The Stoning of Stephen
Download MP3If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 6 as we continue our study in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 6, and we'll begin reading in verse 7. And the word of God continued to increase, And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. And Stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
Joel Brooks:Then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. 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. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.
Joel Brooks: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. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like that, was like the face of an angel. Stephen then goes on to a long sermon. So long we didn't have the space to put that in your worship guide. So if you would go chapter 7 towards the end to verse 54 and we will pick up from there.
Joel Brooks:Stephen just finishes giving his defense. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and 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.
Joel Brooks: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 falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Joel Brooks:If you would, pray with me. Lord, I am always reminded when I read from this passage that I get praised for and paid to do what cost Steven his life. I pray that I would never get over that, that we, as a people, would never get over the incredible privilege we have to open up your word in this place. And I pray that your spirit would bring a sense of sincerity and soberness to us as we look at these words. And Spirit of God, you would use them in a mighty way in our hearts to change us.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Probably many of you here are at least somewhat familiar with Jim Elliott.
Joel Brooks:And Jim Elliott, he was a missionary to Ecuador in 1956. He and 3 of his friends went there and he was killed by the Auca Indians. The very people that he and his friends were trying to reach. All 4 of them were killed. And there's a book about that that Jim Elliot's wife, Elizabeth wrote, called Through Gates of Splendor.
Joel Brooks:And I read that in college. Is through his journals, Gemelli's Journals. It's called, The Shadow of the Almighty. And you read that book and you're gonna read a lot of his journal entries. And when you do that, you'll probably recognize a number of the quotations there.
Joel Brooks:His most famous being this. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. The most powerful quotation to me though, from his journals, is a little lesser known, but it's this. Make sure when it comes time to die, all you have to do is die.
Joel Brooks:Make sure when it comes time to die, all you have to do is die. That quote coming from a man who would very shortly later give his life for Christ, just had a powerful impact on me. And when I when I read those words and when I still read those words, it makes me want to be a different person. It makes me want to live like that. Live in such a way where I can be spilled out for the sake of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:And it makes me want to live a life to where at the end of it, all I have to do is die. There's no more phone calls I need to make. There's no more people that I need to see. There's nothing else that I need to do. There's no more sins I need to confess.
Joel Brooks:There's no things I've left unsaid that I need to say. All that's left to do in that moment is die. Stephen is a great model of this. Stephen is the first martyr we have of the Christian faith and there will be many to follow. But Stephen had no idea, I bet, that when he woke up that morning, that would be his last day here on earth.
Joel Brooks:Most people who die don't know that it's their last day on earth. But especially Stephen, because he didn't have a dangerous job. And Stephen's job, we saw it last week, it was to take care of widows. He waited on tables. It's not really a dangerous job.
Joel Brooks:You don't get a lot of hate mail for taking care of widows. Nobody's gonna get angry at you for doing that. So probably the last thing he thought was, because of his job and who he is, he would lose his life. But he did. And when his time came, there were no regrets, there was no hesitation.
Joel Brooks:He could have gotten out of it if he had just shut up. But he didn't, And he embraced that moment. There's a number of descriptions that Luke uses to describe Stephen. One of my favorites is, he was a man full of grace and power. And outside of Jesus being described as full of grace, this is the only person we have in scripture who is described as full of grace.
Joel Brooks:And that expression was actually used to describe just a person who was winsome. A person who, like, people saw, they just they just wanted to be around, who was who was attractive and there was just something about him and and Stephen was like that even going to his death. The question you have to ask yourself as we're looking at this is how did we get here? I mean how how do we get to this point where people literally pick up rocks and throw them until the man is dead? Do you remember a couple of weeks ago how we looked at Gamaliel's wager?
Joel Brooks:I say Gamaliel. Jeff says Gamaliel, and Jeff's smarter than I am, so we're gonna go with Gamaliel. All right? But but do you remember that was called Gamaliel's wager and that's, Gamaliel was a respected rabbi of the day and he told the Jewish authorities, he said, hey. Leave the Christians alone.
Joel Brooks:If it's of man, it's gonna fizzle out. But it's of God, well, you'll find yourself fighting against God. And they listened to this wise rabbi and they thought, that's a good idea. But what happened? I mean, what happened since he said that to here where they're now killing a person?
Joel Brooks:Well, what happened with Stephen? Stephen is the one who changed everything. And Stephen wasn't even a preacher. Stephen was a deacon, and yet here he brings it. It'd be hard for us to overstate the importance of this passage here, in the place of the church.
Joel Brooks:Let alone in the book of Acts, but in the place of church history, this is such an important text. Luke dedicates a lot of time for it. It's the longest sermon that we have recorded in the book of acts. And Stephen didn't even get to finish it. I'm not sure if you noticed, if if ever you've read through acts 7 before, but Stephen actually never even mentions the name Jesus, and it still got him killed.
Joel Brooks:He was getting there. You could see where he was going, and he was crescendoing his sermon. It's like the people had to stop him before he even uttered the name Jesus. Once Stephen gives this speech, everything changes for the life of the church. I mean, we've had a little bit of persecution so far.
Joel Brooks:John, Peter, arrested, beaten. But this is the first time we've had somebody killed. And literally after this, Christians will be running for their lives, scattering to all the cities around, and we will have martyr after martyr after martyr. So what was it that Stephen said to make people so angry? And what about his sermon was so powerful that it changed the Christian landscape forever?
Joel Brooks:I mean, Paul, we see Paul here, or Saul. He apparently was the one who sanctioned Stephen's death, and he will always remember this speech. I think Stephen's words both nourished him and haunted him for the rest of his life. There's one verse in chapter 6, if you remember, we read it. It said that, Stephen had the face of an angel as all of this was happening.
Joel Brooks:He had a face like the face of an angel. How did Luke know this? Luke wasn't there. Luke wasn't there to witness that, but Luke became friends with Paul after he was converted, and they became traveling companions. And likely, we get this description of Stephen from Paul himself.
Joel Brooks:And I bet there was rarely a night that Paul could close his eyes and not see Stephen's face. Branded there. Luke here is likely writing about what Paul remembered. After Paul was converted, we see that much of Stephen's speech actually comes out in his writings and in his sermons. He will actually later be accused of the same things that Stephen is accused of here.
Joel Brooks:The author of Hebrews is very influenced by this speech. A lot of Hebrews is merely an exposition of the very words that you read right here. So this sermon here had a profound impact. But but if you've looked at it, you've probably realized it's long. It's complex.
Joel Brooks:The last time I preached on this, this passage, I actually took 3 Sundays just to go through his sermon. I'm not gonna do that today. We're actually gonna summarize this whole thing with just 2 major themes. But it is long. It is complex.
Joel Brooks:And if you've ever read it before, I bet you were wondering what in here possibly can make so many people angry? Because honestly, I bet you had a hard time even staying awake during it. Seemed like a history lesson. And there were no application points. There were no illustrations.
Joel Brooks:There were no acrostics in it. No movie clip in it. There was like nothing to, to keep your attention. So it didn't even Yeah. It hardly kept you awake, let alone make you angry.
Joel Brooks:So what was it? Let's look at the 2 major themes that we find throughout this sermon. The first is this, Israel has a history of rejecting their saviors. Israel has a history of rejecting their saviors. If you need an acrostic, that's IH Horz.
Joel Brooks:Okay? If that helps you. The second theme you see woven in here is that religion as they know it is over. Religion as they know it is over. So let's look at this first theme.
Joel Brooks:Israel has a history of rejecting their saviors. Stephen begins his speech with a history lesson. You know, he starts with, you know, way back when God called Abraham, who who was obedient to the call and and followed God to a place he didn't even know where he was going. And so he tells of the call of Abraham and then he quickly gets to Joseph. Says you remember Joseph, Joseph was rejected by his brothers.
Joel Brooks:Thrown in a pit. Sold off into slavery. But then God vindicated Joseph, rose him up to a place of power where he saved not only all of Egypt, but all of Israel. And his brothers then believed in him. And then he goes to Moses and he says, remember when Moses first came, he too was rejected as a savior for the people.
Joel Brooks:It was only later that they came to believe in him. And so Stephen's point in saying this, talking about Joseph and talking about Moses is this. Hey, if you look at your history, people, you have a history of rejecting the saviors that God sends to you. But then he gives you a second chance. And on those 2nd chances, you believed.
Joel Brooks:And you know what? You've got a second chance. Yes. You rejected Jesus. The savior of the world when he came.
Joel Brooks:Yes. You rejected him. Yes. You crucified him. But God has raised him up, and he is right now, offering you a second chance.
Joel Brooks:So that's Steven's first argument. Now even if the people though hearing this disagreed with Steven, it'd be hard to understand why they would get so angry at him. You know, why did that argument produce such an anger? Why did they, you know, not just get in a shouting match, but literally pick up rocks and threw them at him until he was dead? Well, the reason they got angry is the same reason that people today still get angry when they hear the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And can I just say, if if when you heard the gospel, you either didn't get angry or love it and embrace it, you didn't have one of those two emotions, it means you never really understood the gospel? Because the gospel will always have one of those two reactions to it. Nobody's indifferent to the gospel. Here, the people got angry when they heard it. A few weeks ago, if you remember, I told you my daughters have 3 daughters and I told you the first words that they ever said.
Joel Brooks:So it was Beau, cat, mine. Alright. I'll let you guess which daughters said what. But Beau, cat, mine. Do you know what the first sentence they said was?
Joel Brooks:Anybody? I mean, I'm asking. I actually don't know. So I'm wondering if anybody actually heard them say their first first sentence. I can guess what one I mean, I know what one of their first sentences was because it's likely if you were a parent, it was likely the same sentence that your child first said.
Joel Brooks:Do myself. Do myself. Grammatically, kinda incorrect, but you get the point when they say it. Do myself. And I remember I was I was cutting some some meat or like a hot dog or something for Caroline, when she was, you know, probably around 2 years old.
Joel Brooks:I'm cutting that and she looks at me and she goes, do myself. I'm like, yeah right. Like what responsible parent says, here's the knife. You know, you you don't do that. It's like, no.
Joel Brooks:First words out of her mouth, do or sentence, do myself. And when you hear that, you know, they're not asking, do myself? Like, can can I no. It's a judgment against you. It's like, I don't like the way you're doing it, and I can do it better.
Joel Brooks:Do myself. I mean, I thought up until that moment that there was the possibility that the fall had not affected Caroline. And then she looks at me with those judging eyes and says, do myself. We don't really outgrow that arrogance. We don't outgrow it.
Joel Brooks:We spend a life saying, do myself. We even romanticize that. Call it a good thing. I have been to funerals in which there has been sung the song, I did it my way. I did it my as if that's your final boast you're going to make is I did what I wanted to do with my life.
Joel Brooks:How I wanted to do it, when I wanted to do it, what I wanted to do. It's not a boast you should have. But this is something that we we keep with us. We we like to brag about us doing it ourselves, But here's the problem. I bet the do myself has brought you a lot of pain in your life.
Joel Brooks:A whole lot of pain. Now I know that we like to blame others for our pain and for our suffering. That we like to, you know, the reason we're miserable at work, well, it's because of our boss. It's it's his or her fault. The reason we're a terrible cook or eating unhealthy is, well, it's because I don't have a good kitchen.
Joel Brooks:It could be a silly thing like that. The reason I'm miserable in my singleness is because other people don't value me like they should. The reason that my kids are terrible, it's because they hang around your kids. Right? It's not the parenting.
Joel Brooks:Your kids are terrible influences on my children. And so we we we like to blame others for for all of our pain and our suffering and our anxieties and our depression. But if we were to be really honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that the vast majority of pain and suffering we have experienced in our life has been self inflicted. I'm not saying all of it. I'm sure everybody here has had some bad things happen to you that were not your fault, But much of the pain and the suffering and the anxieties and the depressions and the sorrows that you have experienced have been self inflicted because you have done it yourself.
Joel Brooks:And the problem is this, We think we can fix it. We think that if we just stay the course, if we just keep doing it ourselves, we can we can get ourselves out of the hole that we are in, but the problem is you're not in a hole, you're in a grave. This isn't something that you could work yourself out of. You're literally dead in your sins that you committed, and you need help. And nobody wants to hear they need help.
Joel Brooks:That's why you get angry at the gospel. I can do this myself. God's saying, no you can't. You can't do this yourself. You need a savior.
Joel Brooks:And part of us wants to bow up and be like, who do you think you are telling me how to live? Who are you to say I'm in this condition? It's humbling to realize that you actually need help. That you're not just in a hole, but you're in a grave and you can do nothing. That's why people were so angry as Steven.
Joel Brooks:When he said you rejected your saviors all your life, he gives you a second chance. Embrace the savior, and they're like, we don't need a savior. Who are you to say we need a savior? When Jesus offers to save us, we can either act in anger and say, who do you think you are? Or we can humble ourselves and say, please Lord, have mercy on us.
Joel Brooks:Hear me. There's 2 categories of people in scripture. 2 categories. And it's not the righteous and the unrighteous, or the good and the evil. That's not the categories you find.
Joel Brooks:It's not that the the righteous and the good go to heaven, and the unrighteous or the evil go to hell. The 2 categories are this. It's the proud and the humble. Those are the categories that you'll find all throughout scripture. The proud say we don't need a savior, and the humble say, Lord, save us.
Joel Brooks:Have mercy on us, and God saves. Some of you have been trying to save yourself for years, and it's not working out for you, is it? You need to hear me say clearly right now, that Jesus is giving you a second chance. To no longer reject Him, but to accept the mercy that He has to offer. And for some of you, you don't need to listen to another word I say in this sermon.
Joel Brooks:Seriously. You don't you don't need to hear anything else. Right now, I give you permission to go ahead and check out. And just you and the Lord right now, sit and pray. May I lay, Lord, I repent of my arrogance, and I humbly come before you, acknowledging my need for a savior.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Let's look at the second theme. The second theme we see woven throughout here is that religion, as these people know it, is over. Religion, as they know it, is over. The acrostic is rat kid.
Joel Brooks:Alright? The religion is that they knew is over, because the temple the temple is no longer needed. Now this is really what's got Stephen killed. I mean, yes. They they kind of got angry at hearing their need for a savior.
Joel Brooks:But what got Stephen killed was that he said a temple was no longer necessary because that's blasphemy. That's actually the accusation that was brought against Jesus. It's the same accusation that's brought here. It's the one thing that a person could do that the Jewish council, they didn't need to go to Rome for to get capital punishment for. If you blaspheme against the temple, they could put you to death.
Joel Brooks:So the question here is this, does Stephen actually speak against the temple? Does he do it? The answer is yes. Yes. There is some truth to their accusation.
Joel Brooks:Not so much that He spoke against the temple and saying that it needs to be destroyed, but more of this temple no longer serves any function. Just like a candle is no longer needed when the sun rises. I mean, why hold on to the candle? We have sunlight. Discard the candle.
Joel Brooks:That's Stephen's argument here. He understood that when Jesus died, the need for a temple died with Jesus. Now we actually saw this when we were looking through the gospel of John several years back. If you remember, as we're going through that and we looked at Jesus going towards Jerusalem the week before his death, that passover week, we talked about how every gospel records that story. It's an important story.
Joel Brooks:Palm Sunday, the week before his death, Jesus riding the donkey into Jerusalem. And and we know what happens when Jesus got there. When Jesus got there, He went straight to the temple. And the temple would have been in a pretty chaotic season with it being Passover. Over 200,000 sacrifices were made during Passover week.
Joel Brooks:The temple had essentially become a slaughterhouse during this time. And Jesus marches right up into this chaotic scene and He makes it even more chaotic. The gospel of Mark tells us that He would not allow anyone to even carry something in the temple. I mean, just imagine that. Anybody.
Joel Brooks:Like, you're walking in, you're carrying something. Jesus is stopping you. He's saying, I'm not allowing you. I'm not allowing you to carry that in here. And then we read that he actually makes a whip and he begins driving out all of the animals, all of the sacrifices there.
Joel Brooks:It's it's so chaotic what is happening and astounding. It's nearly impossible for us to truly comprehend this. The the only equivalent I could think of this is like Jesus going to the mall or to the summit during a very busy season, And him shutting down all the stores. Just going in store after store after store and throwing over cash registers. Knocking over the merchandise.
Joel Brooks:People not knowing what to do with him. Because nobody has acted like this. They're calling the authorities. People are shocked. I guarantee you that the authorities came when Jesus was doing this, but they had never seen a person with such authority like that or zeal like that, and so they didn't touch them.
Joel Brooks:And He just cleaned house. You actually read in the gospel accounts that Jesus, He removed from the temple every goat, every lamb, every dove, every pigeon. Every single sacrifice, He removed, and then Jesus stood alone in the temple. I mean, you know what Jesus is saying there. As he removes every sacrifice except for 1, saying, this is the last sacrifice needed.
Joel Brooks:Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. No other lamb is needed than the one that's right here. Jesus didn't come to the temple to reform it. He came to the temple to shut it down. There was no longer a need.
Joel Brooks:The temple doesn't serve any more purpose. The temple, the sacrifices, the priest, they all existed to point to Jesus. But now Jesus is there, and they are no longer necessary now that He has arrived. And what Jesus is saying is, you know, the temple's primary function was this. It provided you access to God, but I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life, and no one goes to the father except through me.
Joel Brooks:So Jesus is our temple. He's also our priest, and he's also our sacrifice. And when we meet with God through Jesus, we don't have to be afraid, because Jesus doesn't just give us access. He gives us acceptance. He gives us acceptance.
Joel Brooks:He's not just the temple, He's our perfect sacrifice. Through His blood, we now have atonement for sins. We are forgiven. Stephen gets a great glimpse and picture of this right before he dies. Stephen is about to be pelted with stones.
Joel Brooks:I mean, they're so angry at him, and then he gazes up to heaven, And we read that he saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. One of the last things he says is, behold, I see the son of man standing at the right hand of God. Now when the people heard this, it says they literally closed their ears, so they wouldn't hear anymore. They closed their ears and they rushed at him with a fury almost unimaginable. And they would not stop throwing rocks until he was dead.
Joel Brooks:What he said was so offensive to them. But what was so offensive about that thing, they couldn't even hear anymore it was so offensive. Well, for one, it's a claim of who Jesus is. I see the son of man. I see Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He's standing at the right hand of God, but it also has to do with the fact that Jesus was standing, standing. You read all throughout scripture, and you are going to read a number of times in the New Testament, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. He's seated at the right hand of God. This is the only time we ever see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now, a lot has been written about this and most are in agreement with why Jesus is standing.
Joel Brooks:What you have during a trial, when a trial takes place, if you're the one on trial, your defense attorney stands to make your defense. And here, what we have is Stephen is on trial, and the entire world has looked at Steven and said, guilty. And in his last moments, he gets to look up and he sees Jesus standing as his defense. I mean, what a sight. Do you think he even noticed as the rocks hit him?
Joel Brooks:I mean, do you think he even noticed that? I mean, when when you get to see the glory of God and you get to see the son of man standing. And Jesus wasn't just being the the paraclete or the one who comes along side or the advocate here. Jesus is also the judge. Now that's a pretty comforting thought, when your defense attorney also happens to be the judge, and you have no worries at that point.
Joel Brooks:And as Jesus is standing there and you see his nail pierced hands, you realize that you now have full acceptance because the reason that Jesus is standing in approval of you at that moment has nothing to do with what you did, has everything to do with what He has done on your behalf. He lived the perfect life you should have lived, and He died the death you should have died. He has paid your penalty, and now He is your judge. He is your advocate, and He is your sacrifice. What a sight.
Joel Brooks:I mean, if I gotta go, that's how I want to go. You wanna make sure that when you die, all you have to do is die? The question is this, not thinking, okay, what all do I have to do? That's not it. You don't have to do anything, because Christ has done it on your behalf.
Joel Brooks:Amen. Amen. And when you believe that and you accept that, you are ready. There is the confidence that we have as believers. The question is, do you have that confidence?
Joel Brooks:Do you rest in the sufficient work of Christ? If you would, pray with me. Jesus, our hearts do cry amens to this. That you are our God, You are our defense. You are the judge.
Joel Brooks:You are the temple. You are the sacrifice. And you are the priest who applies all that to us. And we rest in you. For those here who do not know this, Lord, I pray that through your spirit, you begin to crack open their hearts.
Joel Brooks:Lord, that your gospel would begin to work its way in there, and that in this moment, they would hear you, Jesus, calling. We pray this in your name. Amen.
