Intro
I don’t like confrontation. I’ve told you this before. And I’m learning that if I want to avoid confrontation, I shouldn’t answer the church phone. Last week, it rang after Gill had left for home and I heard a voice on the other line: “I’m Bill and I want to talk to a pastor about a Bible question.” His tone already has me on edge, this doesn’t seem like a friendly question. He says that he’s been looking at our statement of faith. “You believe that God is eternal and that’s right” and he rattles off a few verses. This guy has come prepared. “But you say that Jesus is also eternal. How can that possibly be if Jesus died?” This isn’t a genuine question. It’s clear he has an agenda. So I ask him, “just wondering, what’s your background? Are you involved in a church somewhere?” He did not like that at all. He asks me the question again, in an even more accusatory tone. I told him his issue was with the entirety of the church over the last 2000 years. Now he begins mocking me in a baby voice: “whah whah whah, what’s your background, just answer the question!”
He demands that I open my Bible and read Hebrews 1:5, which quotes Psalm 2, a Messianic Psalm where God declares to the messianic king that the king has become a son to him. He figures that proves that Jesus is not, in fact, God from eternity past. Instead of pointing out the context of this verse and the numerous passages that do speak to Jesus’ divinity, I said to him, I don’t think you’re really wanting to have a conversation about this. And somehow, on the phone, he could tell that I was smiling. Which is true. Smiling is my response when things start to get heated, because I really want to calm things down. But it doesn’t work. He gets even angrier. He just starts ranting and making fun of me in the baby voice, “whah whah whah, stop smiling I don’t know what you do there, if you’re some assistant pastor, but answer my Bible question.” And I said “bless you, my friend” and hung up on him. I haven’t hung up on very many people before, but that was a very unpleasant few minutes. I decided I was going to take a break from answering the phone. I was shaken. And ashamed that I didn’t respond better. Ashamed that in the face of an angry man with a heretical agenda, my best response was “which church do you go to?” and “bless you, my friend.”
There are people who flee from confrontation and who are deeply shaken by it. There are people who are eager for it and search it out. And then there are people who have such a peace in them that they are able to enter into debate. They are able to face the gnashing of teeth from angry people and respond with grace and truth. I think that’s one of the manifestations of being filled with the Spirit. I want that in my life. And we see it clearly in Stephen.
Last week, we talked about this potential crisis in the early church. The apostles had their hands in everything. As a result, they were at risk of neglecting their actual calling and leading the church away from its central calling. So they commissioned seven men to handle the administration of food to the poor. Crisis averted. These seven men were chosen particularly because they were filled with the Spirit and with wisdom. They were recognized as leaders in their own right, and we see that in the next few chapters. While all the attention so far in Acts has been on Peter and the apostles, the attention shifts now. We’re going to read about men like Stephen and Philip, two of those seven men, as well as a man named Saul. And what we see in these next few chapters is that the church has been growing in the incubator of Jerusalem, but it’s now time for it to hatch and spread its wings. And God was going to use the martyrdom of Stephen to do it.
1. Stage One: Acts 6:8-15
8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 6:8-15
Let’s walk this through and take note of some things. Stephen is one of the seven men called to help administer the food, but like we said, he’s not a pencil pusher. He is a leader and a man who is so full of the Holy Spirit that everywhere he goes, he’s doing Jesus things. Signs and wonders, people being healed, the whole deal. But, as always, there’s opposition, and it comes from other Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem. We talked about this last week. Stephen, along with the other 6 men, were most likely Hellenistic. That meant that they had been raised elsewhere in the Roman Empire, spoke Greek instead of Aramaic, and had immigrated to Jerusalem later on in life. Hebraic Jews, on the other hand, were born and raised in Judea and spoke a language closely related to Hebrew. The tendency seems to have been for Hebraic Jews to see themselves as spiritually superior to Hellenistic Jews.
So when the Hellenistic Jews gang up on Stephen, there might be a little sociological dynamic going on. You know how this works. Let’s say there’s a kid being bullied at school for whatever reason. Maybe they wear glasses, which bullies think is just hilarious. But one day, a new kid shows up who is also prone to being bullied. They have even thicker glasses. The first kid now has an opportunity to move up a few rungs on the playground social ladder by joining in and bullying the new kid. He’s relieved it’s not him anymore. Maybe that’s a bit of what’s happening in Acts 6. We have these Hellenistic Jews. Perhaps they’ve experienced the condescension of Hebraic Jews, maybe they’ve been suspected of heresy themselves because of their background. Along comes Stephen, who’s saying some pretty provocative things. It’s a chance to prove themselves to the Hebraic Jews. It’s an opportunity to move up a few rungs on the ladder.
There might be something sociological going on, but there’s definitely a theological dynamic at play. Nate is going to get into it more next week, when he preaches from Stephen’s speech. We’ll say for now that Stephen was making comments about the temple and about the law that were scandalous. That’s the charge in verse 13. Luke tells us that these were false witnesses, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t truth in what they accused Stephen of. It’s not a wholesale fabrication. Instead, it’s a subtle distorting of his words. And that’s because Stephen understood the implications of what Jesus had done. He understood that if the death of Jesus on the cross was sufficient to cover over sin, then all the animal sacrifices offered at the temple were no longer necessary. The temple was no longer central. Stephen may have even quoted Jesus, who Matthew records saying, “something greater than the temple is here.” (12:6)
It’s the same deal about the laws handed down through Moses to the Israelites. The language here about customs probably includes the oral laws developed by later rabbis. These expanded on the Old Testament commands. But if Jesus really was God among us, then his words had a greater authority than those rabbis. That’s why Jesus would say repeatedly in the “Sermon on the Mount”, “you have heard that it was said, but I say to you…” If Stephen was bringing some of that out, it’s understandable why he would encounter such opposition. He was challenging the long standing status quo in Judaism. People don’t take kindly to that.
A side note here: a lot of people seem to think that Christianity has been the status quo in much of Western culture for millennia. They believe the fact that it has been challenged so much in postmodern culture is a wonderful thing. But I would argue that in fact, true Christian faith has always been a challenge to the status quo, no matter how “Christian” a society or country has declared itself to be. That’s because the status quo in every human society is to live for power, for wealth, for status, for sexual gratification. It’s to follow the desires of the flesh and live for yourself. That’s fallen human nature. It’s what we default to.
If some cultures have put a religious veneer on that, that doesn’t mean it’s real Christianity. Real Christian faith means laying down your life for Jesus, living for the glory of God, listening for God’s direction rather than your own desires. It means dying to sin and living by the power of the Holy Spirit. When the monks rejected the opulent wealth of the medieval Catholic church to devote themselves to the word of God, prayer, and service of the poor, they faced opposition from “Christian” governments. When the Anabaptists in Reformation times preached a gospel of peace and the need for believer’s baptism, they were drowned in rivers by “Christian” authorities. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago: when evangelicals in 18th century England planted new churches, preached the gospel in fields and marketplaces, and had dreams and visions, the establishment church vigorously attempted to shut them down.
As I’ve said before, Christian faith continues to be a challenge to the status quo today in a world where we divide, isolate, numb ourselves through superficial entertainment, where we call what is evil good and what is good evil, where we live in intense fear and anxiety, where we are a slave to our own passions. That’s the status quo today, and as always, true Christian faith will challenge that. It will face opposition because of it.
What all of this means in Acts 6 is that the Hellenistic Jews of Jerusalem are determined to take Stephen down. Not only is this an opportunity to prove themselves, Stephen himself is a threat that must be dealt with. So they debate him. They throw everything they’ve got at him in a verbal sparring match. But we read in verse 10 that “they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke”. Stephen was entirely reliant on the power of the Holy Spirit in this confrontation.
Here’s a question for you: when you are engaged in a conversation about Christian faith, do you rely on your own understanding and intelligence, or do you rely on what the Holy Spirit gives you? See, some people are just really talented debaters and they can get by on their own cunning to some extent. That’s not me at all. On my own, in a verbal confrontation, I’ve got nothing. And yet, in that phone call I described in the intro, I don’t think I stopped and actually asked for God’s help. I didn’t ask for His wisdom and wait till I received it. And it was disastrous. It was like a man ran into my house with a torch and I tried to put it out by throwing gasoline at him. But Stephen speaks what the Holy Spirit gives him, and they’ve got nothin’ to say in response! Because the wisdom of God is infinitely wiser than ours.
So the Hellenists ratchet it up. They recruit witnesses to twist and distort Stephen’s words. They stir up the people and spread malicious rumors about what Stephen is teaching. They poison the minds of the crowds against him through these reports. We can relate as The Bridge Church. When we were building our new facility, one local person actually said she wanted to poison the community against us. She began spreading the rumor that we would be having a couple hundred people here from 7am until 10pm, seven days a week. Ummm…no? Anyway, twisting words, false reports, they turn the people against Stephen, and they haul Stephen before the Sanhedrin. This is the third time in Acts where we come across the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews, who by now were likely popping Advil left and right because of the headaches the early church was giving them.
If you were to read the Gospels alongside this story, there would be something else that would stand out to you: the similarities between Jesus and Stephen in their final days. The debates where the religious authorities meet their match and are left speechless. The turning of the once favorable crowds against God’s servant. The false witnesses and the sham trial before the Sanhedrin. Even the charge itself is the same. In Mark 14, witnesses claim that Jesus has spoken against the temple, saying that he will destroy it. The moral here is the same thing Jesus says in John 15: “if the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (15:21). If Jesus was rejected, spoken against, slandered, and ultimately crucified, don’t be surprised if something similar happens to you.
Stephen, at least, doesn’t seem terribly bothered by it. The last words in the chapter tell us that when the members of the Sanhedrin looked at Stephen, they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. The closest biblical parallel here is Moses. In the wilderness, after Moses had spent extensive time up on the mountain in God’s presence, the Israelites couldn’t even look at his face because of its radiance. Moses shone because he had been with God. So it is here. The Sanhedrin members are consumed by rage, there is evil and wickedness all around, but Stephen is aware of God’s presence with him. Therefore, he has peace.
That’s the big takeaway for me, and I’m going to keep coming back to this: the peace and courage of Stephen in the face of rage and oppression. Again, I want that. I want to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that I would respond in the same way Stephen did. Don’t you? In case you’re not convinced yet, let’s look at how Stephen dies.
We’re going to skip ahead almost a whole chapter, all the way past Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin. So what this is like is the beginning of a movie or TV episode where you see some crazy event, and you think “how did this happen? Why is Captain America fighting against Ironman? That would never happen in a million years!” And then the show takes you back in time to show you the events leading up to it. That’s what we’re doing here, with way less special effects. Here’s the crazy scene, you’ve got to read the rest of Acts 7 to find out how it came to this.
2. Stage 2: Acts 7:54-60
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Acts 7:54-60
When the Sanhedrin heard what Stephen said- again, that’s all the stuff in-between these two passages- they were furious. They gnashed their teeth at them. You know that scary look moms have? Their eyes get really wide and their teeth are gritted together, because they’re so ticked you’re thinking of doing something you shouldn’t? That’s what I imagine here. Did I just compare mothers to a murderous mob? Apparently I did. But I love my mother.
In any case, their anger isn’t where Stephen’s attention is. He’s looking up. And I know, if he’s having a vision of heaven, obviously that’s where he’s going to look. So maybe it’s just the preacher in me finding a little point in everything. But biblically, I believe it’s true that we can face the rage of the world by looking up. The Psalmist says, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8) Here’s what Stephen sees.
He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he tells the Sanhedrin all about it. For the Jewish leaders, this is too much because they recognize what he’s saying. In Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision of a son of man coming on the clouds, approaching the Ancient of Days and receiving authority and glory, the worship of the nations, and an everlasting kingdom. In Psalm 110:1, we hear God saying to David’s “lord”, “sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Jesus had applied these passages to himself in various ways, including in front of the very same Sanhedrin. In Luke 22:69, he says that “from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” (Luke 22:69) What’s the point of all this? First, these passages taught about the Messiah receiving an everlasting Kingdom. Second, Jesus clearly believed that they referred to him. The Sanhedrin knew both of these things. And third, Stephen now sees a vision confirming exactly what Jesus had told the Sanhedrin a couple of years before.
And what does that mean about the Sanhedrin? If it’s true, then they are wrong. Very wrong. The vision of Jesus at the right hand of God means that he has been vindicated, and that they are on the wrong side of “history”, to use a contemporary phrase. They truly had crucified the Messiah. It means that God is with Stephen, not them. Which, if true, would mean that God will judge them, not Stephen.
These leaders could repent. They could believe. They would receive the incredible life and forgiveness that comes in Christ. But they’re this far in. They’re committed to this course. I wonder if this is an example of the sunk cost fallacy. For years, we had a little Mazda3. But it began to need repairs. Often. And I don’t know if it was the nature of the repairs or the shops we went to, but every repair seemed to be 4 digits. When we finally did sell it, the guy who bought it looked at the service records and couldn’t stop laughing at me. That’s besides the point! For quite a while, every time we’d get it repaired we’d think, ok, we’ve spent this much money, we’re invested in this thing, we’ve got to ride it out. It was obvious the car was a dud! We should have sold it years before! But we ignored the signs.
Tragically, this is how some people react to Jesus. They’ve gone this far without him, they’ve determined that he is not who he said he was, and so they persist no matter the signs. A man could have a vision right in front of them, it wouldn’t change a thing. That’s what happens in Acts 7. In what would almost be comedic if it weren’t so dark, the members of the Sanhedrin cover their ears, yell at the tops of their voices, drag him out of the city and begin stoning him to death.
By the way, in the Greek there’s this word that means “with one accord”- “with one accord” they rushed at him. It’s the same word that’s used to describe the disciples when they pray in Acts 1, among other places. Which goes to show you that unity, in and of itself, is not a virtue. It’s all about what unifies you. People can be united in evil. Nothing praiseworthy about that!
And then we read the crowning piece of evidence about Stephen, and it comes in the form of his final words. Two statements: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Remember how we pointed to the similarities between Stephen’s death and Jesus’? In Luke 23:46, the final words of Jesus from the cross are “Father, in your hands I commit my spirit!” Notice that Stephen appeals to Jesus in the same way that Jesus appeals to the Father. This is an indication, I think, that the early church was fully aware of the full divinity of Jesus, unlike my blessed phone friend. This is how Stephen spends his last breaths: an expression of trust in Jesus, his eyes totally on the Lord. And then comes this statement, which is probably the most surprising thing of all: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Words, again, echoing Jesus in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. A Christ-like death for a Christ-like man.
Think about that last phrase. Don’t hold this against them. Stephen has been slandered and now is being stoned to death. There is violence and injustice everywhere. In the midst of all that, these are his final words. A plea for grace and mercy for those killing him. Stephen’s desire, his hope, is that they would know Jesus in the same way that he does. That’s what captivates him at the very end, that is the cry of his heart. That’s incredible, isn’t it?
And then Luke, who is recording this for us, says that with those two phrases, Stephen fell asleep. Just to be clear, he died. Didn’t just close his eyes for a few hours and then wake up refreshed and ready to tackle a new day. That was it for him. But the New Testament routinely describes the death of Jesus followers as sleep. Why? Because of their conviction that death was not permanent. That there was an awakening on the other side of it in the form of bodily resurrection, the same kind of resurrection that Jesus himself had. That, ultimately, was why a man like Stephen could die in the way that he did: because of an unshakeable conviction that death was sleep, and his eyes set squarely above where he knew his Lord stood ready to welcome him home.
This is what gets me over and over again about Stephen’s death and all that leads up to it. This is a man who looked death in the face and did not fear. He was prepared to die because he was at peace with God. Courage in the face of rage and peace in the face of death. That’s what I see here. And I believe that is just about the most powerful testimony to the truth of the Gospel that there is.
Application
The power of this testimony has resonated throughout church history. Late in the second century, the early church leader Tertullian wrote that “we multiply when you reap us. The blood of Christians is seed.” Which has been more popularly translated as “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” That becomes the case in Acts. The persecution that breaks out after Stephen’s death sends Christians fleeing from Jerusalem, only to preach the Gospel everywhere they go! But it’s also true that when people witness a man like Stephen and how he dies, it can cause people to question their own peace and security in the face of death. It may even persuade someone that there is truth in the Christian Gospel.
I was baptized when I was 15 years old, and on the day of my baptism my grandparents gave me a book filled with stories about Christians faithfully enduring persecution, including many martyrs. There were stories about people who died because of their faith, and did it like Stephen, full of peace and courage. One story in there tells about a group of Christians in China in the 1960s, during the so-called Cultural Revolution. They were publicly beaten, shocked, bound with ropes, knocked unconscious. Through it all, they prayed, sang, and preached to the bystanders. Apparently, they were even smiling. And their appearance was so lively and gracious that many of these bystanders put their faith in Jesus and the church grew rapidly in that region!
That kind of courage is what is to characterize Christians. This is to be our testimony. And it is badly needed in a day when so many live in such intense fear. John MacArthur is a pastor in California who believes and says some things I don’t agree with. But I do agree with what he wrote a year ago:
“Who could possibly miss the fact that ‘fear of death’ has literally been the controlling factor in government policies, news reports, economic trends, and almost every level of human activity worldwide for the past year? Scripture gives us a clear and effectual remedy for that fear. And the church’s chief duty with regard to society at large is the proclamation of that message.”
John MacArthur
The fear of death is everywhere, so evident in the last two years. You could say it’s a pandemic. And we have the antidote.
The question is, is this true of you? I ask myself that question: is it true of me? Do you and I have that kind of courage in the face of the rage of the world? Do we have that same kind of peace in the face of death that Stephen had? If we don’t, it should be our number one priority to get it, to get that assurance. And if we have it, it should be our number one priority to help others get it. I’ll tell you something, the death rate for humans overall is about 100%. And that number doesn’t change much depending on your vaccination status. So here’s the big question: are you ready to die, if death came your way? Is your heart right with God? Your life could be taken from you today, for all you know. Do you have peace?
Pursue this with all your hearts, my friends. Don’t do this half way. And like Stephen, you will do this by keeping your eyes up and going all in on Jesus. “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3). Keep your eyes on Jesus. Put your faith in him. Worship him. Live in the knowledge of His grace and salvation. Strive to be like him. That is what characterized Stephen, it’s why he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and it is why he could die the way he did. May the same be true of you.
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