Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Referenced in this sermon: The Old Testament in 8 minutes.
Transcript
Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We're continuing to walk through the book of Acts. We're going to be in Acts chapter 6 verse 8. We're going to go all the way through chapter 7 verse 60. That's going to be on page 1059.
Those black Bibles. You want to grab that and follow along in the text. That's where we're going to be walking through it.
Last week Chet started chapter 6 which is a little bit of a setup for what we're about to read in these verses. So Chet walked us through which was the God's ordered service of the church and who he called and one of those men that he called to bring ordered service to the church
is Stephen. And so we're going to see Stephen today as he is going to be in a situation where he's going to have to give a defense for his faith and a defense of the gospel that's going to draw a very strong contrast between what faithfulness to God looks like and what resistance to God looks like.
Now, it's a pretty long speech that he's going to give so I want to pray and then we're going to jump straight in.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the good news that we just sang about. May we have our eyes opened and our ears ready to hear what you have to say this morning through your holy word. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so Stephen, who was selected to help bring ordered service to the church, now he's continuing the work of spreading the gospel. In verse 8 we pick it up.
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those of Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
— Acts 6:8–9 (ESV)
So Stephen is doing many of the same, it says, wonders and signs. That's what the apostles were doing. the Spirit is at work through him and Stephen is reaching people that are like him. That's one of the things that we saw last week is that, as Chet talked about, the Hellenist, the Hellenistic Jews. These are Greek-speaking Jews.
They're Jewish ethnically. They came from the Jewish faith, but they're Greek-speaking. They're Greco-Roman culturally.
And he's reaching these people. And we see some of these groups, the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians. This is maybe from North African Hellenistic Jews. We see the Cilicia and Asia. This would be Hellenistic Jews from Turkey that he is reaching them.
And as he's reaching them with the gospel, there's a dispute that happens from some of the Jews in those groups.
Verse 10.
But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes. And they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
— Acts 6:10–15 (ESV)
So they are not able to stand toe-to-toe with him in debating. He's filled with wisdom and the Spirit speaking through him, which is what Jesus assured his people in Luke chapter 12, that when the time came, the Spirit would give the words. That's happening to Stephen. He's giving a defense of the gospel. And they decide that since they can't stand toe-to-toe with him, they're going to basically organize a political hit job.
So it says they secretly instigated. So they're behind the scenes being sneaky. They're bringing false witnesses. They're building a case against him to bring to the council that is the Sanhedrin. And they bring him up on charges of blasphemy.
Blasphemy against God and blasphemy against Moses. That is the book of the law. It's the words of God through his servant Moses. They bring him up on charges of speaking against the temple.
So Jesus, the week before he was crucified, he's ministering in Jerusalem. He talks about the, he prophesies about the judgment that's going to fall upon the temple that later does happen in 70 AD. And they take that and they're applying it to him. And they say, he's going to disrupt our customs. They bring these charges against him.
And as they're bringing these formal charges of blasphemy against him, it says that his face is like the face of an angel.
Which is not, he looked pretty. This is not a Hallmark card. I think, to try to figure out what's happening, my interpretation of this is that there's something distinct about his face that it's glowing. That it's shining. Actually, I think what, my take on this is that it very much resembles what's happening with Moses in the wilderness when Moses encounters the glory of God and his face shines.
I think there's some irony here in that, yes, Stephen, who's charged with speaking against Moses, has glory of God shining through him in a unique way and the Spirit speaking through him powerfully.
So, that sets up chapter 7, verse 1, when it says,
And the high priest said, Are these things so?
— Acts 7:1 (ESV)
You've been charged with blasphemy. Is that accurate?
And verse 2 starts, And Stephen said,
Okay, time out. The next 49 verses are a defense from Stephen. And what he's going to do is since he's been charged with blasphemy against God and speaking against Moses and the law, he's going to go back to the stories of the Old Testament from the law all the way into the prophets. He's going to basically do a survey from Genesis throughout the Old Testament.
So, I know that some of you when we walked through 1 and 2 Samuel, by the end of it, you were like, I want more of the Old Testament. Give me more. And you get more this morning. You get a pretty good survey of the Old Testament and the stories. If you're not familiar at all with the Old Testament, this is a pretty decent survey that we're going to see as Stephen is giving his defense and we're going to see what he's doing in his defense.
Now, it is long. So, I want to follow in the footsteps of one of our fellow pastors, Raz Bradley, who years ago, when he was a younger lad, he made a video. Eight minutes, the Old Testament in eight minutes. He put that on YouTube and he amassed over two million views and hundreds of comments. Some of the angriest comments you can find and some nice things, too.
So, if you're looking for a good time today and you got eight minutes, go watch that.
But what he did in that video is he used a bunch of just illustrations. So, I'm going to do the same thing that he did. I'm going to have a few different things behind me, kind of flannel graph style that will help stage where we are in this story.
And we're going to see his defense when he says,
and Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.
— Acts 7:2 (ESV)
So, he's showing his ethnic connection to them, brothers and fathers. That's deference to the rabbis who are older.
The glory of God appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran and said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.
— Acts 7:2–3 (ESV)
This is Abraham. So, in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God chooses Abraham to bring about his chosen people who will one day bring about redemption to the world because Jesus Christ will come in the line of Abraham. So, he chooses Abraham.
And it says, verse 4,
that he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
— Acts 7:4–5 (ESV)
So, Abraham, eventually, he goes from Mesopotamia to Haran to the land of Canaan. And that, where he is, is the promised land. That's where we get the phrase promised land from. This land is promised to him. Now, he doesn't have any of that land, not a foot's length while he is there, but the promise is, is that he will have a big, giant family through him that is going to possess this land one day.
Yet, he's childless and he's late in years.
And it says,
and God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them 400 years.
— Acts 7:6 (ESV)
And that's recalling in Genesis 15 when God is speaking to Abraham. And he tells him, he's like, your people will possess this, but it's going to come after a time where you're in a foreign land for 400 years as slaves, but it will come to pass.
Verse 7,
But I will judge the nation they serve, said God. And after that, they shall come out and worship me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs.
— Acts 7:7–8 (ESV)
Okay. So Abraham's the first patriarch. This is the father of the nation. And after him, he finally gets Isaac late in his years. And this is the child of promise.
And this is the child who's going to carry on his covenant that was made with Abraham. This is the covenant of circumcision that was given to Isaac that his people look distinctly different from the surrounding nations. They will live distinctly different from the surrounding nations.
This is God's chosen people. And then from Isaac comes Jacob. And then from Jacob comes his 12 sons, the 12 patriarchs.
This is Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, Levi.
This is the future of the nation of Israel. And then the story throughout Genesis continues in verse 9.
And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.
— Acts 7:9 (ESV)
Okay. This is the story of Joseph, which if you get towards the end of Genesis, it's a wonderful story to read. Joseph is loved by his dad. Also, his dad shows favoritism towards him. And that doesn't go well for Joseph.
He gets this beautiful rainbow technicolor coat. His brothers, some of them are jealous. And then some of them plot. They seize him. They throw him in a pit.
And they sell him into slavery into Egypt.
It says,
But God was with him,
— Acts 7:9 (ESV)
verse 10,
and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
— Acts 7:10 (ESV)
That Joseph is brought so low, he finally ends up in prison on charges that are false. And then God raises Joseph up in Egypt to second in command under the king, under Pharaoh in Egypt. And then Joseph, as second in command, organizes in a way. He sees, God shows him that a famine is coming. They organize enough food to get through the famine
that picks up in verse 11.
And now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.
— Acts 7:11–12 (ESV)
And that's the part of the story where famine hits all over the land. Jacob, his sons, they're going to starve. But they hear of grain in Egypt. They go to Egypt and it's a wonderful part of the story where the brothers who sold him into slavery are standing before Joseph. They don't know who he is yet.
And they're begging for mercy. They're begging for grain.
And they come back on a second visit. In verse 13, it says,
on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, 75 persons in all. And Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in a tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
— Acts 7:13–16 (ESV)
So that story ends, the book of Genesis ends with, Joseph doesn't get vengeance against his brothers. He gives love and peace and forgiveness and reconciliation. And the whole family comes together again. They survive the famine by moving all to Egypt. And then Jacob dies.
He's buried back in the promised land. And that's the end of the book of Genesis.
But when you get to the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus, things change. Verse 17,
But as the time of promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive.
— Acts 7:17–19 (ESV)
So the family grows and grows and grows by the tens of thousands. And there are new kings. There are new pharaohs. And eventually, they realize, oh, we have a problem. We have some sojourners amongst us that are growing in number.
So they decide, we're going to enslave them and we're going to commit infanticide. We're going to start killing baby boys so that they can't one day raise up an army against us. And that begins the story of Moses.
Verse 20,
At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight and he was brought up for three months in his father's house and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
— Acts 7:20–22 (ESV)
And that is the story as infanticide is happening. Moses' mother puts him in a basket. He floats down the river. He ends up in the king's palace. He gets adopted and then he is raised in the Egyptian royal house uniquely positioned as a Hebrew and an Egyptian.
We pick up in verse 23.
When he,
— Acts 7:23 (ESV)
this is Moses,
was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
— Acts 7:23–29 (ESV)
And it's that part of the story where Moses, at 40 years old, decides he wants to visit his people. He sees an Egyptian mistreating one of his own. He kills him.
The next day, he tries to mediate an argument. And the guy says, Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you going to kill us like you killed the Egyptian?
And that lets Moses know, Oh no, my secret is out. And he's scared. And he flees all the way to Midian, far away.
He gets to Midian. He decides to settle down. He meets his wife Zipporah. They have two sons. He builds his own life for the next 40 years at age 80 until verse 30.
Now when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
— Acts 7:30 (ESV)
It's also known as Mount Horeb.
In a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob. Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt. This Moses whom they rejected saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? This man, God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
— Acts 7:30–35 (ESV)
So Moses calls out or God calls out to Moses, says, I am raising you up to lead my people out of slavery into the promised land. Moses obeys. He takes his wife, his children, they go back to Egypt.
Verse 36,
This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea in the wilderness for 40 years.
— Acts 7:36 (ESV)
All right, pause. That one verse is a summary of the biggest event in the Old Testament. And it's like, there's a lot of other details we get. And we get to like the biggest moment and it's like you get one verse.
But they know, these men know this story. This is the story how Moses shows up and God starts bringing plagues, 10 plagues upon Egypt one by one until the final plague which is known as the Passover.
This is when God brings judgment. He's going to kill the firstborn son of every household who does not take the blood of the lamb and marks their door with it. The Israelites obey. They mark their door with the blood of the sacrificial lamb. The Egyptians don't.
And every firstborn son is struck down in Egypt including the house of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh says, get out.
And in the dark of the night the people of God who've been slaves for centuries gather what they have and they head out. And they don't head out empty handed. The Egyptians give them gold and riches which is God's victory over Egypt and the spoils of victory that come with that that God secured on their behalf.
And then they leave go to the Red Sea to get to the promised land. The Egyptians change their mind. They chase them down. Moses puts his staff in the water. The Red Sea splits.
They go to the other side. The Egyptians follow. The water crashes on them and that is God's redemption of his people.
And it's so formative in their history and how they remember the events of Passover.
Verse 37.
This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. This is the one who is in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
— Acts 7:37–38 (ESV)
Okay.
At this point, you kind of feel like you've gotten lost in just story mode because he's just—and again, he's telling, he's telling stories that they know about. They're the supposed experts on this stuff. And he's recounting these events, and they're probably nodding on in agreement, like, okay, yeah, all right, this is basic, you know, okay, all right. But this right here, what we just read from verse 36 to 38, that is the shift in what Stephen is actually doing here, because what he's beginning to do is he's setting up a bigger point.
He has been charged with blasphemy against God and against Moses. He spends a lot of time in Moses to set something up, because what he's doing is he's turning the tables. They've accused him of blasphemy, but what he's about to do is say, no, no, no, no, you are the ones who are blaspheming. So there's subtlety in this, but he's beginning to shift and turn the tables on them. That's why, when he quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, which says God will raise up for you a prophet like Moses from the children of Abraham, what he's doing there in quoting that is he's saying Moses was pointing to Jesus.
He's going back and saying this is all pointing to Jesus. When he even uses the word congregation in this passage, which he's probably speaking Greek, and this congregation here is the same Greek word for that as ecclesia—that's the word for church. So there's a lot of allusions here that's helping point to this is Jesus, and they're the ones that are opposing him. So now we're going to start seeing where it's not just story mode, but what he's actually doing here is he's shifting even further to help them see. In verse 39 it says:
Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, “Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
— Acts 7:39–41 (ESV)
Now we're at the point of the story he's recounting when Moses goes to Mount Sinai. He receives the Ten Commandments, receives the law, and while he's up on Mount Sinai, down below, the leaders—he says our fathers, but he's saying our leaders, which again is a subtle shift of, you know, people like you that I'm talking to—they are the ones who rebelled against God. They are the ones who, while Moses was receiving the law that you guys seem to love so much, they worshipped the golden calf. They engaged in wicked, idolatrous practices, these leaders of the people. And then he outlines how God responds to those who blaspheme the Lord. Verse 42:
But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.”
— Acts 7:42–43 (ESV)
So now Stephen's moving further in the Old Testament, more towards the end. He quotes the prophet of Amos, Amos chapter 5, and he's saying this is what God does. He turns blasphemers over to their false gods. And the reference here is that they, in the wilderness, thought that they were worshiping God, that they could go through and offer sacrifices to the Lord while also not having a heart that was fully devoted towards him, that could worship foreign gods like a calf, like Moloch, like Rephan. And he's pointing out these leaders who organized all these slain beasts and sacrifices, their hearts weren't with the Lord. And he continues to more slowly and subtly turn the tables on them.
And then he gets to the accusation of him speaking against the temple. In verse 44 it says:
Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
— Acts 7:44–47 (ESV)
All right, so that's a pretty big period of summary, but it's picturing this is what happened at the end of the book of Exodus. God gives them the directions for how to build the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent where God's unique presence was meant to rule and reside amongst his people, that they would bring sacrifices to him there. This continues as they continue to wander in the wilderness. Eventually, by the book of Joshua, God brings them into the promised land, and the tabernacle comes with them. It eventually lands in Jerusalem.
Now we're getting up to 1 and 2 Samuel, where we were in over the last year, and this is in the tabernacle. Eventually David says, I want to build a house. He is not the one who will build the house. Then you get to 1 Kings. That is when Solomon, his son, builds the temple, more permanent dwelling place for God to rule and reign amongst his people. So he gives that part of the history, and then he quotes Isaiah 66 to make a point:
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?”
— Acts 7:48–50 (ESV)
And then Stephen takes Isaiah 66 and he says, you guys obsess over this building. Do you think God lives here? Do you think this contains the glory of God? Do you not know that heaven is his throne and earth is his footstool? You've misunderstood the point of the very thing you're accusing me of speaking against. You don't understand this at all. Our God is not contained here. And it's at this point in this very long speech and this long defense that he's given, the tone has truly shifted.
My son, he was watching a movie a few months back, and he was like, I just feel so sad. Why do I feel so sad? And I was like, well, at this point in the story, we're getting to a sad part. And then I started giving some philosophy of film. I was like, well, actually, you know, see what they've done is that the music has changed. You hear the music and how it's actually making you feel things. See what they've done with the lighting? They've darkened it, made it more serious. This is the kind of conversations I have with my son. I'm sure it's just like that in your household when you watch Disney.
But that's what's happening, is that the lighting has changed, the music has shifted, and all of a sudden the tone is just different. Started with just here's some history. Now it's like, oh, the tables have turned. And at this point, Stephen is done giving a history lesson, and he's ready to make his pronouncement on them. Verse 51:
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.
— Acts 7:51–53 (ESV)
Now what he just did was he went truly Old Testament on them and just—I mean, this accusation, I want to go bit by bit to help you see what he did. It's loaded with all types of, like, this, this, this is infuriating for them. He calls them, you stiff-necked people. Y'all, that is what God called the Israelites on the ground who are worshiping that calf. He said, Moses, that is a stiff-necked people. I'm going to utterly destroy them. He takes the same accusation that was given to people, to leaders who thought they knew God but their hearts were far from him, and he says, you stiff-necked people.
He calls them uncircumcised in hearts and ears, and that's him saying, you think that you are children of Abraham because you're a descendant. You're no more a child of Abraham than the uncircumcised people who occupy this land. You're no more a child of Abraham than Caesar himself. You don't know him. You don't belong to him. All the, oh, we can't get near this unclean people—that's you, uncircumcised in heart.
And then he continues, he says, you always resist the Holy Spirit, just like your fathers did, who persecuted and murdered the prophets. You like to separate yourselves from the religious leaders of the past. You know, the religious leaders who gathered up prophets and persecuted them, gathered up Ezekiel and sawed him in half. You think you're that much different? No, you're worse, because the very person that those prophets were prophesying about, the Righteous One, the Anointed One, the Messiah, you not too long ago betrayed him and murdered him by putting him on the cross. No, you're much worse. You think you guys are the heroes, but you're the villains.
Now all of that loaded language sends them into a rage. Verse 54:
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
— Acts 7:54 (ESV)
They're furious. They're enraged. And it's like the good guy in the movie who is giving his last stand, his last speech, and just like one more thing just pushes the bad guys over the edge. He does it, and very much like, you know, William Wallace in Braveheart screaming, “Freedom!” he gives one last thing, one last defiant, holy stand against this wicked group of people before him. Verse 55:
But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they rushed together at him.
— Acts 7:55–57 (ESV)
This is verse 58:
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
— Acts 7:58 (ESV)
Stephen becomes the first martyr of the church. That is, martyr is—it means witness, someone who dies for witnessing for their faith. And that last cry that got them, that really pushed them over the edge, is that he's full of the Holy Spirit and he sees the invisible spiritual realm above, and he sees heaven, and he beholds Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and he announces it. And they lose it. They put their fingers in the ear, and they rush him and they seize him, because what he just did is precisely the kind of thing that Jesus Christ did when he was on trial before this same religious body.
When he says that, I see—you're going to see the Son of Man coming on the clouds and refers to himself as the Son of Man to fulfill the fulfilling of the Daniel 7 prophecy. The reason that they charge Jesus with blasphemy and take him to Pilate and have him crucified is because he just claimed to be God. And what Stephen does, he looks at Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father, and he says, that is God. And they lose it.
And you got to picture the rage as they rush him, as they grab him, as they carry him out, pulling his garments apart, as they spit at him, as they hit him and strike him, as they rip the beard out of his face, dragging him outside the city just as Jesus was drug outside the city. And they stone him. They pick up rocks as big as they can find, and they stone him. Have you ever been hit by a rock or a baseball? My brother one time when I was a kid hit me as hard as he could upside the head with a stick, because we love each other.
I mean, get hit with a baseball, get hit with rocks, it hurts. It's disoriented. And have it happen over and over and over and over again, as your skin is lacerated, as your bones begin to break, your ribs begin to fracture, as you begin to internally bleed, as multisystem organ failure begins to set into place. He is brutally murdered. And as that's happening, more have come in to join, more have come in to witness this, more have come in to participate. And they lay their garments at the feet of a young Pharisee named Saul, who's helping oversee this execution. It says:
And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of the young man named Saul.
— Acts 7:58 (ESV)
We're gonna get a lot of his story the rest of this book, but not today. Fifty-nine:
And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
— Acts 7:59–60 (ESV)
And as his body is shutting down, bleeding out, he echoes the words of his Savior on the cross, who said, into my—into your hands I commit my spirit. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. He echoes the same sentiments. And then he breathes his last pain-laden breath, and he dies. And then there is a stark contrast and difference between the wonderful, beautiful faithfulness that Stephen shows to Jesus Christ and the resistance of the religious leadership.
I want to go back to—I want to go to Matthew 26. I want to take us to that moment that Jesus had before this same group of men. Matthew 26, this will be on the screen behind me. It says:
And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy.”
— Matthew 26:63–65 (ESV)
Stephen was faithful, and he saw Jesus Christ at the right hand of power, at the right hand of God the Father. And the truth is everyone, everyone will see Jesus Christ one day at the right hand of power. Everyone in this room will see Jesus Christ at the right hand of power. Everyone that you know, everyone you don't know, every single human being will stand before Jesus Christ at the right hand of power. And the most important question in this life is how are you going to see him?
Are you going to see him like Stephen, who is faithful, who in worship and in awe rejoices that he sees Jesus Christ? Because the children—for the children of God who belong to him, the sight of Jesus Christ is wonderful and glorious. Are you going to see him like Stephen did, faithful? Or are you going to see him after a life of resisting him like these religious leaders, after living a life that is not loving God, that is not following him, that has not given yourself to him, that does not delight in him, that does not seek to know his word, obey his commands, resisting him? Because Stephen saw him in joy, but those who resist him will see him in fury. And there is no more important question for you in this life than answering that right there.
We are going to take the Lord's Supper. But if you are in this room, and you are honest with yourself, and your life has been one of resistance against Jesus Christ—you may have called yourself a Christian, you may have been a part of churches for years, but your life has been one that does not truly belong to him, that is not faithful to him, that doesn't, hasn't fully surrendered to him, that has parts of your life that says, I am not giving that to him. I am going to resist his hand in this part of my life. Then as we take the Lord's Supper, I don't want you to come to the table. I want you to come to Jesus Christ, and I want you to surrender. I want you to stop resisting.
I don't want you to follow the path of those who have gone before that thought they knew because they knew the stories, but they didn't belong to him, and their life was one of resistance. And I want you to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you belong to Jesus Christ, then we come to the table as a meal of remembrance, remembering that the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body, this is my body, this is my body given for us. He took the cup of the new covenant. He said, this is my blood that was shed for you. As often as we eat and drink this, we proclaim his death until he returns. And we do this in remembrance of the one who died for us when we did not deserve it.
May we be a people that in faith come to the table knowing that our sins have been paid for, worshiping him, worshiping the one who is at the right hand of power. And for everyone else, may we consider the gospel that saves. And may everyone in this room live a life that says, I was faithful to Jesus Christ. I did not resist him. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we see the story of our brother Stephen as a beautiful example of faithfulness, of fearlessness, someone who is so captivated with who you are and what you have done that they laid—he laid down his life and paid the ultimate price. And God, there are many of us that don't want to lay down all sorts of things, and I pray that you would break through. And if there is anyone here that does not belong to you, God, may you break through the resistance, and may you claim them, and may you save them.
And for those of us that are called and commanded to be disciples who proclaim the excellencies of you who called us out of darkness into glorious light, may we be a people that are willing to witness even if it costs us everything. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Prepare yourself to come to the table, and when you are ready, come. There's gluten-free back in that corner.