Acts 6b - 3/12/17
Turn with me this morning to Acts 6. We saw last week God’s example for us in dealing with conflict within the church. This is how the role of deacon became established, but it was not about a title, but about a testimony. The disciples set a beautiful example for us in achieving consensus - they bring everyone together to come up with a solution, they admit their constraints - they know they can’t do everything, they activate the concerned - they let the ones most concerned with the problem help with the solution, they assess character - they put godly individuals in roles of ministry, and they affirm and commission others for service - when God raises up others to serve, they bless them and turn the ministry over to them. Far too often in the church we want to hold on to power; but ministry is not about power and control, it’s about service and blessing.
We ended last week in verse 7, and the story continues in verse 8 in looking at the testimony of one of the 7 early deacons, a man named Stephen. One lesson that we find to be true in life is that whenever God is doing a good thing, we shouldn’t be surprised to see Satanic attack and opposition. And sometimes it even comes from those in the CHURCH! We expect attack from outside, but we also need to be prepared for attack from inside the church - wolves in sheep’s clothing. If you want Satan to leave you alone, do nothing for God. You won’t be a threat to Satan and he’ll put his focus somewhere else. But if you are going to be obedient to God, speaking the truth to a world in need, Satan WILL seek to attack you. And that’s what we see here. I’m going to begin reading at verse 8 of Acts 6.
Read 6:8-15 Pray
The first thing we see in the text today is the
Opposition - God is doing great things in His church - Stephen is doing wonderful things through God’s power, and so Satan steps in to give opposition. He first tries to shut Stephen down through
Argument - Stephen has been teaching the truth of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God, crucified, risen, ascended, glorified, at the Father’s right hand in heaven. And as he goes from synagogue to synagogue teaching the truth, people try to argue against him.
First, what is a synagogue? In Jerusalem the Jews had a temple - going all the way back to the days of Solomon. It was not a house to contain God - because God does not live in human houses; but it was a central location where all could come and worship the one true God. Three times a year every faithful Jew was to return from whatever location in Israel they lived and worship God. But God doesn’t just want periodic worship - He doesn’t just want a Christmas and Easter crowd - so in each local town there were synagogues - churches if you will - places for local worship and teaching to take place.
So when we see the life of Jesus in the gospels - much interaction in Jerusalem takes place in the temple. But in other towns and regions, the teaching takes place in synagogues.
Here in Acts 6, Stephen has been arguing with Greek Jews. Remember what we saw last week - Stephen was a Greek, he spoke Greek, as did many Jews, even Jews in Jerusalem. Those who weren’t raised in the area didn’t speak Aramaic, they spoke Greek.
Growing up as a boy in Pennsylvania, there was a town nearby called Steelton. It was the home for a big Bethlehem Steel plant, and there were people from many European countries who lived there. So in town there were a number of different churches, all related to the language of the people - Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, etc.
This synagogue has freemen - Jews who were Roman citizens because they had been given their freedom - with parishioners from a number of other countries. They tried to argue religious viewpoints with Stephen, but they were no match for the wisdom that God had given him. Look at verse 10 - they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. So when they can win by argument, then they move on to
Attack - they can’t win the argument so they begin to attack his person. They hire people to slander him. This is a good reminder for us: don’t always believe everything you hear or read or especially what you see on the internet. Good men are always slandered and defamed by others. Does that mean they are always in the right? Of course not. But always deal with fact, and not with “hearsay.”
Verse 12 says they “stirred up the people” - the wording is literally the idea of being shaken with a violent shaking as with a volcano. In other words, they kept stirring the people up until there was an explosion, a volcanic eruption. Satan is like that - He uses mass hysteria, crowd dynamics to get people all fired up. Why is it that when you talk with one person who disagrees with you, you can have a friendly discussion and disagreement, but when you confront a crowd, people get caught up in emotion, and stir one another up, until people end up doing things they would never believe they could do!
They stir up the crowd until they erupt, and when they do, they take violent action. Verse 12 says They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. But this isn’t the idea that they can’t refute Stephen so they say, “you need to talk to our scholars” - NO, this is the idea that they get so worked up that they use much physical force - they literally DRAG him out of the synagogue and forcibly take him to their religious supreme court. They are ready to stone him then and there!
Does this sound familiar to us? This was the same thing they did with Jesus. They couldn’t refute His teaching, so they pay people to slander him, and then arrest him and give him a mock trial. But one thing that is interesting about Stephen is his defense. The reality is - he doesn’t have one. He uses his time before the Sanhedrin, not to defend himself, but to accuse them of their failure to follow God. He takes the
Offense - Satan loves to put us on the defense, but as Christians we should always be looking to take the offense. NOT to GIVE offense, we don’t want to intentionally “offend” anyone by speaking or acting in ungodly ways - but to take the offensive, to be on the attack for Christ. We seek a victory. Success is not just holding back Satan, but conquering and crushing the works of Satan. Far too often as Christians we are content just to see Christians have “liberty” to live out our beliefs - but our desire should always be NOT to see our freedom to live out our faith, but to see OTHERS come to faith in Christ.
So all of chapter 7 is a record of Stephen’s offense - his refutation of the claims against him. Stephen goes through a quick OT fly-over, reminding the Jews of their forefathers and their stories. It is enjoyable to read through this chapter, but sometimes we can get lost in the stories and we miss the “forest for the trees.” We don’t want to get so caught up with the individual details that we lose the point Stephen is making here. So we aren’t actually going to read chapter 7 this morning, but I would encourage you to read it sometime this week. But I DO want to highlight the points Stephen makes here.
First, what is the
Slander - what are the points they accusers are making against Stephen? First
1. Stephen blasphemed the temple - vs. 13 - This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. Why would they say that? Well, remember that the Jews are under Roman control. Even though they have their own councils and legal officials, they have to follow the Roman rules too. And one of the key rules was this: When Judea became a Roman province in a.d. 6, capital punishment was allowed only by the decree of the Roman governor, except for offenses by word or deed against the sanctity of the temple. In those situations, the Sanhedrin was allowed to pronounce and execute the death sentence. They had tried to convict Christ in this way but failed. As a result, they took him to Pilate. With Stephen, however, they succeeded. So their first attack was that Stephen was speaking against the temple.
2. Stephen disregarded the law - vs. 11 - “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” When they are making this accusation, they are not simply referring to what is in the bible - but we need to remember the Jewish system of law. They followed first the OT law that was given to Moses by God. But the Jews wanted to make sure they kept the law, and so they put up all kinds of “fences” around the law to make sure they didn’t disobey it. Then they had a whole system of “interpretations” of the law - to make sure no one disregarded any of the fences around the laws.
So for example, on the sabbath, they taught, a man may not carry a burden ‘in his right hand or in his left hand, in his bosom or on his shoulder’. But he may carry it ‘on the back of his hand, or with his foot or with his mouth or with his elbow, or in his ear or in his hair or in his wallet (carried) mouth downwards, or between his wallet and his shirt, or in the hem of his shirt, or in his shoe or in his sandal’ (Shabbath 10:3). Multiply this by all the regulations of the Law and ordinary people had a burden beyond bearing even to know what they might do and might not do.
These “burdens” were the details the Pharisees had added to God’s law. To the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8 niv), for example, they had added instructions regarding how far a person could walk on the Sabbath, which kinds of knots could be tied, and how much weight could be carried. Healing a person was considered unlawful work on the Sabbath, although rescuing a trapped animal was permitted. Instead of teaching God’s law so that people could love, understand, and obey the God who gave it, they turned the law into a confused maze of do’s and don’ts that had become a burden to the people.
and then the third attack launched against Stephen is sort of implied in our text -
3. Stephen opposed the sacrificial system - mixed in with all the “customs” mentioned here is the whole system of sacrifices. But Christians understood that Jesus fulfilled the law, and He died as the one perfect sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The book of Hebrews goes into this in great depth. And remember what a Hebrew is - a descendant of Abraham - so this is a book written to Jews to tell them that we have a far greater salvation through Christ that we ever did in trying to keep the OT law.
Three key issues they bring up against Stephen. And these three issues are very important for us, because they address three issues we still deal with in Christianity today. First, we deal with the question of
1. Relationship vs. Ritual - does God want us to go through ritual, or to have a relationship with Him? Many opt for the ritual, and they go through their regular ceremonies, they go to mass, they do pennance, they try to win God’s favor with all types of rituals. They focus on doing all the right things. But the difference is that God does not want lip service, He wants our hearts. God doesn’t care how LOUD you sing “O how I love Jesus” - He cares that you mean it! He wants a relationship with us. The second issue applies to us today in the issue of
2. God’s Rules vs. Man’s Rules - far too often we get caught up in all the “fences” we build for people - all the hoops we want others to jump through. We call it “legalism.” Demanding that someone do or refrain from doing something that the bible never commands. We get all worked up over whether someone plays cards, or has a glass of wine, or what bible version they use. And God forbid if someone would ever enter the “sanctuary” barefoot - they think that would be such a disgrace! And so we show that we still have not learned the lesson of following God and not following man. So many of the “rules” we live by are not God’s rules, but rules made by men. The third area we deal with
3. Do vs. Done - the difference of religion and salvation is that religion is spelled DO - we trust in all the things that we can DO to win God’s favor. Salvation is spelled DONE - we trust in what God has DONE for us. The perfect example of this is the story Jesus tells about two men who go up to the temple to pray: the Pharisees tells God all the things he has DONE to merit God’s favor. The tax collector simply asks for God’s mercy - trusting in what God has done for him.
So here are the attacks against Stephen; let’s see how he answers. Here is Stephen’s
Support - he turns to the OT and mentions four key forefathers:
Abraham - he starts with the lesson of Abraham: obedience means following God in new ways. Abraham is a man who dared to make changes in obeying God. 7:3 - ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ Abraham is called out of Iraq and he travels several hundred miles simply because God told him to go. He leaves family, friends, security, his comfortable, predictable life, and every day becomes an adventure: but he goes because God has called him and he is obedient. God brings him to a new land, and then God gives him a new covenant, circumcision, a constant reminder of God’s covenant with the descendants of Abraham. Vs. 8 - Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. But this covenant is where the Jews of Stephen’s day were confused. They thought they were in a right relationship with God because they were descendants of Abraham and because they were circumcised. They had the OUTER relationship down pat - but they missed a heart that was ready to obey God.
Paul deals with this same theme in Romans 2: A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
From the lesson of Abraham, Stephen goes right into two more fathers:
Joseph & Moses - and they both teach us similar lessons. Both fully obeyed God - contrast that with the Jews of Stephen’s day who refuse to change and who refuse to obey God. Both Joseph & Moses fail when they attempt things in their own strength - Joseph’s brothers hate him and sell him off; Moses kills a man and is scorned by his fellow Jews. But both Joseph and Moses succeed greatly when they rely on God’s strength: Joseph saves the whole world by setting up a system for storing grain, and the very brothers who sold him end up reaping benefits because their brother acts in the wisdom God supplies. Moses, when he functions in God’s strength, vs. 36, leads the Jews out of Egypt and to the promised land.
Stephen’s point is this: the Jews need to rely on God’s leading and direction, not on the traditions they had been following for thousands of years. He points out in verse 37, This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’ Stephen tells the Jews, “Even Moses prophecied that God was going to send a prophet to ‘shake up the system.’” That was Jesus - but the Jews refused to believe Him. Then Stephen mentions the fourth patriarch,
Solomon - and he brings out the point - vs 48 - However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. For the Jews, everything revolved around the temple. After all, it provided a great income for them. They would set up tables to exchange currency - because they said to worship at the temple you had to use “temple currency” - you couldn’t use “defiled” currency. And so they set up this elaborate system to “fleece” the people - all in the name of God. That’s when Jesus stepped in to overturn tables when He cleansed the temple.
And sadly we still see people “fleecing” the church in the name of Christ. I have a file in my office of examples - for example Reverend Ewing, who sends you a “coupon book” - of course he doesn’t call it that - so you can show your “seed faith” and send in your gift so God can send you back 100 times the amount you sent.
But Stephen’s point - the temple is NOT the house of God - because God doesn’t live in human houses - but WE are the house of God. We are the temple of God. Paul writes to the Corinthians - Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. And then in the book of Hebrews - the book written to Jews - we find this: But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
So Stephen takes the chance - not to defend himself - but to use the four patriarchs to show the Jews that they have missed the point. It is their hard-heartedness that keeps them from pleasing God. He gives his summary in verse 51: You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! The failed to obey God, they failed to worship from the heart, they resisted the work God was doing, and so they showed that they did NOT have a heart for God.
We see the opposition - Satan attacks, the offense - Stephen’s response, and then we see the
Outcome - what does God bring about through all this. First, Stephen is stoned. Vs 57 - The Jews go into a frenzy, drag Stephen outside the city limits, and stone him to death. So we have to ask, WHY does God let this happen? Couldn’t God have stopped it? Couldn’t Stephen have done something - after all, he was doing great miracles? And then we have to remember - couldn’t Jesus have done something? Yes, he could have asked His Father, who would have sent legions of angels to His aid. But He chose to die to accomplish the Father’s will.
So HOW does God accomplish His will through Stephen’s death? When Jesus is with his disciples, He gives them instructions in the Great Commission: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations. Then when Jesus ascended, His very last words, Acts 1:8 - you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
Jesus said GO - but the disciples said NO - so God let them face WOE - Acts 8:1 - On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Why does the persecution come? Because God had a job to be done, and they disciples were not doing it. Sure, the church at Jerusalem was growing by leaps and bounds. But a big church is not a sign of an obedient church. We always want to emphasize faithfulness over size. When the persecution breaks out, the Christians do what they were called to do - 8:4 - Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. God WILL accomplish His will, one way or another.
Today, we have looked at more of an overview as opposed to smaller details, but we learn a lesson of obedience. May God help us to be obedient, to be faithful in standing for the truth, and to be faithful in focusing on our relationship with God and not on mere ritual. Let’s pray.
