You’ll gather from the title of this sermon that one question that arises from this passage is, why did God let all this happen? Why allow someone as gifted as Stephen to be wasted like that? I guess it’s the sort of question that we often ask when something like this happens. We asked it 15 years ago when David Penman died of a heart attack. Why did God let him die just when his ministry seemed to be making a difference? Well often we don’t get an answer do we? But let’s look at this passage and see if there are any clues to why this happens here.
It would have been a simple thing for Christianity to remain a sect within Judaism wouldn’t it? The early Christians were well respected by the people. After a while the situation might well have calmed down to the point where they were accepted by the majority and Christianity would have remained centred in and around Jerusalem. But God had other things in mind. He wanted to see it spread to the ends of the world. So he used the opposition of Satan as well as the work of his own Holy Spirit to begin the spread of the gospel beyond the confines of Jerusalem to the rest of the world.
What we find in the next few chapters of Acts is how the foundation for this process is laid by 2 remarkable men, Stephen and Philip, followed by 2 significant conversions.
It’s interesting to see how Stephen comes to prominence so soon after being appointed to the role of deacon. Notice, by the way, that both Stephen and Philip are just ordinary men. In the previous passage Stephen’s role is simply to share out the donations to those in need. But the next thing we find is that this ordinary man is doing great wonders and signs among the people. Clearly the Holy Spirit is at work in him in an impressive way. And it isn’t just miracles that he’s doing. It seems that he’s also teaching the people from the Scriptures, explaining them in a way that upsets the leaders of one of the Greek speaking synagogues.
In fact as they begin to argue with him they can’t match the wisdom with which he speaks, a wisdom, notice, that shows the presence of God’s Spirit within him. We’ll see in a moment the sorts of things that he was teaching, but for now we’re just given a summary in v11: "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." Now we’ll say a bit more about that in a moment, but for now let’s just notice that he appears to be reinterpreting Moses, that is the law, particularly as it related to temple worship and I guess he’s telling them that Jesus is God, which was interpreted by them as blasphemy.
Do you remember how, when we began this series on Acts, I commented on the fact that the Holy Spirit was to be given to Christ’s followers so they could continue Christ’s work on earth? Well I want you to notice how what happens to Stephen here echoes what happened to Jesus. First he interprets the teaching of the Old Testament in a new way that threatens the religious hierarchy. Second when they arrest him they have to resort to false witnesses to get him convicted. The graciousness and wisdom of his speech is such that the only way they can convict him is to get someone to lie about him; to exaggerate their claims so they can get a conviction. And thirdly, when he’s being stoned to death he prays the same prayer that Jesus prayed on the cross: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing."
Notice too, that as he appears before the council, all who look at him are struck by the way he looks. His face is like that of an angel. There’s something about him that seems to radiate God’s presence with him. Actually it’s interesting when he’s being accused of speaking against Moses, that the description of him looking like an angel is so close to the way Moses was described when he came down from Sinai after receiving the 10 commandments from the hand of God (Ex 34:29).
Well, let’s think about what it is he says in his defence.
His defence, if that’s what it is, consists of a recital of the history of the people of Israel, but it’s a recital with an edge to it.
As he recites the history of Israel there are two major themes that repeat themselves over and over and over again.
The first theme is the realisation that God’s blessing is given wherever his people happen to be. The Jews thought they were blessed because they lived in the promised land. They thought because they had God’s temple that God was with them; that the Temple was the place where God had chosen to dwell on earth. But from the beginning God had been with his people wherever they were. Whether it was in Mesopotamia, or Haran in Syria or Egypt, God was with them, making them into his people.
The second theme is the way the people of Israel have repeatedly rejected the ones sent to them by God to bring them salvation. He seems to be saying that it’s almost a pathological failing. They can’t help themselves.
So there are those two themes that he drives home as he speaks. He begins with the origins of the nation, in the call of Abraham. It was a well loved story. But he points out that the call of Abraham begins in Mesopotamia. And then it’s repeated again in Haran, in what’s now Syria. So right from the outset God’s call to Abraham took place outside the land of promise, outside the geographical bounds of modern day Israel, far from Jerusalem and the Temple. He wants them to understand that God’s call is to a man of faith, not to a man of the faith. Even the sacrament of circumcision is something that comes after he receives the blessing, not before. This is a theme that Paul takes up in Romans and Galatians when he argues that the true offspring of Abraham are those who believe God, who take him at his word and act on what he tells them rather than those who are Jews simply by birth.
The Jews saw the land of Israel as the centre of God’s blessing but Stephen points out that Abraham received God’s blessing before he even came to the land in which they’re now living and certainly before he possessed any of it.
What’s more, even as God gave Abraham the promise of this land, he told him that his people would first spend 400 years in a land not their own, living as slaves. They would grow to be a nation in a foreign land.
So we discover that God placed Joseph in Egypt in order to save his people. Egypt became the place where salvation was found. In fact if you think about it, Joseph was a blessing not just to the Israelites, but to the Egyptians as well!
Then there’s Moses. Where was he when God’s call to go and rescue his people came to him? He was living in Midian, in the middle of the Sinai desert.
And then we come to David, who finally settled the land and drove out all their enemies. What happened when he asked if he could build a temple for God to dwell in? Stephen doesn’t tell the whole story, but he gives enough that his hearers will understand exactly what he’s saying. It’s a story they would have known well. God sent Nathan with this message: "Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle." (2 Sam 7:5-7) No, "the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands." He quotes Is 66: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool."
So this idea that the worship of God has to be centred on the Temple is actually a distortion of the truth. God is the God of the heavens who should be worshipped wherever people live.
But the more damning argument that Stephen presents is the pathological failure of the Israelites to accept the spokesmen that God has sent them.
So he begins with Joseph, rejected by his own brothers, that is, the patriarchs of the nation, and sold into captivity. But despite being rejected by his own family God preserved him and used him to bring salvation to his people.
Then there’s Moses. Again, he’s abandoned by his family but rescued by an Egyptian princess and raised in her own household. When he grows up he saves one of his own people from a cruel slave driver and what happens? His own people reject him. They say "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?" He discovers that the story of his murder of the Egyptian guard has got out. And so he flees for his life to Midian.
But God is gracious to them once more. He sends Moses back to deliver them from slavery. The one who was rejected becomes their saviour. "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone."
But even then, even as they were being led through the desert they were still rejecting the one God had sent to lead them. In fact it was at the very moment when Moses was on Mt Sinai receiving the law, the law that Stephen’s listeners are now so proud of, that perhaps their greatest rebellion occurred. v.39: "they pushed [Moses] aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ’Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 41At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands." It’s a scandalous story isn’t it? That the Israelites would turn away from the living God to the worship of idols, the works of their own hands! Yet that’s their story in a nutshell.
They continually rejected those who were sent by God to remind them of his words. They killed the prophets, they turned to foreign Gods until God rejected them and exiled them to Babylon. And it continues to be the case. They killed the prophets who foretold the coming of the righteous one, that is, Jesus, and now his hearers are guilty of betraying and murdering their own Messiah.
There his speech ends. He doesn’t get the chance to go on to what would no doubt have been his conclusion: that this Jesus is the Messiah, the prophet Moses foretold would come from God. That though he was rejected by his own people he’s been raised again; that he’s become their salvation despite their rejection of him.
Instead the council are enraged at him, even more so when he claims to see a vision of the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God. The Son of man is the apocalyptic figure from the book of Daniel, but also the name that Jesus regularly used for himself. At that they rush him, drag him out of the city and stone him. And then we get this almost passing comment that the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man, Saul. Saul is watching over the proceedings. And, we’re told in 8:1, approved of their killing him.
So why did God let this happen? Why let someone as gifted as Stephen be killed like this. The apostles seem to go through all sorts of dangerous situations without being killed. So why Stephen. Well, we’re not given a direct answer to that are we? But there are some indirect answers. First of all, in the very next verse we read that a great persecution arose against the Christians and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
The death of Stephen is a watershed moment for the Church. No longer will they be a Jewish sect confined to Jerusalem or even Israel. The Christian gospel is now being sent forcibly to the wider world. In 11:19 we read: "Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch." If there had been a tendency to keep the message to the confines of Judaism the immediate effect of this persecution is that the message begins to spread beyond the geographic limits of Israel.
But there’s a second result. I don’t think we can help but surmise that what Stephen said to the council had an enormous effect on Paul once he’d encountered Jesus on the Damascus road. Stephen’s thrust is that God’s message is for all people wherever they happen to be. That the Jerusalem Temple is not the only place God can be found or worshipped. And of course his argument that Jesus, though rejected, is the source of God’s salvation of his people becomes a central part of his preaching of the gospel.
So although it seems a waste, the results are far reaching. It’s sometimes said that the effect of a martyr’s death can be far greater than what they achieved in life and that may well be so in this instance. Certainly God used Stephen’s death to send the gospel beyond the bounds of Israel. And certainly our understanding of the gospel is helped by the speech that’s been recorded here for us by Luke.
We can’t always see the way God can use bad things to bring about good ends. Often it helps to look back from some distance though sometimes there don’t seem to be any good results even then. But we can see it here. Although Stephen’s life seems to be wasted from an earthly perspective at least, his martyrdom has long term ramifications for the growth of the church. From this point on the gospel begins to spread. Over the next few weeks we’ll see how first Philip continues that work, then Paul is converted by the direct intervention of Jesus Christ and then Peter is instrumental in the conversion of a Roman Centurion. And so the momentum of the gospel begins to grow.
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