Christian Preacher Punched at Black Lives Matter Protest at Mizzou
Please forgive the heathen's profane language in this but this is good example of man's war against God and their willful disregard to His Word and truths.
Try not to judge the method of delivery as it differs in no way from the way the men of the Bible did it.
Stephen was bold and in the face of the heathen before they gnashed on him with their teeh…and…stoned him. Stephen did not mince words and even called them what they were, stiffnecked, uncircumcised in the heart and ears murderers. God blessed this message and was rewarded with the boldness and death of His saint. We should not frown upon nor discourage in any way those that are doing this today.
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:51-60
Peter called out the men of his day boldly as well. He plainly accused them of murdering the messiah. This ought to be preached today as well.
And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. Acts 3:12-17
Jonah was literally a hell-fire preacher in the fullest sense of what hell-fire preaching is. He was angry with the Ninevite people and he was also angry with God. He was angry with the people because of their sins and their rebellion towards God. It is ironic that he was also rebellious towards God as he resisted in obeying God. Jonah was told by God to go and warn the people that they were going to be destroyed for their sins. Jonah not doubt knew that if he did this there was the chance that the people would repent and turn to God. He knew that God is a God of mercy and grace and if the people repented and turned away from their sins and turned back to Him then He would forgive them.
Jonah, after much convincing (storms, whale, etc…), finally went and did what he was told to do. He did only the bare minimum of what God commanded of him. He told the people that God was going to destroy them for their sins. He said nothing about God’s saving grace if the people were to repent. He wanted to see God follow through with destroying this wicked people. He did not want to leave open any chance for the people to escape the coming judgment. Sad but some people are like Jonah in this regards today…
Much to Jonah’s disappointment the people knew in their hearts what they should do. The people, without being told to do so, repented and turned from their sins and turned back to God. The result of their repentance was forgiveness and God spared them His wrath.
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. Jonah 3:8-10
Jesus, God in the flesh, preached very offensively…Jesus not only continued delivering the hard messages despite people walking away but he elevated His message to such an offensive level that the world could not stand it any longer. They killed Him on the cross with hopes to silence Him.
Now it is our turn to carry the message of Jesus. His sacrifice on that cross should be motivation enough for us. His victory over the grave ought to be more than enough for us to work diligently to convince others how awesome our God is. That He would humble Himself and made Himself to be a man with the same blood, bone, tissue and nerves that we have and He walked amongst us and eventually died on that cross for our sins. All of this was on premeditated terms none-the-less. This was His purpose from the beginning, to reconcile us back to Him.
Here is the example mentioned above of what happened after Jesus preached the hard and offensive message:
John 6:60-66 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
It is not too much of a coincidence that it is chapter 6 verse 66, the number of man 666, where we read about the disciples that gave up on Jesus because they did not like His message.
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