Easter Stephen

Easter

Easter Sunday is every Sunday for Christians. Every Sunday we gather to celebrate that the grave could not hold Jesus Christ of Nazareth. But on Easter we put an exclamation point on it. We underline it and make it bold and say it without apology: Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead. The grave could not hold Him. And we rejoice in this salient and astounding Truth at the heart of the Good News. For our own Resurrection is previewed in the Resurrection of the Son of God. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 6:8–11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

And as the Holy Spirit would have it, this Easter Sunday the passage that we have landed on in our walking through the book of Acts is the story of Stephen, the newly minted Deacon of the Church whom the body of Christ selected, along with 6 other men, to help manage the needs of the Church.

And the end of Stephens story is a vision, a vision of the Risen and Glorious Son of God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. So for Easter we are going to consider Stephen and his vision of the Risen Christ, whom he now is with and he waits, along with all of us, for the resurrection.

He was not selected to be a healer. He was not selected to be a preacher. He was certainly not chosen to be a martyr. At least, not by the Church. And yet, in quick succession, he became all of these things. A healer, a preacher, and a martyr.

Acts 6:8–15

Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)--Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia--who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God." So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

I believe that part of what is happening here is this: Satan has taken on the Church head on, and lost. He failed to incite the Sanhedrin to issue orders to destroy the Church, which they could have done (!). He failed to corrupt the Church from within through Annas and Sapphira- in fact that plot died on the spot, quite literally. And he failed to distract the Church from its mission with internal bickering and squabbling- in fact, the Church only became more powerful as they selected 7 Deacons to help the Apostles in the management of the Church and even more people started hearing the Gospel.

So what is left? Tackling the Church head on has not only failed, but it actually seems to have strengthened the Church. So now target individuals, not the whole Church.

Notice that the complaint is NOT against the Church as a whole. The complaint is against Stephen. And doubtless Satan would have perceived him to be weaker, vulnerable. Why not? He is a new convert to the faith AND he is not an Apostle, he never knew Jesus when Jesus walked the Earth in the flesh. So the CHURCH is not targeted, but Stephen is targeted BECAUSE he is part of the Church. Guerrila warfare.

But God’s specialty is making weakness and vulnerability a kind of strength.

False witnesses come and say things about what Stephen has said in public. They are speaking half truths, and their concern is not FOR the truth, but rather to destroy an innocent man. Everyone turns to look at Stephen. And the Scripture tells us, he had a face like an angel.

And this is the first hint we have of the glory that is to come for Stephen.

What does that mean that he had a face like an angel? In contemporary English we would think that means he had an innocent or childlike face. But that is not what the Jews thought of when they thought of Angels. If you read all the references to angels in the Old and New Testament what you will come away with are 2 things when it comes to angels- one is power, and the other is Glory. God’s glory. Angels are full of God’s glory, they shine with it.

And in this moment, Stephen looked powerful and full of the glory of God. He did not look concerned, fearful, or upset. But it was more than that. He looked to be full of glory.

And it seems to me that in our darkest hours, in our times that are most fraught, when fear and anxiety or even terror are at their utmost- when you see death rushing at you- it is in those moments that the true man or woman of God- the person who has spent their life in faithful service to the Kingdom of Heaven and to Jesus Christ their Lord, that is when they are likely to shine with an undeniable glory.

You might be familiar with the concept of induction among metals. Induction involves magnetic fields, such that when some metal gets close to a powerful magnet, without even touching that magnet the other metal also becomes a magnet, as long as it is close to it. If you put a piece of iron close to a magnet, it too will become a magnet, as longs as it stays close to the magnet. Glory, it seems, has a kind of inductive property. When you are close to God you shine with a kind of glory.

I once witnessed a miracle and I reference this sometimes in sermons because it was such a formative moment for me and for Laura- for we experienced it together. But I don’t talk about it very often because it is so hard for us to explain, I think. The miracle was one thing, but there was a sense of the glory of God around us that defies language- I do not have the words for it. It was a palpable sense of weight, of importance, fear that was not fear of evil, but awe. It was good, but terrifying all at once. It was the presence of Glory. And you only need to experience it once to know what it is and why it is that YHWH does not show Moses His full glory, so to speak, when Moses asks to see God. No human could endure the full glory of God, it is too awesome, too weighty, too glorious.

But the reason I share this now is because directly after witnessing this event, Laura and I rushed to tell Bill and Jane, our closest friends and mentors at the time, the people who had in many ways led us to the Lord. We drove to their house even though it was night, And Bill and Jane said later that we were shining, in a way. It wasn’t just being happy or excited, which we were, but that we were glowing in some kind of way- not physical light- just the shine of the glory of God and I do not doubt it because I felt different in that moment. And we shall never forget that moment not because of the miracle, but because of the presence of the living God, the glory of God.

What this verse tells me, is that even before Stephen’s speech, and even before they become enraged and decide to kill him, and even before Stephen’s vision of Christ, the Holy Spirit was powerfully present with Stephen. He had absorbed and was reflecting the glory of God in that moment, such that his face reflected the power and glory of an angel.

And shortly he would see the Risen Christ. We gather this morning for that very reason, to see the Risen Christ. To give Him praise and to experience and know His mercy and light in our lives.

How does one experience the Glory of the Risen Christ? For one, it is not something you can control. The Spirit moves as it will. Jesus tells us regarding the Holy Spirit-

John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”

So there is no formula, for our God is not controllable in this fashion. But neither does Glory fall randomly among us. Jeremiah 17:10 and Revelation 2:23 tell us unambiguously that the Lord is always searching our hearts and giving to us as our hearts and minds dictate. And this is true of everything we receive or do not receive from the hand of God but this also includes Glory.

Jeremiah 17:10 ““I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.””

Revelation 2:23 “...all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.”

But I am not here this morning to compound your burden. Because you might be tempted to think- oh, so in order to experience a greater measure of the glory of God I must be a better person- a holier person. I must serve others more radically. I must have better control of my temper. I must be more self disciplined. I must read my Bible more. I must pray more often and more fervently.

I am here to tell you that no man or woman living on God’s green Earth can wake up in the morning and just decide to be a better person and then it is so. Our sin runs too deep. How unsettling is it that right before the passage where God says He searches our hearts to give to us according to our ways comes this passage:

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure; who can understand it?

So what is the path to God’s glory? It’s blessedly simple. It is faith. It is trust. It is hope. Hope is just faith pointed towards the future. It is believing the promises of God, even when, especially when, the world teaches us not to believe them.

It is the opposite of working harder, it is resting. When you trust in God you are drawing closer to Him and His glory, and just like a piece of iron close to a magnet, so do you start to take on His qualities, not because you are working harder. Working harder can’t make anyone more glorious. But trusting more will.

The prodigal son who found himself working in a pigsty after striking out on his own doesn’t decide to just work harder in the pigsty. It just occurs to him that he actually has a father who can provide for all his needs and so he returns to his father. And there his return is celebrated and he shares in the glory of his father and in the riches of his father’s household. It was trust, faith, and proximity, that provides the happy ending to the story- not harder work.

Stephen is described as being full of God’s grace and God’s power- it wasn’t Stephen’s grace or Stephen’s power. Who was Stephen? He was a human just like any one of us. He had his sins and his weaknesses. He had his strengths and his virtues. But he trusted God. And so he had about him the glory of God.

So what happens? False charges are brought against Stephen. They turn to look at him and Stephen shines with the Glory of God, saying nothing at first. He seems calm, unconcerned. He is trusting. And he is right to trust for Jesus tells us to not be anxious in these, the most stressful of moments:

Luke 12:11–12 “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, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.””

Then the High Priest asks- are these charges true?

And Stephen gives a speech. It is the longest speech, I believe, in the whole of the Bible, 52 verses in all. It would take a whole sermon on its own to even talk about it, because he recounts much of the history of Israel, from Abraham to David, spending a good deal of time on Moses. And he has two main points- one, that God is not constrained to the Temple, that the Spirit of the Lord is bigger than that, and also that God’s people have an unfortunate tendency to persecute and kill the very people whom God sends to teach and bless His people, and that they are even guilty of killing the Messiah Himself, the Holy One of God.

So the accusers become the defenders. Stephen has been accused of blasphemy against God, and Stephen calls them murderers of God. And they become enraged:

Acts 7:54-58 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Behold the juxtaposition of a man full of the Holy Spirit vs. a people who are lost sheep, without wisdom and discernment.

This is an unmistakable contrast. Stephen has convicted them of a violent and ungodly spirit that is trying to undermine something new that God has done and is doing. And they become so unspeakably angry that the only thing they want to do is to kill Stephen to get him to shut up, thereby exhibiting the very behavior he is accusing them of.

Just as being in the Spirit bears its own healthy fruit, so does being captured by Satan bear its own brand of rotten fruit. So where the Christian is self controlled, the sinner is impetuous. Where the Christian is forgiving, the sinner seeks revenge. Where the Christian is calm, the sinner rages. Where the Christian speaks truth to further God’s Kingdom, the sinner speaks in lies and half truths to advance their own personal agendas. And so on.

So when lost sheep gather in judgment over a godly man, they can quickly switch from being sheep to wolves, set to devour one they will not abide.

Scripture says that they ‘gnashed their teeth’ at him, a sign of the most intense form of rage and also a manifestation of hell itself.

[Mat 8:10-12 NIV] 10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

When we think of damnation or eternal separation from God we often think of flames and demons, etc., but the most common descriptor of hell as Jesus describes it, is rage. Mindless rage. And Stephen is the first Christian to bear the full brunt of this kind of rage.

Stephen has a vision of the Risen Christ. And he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God in glory. And they cannot bear to even hear it. They cover their ears and they yell, because they are so lost that good has become evil and evil has become good in their eyes. Don’t let us make caricatures of these men. They don’t have cloven hooves or horns on their heads. They have wives and children and they are known to be respectful, intelligent, law abiding citizens of Jerusalem, the upper class. That is who they are. But they are committed to destroying the Gospel. Why? Because their power base, their very livelihood, is wrapped up in the Temple and the priesthood, and the giving of sacrifices and the feast days, and all that comes with those things. And that kingdom is more important to them than God’s call to follow Christ. And if what Stephen believes about the Risen Christ is true, that Jesus forgave our sins through His death on the Cross, then all that no longer matters. Because they have served their purpose, but one who is greater has come, and they are no longer needed. Indeed, their purpose always was to point to Jesus Christ.

It was more important to them that their lives be able to go on as normal, than it was to acknowledge Jesus Christ. And most people are that way. MOST people are not willing to exchange their kingdom for God’s Kingdom.

But the Resurrection says, plainly, to all people for all eternity, that one Kingdom ends in death, whereas the other holds eternal life.

Back to Stephen. Satan has fanned the flames of their anger so successfully that no trial actually takes place, no guilty verdict is ever rendered, no discussion happens, the trial turns into a mob action and they take Stephen outside of the city to kill him.

But Stephen is not done reflecting the glory of the Risen Christ whom he has now seen with his own eyes.

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

As his fellow Jews, his community, proceed to kill him for choosing Christ above all things, Stephen does 2 things that all Christians worthy of the name of Christ do at the time of their death. One, they commit their death, just as they have their life, to the hands of Jesus Christ. And, two, they take no bitterness to the grave, absolving in their heart every person who has wronged them or perceived to have wronged them through every circumstance and they forgive. Just as Christ forgave those who crucified him, so does Stephen die with a blessing, not curses, on his lips.

But in order to die that way, you have to live that way. To see the Risen Christ standing at the right hand of the Father is to know that forgiveness is there for the taking for any who would desire it and humble themselves before God with repentant hearts.

And then at the very end Stephen dies, Scripture saying he fell asleep. It may be that this is simply Luke saying, politely, that he died, but it is a gentle image for a stoning, falling asleep. It may be that Luke is saying that the Lord took Stephen before things got too painful and bloody. That is a comforting thought, but we cannot know for sure. What we do know, is that no matter how little or how much suffering he endured, it was as nothing compared to the eternity of joy he now has in the presence of His Savior.

Stephen’s vision of the Risen Christ at the right hand of the Father is now no longer a vision but a reality, a reality I can only dream of or guess at by the tantalizing hints that Scripture gives. But I know he is free from all sorrow, from all pain, and that he now reflects in full the glory of God, for Jesus told us that in heaven we will be like the angels, and the glory that Stephen reflected before the Sanhedrin that cost him his life on Earth, is now his for all eternity.

May we likewise this morning see some glimpse of the Risen Christ, and reflect His glory through all the length of our days.