Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts - 20

Acts 7:54-8:3

Introduction

In the world of sports, there is nothing more heartbreaking than the athlete that doesn’t cross the finish line.

Maybe it is the long-distance runner who trips before she crosses.

Or maybe the showboating football player who isn’t paying attention and gets destroyed by the linebacker mere feet from the end zone.

They had worked so hard.

They had trained.

They had fought for that victory.

Yet here, right at the finish line, when the competition is the most fierce, they lose.

Christians need to develop a more robust theology of death.

As we live striving for faithfulness to Christ, we don’t want to fumble the ball as we head into the end zone.

We don’t want to be tripped up by some waiting temptation close to the finish line.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:24 - Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

Run in such a way that you may win.

You should probably think about your death more than you do.

That is not being morbid or macabre in any way.

It is quite biblical.

Psalm 90:12 - So teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

It doesn’t say that the wise number their days.

But that those who rightly understand the fleeting nature of life, who number their days, are those who gain wisdom.

How can you die well?

Well, Stephen shows us in Acts 7. Let me remind you of the context.

We first met Stephen in chapter 6 where he is described as ‘a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.’

He, along with six other men, are chosen to fix a logistical issue in the church regarding the food distribution to widows.

But God has Stephen’s ministry expand beyond that.

He begins preaching the gospel and performing miracles.

Some Jewish religious leaders do not like what he is saying about this Jesus, so they spread vicious, false rumors and incite false witnesses against him.

The Sanhedrin has him arrested, the Jewish Senate of the day, and they interrogate him.

As Stephen is put on trial, standing in midst of false witnesses and a hostile audience, he preaches an incredible sermon that is an overview of God’s activity with His people throughout the OT.

After talking about Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and David, Stephen brings the sermon right down on their heads.

Acts 7:51-53 - 51 “You men—stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears—are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you.

52 And which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;

53 you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not observe it.”

He is not winsome.

His words are not nuanced.

He is clear.

He calls sin sin.

He confronts sinners with the reality of their rebellion against God.

Our text for today at the end of Acts 7 and into Acts 8 shows the crowd’s reaction to Stephen’s faithful preaching and confrontation of their sin.

Acts 7:54-8:3 - 54 Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

57 But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord.

58 And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”

And having said this, he fell asleep.

1 Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

2 And some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he was delivering them into prison.

TS - How do you die well?

John Calvin called Stephen a ‘rare example of a man dying in a godly and holy way.’

He dies Faithfully, Hopefully, and Lovingly.

FAITHFULLY (V.

54-56)

V. 54 - Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

Not quite the hoped-for response to a sermon.

The anger, resentment towards these Christians has been bubbling underneath the surface for the last several chapters.

A couple times it has boiled over just a bit when the leaders arrest the apostles.

Now, the whole thing blows up.

They ‘became furious in their hearts.’

The pressure cooker cannot stand the pressure anymore and blows it up.

They were ‘infuriated,’ meaning fury enters into them and explodes out of them.

Then they began ‘gnashing their teeth’ at him.

This is a biblical way of speaking of human rage.

You know when a predator like a wolf, bear is about to attack they raise their lips and show their teeth and growl…that is what this is.

These men are so angry they rage at Stephen.

The predators show their teeth and growl.

How does Stephen respond to them?

V. 55-56 - But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Nothing changes.

The crowd’s response doesn’t change anything.

Just as he was described in Acts 6 as a man ‘full of the Holy Spirit,’ he is again described in the exact same way.

As he lived, so he died.

His attention is not on the crowd and their hostility.

He is not pleading for his life to be spared.

He doesn’t backpedal on his commitment to Jesus in the name of appeasing them all.

He’s looking into heaven.

Stephen is the first Christian martyr and God grants to him a wonderful gift by opening up heaven for him to see where he is getting ready to go.

By seeing heaven opened and the glory of God, it vindicates Stephen.

He is right about Jesus.

The crowd is wrong about Jesus.

Stephen is right that this is who God is.

The crowd is wrong.

What an incredible moment of confidence this must have been for him.

He sees Jesus, the ‘Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

This is a rich statement.

First off, he calls Jesus the ‘Son of Man.’

This was Jesus’ favorite title to use when talking about Himself.

Stephen is the only other one in the entire NT that uses this same term for Jesus.

It comes from the OT prophet Daniel.

God, the Ancient of Days, sits in judgment over the nations and hands full authority to the Son of Man.

Certainly an apt description for Jesus as He stands in the throne room of Heaven.

But also notice that Jesus is standing.

That is opposite of the other NT references to Jesus’ posture in Heaven.

In all the others, He is always sitting.

He sits as the High Priest who has forever accomplished the salvation of His people.

Yet here he stands.