God’s Story: Experiencing Biblical Community
Acts 6:8-7:60
Intro:
A 4 year old boy was asked to return thanks before Thanksgiving dinner. The family members bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking the Lord for all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked the Lord for Mommy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his Aunts and Uncles. Then he began to thank the Lord for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the cool whip. Then he paused, and everyone waited….and waited.
After a long silence, the young fellow looked up at his mother and asked, “If I thank the Lord for the broccoli, won’t He know that I’m lying?”
Gene Perrett suggests that we have more things to be thankful about than we realize. For example:
1. "Be grateful for automatic dishwashers. They make it possible for mother to get out of the kitchen before the kids come back for between-meal snacks.
2. "Be grateful for husbands who attack small repair jobs around the house. They usually make them big enough to call in professionals who’ll do it right.
3. "Be grateful for children who put away their things & clean up after themselves. They’re such a joy to have around that you hate to see them go home to their own parents.
4. "Be grateful for teenagers. They give parents an opportunity to learn a second language.
5. "And at Thanksgiving, be grateful for smoke alarms. They let you know when the turkey’s done."
Last week in my family group, we celebrated thanksgiving together with a wonderful feast. After dinner, I asked this question: “When did God become really real to you?” The normal way to phrase that question is, “When did you become a Christian?”, which is an excellent question, and which will usually result in an incredible story of how God began to work in someone’s life, but I’ve never been accused of being normal, so sometimes I like to phrase it a little differently: “when did God really become real to you?” For almost the next hour, we went around our circle sharing stories of faith, examples of God’s goodness and faithfulness, testimonies of God doing incredible, amazing things – and we were moved. I don’t at all mind sharing that at the end, my spirit was full of gratitude and thanks to God for all He has done in the lives of people I love.
Background:
As I read Scripture, I find that the Israelites were pretty good at looking back at their history and praising God for His faithfulness – at reciting together all that God had done. We see part of that in our passage this morning. I wonder if we shouldn’t make that more of a priority for thanksgiving – to retell the story of what God has done in our lives, leading into our expression of thanks.
Our text for this morning is certainly an unusual one for thanksgiving – it is the story of the martyrdom of Stephen. The story begins in Acts 6:8, and continues to the end of chapter 7. In the middle of that narrative, we read of Stephen reciting the history of Israel – he starts with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, spends a little time on Joseph, then a fair bit of time on Moses, and gets as far as David and Solomon before really making his point. The entire speech is too long to read this morning, so I’m going to begin at 6:8, skip over most of the Stephen’s defense, and then read the end of chapter 7. read 6:8-7:1; then 7:48-60.
Thanksgiving Incongruency?
Sometimes, things don’t always go the way we think they should. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, doing great things for the Kingdom of God, giving a great testimony about who God is and who Jesus is before the Jewish leaders. And he loses his life – he is martyred for the cause of Jesus.
Maybe that story seems a little incongruent with the theme of today – thanksgiving. At least on the surface, but let me point out several things that might help make the connection.
1. Obedience to God provokes opposition:
The central theme of our faith is that Jesus is Lord, which means He is in control, He is the boss of our lives, we seek to live in obedience to Him and not in pursuit of the desires of our flesh. And in one way, I can sum up Stephen’s defense to the Sanhedrin by saying that he declared that God is not limited or fixed to certain places – God is not contained in a box that we manage – and that Jesus is Lord over all. Stephen was obedient to God in making this declaration, and he paid for that obedience with his life.
It is a common theme in the NT – obedience to God will result in opposition from the world and from the devil. Jesus told us to expect it, Paul wrote a lot about it and certainly lived the truth of it, and James told us to “consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds”. In fact, James’ words are the basic NT teaching: in trials, in opposition, our response is to be one of thanksgiving, of praise to God, and even of “pure joy” according to James. So, we are to expect opposition, and when it comes, we are to be thankful and rejoice.
When Corrie Ten Boom was at the concentration camp, she stayed in Barracks number 28. And it was infested with fleas. It was almost unbearable. But one night, they read the passage of Scripture, "Give thanks in all circumstances." And Corrie’s sister said, "God wants us to thank him for the fleas." And Corrie said, "No way! That’s taking religion just a little bit too far!
I’m NOT going to thank God for these infernal fleas!"
After a while, the nightly Bible studies attracted more and more women. And Corrie started wondering if they would get caught. And so she asked one of the women, "Why don’t the Nazis ever come in and check on us?" And she said, "It’s because of the fleas. They won’t come near this place for that reason." And then Corrie remembered this Bible verse and said, "God, thank you for the fleas!"
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never sat around a thanksgiving table and heard people share about how thankful they are for the really difficult things in their life – for all the things that are going wrong and are hard and hurtful. However, I have heard and I regularly do hear this: “In spite of xyz, in the midst of how difficult it is, God is with me. God is doing some incredible things.” And I hear an expression of thanks, I hear testimony to the goodness of God, I even hear joy. And that is on the mark – that is the NT idea of thanksgiving in difficulties.
I think this is an important point for us this morning, because I have talked to a number of people this week who have been feeling a lot of spiritual opposition, a lot of the battle. That is why we made opportunity for more prayer. And, even though it might be hard, that is a very good thing. It is a sign that God is doing mighty things already, or that He is about to do mighty things. Let me give you two verses to hold on to in the midst of that, the first I learned from Pastor Fred: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” Col 1:13. The second I shared as a prayer last week: “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” Rom 8:37. Stand firm, the battle has already been won. God is with you.
2. Perspective is key:
The first thing I wanted to point out was that obedience produces opposition, and we can be thankful in the middle of that opposition for our confidence in God’s presence and activity alongside us. The second thing I see in Stephen’s story is his perspective. He stayed focused on Jesus. In the midst of the danger, in the midst of the opposition, in the midst even of losing his life, he stayed focused on Jesus. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:56.
There is a word here for us. We need to maintain that same focus. In the midst of whatever is going on in your life right now, today, I want to encourage you to turn your focus towards Jesus. To look to Him, to listen to Him, to allow Him to meet you in the middle of your life and be a very real part of it. Whether life is easy or difficult, full of blessings or full of tribulations, look to Jesus.
Let me make that a little more concrete. Tomorrow is a holiday for most of us, so we should have a bit of extra time we don’t usually have. Take a walk, go for a drive, whatever you like to do, and reflect on your life. And as you reflect, turn your focus to Jesus with this question: “Jesus, where are you working in my life?” Ask Him what He is doing, seek to see and hear Him, as you spend some time simply focusing on Him and reflecting on your life through the lens of what God is doing in, around, and through.
I am confident that doing that little exercise will bring us to the point of this weekend holiday: one of thankfulness. Thankfulness for this main reason: Jesus is alive. He is active in our lives. He is keeping His promise that He will be with us always, that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that He will give us the strength and power to stand firm in every situation, that He will be victorious, and that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. He is Risen!
3. The Sovereignty of God:
This whole story of Stephen’s martyrdom brings me once again to the place of recognition of the sovereignty of God. That God is in control, that He has all of history and all of the circumstances of life in His grasp, and that nothing happens which He is not aware of and which is beyond His control. I’m sure it didn’t look that way to the early Christians, it looked like the devil won a victory by ending the life of a powerful member of the early church. Just like it might not look like God is in control in the circumstances of your life. But He is. Maybe there is something you need to do to cooperate more with what He is wanting to do, but God remains in control. Stephen’s death certainly looked like a major setback in the short-term, but in the rest of the story, it was a critical part of God’s plan for Christianity to be spread out from Jerusalem, and was also significant in the journey of Saul the persecutor becoming Paul the apostle. God was in control then, and is in control now.
That might be a scary thought, that God is in control and not us, and so it must always be followed with this next truth: God is good. God is in control, and He is good. He has proven that throughout the history of our world, and throughout our individual histories. He has proven Himself faithful to the covenant He choose to enter into with us, and Has kept His promises. As we repeated earlier: “His love endures forever.”
Thanksgiving is a good time to remind ourselves of the goodness of God – of His character and His faithfulness. It gives us courage for the times when things are difficult. It builds faith in us, as we are reminded of how God has demonstrated His goodness in our lives. And it gives us something for which we can be truly thankful: that the God of the universe, who is over all and who reigns in power and might, is good to us. Maybe not easy on us, but certainly good to us.
Conclusion:
And that is the thought I want to leave with you this thanksgiving Sunday: God is good. He is faithful, His love endures forever. Yes, sometimes our obedience results in opposition and difficulty, and sometimes we find ourselves in situations where thankfulness is difficult, but as we fix our eyes on Jesus – as we focus on who Jesus is and what He is doing in our lives – we will always be reminded of the goodness and faithfulness of God. And that gives us much for which to be thankful.
Max Lucado (“No Wonder They Call Him The Savior”) tells this story: He couldn’t have been over six years old. Dirty face, barefooted, torn T-shirt, matted hair. He wasn’t too different from the other hundred thousand or so street orphans that roam Rio de Janeiro. I was walking to get a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe when he came up behind me. With my thoughts somewhere between the task I had just finished and the class I was about to teach, I scarcely felt the tap, tap, tap on my hand. I stopped and turned. Seeing no one, I continued on my way. I’d only taken a few steps, however, when I felt another insistent tap, tap, tap. This time I stopped and looked downward. There he stood. His eyes were whiter because of his grubby cheeks and coal-black hair. “Pao, senhor?” (“Bread, sir?”)
Living in Brazil, one has daily opportunities to buy a candy bar or sandwich for these little outcasts. It’s the least one can do. I told him to come with me and we entered the sidewalk cafe “Coffee for me and something tasty for my little friend.” The boy ran to the pastry counter and made his choice. Normally, these youngsters take the food and scamper back out into the street without a word. But this little fellow surprised me.
The café consisted of a long bar: one end for pastries and the other for coffee. As the boy was making his choice, I went to the other end of the bar and began drinking my coffee. Just as I was getting my derailed train of thought back on track, I saw him again. He was standing in the cafe entrance, on tiptoe, bread in hand, looking in at the people. “What’s he doing?” I thought.
Then he saw me and scurried in my direction. He came and stood in front of me about eye-level with my belt buckle. The little Brazilian orphan looked up at the big American missionary, smiled a smile that would have stolen your heart and said, “Obrigado.” (Thank you.) Then, nervously scratching the back of his ankle with his big toe, he added, “Muito obrigado.” (Thank you very much.)
All of a sudden, I had a crazy craving to buy him the whole restaurant.
But before I could say anything, he turned and scampered out the door.
As I write this, I’m still standing at the coffee bar, my coffee is cold, and I’m late for my class. But I still feel the sensation that I felt half an hour ago. And I’m pondering this question: If I am so moved by a street orphan who says thank you for a piece of bread, how much more is God moved when I pause to thank him—really thank him- for saving my soul?
