Grace Under Fire
Acts 7:54-60
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Matthew 5:10-12
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
1. Sometimes the Truth hurts, its not going to tickle your ears.
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
The precise phrase gnashing of teeth is found in several places in the Bible and is used exclusively in reference to the final judgment of sinners, where it is combined with either weeping or wailing. The Greek phrase for “gnashing of teeth” literally means “grinding one’s teeth together.”
Surely, part of what the gnashing of teeth communicates is pain, especially when the gnashing is combined with weeping. When a person hits his thumb with a hammer, he will commonly squeeze his eyes closed and grind his teeth together hard. The weeping and gnashing of teeth in Scripture, however, is much more dreadful, partly because it lasts for eternity.
Gnashing one’s teeth shows up elsewhere in Scripture in contexts other than feeling pain. In Acts 7:54 the gnashing of teeth is done in anger because of what Stephen had said to the Jewish Council: “They were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.” Psalm 37:12 says, “The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them” (see also Psalm 35:16; 112:10; and Lamentations 2:16). In these passages, wicked persons gnash their teeth at righteous persons as the wicked plot against them or disapprove of them. Apparently, gnashing teeth was a sign of great disrespect and anger.
Jesus’ first reference to weeping and gnashing of teeth comes in Matthew 8:12 where He compares the kingdom of heaven to a feast where “many” come from all parts of the world to “recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” The others, however, are thrown into “outer darkness” where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So you get the picture…. This gnashing of their teeth, they were very angry with Stephen, not because he told a lie, in fact, these religious leaders would have known these scriptures even better than Stephen who just outlined their forefathers history in his sermon… They were aware of what Stephen just spoke to them, they understood it was the truth… they just didn’t like it. That truth put them in a bad light, it was condemning their position, their attitude towards Jesus.
Our Prophets of old, and those who are called into prophetic ministry today, those who are called to Preach the Truth, God’s Word, are not going to be the most popular people in town, because if they are preaching the Truth of God’s Word, it surely won’t go along with what the World is trying to sell you.
Have you figured out that the Christian life and the life of those who follow the World’s way of living are in direct opposition to one another?
Have you ever left a Sunday service gnashing your teeth over what you just heard the preacher say?
The World teaches that your happiness will be found in your success…. How much stuff you can get…. How much money you can attain…. What kind of car you drive… How nice a home you live in…. the kind of clothes you wear… and on and on it goes… materialism is god.
Jesus came and taught something completely different, He teaches us to live simple lives, that the Kingdom of God comes first, that we are to rely on Him, Trust Him, not in what we have or what we own in this world.
In fact, the Bible teaches that the love of money is What? The Root of all evil.
I’ve said all this to remind you that the Preacher’s job is to preach the truth without fear of what the listener might think or how the listener might react to that truth.
My calling is to communicate God’s Word to you in a way that you can understand it and respond to it, how you respond to it is up to you, I of course try to persuade you to respond in obedience to whatever God is speaking to you about, because we know Obedience is the key to spiritual health, spiritual growth.
Today we need more Stephen’s in our pulpits, less of the watered down, trying to keep everyone happy versions of the gospel messages that are all around us.
I believe God will raise up his men and women who are called to preach, we will see a revival in those called to preach, they will again preach without fear, and we will see a revival again in our country, it might happen during a true persecution, but it will happen.
So the question is how will you respond to God’s Truth today. Will you gnash your teeth, under your breath, denying what God’s Word plainly teaches? Or will you allow God to bring correction to what you have been doing?
2. God’s anointed Murdered for Preaching the Truth. V. 55-60
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Some of our preachers today might argue that Stephen must have done something wrong because He was promised a life of health, wealth and prosperity….
One of the problems with the health, wealth and prosperity false teaching is that Jesus never taught that…. In fact, look at what Matthew 5 says…
Matthew 5:10-12
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Luke 9:23-25… Jesus talking to His disciples, He is predicting his own death to come and He says this to his disciples…
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Stephen understood what it meant to pick up the Cross of Christ to follow Him. It meant he gave up his own ideas, his own agenda, his own life and He became a sold out, cross style Christian.
Do you want to have the kind of courage, they kind of passion for Jesus that Stephen had? I do.
Do you want to be in such a authentic relationship with God that you don’t have to ever wonder if your doing the right thing or not, you can know you are exactly where God wants you, doing exactly what God desires for your life? I do.
This kind of Christian life flows from being obedient to the words of Christ…. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. How often do we pick up the cross to follow Jesus?
Daily. How are you doing on this denying yourself so you can see Jesus clearly?
Jesus went on… v 24 “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Or their soul…as one version puts it…
Look at how much effort we are putting into protecting our physical safety these days. What about our Spiritual safety? The physical is going to all pass away, but your spiritual person is going to live for eternity, in one of two places… heaven or hell.
One place will be beyond our ability to describe, it will be pure joy and the greatest reward you could imagine.
Hell, on the other hand will be the worst scenario you could ever dream of…. You will literally hear gnashing of teeth, people will be so angry, so filled with hate…but the most devastating thing of all… your soul will know for the first time ever what it going to be like to not be able to feel God’s love. A person in hell will spend eternity thinking about all those times God reached out to them, but they refused to obey…living with your regret for eternity will be one of the worst punishments I could ever imagine…. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that.
But, I do worry about my family and friends who are living for themselves, who are more interested in the physical things of this world, people who may look ok on the outside, but on the inside they are lost spiritually speaking.
Does your heart hurt for the lost?
Stephen didn’t preach this message to the Sanhedrin because he had something to prove. He wasn’t trying to match wits with these scholars. He wasn’t attempting to get invited to their meetings….His goal was to help them see the truth so they could respond and be saved.
Stephen didn’t get to see anyone get saved that day because of the hatred this group had, they drug him out into the streets and they stoned him, they murdered him for preaching nothing but the truth. But I want you to notice something…
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Do you know who this young man named Saul was? Do you find it curious that our author of Acts, mentions this guy?
This was Saul, who would later be converted to who we know as the Apostle Paul, one of our Biblical heros, the author of many of our Biblical texts and the great missionary, taking the gospel message to the Gentiles… you and me.
We don’t always understand God’s plan, watching Stephen die for his faith that day I’m sure was very disheartening for the early church, but His love for Jesus, His testimony of faith and grace during this lynching would have given the early church leaders great encouragement, it was a great example of grace under fire, and they were going to be put to the test in the days ahead for sure.
I believe we are going to be put to the test in our faith in the days to come, it’s inevitable in the world we live in…. Jesus has told us to not be surprised at this.
Are you ready?
Do you understand what it means to pick up your cross daily?
Will you respond in prayer with me today as we close… Let’s let God know today that we want to die out to anything in our lives that might be blocking His Presence, His Power, His blessings in our lives.
