This is a, it's a dramatic and devastating bit of the book of
Acts. It really is.
It's got the longest speech recorded in Acts, the speech
that Stephen gives. We meet Stephen, who seems a
wonderful man, wonderful Christian man, but he swiftly
killed for his face. And then after this point, the
rest of the book of Acts is devoted to the spread of the
church beyond Jerusalem. So there's a lot going on.
So to stop us getting lost, I want to use a sentence that
we're going to keep returning to to help us keep focus.
And it's a three-part sentence and it's this.
God's people face rejection, but he is always present with his
people and faithful to his promises.
God's people face rejection, but he's always present with his
people and faithful to his promises, but He's always
present with his people and faithful to his promises.
So the story of the church so far, just a little reminder.
So the Church of Jerusalem, it's been growing.
Jesus has ascended to heaven, but his Holy Spirit has come,
and more and more people are becoming Christians.
There are signs and wonders. Jesus has been proclaimed to the
rooftops. The church are looking after
each other, caring for one another.
Things aren't perfect. There's been a particularly
problematic episode of dishonesty.
There's been some organizational issues, and there's been
opposition from outside. The apostles have been arrested
more than once. But despite all this, actually
the church seems to be winning. Apostles are given the words to
say rescues happen from prison. And it seems those opposed to
God are completely on the back foot.
And so this verse in Acts, just before the bit we looked at, I
think sums well. The word of God spread.
The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and
a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
So we can see God's people faced rejection, but clearly he's
always present with his people and faithful to his promises.
His church is growing. It's going great.
It's with this background then that we meet Stephen.
And as in one sense, as we look at Stephen, it's like, what a
guy? And now we know he's one of the
men who's previously chosen to kind of help with the food
distribution to the widows of the church.
And we know from his name that he was a Greek Jew.
So either him or his parents were probably born outside of
Palestine and Israel. But if we look at what he was
like, so in Acts chapter 6 and verses 5/8, 10:15, we see that
he was full of faith in the Holy Spirit.
He was full of God's grace and power.
He did great wonders and miraculous signs.
Verse 10, you couldn't win an argument against him because of
his wisdom and by the spirit by which he spoke.
Verse 15, his face was like the face of an Angel.
I don't think that means he was like really good looking.
I think it's kind of like at that moment he was just like
God's presence, just like shining through him.
We're supposed to see that he's been blessed by God.
And throughout whole of Chapter 7 in Stephen's speech, well, he
clearly knows his Old Testament history.
He's not afraid to stand firm in the faith and point people to
Jesus. And even at the point of death,
he's still trusting in Jesus. What a guy.
But he's not a guy on his own. It's not that Stephen is just
great. From these verses, it's clear
that the Spirit of God was with him.
God is present with him. Stephen is facing rejection, but
God's with him. And if we remember Jesus words,
Jesus promised that he would give his disciples A counsellor,
the Holy Spirit, and give his disciples the words to say when
they were put on trial, when they face pressure.
So we can see that God is keeping his promise and keeping
his promise to Stephen. God's people face rejection, but
he's always present with his people and faithful to his
promises. That's true of Stephen, although
there's going to be more to say on that.
So why was Stephen arrested? So initially it starts off that
there's members of of this Friedman synagogue that seem to
be against Stephen. They're getting into arguments
with him, but first time they just can't win the argument.
And So what do you do when you can't win an argument?
Well, they create a manufacturer situation where there's enough
opposition amongst the people and local leaders to have them
arrested. There's some trumped up charges
brought before him and they produce produce people who
basically lie about what Stephen has said and, and the charges.
We can basically get it down to kind of two things.
There's two things that they're kind of charging Stephen was
doing, and we see those in verses 1113 and 14 of chapter 6.
So the first is that Stephen is speaking against the temple in
Jerusalem, saying that Jesus will destroy it.
And the second is that Stephen is speaking against the law,
against the customs that Moses handed down to the Jewish
people. Now this, hopefully, if you're a
Christian here, they might start to sound a bit familiar.
You may remember that the main charge against Jesus at his
trial was that he would try destroy the temple.
Stephen's been accused of exactly the same thing and it's
a serious accusation. So this is like a picture of
what the temple might have looked at that time.
But the temple was supposed to be the visible and actual sign
of God's presence with his people is where God is supposed
to be. For someone to say I will
destroy the temple would be to like them saying I'll remove God
from your presence or indeed attack God himself.
Likewise the law. To do away with the law would be
to do away with with God. It was everything to the Jewish
people. These are serious, serious
charges and Stephen's been bought before a serious court.
So there's that term. The Sanhedrin.
This is kind of a council, over 70 or so Jewish leaders,
including the high priest. It's would be very intimidating.
And remember, this is the same court that condemned Jesus to
death. And so throughout this, you know
what we're looking at, there's echoes of Jesus trial and what
was said to him and what happened.
And we know how that ended. But even at this point, Jesus
Stephen's arrest, I think a sentence is still true.
OK, God's people face rejection. Well, yes, Stephen is on trial
for his faith, face faith, but he's always present with his
people. We've talked before about how
the Spirit was with Stephen, how he had the face of an Angel.
But God is also faithful to his promises.
This is a promise that Jesus made in in John 15/20/21.
Remember what I told you? A servant is not greater than
his master. If they persecuted me, they'll
persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they
will obey yours also. They will treat you this way
because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
Stephen's being treated just as Jesus was, and that's something
that Jesus would promised would happen to his followers.
I think Stephen and the early Christians knew that really
well. And I think for us here today, I
think we need to remember that as Christians, we're in receipt
of some wonderful promises, but we also need to make sure we
don't forget the promises that might be a bit more difficult to
hear. Jesus is very clear.
A Christian can expect to be treated badly because of Jesus,
because Jesus was. And although on the face of it,
this doesn't seem like the kind of promise we might we might
want to hear or have made, to us it's actually deeply reassuring.
Christians face hardship. Christians face bullying,
Christians face mocking, Christians face persecution, and
Christians face death. And Jesus says, yes, you will.
That will happen as it happened to me.
There's no pretence, there's no sugar coating.
There's no saying it won't happen.
We know it happens. A couple of weeks ago we had the
the persecuted Church Sunday and Jesus tells us it will happen.
So if it happens to you, when some of this stuff happens to
you, it's actually a reason to trust Jesus more because he told
us about it before it would happen.
He's trustworthy and real with us about what it means to live
as a Christian and follow Him and what we may might face in
our lives as Christians. So Stephen's been arrested.
We know the charges against him. What was Stephen's defence?
So picture the scene. Stephen is before the court.
The charges against him have been made.
The witnesses have spoken and the high priest say, says, are
these charges true? What would you say?
What would your response be? I suspect it might start with
the word no. What I suspect you wouldn't do
is give a history lesson that encompasses the entire history
to that point of the Jewish people.
I don't think that would be our first thought.
That's what Jesus does, and specifically Jesus in his sweep
through Old Testament history is kind of focusing on on 2 areas.
He's focusing on, one, where is God's presence?
And two, what faithfulness and following God's law looks like
and who's faithful and who's not.
He wants to demonstrate that what Jesus taught and therefore
what Stephen has been teaching is consistent with Old Testament
teaching and that in rejecting Jesus, they the Sanhedrin who
are rejecting God and the law, not Stephen and his speech.
We can divide it into to five parts and and we had the
timeline helpfully kind of show us that dealing with these big
figures in Old Testament history, Abraham, Joseph, Moses,
David and Solomon. And then at the end, Stephen
makes he turns the tables on the Sanhedrin and makes an
accusation. And we can't go into a huge
slave slaver in Egypt far away from his family.
Did God abandoned him just because he went to Egypt?
No, Verse 9. God was with him and rescued
him. Moses, the Lord spoke to him
from the burning Bush in the desert.
He promised to be with Moses and his people to rescue them from
Egypt. And God was most certainly with
his people when he bought them out of slavery from Egypt with
signs and wonders. And finally, yes, a temple was
built, but Stephen quotes Isaiah as I was 66 and and he said,
look, this what this is in keeping with the whole Testament
teaching. You can't really think that God
in his presence is just limited to a temple.
God says heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
So the focus on the temple as being the only way that God is
present with his people. It's proved wrong by the
entirety of Old Testament history.
I read some John stop like kind of explain this posture as I
found it extremely helpful. And I think the two things he
says here are really helpful. He says the God of Israel is a
Pilgrim God. God's presence cannot be limited
or confined to a specific place or building.
It is with his people that he lives.
God's with us here, the avenue today.
God's with Matt and Lisa in Nigeria, it's with Simon and Ali
in Ethiopia, it's with Asher when he's in America.
God's with his people. And Jesus was God made flesh.
Jesus was literally God living with his people.
The fulfillment of God's presence with his people is not
a building, not the temple. It's Jesus.
It's the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives to every
Christian, and then it's his body of the church which becomes
a new temple. That's what Stephen's trying to
get across to the Sun Hedram. And the second main theme of
Stephen's speech is is to address the accusation that
Stephen's rejecting the law and rejecting God.
And it's they, the Sanhedrin of the true followers of God.
How does he deal with this? Well, he just kind of looks
through Old Testament history and says, well, your ancestors
keep rejecting God and his prophets.
Look at what Stephen says about Moses in verse 27.
The Israelites say to Moses, who made you rule and judge over us?
But Despite that, God used Moses to rescue Israelites from
freedom, to rescue them from slavery into freedom.
And then in verses 39 to 43 in Chapter 7, Stephen really
focuses on Moses. He said they rejected Moses
again when Moses was talking to God.
And so God gave them over to their impulses and they
worshipped fake gods. And it became a repeating theme
in the life of Old Testament Israel.
And Stephen quotes Amos to make his point there.
The idea that far from there being a glorious history of the
Sanhedrin's ancestors being faithful and obedient followers
of the Law, no, they reject God's chosen prophets and
Saviours time and again and again.
And they reject God too. The track record is terrible.
And so Stephen brings it to a head in his accusation in in
verses 51 to 53, basically he's saying, you people who are
accusing me, you're just like your ancestors.
You've got it so wrong. Was there ever a prophet your
ancestor did not persecute that even killed those who predicted
the coming of the righteous one? That's Jesus.
And now you have betrayed and murdered him, murdered Jesus,
you who have received the law that was given through angels,
but have not obeyed it. So Stephen is turning the screw
and pointing the light back on the Sanhedrin.
He said you killed Jesus, you killed the Messiah, you killed
God's promised king. And in doing so, you're the
people who have not obeyed the law.
It's not me who's blasphemed God.
It's not me who's not obeyed the law.
It's you guys. They didn't worship Jesus, they
killed him. And so through this whole sweep
of Old Testament history, you know, IA sentence I've put helps
us, it's still true. God's people face rejection.
Joseph, Moses, the prophets, Jesus himself, Stephen.
But God is always present with his people.
God is always present with his people wherever they are.
And God is faithful to his promises.
I mean, there's so many examples of that.
But, you know, just we could think of God rescuing his people
from Egypt, but Stephen dies. He puts those who are judging on
the spot, and they hate it. They're furious.
But then Stephen says something else.
Before they can say anything, he says, look, I see heaven open
and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.
And when Stephen says this, they go, I mean, they go crazy.
Any pretense that normal legal procedure seems to be thrown out
the window. They yell at him, they rush at
him, they drag him out of the city and stone him to bat to
death. It has kind of a pattern of like
a mob killing. And what Stephen has just said,
it's actually very similar to what Jesus said at his trial
before the Sanhedrin. I put it up there for you from
Matthew. You've said so, Jesus replied
when asked, you know, if he was the Messiah.
But I say to all of you, from now on, you will see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the
clouds of heaven. Jesus is the Son of man.
He's referencing Daniel here where the Son of man is given
authority and power in judgement.
Jesus saying that he is the Son of man and the Messiah.
So when Stephen says he sees the Son of Man, this figure of
authority and judgement, you bet your bottom dollar that the
Sanhedrin, remembering what Jesus said to them, Stephen has
basically said that the man you killed, the man who said he's
the Son of man, well, actually he really is.
He's now getting ready to judge you.
And so the Sanhedrin lose it. Rather than bend the knee and
bow to Jesus asking for forgiveness, they double down
and they do to Stephen what they did to Jesus and they kill him.
That's sad, isn't it? That should make us feel sad.
Stephen full of grace of power, Stephen full of the Holy Spirit,
Stephen who spoke so well, God is so present with he's killed.
What are we to make of this God's people face rejection.
Well, that's clearly true. The killing of Stephen is the
ultimate rejection of of of him and of God's truth.
But at this moment always present with his people,
faithful to his promises. Stephen's been killed.
It's, it's difficult. Where was God?
Was this present God? And Stephen was killed.
You know, a few chapters earlier we read about a miraculous
escape from jail, didn't we, for the apostles?
Well, where's Stephen's escape? And we know, yes, Jesus says
that we will face the same as him.
He promises that. But maybe actually, if we think
really about that, maybe that's a promise we'd prefer that God
didn't keep cost Stephen his life.
These are hard questions. I'm not pretending I've got all
the answers. But I think that Stephen's
death, actually God is present there with his people and
faithful to his promises. Not just Stephen's death, but
actually Jesus death, his resurrection, his ascension to
heaven, which Stephen's speech and his death point us towards.
Let's remind ourselves, what or who does Stephen see before he's
taken out to be stoned? He sees Jesus, the Son of man.
Jesus is at God's right hand, in a position of power and
authority. Jesus is not dead, Jesus alive.
Jesus is not weak or powerless. He's in that position of power
and authority. Stephen sees Jesus, his eyes are
fixed on him. He knows his presence.
But the thing to notice about Jesus when Stephen sees him is
that he's not sitting. He's standing.
When Jesus spoke about himself to the Sanhedrin, he said that
he'll be sitting, but Stephen sees him standing.
What might that mean? Next time the high priest see
Jesus, he will be sitting on judgement on them.
But Stephen sees Jesus standing. Might be that Jesus standing
because he's talking to his Father, saying there is my
faithful servant Stephen, who has put his faith in me and I
stand for him to cover the cost of his sins.
He is a good and faithful servant.
Might it be that Jesus standing, because he's standing there to
welcome Stephen home to his heavenly home, his true home,
the place where the presence of God with his people is fulfilled
completely and utterly, and his promise of God with us is
completely fulfilled. Perhaps Stephen sees Jesus and
he knows he's going home. And if you're a Christian here
today, that's true for you as well.
One day you'll get to go home and Jesus will welcome you into
his presence, fulfilling all his promises to you.
One of my favorite films, which I'm not going to name because of
spoilers, is about a little girl living through a European civil
war, and it has fantastical elements to it.
But essentially throughout the film, her life is grim and
horrible. She has no Lovings family, and a
situation gets worse and worse and worse and worse, and at the
end this girl dies. But the film does not end with
her death, it actually ends with her being welcomed home.
Welcomed back to a fantastical home where her family are, where
there's no more pain and where the joy of being in that place
completely overwhelms the misery of her former life.
And it's the only form I've ever watched.
We're at the end of cry tears of joy.
And it's it's a wonderful moment because it kind of almost like
gave a little glimpse of what it would feel like to have a joy of
going home to be with Jesus. And I think Stephen Ward had
even more joy than that when he was welcome home by Jesus.
And that's true for us today if you put your trust in Jesus,
your sins and wrongs botted out, your sufferings far outweighed
by the glory of being with Jesus in his presence and his promises
all fulfilled. Welcome to home.
Not to some fantastical film home, but to a heavenly home.
So no matter how bad or difficult it gets or feels,
whether you're suffering or difficulties relate to
persecution or not, please hold on to that hope.
Cling to Jesus because he will bring you home.
But there's one more thing just to finish.
I think Stephen was completely assured that Jesus will keep his
promises. Look how he dies.
Verse 59 he says Lord Jesus receive my spirit.
Verse 60, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
Again, I think we should be thinking about Jesus.
These mirror very closely some of Jesus last words on the
cross. Verse 59 implies that Stephen
has a complete enough to trust that Jesus has got him.
For Stephen vertically to ask Jesus to forgive those who are
killing him, that's not the prayer of a vengeful or bitter
man. It's a prayer of a man who
completely entrusts himself to God and to God's grace.
But you could argue, you could make an argument that the most
important words are the ones Stephen doesn't say.
We've noticed that he says words very similar to those that Jesus
said as he died. But what doesn't he say?
There are words that he can't say, but there are words that
Jesus said as he died. Jesus said, my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? It's not Stephen who shouts out
these words as he dies. It's not Stephen who is
separated and punished by God as he dies.
Stephen doesn't shout out these words because Jesus already said
them when he died. Jesus was forsaken by God.
Jesus was punished for Stephenson for our sin instead
of us. He was crucified so that we
don't have to say those words. And that as death could not hold
Jesus and he was reunited with his Father, so we too will one
day rise up to be with him even beyond death.
No matter how bad it gets for us as a Christian, we won't face
that. We won't be forsaken or
separated from God because our faith in Jesus saves us, because
he went through it all instead of us.
So please, if you're not, if you're sitting here today and
you're not a Christian, don't put yourself in a position where
one day you end up before the judgement seat and Jesus is
sitting down in judgement on you.
You won't be able to stand. Instead, put your faith and
trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and one
day see Jesus standing up to welcome you home.
So for Stephen and for us, I think this, I think it holds
true. God's people face rejection, but
he's always present with his people and faithful to His
promises. Whatever life will throw at you
in the weeks, months, and years to come, Jesus is with you.
He keeps his promises and he'll see you home.