Stephen: The First Martyr of the Christian Church, Part 2

BRING/READ/THINK/PRAY

Last week we took up the story of Stephen. Stephen was a deacon and a preacher. Those two tasks do not normally go together, but in Stephen’s case they did. And like many prophets before him, and like many preachers after him, Stephen’s faithful, clear, accurate, God-centered and convicting sermons got him into trouble. People did not like hearing the truth anymore then than they do now.

Well, now Stephen is before the Sanhedrin. He is called upon to defend himself, to explain his actions. The charges were these:

Charges against Stephen:

Making blasphemous statements about Moses

Making blasphemous statements about God

Undermining the OT law

Stephen is called upon to give a defense of these statements. What say you, Stephen? Do you stand by what you said? Do you really believe what you said? Stephen didn’t really do any of these things. But you know how when someone important makes a big important speech and someone takes some statements out of context? And then the news gets ahold of those statements and plays them on a loop? That’s kind of what’s going on here. By that point it really doesn’t matter at all what Stephen actually meant; what matters is that he said it, and how it was interpreted.

Stephen is standing in the center of a large amphitheater surrounded by the most powerful religious leaders in Jerusalem. They’re old, and they have beards. And they’re wagging their heads at you and whispering about you. Finally, the high priest who presides over the council stands up. The room goes dead silent. And he says to you? “Are these things so?”

Here’s my question to you: how would you respond? For Stephen, it was a divine opportunity. Stephen decides to tell them God’s story of redemption. And as he does so, he reminds us of four things.

We need to be reminded of biblical events and people we’ve heard about all our lives

The first thing he reminds us of is that we need to be reminded of biblical events and people we’ve heard about all our lives. Here’s why I say that and how I get that from this text. Look with me not just at verse two but verses 2-8:

Acts 7:2–8 ESV

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.

So he starts with Abraham, goes through the call of Abraham to leave his country and go to the promised land, talks about the sojournings of Abraham and his family and ends with Abraham’s genealogy up through Jacob and the 12 patriarchs. And then he does it again in later verses starting Joseph through Joshua up through David.

Why are we hearing about this? We know about Abraham and Moses and Joshua and Joseph and David. We learned about all of these guys in Sunday School, for crying out loud.

But if that’s what you’re thinking, consider this: so did the men who he’s telling the story too.

Remember where he is: before the Sanhedrin. Remember who’s on the Sanhedrin: high priests and scribes and other religious leaders. These are the biblical scholars, the theologians, the pastors. And for some reason he thinks they need to hear these stories. Why? Because they know the stories one way, but Stephen wants them to see him his way - the right way. They needed to read the stories correctly, with an understanding that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and David the way that points to Christ, the Christ they have rejected.

They needed to see that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Joshua and David — that all of these men point to Jesus, the better Abraham, the true Joshua, the better David. They need to understand that without Christ in the picture of the whole Bible, even the OT, there’s nothing but moralism - be good, don’t be bad; be like Abraham, not Lot; be like Joshua and Caleb, not the unbelieving spies. Every person, every event, every institution, and ever law and verse in the OT points forward to and has its fulfillment somehow in the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Messiah, the Son of God.

Chuck Swindoll tells a story about a pastor named Dr. Louis Evans. Dr. Evans was the pastor at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He was preaching to a group of college students one night and Dr. Swindoll was there. Dr. Evans was talking about how if we don’t believe parts of Scripture we don’t like, or if we fail to see Christ therein, we’ve missed the point.

So one night he’s preaching and he says, “you know what, if you don’t believe the virgin birth really happened, then you should have some integrity and tear those pages out of your Bible. If you don’t believe Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, rip those pages out. If you don’t believe the resurrection of Christ, rip it out.

And he actually did that as he was talking. It was powerful. He ripped out the pages of his Bible and threw them over the edge of the pulpit as he proclaimed the truthfulness of Scripture. Now lest you think he was being irreverent toward the word of God, you need to know the point of this, and here it is. After he was finished, he paused, lifted up the tattered Bible, as fragments of paper continued to drift downward, said this: “What do you have left? All you have left is the Sermon on the Mount, and it’s not worth anything unless a divine Christ preached it.” And with that he closed his sermon.

It had an impact, because dozens of young men in the congregation stood up and asked him to keep preaching and teaching. There is power in the word of God if and only if we see that Christ is the blazing center of it. [Swindoll, p52]

Jesus himself said this. Jesus himself said we should read the Bible this way. Talking to this same group of men that Stephen is talking to, he said this: John 5:39-40

John 5:39–40 ESV

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

We tend to think of those stories like the ark and the red sea as Sunday Schools stories, stories we tell children but not of much value for us. We fail to see how Jesus is on every page. And that is why we need to be reminded of the things and stories and people in the Bible that we’ve been hearing about all our lives.

We need to be reminded that our church involvement does not save us from our sins

The second thing Stephen’s speech shows us we need to be reminded of is that our church involvement does not save us.

I ask again: Who was Stephen preaching to? It always helps to know your audience. Who was in the audience? The Sanhedrin (there’s an image for you). Again, priests, religious leaders, scribes. And what do we know about how those guys tended to think about their relationship with God? Their relationship with God was, in their eyes, something that was automatic. “Of course we’re in right relationship with God - we’re Israelites, the chosen people! God and us - we’re good, just because we’re Jews and not Gentiles.” Their attitude was the attitude of the Pharisee praying in the temple in the parable Jesus told. Remember him? Luke 18:9-12

Luke 18:9–12 ESV

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

It’s legalism. Do you know what legalism is? Legalism is not working really hard to obey God’s commands. Legalism is working to obey God’s commands in order to get Him to accept you.

No, things don’t work that way. No one in the first century was in right relationship with God simply because they were a Jew. And no one in 2022 is in right relationship with God simply because you go to church, or pay your tithes, or serve on a committee, or occupy a position of leadership. Those are good things, things precious to God. That’s what faithfulness as a church member looks like.

But as good as those things are, none of those things will make you right with God. Faith alone makes a person right with God. If you have trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are already right with God, He already accepts you, He already considers you — yes, you! — to be completely innocent and morally perfect. And that is why you obey God — not so that He’ll think highly of you, but because for Christ’s sake He already does.

This is how it works. Remember the parable earlier? “I thank you, God, that I’m not like other men…?” Here’s how the rest of it goes. Luke 18:10-14

Luke 18:10–14 ESV

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

We need to be reminded that our church involvement does not save us from our sins.

We also need to be reminded that Jesus is our Lord, not church buildings, budgets or traditions.

We need to be reminded that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, not church buildings, budgets, or traditions

Now how do we see this in Stephen’s message? Remember, that’s always the question we ask. This is the THINK part. Ask yourself, Is what Pastor Dustin is saying lining up with what we see in the text?

I think if you’ll look with me at verses 44-50 you’ll see what I see. First just look with me at verses 44-48: Acts 7:44-48

Acts 7:44–48 ESV

“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,

Moses and the Israelites built the tabernacle. David wanted to build the temple, Solomon actually did build the temple, but — and here’s the point — God was never confined to the temple. And that is what the Jewish leaders were always so prone to forget. Which is why Stephen adds verses 28-29: Acts 7:47-50

Acts 7:47–50 ESV

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?’

Thom Rainer wrote a book recently about leading change in the church.[1] He opened the book with a story about a pastor who committed what was for his church an unpardonable sin – he moved the pulpit. He began to think that his traditional, wooden pulpit was more of a hindrance than a help. He felt like it communicated too much separation between himself and his church. So he made a bold move – he moved it, and replaced it with a small lectern that was hardly noticeable.

Within 24 hours his email inbox blew up with responses. Some were kind, some were downright un-Christian. One person even said, “What you have done is heretical! You ought to be ashamed of yourself. I think we need to call a vote of confidence about you.” The pastor said, “I really can’t believe the members were so preoccupied with something like a pulpit. I don’t think they would have been as upset if I had preached heresy in my sermon. It just makes no sense.” The next Sunday the old pulpit was brought back in, but was too late; the damage had been done. [1]Thom Rainer, Who Moved My Pulpit? Leading Change in the Church (Nashville: B&H, 2016), pp. 5ff.

This is what we pastors call “sacred cows”. A sacred cow is something in our church or in your life or mine that is good but it has become too important. Like the temple for the Israelites - it was good, it was a tremendous blessing, it was where God had provided for the Israelites to come and sacrifice and worship and pray and encounter His presence.

But it wasn’t ultimate. It was never intended to substitute for the real thing. God is the real thing - He alone is ultimate - at the end of the day, He is all that matters.

For the church we read about, the pulpit was the sacred cow. The pulpit is good. It’s necessary. It’s usually well-crafted and has sentimental value because it’s been in place for decades. But the pulpit isn’t ultimate. And it certainly shouldn’t be the reason for firing a pastor or splitting a church. That’s when you know something has become a sacred cow. The pulpit is there to serve the preacher as He preaches the word of God, and that is what really matters.

For some churches it’s the building, or the budget, or time-honored traditions. You change these things up and some folks actually will question your salvation. That’s when you know what your sacred cow is.

Then again, you might not know what it is. You know why you might not know what the sacred cow is here? Because: You usually don’t discover what it is until someone tries to change it.

Everything’s going along ok until we show up for church and the order of service is different or the flowers have been moved. Or maybe this happens at home. I happen to know that Joel Sanders rearranges his entire house about every 48 hours. Those kinds of things can cause frustration. But when they induce anger, when they cause us to fly off the handle and treat our fellow church members or spouses like they’re our enemies, you have discovered your sacred cow.

If that happens to you, two things: 1) it’s normal, because we don’t like change; we’re creatures of habit. But 2) pause for a moment, and realize that the anger you feel is an indication that whatever it is you’re angry about has grown bigger in your mind than it should be. Take it to the Lord. Paul says “be angry, and yet do not sin”. Tell him how you feel. Pour your frustration out to Him rather than dumping it on someone else.

Because here’s the thing about dumping your anger on someone: you might be able to get it off your chest and then go about your day and not think about it again, but the person you just tore apart won;’t be able to put it away so easily. It’ll ring through their head all day, perhaps wisely. The lesson here? Jesus is our Lord and Savior, not buildings, or budgets, or traditions. Those are secondary things. May we never be known as a church that fights over trivial things. If we’re going to fight, let’s fight for the the truthfulness of Scripture; let’s fight for the exclusivity of salvation through Christ; let’s fight for the unborn. Don’t fight over secondary things.

We need to be reminded that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, not budgets, buildings, or traditions.

We need to be reminded of the persistent goodness of God despite our repeated sin

Stephen tells the history of Israel from Abraham all the way up to David and the temple. The history of Israel is also the history of God’s dealings with Israel. The history of Israel is the history of God entering into covenant relationship with one particular nation, showing steadfast love and mercy to them despite their sin. The entire pattern of the OT is that the Lord reaches down in love and mercy and shows grace, but Israel rejects Him.

And that pattern of rejecting God when He would reach down to them in grace —it started early. Stephen tells it started with Moses in Egypt. You can see it for yourself if you’ll look with me at verses 23-29: Acts 7:23-29

Acts 7:23–29 ESV

“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.

So God has called this man Moses to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt, and literally as soon as he gets to work to fulfill that call, the rejection begins. It continues once he’s led them out of the promised land. In fact, cerses 35-41 are a resume of sorts of the many ways God used Moses to help and love and deliver the Israelites.

“This man led them out”, Stephen proclaims, “performing wonders in signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years” (Acts 7:36 ESV). “This is the Moses,” Stephen proclaims, “who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers’” (Acts 7:37 ESV). “This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai” (Acts 7:38a). He gave you the law, that perfect treasure of instruction from heaven itself. “He received living oracles to give to us.”

And how did Israel respond? They took all the jewelry and gold God had given them in Egypt and melted it down and with that melted gold they built for themselves a giant golden cow and bowed down to it and begin to worship. They did this as Moses was on the mountain receiving the law of God to give to them. Stephen explains it like this in verse 39: “Our fathers refused to obey him, but” — notice this image here — “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’” (Acts 7:39-40 ESV).

Eventually the Lord rejected His people Israel. He disciplined them by giving them over to more and more idolatry. He disciplined them by allowing foreign nations to come and sweep them away. But always— always — the door of grace was open to any individual Israel who would come to Him in faith and repentance.

Conclusion and call for response

And that door is open today, too, church. In Hebrews 3:7-9 we’re told this: Heb 3:7-9

Hebrews 3:7–9 ESV

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.

Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. He’s calling to you in love and mercy. He knows what you did yesterday and what you’ll do today. He knows the depths of your sin and mine far better than you and I do, and He still loves us. With His penetrating vision He sees straight through our masks and disguises to the darkest parts of our hearts and minds that we would be ashamed if anyone knew. He does that and still He does not turn away from you in disgust. He shows you and I persistent goodness and love despite our repeated sin.

How can He do that? How can a just and holy God pardon our sin and still be just and holy? He can do that because His Son willingly bore that sin and guilt that was hours by standing in our place, dying in our place on the cross. He now offers us sinners His perfect, spotless righteousness. Don’t you want that?

Maybe it’s just me. I know my own heart better than any of you do. When I think that Jesus has taken my sin from me and offered me His perfect robe of righteousness in its place, it’s so good it sounds like it can’t be true. But it is. And I suspect there are those of you this morning who need to be reminded of this. Or maybe to hear it for the first time. To respond to it — to respond to Him, in faith and repentance, for the first time.

If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, then you need this righgteousness. God will require righteousness of us on the day of judgment. He is a righteous God. That’s not Him being difficult to work with. That’s Him being God. He is a righteous God.

And right now, before that day comes, you have time to make a choice: will you dare to stand before God and claim that your own righteousness is enough? “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight”, the Bible says, “since through the law comes the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20 ESV). Or will you receive Christ’s righteousness today by trusting in Him as your Lord and Savior?