Stephen: Faithful to the end

Introduction:

Every church has problems. Growing pains is a problem most churches wish they had today. The early church experienced a great amount of growing pains in the early days. It has been attributed to B.H. Carroll that he stated that the church added approximately 30,000 new members in the first months of the the new church from the day of Pentecost. That is enough to give any church leadership indigestion. The church had to make many adjustments along the way as they grew exponentially practically daily.

At this point, the church had no real organizational structure, and it was left in the hands of 12 men appointed by Jesus. We know that there were 120 believers on the day of Pentecost, so we can safely say that the twelve apostles had at least people under them that they were discipling, but even with 120 people willing to help out, there will still be leadership and growing pains when you’re talking about 30,000 believers in a matter of months.

TENSIONS DEVELOP:

The early church didn’t really have any organizational structure, and the results of that are starting to show as we enter into chapter 6. As the church grew, there were people that were from other cultures. In this particular case, a complaint came up from a group of Hellenists. What Hellenists were were converts to the Jewish faith from a Greek culture. They were considered Jewish for all intents and purposes, and were considered culturally Jewish. So what we now see is a clash of cultures. In the Jewish culture, their responsibility according to Mosaic law was to help take care of the widows; however, those that were not Jewish born, didn’t share this same cultural background.

We read in earlier chapters, that members of the church would sell excess of what they owned in order to meet the needs of other members as the needs arose. So because of the cultural differences, the Grecian widows were inadvertently neglected. So the twelve summon the entire congregation (20,000 - 30,000) and tell them:

Acts 6.

Acts 6:2–3 ESV

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.

The apostles knew the importance of preparing themselves spiritually and intellectually to minister to the teaching of the word, which would be to meet the spiritual needs of the congregation, they needed a group of men to met the physical needs of the congregation. Some would say these were the first deacons to be called by a church in the New Testament, and I could agree with that, and if that be the case, then we must now concede that there is a different in types of leadership within a church body and that would be elders (which are tasked scripturally with meeting the spiritual needs of the church) and deacons (which would be tasked with meeting the physical needs of the church). IF that be the case, then scripturally, a church should be led by a plurality of elders (pastors) and served by a group of deacons; however, I will leave that discussion for another sermon for another time. This morning I want to focus on what follows.

In verse 5, there is a list of men that are called by the congregation to become the ones that are to “serve tables.” Now, this is not being a waiter as we might picture it in our heads, but it is more of a tending to the distributions that were taking place so that the Hellenistic widows did not get left out. The word for tables here is the same word that is used in the gospel account of Jesus’ cleansing the temple when He overturns the tables of the moneychangers. These men chose were all Greeks and they were tasked with the ministry of tending to the needs of the Hellenist widows.

ENTER STEPHEN:

The first name on the list is a man named Stephen. Not much is known about him, but there is quite a bit we can learn about him from what we do know. We know that this man’s ministry (as short-lived as it was) was the catalyst that propelled the church to move out of Jerusalem into Judaea and Samaria which would then become the gateway to the rest of the world. I can say with a fair amount of surety that Stephen served as a bridge to bigger and better things for the church. Again, we don’t know much about Stephen, but there is much to learn about his life and ministry right here in these two and a part of a chapter. We can learn about his calling, his character, his courage, and his countenance.

Acts 6:8–15 ESV

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.

Acts 6.8-

And then he sweeps through most of the entire Old Testament and culminates his testimony with the gospel and how the Old Testament tied into the gospel.

Acts 7.54-

Acts 7:54–8:3 ESV

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. And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.

If you haven’t read these few chapters already, I would encourage you to go home and read these chapters on your own, and there is a great amount of things we can learn from Stephen’s testimony to the council, but for the sake of brevity, we are going to focus on Stephen and some of his qualities.

Stephen’s Calling

When we look at this very short, but important piece of ministry, we must look at his calling. There is a lot going on with his calling, and we would do well to learn what it means to be truly called of God for ANY ministry position. Back in chapter 6 verse 3, the apostles set out requirements for those that were going to be of service to the church. They were expected to be of a good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom, so we go to verse five and we see that he was full of faith and, by implication, full of the Holy Spirit. Stephen had such a good reputation, he was chosen out of thousands of believers. Seven out of 20,000. That is impressive by any standards. This man was picked by he peers at the time (v.3 - pick out from among you.)

Stephen’s Character

Acts 6:3 ESV

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.

Let’s look at the word “full” for just a moment. The word there gives us the idea of being controlled by something. So Stephen is being controlled by faith, and the Holy Spirit, as opposed to being controlled by anger, which his adversaries will be when he finishes his defense. So Stephen is controlled by faith and the Holy Spirit, that means his life was driven by those two elements. The Holy Spirit and his faith were dominating forces in the life of Stephen. Let’s look at his faith for a minute. If he is full of faith, what did he believe?

Stephen believed in the authority of scripture

If we look at chapter 7, he presents a very concise and very profound synopsis of the Old Testament from Abraham up to Jesus. Stephen quotes passages from Genesis chapters 12 & 13. It is important to understand this because the New Testament was still some years off from being written, but the believers had the Old Testament, and that was what they spent their time teaching: how the Old Testament was completed in the work of Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Stephen believed in God’s ultimate sovereignty

While the world may believe that man makes history, Stephen knew that God worked through even some of the most benign circumstances to override those people that were in the world to make sure His plan was accomplished in history. He fully believed that all of history was written according to God’s purpose.

Stephen believed Jesus was the Messiah

We go all the way down to verse 52 in chapter seven, and Stephen asks, “Which one of the prophets did you fathers not persecute?” He then answers that questions by saying, “And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have no betrayed and murdered...” He believed fully that Jesus was the Righteous One of God and that Jesus’ death was a pivotal point in history.

Stephen believed Jesus was resurrected

While his testimony of defense doesn’t explicitly say that, move down to verse 55 where it says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” This man, while he was in the middle of a trial for his life, looked up into heaven and saw Jesus. The resurrected savior, and then in verse 59 as he is facing imminent death he says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

This was a man so strong in his convictions and beliefs that he was willing to pay the ultimate price for those beliefs, and he would soon face that calling. While we criticize Islam for having the extreme fundamentalists in their ranks that are willing to strap a bomb to their chest and go blow people up because that is what they believe, but how many Christians today would be willing to face death for their beliefs? How many of us sitting in this building this morning would be willing to lay our lives down for what we believe? Stephen was totally controlled by his faith. It was full on faith in what he believed. Not only was he full of faith, but he was full of the Holy Spirit, and we see this as he faces imminent death. As they are throwing stones at this man, his attitude never changes. His enemies were enraged by his response, and they became so full of anger, yet he never changed his attitude.

He was also full of grace. Yes, he was full of God’s grace, that grace of salvation, but yet it goes much deeper than that. He was so controlled by grace that in verse 60 he says, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Not only were these people hurling insults at him, they were hurling rocks at him that were meant to kill him, yet not once did he ever condemn any of these people. He instead asked for forgiveness for them.

Stephen’s Courage

Here we have this man, full of grace, full of faith, full of power, who went into probably some of the most hostile situations head on. Not once did he back down from his calling to take the gospel into the world. Walking into a synagogue of the people who just recently put to death the Messiah and basically told them that they had just killed God’s Chosen One, and confronted them head on without backing down. That requires a ton of courage. This is a courage that can only come from being filled (controlled) by the Holy Spirit, and eventually he would face death for what he believed.

Persecution was rising fast, and we have to understand that this was a rather short period of time (days, weeks, or possibly a month or so). The anger in the Jerusalem is building up quickly, and it was taking more and more courage every day to preach the gospel. We have already seen Peter and John dragged before the sanhedrin and told to keep quiet about what they were preaching, and now this has extended to Stephen. We saw back in chapter 4 how the believers prayed for boldness, this is what the Holy Spirit granted to them. They had the courage to stand up for their beliefs even in the most hostile situations.

Stephen’s Countenance

Back to chapter 6 verse 8, in spite of all of this, look at verse 15, “And gazing at hi, all who sat on the council saw that his face was like that of an angel.” All who saw him. Guess who was there? Saul. The one who would begin to violently persecute the church and become one of the greatest missionaries the church has probably ever seen. This is more than likely Saul’s very first encounter with the teaching and preaching of the gospel, and this believer standing before him and the rest of the council has a face like an angel.

This is a man that had just been accused of blaspheming God and the law of Moses. This man was accused of being evil, and yet they are looking on him and he has the face like an angel. What does that really mean? He didn’t really turning into an angel, but what do angels reflect? They reflect the glory of God. So what does that really mean, well most scholars would say the same thing, “I really don’t know,” but one thing is for sure: this man had acted in obedience to the calling of God in his life, and the glory of God was shining through for everyone to see. God wasn’t hiding his pleasure with this seemingly hopeless situation. This is only the second time recorded in scripture that we see God’s glory on a human being, the first being Exodus chapter 33 when Moses comes down from the mountain and God’s glory shone on him.

Putting it into practice

While Stephen’s ministry was probably extremely short-lived, the implications are profound for us today. Let’s look at the lessons we take from his life.

Be ready to defend your faith at all times

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

1 Peter 3:5 ESV

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,

Stephen was fully ready to defend his faith even in the most dire of circumstances, and he did it with enough conviction that it made his accusers very angry. He didn’t tell the Sanhedrin how sinful they were, he simply defended his faith and presented the gospel. Their ignorance caused them to become angry because they basically could come up with an argument against what he was saying. Many of us may say, “I don’t need to defend my faith, the Holy Spirit will do that for me.” While this is true to a certain extent, there is a requirement on our part to learn what we believe and why we believe it. If you have never discussed the validity of your faith with an atheist, you won’t understand this point, but it is vital that we be prepared at all times to defend our faith and why we believe what we believe. Now that doesn’t mean we all have to be Biblical scholars, but we do have to know enough to defend what we believe. Imagine how this scene would have turned out if Stephen responded with, “Well you just have to take it on faith.” He would have been laughed out of town and the Christian movement would have been see as a farce and never gotten out of Jerusalem. Instead, because of Stephen and his testimony, this became the catalyst to launch a harsh persecution of the believers in Jerusalem and catapulted the spread of the gospel into the other regions which would eventually launch it into the rest of the world.

Allow the Holy Spirit to control your life in all situations

Stephen was so controlled by his faith and the Holy Spirit he had a good reputation among all of the believers. Out of 20 or 30 thousand believers, he was one of seven picked by the church to help serve the widows. The odds are practically better at winning the lottery, but God was doing such a work in his life, and his life was such an example of faith that he was picked out of all these people. He was held in high esteem by his peers, and selected to serve. In all of this going on, in the face of people that hated him fiercely, he never once changed his attitude, and the glory of God shone in him for all the people to see. Even though this situation turned out to be a bad situation from a human point of view, this was given God’s seal of approval, and even knocking on death’s door, he asked for forgiveness for those that were hurling rocks at his head. How would you react in a situation like this? How much control doe the Holy Spirit have in your life? Is it enough to be gracious in the face of death and persecution?

Believe the gospel fully

This should go without saying, but it must be understood. Stephen’s life was rooted in the gospel. He was full of faith, full of power, full of wisdom, and not for one moment did he turn his back on his belief in the gospel. He remained faithful to the bitter end. When you believe the gospel fully and wholeheartedly, you can have the boldness and courage to stand up for that belief even in the darkest of times. What kind of testimony do you have that shows the power of the gospel in your life? Can you share it with someone in a manner that God’s glory will show through in your life?

Conclusion:

I became a Christian at a young age, and like many people my age as soon as i left home, I decided to venture out on my own and do my own thing. I fell into addiction after addiction through most of my young adult life. I could have cared less if I set foot in another church again, and like many my age, church held no value to me. I didn’t want to go to some place that I was going to be told how bad I was, I new exactly what kind of person I was. Then one day, I felt something was missing in my life. There had to be something better. What was I missing? God. I had completely removed God in my life because I didn’t see the value in organized religion. But God in His infinite mercy reached down to me and pulled me out of the life I had been living, and showed me a better way, and here I stand today by nothing but the grace of God.

Have you seen that in your life? It can only happen by placing your faith in Jesus Christ.