also, we now feel doubly guilty as the blue lights begin to flash in the rear-view.

We feel a surge of guilty panic.

We believe we are caught.

Based on that belief we act to turn on a blinker, pull into the right lane, and begin to slow.

The blue lights flash by us, accelerating towards the call of duty.

Suddenly a flood of relief flushes through us as we discover we are free, the action of the police officer moving quickly past us leading us to believe he is after someone or something else.

Yet feeling more cautious and convicted, we slow to what we also believe is the legal speed, 55.

Suddenly, a semi horn sounds behind us, spurring us faster, and with a jolt we realize we are still driving 55 long past the construction zone.

The limit jumped back up to 70 about a mile after the officer passed us… but we failed to notice, being still flooded with relief and distracted by the ever smaller police cruiser.

The semi warns we have been acting on a wrong belief as he swerves around us and moves on by.

But we still don’t accelerate to 70 till we see the sign for ourselves 2 miles later.

Then it all makes sense.

We quickly align our actions with what we know believe.

All that tale is a hodgepodge of various driving experiences, with a mix I’m sure not unfamiliar to most of us.

I could add other examples.

We believe the credit card payment is due on the 27th only to find out it was the 25th.

We believed our spouse would be perfect forever!

We act on beliefs.

Feelings are deeply intertwined, sometimes leading action, but sometimes following.

Our actions and beliefs are deeply connected.

Let me ask you another question this morning:

The Stoning of Stephen - was it right or wrong?

We looked at Stephen’s defense and his stoning the Sunday before Easter.

Let’s pick up after his defense:

Acts 7:54-

Was the stoning of Stephen right or wrong?

We know Christ as Lord.

We recognize it as wrong and the disciples who knew Jesus as Lord did too.

They knew the scriptures, they saw him risen, victorious over the grave, ascended into heaven!

They believed.

Therefore they acted rightly in submission and obedience to him.

But consider .

This passage describes a prophet who attempts to lead Israel astray from the Lord God who called Israel into relationship with himself when he made Israel a nation and removed them from Egypt.

It says to stone him (vs.

10).

The men of the Sanhedrin were aware and familiar with this passage.

They saw Stephen and the gospel of Christ as condoning the worship of another God, a false God, so they stoned him to death in keeping with what they understood from scripture!

They missed seeing Christ - a huge error - and saw the stoning of Stephen as right.

The crux was whether Jesus was the same God who saved them from Egypt and called them into covenant with him.

They said no and stoned him.

They had a belief and the acted upon it.

They defended their faith nobly, even to the point of stoning the offender just as the law said, a thing not easy to do.

They failed to see and recognize Christ even though Stephen had just recounted to them the whole trajectory of their history since even before Egypt, demonstrating that Jesus was in fact the same God who had saved their forefathers from Egypt.

Yes, we see they got it wrong, but they thought they had it right.

Jesus is saying he came to save, not to judge, but the words he has spoken are critical because they are given by the Father as the final standard of judgment in the last days!

Who decides?

The Word decides.

The crux was whether Jesus was the same God who saved them from Egypt and called them into covenant with him.

They said no and stoned him.

Yes, we see they got it wrong, but they thought they had it right.

They defended their faith nobly, even to the point of stoning the offender just as the law said.

But they failed to see and recognize Christ even though Stephen had just recounted to them the whole trajectory of their history since even before Egypt, demonstrating that Jesus was in fact the same God who had saved their forefathers from Egypt.

Jesus is saying he came to save, not to judge, but the words he has spoken are critical because they are commanded by the Father as the final standard of judgment in the last days!

This is why it is soooo critical to know God’s Word deeply!

We could very well make the same mistake the Jews made.

We could easily act to protect the Church by zealously moving forward on our opinion of what should be done or what ought to be, the whole time thinking we are defending the faith.

We act on a belief!

But action on a bad belief is not good action!

We see it all around us in the world today - people acting zealously on a wrong belief.

If we don’t stop and turn to God’s Word first, and truly check what is being said or done, no matter our good intentions we may well be turning against God! Good intentions are insufficient.

We have to be right too, or we stand responsible to God.

Enter Saul.

Saul approved of Stephen’s stoning.

Saul was no dummy.

He was the epitome of well intentioned and knowledgeable of the Word.

And he was a man of action.

Yet somehow he got on the wrong side of God.

He stood in approval of the unjust execution.

Saul acted on more than most others.

Our persecutors may be well-intentioned, but need Jesus to grasp their hearts and show them the truth.

Or are we the persecutor who needs Jesus to show us the truth?

Our persecutors may be well-intentioned, but need Jesus to grasp their hearts and show them the truth.

Or

Are we the persecutor who needs Jesus to show us the truth?

This was two groups of the same people trying to serve the same God, yet one killed the other because they did not turn to and heed their own scriptures.

Do we have a difference on the Word, and one party persecutes the other, thinking to defend the faith?

Really we both must go to the Word and seek the truth recorded there, in the meantime acting with deference and kindness to each other.

Use the Word to correct, reprove, instruct, build up, edify, encourage, and exhort, but do so humbly, Paul says, taking care lest we ourselves fall.

The Crux of the Word is Christ.

The Crux of the Word is Christ.

The critical point is Christ.

He is the watershed.

The critical point is Christ.

He is the watershed.

But the critical measure of our faith and practice is also the Word.

We will be judged by the word in the end.

We must know it and search it and love it and surrender to it and hold to it and teach it and submit to it.

It is what leads us to Christ, the one Father Son and Spirit who brought Israel from Egypt, died for the sins of men, and rose to heaven’s throne, whom Stephen saw standing by the Father himself, ready to welcome him home.

Make sure you are not a well-intended persecutor who is wrong about his view of the Word.

Be the persecuted and martyred witness to the right view of the Word.