Proclaiming to the End
Meeting the Holy Spirit Through Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 6 viewsSpirit-filled believers are empowered for witness, no matter what.
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Transcript
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.
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.”
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.
Series Intro
Spirit-filled believers are empowered for witness, no matter what.
The story of Stephen demonstrates vividly the power of the Holy Spirit in witness in life, in persecution, and even in death. It is only because Stephen is Spirit-filled that He can powerfully witness, challenge the religious leaders, and be found to the end fixed on Jesus. Today as we consider the story of Stephen we will look at three circumstances in which being Spirit-filled powerfully enables Stephen - and us - to live for Jesus and be a witness.
We’ve talked about living lives that are full of the Holy Spirit. This means that we are becoming ever-more instep with the Spirit, allowing Him to have control, learning to listen to Him, and being willing to let Him shape us more into Jesus. There is joy that comes when God’s Spirit is poured out upon you, and there is an empowering to witness - to proclaim the good news that comes from the Holy Spirit. We see this empowerment vividly experienced in three circumstances in Stephen’s life.
In Life
In Life
6:8-15
Have you ever found yourself trying to do too much? Acts 6 opens with this ministry of feeding the needy, something the Apostles are trying to run while also leading the church in Jerusalem. Talk about doing a lot. We’ve skipped back a couple chapters from last week, so we’re not quite at the stage yet where the church is going out to Samaria and the ends of the earth.
Some people start complaining: some are not getting what they need. So the Apostles realize it’s time to delegate. Seven men are chosen; listen to their qualifications:
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.
Seven, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom, and good reputation.
This is where we meet Stephen. A man characterized as full of the Holy Spirit, faith, wisdom, grace and power. God works signs and wonders through him, and he has a powerful testimony. Incidentally, outside of the apostles Stephen is the first to be mentioned doing signs and wonders. He is also filled with wisdom, going toe to toe with any of his contemporary Jews who are part of this synagogue made up of freed slaves or descendants of freed slaves. He speaks with such wisdom that they could not spar with him. His verbal and actionable witness are empowered!
As is often the case, when the Jews were angry about something and couldn’t seem to get the upper hand, they looked for another way of doing things. In this case, they raise up false witnesses against Stephen, drag him into court, and accuse him not only of dishonouring God and the law, but also speaking against the temple, which was extremely revered by the Jews.
But as Stephen stands before them, on trial, we read this:
And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
The Holy Spirit empowers our witness in life and ministry. This is so clearly demonstrated here. We see the same characteristics of the Spirit-filled apostles in Stephen. He’s doing signs and wonders, he is bold in proclaiming the faith, and the Spirit gives him this wisdom that trumps the competition. It’s not because Stephen is so smart, or good with people necessarily, or learned. The reason for everything he is doing is attributed to the Spirit of God inside of Him. He is full of grace and power, because of the Spirit.
This is the first circumstance we see that Spirit-filled people can witness no matter what: In our lives, the Spirit empowers our witness. As we live for Jesus day by day, accomplishing whatever He has set before us that day, our goal should be to be filled with the Spirit of God.
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
Wether you’re hammering iron in the shop, plowing the field, feeding the needy, caring for the kids or grandkids, teaching in the classroom, building that thing on the job, there is opportunity for you to live the Spirit-filled life. It’s not that you have to perform signs and wonders, or spar with great and mighty religious teachers. But it whatever your task is, there is opportunity to glorify God. And there may be opportunity to demonstrate your faith. God give empowering for such times through the filling of the Spirit. Stephen demonstrates that the Holy Spirit empowers our witness, no matter where we may find ourselves. In our lives - no matter what the day brings - Spirit-filled people are powerfully equipped to testify about Jesus.
In Persecution
In Persecution
7:1-53
Spirit filled people are empowered for witness, no matter what. In life - no matter our task - God brings empowerment to live for Him. Yet there is a second circumstance in which we find this to be true:
As Stephen is hauled into trial. The charges that are laid against him are:
Acts 6:13–14 (ESV)
“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.”
It is interesting that these accusations are similar to the ones laid against Jesus himself. Namely, at the end of Matthew 26 false witnesses accuse Jesus of saying
and said, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.’ ”
Moreover, Jesus testifies when asked if He is the Christ that:
Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
This was considered blasphemy. So with Stephen, we see something similar. Not only is he accused of speaking against the Temple and law, but at the end of his defence he speaks of Jesus as standing at the right hand of God! The Jews are enraged. Stephen suffers a witch-hunt trial, much like His Lord.
When he is taken and put on trial, it is rigged from the get go. Yet Spirit-filled Stephen does not cower or renounce his Lord. Instead he begins to recount Israel’s history! It may seem odd, but what Stephen accomplishes is both to answer the charges against him, and put the religious leaders on trial. Stephen boldly challenges the error of the religious leaders (namely, their devotion to the temple, not to God) and their total resistance to the Jesus and the Spirit. He bravely faced his accusers and used the opportunity to proclaim to them the need for their repentance. NAC
Stephen starts by going back to Abraham, the father of Israel. He walks his hearers down through history, from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob, to the 12 brothers - The fathers of the tribes of Israel. From there he goes to Joseph, and Israel’s time in Egypt. Then to Moses, and God’s great deliverance through Moses of Israel. From there, to see the people in the wilderness, in their new land God had given them, briefly recounting how the people had treated God, and the history of the Temple.
Two themes are present:
You cannot tie God down to one place, and His people are closest to Him when they are a pilgrim people. (E.g. Abraham’s journey, Egypt, the wilderness…). The Jews had missed the point. God wasn’t housed in the temple, though He allowed his presence to dwell there in the OT. But now in Jesus - we are the temples of the Holy Spirit - God’s very presence - as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19. The Jews had totally missed it!
The fathers time and again resisted and rejected those God sent to warn them, and in doing so resisted and rejected the Holy Spirit. This is a serious accusation, especially to those who were supposed to be spiritually leading the nation.
So we get a series of accusations given back to these leaders by Stephen:
“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.”
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit - exercises wisdom and understanding. While he does answer the charges against him, making it clear that the temple - so revered by the Jews as this sacred place - could not house the One whose throne is all of heaven. Yet he also exposes their heart condition. They were resistant to God’s moving, resistant to the message of Christ and God’s desire for His people to follow Him. Their heart condition is just like their forefathers: Stiff-necked and hard-hearted.
In the face of intense persecution, Stephen is filled with wisdom and faith, proclaiming truth to these powerful religious men. His testimony targets not just accusations laid against him, but the hardness of the people’s hearts, and the error of their ways. As we consider Stephen’s address, we cannot help but see the Spirit’s enlightening, wisdom, strength, and power. Stephen is so Spirit-filled his face was literally glowing!
Jesus told his disciples and us this:
And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
The reality is that we will face persecution for the gospel. Sometimes it’s physical. You are physically assaulted, hurt, or even killed for your faith. Other times it’s not physical. Could be socially you are rejected, or perhaps oppressed. You could suffer financially. Whole countries have persecuted Christians for their faith.
Persecution is a guarantee. To live in a nation like Canada, where our levels of persecution are comparatively quite light, we should realize this is not expected to be the norm.
What will you do, when people persecute you, and slander you for Jesus? What will you do if they drag you into court, take away your house, or perhaps, your life, for the gospel. Will you stand firm, or falter? Stephen’s story shows us that those who cultivate a life full of the Spirit of God are empowered to boldly testify even in the face of overwhelming opposition. But it is only when we have the Spirit of God filling us, living and active inside us, that we can be people who are able to stand, no matter what.
In Death
In Death
The final circumstance is which we see Spirit-filled Stephen witnessing no matter what is in His own death.
The religious leaders are enraged. They are grinding their teeth, literally plugging their ears, and mob-rush him out of the temple, and city, in order to stone him. This was the punishment for blasphemy and apostasy, the crime for which Stephen is wrongly accused. Yet how do we see Stephen in the midst of this?
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.”
So they drag him out of the city. The mod lay their cloaks at the feet of the fellow named Saul. I think last week I said we first meet him in Acts 8, but we actually first meet him here, as an onlooker. The crowd begins to hurl rocks at Stephen. Yet as the rocks pour down upon him, he cries “Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit.” and then cries: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Does this not remind us of the very words of Christ on the cross?
Luke 23:34 (ESV)
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
When they perceive blasphemy and apostasy and drag him away to be stoned, but we do not see a fearful Stephen. Instead we meet one who - even until the last moment - is filled with the Spirit: A vision of complete hope in the risen Lord before him, and nothing but love for those who are so blind.
Perhaps this is the most striking part of this story. Stephen died as only one full of the Spirit could: totally assured with a vision of his risen Lord on his mind - NAC. He died filled with love for the very ones who hurled rocks at him. Like Jesus on the cross, Stephen prayed for them because he knew they were blinded by the god of this world, and desperately in need of the Saviour.
Would you do that? I know it’s a clichéd question, probably asked 1000 times. But let’s ask it again. In that moment when death is imminent, will a vision of the risen Lord be upon your mind as well? When you suffer persecution for the sake of Jesus, will you be found loving those who hate you?
Jesus tells us
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Only someone filled and transformed by the Spirit of God is able to do this. Only God can work this amazing heart of love, hope, and compassion. Stephen was just another person, like you, or me. He was a guy who fed the homeless and hurting and broken. It was God who empowered Him. it was God who gave Him words and actions to witness powerfully. And at the end, it was the Holy Spirit who sustained Stephen, and allowed him to have this heart of love, and a vision of a risen Saviour waiting to usher him into glory.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Spirit-filled believers are empowered for witness, no matter what.
In life, those who cultivate a life full of the Holy Spirit are given power to proclaim the message of Jesus.
In persecution. This is a reality promised to all Christians. Yet, as Jesus told us:
And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit who inspired Stephen not only to witness, but the challenge the heart condition of these religious leaders, giving him wisdom and insight.
3.In death. To the last we find Stephen faithful. Yet not just faithful, but joyful in the vision of His risen Saviour waiting to welcome him home. He is filled with love for those who are taking his life, praying for God’s forgiveness for them.
In all three circumstances, Stephen is an example of one who is filled with the Holy Spirit.
Can it be the same for us today? Canada is a nation just as much in need of the gospel as the those people in Ancient Jerusalem. People here are lost, hurting, broken, and blinded. We are Christ’s very hands and feet, a light to the world around us. We are called to be in this world in order to testify to a world that is to come - the salvation in Jesus.
Only in the Spirit’s power can we do this. But Jesus promised:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
In life, in persecution, and in death.
The same Spirit that fell of the apostles in Acts 2; The same Spirit that empowered those apostles every time they were arrested; the same Spirit that was filling Stephen right to the end, lives in you.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So this leads me back to the whole purpose of this series: will you cultivate this life in which the Spirit of God fills you up? Will you seek the Holy Spirit’s constant moving in your life. Will you allow Him to use you, speak to you, guide you, and push you? If we want to be found faithful, if the need to share the gospel weighs heavy on your heart, then you must be filled with God’s Spirit. And the great news is that He will pour it out upon you, if you ask, trusting God to do what He wants with you, in His timing.
and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
