The Martyr’s Testimony
(Acts 7:51-8:4)
1. According to an AP article yesterday (Nov. 8), "WASHINGTON – The nation’s jobless ranks zoomed past 10 million last month, the most in a quarter-century, as piles of pink slips shut factory gates and office doors to 240,000 more Americans with the holidays nearing. Politicians and economists agreed on a painful bottom line: It’s only going to get worse.
The unemployment rate soared to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent… more grim news from U.S. automakers: Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.,… [are] figured to be announcing even more job cuts before long.
Regulators, meanwhile, shut down Houston-based Franklin Bank and Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles on Friday, bringing the number of failures …this year to 19."
2. When you hear this sort of news, it means that times are changing, and we have to adjust to changing times. One of the great markers of a happy person or happy marriage is the ability to adjust to things beyond control. But nobody said it is easy!
3. Likewise, churches and the church at large must constantly adjust to new challenges or new needs. And persecution has certainly been one of those adjustments.
4. Since many understand the church to have begun at Pentecost, Stephen is often referred to as the church’s first martyr.
"The term martyr (Greek μάρτυς martys "witness") is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices his life (or personal freedom) in order to further a cause or belief for many. Long ago, it initially signified a witness in the forensic sense, a person called to bear witness in legal proceedings." (Wikipedia)
5. After Stephen preached his scathing sermon, the crowd could have been humbled or incited, depending upon their attitude. On Pentecost, the crowd was "cut to the heart," they felt remorse for their rejection of Jesus, and they repented. This crowd went the other way. Rather than repent, they became further entrenched in their hatred and agitated one another.
6. Similarities between the death of Stephen and the death of Jesus (note: I have altered):
1. Both were tried before the high priest
2. Both were accused by false witnesses
3. Both were accused of threatening to destroy the temple
4. Both mention "the Son of Man"
5. Both charged with blasphemy
6. Both "commit" their spirit while dying
7. Both cry out with a loud voice
8. Both ask their enemies to be forgiven
[Source: Witherington, Ben III, The Acts of the Apostles, A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, Eerdmans, 1989, p. 252, altered).
Main Idea: God is very good at confusing us and leaving our heads in a spin, but He knows what He is doing, even if we can’t figure it out. But eventually his plan becomes clear, either in the distant future (eternity) or in retrospect (in this life).
I. It Seemed As Though God ABANDONED His Church (7:51-8:4)
A. The Mob is ENRAGED By Stephen (51-54)
Not just angry, but completely out of control with hatred…
“Gnashing their teeth” – I think literally clinching and gritting their teeth in utter, insane rage, to the point of not feeling pain…
B. Stephen’s VISION Adds Fuel to the Fire (55-58)
1. This was an illegal action, a case of mob violence in the name of religion
2. David Stern comments, "…experienced jurists should have sensed the danger latent in the circumstances and taken steps to protect Stephen instead of joining the mob. Either the Sanhedrin had already decided to put Stephen out of the way without an honest trial, or the judges allowed emotion to overrule reason after his inflammatory speech."
[The Jewish New Testament Commentary, p. 247]
3. Stephen sees heaven opened and Jesus standing (why standing?)
4. This made the mob more insane with anger…
C. Stephen’s FINAL Testimony (59-60)
1. But this was not done in an orderly manner, according to the law, nor was there concern for consequences… rage can be that way.
2. Many of us may have said or done things in rage that we regret; we might be embarrassed to remember them, and we might even blot them out of our memory. But rage can really go wild. Road rage is one example.
3. Stephen is stoned to death, but he asks Jesus to forgive the sin of the mob… he did not have to ask this….but his main concern was their conversion…
D. Saul Becomes the DREADED Enemy of the Faith (1-3)
Paul was a young member of the Sanhedrin. When he explains his conversion to King Agrippa in Acts 26:9-11, Paul said, "I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.”
1. SCATTERING
2. DRAGGING
3. Many persecuted believers do not ask for God to smite their persecutors, but to reach them and transform them into Pauls.
4. Trouble makers within the church are different from persecutors; Romans 16:17 says, "I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
5. Often, we reverse things; we try to force lost people to act like Christians, and then we do not confront Christians when they are in the wrong.
6. Stephen asked God to forgive them, I believe, to model himself after Jesus and with the hope that his persecutors would come to faith; whether God actually forgave these men in answer to Stephen’s prayer is not stated in the text, but we know Saul did come to faith later. Perhaps the forgiveness Stephen asked for was for the opportunity for these men to repent.
II. God’s Plans Become Clear in the FUTURE and in RETROSPECT
A. Saul, the Church PLANTER
The persecution, spearheaded by Saul, scatters the church; Saul was church-planting even before his conversion, but he did not know it.
After Saul became a believer, he took the name Paul. Trouble makers in the early church forced Paul to write a bunch of letters, much of our New Testament.
B. Saul, in training to become PAUL
1. A sense of DEBT
The "debt" Saul incurs by persecuting the church would keep him humble throughout his ministry as Paul the Apostle. He rightly refers to himself as "the chief of sinners," and rightfully so.
2. A greater LOVE
Jesus made this statement about the sinful woman who anointed him with oil and washed his feet with perfume: "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." Luke 7:47
3. Pauls come from SAULS
Paul, perhaps the greatest apostle, could not be Paul until he had first been Saul
C. Saul, the living EXAMPLE of how God saves us
I Timothy 1:15-16, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
III. APPLICATIONS
.
1. When God allows bad things to happen to produce a greater good, we have no idea that this is what is happening… Stephen did not know that his death would result in city-wide persecution, that the church would scatter, and that the Gospel would spread because of this…
This is true in the realm of finances, politics, church situations, relational struggles…
We may know right from wrong, but that is not quite the same as seeing the details in what God is doing. Sometimes God allows wrong to prevail to accomplish a good purpose.
2. In Acts, Luke is telling the story as to how the church took root in Jerusalem and then spread throughout the Roman Empire. He is looking back in retrospect; but looking forward without this information, it seems inconsistent with Jesus promise that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” that is, the church.
3. Although Acts opens with God offering the Kingdom to Israel, it becomes apparent that the Jewish people were not of a mind to commit themselves to Jesus Christ. In time, God moves the presentation of the Gospel to those who have a spiritual appetite.
5. The strength of the church continues to move westward.
