Stephen's Stand

Main Idea

Contend for the gospel, not your reputation.

What would you do today if you knew this was your last day on earth? What would you want to fill your final hours?

Today, the narrative in Acts turns to one of the seven newly-selected Deacons - Stephen. Stephen was a man of incredible character and faith. His name means crown or garland, and his life reflected that type of outward display of honor. He was a man worthy of emulation. A man who shows us a great way to live and die. Why? Because he was the first Christian martyr. In this final hour, Stephen contended for the faith and left no room to doubt who Jesus was.

My prayer for us today is to live out our faith like Stephen, using every opportunity we get in this life as he did when his came to a close.

Outline

Acts 6:8–15 ESV

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak 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 will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

I - Stephen’s faithfulness

II - Schemes of the opposition

III - Be prepared to answer the opposition

I - Stephen’s faithfulness

We learn a few essential details about Stephen in this passage. We already know his character partly due to his being selected as a servant leader. He was full of faith, and the Spirit had a good reputation and demonstrated wisdom. But now, we get additional details. As he served the community, he was shown to be full of grace and power and able to perform signs and wonders. Only a handful of individuals in Acts are described this way, mainly the disciples. So, in this section of the text, Stephen showed himself to be of the same caliber as the apostles because God was working mightily through him.

He was full of:

Grace. Grace is God’s gift of unmerited favor toward His people.

But it can also mean goodwill and charm. It is a descriptor of your delightful demeanor to those around you. Today, you might call that a magnetic personality, but clearly, Stephen’s character was attractive and winsome and was seen in the way he carried out the Deacon duties and in the way he preached. And he didn’t just display it every once and a while… he was full of it! Full of God’s favor and with the refining effect that has on the believer.

Power. This is the same dynamis power from Acts 1:8 and the power of Pentecost.

It is God’s explosive and supernatural power that comes with the proclamation of the gospel. It is overt and noticeable. It cannot be contained or hidden. This is prominent in the way he performs signs and wonders. That is obviously not from man, but from God, and also in the way he proclaimed truth. We saw that with Peter and the others. There was no denying that this was supernatural and should be a verification that God’s hand was at work. Sadly, even miraculous signs don’t guarantee faith.

Wisdom. As Stephen spoke, no one could refute him.

The language in Greek suggests that Stephen wasn’t just having a one-off discussion but rather a debate, and these men could not stand against the Spirit’s wisdom and presence. Stephen must have been listening to Jesus during His earthly ministry because he lived out Jesus’ exhortation found in Luke 12:8-12:

Luke 12:8–12 ESV

8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

In the next few weeks, we will cover Stephen’s response to his accusers, but as a preview, one defining trait of his response was that he didn’t try to defend himself. He simply spoke in wisdom. His concern was not for his own defense but for the defense of the gospel. It was Jesus’ reputation that he was concerned with, and he drew from the deep well of scriptural knowledge to defend the faith. I think that is incredibly relevant to use today. As we witness to others, we shouldn’t take attacks personally or concern ourselves with our reputation. I know that is difficult because we all want to be justified but remember… our war isn’t against flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle; we are simply tools in God’s hand to achieve His purposes. If we are going to be zealous and defend something, let it be the truthfulness of scripture and the good news of Jesus Christ.

You could say Stephen embodied the witness of 1 Peter 3:15, which reads:

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Even though he was being wrongfully accused, that was Stephen’s posture, and I want to encourage us that it should be ours as well.

II - Schemes of the opposition

It should be no surprise that a move of God is met with opposition. We should expect resistance when righteous people do righteous things according to the light they live in. If those living in light produce light, those walking in darkness similarly exhibit darkness characteristics. We saw it happen with Jesus. We witnessed Peter & John, then the rest of the apostles, battle against the pridefulness and jealousy of the Sanhedrin. Now, Stephen must walk in the footsteps of these great men and his Savior.

This provoked certain Jews:

Synagogue of the Freedmen.

This sounds like a secret organization straight out of National Treasure. But, it is simply a synagogue in Jerusalem whose founders had been freed from slavery. Slavery was common in 1st Century Rome and wasn’t tied to race. Anyone could become enslaved and be released from it by purchasing it or working their way out.

Cyrenians. People from Cyrene (which is in modern-day Libya).

They were in Jerusalem on Jesus’ day (Simon of Cyrene was chosen to help carry Jesus’ cross) and during Pentecost (mentioned in the list of surrounding regions in Acts 2). There was also at least one of them - Lucius - teaching/prophesying at the Church in Antioch (Acts 13:1).

Alexandrians. Jews from Alexandria, Egypt, who had a synagogue in Jerusalem.

Cilicia. A region in modern-day Turkey.

It is northwest of Antioch, where Paul would visit on his missionary journeys and the same region where he was from (Tarsus being a city in the region of Cilicia).

Asia. Meaning the Roman province of Asia, being modern-day Turkey.

These are Hellenistic Jews from the Diaspora or Dispersion, as seen from the geography: Cyrene & Alexandria being in North Africa and Cilicia and Asia being in the north. One would think there would be a camaraderie here, but they stand in stark opposition to Stephen’s message and ministry efforts. And, because Luke is detail-oriented, he likely mentions these places to describe precisely who opposed Stephen. These specific synagogues and people groups were probably known and recognized by his readers and could attest to the trustworthiness of his account.

They conspired to lie

Much like the Pharisees, these groups of men wanted Stephen gone, and to do that, they had to conspire against him secretly.

It still amazes me that people use willful sin to justify their actions in defense of their religion. That bothers me every time I see it. In their zeal to protect the traditions, they secretly agree to spread lies to condemn another human being. When they realized they could not stand against the wisdom of the Spirit demonstrated through Stephen, they did whatever they had to do to win. They became underhanded and devious. They sin so that righteousness can prevail? How woefully backward is that? But again, we should not be surprised because that is precisely what they did to Jesus… and so the old dog continues to do the only tricks he knows to do.

And what’s worse, they pulled other Jews into their delusion. Not only did they meet in secret, but they instigated other men to spread false witness. They even stirred up the elders and scribes!

Isn’t that always the case with sin? We can justify our poor decisions to ourselves all day long, but it never stops with you. It never just affects you. Eventually, others will be brought into the false narrative, and you will be responsible for pulling others down with you. We all need to be reminded of this unfortunate truth. Now that we see it in Stephen’s opposition, let’s guard our hearts against such evils.

The lies against Stephen

He blasphemes Moses.

Without hearing exactly what Stephen said, it is difficult to understand what this means. However, their accusations shed some light. They claim that Stephen speaks against ‘this holy place’ and ‘the law.’ He also reportedly said that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs handed down by Moses.

In case you are unfamiliar, Moses is THE Prophet of the Jewish people. The law of God was given to the people through Moses, as were many of their customs and practices. They had a standard of righteousness through the moral, ceremonial, and dietary laws God gave through His servant Moses. To go against any of these laws to sin.

For believers, that is why the law was given - so that we would understand what sin is and realize we can never attain righteousness through obedience. We all fall short of God’s holy and perfect standard. That is why the gospel is so powerful because, through Jesus’ death and sacrifice, we are declared righteous apart from the work of the law! That is what makes God’s grace so amazing!

In a sense, this is what Stephen was preaching. Faith in Jesus of Nazareth is what saves… not through obedience to the law of Moses. I don’t think it’s likely that he was speaking against the ceremonial and dietary laws because we see that change unfold later in the story. Still, if Stephen was promoting Jesus rather than Moses, then it’s easy to understand why that was a powerful trigger to the Jews who hated Jesus in the first place. But, perhaps Stephen was making the connection that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, and clearly, things were different now that Joel’s prophecy had come to pass. The Holy Spirit resided with every believer. The Jews certainly could have taken that and twisted it into something condemnable.

He blasphemes God.

Why would they say this? In what way would Stephen have blasphemed God and not just Moses? I believe all four accusations would have fed this lie.

He ceaselessly speaks against the holy place… saying it will be destroyed.

The holy place is the Temple, where God dwells among His people. So, if he was speaking against the Temple, he was speaking against God’s holy place where He resides and where He is worshiped. That’s a big no-no… if that is what you are doing, but Stephen wasn’t doing that since the Spirit inspired Stephen with what to say and empowered him with supernatural wisdom and miraculous powers. The Jews likely took two of Jesus’ statements and slapped them onto Stephen. First, Jesus predicted his death and resurrection in John 2:19 by using the temple metaphor for his body. It would be destroyed, and He would raise it back in three days. The Jews accused this of speaking directly against the physical Temple. But, Jesus also predicted the destruction of the physical Temple in Matthew 24:1-2, so they could have also used that as ammunition against Stephen.

Secondly, God gave Moses the law and customs.

So, to speak against them would have not only blasphemed against Moses but against God himself. Again, if that were true, punishment would be justified, but they were doing one of two things. (1) - they were defending their traditions instead of God-given laws. The Jews operated under the written law (scripture) and the oral law (traditions created so that you would not break the written law). Jesus continually broke the oral laws because they were man-made, hindering people from truly worshiping God. For example, Jesus would often heal on the Sabbath to show how it was established to serve people, not the other way around. (2) But secondly, they stretched the truth to a ripping point because they wanted to kill the guy hence the secretive conspiring and false witnessing.

Stephen is taken to the Sanhedrin

More to the point, their scheming worked. Stephen was seized and taken to the Sanhedrin Council. The term seized means to be forcefully snatched and taken. This makes me think of those golfers (myself included) who hit terrible shots, and they all culminate into a moment of rage that compels you to snatch up your golf bag and chuck it into the lake. The combination of hating the message and being defeated in a debate had much of the same effect. In their anger, they snatched Stephen and dragged him to the religious leaders who could pronounce judgment.

Every one of these adversaries (if they were devoted) would have known that if anyone were convicted of outright blasphemy, the law of Moses prescribed the death penalty:

Leviticus 24:16 ESV

16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

Of course, they had this in their mind the entire time, but they had to alter the evidence to achieve this verdict.

III - Be prepared to answer the opposition

Once Stephen had been seized and accused before the religious leaders, something strange happened. His face shined like an angel. Now that is odd. Not even the apostles or the gathered assembly of believers at Pentecost were said to have radiated like this. It is a difficult thing to understand.

Some commentators say this was a creative way of expressing Stephen’s charismatic charm and innocence. It was a visual description of being full of grace.

Others say it was an actual manifestation of glory similar to Moses at Mount Sinai. When Moses was in God’s presence and descended the mountain back to the people, his face was radiant to the point where he had to wear a veil. And, perhaps to a lesser degree, it was a sort of parallel to Jesus’ transfiguration, where his divine nature peeked through his human nature.

I take the text at face value (pun intended) unless the text gives me a reason to believe otherwise, so this was likely an event similar to Moses. If you disagree, that is okay. It certainly isn’t a hill to die on, but what we should take away from this peculiar verse (whether you believe it was figurative or literal) is that it should have verified Stephen’s truthfulness and innocence.

This luminescence was the final proof in a long line of proofs that God was at work. Stephen’s charitable work, grace, faithfulness, signs, wonders, and irrefutable wisdom were all signposts pointing to God’s work, and they missed it… again.

How many signposts has God given you? How many more are you willing to ignore before you embrace the truth of repentance… that you fall short of God’s glory but are freely justified by His grace through the shed blood of Jesus that removes guilt, breaks chains, and restores you into fellowship with God? How long?

Despite the gnashing of teeth from his fellow Jews, Stephen didn’t respond with the same vitriol. Instead, he spoke gracefully, displaying his faithfulness, historical knowledge of the scriptures, and the proper application f that knowledge. It is an incredible story and one we will massively benefit from as we dive into it over the coming weeks.

For today, we need to take time this week to understand ourselves. How do we handle conflict? How do we respond to personal attacks and wrongful accusations? In those moments, what type of character do we display to the world around us? Are we indistinguishable from the world around us that fights against God, or do we radiate the light of Christ in a way that makes them want to know more about the God we serve?