Building
the right foundation part 12
Acts 6:8-8:3 “They saw the face of an angel.”
Stephen Is Seized
And
Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and
signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the
synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of 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, 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 the face of an angel.
Stephen's Speech
And
the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 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 for 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.
“And
the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was
with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave
him favour and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him
ruler over Egypt and over all his household. Now there came a
famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our
fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there
was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. And
on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and
Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned
Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.
And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,
and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that
Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in
Shechem.
“But
as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to
Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there
arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He
dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their
infants, so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was
born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for
three months in his father's house, and when he was exposed,
Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And
Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was
mighty in his words and deeds.
“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
quarrelling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are
brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was
wronging his neighbour 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.
“Now
when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the
wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses
saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look,
there came the voice of the Lord: ‘I am the God of your
fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses
trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him,
‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are
standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my
people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have
come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
“This
Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a
judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand
of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led
them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea
and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to
the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the
wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with
our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers
refused to obey him, but 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.’ And they made a calf in
those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in
the works of their hands. But God turned away and gave them
over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of
the prophets:
“‘Did
you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years
in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship;
and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
“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 favour 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,
“‘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?’
“You
stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always
resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which
of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those
who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you
have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as
delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
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. 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.
And
Saul approved of his execution.
And
there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in
Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of
Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and
made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church,
and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and
committed them to prison.
English
Standard Version Anglicised
****************
Last
time we considered Stephen a man full of grace and the Holy Spirit
having been one of seven chosen by the church to deal with unfairness
in the church. The verse prior to our passage today tells us that God
continued to bless the preached word and that many including some of
the priests were converted. It is therefore no surprise that
opposition flared up against the church. Stephen was clearly a key
figure; Luke tells his readers once again that he was a man full of
grace and power and consequently was performing mighty works among
the people.
The
church just keeps on being successful no matter what the devil might
throw at it.
Internal
conflict had failed and there was no time to rest: Enter the
synagogue of the Freedmen who were probably an order of freed slaves.
They joined forces with a number of other groups and disputed with
Stephen.
It
seems that it was Stephen against a whole crowd but they could not
stand up to him because he was not only wise in the scripture but he
was also filled with the Holy Spirit.
The
old saying “one with God is a majority” is clearly seen to be
true here.
What
an encouragement that is to each one of us as we contend for the
faith. But beware of simply believing that if we simply wing it and
speak of Jesus then we will ultimately be powerful in our witness. We
certainly cannot assume that to be the case for Stephen. He was
chosen to be one of the seven because he was a man of good repute and
was full of the Spirit and wisdom. Remember that the beginning of
wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Stephen was a man who loved the Lord
and was wise in the ways of God therefore he was a scholar of the
word.
Teaching
and preaching has largely been relegated in the modern evangelical
church to a lesser place with singing and activity taking the lions
share of many worship services. The church when it gathers together
along with worship and prayer needs to be fed the pure food of the
gospel which at first will be milk but very soon will be full of
meaty content. The reason being that the world needs to hear what
salvation is really all about and not some half hearted ramble that
only really tells them that Jesus loves them.
Stephen's
reasoning was too much for his critics and so they trumped up false
accusations of blasphemy. As we have said many times the devil has no
new tricks and so here we see that he brings out the same charges of
blasphemy as were made of the Lord Jesus Christ. The leaders went
around stirring up trouble and involving as many as possible in their
lies. They enrolled the scribes, the elders of the people and as many
of the general public as was possible. Of course the Pharisees were
involved as we see from the end of the passage where one Saul of
Tarsus oversees the execution of Stephen.
But
before we get there there are a few things that we need to consider.
The passage is too long for our purposes today and so I will leave
you with some homework to look at the content of Stephen's defence or
sermon.
We
will consider what it means when Luke tells us that Stephen's
accusers saw that his face was like the face of an angel and also
what Stephen saw as he gazed into heaven.
They
saw the face of an angel:
I
pondered over this statement for a long time wondering what it was
that the council saw that day as they sat in judgement over innocent
Stephen. I have this picture of an angel as has been portrayed for
many centuries now. We have pictures of beings in white with a shiny
apparel and a halo prominently over their heads, they of course are
always blue eyed with long flowing golden hair and pure white
complexion. We need to first of all exorcise that image form our
memory banks it is certainly not consistent with the bible's
description of what an angel is. It is true that sometimes as at the
tomb on the day of resurrection the angel is described as wearing
white apparel. But an angel is much more than the clothes that he
wears or the way that he looks. The word that we have for angel is
something of a made up word that maybe confuses us as to what an
angel is. The word translated directly from Greek which along with
the Hebrew word simply means messenger.
Easton's
Bible Dictionary definition:
Angel:
a
word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a "messenger,"
and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his
purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job
1:14;1
Sam. 11:3;
Luke
7:24;9:52),
of prophets (Isa.
42:19;
Hag.
1:13),
of priests (Mal.
2:7),
and ministers of the New Testament (Rev.
1:20).
It
is also applied to such impersonal agents as the pestilence (2
Sam. 24:16,17;
2
Kings 19:35),
the wind (Ps.
104:4).
But
its distinctive application is to certain heavenly intelligences whom
God employs in carrying on his government of the world. The name does
not denote their nature but their office as messengers. The
appearances to Abraham at Mamre (Gen.
18:2,22.
Comp. 19:1), to Jacob at Peniel (Gen.
32:24,30),
to Joshua at Gilgal (Josh.
5:13,15),
of the Angel of the Lord, were doubtless manifestations of the Divine
presence, "foreshadowings of the incarnation," revelations
before the "fullness of the time" of the Son of God.
Remember
how the Lord Jesus addresses the leaders of the seven churches at the
beginning of Revelation. He speaks through John to the angels or
messengers of the church. An angel is always a messenger of God and
it is his message that is all important!
We
have recently been considering the signs and wonders as reported by
Luke. They are an authentication as to the reality of the gospel and
the church. God chose to work remarkably in order that people would
see that this work was of Him and not a sham. Similarly with angels
God authenticates their message by making them special and often
quite frightening. The point is that it is always about the message
and not the messenger. When the message had been delivered the
messenger then disappeared.
Some
say that what the council saw on that day was Stephen shining as
Moses had when he came down from Mount Sinai. Moses had spent 40 days
in the presence of the Almighty and some of God's glory had rubbed
off on him. I do not think that this incident is of the same order
because of what follows. The high priest (you are not too surprised
that he is once again in the thick of it are you???) gives Stephen
the floor. The gospel message must be heard once again by the leaders
of Jerusalem and so Stephen beginning with Abraham and finishing at
the cross tells them of their guilt in resisting the Holy Spirit and
killing Jesus and of them breaking the law of God. The messenger told
them boldly; therefore they could not honestly deny the truth of it
because they had seen that Stephen was an angel to them but of course
these were not honest men who were interested in the truth. They were
charlatans and rogues who were looking after their own ends.
The
first part of Stephen's message enraged them but it is what comes
next that seals his fate. Can you imagine the scene? They were gazing
at the face of an angel but Stephen himself was gazing into heaven.
These men were supposed to be the custodians of the faith and yet
they never once looked up into heaven where Jesus could be clearly
seen by Stephen.
They
were enraged but Stephen was enthralled.
They
did not want to know the truth of Jesus being God the Son in heaven
and so they stopped up their ears, made as much noise as possible and
charged at Stephen and dragged him out of the city.
People
still act in exactly the same way, if they could get away with it
many would march us off up Kit Hill and do away with us but they
cannot in this country. It is different for many of our fellow
Christians in other countries some are even now being persecuted
simply because they believe that Jesus is the King of glory.
Our
hearers here in the UK simply stop up their ears whilst singing under
their breath “Ho-Hum” etc.
We
are their angels and as such they need to hear our message, for that
to be really effective we need to know our bibles as thoroughly as
Stephen knew the Old Covenant scriptures. That is why we lay so much
emphasis upon bible teaching and preaching in the church.
This
message is food for the week for you, I wish it could be better but
it is the best that I can do.
What
we really need is for the message to be empowered by God as Stephen's
was on that day.
His
message was powerful and was the means of promoting Stephen to glory.
Stephen's
death was a hollow victory for his accusers but it was a glorious
victory for God and heaven.
Stephen
saw the face of Jesus and prayed as he was being bombarded with
boulders. As his life ebbed away he saw the Lord Jesus who was
standing at the right hand of God. He was preparing to welcome home a
good and faithful servant Stephen the first martyr for the faith.
The
kingdom of God was about to be Stephen's experience as Jesus promised
in the beatitudes!
Stephen's
final prayer is also vitally important. Firstly he commended himself
into the safe hands of his Saviour the Lord Jesus and then he prayed
for his murders the leader of which was Saul of Tarsus. Saul would go
on from there to persecute the church with even greater fervour than
ever before but as we shall see in chapter 9 Saul is miraculously
converted in answer to Stephen's prayer that his murder might not be
held against all of the perpetrators.
The
church then entered a period of even greater persecution which again
did not destroy it but it was the vehicle for the conversion of the
greatest Christian of all time, the Apostle Paul.
So
what do we learn from this passage?
God
always equips the church with messengers sometimes they are special
agents appointed by God for a “one off” purpose as on this
occasion. Ordinarily it is through the regular pastor/teacher
appointed by the church but the message is always powerful and
effective! The effect might not be immediately palatable but it will
accomplish the purpose for which it was intended.
Prayer
in all circumstances even at the point of violent death is vitally
important. A man called Nicky Cruise was about to kill a New York
pastor but at the point of a knife and almost certain death the
pastor declared Christ's love to Nicky Cruise who could do n other
than run away. Later Nicky Cruise himself was converted and became a
powerful preacher of the gospel. Who would have thought that the
dying prayer of the first Christian martyr would be so effective;
BUT
IT WAS!
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