Mission

Acts 5:27ff

Introduction

• This morning I spoke about Peter and Dorcas and their being available to serve the Lord. I want to draw our attention back to the word that describes both them and us. Witness.

• What do you think of when you here the word martyr

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• marturia; from G3140 martureoô; means to bear witness, testify:

• marturia means - testimony:—reputation (1), testimony (30),
witness (1).

• Being a martyr does not mean you have to die, it means your life is a testimony what you believe, and because of your testimony, you will be killed.

• We call Stephen the first martyr, but what he really was, was the first disciple to be killed because of his marturia, or witness. It was his witness that brought him to the place where they stoned him.

• This morning I spoke of Cassie Bernal. She is a modern day Martyr. She died because of her testimony.

I once read a thought-provoking article entitled, "If You Are 35, You Have 500 Days to Live." Its thesis was that when you subtract the time spent sleeping, working, tending to personal matters, hygiene, odd chores, medical matters, eating, traveling, and miscellaneous time-stealers, in the next thirty-six years you will have roughly the equivalent of only five hundred days left to spend as you wish. No wonder the Psalmist advised, "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom."

27When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, 28saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29But Peter and the apostles answered,

I. Our Mission

“29.We must obey God rather than men.

II Message

30“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. 31“He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

III Method

32“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Saving the Communists

Another illustration is about former Secretary of State James Baker. James Baker has become a truly committed servant of Jesus Christ. He's a lawyer from Houston, Texas, an Episcopalian with a good tradition of Bible in his background.

At a presidential breakfast several years ago, he testified of his faith in Jesus Christ to heads of state and all sorts of people. He said he never really paid much attention to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Then his first wife came down with cancer, and he really began to think about death and eternity and God. Why was he being left alone with all these children? He still couldn't find the key to eternal life.

His second wife, Susan, came to know the Lord Jesus. She began to teach community Bible studies and pray for Jim. Soon some of the Senators who know Jesus Christ began to pray for him. And then one day he said he understood. All his life he had thought he had to earn the love of God. He said, "I realized I could never earn the love of God. God loved me before I was even formed in my mother's womb. God loved me when Christ died on the cross." And James Baker bowed the knee to Jesus Christ and opened his heart to the Savior.

The immediate result was this: As Secretary of State, he was dealing with the foreign secretary of the USSR, Eduard Sheverdnadze. Baker liked Shevardnadze. As soon as he became a believer, the first thing that crossed Jim Baker's mind was "I've got to win Shevardnadze to Jesus Christ."

Baker has a ranch in Wyoming, and after a diplomatic event in 1989, he invited Shevardnadze to his ranch. At dinner Baker presented his guest with a pair of Western cowboy boots. Then Shevardnaze presented Baker with a surprising gift: an enameled picture of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Then Shevardnadze said to Baker, "You see, Mr. Secretary, even we Communists are changing our minds about spiritual things."

Later when the two went fishing, Baker began to share his faith. It wasn't long before Shevardnadze opened his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. In diplomatic circles, you're not supposed to meddle in personal religion, but when you're filled with the love of Christ, you want other people to come to faith in him.

-- Luis Palau, "Go to the Ends of the Earth," Preaching Today,

Dr Draper told us he got on an airplane in Baton Rouge one day, and he was trying to get some work done and they seated him by this old cowboy. This man was on his way to Truth or Consequences New Mexico. He had lived a pretty lonely life as a cowboy, and he had no family and not many friends to speak of. He had been to some specialists for cancer there, and they had pretty much told him there was nothing to be done. So he had literally boarded this airplane to go home to die.

Dr. Draper said you know that pretty much sums up lifes journey for everyone. We are on a journey from here to there, from birth to death. But in the midst of that journey this old cowboy met a martyr, or martureo, or witness of Christ. And the witness led him to Christ.