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PAYING FULL PRICE

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Acts 7:51-60

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Disciples have courage to believe,

to witness, and to care.

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O. (Bud) R= eeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

November 2, 2008<= /o:p>

I am not a very good shopper. I like to buy stuff, and I like to= get new stuff. But I don’t = like to shop for it. Some people f= eel the thrill of the hunt in looking for a bargain. They will search ten stores to see= if they can find an item a few dollars cheaper. Not me—I’d rather pay = full price for an item just to save me the time and energy of shopping for it. My idea of a successful shopping t= rip is deciding beforehand what you want. Go to the store. Get it. Get out. Mission accomplished; nobody hurt. That’s successful shopping.

One of my most interesting and irritating shop= ping experiences was in the Mercado Juar= ez in Juarez, Mexico. Inside this big, open building are dozens of little shops, selling everything from chili peppers to T-shirts.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The problem is, there are no price= s set on any of these items. You as= k how much the vendor wants for an item, then you haggle until you agree on a price. Nobody ever pays what = the vendor asks; that’s not the game.&nb= sp; You can talk a vendor down from $25 for a pair of so-called genuine designer sunglasses to about $6 or $8 if you’re lucky. Then your friend will come along a= nd get the sunglasses a dollar cheaper! But if you try to go too low, the vendor will get insulted and turn = you away from his shop. It’= s a nerve-wracking experience. I = want to say, “Just put a tag on it, and I’ll pay full price.”<= /p>
Some people are on the lookout for spiritual bargains as well. They will s= earch around until they find a place with minimum expectations and maximum rewards. You know, get saved;= join the church; attend occasionally; go to heaven; mission accomplished. If you think you have found that k= ind of place here, think again. We don’t do discount discipleship. What I want to tell you today is that real joy, real fulfillment, re= al satisfaction, and real meaning come when you pay the full spiritual price of discipleship. When you become= a sold-out disciple of Jesus, then the mission is accomplished. That’s when you experience t= he Kingdom of God.

Stephen, the first martyr of the church, paid = full price for his faith. His discipleship did not come cheap. It cost him his life. Stephen wa= s a hero of faith.

Stephen was one of a group of seven men chosen= by the early church in Jerusalem<= /st1:place> to take care of the physical needs of the widows and orphans in the church. The church was growin= g so much that the apostles couldn’t take care of the daily needs of the people and have any time left for praying and teaching, so they appointed G= odly men to do part of the ministry. Stephen did such a wonderful job that the opposition began spreading rumors about his blasphemy and disloyalty.= So he was called before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jew= s, to account for himself.

Stephen stood before the most powerful leaders= in Jerusalem and mad= e a speech which takes up a whole chapter in Acts. He rehearsed the actions of God go= ing back to Abraham. His point wa= s that God had always been with his people, and God’s people had always been rebellious. With Jesus, God h= ad come to be with his people in a new way, and these Jewish leaders, like the= ir ancestors before them, had proven hostile.= Finally Stephen let them have it: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your anc= estors not persecute? They killed th= e one who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You = are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not = kept it!”= [1]

This was hard news to hear. But then Stephen made it worse by turning his face to heaven and saying, “Look, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man (that is, Jesus) standing at the right hand of God!” His words so enraged the Jewish leaders that they seized him and took him out to the city limits and stoned him to death. As the rocks began to find their m= ark, he shouted, “Lord Jesus, rece= ive my spirit!” Finally, he sank to his knees, and in words reminiscent = of Jesus on the cross, Stephen cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” There he died, the first disciple = to give his life for the Lord.

If there is a word that describes Stephen, it = would be courage. What courage he had to even be= come a Christian in that day and time. What courage he had to stand up and speak to the ruling council of elders. And what courage he h= ad to pray for his executioners with his dying breath. Heroes of faith are people of courage.

Heroe= s of faith have the courage to believe.&nbs= p; Stephen knew where he stood. He had made his confession, and his faith was sure. Paul says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart an= d so is justified, and one confesses with the lips and so is saved.”= = [2] In the direst circumstanc= es of life, will your faith stand strong?

I wish I could say that in today’s world= , at least in our country, that you would never have to pay for your faith with = your life. But I just can’t.= You remember the Christian teenage= rs in Littleton, Colorado, who lost their lives at Colum= bine High School. One of the most memorable was Cass= ie Bernall, who was staring down the barrel of a rifle when the shooter asked, “Do you believe in God?” Cassie could not deny her faith.&nb= sp; She said, “Yes.” It was the last word she ever said.

Cassie Bernall paid the full price for her faith. It’s horrible wh= en a tragedy like that takes the life of a faithful person. But a steadfast belief, even in th= e face of death, makes a statement that will never be forgotten. Heroes of faith have the courage to witness.&= nbsp; Jesus told his disciples, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in a= ll Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”[3] Two thousand years after the = fact, we are still telling the story of Stephen and his courageous witness to the Jewish Council.

Payne Stewart, the professional golfer who was killed in a plane crash in 1999, was known for three things: great golf, his traditional knickers-and-tam outfits on the golf course, and his devotion to his family. In June of 1999, = just four months before he died, he won the PGA tournament, one of golf’s major events, for the second time. A few days later, they were having a party at Stewart’s home to celebrate the victory. For the first time, Payne Stewart was seeing the tape of his victorious round, sink= ing the winning putt, and giving the credit to God. What he told a national TV audienc= e was, "First of all, I have to give thanks to the Lord. If it weren’t for the faith t= hat I have in him, I wouldn’t have been able to have the faith that I had in myself on the golf course.”

Payne Stewart’s = pastor was at the party, and he noticed how Payne Stewart turned away from the TV = and his eyes welled up with tears when he heard himself say that. The pastor walked over and put his= arm around Stewart and said, “I just want you to know I appreciate what G= od is doing with your heart.”

Payne Stewart looked at his pastor with tears rolling down his cheeks and said, “I’m not going to be a Bible-thumper. I’m not = going to stand up on some stump. Bu= t I want everybody to know—it’s Jesus.”[4]

When the fire of faith burns hot within us, we= find ourselves compelled to let it out, to tell somebody about it. Again, Paul gives the witness, R= 20;Just as we have the same spirit of fai= th that is in accordance with the Scripture—‘I believed, and so I spoke’—we also believe, and so we speak.”[5]

Making a witness is not always easy or popular= . When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., = lifted a prophetic voice against the injustice of racism, he felt a divine compuls= ion to do so. He said, “Som= e of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that= the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humilit= y that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”= = [6] Dr. King, too, paid full price for= his witness in a pool of blood at the Lorraine Motel in = Memphis.

Heroe= s of faith have the courage to believe, to witness, and to care. Stephen started his ministry in the service of compassion. He was chosen to be in charge of getting food for the poor widows and orphans of <= st1:City w:st=3D"on">Jerusalem. Before he ever made a verbal witne= ss, he simply cared for people. In f= act, one of the most popular programs of lay pastoral care in the country right = now, a program we have right here in our church, is called Stephen Ministry. He is the “patron saint̶= 1; of caregivers. The Scripture say= s, “Stephen, full of grace and p= ower, did great wonders and signs among the people.”[7] He loved Jesus. Then he cared about the widows and orphans. He cared about the c= ouncil members. He even cared about = the ones who took up stones to kill him. That took courage.

At a prayer breakfast, Retired Marine Corps Ge= neral Charles Krulak told a story of rare courage, and I’d like to close wi= th that today. As a second lieut= enant fresh out of the Naval Academy, Krulak was= not a believer. His first stop afte= r the Academy was Officers Training School, wh= ere the young officers were taught honor, courage and commitment. His roommate at the school was John Listerman.= They developed a great friendship. Listermann was a Christian, and e= ven though Krulak was not one, he thought this Christianity stuff must be pretty good, just judging from his friend John.

When the school ended, John and Charles ended = up commanding a unit in Viet Nam.&nb= sp; On the first day they were on patrol, the unit ran into an ambush. John took a 50-caliber bullet in h= is leg, shattering his kneecap. Falling, he took another round in his chest, just below his heart. Charles was also hit, but not crit= ically, so he crawled over to where John was mortally wounded. He planned to say, “Are you okay? Can I do anything?” But before he could, John Listerman turned to him and said, “How are you doing, Chu= ck? Are you okay?”

Krulak replied, “Yes, John, I’m okay.”

He said, “Are my men safe?”

Charles said, “John, your people are okay.”

At that point John turned his face to the sky = and repeated over and over, “Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for caring for my people= . Thank you for caring for me.”= ;

In the middle of the battlefield, lying in the= mud with his dying friend, Charles Krulak was utterly dumbfounded. Later, in large part due to the influence of his friend, Charles Krulak also became a Christian.= = [8] Like Saul of Tarsus, who saw Steph= en die and later met Jesus on the way to Damascus.

Today, on All Saints’ Sunday, we celebra= te the courage of faith. We honor the sold-out followers of Jesus Christ who through the centuries have believed = and witnessed and cared. They are= the foundation of our church today. We are standing on the shoulders of giants.&n= bsp; We are standing on the shoulders of those who have paid full price f= or their faith.

As we come to the Lord’s Table, we remem= ber and celebrate especially the One who paid the full price for us. We remember the night he ate a last supper with his disciples and told them that whenever they ate or drank together from that point onward, to do it in remembrance of him. We remember today the courage he ha= d to submit himself to death, even death on the cross, to save us from sin, to guarantee us eternal life. The courage of Jesus is ultimately what gives us the courage to believe, to witness, and to care for one another. Have we ever needed it any more than we do right now? Whatever it takes to follow him, it’s worth it. Whatever= it costs, it’s worth full price. Amen!

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