Faithful Witness of People

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose . . . To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! . . . You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

Acts 6:8,9; 7:2,51-53

“The doctor needs to see you as soon as possible. Can you come in today?” Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of that phone call. But it’s a phone call that must take place. If you are diagnosed with some illness that requires immediate attention, you don’t want the doctor to keep it a secret and to wait until your next visit. Not only do you appreciate the immediate attention, but you also appreciate that the doctor wants to have the conversation in person. It demonstrates care and concern.

And yet, isn’t it a wonder that what we desire and expect for our physical welfare is the opposite of what we expect and desire for our spiritual welfare? We don’t like to hear about what we’ve done wrong. Or we get defensive when someone points out the faults of our family members. “Who are you to judge?” or “Mind your own business” are phrases that so easily come out of our mouths when we are confronted. But consider just how spiritually dangerous it would be if our sins went unchecked. Unless we know something is wrong, we won’t care about a cure. Unless we know something is broken, it won’t ever get fixed.

Our God doesn’t want this sin-broken world to stay broken. God doesn’t want you to be broken. So what does he do? He makes the difficult phone call and has the tough conversations through the faithful witness of people. We need to hear God’s law and how we’ve broken it. Not so we can feel hopelessly broken, but so that he can point us to his Son, Jesus, who never broke a single law but obeyed them all perfectly for us.

Prayer: (Christian Worship: Hymnal – 695)

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee. Amen.