Acts 6:8-8:1 Faithful Unto Death
Good morning! We are going back to the book of Acts this morning. I’d like to thank you all for your kind words and prayers regarding my upcoming sabbatical.
This morning we are going to take a big bite of the Book of Acts, a chapter and a half. This section of Acts marks a turning point in the age of the Church. Up to this point the Church had experienced relative success in the spread of the gospel in Jerusalem and Judea. While there had been resistance from the Jewish leaders against the Apostles, it was soon to ratchet up to full on persecution and that would change everything.
Let’s pray.
Now because our text is so lengthy this morning I’d like to just quickly take a look at our players and then read our account and make some brief comments after its natural divisions.
Since the Scripture mentions him first I will too. Stephen, who was the Church’s first martyr, the first to be killed for his faith, was a Hellenist, a Greek speaking Jew who had come to faith in Christ Jesus and was not born in Judea but came from another neighboring country.
Stephen was also one of the Seven, one of the prototypical Deacons appointed to assist the Apostles in the distribution of food to the poor and the widows of the Church.
Stephen’s work didn’t stop with the feeding of the poor, but, as we will see early in our text, was full of grace and power from the Holy Spirit and was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Until this point it was only by the Apostles that signs and wonders were being performed, but as the church grew the Spirit empowered many different people to do these things, beginning with Stephen.
Those who rose up and opposed Stephen were also Hellenistic Jews from as many as five different Synagogues. These men charged Stephen with blasphemy against Moses, against God, the Temple, and the Law when they couldn’t refute his wisdom and his message.
This story plays out like it was on cable news… Let’s look at our text.
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 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. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 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, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 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.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
So this council, the same council that had tried and condemned Jesus, had commanded the Apostles to quit preaching in His Name, now examines Stephen, a child of Abraham and follower of the One True God.
It seems like it was common practice to hire false witnesses when the truth was not on your side. It was done against Jesus, and we see it here again. Unfortunately, it is still common practice.
So the charge is blasphemy, against Moses, God, the Temple, 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.”
Jesus did of course say that the temple would be destroyed but He would rebuild it in three days, but He meant His body. He also said that He didn’t come to abolish the Law of Moses but to fulfill it. So the words of these accusers were full of half truths.
But the High Priest gave Stephen a chance to tell the whole truth and he proceeded to give the longest recorded sermon in Acts and a synopsis of the history of the redemption of Israel.
And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 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, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 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. 5 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. 6 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 four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 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.
While the council in the past had been threatened by the influence of the Apostles and the number of people that were following them instead of the priests, this group was mostly concerned with the threat of change. They preferred the status quo.
So Stephen respectfully begins his defense with Abraham. Brothers and fathers he says. Stephen was a child of Abraham too and respected the council as leaders of the people.
What do we know about Abraham? Stephen tells us a great deal here. We know that Abraham was a man of faith. James 2:23, Galatians 3:6, Romans 4:3, all quote Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Abraham was a man of faith that God called out of his homeland, to leave his father’s house behind and see the Promised Land. Abraham was a man that believed God and dared to do it differently, to completely alter the trajectory of his life according to the Word of the Lord.
Jesus would provide the only way to the true Promised Land of God’s eternal kingdom.
Stephen continues his argument with Joseph.
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 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.
Joseph was faithful to God and God fulfilled His Word to him through change. Joseph would deliver his father’s household from a famine by taking them in to Pharaoh’s household, leaving their homes behind to go to Egypt.
Jesus is the Greater deliverer, providing a better refuge in His kingdom by faith, and providing food that will last far longer than the grain of Egypt.
Stephen then moves on to Moses and spends most of his time on him.
Moses, in the beginning was a failure. He was supposed to be God’s messenger but instead became a murderer, after that he became a refugee not a redeemer.
17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 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, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
But this was just phase one.
When Moses met God he was empowered to be the ruler and redeemer of Israel and led them out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
30 “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. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘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. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 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.’
But it didn’t take long for the people to rebel and reject Moses as their leader. They refused to obey Moses and it eventually resulted in their exile from the Promised Land.
35 “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. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 38 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. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 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.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 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? 43 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.’
Moses predicted in verse 37 that God would raise up another prophet like him from among their brothers which He did, that’s Jesus. And just like Moses, Jesus was rejected by His people and because of that rejection they will be condemned to exile far beyond Babylon.
And as for the Temple Stephen said,
44 “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. 45 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, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 “‘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? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
The Temple in Jerusalem is not God’s house any more than this building is God’s house. He is the Creator of all things and is not limited to the buildings we build even if we dedicate them for His use.
1 Peter 2:4-5 says,
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The Church is the house of God by faith in Jesus, this is just a building!
But now Stephen drives home the one point of his sermon, instead of following the Lord, they had followed the pattern of their fathers, the pattern of unfaithfulness to God and the rejection of the ones whom He had sent to them. And this single point cost him his life but gave him the blessing of being the first martyr for Jesus.
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 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, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 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. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 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.
These men saw that Stephen was not the real issue. The real issue was Jesus, what would they do with Jesus?
Stephen trusted the Lord Jesus and was received into His kingdom. For us, sometimes it’s harder to live for Christ that to die for Him, but we must be prepared to do both.
Romans 12:1-2, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Amen.
