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BRING, READ, THINK, PRAY (BRTP)

When a man or a woman die willingly for their convictions, the world stops and looks.

When a person puts himself or herself in harm’s way, knowingly, when it is within their power to avoid harm, when they do so not because they were compelled by external forces to do so but rather because they were constrained by conscience, people pause and take notice.

This is what has happened in Ukraine the last few days.

But what I didn’t expect was the response of Ukrainian people.

Not only have they surprised people by the fight they’re giving Russia militarily.

They’ve surprised and inspired me by the fight ordinary Ukrainians are giving.

They’re taking up weapons and defending their homes and neighborhoods.

Essentially every male Ukrainian citizen age 18-65 has been drafted into a makeshift military.

And I don’t hear them complaining.

I hear them, saying, “Well, this isn’t what I prefer to do, I’m not a soldier or a professional killer, but I love my country, and I will stay and fight for my country.”

And it helps of course that president Zelensky has set the example.

Because not only has he asked every man between age 18 and 65 trying to cross the border, to go back into the country they’re fleeing, to leave their wives and children, and fight.

He is also doing it himself.

When the most powerful nation on earth offers to evacuate him, when he is promised safety in a free country for him and his family, he says no. “The fight is here.”

When a man or a woman die willingly for their convictions, the world stops and looks.

After all, most of the western world sees suffering and death as the thing to avoid at all costs.

And so, when people take risks that place them in harm’s way, when individuals enter situations where they’re almost certain death will be the outcome, and they didn’t have to, no one’s forcing them to, the world looks at it with a mixture of confusion and admiration.

This morning we’re looking at the final chapter in the short life of Stephen the deacon.

Stephen the deacon, who became Stephen the preacher and defender of the faith, is about to become Stephen the martyr.

In his death he provides us with a model of what it looks like to die as a Christian, because you’re a Christian.

He becomes inspiration for countless believers who later were called by God to go through the same thing.

And Stephen encourages us, because whether God calls us to be martyrs in the future or not, we all will face death.

How does a Christian face death?

#1: Stephen’s Courage

What is courage?

We think courage is the absence of fear, but it’s not.

We think that to be courageous you must face the challenge or the threat or the risk head-on, with no fear, no reservations, no hesitations.

In reality, that’s half-true.

Courage does require us to face the challenge head-on.

But it never says that we don’t do so afraid.

I’ve been moved to tears by the pastors and missionaries staying to minister to their people and help the hurt.

I’m inspired by churches opening their doors and turning their sanctuaries, like this one, into bomb shelters.

I’m inspired by Christians at the border, giving medical care and food to refugees.

I’m encouraged when I see Christian leaders calling for Ukrainian Christians to pray Psalm 31.

You know some of those guys do feel afraid.

Their decision to stay impacts their families.

And yet, knowing the risk, fearing the worst, they stay and face the threat, they look the risk head-on, and despite their apprehension, they persevere.

So this is what courage is:

Courage is the willingness to face a challenge, risk or threat head-on, despite being afraid.

Courage is the willingness to face a challenge, risk or threat head-on, despite being afraid.

So, if this is what courage is, does Stephen have courage?

Well, let’s look at the text.

I think he does have courage, and we see it in his words.

Look with me at verse 51: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you.”

Courageous words:

“stiff-necked” = you’re as stubborn as a mule!

Those are courageous words, especially when we understand what Stephen meant by them.

But first, let’s remember who he was talking to.

He’s been addressing the Sanhedrin.

He needs courage.

His words will have a cost.

This is the highest court in Israel.

There is no higher court of appeal.

These men are high priests, Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes — these are the most powerful men in Jerusalem, the most powerful men in Israel.

These are men who pride themselves on knowing the law of Moses, obeying the law of Moses, revering the temple, loving the land God had given them.

So when he says “you stiff-necked people”, he’s saying “you really don’t love and obey the law of Moses or revere the temple or love the land.

You’re stiff-necked.

You’re stubborn.”

He evokes imagery from the OT.

Many times in the OT the phrase “stiff-necked” was given to Israel.

They refused to honor God or trust Him.

They stubbornly chose their own ways rather than His.

The word is taken from the world of cattle: a mule who wouldn’t respond to the yoke.

So when he says “you stiff-necked” people, he’s saying, just like ancient Israel, you are as stubborn as a mule.

Courageous words:

“uncircumcised heart/ears” = you think you belong to God, but you really don’t!”

But there’s another set of courageous words here in the text.

He goes on after saying “you stiff-necked people”, he calls them “you uncircumcised in heart and ears.”

The act of circumcision was intended by God to identify them as His own people.

Circumcision said, “I belong to God, maker of heaven and earth.

He has entered into covenant relationship with me, and I am his.”

But just like the law and the land and the temple, circumcision had lost that meaning.

It was believed that being circumcised itself meant that you were in right relationship with God.

But circumcision is like baptism; baptism doesn’t do anything for you; it doesn’t save you or cleanse you of your sins.

It is a picture of the cleansing that has already taken place within our lives.

Baptism is a picture that we belong to God through Christ.

It’s an outward sign pointing to an inward reality.

Circumcision was the same way, but they turned it from an outward sign pointing to an inward reality and made it the reality itself.

And when Stephen says “uncircumcised in heart and ears”, he’s saying that inward reality is not there.

So both of those phrases — “stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears” — those were Stephen’s way of saying, to these very powerful men, that you think you belong to God, but you really don’t.

You do the same thing your fathers did.

They persecuted the prophets.

They killed those prophets who announced the Messiah’s coming.

And now you’ve become a traitor and a murderer of the Messiah Himself.

How are you any different?

Notice what he says in verse 51 at the end of it: “You always resist the Holy Spirit.”

And then look at verse 53: “you who received the law as delivered by angels, and did not keep it.”

I think these are courageous words.

Preachers have a history of courage.

I want to be like them.

I want to have the courage of the great revival preacher George Whitfield.

Three evenings in a row, Whitfield preached to a church in New England and he very pointedly said to his hearers: you must be born again.

There were unregenerate, unsaved in that congregation.

Like these men in Acts 7, they were deceived into thinking all was well with them and God and when it was not.

Of course the church leadership didn’t like it.

They came to him and said, “Mr.

Whitfield, why do you keep preaching, ‘You must be born again’?”