Speaker 1: 0:00

All right. Well, for those of you who are already joining us online, my name is Kyle Leggett. I'm one of the elders here, and today we are picking up where we left off last week, talking about Stephen. This week doesn't get too much better for Stephen, but his hope is what really ties us all the way through. Now, pastor Stephen is not here today, but last week I threw up on the screen and I'll do it again. His name in Greek is actually Stephanos, so I think again, for the rest of the year at least, maybe even just the rest of the month, we've got to call him Stephanos. We've got to tell him he's not pronouncing his name correctly. He needs to go back to the text and really evaluate himself for calling himself this.

Speaker 1: 0:41

The other thing that I did not bring up last week, but I think is important for this week it means something else in Greek as well. It means crown. So I think that's really interesting, one kind of. He gets that little royalty flavor to him, but which exactly Megan's like. Oh gosh, that's really good. Exactly what I do like about crown is, every time we come across crown in Scripture, we get to see Stephanos as well. So crown of thorns, stephanos of thorns, crown of righteousness, crown of life. Stephanos, it's the same word. It's the exact same word, it's just a proper noun in Greek. And I think that all these New Testament words we were playing a little bit of a word game last week as well all these words come back and are connected. I think that's fascinating as we get into our passage today, because we're going to see that Stephen the martyr is carrying a bit of crown of himself as he walks this very painful path that he walks in our passage today.

Speaker 1: 1:38

But before we get into our passage, let's do a little bit of reminding about what Acts is and where we're at in the book of Acts. So the book of Acts opens with Pentecost as its defining event. That's why you see on the screen, you see the little flames of fire over everyone. So Jesus ascends into heaven after his resurrection and then the Holy Spirit is sent down. And so the Holy Spirit descends, the life of the church explodes. They are growing in number, they are overcoming internal strife. That's what we talked about last week them overcoming internal strife. Now they are enduring the pain of persecution and have been for the past few chapters the book of Acts. We have Pentecost as the defining moment and then we have the Holy Spirit as the defining character all the way through. So it doesn't matter what character we're following. Throughout the book of Acts we followed Peter and John for a little bit. We're following Stephen right now, then there's Philip, then there's Paul. As we go through all those characters, the Holy Spirit remains the defining character for the book of Acts.

Speaker 1: 2:39

And then, lastly, last week we looked at the power of collective ministry. So how did the church embrace cultural and spiritual diversity, especially when the church encounters conflict or, even worse, when the church encounters discrimination? How do we lean in? That's what we talked about last week a little bit, but today we ask ourselves what does it mean to be a faithful witness? Does it mean to be a faithful witness? How do we count the cost of discipleship? And what does it mean to be a Pentecost people, a people defined by Pentecost? And I think all excuse me I think all those questions come back to one very simple question and a question that I want us to think about this entire next few minutes when is our ultimate hope? Where is our ultimate hope? Because our goal at Madison Church here is to be a community that is defined by the power of the Holy Spirit. But to unlock that we must remember the powerful hope that we have in Christ. Not in human systems, not in the judicial system, not in any other system, but we have a hope rooted in Christ.

Speaker 1: 3:48

So we have just about 70 verses to unpack today. It's kind of a long story. So I'm going to break it up into three different parts and then we'll just go piece by piece through it very quickly and I'm going to break it up into kind of three parts the pain of accusation, Stephen the witness and then Stephen the martyr. So, with that being said, let's dive into the pain of accusation. You'll find this in Acts, chapter 6, verses 8 through 15. This is the second half of the book of Acts, chapter 6. We'll throw it up on the screen for you as well.

Speaker 1: 4:17

It says this Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the synagogue of freed slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, alexandria, sicilia and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and spirit which with Stephen spoke. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen saying. We heard him blaspheme Moses and even God. This roused up the people, the elders and the teachers of religious law, so they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council. The lying witnesses said this man is always speaking against the holy temple and against the law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses handed down to us. At this point, everyone in the high council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel's. Very interesting.

Speaker 1: 5:20

So before we pick up with the specific passage, let's do a brief remember. Let's briefly remember what happened in the first part. Last week we were told about the election of seven deacons. One of them was Stephen. So there were certain Hellenistic or Greek-speaking widows that were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. It was a little bit of internal conflict. So the apostles said everyone, let's gather together. So the apostles said everyone, let's gather together, let's nominate seven deacons from a Greek-speaking background and commission them to go oversee the distribution, daily distribution of the food. Stephen is going to be one of those that is nominated.

Speaker 1: 6:03

The interesting part, what is strange here, is that we never see Stephen depicted as waiting on a table or distributing the food. Instead, right here in this passage that we just read, he's engaging in the ministry of the apostles themselves, the ministry of the Word. I think it's really interesting that he was able to go perform amazing miracles and amazing signs when he was commissioned to go oversee the distribution of the food. That's how we see the power of God's Holy Spirit working as he tries to be a minister to the community that is, bringing the gospel to the community. That was already taking him to the next step.

Speaker 1: 6:42

Next step, stephen, now singled out by Luke, is depicted as an early Christian commissioned by the community to serve tables, gifted with grace and power, which enables him to have an effective ministry. Remember, he's ministering to the Greek-speaking Jewish population in Jerusalem at this time, and that's why I want to briefly explain what were the synagogue of freed slaves. You might see it as synagogue of freedmen. The synagogue of freedmen was a group of Jewish people originally from Italy who had settled in Jerusalem and had their own synagogue. So they were Greek speaking, they were Hellenist. They were the same community that Stephen was commissioned to go minister to and they're about to turn their back on him. That's the painful part. They were emancipated slaves or they were the descendants of emancipated slaves. So you would think of anyone the synagogue of freed slaves would know the pain of persecution and mistreatment. But that didn't stop them from turning their back on Stephen and citing lying witnesses against him and rousing up the crowd and ultimately causing Stephen to walk up the path towards martyrdom.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Now, stephen is not bothered by such opposition. What does he do? He displays faith, wisdom and a good Christian spirit in spite of it all. So filled with the spirit that his face was as bright as an angel's and everyone is going to stare at him. This actually pays homage to Moses coming off the mountain of Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Moses' face was so bright that they had to put a cover over his face and they were terrified to talk to him. What does that mean? It means the same thing that Stephen is being accused of of saying hey, you are blaspheming against Moses. The people were blind themselves. They couldn't realize that he had also encountered God. They should be listening to him, but instead they turned their back on him.

Speaker 1: 8:33

And as the story of Stephen goes on, we're going to see a parallel to Moses, like we just talked about. And then we're going to see a parallel to Moses, like we just talked about, and then we're going to see a parallel to the accusations made against Jesus, too, in the gospel and then the other details of the gospel narratives, so bringing about the temple's destruction. We're blaspheming Moses. We're destroying the law. Stephen is accused of the same things that Christ was accused of. Now, as we unpack the persecution just a little bit, the story of Stephen. Stephen is accused of the same things that Christ was accused of. Now, as we unpack the persecution just a little bit, the story of Stephen begins with a judicial proceeding but ends with murder.

Speaker 1: 9:14

See the folks as they bring him before the high council only pretend to be just, as they carry out their own evil. It's only a masquerade. It was evil for their own convenience. It was evil for their own convenience. It was evil for their own purpose and they felt they were entitled to do this. They thought that they were protecting the system, their standards, their law. That's what they thought that they were protecting, and what they couldn't realize is that they were enacting evil as they went. Now they proved to be no match for Stephen's eloquence and argumentation. They eventually bring about his summons before the same religious authorities that had arrested Peter and John a little bit earlier and forbidden them to teach the name of Jesus. And again, I think it's funny how they couldn't even bring the accusations themselves. What do they do? They go spur up false witnesses to rouse up the crowd.

Speaker 1: 10:02

I think we can all relate to how Stephen is feeling in one way or another. How many times have we been the victim inside of a human system ourselves, where we have been the outcasts and we were there just trying to help? You feel powerless in these moments, and that's why I want us to really consider, as we move through this, where is our ultimate hope? Because Stephen's hope is not in the human system, but that does not stop Stephen from being prophetic in the moment either. And so next that's why I want to talk about Stephen the witness Just because Stephen's hope is in Jesus doesn't mean that he's not prophetic against the human systems. So the testimony of Stephen as we get into Acts, chapter 7,. It's 53 verses. I'm going to break them up a little bit so we're not going to read them all. It begins with this episode in Acts, chapter 7, and at the very end of Acts, chapter 7, he will be martyred, his face, like an angel. They can't see that they're the ones who have actually lost their way.

Speaker 1: 11:02

He does not present a standard defense, it's not, you know? Hey, I'm right. Here's all the reasons I'm right. He doesn't even refute the claims that they made against him. Rather, he just gives this historical narrative. He just recaps the entire Old Testament for them and to show that Israel's actions are very inconsistent when it comes to God's actions on their behalf, he's trying to point out Israel's been doing this for a long time. I don't know why. I'm surprised that you're doing anything different. He condemns them for resisting the Holy Spirit. He says that Israel's reactions to God's chosen leaders have often they've often rejected God's chosen leaders, and now they're rejecting the ultimate leader that God has sent, the Messiah. So, as he goes throughout, this is going to be kind of his thesis God has constantly been at work in the history of God's people bringing good out of evil.

Speaker 1: 11:54

And I'm going to break this little section up into four different parts his statement of defense to the high council. So first he's going to talk about the story of Abraham. Now, with the story of Abraham, the reason he brings this up is that he wants to unpack God's promise. God's promise to the nation of Israel ultimately the nation of Israel but really God's promise to the wanderer. So in verse 3, it says this God told him, abraham, leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you. So this is Stephen recapping this. God made a promise to Abraham the wanderer, so, in the same way, god made a promise to the wanderer, the Hellenistic, the Greek-speaking Jews of this time who have brought this accusation against him should know that they have a promise in God too. Why would they turn on? God's promise in this moment is really what he's about to get to.

Speaker 1: 12:51

And then we go into part two. He impacts the story of Joseph. In the story of Joseph, god uses evil for good. In verse 9, these patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt, but God was with them and rescued him from all his troubles. Here God's deliverance is contrasted with human mistreatment, and the irony is not lost on the audience here in this moment either that Stephen is saying God will still deliver me despite the mistreatment I am currently experiencing. What Christians are currently experiencing in this moment. God always delivers.

Speaker 1: 13:35

And then he moves on to part three, the story of Moses. And then he moves on to part three, the story of Moses. The story of Moses is about a deliverer who was rejected by Israel multiple times, the same one that they say he's blaspheming. Israel rejected many times and this is about a 20-verse part of his speech In verse 35,. So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected. And when they demanded who made you a ruler and judge over us? So Stephen ultimately makes the point that Israel rejects Moses three different times. Once when he leaves Egypt, so he kills the Egyptian masters. And then the Hebrews look at him and are like who made you ruler over us? We didn't ask you to do that. And so then he flees. And then, when he comes back to rescue them out of Egypt, they say why should we follow you? Who made you ruler over us? Again. And then, when he finally delivers them and takes them out of the land of Egypt, what do they say? Why did you bring us out here to die? It would have been better if we had just stayed. What Stephen is saying here is that, consistently, the people of Israel have rejected God's chosen leader.

Speaker 1: 14:51

And this is where part four, as he wraps up his speech, he talks about Israel's first and second falling away. So first, with the golden calf idolatry In verse 41,. So they make an idol shaped like a calf and they sacrifice to to it and celebrated over this thing that they had made. Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods. It's funny that when we walk into kind of an apostasy, god sometimes just lets us go. And that's what's happening inside the synagogue right now. It's ah, you think you're really serving the God of our fathers, but really you're serving your own God, your own system. That's what you're really trying to protect here.

Speaker 1: 15:35

The second thing when it comes to Israel's falling away, stephen accuses them of making a temple when the most high God dwells, not in buildings made by human hands. That was the whole point of Pentecost, right, there's no longer a temple. The Spirit resides in believers. So in verse 48, so, as Stephen sees it, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Could you build me a temple as good as that, asked the Lord. So, as Stephen sees it, especially these Greek speaking Jews, these diaspora.

Speaker 1: 16:14

Jews should be more critical of the Jerusalem temple, made by human hands, because it would have discounted their own worship or their ancestors worship when they didn't have access to the temple. Why are you making such a big point about blaspheming the temple? You were stranded away from Jerusalem for a long time. You're saying that your worship wasn't valid. You knew this. What I'm saying you knew. You've known for a long time. That's what he's trying to get and make the ultimate point.

Speaker 1: 16:43

And then he concludes with this Israel's guilt continues as your ancestors did, so do you. You have betrayed and murdered the upright one. He says this in verse 51. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did, and so do you. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute. They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one, the Messiah, whom you have betrayed and murdered. Those in Jerusalem, especially the ones that had come from afar, who had been freed. The synagogue of freed slaves have become the very thing that hurt themselves for so long.

Speaker 1: 17:27

Stephen is choosing to be prophetic in this moment. His hope is not in the system. His hope is not that they will listen to him and change their mind. His hope is in the powerful work of Christ, but he's still choosing to be faithful to the witness that he is called to be. And so quickly this turns into Stephen the witness becoming Stephen the martyr. And we'll look at the last section here of Acts, chapter 7, verses 54 through 60.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Now this story of Stephen is going to form a climax for the persecution of Christians inside Jerusalem. So the first episode, it was just a warning to the apostles, the second a flogging, and the third will end in death. It says this in verse 54. The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation and they shook their fists at him in rage. Actually, if you look at another translation, it says they gnashed their teeth at him in rage. But Stephen fooled the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And he told them look, I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul and as they stoned him, stephen prayed Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He fell to his knees shouting Lord, don't charge them with this sin, and with that he died.

Speaker 1: 19:03

We quickly see the typology of Moses transition to the typology of Jesus. The bright face of Moses is now matched with Stephen's connection to heaven. He's staring at the glory of Christ in heaven and just as the dying Jesus committed his spirit to the Father, we now have Stephen confiding his spirit to the Lord Jesus, firmly expressing Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then we also hear forgive them, for they know not what they do. He's reflecting, he's imitating Christ in one of his most painful moments. But the other thing as well is God is beyond the temple. What does he say in verse 55? But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God. Stephen's vision and what happened are not to be separated radically from the speech, because the vision gives the real interpretation for everyone listening. The Most High does not dwell in a temple made by human hands. The transcendent God dwells in heaven and God's Spirit has been sent here, working in and through the Pentecost-defined people. We see that in the contrast between Stephen and the synagogue. Stephen and the synagogue One side filled with rage, the other, stephen, filled with the Spirit. One side affected by spiritual blindness, stephen a heavenly vision, and one side affected by hate-filled murder, while the other Christ-like love and forgiveness directly contrasted from one another.

Speaker 1: 20:52

Now there's one more martyr that's famous for their witness that I want to talk about today Justin Martyr. And Justin Martyr comes about a hundred years after Stephen. He gets his title because he was a great witness for Christians against the Roman persecution. See, it's not just Israel that's persecuting Christians, it's Rome as well. What Justin Martyr tries to do, he tries to follow a very logical legal process. So Stephen's a little bit animated here in this passage. He's really just being prophetic.

Speaker 1: 21:23

In this moment, stephen, or Justin Martyr, tries a little bit of a different approach. So he writes the Roman Senate on multiple occasions and his main work is known as the first apology or first offense. You guys ever heard the word apologetics? That just means defense, right? A lot of times when we think about apologetics in our world today, we think about oh, I need to convince someone that Christianity is the correct way. That's not actually what Justin Martyr tries to do in his first and second apology. Really, all he's doing when he writes the Roman Senate is hey, romans, will you please stop killing us Christians. We're not even doing anything wrong. That's all he's trying to say. He's just providing a defense. Will you please stop doing this against us? And so he has to defend multiple accusations.

Speaker 1: 22:10

First off, justin Martyr defends the accusation of atheism. He says us Christians aren't atheists, we just don't believe in Roman gods. The second thing he has to defend against is treason. Hey, we are not trying to overthrow the Roman empire and bring in the kingdom of God. That's like a spiritual kingdom. That's already here. The third one, and this one's really interesting, justin Martyr tries to defend against the accusation of cannibalism. Hey, us Christians, when we partake in the body and blood of our Lord, that's not literal, like we're just talking about the spiritual communion with our Lord. That's all we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 22:46

And then he goes and describes the details of the Christian faith. He explains that Romans should want Christians to be in their empire because they're really good citizens. Faith, love, hope these are the principles of Christianity and really the Roman government should be looking at all these evildoers who have been twisting the words of Christians and trying to paint us in a bad light, accuse us of things that we should like. It's not even true. Now I say that to say this Surely Justin Martyr's logical approach worked right. Surely the Roman Senate listened to him. They listened to the reason that he had and said hey, we're going to stop doing this. Unfortunately, not so. About 11 years after his first letter to the Roman Senate, justin Martyr, along with six other Christians, are killed because they refuse to renounce Christ and make a sacrifice to a Roman god.

Speaker 1: 23:43

I say that because it reminds us once again that, in the hands of human systems, we are truly broken. We are going to lose hope. We are going to lose faith, are going to lose hope. We are going to lose faith. It's not sufficient to place our trust in human systems. So where is our hope? And this hope is the key to our witness. Our lives are so incredibly broken as we look to our left and to our right and we see the pain of human systems failing us day in and day out. Days when we need justice, we are forgotten. Days when we need justice, we are met with overwhelming injustice, we are met with accusation. There are people we trust and those people turn their backs on us in times of great need, well, they turn to the side of the system, and some days it feels like people simply choose hate to see our bitter end come true. But we must remember that our hope is in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the life-sustaining creation of God. That is a hope that will never fail us.

Speaker 1: 25:03

You remember when I talked about at the very beginning, stephanos also means crown. It reminds us that Stephen wore a crown of his own as he walked this painful path, a crown of righteousness that's so clearly marked by the power of his faith in God, who sustained him even when the broken systems of humans brought evil upon him. It also reminds us of Paul's own persecution, when he was persecuted himself. He writes in his closing words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, as for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race and I have remained faithful. And verse eight. And now the prize awaits me the crown of righteousness, the Stephanos of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to this appearing the crown of righteousness, the Stephanos of righteousness, grounded in the hope of the risen Savior. We cannot be plucked from our Savior's hand. That is our hope and in conclusion, I offer this brief warning. So, after what happens to Stephen, christians are going to have to disperse in Jerusalem. The persecution is just going to become too rough. They almost have to go underground at this point.

Speaker 1: 26:29

And we see in this passage that his accusers took off their coats and they laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul, who's eventually going to become Paul. That piling of cloaks at the feet of someone was certainly symbolic, and that is a juxtaposition of when the disciples came and laid all their possessions for the needy at the feet of the apostles. We see the comparison right there. In that moment, and as we look at this story, we have to be cognizant that we too can become just like the synagogue of freed slaves. We can also be filled with condemnation, we can also be filled with rage. We can also be Saul in this moment. That is something that we have to think about. What about the Pharisee in me? Now? In the next few moments, we're going to have a time of communion and we'll ask that, as the band plays, you just get up out of your seat at your own pace, you go to the back, you grab the elements and you return.

Speaker 1: 27:38

But what I want us to focus on here, at the very end, is that Stephen is a man full of grace and power who becomes the first martyr of the Christian church. His final speech is a bold challenge against religious comfort. It's a form of spiritual resistance, and his death sets the church on a path of expansion, even in the middle of their pain. And today's message invites us to consider what it means to follow Jesus, even when the cost is high. And that is anchored on the question where is our hope? Where is your hope? What does it mean to be a Pentecost people defined by the hope in Christ? As we close, I just say spirit-activated faith might lead us into sacrifice, but it also might lead us into something eternal.