Falsely accused
Notes
Transcript
Falsely accused
Falsely accused
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 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. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 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, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 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.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
As we are looking at the early church being established by God in Jerusalem, we are about to see the story take a drastic turn. It is gonna seem like things are about to go really bad and yet we are going to see just how glorious God really is, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Why should we care about this story? What is there for us to learn from that may actually help us know more about God?
let me give you a little context before jumping into the text.
last week Pastor David taught about the beginning of an office in the church called the Deaconate, or Deacons. These are people that were called upon to help serve the spiritual leaders of the church. And while in this first introduction to this new structure in the church was instituted by the Apostles, it is carried on by an office called Elders now.
The distinction between the two offices of Elder and Deacon is basically this - Elders are to give special attention to prayer and ministry of the word. They provide oversight and shepherding of the people at large and individuals in matters of spiritual growth and care for their souls. Elders affirm the doctrines of the church and uphold the preaching of the gospel in a manner that equips the people of the church for doing the work of the ministry. This office is exclusively held by men at the direction of the Lord in the creation of the church and its offices, and this is found in the scriptures and based in the order of creation as a whole..
Deacons are people within the church who are shown to be faithful to the doctrine of the church, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.These are people of good reputation who desire to serve the body of Christ by taking care of any physical services that are not a matter of spiritual need. This does not imply that deacon are less spiritual than elders, but it does mean that their primary work will look more hands on in serving physical needs. As we saw last week these people were called to help distribute food to widows.
I hope that helps clear up this two offices. I just wanted to give us a context for what we are hearing today. The other important part in the establishment of this office for the church as it grew, had to do with serving people in the church that had different backgrounds.
let’s look at that real quick in order to get this passage right that w have before us today.
1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
acts6.1
The important information to understand here is that the church at this point was only Jews who had been converted to believing in Jesus as the Christ. And while it was only Jews, there are different kinds of Jews. The first distinction we see in scripture is this here where the Hellenists argued with the Hebrews.
At that time in world history much of the world spoke Greek. There is a lot of world history here but what we need to know is that the culture at the time of this writing is taking place in Jerusalem, Israel in the middle east. Non religious people spoke Aramaic, Jews spoke Hebrew, and yet they were all under Roman occupation which was an empire that spoke both Latin and Greek. Greek was widely accepted as an international language at that time, and Romans, Jews and non Jews usually spoke it in some way. People with this background of greek speaking and yet were Jews would’ve been referred to as Hellenists. So these people in Acts that are Hellenists are Jews who do not primarily speak Hebrew. It is the first people group that were distinct from a Jew who spoke Hebrew primarily, like all the disciples and Apostles were up to this point.
It is very important that we understand this as a God ordained barrier that would be overcome by the gospel.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In the establishment of the early church it was well known that the Jews were the first to handle the gospel message before it spread. And today I am pointing out to you the beginning of the spreading of the gospel to those who are different from the original crowd that handled the gospel. These people were Jews but they spoke differently and probably had some different cultural traditions. That made them come at odds with others in the church, and yet God exposed it and gave them wisdom in creating a structure to address the needs as this problem presented itself to them.
All that being said, we have Stephen before us today. He was one of these original deacons that the Apostles picked out and set aside for service in the church. If you do a study on Stephen you will find out that he was a Hellenists himself, meaning he was a Jew who primarily spoke Greek. Know that and understand a few things about our text today that I will point out as we move through it, we will see that this false accusation that he faces are part of a divine plan from a sovereign God who is about to show his glory in many ways.
The first thing I believe we are meant to learn from this text is this...
God plans hard things for HIS purpose, ON purpose.
God plans hard things for HIS purpose, ON purpose.
This is what it means for God to be sovereign over all things, including suffering.
It would be easy for us to read this story and see miracles, and then see evil people lying about Stephen, and make it mean something to us about a different gospel, and miracles signs and wonders gospel. That would miss the glorious truth revealed in scripture which is God’s sovereign decree in controlling all of life and using hard things like suffering for his glory.
Let’s remember that Scripture is primarily about God. What can we learn about our God from this story today? Let’s look at it.
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 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.
acts6.8
Ok, Before we get too far into the story here, understand what is being said.
Stephen is doing great wonders and signs… He is Full of Grace and power.
Where does this power come from? The Holy Spirit! Remember
8 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.”
Clearly Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit. we also know this because of what we learned last week about him...
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.
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.
acts6.
Even in the separating out of these new deacons for service we see Stephen mentioned as someone who is full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
So we are seeing someone other than the Apostles working miracles. Now… don’t let this derail you into thinking, “See, miracles are for everyone in the church to do.” There needs to be a lot more than just this verse to build a teaching in the church that everyone can and should be doing miracles.
So, if that isn’t what is happening here, then what is? Let’s look...
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 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.
What is the Synagogue of the Freedmen? What is actually happening here, and who is involved?
Well as I studied this, I could tell you the history of this synagogue, but for the sake of time and all we really need to know is this. This Synagogue was a temple where Jews who didn’t speak Hebrew and had formerly been captive to the romans in other places outside of Jerusalem, were now gathered to worship. Are you seeing the connection yet? they were Hellenists, like the widows that were being overlooked by the other Jews, like Stephen himself was.
This was a whole synagogue or temple full of people who had not yet recieved the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are essentially an unreached people group that Stephen is wanting to preach the gospel too. And why should anyone in this synagogue listen to this guy?
Stephen primary service was not in this synagogue, it was in the Jerusalem church. This is a synagogue for Jews who speak Greek and are from different parts of the world. There is nothing here to suggest that they knew who this Stephen guy was.
So with that thought in mind, if you have been with us through some of this sermon series on Acts, what would be the most logical and consistent with the rest of scripture answer to the objection, “why should we listen to someone who says they know some truth about God that we need to know?”
Miracles, signs and wonders...
Miracles validate the message
Miracles validate the message
It was a pattern for the NT church when it was being established that God would allow these men to work signs and wonders as a means of getting the attention of people in order to open their hearts to hear the message of the gospel.
Thats why it says he was doing great wonders and signs AMONG THE PEOPLE… He wasn’t performing signs and wonders in some secluded place, it was among the people. But what people? The people at the synagogue of the Freedmen. So the next verse says, Some of those in that synagogue, people from all over, different people groups that considered themselves Jews, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
Stephen was at their synagogue preaching the gospel and performing signs and wonders and this caused some to want to disprove him. But they couldn’t...
10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
acts6.
Quick note for those of you who are new to reading your bible. Whenever you see the word spirit and the S is capitalized, it is meaning the Holy Spirit. So Stephen is answering their questions with wisdom and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If he was just make fine sounding arguments using the logic of man, they would be able to deconstruct his words and prove that he is not speaking for God, and so his signs and wonders are not a means by which God is trying to show these people a new understanding of himself. But they can’t do that.
The word for withstand in the greek means they couldn’t stand against his Wisdom and the Holy Spirit speaking through him.
Isn’t it amazing that they saw signs and wonders he did among the people and then they couldn’t win an argument against him!
You would think that it would then be enough for them to believe the message he spoke, but it wasn’t.
11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
Instead of believing the gospel Stephen preached to them they Falsely accuse him. They meet secretly with others and plan to lie.
So not only do they not believe the signs and wonders he does, or the message he preaches, they actually decide to maliciously lie about him in order to get him in trouble. Why? It doesn’t seem to make sense to us when we read this, but remember we are believers. we are those who God has opened our hearts to receive this Gospel message. We have been made new in him and have a regenerated spirit within us. What am I saying?
Even miracles that validate the gospel message make no sense to those who are spiritually dead.
Even miracles that validate the gospel message make no sense to those who are spiritually dead.
We have to understand our true state of being before God makes us new in Christ. The bible declares that we are dead in sin. That is the only thing that makes sense because we would read this and ask, “How can they not believe?”
Yet we would be quick to forget that there was a time when we didn’t believe either. It took something beyond our own reasoning to get us to a place where we would believe.
It took the work of another and the gift of God to give us faith to believe, and all this is because God is rich in mercy and full of great love...
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
eph2.1-
If God had not first awakened our hearts and brought us from death unto life, we would still be spiritually dead and unable to believe, just like these men were.
That is why, when people in the modern church try to say that every christian should be exercising miracles and signs and wonders, doesn’t understand the gospel at all.
Miracles or only ever used to grab the attention of people so that the gospel can be preached. And even then there are those who will not believe, because they are not converted by what they see, and they refuse to believe what they hear. This is because they are spiritually dead until God decides to awaken their heart. And when he does, we realize it is only by grace that we are saved, because of God not us.
So if this is true, and it is… then what that means about this story, is that God knew these men wouldn’t believe and yet planned for this to happen because he has a plan. Because remember...
God plans hard things for HIS purpose, ON purpose
God plans hard things for HIS purpose, ON purpose
We need to see how God is orchestrating something here. We are not at the place where we need to apply any part of this story to our lives yet, because we are only in the middle of it. So don’t use 1 or 2 verses to show how we are all supposed to be doing signs and wonders. Let’s finish the story.
12 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, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 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.”
acts6.12
Unbelievable! They are lying! Not only have the trumped up charges against him, they are bold face lying.
“He never ceases to speak against this holy place and the law”??? Never ceases… C’mon...
But why should we be surprised that they hate his message. Could it be that they took part of what he said and are making it out as if he said things that he didn’t say, in an effort to have him punished because they are sore that they couldn’t withstand his wisdom when they argued with him?
They are jealous and angry and twisting his words, and just plain lying.
They are not mentioning and signs and wonders he did among the people, and they are not giving an accurate representation of what he actually said, so they lie. Next week we are going to hear Stephen’s rebuttal to these charges, and he will show that he fully understands and respects the Law. But here he is quietly listening to his accusers.
And notice what they are sighting as his sins...
vs.11 - Blasphemous words against Moses and God
vs.13 - speaking against the Temple and the Law
vs.14 - he said Jesus will destroy this place and get rid of the customs Moses delivered
Now this may seem crazy because we know that he wasn’t saying these things and they secretly meet and made it all up, yet it isn’t a coincidence that these were the charges. Here is what I mean.
Hold the thought of Moses and God being blasphemed because that is the best one. Think about speaking against the temple and the law.
If Stephen was preaching the gospel to Jews, then he was probably teaching them that Jesus is himself the fulfillment of the message of the OT.
“Jesus fulfills the Sinai covenant and is himself the true temple. Thus, it’s not that Stephen was saying that the law and the temple should be abandoned. The law and temple were signposts that pointed to the Messiah.”
AL Mohler
Preaching the gospel means helping people see that everything in scripture testifies to him and jesus is the true temple and the real fulfillment of the law of God.
But what about how he was preaching that Jesus taught he would destroy the temple and replace the customs of Moses?
Well this was answered when Jesus himself was accused of the same thing, and it was explained that he was talking about his body being destroyed and it would then be raised three days later. And did Jesus teach that it was time to get rid of what Moses taught them? NO, not exactly. Listen to what John MacArthur said about this...
“Stephen, like the apostles, had proclaimed that Jesus as the fulfillment of all the Old Covenant ritual typified. The New Covenant, prophesied by Jeremiah (), had superceded the Old. The moral law had not changed, but the ceremonial law was done away with.”
“Reality had replaced the ritual” - John MacArthur
“Reality had replaced the ritual” - John MacArthur
Flesh and blood came and did what they couldn’t do, and this offended them because they had no control over this message. It is a message that gives hope to those who are struggling and striving to work a way to God that they earned and can feel proud about.
The ritual they were working and forcing others into submission to, was being used to make much of them. The message of the Gospel is one of freedom to those who would have worked their finger to the bone and yet still not qualified for the blessings of God, because Reality… Flesh and Blood, the God-Man Jesus Christ had fulfilled every ritual and set us all free from the power of sin!
They hated this message then, and people still do to this day.
But remember I said hold the thought of blaspheming against Moses and God… Look at the next verse...
15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
acts6
Now, In this translation is says Stephens face was like an angel. And yet when we study this and see the original words we get the understanding that his face was shining.
Angels appearing to people were always fearsome creatures and many times they are glowing bright. And in some of your bibles there will be a little letter or number next the word face, because the idea here in scripture is cross referenced with other places where people see angels and at least one place in that talk about a face shining.
It is widely believed that his face was glowing, and that is what is meant by his face was like an angel. Well, So what… Thats weird but what is the big deal?
Remember I said that said he blasphemed Moses and God… Well these are the only other places where we see someones face glowing that isn’t an angel.
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
Moses had a face that was glowing because he was talking to God… But they said He was blaspheming Moses and God...
Well what better way for God to show these people that Stephen was not speaking on his own but was receiving validation from heaven. and all this happens right before their eyes. Stephen doesn’t leave and come back and start glowing, he does it right in front of them.
It is as if God is showing them that he is with Stephen in the midst of his suffering. and that is that thing I believe we should be gaining comfort from in this passage...
God is with his people in the midst of suffering
God is with his people in the midst of suffering
God see Stephen in front of his accusers, and he hears the charges. He now proves that Stephen isn’t alone.
In fact, the suffering that Stephen is going through is under the direction and decree of a sovereign God who knows how this will all end. And he is showing them all that God is with him. They accused Stephen of blasphemy against Moses and God, and yet God shows with the same sign he gave to Moses for his people that he is with this man as well. God is faithful to work things out in ways that are more then mere coincidence. All things are divinely orchestrated to glorify God… ALL THINGS!!!
I don’t think there is a greater comfort we can get from scripture, especially when we suffer in this life.
Question 1 - What does this story teach us about God?
Question 1 - What does this story teach us about God?
This needs to be a question we always ask ourselves when we read scripture, and it will be a regular part of our community groups. This is not a story about miracles that a guy named Stephen did, as much as it is about the God who placed this man here for a purpose. What does that teach us about God?
Question 2 - Why don’t people believe the gospel, even if miracles are present?
Question 2 - Why don’t people believe the gospel, even if miracles are present?
The bible is full of stories where miracles are demonstrated and yet people do not believe? Why is this? Does the Bible give us answers why this happens? And if it does, then why is the modern church obsessed with with a culture of signs and wonders?
Question 3 - Since all things are under God direction, including suffering - How can we find encouragement when we suffer?
Question 3 - Since all things are under God direction, including suffering - How can we find encouragement when we suffer?
We are not building the church in its infancy stages like these men were. We have the written word of God and 2,000 yrs of church history behind us, and they didn’t. Yet when they suffered for the cause of Christ, they had faith to trust the Lord. Do we have this same faith? Do we find encouragement from know ing this and reading these accounts? If not, then what does that say about our belief of what scripture is? Do we understand the gospel?
I want to leave you with part of the Heidelberg Catechism today, may it encourage you with Hope if you are indeed suffering today.
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,1 but belong—body and soul, in life and in death2—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.3
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,4 and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.5 He also watches over me in such a way6 that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven;7 in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.8
Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life9 and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.10