February 2, 2020
Evening Service

This morning’s service was a very emotional one for me.  I see God at work in our Fellowship and I am both humbled and overwhelmed by it at the same time.  We took a big step towards growth with the ordination of three men and their wives into the office of deacon.  I look for them to give us all a shot of needed energy and courage to move enthusiastically down the path God is leading us.  It will be an adventure for us all and all we have to do is be obedient to the Spirit’s guidance and follow Jesus.  I see lives in our fellowship being changed and it seems that each week we have new faces in the crowd.  I love the fact that He is using us as a tool in His hand to build the kingdom.  Each of us has to begin asking ourselves some very uncomfortable questions about what that could mean for us.

 How much am I willing to give? 

How far am I willing to go? 

Am I committed to follow even when times get tough?

The message for tonight is going back again to the first deacon ordination and look at what God did through Stephen.  He was chosen to serve the people and he did so with all that he had.  He was all in for Christ and willingly paid a high price to serve His Lord.

Act 6:7-15 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.  (8)  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.  (9)  Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.  (10)  And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.  (11)  Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."  (12)  And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.  (13)  They also set up false witnesses who said, "This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; (14) for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us."  (15)  And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.

            I have found through my study of the scriptures, in my own life, and also by testimonies of others that when an emotional peak has been reached in our spiritual lives watch out for what comes next.  When we make a change in our life for the better spiritually and find ourselves on the right track, our enemy will often come after us with both barrels blazing.  He has come to kill, steal and destroy and when we are heading in the right direction, he will try to quickly derail before our changes are able to take root.  With Stephen, he used false accusations and half-truths to get him arrested and brought before the council to answer for his so called blasphemous crimes.  This would be an extremely intimidating predicament for a young Jewish man to stand in the presence of the religious leaders of the Jewish faith.  Had his faith lacked, it would have been very easy for him to melt being under such pressure from this judgmental and condemning group of powerful men.  Stephen however was “full of faith and power” and yielded his fear to the Lord and allowed Him to work through him in a mighty way knowing that this could very easily end in his death.   We may never be placed in this position to have to choose between our faith and our death, but every day we face the choice of following Jesus fully and faithfully or denying we even know Him.  Prepare your heart now to choose and choose well.  Jesus had to choose in the Garden and though it was difficult He said; “Not my will but thine be done.”  Choose to imitate Christ and follow no matter what; Stephen did.

            Acts chapter 7 records the longest sermon in the Bible as Stephen expounds upon the Jewish heritage walking them through a history lesson beginning with Abraham’s call to leave all and follow the Lord.  He spoke of the Jacob and Joseph being saved from a famine miraculously ending up in Egypt.  He continued with the 400 years of bondage that their ancestors had suffered through and then he spoke of the story of Moses and God’s deliverance from that bondage.  We will finish his sermon from there beginning with verse 37.

 

 Act 7:37-50 "This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN. HIM YOU SHALL HEAR.'  (38)  "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, (39) whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, (40) saying to Aaron, 'MAKE US GODS TO GO BEFORE US; AS FOR THIS MOSES WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIM.'  (41)  And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.  (42)  Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: 'DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?  (43)  YOU ALSO TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH, AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD REMPHAN, IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP; AND I WILL CARRY YOU AWAY BEYOND BABYLON.'  (44)  "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, (45) which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, (46)  who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.  (47)  But Solomon built Him a house.  (48)  "However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says: (49) 'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL. WHAT HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? SAYS THE LORD, OR WHAT IS THE PLACE OF MY REST?  (50)  HAS MY HAND NOT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?'

            Stephen has up to this point not told them anything that they would disagree with him about.  He has actually built a common ground for them to stand on as they all were proud of their Jewish heritage of being God’s chosen people.  He could have stopped here and tried to smooth things over as just being a disagreement of perspective, but he did not.  He obeys the Spirit and calls out the religious leaders just as Jesus had done as we continue in verse 51.

 

 

 

Act 7:51-60 "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.  (52)  Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, (53) who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."  (54)  When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.  

            It was in Peter’s first sermon in chapter 2 that he too preached the same truth Stephen has stated here and those listening to him were also “cut to the heart.”  The truth hit home and hit hard.  For those listening to Peter their hearts were turned to God in repentance saying; “what shall we do?”  Stephen preaching the same truth got the same reaction as they too were “cut to the heart” but the result was not the same.  The truth did not bring out a spirit of repentance in these religious leaders, but of hate, rejection, and judgment as they “gnashed at him with their teeth.”  Each of us as we are exposed to the truth must choose what our own reaction will be; repentance or rejection.  The truth can set you free or bind you to become a slave to your own sin of disobedience.  Stephen stood tall and courageously on this day and God blessed him with a vision that he had indeed chosen well.

 

(55)  But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, (56) and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"  (57)  Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; (58) and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  (59)  And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  (60)  Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

            Wow, what an ending to that story!  Everywhere else when Jesus is mentioned to be in heaven it is said that He is sitting at the right hand of God.  Stephen sees Him standing today with open arms welcoming him home or perhaps giving him a standing ovation for a job well done!  Stephen had chosen to follow Jesus so fully that even in death he prays not for himself but for those who are stoning him to death! 

Certainly God rewarded Stephen’s faith with a vision of heaven and a quick painless death, but was it worth giving his life for?  Did any of the religious leaders take this scene to heart and change their rejection into repentance?  The answer is yes, eventually.  The coats of the those who stoned Stephen were laid at the feet of a young man name Saul, who is a couple of more chapters take his first steps to becoming the Apostle Paul who wrote 2/3 or our NT.  The vision of Stephen’s face and his appeal to forgive his murderers had to sear like a hot iron into Paul’s mind.  Stephen’s death also triggered a great persecution against the infant church that caused many believers to scatter around the known world, preaching the gospel wherever they went.  God took something ugly, the murder of a good, devout man, and made something beautiful out of it.  May He take our faithfulness, trials, and suffering and use it to build His kingdom stronger.

 

Heavenly Father grant us the resolve to follow You with courage and without fear knowing it is You that is leading.