MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

1 Kings 8:1-66; Acts 7:51-8:13; Psalm 129:1-8; Proverbs 17:1

“May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors.”

“’David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent Temple for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who actually built it…. You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?’ …The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage…. Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.”

“But the Lord is good; he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly.”

Christians need to get to the point. The point, of course, is Jesus, and how His sacrifice has both saved those who accept Him as Savior from judgment and guaranteed them eternal life. When we get distracted from Jesus, we risk losing the audience God intends for us. Distractions can include sin, but it is just as important to recognize that our own testimonies also can get in the way of Christ. Anything, literally anything, that obscures Christ is a disservice to those seeking Him and even to those who should be seeking Him, but aren’t.

Stephen was by all accounts a great disciple. His final sermon, however, is a case study in missed opportunities. Careful reviewers of his last testimony will be hard pressed to find any reference to Christ’s saving work or the certain salvation on which Stephen bet his life. He jumps from a fine summary of Old Testament history to cursing the Pharisees and their ancestors. Without a word of grace, Stephens language so incited his listeners that they resorted to cold-blooded murder just to quiet his accusations. The fact that he was right does not mitigate the magnitude of his error. Stephen let his passion and prejudices carry him away. It not only cost him his life but, just possibly, cost Jesus converts.

Many of us have heard similar testimonies. Too many would-be disciples seem more interested in proving others are wretched sinners than in sharing a word of grace that might result in their salvation. Certainly, Stephen’s testimony is one of the most succinct and complete Old Testament summaries ever recorded, but its benefits were rapidly lost when his words turned accusatory rather than conciliatory.

If God is nothing more than a tool we use to set ourselves above others, or to judge others, we miss the very center of the Gospel, and this no real disciple would ever intentionally do. We must guard against the tendency we all have to allow our good to get in the way of God’s best.

“I know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” How much better is Paul’s simple faith statement than Stephen’s dissertation on Hebrew history and blanket condemnation of his audience and their ancestors! Certainly, Paul may raise more questions than he answers, but he puts the clear focus where it needs to be – on Jesus, not the apostle - and he centers his testimony on the Lord’s merciful sacrifice, not on man’s unworthiness.

Every person has a history. Every person has certain failings. But without hope of redemption, no amount of regret or recognition of sin is going to save anyone. However well-intentioned, any testimony that has more to say about sin than about redemption, reconciliation and resurrection is nothing more than a disservice to the Lord. If we are going to win souls to Christ, it is time to put our judgment, bias, past experiences and injuries behind us and substitute words of blessing and hope for words of disappointment and condemnation.