Stephen, The First Christian Martyr: Part 2

Introduction

Opener

Apologetics, a branch of Theology, is the study of the defense of the faith (my personal favorite).

The English word apologetics is derived from the Greek word apologia, which means a speech in defense of something.

The word aplogia appears 17 times in noun or verb form in the NT, and can be translated “defense” or “vindication” in every case.

There are two sides to apologetics that are pertinent to Stephen’s defense found here in Acts 7, which Paul speaks about in Philippians 1:7:

Defending the faith against attacks.

Presenting truth claims of Christianity to unbelievers.

We will see evidence of both of these in Stephen’s defense against the accusations that were made against him.

The reason apologetics is so important to Christianity is simple, as John MacArthur, Pastor of Grace Community Church. point out:

“To reach the world effectively with the gospel, believers must be able to defend their faith.”

One of the first places we see apologetics mentioned is in the qualifications for Elders outlined by Paul in Titus 1, we find apologetics to be one of their focuses, Paul says that Elders must hold fast to the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9).

Paul tells us this is a qualification because, as he continues with in Titus 1:10-11, “For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.”

Elders are called to be prepared to defend the faith against attacks from such people by presenting the truth, or God’s Word to those who speak against it.

The reason Elders are to hold themselves to this standard is not because they should consider themselves special, it is because they are considered the overseers of the congregation and so they will be the ones to teach the congregation how to defend itself against attacks.

In fact, as MacArthur points out, Elders are not the only ones who are called to practice apolgetics, all believers are as he points out 1 Peter 3:15, where Peter tells us that we should all always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.

Sadly today, for many reasons, Christians are unable to do that, having little or no understanding of why they believe, as Ephesians 4:14 alludes, they are like children who have not yet came to understanding why they believe what they believe, being “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming”.

To these types of people, Stephen is someone they should look to for inspiration as he knew the importance of defending the faith, even up until his last breath.

Main Point of the Text (MPT)

When we left off two weeks ago, we met Stephen, one of the seven chosen to be in charge of the tasks of serving tables (Acts 6:5), a man who had a good reputation, who was full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, full of grace, and full of power (Acts 6:3; Acts 6:8) was performing great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8).

We learn that during this time a group called the Synagogue of Freedmen, a synagogue comprised of Cyrenian, Alexandrian, Cilician, and Asian Jews who were once in slavery but had been set free, rose up and began to argue with Stephen (Acts 6:9).

After being unable to win the argument, as we read they were unable to cope with the wisdom and Spirit with which he was speaking (Acts 6:10), they:

First, they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

Then, this caused a stir amongst the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council.

Finally, they put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.”

Awaiting his response, his defense, God does something spectacular, for when they fixed their gaze on him, they, the Council, saw his face like the face of an angel (Acts 6:15) as what would happen next was God’s doing, not his own, where God would give him the words he would speak, just as Jesus promised he would back in Luke 21.

And so, if you are able, please stand as we read the first 8 verses of Stephen’s defense here in Acts 7.

Scripture Reading: Acts 7:1-7

Main Point of the Sermon (MPS):

There are a few main points I want you to take from Stephen’s defense as we work our way through it over the next few weeks:

Christians should always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, as 1 Peter 3:15 informs us.

Throughout Israel's history they have rejected the truth that the prophets and the prophecies they spoke of pointing to Jesus as the Messiah.

A sub point of this is that God is not confined to a building, He is alive and active within us.

Stephen’s audience, along with other Jews, not all, but most, rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

The entire Bible, all of redemptive history from Abraham to Joseph, Joseph to Moses, Moses to David, and David to the birth of Jesus, supports that Jesus was the Messiah.

Prayer

Body

Point 1: Stephen’s Solidarity and Respect

Scripture: Acts 7:1–2a

Explanation:

To bring our thoughts back into the situation at hand, let’s summarize the accusations against Stephen:

Speak blasphemous words against Moses (Acts 6:11).

Speak blasphemous words against God (Acts 6:11).

Speaks against this holy place, holy place being the temple (Acts 6:13).

Apart of this is that they said that he claimed that Jesus will destroy the temple and alter of customs which Moses handed down to them concerning the temple (Acts 6:14).

In our Scripture for today, concerning Abraham, and our Scripture for next week concerning Joseph and the twelve patriarchs, Stephen responds to the accustation of him speaking blasphemous words against God.

In verse 1, the high priest invites Stephen to defend himself by asking him, “Are these things so?”

I wish to recall Jesus’s words that I brought forth a few weeks ago where Jesus foretold that situations like Stephen’s would come, in Luke 21:12-14 just told His disciples, “they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony. So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.”

Why I remind you of this is for me to say this, while we many refer to this as Stephen’s defense, it really wasn’t that, it wasn’t about him defending himself, it was about proclaiming the truth about Jesus in a way that his audience would understand, by speaking to something that the Jews treasured, their history, a history that Stephen, being a Hellenist Jew himself, would have been knowledgeable about.

Look at how Stephen begins the defense, “Hear me, brethren...”, let’s pause there for a moment there.

He first refers to those he was speaking to as brethren.

This was Stephen showing his solidarity with them, solidarity, meaning, he himself as a Jew who converted to Christianity is aware of why they have been brought to such anger, because he used to be a fellow Jew who most likely had the same concerns, possibly even suffered from the same anger.

He was establishing common ground so that they might consider what he was about to say.

He then refers to them as fathers, “Hear me, brethren and fathers!”

By calling them fathers, he was showing them respect.

These men, the Council, where the leaders of the Jewish people.

By referring to them as fathers, Stephen was acknowledging the position these men held and showing respect for their work to be considered a leader of the Jewish people.

Application:

It would be like, let’s say, Christian, was whining about why Nate or Mason made them run so much in practice the other day for not listening and I walked up to him after hearing his complaints and was like, “brother, they did that so that you would learn your lesson”.

He might be like or maybe even think, “who is this guy?”, so I would probably follow my statement up with the fact that I played football for 7 years. Maybe even share some of my experiences with him where I have had to run for the same reasons.

Even if it wasn’t football I used, maybe my 7 years of baseball or my 6 years of basketball, I could share with him how even though they weren’t the same sport, I still made a decision that caused me to have to run.

No matter what sport, I am able to walk up to him and say that because I, myself, have ran, many many years ago, at practice due to the same or similar circumstances that while I didn’t see the reason for running then, I do now.

It doesn’t mean that Christian would still be happy that he had to run, but it does give me the chance to explain to him to help him understand the why behind his suffering, that Nate and Mason weren’t doing it because they liked seeing in pain (at least I would hope), but they were doing it so that he might grow as an athlete.

Since we have common ground, both being football players, both not listening at practice, and both having to run for it why Nate or Mason made him run.

While that still not make him happy, it is because I have established common ground that he would even listen to me.

The same has been done here by Stephen, by starting his defense like this, he has established common ground, saying, I too, who once was a Jew, understand why you might be angry, but then when I opened my heart to the truth, everything changed.

To go even further, as I said before, Stephen then begins to speak to their history, something they can relate to in order for him to prove his point, that God sent Jesus and He was indeed the Messiah, by first speaking of Abraham.

Point 2: Abraham’s Story

Scripture: Acts 7:2b-7

Explanation:

Stephen begins first by mentioning the name of the Person that made everything happen, he continues with, “The God of glory appeared...”

He started with God, because God is the only eternal being, having no beginning and no end (Psalm 90:2), was the one who was orchestrating all of redemptive history.

Everything that had happened through Jewish history, every prophecy that was spoken, every prophecy that was fulfilled was because He allowed it and made it that way.

To speak to God’s glory is to speak of all of His might, all of His holiness, all of His sovereignty, the entirety of who He is as the God of all creation.

After beginning with the mentioning of the one who put all into motion, he speaks of Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith.

He says, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham...”.

By saying this, He is saying that there is no doubt that what the Jewish people say is their history is untrue, he believed that God truly came to Abraham and that redemptive history for God’s chosen people began with him as a result of the fall.

And so he continues telling the story, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran...”.

If we travel back to Genesis 11:31-32 we will see that this is the case.

That Abraham would uproot himself from Ur and move to Haran where He would remain until his father died.

Following this, Stephen says that God then had him move to this country in which you are now living, that country being Isreal.

This speaks to Abrahams obedience to God and His understanding of God’s sovereignty in all things, Abraham had faith in the Lord and when God said move, he moved, even if it didn’t make sense.

So, Stephen tells us that in this country, present day Isreal for the men to whom Stephen was speaking, that God gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child.

There was only plot of land that Abraham would own himself was his burial plot that he would purchase to lay his wife Sarah in as she would pass later in Genesis 23.

But besides that, Abraham wouldn’t see any of the land that God had promised, as he would die in Genesis 25.

But Abraham trusted in the Lord, because as Stephen tells us, God promised that He would give it, Isreal, to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him.

We read this in Genesis 12:1–3, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’”

Abraham’s trust was in God and while he wouldn’t own more than a burial plot, he trusted God’s promise and well, while Isaac, his son would own land in Isreal as God fulfilled His promise to Abraham in Genesis 26, God would make it possible for him to settle in Gerar.

Esau and Jacob would be born, Isaac’s sons, which have a story of their own, but Stephen’s next focus would be the Israelites troubles in Egypt as he tells them, “But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years”, which all began with Jacob and the treachery of his sons towards Joseph, Jacob’s youngest son, in Genesis 34, of which we will get into next week, but before He speaks of the situation that he speaks of another promise from God, that despite them being in bondage for Egypt for ~430 years, that, “‘whatever nation, Egypt, to which they, the Israelites, will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’”

This is found in Genesis 15:14, as God tells Abraham, known as Abram at the time, at the birth of Isaac that these this bondage would come, Abraham wouldn’t know when, but that when it came, God would deliver them from it.

Application:

Imagine this (Genesis):

You get promised by God that He will bless you, that all of your family, even the future members of your family would be blessed.

He asks you to trust Him and move you and your wife, of whom you don’t have a child with, but your’e somewhere in your 70s, to a place you don’t even own a home in.

You get there, settle in for a moment, boom, famine in the land, no food, so you have to travel to another place where God isn’t even worshipped, so you somehow get kicked out of there for something you do towards them.

Following a quarrel with your family, you then move to another land full of evil people.

God tells you that despite blessing your family in the future, part of that future your family will be forced to live in slavery, but He will deliver them from it, just trust Him.

While still living in this evil land, your wife then tells you to seek a mistress because she can’t provide you with a son, knowing how important it was that you family line be continued, so you and this mistress conceive a son and your wife gets angry at your for conceiving the son with this mistress. She despises the mistress, so the mistress flees, but God stops her and sends her back to you and your angry wife.

You now 86 years old, still no son with your wife, but then out of nowhere, later on at the age of 99, that’s 13 years with a mad wife, a mistress, and the son you had with that mistress. Out of nowhere, God meets with you, promising you that you will still bare many children, even tells you that you will be a father of a multitude of nations.

God tells you that in a years time, at 100ish, your wife will finally conceive a son.

In the meantime, your still living in a place full of evil people, but God decides to destroy that place, it happens, you leave before it happens, thank God.

He then allows you to settle somewhere else ruled by this dude that you don’t tell the true identity of your wife to, so he takes your wife and after finding out you lied to him, for some reason gives you a place to settle in his land.

Then, finally, after of this God gives you a son, your wife kicks your mistress to the curb, and the God asks you to sacrifice the only son that you have left.

God stops you mid sacrifice, then reminds you of His promise that He will bless you and your family, but after having only one son with the love of your life, she dies, but you get to see your sons wedding before you die as well, not having met any of your son’s sons.

Like what a life to live, am I right? When I started, I said imagine this, but this isn’t something you have to imagine, because this is what Abraham lived...

But despite his life having ups and down, Abraham always had faith in God and the promises that he made to him.

Only God could write a story like this and only God could bring forth the Messiah, Jesus, out of a circumstance like this, because as the story unfolds, you find out that many years later, by reading Matthew 1, that Jesus was a descendant of Abrahams.

Conclusion

Summation

As the worship team comes, what maintains your faith in God?

I challenge you to think back on your life, your ups and downs. As I was writing this sermon I did and afterward I said the same thing about my life that I said about Abraham’s, only God could write something like this...

Just like Abraham, God has made a covenant with you that came at a price, His Sons body was broken and His blood was shed, so that by having faith in Him, as Abraham had faith in God, you might be saved and spend eternal life with Him…only God could write a story like that.

Altar Call