Sermon Tone Analysis

When Hope Turns to Sight

Stephen was the first Christian martyr, the first one to give his life, to die for faith in Jesus Christ.

Many others would follow, including the apostles and the fathers of the church early on and through the centuries, and to this very day there are men and women who are laying down their lives for the Gospel, who are taking up the cross and following Jesus all the way, even if it means death.

Stephen was a godly deacon.

He was not an apostle; he was not a member of the apostle band, the disciple band who were with Jesus, he was not a preacher or a pastor-teacher.

He was a godly devoted deacon.

A lay person who served the Lord and took the assignment that God had given him and did it well.

And then God gave him more and more opportunity to share the faith.

We're told that Stephen was a man full of the Spirit; he was full of faith; he was full of wisdom.

He had a good reputation.

He was a mighty man.

But in saying all of that, Stephen was a very ordinary man.

He was not a spiritual hero at the outset.

Instead he was as I said, serving the Lord behind the scenes.

He was ministering with mercy to people who needed his help.

But what set Stephen apart was his courage, and his character.

He lived a short life.

He was a relatively young man when he died, stoned to death.

But he leaves a long, long legacy.

We're still talking about him today.

And so, we're going to pick up really at the conclusion of what happened to Stephen in Acts chapter 7, beginning at verse 54, "Now when they heard these things they were enraged".

What things?

Stephen had preached a powerful and persuasive message regarding Christ, and so they were enraged with they heard these things, "and they ground their teeth at him.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God".

Don't gaze at your problems.

Glance at your problems; gaze at the Lord.

"And he looked up into heaven and he 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 he cried out with a loud voice, falling to his knees, 'Lord, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.'

And when he had said this, he fell asleep".

There are three chapters in this story in this message that I want to mention to you.

The first one in this profile of courage and faith, and faithfulness, is what I want to simply call the chapter on character, because this man was a man who was filled with integrity.

Filled with the Spirit, filled with faith, filled with wisdom and this comprised his character.

Now character is a sum total of the choices that we make in life.

And so when Stephen chose to follow Christ he was not a part of the original group, the 120 in the first chapter of Acts.

He most likely was someone who came to faith on the day of Pentecost.

He was baptized and became a part of the church.

He spoke Greek and thus his name is a Greek name, Stephanos or Stephen.

And so he is a part of this family of God now, and he is chosen because he is a man of good reputation.

Acts chapter 6 tells us that these deacons, these godly men were selected and set apart and he was one of these men, and it appears to be the servant-leader among these deacons.

But he was not a character, he had character!

A great reputation.

Somebody said that character is what you are in the dark, and that's true.

Another person said, glibly, well, the character is when you can sell your pet parrot to the town gossip!

That's character!

All right?

That's what you are when nobody is looking, or no one else is listening.

And Stephen was a man like that, and so are we to be people of character.

It's interesting to me that his character shows up on his countenance.

In Acts chapter 6, and verse 15, there's a remarkable verse of Scripture there which tells us as he is speaking that his face is shining like an angel.

There was something supernatural about this man.

His very presence radiated the Lord, and there was the character of joy and peace and the greatness of his life, and the godliness of his spirit.

This is what was shining.

Everything that was on the inside was showing up on the outside.

Well, we ought to always reflect the beauty of holiness.

That's character.

You can lose your health, you can lose your wealth, you can lose your strength, you can lose your beauty, you can lose even your mind, but we must not lose our character.

You can keep your character.

Character never depreciates over time.

In fact the Apostle Paul said, 2 Corinthians 4:16, "The inner person is being renewed every day".

That we are strengthened day after day.

So nothing takes longer in your life to build than your character resulting in your reputation.

But let me also remind you that nothing could be destroyed quicker than your character by a single stoke of sin, so we must always be on guard to maintain our character and our integrity.

The world celebrates success; the world celebrates beauty; the world celebrates money and all the rest, but let us celebrate character.

Let us celebrate the devotion of a godly life.

And you say, how do you live like this?

How you develop this kind of character?

He was full of the Spirit.

In fact, three times, you can read it, three times in these passages we're told that Stephen was full of the Spirit, full of the Spirit, full of the Spirit!

And to be full of the Spirit means that we live in the fullness and the freshness of the blessing of God, that we live in the abundance of Christ who lives in us.

The Scripture commands us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Holy Spirit which means to be controlled by the Spirit.

We are to be continually, conspicuously, controlled by the Spirit of God who lives in us.

"Christ in us" is the secret to life, living life with character.

it's the fruit of the Spirit which is recorded in Galatians 5:22 and 23: "For the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control and faithfulness".

This is the fruit of the Spirit which is really representative of the character of Christ in us.

You look at the fruit of the Spirit there: love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest, that's a portrait of Christ.

Christ in us produces these great virtues, these great qualities which represents the character of Jesus who lives in us!

So we're not talking about human behavior modification or just doing the best we can to live a good life.

We're talking about allow the Spirit of God to control us and, therefore, fill us with His love and all the rest that He gives.

There's a contrast here in that the crowd that heard Stephen preach this message about Christ and it was a convicting and compelling message, they were ultimately filled with rage.

They were grinding their teeth and putting their hands up to their ears to stop the noise.

They were resisting the Holy Spirit.

They were enraged!

They were filled with rage and anger.

And contrast that, rather than being obsessed and possessed by anger, Stephen who is possessed of the Spirit, who prays and loves and forgives and preaches and stands and all the rest, because of his character.

His character was really framed in the small things in his life.

Again, he didn't start out on the stage of history, but rather behind the scenes, off stage, waiting on tables, serving poor widows in the church, ministering God's love in small ways.

I tell people if you're too big for a little job, then you're too little for a big job, serving Christ.

And that brings us to the next chapter which is courage; the courage of Stephen.

He is called upon to bring a message.

He is accused of being one of the Christ followers, and so rather than running and hiding, he stood, and before the counsel of Israel, before the religious leaders who were already angry, he brought a powerful message.

And it's obvious when you read this message, and it's recorded for us there in the Scriptures, that he was saturated with God's word.

He knew the great stories of the Bible.

He was prepared.

You know, we ought to always be prepared to give a witness when our faith is attacked, and give a reason for the hope that was within us.

So, again, not an apostle, not a pastor-teacher, but a man full of Christ, full of the Spirit, full of the word of God, he stands to speak and he courageously stands up and speaks up as his faith is under attack.