A case study of Christ
Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Intro
Intro
My name is Jamie, I’m the Discipleship Pastor at REVO
I’m always so fired up whenever Matthew asks me if I can fill in
I’m sure you can tell by looking at me, but I am quite the athlete
When I was little I played every sport under the sun, but my favorite was baseball
I played baseball religiously — but here is what I used to do
I would imitate my favorite players batting stances
If my favorite player had a good game — the next day at practice I had a new batting stance
I would watch Gary Sheffield when he was on the Yankees and he would drop bombs — so naturally I would adapt his stance to mine
Albert Pujols would hit a couple home runs and guess what — I was copying him, trying to hit home runs
Kevin Youkilis (hated him as a Yankees fan), but when he had a great game I would try to stand like him
I did this all the time until I finally settled on Alex Rodriguez’s stance where I would bounce the bat off my shoulder
I kept this stance all the way until I started playing slow pitch softball
My first slow pitch softball game a man that we called bird stepped into the batters box, had the highest Eli Manning leg kick I’d ever seen and then sent the ball 500 ft and over the tree line
Naturally now my slow pitch swing has a leg kick!
You might be wondering — why are we talking about how much you used to imitate former baseball players
Well that’s because there is a verse in 1 Corinthians that has challenged me so much recently that I want to share it with you
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Paul looks at the people of Corinth and tells them to be imitators of him, as he is imitating Christ
Just like I used to imitate professional athletes batting stances — we are to imitate Christians who are living out the faith
And today as we continue this journey through the book of Acts we are going to see a man who is worthy of our imitation
But before we jump into anything though lets pray
Pray
Pray
Use my words to glorify You
Eliminate distractions so we can see You
Bless Stephen and Nathan
Book of Acts
Book of Acts
To keep you caught up on the happenings of the book of Acts thus far let me give you a little recap
Acts 1 - Jesus ascended into heaven and gave all believers a job — be His witnesses
Acts 2 - We see the Spirit come and Peter preaches a sermon that 3000 people get saved
Acts 3 - Peter and John heal a beggar who has never walked
Acts 4 - Peter and John are on trial for healing the beggar, they were threatened and then let go
Acts 5 - We have Ananias and Sapphira killed for lying against the Spirit, also the apostles were arrested again, this time beat up, and then let go
Acts 6 - We see how the early church handled a problem, showing that people are called to serve
Stephen
Stephen
Also in Acts 6 we meet the man that is the case study for us today
The man I am talking about is Stephen
Stephen was one of the seven that were chosen to in Acts chapter six, and he is the first person in the book of Acts to be a main character that’s not Peter or John
Through his life Stephen fully exemplified what it means to follow or imitate Christ
Standing ovation
Standing ovation
Before we talk about what Stephen did that we should be imitating I want to look at why we should be seeking to imitate him, by looking at the end of Stephen’s life
56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Stephen at the end of his life looks up into Heaven and sees Jesus — standing at the right hand of God
This may not seem to significant, but look at what Jesus is said to be doing normally
19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
We see that Jesus is said to be seated at the right hand of the Father
All over the New Testament in fact we see this same idea — Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father
Yet upon Stephen’s martyrdom we see that Jesus is standing
We see Jesus giving Stephen a standing ovation
Only people that are significant or who have done magnificent things receive standing ovations
We don’t give standing ovations to random people — I mean think about it when is the last time you gave someone a standing ovation?
Was is a concert performance?
Maybe a theatre play
Graduation?
We don’t just give out standing ovations — and we are normal people
Yet Jesus the conqueror of all things is giving Stephen a standing ovation
Not only that, but I have no doubt Stephen heard those faithful words that Jesus tells us to strive after
21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
“Well done”
This should be the goal of every believer in this room
To hear those words, and to receive a standing ovation from our Savior as we enter into glory
But the question is how do we receive those two things?
So if our goal is to truly honor God and receive that standing ovation we must imitate Stephen who was seeking to imitate Christ
And I believe there was three ways that we can do this
Filled with the Spirit
Filled with the Spirit
The first thing we must do if we want to receive a standing ovation like Stephen is:
Be filled and faithful
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit
Listen to how Stephen was described
5 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.
We see that Stephen was categorized as being filled with the Spirit and full of faith
These things aren’t new or specific to Stephen
We actually see Jesus being categorized by both of these things:
We see him being filled with the Spirit from Matthew 3:16
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
The Spirit of God descends on Him and he is filled with the Spirit
We see Jesus full of faith when He is in the garden of Gethsemane and He is praying
39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Where He is saying — not my will but Your will
He is putting His faith in the Father
Jesus allows his faith to drive His obedience to the Lord
Obedience that He takes all the way to the cross paying the penalty for our sins
These should be the first things we are striving for
From being filled with the Spirit and full of faith our entire life will start to flow in obedience to the Lord
To be filled with the Spirit simply means that we are seeking the Lord in our every day life
We are allowing Him to pour into us through:
Reading and studying His word
Prayer
Fasting
Worship
Giving/generosity
Serving
Resting
These are otherwise known as Spiritual Disciplines — ways we can be filled by the Spirit so we can do the work He calls us to
We also are to be full of faith
To be full of faith means we are taking the pouring in from the Spirit and allowing it to affect our day to day lives
Trusting that God has a plan far deeper than we do
If we are filled with the Spirit and faithful than we are able to live lives that gives God all the glory and honor and praise
Stephen’s life was said to be modeled by Spirit filling and full of faith
So if we want to receive the standing ovation from the Lord we must be filled with the Spirit and be full of faith
Know the Scriptures
Know the Scriptures
The second thing we see from Stephen is this:
Know the Scriptures
Stephen knew the Scriptures
We see this through his life and what happened to him
Stephen was out preaching and teaching in Acts 6 and listen to what it says
10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
The people going against him couldn’t because he was filled with the Spirit and had wisdom — which comes from knowing the Bible
Because of this the end of chapter 6 shows that they lied about Stephen and caused him to be arrested
In chapter 7 Stephen is forced to give an account of the lies they are saying about him
And he gives the longest speech recorded in the book of Acts
In this speech here is some of the things he references:
2 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,
Abraham’s call from God to leave his land and people to a land the Lord will show Him
He reiterates the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant
8 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.
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
He talks about how Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob who had 12 children (the patriarchs of Jewish faith)
Joseph being sold into slavery at Egypt — but how God was with him
How all of Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to see Joseph alive — seeing that the Lord took care of him
20 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,
Moves to Moses and how he was born and raised under Pharaohs daughter
How he fled Egypt, an angel appeared in the wilderness via a burning bush, and how Moses came and rescued his people out of Egypt
How Israel constantly turned away from God but God was faithful
All of these references can only happen if you know the Word
You cannot make any of these references without reading and studying the Word of God
The beauty of this is that Stephen wasn’t just spouting off random events and stories from the Bible — they all connected and had a point and flow to them
Stephen was sharing with the people who captured him how Israel time and time again rejected the messenger that the Lord sent them
But how the Lord was faithful and continued to love them
We see Jesus have the same high level of knowledge and understanding when it comes to the Bible:
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
This is in reference to when Jesus was raised from the dead and walking with the two disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus
He explained to them all of the OT history — from Moses to the prophets, from Genesis to Malachi how it all connects and points to Him being savior
For us we must know the Bible
We must have an understanding of what it says, what it calls us to, and be ready to explain it
As we are told in 2 Timothy 4:2
2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
We must be ready in and out of season to explain our faith — just like Stephen was, just like Jesus did
We can only explain what we know and believe if we know the Bible
If we have studied it
We are not learning and studying the Bible to simply show off how much knowledge we have — it is all so we can testify to who Jesus is
Share about Him being the savior of the world!
This may sound daunting, and honestly it is
But if we are striving to receive a standing ovation from the Lord it will take work
It will take us opening our Bible and studying — it will take us diving deeper to understand
Be bold
Be bold
If we are to follow in Stephen’s footsteps who was following in the Lord’s footsteps we must:
Be bold with our faith
We must be bold with our faith
Listen to how Stephen finishes off his speech in Acts 7:51-53
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 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, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Stephen finishes off his speech talking about how Israel constantly rejects the people that the Lord sends to them by looking at the Pharisees and declaring that they did the same thing
Stephen in boldness charges these men with rejecting and killing the Lord
He calls them stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears
In essence — you should have known that Jesus was from the Lord and was Savior, and yet you rejected Him
Mind you he is saying this bold statement while he could easily be killed
Stephen however is keeping in step with Jesus
10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Jesus in the face of death of has the boldness to tell Pilate that he doesn’t have authority except for the authority that God gives him
That he can do nothing apart from God — something that would have flew in the face of Pilate who was ruling in the Roman army and could in essence do whatever he wanted
We see that if we are to receive that reward of a standing ovation we are to be bold in our faith
Bold to call out sin, and share the Gospel with those who are lost and far from God
Bold to live a life that is exemplifying the Lord in every aspect of life
The face of death
The face of death
The kicker to these three things:
Filled with Spirit and faith
Know the Scripture
Life of boldness
Is that we must do them even in the face of death
We cannot shy away from Jesus when things gets hard
Look at what happened to Stephen as he is living these out
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 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. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 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.
Stephen was living this life with full intent of giving God all the glory and honor
Because of this we see that the people rushed him, drove him out of the city, and stoned him
He was killed for his faith, killed for his knowledge of Scripture, killed for his boldness of faith
Yet despite all of this we see Stephen at peace because he see that the Lord is giving him a standing ovation
We know that the Lord is welcoming him home with the words “well done my good and faithful servant”
He can do this because he believes in what Jesus tells us:
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
We are not to be afraid of those on earth, but instead to have fear and reverence to the Lord the maker and sustainer of life. The judge and jury. The one that offers full salvation
Conclusion
Conclusion
Here is the reality church
We are told in 1 Peter 1:15-16
15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
We are called to live a Holy life and be imitates of Christ
But church here is the reality — so often I feel that we as the church are described just like the Pharisees
WE are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart
We are seeking our own glory
We all have Bibles, either in our hands, on our screens, or under the seat — yet we don’t read them and study them
There is countless study materials that can be accessed for free
rGroups meet locally to help you grow, yet church I know for myself I so often seek my own pleasure instead of giving the glory to God
Church we are called to be:
Filled and faithful
Know the scriptures
Be bold in our life
Let’s pray