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Stand like Stephen
Acts 6-7
Who do you most admire?
Remember the job interview?
That feeling of nausea in your stomach.
The sweat around your collar and the deodorant not doing its job.
And those questions. I mean, some of them were easy enough:
Why do you think this position would be a good fit for you?
Where have you worked before that would help you here?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Then there’s the “what is your greatest weakness?” question.
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Well, I am far too interested in the customer, so sometimes I have to work late to finish
my tasks
I am a little too much of a neat freak. Too organized, it frustrates people sometimes
I am kind of a go getter so managers never really tell me what to do. Sometimes they feel
unimportant.
And how many of you ever got the question: “tell me somebody you greatly admire.” Or “tell me
who your hero is?”
Tet in your hero 301-204-4242
Of course, they aren’t looking for you to say Captain America, they want to know that your dad
is your hero because he worked hard and never complained and you try to follow his eample.
I wonder what an employer would say if your answers was. . . Stephen.
“Stephen is my hero because he was full of faith, power and wisdom, he reflected God,
he knew and recounted the story of redemption with passion, he rebuked those who
needed to hear it and he forgave those who hurt him and he stood strong, fully resting in
Jesus even as he was killed.”
I wonder what the employer would say then.
This is who we meet today and he is nothing less than awesome.
I do want to talk about Stephen this morning, but not as an end game. Stephen is my conduit
through which I will talk about something else.
See, while I think Scripture gives us heroes to follow, I don’t think they are the ultimate message
of Scripture.
Yes, we will dare to be a Daniel
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Yes, we will excel like Esther
We will profess like Peter
We will rock like Ruth
And we will stand like Stephen. But there is something far deeper about our heroes. All of them.
Stephen’s story is a long one. Its half of Acts 6 and all of acts 7. And I won’t read the whole
thing. I want to show you some things about him that I hope we can eemplify.
The power of the message
First, let me show you what empowers him.
There is just something about Stephen that is amazing and I am convinced it is something
uneplainable if we stick to the natural world. He can really talk as we will see (but we don’t hear
that
he was a trained rhetorician, It’s not his amazing rhetoric (although that is there), it’s not
his natural giftedness (although that seems to be present maybe),
it’s not his good looks or
his personal charm, it’s something outside himself.
Look at Acts 6:5—they chose Stephen who was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. I think this
says a lot. Verse 10 says
they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom
he spoke.
This is a man with power, power to speak, power to argue. He understands deep truths and can
defend his view. He is an apologetics master, pulling out the white board with different markers
sharing his insight into the Old Testament. Showing them prophecies and how Jesus is the
antitype of the type and doing cool Christotelic eegesis and people just can’t keep up with him.
But we aren’t told this guy is trained. All we know about him is that he is full of the Spirit and
faith and wisdom.
Oh by the way, if you think that is merely a way of saying he is mature and wise (which is often
eactly what being empowered by the Spirit means), they do clarify
that Stephen was a man
full of God’s grace and power—and if you don’t know what that means to be full of his power,
see verse 8—
he did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
What empowers him?
The Spirit of God.
But this isn’t about Stephen. It’s about Jesus. Every sermon is ultimately about Jesus and this
story just screams at me to make it the point.
Yes, Stephen was empowered by the Spirit, but we are told this specifically because Jesus is said
to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah prophesies of this in 11:1.
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
(Isa 11:1-3 NIV)
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His baptism revealed the Spirit like a dove resting on him. And in the synagogue he claims that
this verse refers to him
Luke 4:18-19
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
(Luk 4:18-19 NIV)
So, Stephen isn’t the point, Jesus is. Jesus was empowered by the Spirit.
But Stephen is an eample for us. Because we too, like Jesus have been empowered and we too,
like Jesus and Stephen have a powerful message.
Don’t you dare say you can’t do it. That is an insult to the Spirit within you. We too go to
proclaim the year of Gods favor. This message changes lives. Its moves people. The whole world
changes when we let the power out.
The delivery of the message
Back to Stephen. Take a look at how he delivers this Spirit empowered message. How he
speaks and what he says.
Wrapped in action and love
First, notice that he cares for people first.
He is doing miracles for the people. I assume that
means healing them as the other apostles have been doing. He does come with a message, but he
comes to care for them physically too.
He has a message, but it is given with love wrapping around it.
And wasn’t this equally true of Jesus? He came healing and casting out demons and touching the
afflicted. In addition to delivering them spiritually, he was there for them emotionally and
physically. He truly loved the world and wanted to see it changed.
And so it should be true of us. Not just truth, but truth in love. We don’t just proclaim, we serve.
We unite, We care. We move. We love.
Passionate and winsome
Back to Stephen. Note that when the opposition happens (verse 9) and they start accusing him
of all kinds of things, his arguments shut them up (vs 10). That is, he knew his stuff and could
make it clear.
And look at verse 15. In the midst of their accusation, they looked at Stephen and he had the face
of an angel. Kent Hughes says Stephen possessed a charm of character that touched those who
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did not know his source. He was winsome. There was just something about him that drew people
to him.
You know these people right? The people that attract people to them so easily. You both hate
them because it comes so naturally, but at the same time you find yourself wanting to be near
them too.
I don’t know what it was eactly for Stephen. I doubt it was mild or gentle so much, but neither
was it fierce and avenging. F. F. Bruce says
it was a look that told of inspiration within,
clear eyes burning with the inner light.”
He continues, “we can hardly doubt that it was Saul
who remembered that look, a look which burnt into his soul.” (136)
And Jesus was like this. People flocked to him. He had to force himself to find time alone
because they were everywhere. There must have been something about him; something more
than just the content of what he was saying. A passion, perhaps, that drove everything he did.
And we too should have this winsome passion. How dare we be dour and boring. We have the
greatest ever news. Smile when you say it and when you live it. It is GOOD news after all.
People should be attracted to you and to it.
Back to Stephen. Because I fear if we speak too much of his gentility or winsomeness, we may
accidentally ignore the end of his speech.
Look at verse 51.
51 "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your
fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who
predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered
him-53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not
obeyed it."
(Act 7:51-53 NIV)
Unafraid to rebuke
There are times when you are silent and you listen, there are times when you argue winsomely.
And there are times when harsh rebuke is needed.
You stiff necked people.
Uncircumcised hearts and ears—barbarians, impure
Resisting the Spirit
disobedient
Just like the people of Moses’s time
Persecuting the prophets
Killing them
Killing the Christ
These people needed to hear the truth in the most direct manner possible.
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And in that Stephen is just following the eample of his savior.
Jesus had stuff to say to the Pharisees and to the people of Israel. He called people foes, wolves,
serpents, and dogs. He flipped over tables, told people when their faith was too weak, says “woe
to you hypocrites” and reminds them of the consequence of eternal hell. He isn’t afraid to tell
people like it is when its needed.
And we will speak boldly too, regardless of the consequences. Sometimes, we need to rebuke.
Sometimes people in your family or in your pew need to hear that they are headed off the path of
life. And your passion turns to protection. They need to know and it might look forceful. Stand
up you stinking weak Christians. Stop being a child, stop wavering back and forth at the first
sign of inconvenience or pain. Stand up, be counted.
This is why you have to be empowered by the spirit. So you can know what circumstance needs
what. More on this net week.
The content of the message
Back to Stephen. So, his delivery depended on who he was speaking to and when. And while
you have heard the end of the sermon as a rebuke, we skipped the long and beautiful part. And it
is awesome.
It’s
heilsgeschichte at its finest.
The high priest wants to know if it’s true that Stephen speaks against the law and the temple. So
Stephen tells them. It starts in verse 2.
 Abraham called out of Chaldea and out of Haran by the God of glory and brought him to
the promised land.
 He started a relationship with him and promised him a people and that covenant
continued with his children—Isaac and Jacob and Joseph.
 He tells the whole story of the famine in Egypt and the increase of Israel and the threat to
them by Egypt.
 He tells of Moses birth, his conversion to his people, specific stories of Moses saving
people and his call to leads Gods people at the burning bush. All in great detail.
 He speaks of the escape through the Red Sea and their almost immediate fall into idolatry
at the golden calf. Their worship got out of control and their eile was promised
 But still God is with them with Joshua and with David and with Solomon and the temple
is made. But even then the temple was not supposed to be the place of God’s presence. It
was a holding place.
He spends who knows how long reminding them of their history and in so doing, showing that
they never really understood the purpose of the land, they didn’t grasp the significance of the
law, they didn’t see the real intention of the temple.
They missed everything because of their sin.
The content of his sermon was simple. Long history of God relating to his people and them still
killing his son. All the Old Testament stories boil down into one beautiful clima in Jesus and
they killed him.
When was the last time you gave a message like that? Stephen is so my hero.
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But be careful, because this sermon is not about Stephen,
it’s about Jesus. We don’t look
primarily at Stephen,
we look at the cross. We look to Jesus.
And Jesus really is the culmination of this story. Jesus himself often speaks of the stories of that
past and claims in bold upfront language to be the antitype of all the types. To be the reality to
which all the pictures pointed. He is the clima of the covenant. He is not just the one bringing a
message, he is the one the message speaks of. He doesn’t just deliver the word, he is the word,
made flesh. All of history has been progressing here.
See Stephen isn’t the hero so much as he points to the hero.
But he is our eample too, because while sometimes rebukes are needed, the story of the gospel is
always needed.
Give them the old old story, how a savior came from Glory, how he gave his life on Calvary. . .
Love to tell the story, because I know tis true, it satisfies my longings like nothing else can do.
This isn’t about your story as much as it is how your story fits into the larger story. Tell them
about creation and about Abraham and about Moses and about David and the prophets and how
all of them were waiting for something …for someone. Tell them how he came and changed
history and with it how he changed your heart
Resting in the message
But Stephen is no slouch. Not only is he empowered, winsome, bold and delivering a beautiful
story, look at how the message affects him. Look at how he is able to rest in the message.
This content means hope to him. We see it starting in verse 54
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
This is a horrifying picture of a vehement anger that is uncontrollable.
But Stephen.
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,
Again, note where the power comes from
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."
There is much speculation regarding his standing and not sitting. Perhaps he is standing to
welcome Stephen or perhaps as a judge who can’t believe the ludicrousness of this court.
Whatever the case, it was blasphemy to them
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 clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
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(Act 7:54-59 NIV)
My point here is this. While the crowd is overcome with rage and murders a person in cold
blood, Stephen looks to Christ. He rests in the word. “receive my Spirit, Lord Jesus.” He rests in
Christ.
And you know where I am going net.
__________.
This message isn’t about Stephen after all, its about
And Jesus rested in the content of his message as well. He knew that God would deliver him. He
knew that no matter how bad the suffering, no matter how gruesome the death, he would be
raised to life. And so his life ends with these words:
“Into thy hands, I commend my spirit.”
Jesus rested
And we rest. Friend, you have nothing to fear. This message means no matter what the future
holds, you will be okay. He will take care of you. He will usher you safely into his kingdom.
The response because of the message
Back to Stephen for my final point.
Look at how he responds to his killers.
Verse 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. (Act 7:60 NIV)
I am guessing none of you have ever been stoned (by rocks) but the process isn’t a quick one.
People miss. It glances off their shin or their elbow. It’s a horrifying way to die. And this is a
man who so knows and trusts in Jesus, who is so empowered by the Spirit, that even as his
enemies hurl stones at his face, he begs for their forgiveness.
What kind of a man is this?
A man who follows his savior.
Remember the point of the message is Jesus. Stephen looks
like Jesus as Jesus hangs on the cross and says
“father, forgive them, for they know no what
they do.”
Even as he endures the nails and spear and beating and the spitting and gasping for air he begs
for their forgiveness.
And this should be a call to us as well. Since we are empowered by the Spirit and we have truly
Good news and we can rest in it no matter what the consequences, then we really do have the
ability to forgive ANYTHING.WE have no reason to hold anything against anyone. Will you
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keep a grudge in heaven? Why would you hold a grudge now? Forgive. Forgive in an insane
way, something that makes no sense to anyone around you. Not because they deserve it, but
because Christ has done something in you and you must pass it on. He forgave you when you
deserved nothing, and now you are to forgive others.
Friends this passage is about how Stephen can be an eample to us and that is fine, but ultimately
it’s a passage about what Jesus did—how he lived, how he died, how he rose. Its about the
beauty of this table spread before us again.
Its about a broken savior on our behalf.