Tag: hard-hearted

Two Cuts To The Heart

Growing up, my brother and I had blowgun battles. We’d roll up paper, shape sticky notes into cones, stick bobby pins in the tips, and—voila—homemade blowgun darts. These weren’t toys! One day, I’m hiding behind a wall, and Dale, from across the kitchen, spots my hand. He shoots with deadly aim. One second I’m fine;

Carl Pollard

In the book of Acts, we find two moments where people were “cut to the heart” by the preaching of God’s truth. In Acts 2, Peter, filled with the Spirit, preaches on Pentecost, and his words cut thousands, leading to repentance, salvation, and the start of the church. In Acts 7, Stephen’s bold preaching before the Sanhedrin cuts their hearts, but instead of turning to God, they turn to rage and murder. Two cuts, two responses—one to life, one to destruction. What made the difference? How do we respond when God’s Word cuts our hearts?

To get this, we need to dig into “cut to the heart” in the Greek. In Acts 2:37, after Peter preaches about Jesus’ death and resurrection, we read, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.” The Greek word is katanyssomai, a rare term meaning “to be pierced” or “stung sharply.” Picture a dart hitting your conscience. Growing up, my brother and I had blowgun battles. We’d roll up paper, shape sticky notes into cones, stick bobby pins in the tips, and—voila—homemade blowgun darts. These weren’t toys! One day, I’m hiding behind a wall, and Dale, from across the kitchen, spots my hand. He shoots with deadly aim. One second I’m fine; the next, a dart’s stuck in my wrist, needle in the bone! Talk about pain! We yanked it out, and my wrist instantly swelled up. When Acts 2 says “cut,” it’s not a paper cut—it’s deep. Peter’s words pierced their core, exposing their sin, and they cried, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

Now, Acts 7:54. Stephen’s preaching cuts the Sanhedrin’s hearts (“enraged,” ESV), and “they gnashed at him with their teeth.” The Greek word here for “cut” is diapriō, meaning “to saw through” or “cut violently,” like a saw tearing through wood. Their hearts were cut, but with rage, not godly sorrow. Two men stabbed by the same sword: one drops to his knees, seeking a medic; the other, enraged, grips the blade, worsening his wound. Both are cut, but one seeks life, the other death. How often has Scripture stepped on your toes, called out your sin? Ever felt that stab of conviction? Jesus’ words cut the rich young ruler, and he walked away (Mark 10:21-22). In John 6:66, many left after Jesus’ hard teaching. God’s Word is meant to cut and convict, but not all accept it.

In Acts 2, Peter preaches to a diverse crowd on Pentecost, declaring Jesus, whom they crucified, as the risen Messiah. The gospel hits, and they’re “cut to the heart.” They ask, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter says, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). That day, 3,000 souls were added to the church. Why? They didn’t resist. They saw their sin—guilty of killing God’s Son—and felt the weight. They humbled themselves, repented, were baptized, and found life. David was “a man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) because he listened and obeyed when God’s Word cut him, even when he messed up. God’s Word will call out your sin—lying, lust, pride—and show you the way out. The Acts 2 crowd chose life through humility.

In Acts 7, Stephen, full of faith, stands before the Sanhedrin, exposing their rebellion. He says, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51). The truth cuts deep, but they gnash their teeth, rush him, and stone him, making Stephen the first Christian martyr. Why? Their pride wouldn’t budge. Like Pharaoh in Exodus, whose heart hardened with each plague (Exodus 7:13-14), they rejected the truth to protect their status. Imagine a doctor diagnosing a deadly disease, saying, “Surgery can save you.” One patient trusts and lives; another storms out, angry, and dies. The Sanhedrin chose the latter—truth exposed their sin, but pride blinded them.

Humility separates these responses. Acts 2’s crowd humbled themselves, sought mercy, and found grace. Acts 7’s Sanhedrin clung to pride, choosing judgment. Proverbs 15:33 says, “Before honor is humility.” James 4:6 adds, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Be like Acts 2, not Acts 7. How will you respond when God’s Word cuts? First, listen with an open heart. Hebrews 4:12 says God’s Word is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit.” Don’t push it away. Second, submit and obey quickly. The Acts 2 crowd didn’t delay—they repented and were baptized. Like the prodigal son (Luke 15), run to God when truth hits. If you’re in their shoes, repent and be baptized—don’t wait. You don’t know when you’ll stand before God. Third, seek God’s help. He empowered Peter and Stephen’s preaching and convicts us today. Pray for a soft heart. Has God’s Word cut you? Is there sin you’ve ignored, a relationship to mend? Will you choose life through humility or death through pride? 

The stakes are eternal.

What Keeps People From Salvation?

Neal Pollard

  • Ignorance: They have not learned how to be saved
  • Fear: They know the potential cost of being saved
  • Pride: They do not want to admit they are not saved
  • Loyalty: They fear that they will be tacitly condemning those they care for if they are saved
  • Comfort: They do not want to do what it takes to be saved
  • Emotion: They feel they are saved
  • Guilt: They do not believe they can be saved
  • Prejudice: They cannot see the necessity of following what certain scriptures say they must do to be saved
  • Sin: They enjoy something(s) too much to surrender in order to be saved
  • Self: They want to follow their own terms to be saved
  • Blindness: They cannot see through their religious traditions and doctrines in order to be saved
  • Responsibilities: They are too busy with life to be saved

So many more excuses might be given by someone who refuses to do what God says to do in order to be saved, but whatever excuse is given overlooks the fact that God allowed no excuse to keep Him from sending His Son, that Christ allowed no excuse to keep Him from going to the cross, that the Holy Spirit allowed no excuse to keep Him from revealing to us through the Bible how to be saved, that the apostles and early Christians allowed no excuse to keep them from sharing and doing God’s will for salvation (even at the cost of their lives), and that so many throughout time have not allowed these same excuses to keep them from obeying the gospel to be saved. Salvation is so important, eternity is so long, the soul is so precious, sin is so destructive, the devil is so ravenous, and the world is so wrong that we must remove every barrier that might stand in our way. If we were to write down our reason for not being saved and keep it until the day of judgment, how valid and reasonable would it sound as we conveyed it to Christ? If we would not want to tell Him then, let’s not let it keep us from Him now.  “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2b).

South Fork Church of Christ baptistry mural looking in from the

Petrified!

Neal Pollard

Perhaps you have seen the incredible collections of petrified wood in some of our National Parks or Monuments, or maybe you have seen individual examples in any number of other places. A geology site briefly explains how material becomes petrified:

Petrified wood is a fossil. It forms when plant material is buried by sediment and protected from decay by oxygen and organisms. Then, groundwater rich in dissolved solids flows through the sediment replacing the original plant material with silica, calcite, pyrite or another inorganic material such as opal. The result is a fossil of the original woody material that often exhibits preserved details of the bark, wood and cellular structures (geology.com/stories/13/petrified-wood).

There are a few interesting aspects to this process—the burial, the protection, the replacement, and the resulting appearance.

Twice in the gospel of Mark, the writer uses a term to describe the condition of His disciples’ hearts. In Mark six, they have seen him feed the 5,000 men and immediately thereafter they are in the boat in a strong wind when Jesus came walking on the water. They were troubled and fearful, amazed and marveling “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened” (52). Ironically, the second incident happened in a boat following Jesus feeding thousands of people again. They misunderstand Jesus’ warning about the leaven of the religious leaders, and Jesus laments, “Is your heart still hardened?” (8:17).

BDAG defines this word, πωρόω, in this way: “To cause someone to have difficulty in understanding or comprehending, harden, petrify, make dull, obtuse, blind, close the mind” (900).  The truth was buried from their understanding, their preexisting, preset points of view blocking its penetration, and the result was their missing the important point. The truth couldn’t get through to their petrified hearts.

Why do we fail to understand basic, vital Bible truths, like the essential nature of baptism, the abrogation of the Law Of Moses (including the Ten Commandments), the emotionally difficult teaching of Jesus about marriage, divorce, and remarriage in Matthew 19, God’s law regarding sexual purity, and the like? Why do we struggle with worry, fear, and doubt? Why do we lack the courage to boldly share Jesus with the lost? Often, the answer to each of these and similar questions is the same as why the disciples feared and faltered.

We should pray for our hearts to stay soft, receptive, and moldable to Jesus. We cannot let our ignorance, resistance, or outside influences to harden our hearts. In fact, that very prospect should make us, well, petrified!

petrifiedwood