Stephen and a young man named Saul
Witness to the world: Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:07:07
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Life of a disciple
Life of a disciple
From threats to beatings, from beatings to more threats led to the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Tonight we continue our journey looking at the life, ministry and death of Stephen and the church.
A few reminders of where we are or have recently been:
Persecution of the church intensified (Act4:18-21; 5:40)
Don’t preach Jesus or else. . . .
Now you did it again, take the beating
Beating led to more bold proclaiming
Persecution became very personal (Act6:5, 8-15)
Stephen, a disciple, a man filled with the Spirit was chosen as a servant to meet the physical needs of the Hellenistic Widows.
Stephen accused, just like Jesus of blasphemy.
False witnesses spoke up and Stephen was ceased, just like Jesus.
Persecution led to proclaiming history (Act7:1-53)
Using the history of the prophets, Abraham, Joseph and Moses as well as Israels history of rebellion then and rebellion now, Stephen makes his defense.
(Transition) this now leads us to where we are today in the scripture.
54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse.
58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
But wait, there is more
1 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. 3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
Gleaning from the scripture:
Cut to the heart (Act7:54; Act2:37)
Cut to the heart, well here it led to anger and gnashing of teeth, in Act2 it led to repentance and conversion
Gazed into heaven (Act7:55-56)
He gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus “standing” at the right hand of God.
In most other places in scripture you see Jesus seated, but here Jesus is standing, wonder why?
Is it that he is standing up ready to receive Stephen?
Jesus stands in the gap for you, where sin separated you, Jesus blood cleansed you. Where you still fall short, Jesus intercedes and stands for you.
Cried out with loud voice (Act7:57; Lk23:46; Jn19:6)
Here they cried out; in Luke Jesus cried out,
With Jesus the crowd cried out “crucify Him” (Jn19:6) and it led to him being taken out of the City and crucified, with Stephen to be stoned.
Witnesses laid clothes (Act7:58, 22:20; Mk15:24)
In acts they laid clothes at the feet of a youngman named Saul
In Mk they threw dice for the clothes of Jesus
Called on God (Act7:59-60; Lk23:46)
Stephen cried out Lord Jesus receive my spirit and do not hold this sin against them, much like in Luke:
In Luke Jesus cried out Father I commit my Spirit and do not hold this sin against them.
Fell asleep; died (Act7:60-8:1; Mt27:50)
In Acts he had committed his spirit and died
In Mt Jesus gave up His spirit; yielded his spirit and died
A young consenting man named Saul (Act8:1)
We are going to get into Saul much more in a minute but what we glean from here is that he was consenting of Stephen’s death, in fact, consider he may have commissioned it.
Great persecution arose (Act8:1)
Great persecution and look what happens, the local church born in Jerusalem is scattered and is now all of Judea and Samaria!
Devout men (Act8:2; Jn19:38)
Devout men carried off Stephen just as did with Jesus, Joseph and Nicodemus.
(Transition) - - - Stephen’s death was the first of many, even many in the N.T. you can look at
A few scriptures to take note of
Paul confessed other deaths (Act22:4, 26:9-11)
4 “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,
And then check this out
9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
As you know there have been many Christians who have died for the name of Jesus, not just then but today. we are blessed that to this time for the post part we have not had to endure this here in the United States.
We may face some persecutions and when we do, if we do, may we have the the composure of Stephen
Stephens composure (Act6:15)
15 And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.
and have the forgiving spirit like Jesus and Stephen. we are called by Jesus to be faithful unto death and there is a promise attached to it, check out
Jesus warning, promise (Rev2:10)
10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
(Transition) - now I want to change our focus from the death of Stephen to a youngman named Saul.
A young man named Saul
A young man named Saul
So, there is much we can learn from scripture about a youngman named Saul who becomes the least of the Apostles, Paul.
So, quickly, Stephen died and a great persecution arose (8:1) and the disciples are scattered, except for the Apostles
1 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him.
3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
Want to look at Saul’s early life, Saul the persecutor and will save his conversion for another day.
Early life,training of Saul
Early life,training of Saul
Saul had a good pedigree, background and while see the heartily agreement may we look at how he came to that point, what led him, trained him to be a persecutor of the church.
Ancestry (Act21:39, 22:3 2Cor11:22; Rom11:1; Php3:5; Act22:25-29)
Born in Tarsus
39 But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”
Tarsus was capital city in Cilicia a Roman province in SE Asia Minor (modern day Turkey)
Tarsus was known for its culture, its learning and some considered it to be be more advanced than that of Athens an Alexandria according to historian Strabo in his geographical book on Cilicia.
3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.
Born a Jew, brought up and trained under Gamaliel in a very strict discipline of the law. He called himself zealous for God. Why? Heritage, upbringing mattered.
Born of Jewish ancestry
He was a Jew, a Hebrew, an Israelite oft he seed of Abraham (i.e. 2Cor11:22); in Rom11:1 look what more we learn about this youngman named Saul.
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was from the tribe of Benjamin, which was considered the smallest tribe according to the numbers collected by the forefathers
He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, meaning both parents were Hebrews (consider Php3:5)
(Transition) - - - still there is more to learn from his ancestry and early life and training
Born a Roman citizen
Look at Act22:25-29 with me
25 But when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.”
27 The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” 28 The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”
29 Therefore those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.
While Tarsus may have been considered a free city, not under oppression of Rome, it did not necessarily mean just by being there you were Roman citizen.
It would be common that unless from Rome that someone had to purchase, buy your citizenship or earn it by service to Rome.
So, someone in Saul’s heritage purchased citizenship and that is why Saul was born a Roman Citizen.
the Date of Birth is not known for sure, many commentators but it on or about the time of Jesus birth.
Education (Act22:3, 5:34-40, 26:4-5; Php3:5-6; Act23:6; Gal1:13-14)
Studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel a well respected man, teacher of the Law.
He was a Pharisisee and became what we would call a legalist. He trained under his father who was a Pharisee too.
5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Add to that
6 But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, “Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!”
He excelled above his contemporaries (see Gal1:13-14)
His character (Php3:6; 2Tim1:3; Act23:1; 1Tim1:12-13)
As noted before he was a persecutor of the church and was zealous about it. Blameless in the law.
He served God with a pure conscience
3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day,
He was ignorant of his blasphemy and persecution. Check out this passage
12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;
(Transition): With a hearty approval of Stephen’s death that came about with his ancestry, his education and his character we see a young man named Saul as a persecutor of the church.
Persecutor of the church
Persecutor of the church
Saul was there and participated in death of Stephen (Act7:57-8:1) and consented to the death, but it did not stop there. A youngman named Saul was a persecutor of the church and may we look at some of that for a few minutes.
Making havoc (Act8:3; Act22:19; Act26:9-11; Act9:1-2)
3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
NASB, NKJV uses the word havoc, NIV uses destroy, I think you can get the picture of it. You can see more on Paul retelling of this in Act22:19 if you want to look. But I do want to look at another passage.
9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.
11 “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
Paul the converted, the coveted, the prisoner looking back to share his preconversion life. He did many things that we contrary to the name of Jesus.
Imprisoning believers, casting votes to bring them to death.
Compelling them to blaspheme
And, hunted them down, pursued them (check out Act9:1-2, oh wait, never mind, let me give it to you.
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
(Transition): have you ever been rooted, grounded, dead set in a way and something happened and suddenly you are changed and heading another direction, making changed, adjusting, changing your thinking and your actions along the way? - that is what our transformation process is about. A youngman named Saul, a zealot with a clear conscience after the Damascus road changed and started making changes including attitude too.
Making changes (Gal1:13; Php3:16; 1Tim1:13; 1Cor15:9)
From persecuting the church beyond measure in an effort to destroy it (see Gal1:13)
He had great zeal (Php3:6) was a blasphemer himself, as well as a persecutor and an insolent man (see 1Tim1:13)
And changed his attitude and view, check this out
9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
(transition) - humility; Saul the persecutor, the zealot with a clear conscience now is a humble man who did not even feel worthy to be an apostle. How about you? Did you think you have life under control and all was well and then you had your heart pricked by the Lord and you were humbled?
A youngman named Saul went from being a persecutor of the church to a preacher for the the church
What changes has God made in you, is making in you?
Paul attributed the changes to the grace and mercy of God.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
God’s grace, God’s mercy, changed and is with you when you are His!
A youngman named Saul’s history prior to his conversion prepared him for the task the Lord gave him.
His heritage prepared him to carry the message to Jews and to gentiles
His training and education prepared him to make a defence of the gospel
(Transition) your heritage, your history, your training, your education has prepared you for a day such as today (expand on this)
May we close tonight with a passage that is worthy of acceptance.
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
(Encouragement slide - Mercy and grace -2) God’s mercy and grace in you and through will transform you, conform you and perfect you in Christ Jesus, it will continually cleanse you and make your light shine brighter so can be an attracted to others! It changed a youngman named Saul, and will change you, for He is faithful to complete the good work in you (see Php1:6)
(Prayer slide) prayer (exit slide)