Last night, my wife and I watched the movie “Wonder”. I knew it would tug at my heart from the beginning. At the end of the movie, the little boy was given an award by his school. The crowd gave him a standing ovation. I then began to think about the standing ovation mentioned in Scripture.
Acts 7 gives the narrative of the death of the first Christian martyr whom we know as Stephen. When he was stoned to death (nothing to do with illegal drugs but large stones and blunt force trauma), Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Throughout Scripture, you see Him seated. As Stephen glorified God in His death, the Lord Jesus honors him.
I cannot help but wonder how often Jesus stands. For what acts of service does the Lord Jesus stand to show His approval? To receive a “well done” from the One who gave His life for us must be the highest honor for which none of us is worthy. With this in mind, I am challenged once again to please Christ in my life and in my death not for the rewards but because He is worthy.
Matthew Winters (Honest Thoughts from a Pastor) 
I never thought of it like this! What a moment that must have been!
Love this!! Have you heard of “I Can Only Imagine”? That song came to mind when I read your post. So beautiful and majestic will that moment be…thank you for reminding us why we should remain focused on our walk with Christ. We soon will be celebrating next to our Father our victory for eternity! 🙂
I have used that song in worship a few times and what I prefer to call homegoing services rather than funerals.
Great movie
I was watching that movie the other night for the first time. Wonderful movie with a great message. Be a hero and reach out to those whoa are hurting. WE all know people like that what are we doing to make them feel welcome and included?
As for Steven’s standing ovation, I always have loved that portion of scripture. It is an awesome thing to think about, and we can only hope that He is at least clapping when we do something. I remember an evangelist named Leroy Blankenship coming to our church and singing a song about “One Hand Clapping”. It was about the behind the scenes workers at the church who got no recognition, but Jesus was clapping for them. Good stuff!
Be blessed
I like this post-Matthew. I like when you stated, “… For what acts of service does the Lord Jesus stand to show His approval? To receive a “well done” from the One who gave His life for us must be the highest honor for which none of us is worthy.”
This really should give us as Christians the thought of what acts of service have done on Earth that makes the Lord Jesus smile. After all, He gave His life for us even when we didn’t deserve it.