Where's Our Hope In Suffering
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Sermon
Sermon
This week we’re continuing through the book of Acts, last week we looked at Pentecost and at the start of the early church as they grew to over 3000 after Peter’s sermon, this week we’re going to look at some of the event that happened at the very beginning, and we’re going to talk about a man named Stephen.
Right off the bat, the new believers, including the apostles faced persecution. Right after Peter’s sermon, he and John go to the temple to worship on the Sabbath, and Peter heals a man who was unable to walk. Following this, he and John speak about Jesus in the temple and the religious leaders get angry and have them arrested, but they return the next day and continue to preach, and from that point onward they began to face persecution from some of the Jewish leaders, who felt that they should be killed for the same reasons that Christ was.
The early church also did a really good job of loving and taking care of each other as Christ had commanded.
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
The apostles, Jesus’s twelve disciples, tried to organize it so that everyone was both being taught well, and undertood the truth of what was being shared, and also that everyone was having their needs met. I really like this picture of the early church, because it shows us a model for how to live as well, the church exists both to teach people the truth about Jesus, and to help those who are in need.
A few chapters after this passage, there’s a report that a group of new Greek Christians felt that some of the widows in their community were not being taken care of to the extent that they should be, and the apostles realize that they can’t be everywhere or do everything at once and so they appoint other leaders to be able to take care of the people in the community, especially those in need, such as widows.
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
So they choose these men to have different roles than the apostles, but to also help the church and those are in need. They choose seven of them, and five of them we never really hear anything more about, but two of them become really prominent in the next couple of chapters in Acts.
Philip is important in chapter 8, he went around to a variety of places helping to tell people the truth about Jesus. We won’t be spending a full week on him, but chapter 8 is really interesting, as is Philip’s ministry, and so I would encourage you to read through that chapter for yourself this week if you get a chance.
Stephen is the man that we will be talking about today. As the passage just read said, Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit working in him allowed him to do a variety of signs and wonders.
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 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. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 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, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 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.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
So he does signs and wonders, and the people in the synagogue, begin to get angry because they don’t like that he is speaking and sharing about Jesus. And so they accuse him of three things. First, that he is saying blasphemous things about God. Second, that he is saying things against the temple. And third, that he is saying things against the law given by Moses. And Stephen begins to address these three things.
The passage where Stephen responds is quite long, it’s actually the longest speech in the entire book of Acts by a fair bit, and I was listening to a pastor this week who was explaining why that is, and he said that there’s actually a very interesting detail towards the end of it, which says that Saul, the man who became the Apostle Paul, was there, we’re going to go over his conversion in a couple of weeks, but what’s interesting is that it seems likely that as Luke was writing Acts, he actually got a first-hand account of this speech from Paul, and that this speech really affected Paul. It seems as though this speech stayed in Paul’s mind because he knew he was in-part responsible for Stephen’s death, and this speech that he heard from Stephen, really has some underlying themes that become major themes in Paul’s letters.
I just found this really interesting, and even though it’s long, I think it’s worth reading the whole thing.
And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” And Stephen said:
“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
“But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
“Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
“This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
“ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,
during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
“ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
It’s a long response, but essentially what Stephen does is turn back to the three accusations; that he said things against God, the temple, and the law. And he uses the main events throughout much of the scriptures to show them where it’s not him, but them who have rejected God, the temple, and the law.
They are accussing Stephen of being against the law, when they haven’t followed it themselves. They are angry that he said that God no longer needs the temple, and yet he turns the scripture back on them, and explains that God no longer only dwells in the temple, His spirit has come upon all follows of Christ, and God dwells with His people.
They are the ones who rejected Jesus, the righteous one who fulfilled the law and prophets. They are the ones that have not followed God, and they need to repent of it.
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed 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, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The people are angry at Stephen’s message and so they kill him, and this is where I want to draw our attention this morning. The people have been persecuting him, and he is suffering, and yet even to then he is not afraid, instead he repeats very similar words to Jesus on the cross. “Receive my spirit… Lord don’t hold this sin against them”
Which causes me to wonder, how was he so calm in the face of such suffering, and how can we do the same?
I want to read a quote from pastor Tim Keller
“Nothing is more important than to learn how to maintain a life of purpose in the midst of painful adversity . . . Sociologists and anthropologists have analyzed and compared the various ways that cultures train its members for grief, pain, and loss. And when this comparison is done, it is often noted that our own contemporary secular, Western culture is one of the weakest and worst in history at doing so. . . Our own contemporary Western society gives its members no explanation for suffering and very little guidance as to how to deal with it . . . In the secular view, this material world is all there is. And so the meaning of life is to have the freedom to choose the life that makes you most happy. However, in that view of things, suffering can have no meaningful part. It is a complete interruption of your life story—it cannot be a meaningful part of the story. In this approach to life, suffering should be avoided at almost any cost, or minimized to the greatest degree possible. This means that when facing unavoidable and irreducible suffering, secular people must smuggle in resources from other views of life, having recourse to ideas of karma, or Buddhism, or Greek Stoicism, or Christianity, even though their beliefs about the nature of the universe do not line up with those resources . . . Life for our ancestors was filled with far more suffering than ours is. And yet we have innumerable diaries, journals, and historical documents that reveal how they took that hardship and grief in far better stride than do we.”
We are some of the most ill-prepared people in history to deal with suffering; and that is in large part because our society does not know its purpose.
A number of years ago, a man named Andrew Delbanco wrote a book called the Real American Dream, and in it he talked about the idea that every culture teaches its people what it’s purpose should be. He said that in America, though I’m sure Canada is similar, in the 18th century the American taught people that the most important thing was God. In the 19th century and early 20th century they shifted, and taught that the most important thing was their country, and now in the late 20th century, and 21st century, we teach that the most important thing is self.
What’s the most convenient thing for me, how can I get the new piece of technology, or the nice car, or the vacation home that we’ve saved up to buy? How can I best use my time to entertain myself? And when our focus is on ourselves then we have no frame of reference for suffering, because it goes against the opposite of what we think our purpose is.
People in our culture tend to get freaked out when they suffer, they have no idea what to do, and often times it feels like their entire world came crashing down.
If we were faced with the same situation as Stephen and the other early disciples many of us would not have responded the same. And so what is the secret to Stephen’s calm resolve in the face of suffering? The answer is that he did not rely on himself as his purpose in life, Jesus was his sole purpose. And we see in this passage that his hope was not in vain.
And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
His hope was in Jesus, and as Stephen testified about Christ to the crowds, Christ testified about Stephen to God the Father. Almost always when people in the New Testament have visions about Christ in heaven, their vision is of him sitting, because he has finished his work, but here Christ is standing, because he is doing his heavenly work; he is interceding.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
When faced with suffering we can choose where we put our hope. We can choose to put it in things that don’t last, like in our countries, or ourselves. We can even look to things we feel is bigger than those for our meaning, we can look like the Jewish leaders did to the temple, or for us our churches, to give meaning. Or to the law, our morality and trying to do the right things, as our purpose. And yet none of these on their own provide any source of meaning or value. Like Stephen taught, the temple and law were not completely obsolete, they still had some meaning, but they themselves were not the point, because God outlasts the temple, and we are unable to follow the law. Instead, only God can provide us our source of purpose, meaning, and hope in the face of suffering.
And Stephen showed this even unto his death, that Christ was his hope in life and in death. And the question we have to ask ourselves is: is he what we are clinging to? I know far too often, I cling to other things more than I cling to my hope in Christ, and I need to work on this. Not by just checking off boxes in my week, but by really genuinely fostering a relationship with him, and learning to trust him with my whole life.
He is the only one that can provide us hope in suffering, apart from Him we can do nothing, and so I’ll finish with the same question: is your hope in him?
Let’s Pray.
Communion
Communion
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Benediction
Benediction
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
