Titled This Morning's Message is God's Faithfulness.
We're in the book of Acts, Acts Chapter 7.
Stephen has been arrested. Remember, he started off, he's
just an ordinary guy and he's serving on the tables.
There'd been a dispute, murmurings between the the the
Greek cultured Jews and the Hebrew Jews about the bread that
was being divvied out amongst the widows who were able to be
cared for by the church. And so the congregation selected
7 men of honest report had to be full of the Holy Spirit.
Notice the qualifications that they needed to have to serve at
tables. And so Stephen is one of those.
And Stephen as he's doing that, he's also teaching elsewhere and
and God is using him and he's praying for people.
People are being healed. And so he's a problem.
He's a thorn to the work of the enemy.
So the religious Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Israel call
and have Stephen arrested. He's brought before 71 members
of the religious leaders of Israel and he's put on the spot.
And he's been accused of quite a number of things that says verse
1, Chapter 7. Then the high priest said, are
these things. So that's all the accusations.
Stephen, why did he teach this message?
Why did he preach this message? That's whenever you ask and
study the book of the Bible, you got to ask some certain
questions. Why was it written?
Who was it written for? What was the message?
What's the application? Where is Jesus in this?
How does it apply to me? So why did Stephen prints this
message? Why is there Acts Chapter 7 in
answer to the charges that he had been accused of?
We can see that he'd been accused of blasphemous words
against Moses, which he didn't. He'd been accused of allegedly
speaking out against the law of Moses, which he didn't.
He'd been accused of blasphemy against God and deriding the
temple, which he didn't. These were the same accusations
that had come against Jesus. Same.
The devil never, never has a new way of attacking you.
It's the same old, same old. He uses the same old methods
every time to attack you. And so they'd even hired
witnesses, paid them off, said, come lie about this guy.
Just tell him what we've told you to say.
And Stephen's there. But Stephen doesn't defend
himself. Said to the kids on Friday
night, You know, nowhere in the Bible does God defend himself.
He doesn't prove his existence. People say, we'll prove God.
No, it's like you having to prove that you exist to
somebody. Well, I'm actually here.
We'll prove it. No, God.
God doesn't have to defend himself.
We don't have to defend God. God exists.
He exists in the beginning. God created the heavens and the
earth. Stephen is not concerned about
defending himself. That's where we often go off
when we, we're discussing doing Christian apologetics with
people, atheist, agnostics, We're we start to defend
ourselves. Don't defend yourself.
We don't have to to defend lies. When someone lies to you, you
don't defend. Paul didn't when he wrote to the
Corinthians, he said God's my witness, God's my witness.
But he does want to do this one thing.
He wants to proclaim Jesus Christ.
So he says, aha, 71 years, a fixed congregation.
I'm going to tell you about Jesus, verse one, the high
priest said of these things. So Stephen said, brethren,
brothers, fathers, listen, I'm about to give you a sermon.
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in
Mesopotamia. That's modern day Iraq, by the
way, just so you know, Abraham is Iraqi, That's his roots.
Before he dwelt in Haran. What's Haran?
SE Turkey. And said to him, get out of your
country for away from your relatives, come to a land that
I'll show you. Then he came out of the land of
the Chaldeans, dwelt in Haran and from there when his father
was dead, he moved him to this land, Canaan, in which you now
dwell. Abraham, you know we Abraham in
Romans chapter 4 is considered and called the father of our
faith, rightly so. But you know, one of the things
I learned I used to have this idea as a new believer that
everyone in the Bible was like saintly, you know, because I I
grew up on Cecil B the Milne Bible movies.
I love King of kings. That was a bit later, but you
know, the Bible, the 10 Commandments, Charlton Heston,
all that sort of stuff, You younger people have no idea who
they are. People don't even have any idea
these days who The Beatles are. Wow, You're old.
And so I had this, this idea that everyone in the Bible was
just perfect until I began to read the Bible.
I found out. Wow, they're far from perfect.
Abraham, for example, did not immediately obey God's command.
He didn't just take off, leave the family and head out to the
Canaan. He didn't head straight to the
land that God had promised. He didn't do that.
Abraham also did not leave all his family behind in southern
Iraq. His father terror went with him
to Haran Iran's between is on the border of Turkey and the
Syrian border. But despite Abraham's frailties,
his incomplete obedience and his struggles, Abraham grew in his
faith over time. It says in verse 5 and God gave
him no inheritance in it. In Canaan, he said put a claim
out for you. Stake out the claim.
That's yours. No, not even to set his foot on.
But even when Abraham had no child in Genesis chapter 15, God
makes his promise to Abraham that through you, Abraham and
through your seed and the descendants, the world, the
nations are going to be blessed. Speaking of Jesus Christ, it was
to come through the Jewish nation.
Abraham's gone. I don't even have AI have I have
nobody. And Sarah and I, we're, we're
old. We're on the pension.
We don't have any kids, and I have a servant.
And God says, no, he's Eliezer. He's not.
It's not through him. I'll give you a son.
But even when Abraham had no child, he promised to give it to
him for a possession and to his descendants after him.
So God speaking way beyond what even Abraham says, how can that
happen? I don't have any kids, but God
spoke in this way that his descendants would dwell in a
foreign land. What land was that going to be?
Egypt. And that they would bring them
into bondage and oppress them for 400 years.
So way before this happened, God said this is what's going to
happen. You're going to have a family,
they're going to grow and then that family will go down to
Egypt and there they'll stay there for 400 years and be
slaves. Amazing how accurate Bible
prophecy is. And the nation to whom they will
be in bondage. Egypt, I'll judge, said God.
And after that they shall come out and serve me in this place,
Canaan land. Then God gave him the covenant
of circumcision. Abraham, you're to be
circumcised. This was later in Genesis 17.
So Abraham is already saved by grace.
Two chapters later he's going to be circumcised.
So circumcision has nothing to do with salvation, circumcision
of the flesh, that is, he gave him the covenant, that is the
agreement of circumcision. And so Abraham begot, Isaac
circumcised him on the 8th day. Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot
the 12 patriarchs. Why is Stephen given these
religious Hebrews, these religious leaders, a history
lesson? I mean, they know all this.
They know the Bible. They Pharisees know the
Pentateuch off by heart. They have to learn it every
word. First five books of the Bible
plus the law, because Abraham. Stephen is going to show that
God appeared to Abraham all the way all this time.
God was faithful still to Abraham way before we have
anything that we're looking to now.
You see, Abraham had failures, he had faults, but God was
faithful to him. That speaks the world to me
because one of the most biggest fears I had as a new Christian
was making a mistake. Now that I'm a Christian, making
the wrong decision, now that I'm a Christian father, a Christian
husband. And then I realised, you know
what? We do make mistakes.
We do make the wrong decision, but God doesn't go, wow, you're
an idiot. That's it.
Can't use you anymore because the Bible is full of people,
ordinary like you and I, who make mistakes.
But here's what Stephen is teaching.
But God is faithful to you. He gets you out of the mistake,
fixes you up, and then gets you back on the right track.
That's what God does. God was faithful.
God appeared to and blessed Abraham before there was a
temple. Because one of the accusations
against Stephen was, weren't you coming down against the temple?
Abraham did not need the temple to be close to God.
When you and I go to Israel, we go to what used to be called the
Wailing Wall. That's called the Western Wall.
And the Jews stand there, they get bits of piece of paper and
they poke it in the, in the bricks of the foundation.
That's not, it's only the foundations that they're
against. The actual site of the temple is
on top of the of Mount Zion, which you have to go up onto,
which is run by the Muslims at the moment.
And it's so sad because even here in Israel today, they're
standing against a wall as their connection to God.
They're standing against giant limestone bricks and that's the
way they connect to God. It's heartbreaking verse 9 and
the patriarchs becoming envious sold Joseph.
So we've moved on to Joseph now into Egypt.
But notice what Stephen says. But God was with him twice.
You read in Genesis and the story of of Joseph it says but
the Lord was with Joseph, but the Lord was with Joseph because
everyone else was against him. Verse 10 and delivered him out
of all of his troubles. If you want to read a great
story to your kids, read the story of Joseph and gave him
favour and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh king of
Egypt made him governor, second in charge of Egypt and all his
house. Now a famine in great trouble
came over all the land of Egypt. Remember how did that happen?
God told Joseph there's going to be 7 lean years and seven good
years. Get ready, load up because it's
coming. So they had 7 great years.
They stored all the grain, Joseph packed it away, and then
seven lean years and all the countries around that area were
starving. Israel, I mean, Egypt was loaded
because of what Joseph did through the Lord.
Now famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt
and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.
That is Jacob and Joseph's brothers.
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out
our fathers first. That's the other eleven
brothers. And this, notice this, I
underlined it. And the second time Joseph was
known to his brothers. Remember Joseph, he comes out,
his brothers are out on the farm, they're gathering the
grain, looking out the sheep. Joseph comes out and he's got
that, that that gown that's got long sleeves, looks like he's
not going to do any labouring work with that gear on.
His brothers are cranky enough with him already.
I think dad's favouring him. And Joseph tells a story about
the vision that God gave him about all the she's are going to
bow down to him and then the sun and the moon.
Even mum and dad are going to bow down him and the brothers
really ticked off. They're going to kill Joseph.
And I attempted to and they rejected all that God was saying
through Joseph, rejected him, sold him off as a slave.
But when they come to Egypt this time, remember they came once,
then they had to go back again. Just you got another brother,
aren't you Benjamin? You need to bring him.
You got to bring him. They bring him.
Dad says, no, I don't think I'm heartbroken as it is, you know,
losing Joseph. So they bring Benjamin.
Joseph lays out the table in order of all their births, gives
Benjamin an extra, extra food and extra blessing.
And the guys are going, this is freaky.
And then they leave, take all their goods with them, and a cup
of Joseph's is hidden in Benjamin's bag.
And so then as they go off, they go, heck, like the Egyptians
come after, search through all their bags, they didn't know
what's going on. They find Joseph's cup in
Benjamin's bag, bring him back. Oh, no, things have got worse.
You know, the rest of the story. And the brothers come and they
go, this is, they're talking Hebrew.
This is because of what we did to Joseph.
This is what we did and Joseph dress as an Egyptian.
He hasn't and eventually he breaks down and he says I'm your
brother. My first thought, he's going to
kill us. Joseph is a type of Christ
rejected the first time, the second time and they wept
together. Jesus is going to return to the
Mount of Olives and Israel. We'll turn to Jesus.
They'll look upon him. They'll say, where did you,
where did you get these wounds from?
It's after the tribulation period.
Jesus returns the second coming. His feet touch the Mount of
Olives, which where where we go and we actually see the location
and it says the nation. He says, I got it in the house
with my friends and I realise and the mourning is so great
that husbands and wives separate as if they've had a child died
and the nation mourns, but they turn.
They turn and accept Christ the second time, like Joseph.
You see, circumcision to the Jews was a big deal.
You know what, you're going to be circumcised.
Came into the New Testament, but ritual had replaced
relationship. Circumcision came two chapters
later after Abraham had by grace found righteousness in God and
says the family became known to Pharaoh, that is Joseph's family
and Joseph verse 14. Sent and called his father
Jacob. Jacob and all his relatives to
him, 75 people. That was the nation Israel, 75
people. That's it.
Joseph, his brothers hated him, sold him into slavery.
His father misunderstood him. Even Jacob misunderstood him and
what God was doing in his life. But they recognised Joseph, as I
said, the second time, Acts 713 and the second time Joseph was
made known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to
the Pharaoh when they returned to Egypt for more food during
the time of the great famine. God was faithful also to Joseph,
whose life was one of complete surrender.
He didn't make mistakes. As you read the story of Joseph,
it's one of the great stories. Like Daniel, everything he did
was just perfect. He did he, he was a great guy.
But every time he did something, you know, he told his brothers
about a vision. They condemned him, then they
sold him and then he goes and he serves Potiphar and then and and
Potiphar's house flourishes of Potiphar was in charge of the
executions of Egypt. Captain of the guard.
Potiphar's wife says I want you Joseph.
Joseph takes off, runs away from he's accused of rape.
He's put in gaol and done anything wrong, but the Lord was
with him. He was still in God's will.
And then while he's in gaol, the servants, you mean the Baker
And, and, and and they have the prophecies.
And Joseph said this is what's going to happen to you.
The wine, the one who's in charge of the wine cup and the
one who's the Baker. And they.
Yeah, I will remember to tell Pharaoh when, you know, when,
when, when we get out. And then I forget.
And Joseph, Joseph was still stuck in prison.
You see, Joseph did everything right but his life.
Was misunderstanding, misunderstanding,
misunderstanding accusation accusation 1 after the other.
But listen up. He was in God's will still and
the Lord was with him. Sometimes we think or because
this has happened to him. God's not with me.
Wrong. God was with Joseph the whole
time. The Lord was with him.
And Joseph says to his brothers, remember at that final gathering
what you did, you meant for evil.
My God. God had a greater plan and he
meant it for good. You see, this is the ultimate
plan that you and I need to be involved in.
We need to always be looking up to the bigger picture.
You might be going through a storm, a trial, and trouble in
your family and your relationship, in your life.
Now there's a bigger picture. It's all dependent.
What you need to do is you need to rely upon God.
Stay faithful to him. God will stay faithful to you.
He'll never leave you. He's with you.
During this time, God was faithful to Joseph, and Joseph's
life was in complete surrender. He said to Potiphar's wife, I
don't want to sin against the Lord, and he took off.
Joseph did not go to the temple to be close to God.
Where was God? God was with Joseph when he was
in the pit, when he was in the gaol, the Lord was with him.
God was with Joseph all through his times of being beaten, sold
as a slave, and being forgotten seemingly.
But the Lord was with Joseph all through these times.
Joseph again is a type of Christ.
For the sons of Israel rejected Joseph, but he later became
their Saviour. Without him they would have
starved to death and died. No Israel.
Their only hope when famine came was Joseph and the seed and the
grain in Egypt. Verse 15.
So Jacob went down to Egypt and he died, he and our fathers, and
they were carried back to Shechem, ah, and laid in the
tomb. And here's the only bit of land
that Abraham had in all of Canaan.
And Abraham had bought that land in Shechem for a sum of money
for the sons of Hamor. From the sons of Hamor, the
father of Shechem, memory buried Sarah.
The only piece of land Abraham owned or possessed in Canaan was
a little cemetery. That's all.
That's all we ate in Shechem. By the way, really interesting
from the river to the sea. Is that what they say?
Shechem is 56 kilometres north of Jerusalem.
Where Samaria? That's called the West Bank
today. Today it's called Nablus
Shechem. It's located Shechem, the land
that Abraham bought and owned or West Bank.
Don't fall for the lie of them taking over, you know,
possessing land and, and, and the Palestinians.
There's no such people. The only Palestinians are the
Jews and the land is theirs. They're not occupying, it's
their land. They're not the illegal
occupants. And I only wish some of the
idiots that proclaim and protest and as we see on the ABC so
much, can't stand the ABC now. They're anti Jewish.
If you're anti Jewish, you're going to be cursed by God, and
the land of Israel is God's land, it's God's land.
Verse 17 But when the time of the promise drew near, which God
had sworn to Abraham, the people grew multiplied in Egypt till
another king arose, another Pharaoh who did not know Joseph.
This man dealt treacherously with our people, oppressed our
forefathers, making them, exposing their babies so that
might not live. They wanted to kill all the
males babies. At this time Moses was born and
was well pleasing to God. He was brought up in his
father's house for three months. But when he was set out,
Pharaoh's daughter took him away, brought him up on her own.
Remember he was put in that little bull rush thing on the on
the Nile and Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians was mighty in words and deeds.
Now verse 23. Now when he was 40 years old,
this is Moses came into his heart to visit his brothers, the
Hebrews, the children of Israel. He saw one of them suffer wrong.
He defended and avenged him. He was being a beaten and struck
down the Egyptian who was beating the Israeli for he
supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would
deliver them by his hand. They didn't understand and the
next day he appeared to two Israelis and they were fighting
and tried to reconcile him saying hey you guys are
brothers, stop fighting, what are you wrong one another.
But he who did this did his neighbour wrong, pushed him
away, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
You want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday.
Then at this saying, Moses fled, became a dweller in the land of
Midian where he had two sons. Stephen reminds the religious
leaders that their fathers had previously evenly had previously
rejected Moses. They didn't welcome Moses.
They told him to get lost. Who were you?
Who made you judge over us? So Moses again is another type
and a shadow of Christ, favoured by God from his birth,
miraculously preserved in his childhood from Pharaoh.
He was mighty in words and deeds.
But when Moses himself offered deliverance to Israel, he was
initially rejected. Jesus came unto his own, and his
own. What received him not?
Israel said he had no right to be a ruler and judge over them,
but God had called Moses to be their leader.
Stephen was saying this, you've rejected Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, who was like Moses, yet greater than him.
When Moses him spelled himself spoke of Christ coming after
him. Verse 37 drop down there, we'll
come back to it. This is that Moses who said to
the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise up for you a
prophet, capital P like me, from your brethren, him you shall
hear Speaking of Jesus, even though Israel rejected Moses,
God had chosen Moses. God had appointed Moses to lead
his people out of Egypt, the great exodus out of slavery.
After 400 years, Moses demonstrated great signs
including God speaking to him from the burning Bush.
Verse 30 Stephen is saying God was with Moses.
Moses knows what he's talking about.
Moses is talking about Jesus. Verse 30.
And when 40 years had passed, so Moses is now 80, an Angel of the
Lord appeared to him in a flame in a fire in a Bush in the
wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marvelled
at the sight. He drew near to observe.
The voice of the Lord came to him, saying, I am the God of
your father, as the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
And Moses trembled and dared not look.
Then the Lord said to him, Take your sandals off your feet, for
the place where you stand is holy ground.
I have surely seen the oppression of my people in
Egypt. I have heard they're groaning
and have come down to deliver them.
And now come, I will send you to Egypt.
Moses, you're my chosen deliverer.
Again, God speaking to Moses via the burning Bush shows that
God's presence is not limited to the temple.
Secondly, that God is bigger than the temple.
And thirdly, you do not need the temple to be close to God.
Verse 35 This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, Who made you a
ruler and a judge, is the one God sent to be a ruler and a
deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the
Bush. He brought them out after he had
shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt. 10 Plagues fell,
remember, and in the Red Sea departed, and in the wilderness
40 years in his own strength, Moses couldn't bury one Egyptian
under the sand, but with God's power pumping through him, Moses
was able to bury the entire army of Pharaoh with the ocean.
Verse 37 This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel,
the Lord your God will raise up to you a prophet like me, from
your brethren, him you shall hear.
Moses is speaking prophetically of the coming of Christ.
This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness
with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai with our fathers,
the one who received the living Oracle to give to us.
Notice what Stephen is saying here.
Whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected Israel over and
over is rejecting the messengers and the prophets of God.
And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
Moses goes up on Mount Sinai, he's away.
And so they get agitated, they force Aaron.
No, they don't force Aaron. Aaron falls to their whims and
they build a golden calf. And they, they have this great
worship time of this golden calf.
They made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol,
rejoiced in the works of their own hands, and God turned and
gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in
the book of the Prophets. You see, Israel's rejection of
Moses LED them to make a golden calf to worship.
If you reject Jesus Christ, people say I'm an atheist, I'm
an agnostic. Now you worship something, maybe
you worship yourself. A lot of people worship
themselves these days. You've seen people walk past the
window. You worship something.
You'll bow down, you'll give
your resources, your passions to something.
You reject Christ, you'll worship something.
Now remember, all this was done after God.
So the worship of the golden calf.
Think about this Mount Sinai Moses up there getting the war
and they're down at the base of Mount Sinai having this great
carry on. And this is after the 10 plagues
that they've witnessed and experienced and lived through
the death of the first born and every family who didn't have
blood over the the the lentils and the doorposts.
This is after that, after God had demonstrated his might and
power in Egypt that God was their deliverer through Moses.
Oh we don't, we don't want Moses make us a calf.
So now Israel, as Stephen is speaking to the 71 council, he
says now Israel was worshipping what you know what the temple
like their fathers worship of the golden calf because Jesus
had come into the temple twice on 2 occasions, didn't he?
And he said this is what my father's house, but you have
made it a den of thieves in my house.
My house shall be a House of prayer.
And so they had turned into and that's that's the problem still
today, they're up against that, that wall, and the God who
created them is Jesus Christ. And they've accepted the wall
instead of Christ. Verse 44 our fathers had the
Tabernacle of witness in the wilderness.
That's the tent. And he appointed instructing
Moses to make it according to the patent that he had seen,
which our fathers having received it in turn also brought
with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles.
And God drove out for the face of our fathers.
And the days until the days of David, we found favour before
God asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
David said I want to build your house.
God says no you're not, I don't need ours.
Well if he how gonna build his son can do it.
But Solomon building the house. However Solomon said however the
Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands as the
prophet says. Because Isaiah said back in
Isaiah 66, heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool.
What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is
the place of my rest? Has not my hand?
Has my hand not made all these things?
And so our fathers had, Stephen is saying to these religious
leaders, our fathers have the Tabernacle.
Then someone built God a house. And I want to ask you today, you
this morning in your thinking, is church here?
Is it the only place where you meet God?
Is God absent from the rest of your life?
You know, each time I, I love the beach.
I love going surfing. And before we go out into the
beach, I kneel and I pray I for the sharks, by the way, we have
dominion over all things, you know, and I'm not saying that
I'll tell the sharks what to do, but I pray for safety.
But it's got I pray in the car, I pray in the backyard, I pray
sitting, talking to someone. Friday night, Sat with a couple
of kids just we prayed, we prayed outside, we prayed
inside. Where is God?
God is with you all the time Now, Stephen, he turns it
because the religious leaders, the 71, they're thinking, yeah,
our fathers water packet deals, they are.
They rejected all that Abraham was talking about.
They rejected Joseph and they rejected Moses.
And now Stephen says you're just like them.
Thou are thinking thou are the right ones.
And Stephen says no, you're the same as them.
Wow, this is a great way to have an altar call you stiff necked
and uncircumcised in heart. Yeah, they're circumcised
physically, but in their hearts not and ears.
You always resist the Holy Spirit as your Father's did.
So do you. Which of the prophets did your
Father's not persecute Isaiah? They got him, put him between
two boards and cut him in half while he's alive.
And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just
One Jesus, of whom you now have become the betrayers and
murderers who have received the Law by the direction of angels
and have not kept it. You do always resist the Holy
Spirit. The term stiff necked is not
something foreign to the 71 listeners back in the book of
Exodus. God had said this previously of
Israel, Exodus 32 nine and the Lord said to Moses, I have seen
this people and indeed it is a stiff neck people.
You know what that that's the picture of a a donkey.
You know a donkey when you're trying to pull a donkey along
and it drops his hindquarters puts a thing like that.
And so I ain't going that's the picture of what that's not not
God and you know, drop not not doing it uncircumcised in hearts
and ears is not foreign to their ears as well.
Exodus 32 nine sorry, Jeremiah 926 and all the House of Israel
are uncircumcised in their heart as our fathers have been in the
past. So true.
You are the same today. Stephen says wow, where's he
going with this? Remember, this is not a sermon
that he sat down and prepped up. This is the Holy Spirit speaking
through Stephen to the religious leaders of Israel.
This is God speaking through his prophet Stephen verse 54, when
they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.
They gnashed at him with their teeth.
They were gnashing. If you look it up, it's grinding
their teeth. Oh man, we're going to kill this
guy. But he noticed.
But he verse 55 being full of the Holy Spirit.
So he's saying this led by God, gaze into heaven.
So the glory of God, Jesus standing at the right hand of
God and said, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of man
standing at the right hand of God.
God's word too edged. You either get saved by it or
conviction. Stephen was fearless in his
preaching. The crowd turned into a boiling
mob. Violent anger erupted, but their
real anger really was against God.
They were rejecting God. But for Stephen, at this moment,
his eyes capture a vision of Jesus.
Why? Because he's full of the Holy
Spirit. JB Phillips translation on this
says Stephen filled through all his being with the Holy Spirit.
Woose Greek New Testament says Stephen being under the control
of the Holy Spirit. Stephen saw the very glory of
God. He sees Jesus standing.
Now this is different because we're told that when Jesus
ascended into heaven, what did he do?
The book of Hebrews sat down at the right hand of the Father.
So here Jesus, and tells us he's standing at the right hand of
the Father. Jesus.
Gets up in heaven and stands to welcome Stephen.
Amazing, amazing. Jesus stood up to receive him to
honour Stephen in the glory. Well done.
I couldn't. Faithful Sir Stephen was the
first of the martyrs. The lynch mob driven by
religious insanity ran at Stephen the same word as them
rushing Stephen. It's the same words used to
describe the demon possessed pigs that ran into the sea.
Remember, they took off because of their rage.
They completely ignore Roman law.
They didn't go down to the Roman law and say, look, you know this
guy, He's we're except we want him put to death.
They forget that we're killing him now and attacked him.
Verse 57 and they cried out with a loud voice.
They stopped their ears, put their hands over their ears, ran
at him with 1 accord. This mob, they cast him out of
the city, dragged him, stoned him, and the witnesses laid down
their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Stephen as he isn't under horrific, brutal, painful
attack, praise at that moment, his last moment, verse 59 and
they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God.
That's praying and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, he's
gone home. Then he knelt down, cried out
with a loud voice. Lord, do not charge them with
this sin. Who does that sound like Father
forgive them for? They know not what they do.
He's praying this for this, this crazy religious mob who are
killing him. And when he had said this,
notice it says he fell asleep. He didn't just nod off.
Oh, all about dream. Stephen's life ended in the same
way. He'd lived in complete trust in
God, believing that Jesus will take care of him in the life to
come. Forgiveness is what he prayed.
Father, forgive them. And we know that God answered
Stephens prayer. How do we know God answered this
prayer? Good question, for God used it
to touch the angry, misguided heart of the person who agreed
with the stoning, who supervised the stoning, who looked after
the clothes of everyone, who stoned everyone.
Stephen Paul would be the evidence of God answering
Stephen's prayer. Lord lay not this charge against
him. Notice Luke does not write and
Stephen died. Notice that in the New Testament
you'll never see Christians dying.
It'll always say sleep. Christians don't die.
Hold, let me let me explain. We fall asleep and wake up
immediately in glory to see the face of our Lord.
Isn't that wonderful? We have had someone pass, and if
members of the church past day or two, we have someone else
who's soon to pass, others in my family who are.
If you're a believer, you fall asleep, you don't die, you see,
because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. Paul says we move tents.
Isn't that beautiful? I watched my mother die.
I remember the the scriptures of the angels coming to Lazarus.
Remember who it had the sores and the dog and the angels came.
In John 14 it says that Jesus comes personally.
So when I eventually sleep, it's going to be the greatest moment
of my life. I will have ended all that God
has asked me to do, finished. And then I will wake and I'll
have the face of Christ and I'll see him in all his glory.
This is the wonder of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Stephen was an ordinary man who gave his life to live for God.
He was no Superman because the Bible doesn't have Superman.
He was a man filled with the Holy Spirit.
Each of you here this morning have no idea, and I shared that
with some of the kids Friday, how greatly God can use you as
you walk and live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The question is, do you give yourself to him?
There's a point and a place in my life that I did.
Helen did. Yes, we commit our lives to
Christ. There's a point and a place
where we actually go. You know what, God, I surrender
everything. My plans.
God, what? What is it you want me to do?
God, how can I serve you? And when you do that, something
happens and God goes, OK, because I've had this plan for
years before you were even born. Let's do this and I'll be
faithful to you all the way. God is calling you.
If you don't know Christ here this morning, you'll die.
You won't sleep. And I inquire.
I urge you to receive Jesus Christ today as your Lord and
Saviour, to know that God has not only your past, your
present, but He has your future in His hand.
He is with you all the way. God is faithful.
Let's worship the Lord. Let's stand and pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray for the souls here today.
I pray, Father, for any who do not know you that today they
will surrender their lives to you.
And I pray for believers who know you but have been holding
on to their old ways, their old life, and you have such a great
work that they yet do not know. Lord, draw those to you today.
Let there be a surrendering of their hearts today too.
I pray in Jesus holy name, the Lord was with Joseph, the Lord
is with you. God is faithful.