Are we willing to take this unpopular stand? Stand Up For Jesus Are we willing to take this unpopular stand?

Stand Up For Jesus We sing a song on occasion with this title. Verse #1 Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross; Lift high His royal banner, It must not suffer loss: From victory unto victory, His army shall He lead, Till every foe is vanquished, For Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand Up For Jesus VERSE #2 Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, The trumpet call obey; Forth to the mighty conflict, In this His glorious day: Ye who are men, now serve Him, Against unnumbered foes; Let courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose.

Stand Up For Jesus Verse #3 Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, Stand in His strength alone; The arm of flesh will fail you, Ye dare not trust your own: Put on the gospel armor, Each piece put on with prayer; Where duty calls, or danger, Be never wanting there.

Stand Up For Jesus Verse #4 Stand up, stand up, for Jesus, The strife will not belong; This day the noise of battle, The next, the victor's song: To him who over-cometh, A crown of life shall be; He, with the King of glory, Shall reign eternally...

Stand Up For Jesus As the song mentions, it takes courage in order to take a stand for God. Taking a stand for what is right is very seldom the popular thing to do. The Old Testament is filled with examples of good men and women who were willing to take a stand for God against “unnumbered foes”. Their examples should be a source of faith and confidence for us today

Stand Up For Jesus One of the greatest examples we have in the Old Testament of courage comes from a woman Esther was called upon to make a courageous stand for God alone. The events recorded in the book of Esther took place about 50 years after Cyrus allowed the first of the Jews to return to Jerusalem from captivity

Stand Up For Jesus Many of the Jews like Esther and her uncle Mordecai decided not to return to Judah. The entire book of Esther is very interesting and if you are not familiar with it, I would suggest you read it. To make a long story short, Esther was selected to replace Vashti as queen of the Medo-Persian empire. The fact that she was a Jew was not known to anyone but her uncle Mordecai. Not even the King knew.

Stand Up For Jesus Haman, the king’s “right hand man” was furious with Mordecai because he would not bow to him. Because of this, Haman convinced the king to sign a decree to destroy all the Jews in the land. Es 3:13 And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions.

Stand Up For Jesus Mordecai was extremely distraught over this news Es 4:1 ¶ When Mordecai learned all that had happened, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city. He cried out with a loud and bitter cry. 2 He went as far as the front of the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.

Stand Up For Jesus 3 And in every province where the king's command and decree arrived, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes. 4 So Esther's maids and eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was deeply distressed. Then she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and take his sackcloth away from him, but he would not accept them.

Stand Up For Jesus 5 ¶ Then Esther called Hathach, one of the king's eunuchs whom he had appointed to attend her, and she gave him a command concerning Mordecai, to learn what and why this was. At this point Esther was unaware of the decree by the King to destroy all of the Jews. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king's gate.

Stand Up For Jesus Es 4:7 And Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go in to the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people.

Stand Up For Jesus Mordecai makes Esther aware of the terrible decree that had been signed by her husband the King and he wants Esther to go plead with the King to not destroy her people. Remember the King still did not know she was a Jew. 9 So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Es 4:10 Then Esther spoke to Hathach, and gave him a command for Mordecai:

Stand Up For Jesus 11 "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days." 12 So they told Mordecai Esther's words.

Stand Up For Jesus Es 4:13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:

Stand Up For Jesus Es 4:16 "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" 17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.

Stand Up For Jesus There are two phrases we need to remember in this story. “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?“ “if I perish, I perish!“ This is an amazing example of courage! We could look at the examples of courage from Elijah, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and others but Esther has always stood out to me.

Stand Up For Jesus All of these and many others in the Old Testament were willing take a stand for God even if it was going to cost them their lives. This same pattern of behavior was demonstrated by the followers of Christ in the New Testament. The Apostles on many occasions took a stand for Jesus that eventually cost all of them their lives except John.

Stand Up For Jesus Peter and John were threatened by the leaders of the Jews for teaching in the name of Christ. Ac 4:17 "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name." 18 And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. What would we have done at this point?

Stand Up For Jesus Would we have thought like Esther? “If I perish, I perish” Would we have the attitude of Joshua when he said Jos 24:15 “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.“ Listen to what Peter and John said. Ac 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.

Stand Up For Jesus Peter and John asked these supposedly God fearing men of the council if they should obey God or man? Would we have the courage to do the same? Just a few days later all of the Apostles were arrested for teaching in the name of Jesus. Ac 5:27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,

Stand Up For Jesus Ac 5:28 saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man's blood on us!" 29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men. After being severely threatened the 1st time they had the courage to continue to stand up for Jesus.

Stand Up For Jesus We might also notice their answer to the council this time was not in the form of a question. The Apostles told them who they would obey! 29 …"We ought to obey God rather than men. The council commanded them once again not to teach in the name of Jesus and beat them. Would we have the courage the apostles demonstrated after this?

Stand Up For Jesus Ac 5:41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. The Apostle Paul was also willing to stand up for Jesus. He stood for Jesus before Kings, magistrates, angry mobs and Caesar himself and he suffered greatly for it.

Stand Up For Jesus 2Co 11:22 ¶ Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? --I speak as a fool--I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. 24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.

Stand Up For Jesus 2Co 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness--

Stand Up For Jesus Why did Paul suffer all of these things and more? He was standing up for Christ! How would we have reacted to such things? These men and others had the courage to be beaten, thrown into prison and executed for the cause of Christ. Would we have that type courage? We may think “I don’t know, I’ve never been in those situations”

Stand Up For Jesus Hopefully we never will be! So lets judge our courage by the situations we have been in. Do we have the courage for our language to be different than the world? Col 3:8 ¶ But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.

Stand Up For Jesus Do we have the courage not to lie for ourselves or when someone else asks us to? Re 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.“ Do we have the courage to be at worship services when our friends or family want us to do something else?

Stand Up For Jesus Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Do we have the courage to confess Christ before men? Mt 10:32 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

Conclusion If we don’t have the courage to do these small things then we certainly wouldn’t have the courage to do the big things the Apostles and others were willing to do. We must be willing to stand up for Jesus and expect problems because of it. 2Ti 3:12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Conclusion Remember who was going to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone? Re 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.“ We have to choose. Will we have courage or will we be a coward?