Do You and I Resist What God is Doing Today? - Jason Brown

Do You and I Resist What God is Doing Today? - Jason Brown

So, I’ve been thinking about Stephen’s message to the Sanhedrin in Acts 7.  First off, the Sanhedrin was filled with the politically powerful and the academically accredited  – you might think about it as the first century Jewish version of Congress.  As Ken outlined on Sunday, Stephen was trying to get the members of the Sanhedrin to see that God worked outside the temple.  Stephen listed several instances where this was the case.  He called Abraham in Mesopotamia.  He grabbed Moses in Egypt.  He gave the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.  He forged his people in the desert.  And when it finally came time to building a temple, it seems like God wasn’t that excited about the idea, making it clear to David that no temple would be able to contain him.

After Stephen makes the case for God working outside the temple he asks a couple of pointed questions to the Sanhedrin:  Is there ever a prophet you haven’t killed?  Why do you always resist the Holy Spirit?  Those questions spelled Stephen’s demise.

So, it seems to me that Stephen is saying this: the people who perceive themselves as the guardians of truth and God’s chosen people are the most likely to resist the new, out-of-the-box things God wants to do.  If we take Stephen’s teaching to heart, it might mean you and I are pretty likely to resist the work God is doing right now.

So, I’d like your feedback.  Am I off my rocker?  Why might we be likely to resist the out-of-the-box stuff God is doing right now?  What do you see God doing in the world right now that is out-of-the-box?  I think this could make for some rather interesting posts!

Posted on Mon, July 21, 2008 by Jason Brown

6 comments (Add your own)

1. Jayne Nord wrote:
I think that I might resist because of my comfort zone, or because of what kind of commitment was needed for this out-of-the-box stuff. I believe that the Compton initiative is very out-of-the-box!!! ERC's getting connected with Civigenics was out-of-the-box (I'm not just saying that because it involved my husband). Honestly, I'm trying to be more out-of-the-box...so God is working in me!!!! Bless you!!

Mon, July 21, 2008 @ 2:07 PM

2. ken dingle wrote:
Just an opinion. That is why as believers we have a personal relationship with God, thru the Holy Spirit. Again just opinion. We are to resist the devil not God. So therefore a true believer will not resist God. And I will go one step further. We can't! It is way to painful Do you think our congress has God in their heart? As a whole I think not. Do real Christians? Yes. But you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit! The sanhedrin were not and people like them won't be. Ken D

Mon, July 21, 2008 @ 3:59 PM

3. Da Sciple wrote:
Ken, although I agree that we as believers are indwelled with God's Spirit, i recognize that we still wrestle with this flesh The Spirit lives in... for this reason I have to admit that there are things that God does and we resist. Put yourself in one of those crusades Pastor Ken talked about (from the listen to me satan book). Does your mind for at least one spec of a second resist the idea of The Holy Spirit causing an arena full of people to fall over "slain in The Spirit"? What if it happened at Emmanuel? Would we be in awe of the miraculous power manifested, or would we frown at the instance and find another church?

Just wondering if I'm off my rocker for thinking that 50% of the viewers would choose the latter? This is just one way we could residt what God is doing. In many ways The Church today is just like those who made up the Sanhedrin, and Pharisee groups. We stick to the traditions of our demoninations and "resist" those of the church up the street....

any way just my .02

This is not intended to point a finger, rather to have us consider that we ALL know in part, and are wicked in nature, our hearts deceive us...

Tue, July 22, 2008 @ 9:12 AM

4. Da Sciple wrote:
That should say resist and denominations not demoninations :)

Tue, July 22, 2008 @ 9:14 AM

5. Michael wrote:
There's one area of God's doing that I really find myself falling into resistance much like the Sanhedrin. It's hard for me to accept it when non-believers promote and do Kingdom work. Through whatever motive or intention they have, I see people help trying to take care of the environment, adopt and speak out against abortions, going out a feeding the homeless and taking time to care for the elderly, or being able to love people better than I can.

I mean, it brings shalom, the Kingdom, and goodness to humanity. It's doing Kingdom work without God as a frame of reference. And it's hard for me to accept that sometimes. Why should I resist that? And sometimes these non-Christians are doing more than what I see myself and other Christians doing and that really bothers me sometimes.

This is pretty "out-of-the-box" stuff that I don't get why God allows it. But he does and I can't figure it out so I have to give up trying to figure it out and just join in.

Tue, July 22, 2008 @ 8:48 PM

6. chris d. wrote:
I think we resist some of the out-of-the-box stuff that God is doing because we get skeptical when he gets involved in something that we don't understand. Stephen asks the Sanhedrin why they constantly resisted the Holy Spirit. It could be that we're more like the Sanhedrin than we'd like to be and we're probably particularly skeptical when it comes to matters of the Holy Spirit. Stephen was certainly full of the Spirit and for him there were no boundaries to what God could do, there was no fear of how the world could react, and there was certainly no keeping God in a box.

Wed, July 23, 2008 @ 7:25 PM

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