Acts: Courage in the face of Challengers

This past Sunday The Centre welcomed Shannon McConnell from Equip Church, a brand new church plant that will be starting soon in Peterborough. His sermon will be up on our website later this week, and it’d be a good thing to listen to in order for you to prepare for this Sunday’s message. And then you should read Acts 7.

We don’t know exactly how long Stephen had been serving in the early church, but it was long enough to draw the attention of the Sanhedrin, the temple rulers. Once again, they didn’t like their power and authority being undermined by others (see Acts 4 and 5), and so they brought Stephen in for questioning based on false charges. Basically they accused him of not being a good Jewish citizen, and speaking against the customs and cultural practices of the day.

How would you respond? How do you respond when people question your faith, your motives, your way of life? What would you base your response upon? You may think that something like this will never happen to you, but it will. Eventually, if we are living out our faith in a public way (and I don’t mean preaching on street corners, or going door to door!), if people know that you are a Christian, they will ask questions and challenge your beliefs. Are you prepared for this? How will you respond?

This Sunday we will look at Stephen’s response, his faith and courage, and my prayer is that we will recognize the source of his strength, and the wisdom of his response. Our gathering begins at 6pm – hope to see you there.

Pastor Mike