We're actually thinking about
Stephen this morning and passing through the gates of pearly splendour. Victors, we rest with thee through
endless days. We're passing through the gates
of pearly splendour. Victors, we rest with thee through
endless days. If you turn in your scriptures
to Acts chapter 6 and then seeing that those thoughts are before
us we might turn to the end of Stephen's life. And we have at
the end of Stephen's life this remarkable testimony. Stephen's
circumstances changed in this passage of Acts that we're looking
at, but his company never did. His circumstances changed, but
not his company. Verse 54, it says, when they
heard these things, this is the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin,
they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens
open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then
they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran
upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and
stoned him. And the witnesses laid their
clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they
stoned Stephen. calling upon God, Stephen calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. He fell asleep in the arms of
the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? Heaven was opened. It's a
remarkable testimony, isn't it, of the death of the Saint of
God. We leave this world and all the
entanglements of sin and our flesh and we go into His presence
and it's the most remarkable thing. It is that victory, isn't
it, that we just sang about. It is that reward that Graham
read. Out of Isaiah 53, he shall see
the travail of his soul and he will be satisfied. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is satisfied with all of his people. God the Father
saw the travail of the son's soul and he is satisfied with
that sacrifice, that one sacrifice, that one offering for sin. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the witness that you raised up in this remarkable
man, Stephen, and help us to remember, Heavenly Father, that
he was a man just like us. The wonder of wonders, Heavenly
Father, that you pour out your grace and your power and your
Spirit upon your people to bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ
in this world. And Heavenly Father, may it be
the case of everyone here that can hear our words, Heavenly
Father, that they might leave this world with the joy and with
the assurance that Stephen left it. And may they, and may we,
Heavenly Father, by your power and your work amongst us, cause
us to bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ as Stephen did. What a remarkable work the Lord
Jesus Christ has done for His people on their behalf, but also
remarkably Heavenly Father, in the lives of His people to cause
them to stand in the midst of all the opposition of this world
and declare Him to be all in all. And Heavenly Father, may
we have something of that Spirit of Grace of Stephen that cries
out to those who stand opposed to us, cries out and prays, Heavenly
Father, for your mercy to be shown upon the people. to whom
we see at this time your wrath being poured out upon them. We
pray to you, Heavenly Father, that in your wrath you do remember
mercy. And we pray for that, Heavenly
Father, the people that we know and that we love and the people
that we might bear testimony to. May something of the Spirit
that you put upon Stephen rest upon us, Heavenly Father. For
the glory of your dear Son, we pray in his name. Amen. Let's turn in our scriptures
back to Acts chapter 6. Stephen is remarkable in the scriptures
that this man, in a sense as it were, comes like a comet into
the orbit of this world and he shines with extraordinary brightness
and he shines for a very, very brief time and then he's gone
to glory. But in that time, in that short
time, he left the most remarkable testimony, and we want to follow
his life. We looked a little bit last week
in those opening verses of Acts chapter 6 about the disputation
that was in the church, and in verse 3, because of that difficulty
amongst the brethren, it said, man whose testimony is trustworthy
in this world, people whose word can be relied upon, people who
are faithful in all sorts of little things as well, full of
the Holy Ghost and wisdom that we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually
to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And the saying pleased
the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of
faith and the Holy Ghost. and Philip, and Procurus, and
Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from
Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had
prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God
increased, and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem,
and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith."
And so the word of God, the word of God, in spite of all the opposition
from outside and from inside, the word of God, multiplied,
it increased, and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the
synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and
Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia,
disputing with Stephen. And when they were not able to
resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake, then they
suborned, that they secretly instigated men, which said, We
have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against
God. And when they stirred up the
people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and
caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false
witnesses, which said, This man seethest not to speak blasphemous
words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard
him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and
shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that
sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face, as it had
been the face of an angel. And remarkably looking upon that
face, they next then asked this question in chapter 7 verse 1,
Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And because
of that, Stephen then is able in chapter 7 to proclaim this
remarkable sermon which speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is all about the Lord Jesus Christ and his great victory and his
great glory and the way he carried his people through all of those
prominences in the Old Testament. It was and is a remarkable sermon. It is the longest sermon. In
fact it's longer than almost all the other sermons recorded
in Acts put together. And the Holy Spirit has given
us this sermon from the mouth of Stephen. Stephen began his
life as a deacon. Stephen's name means crown. I trust that he will be crowned
in your memories. that we will honour him as the
Lord Jesus has honoured him. He is in this early church someone
who is left with the most remarkable testimony, isn't he? Testimony
of the faithfulness and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
on His way to being crowned, and crowned with that glory that
we read about at the end of chapter 7, that glory of actually seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ and having at His death, as it were, heaven
opened, and the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ there to welcome
him and to embrace him. And there he has been, brothers
and sisters, for the last nearly 2,000 years. While all of this
earth has rolled on, Stephen has been there singing the songs
of heaven, rejoicing in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. People
might say, well, why would someone with such a remarkable testimony
and remarkable gifts have his life cut so short? There is no
life cut short. All of the lives of all of God's
people will be played out exactly as the Lord ordained. There are many lessons in Stephen's
witness. He is the first martyr of the
New Testament Church and the word martyr just means to be
a witness. It is someone who bears witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there's a lot of talk
of martyrs in this world today, but the only real Christian martyrs
are the martyrs who actually bear the testimony that Stephen
bore, and the testimony that Peter bore, and the testimony
that all the apostles bore. If they don't bear that testimony
about the Lord Jesus Christ, they are not martyrs in the biblical
sense of the word. They aren't in the company of
Stephen. Stephen, of course, is someone
who's prepared as all martyrs are. All Christians are martyrs.
They will bear witness to him. And people often think, well,
I don't know that I could stand there at the stake and embrace
the stake as our forefathers did hundreds of years ago. With the same ease with which
they did it, there was a man, a Dutch man, who was accused
and was sentenced to burn at the stake. And he said to the
judge, come and put your hand on my heart and you let me know
whose heart is beating the fastest. There was and there is. And there
always will be the grace given for the time it is needed, brothers
and sisters. We don't have dying grace now
because we are not about to die. We don't have the grace to bear
witness as Stephen did, and we may. But when that time comes,
when the time comes, the Lord will make sure that His people
will bear witness to Him. Stephen has these remarkable
descriptions, isn't he? He's a man of honest report,
and he's a man full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and he's a
man full of faith and power. And he continued. He did great
wonders and miracles among the people, and he continued doing
them. The first thing that I want us
to know, and I think it's really important, I trust the Lord might
lay it upon our hearts, is that we are so inclined because of
the ecclesiastical world we live in to think that people who stand
behind pulpits or have some position of power and authority are the
ones who are to be the most esteemed in the eyes of other people.
But in the Lord's Church everything is turned upside down, brothers
and sisters. Everything, every notion that
we have ought to be turned upside down. So what was Stephen's path
to this extraordinary testimony? Stephen's path to this extraordinary
testimony was that he was a man of honest report. He simply did
and lived honestly before people. And what was his job? What was
the first job he had to do in the church? Wait on tables. to wait on tables. You see, God
honours the little things that His people do. A cup of water
given in His name. A cup of water. The least thing
done to the least of His brethren. See, nothing is said in the rest
of the Scriptures about this service of students. But what
we do know is that the dispute ended and the Word of God multiplied
and the apostles were given to praying and to the preaching
and the ministry of the Word and the Word of God spread. So
we don't have to have things recorded in this world for them
to be recorded in the books of God in heaven. And He will not
forget those things. And so, just little things, I
think that's the point, isn't it? He was faithful in the Church,
he was faithful with the Church, and he was faithful in the eyes
of the world. He was a man of honest report
outside. And such, I pray, is the lives
that God will lay upon us, the determination that there will
be nothing in our lives, private or public, which will bring dishonour
and disrepute to the glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray that that's your prayer. I pray that that is the desire
of us. If we're going to finish as Stephen
finished, it starts with little things. It starts with little
things that the world doesn't see. It starts with little things,
doesn't it? It starts with God moving in
the hearts of His people that they will do and be filled. See, Stephen in verse 8 was filled,
was full of faith. is full of faith and power, and
he did great wonders and miracles among the people. A vessel filled,
filled with faith. When something is filled, there's
nothing else that can get in it. It's filled by God. You're filled with the Holy Spirit.
You are baptized into the Holy Spirit, children of God. is full
of power by the Spirit of the Lord of Hosts, says Micah 3. And to be filled of faith means
to be emptied of self. That's what it is, isn't it?
There's not room, there's not room in something that's filled
by God for the flesh and the world. Now we know that the battles
go on. But brothers and sisters there
is only a battle in the lives of those who are filled. It's
only in those who have the Holy Spirit does this battle of flesh
and spirit go on. For Stephen in the midst of that
battle was a man full of faith and power. and he kept on doing
it. That means he did great wonders
and he kept on doing great wonders and signs among the people. He
was filled with power, wasn't he? There is a power that God
promises, promised to these witnesses. In chapter 1 verse 8, The Lord
Jesus Christ promised this early church, He says, but you shall
receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. A persecution
broke out in Jerusalem following Stephen's martyrdom. What was
the end result? The Gospel went out. The people
were scattered out of Jerusalem and they were scattered into
Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth. But there
is power, isn't it? There is power because of the
promise of God. There is power to declare the
truth of the Gospel because of the revelation of God. It's one
of the things that the religious people find offensive, is that
God's people endued with power, that power of the revelation,
the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual thing
that God does in the hearts of His people. And that means that
his spirit-indwelt people like Stephen are able, as we'll see,
to stand in the face of these incredibly learned and brilliant
theologians like Saul of Tarsus. And he's able, by God's presence
with him and God's revelation with him, he's able to confound
them. There is power. There is power
from God. Power in this world. It's remarkable,
isn't it? Stephen, full of faith and power. The world gets its power and
the people of this world get its power from position and status. from possessions and other things. But God has made foolish the
wisdom of the world, which is exactly what happens here, isn't
it? There's Stephen, this man who does great wonders and miracles.
What do you do to a person who does great wonders and miracles? A man who's of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and he continues to proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he continues to do these great wonders
and miracles. What's the response? What's the
response of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
lives of His people? What's the response of the world?
What was the response of the world to the Lord Jesus Christ?
The journey of Stephen and the journey of the Lord Jesus Christ
are so extraordinarily parallel, aren't they? We see that that
promise of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 12, 26, He says, where
I am. He says, where I am. there will my servant be. If any man serve me, see Stephen
was handing out bread, but he was serving the Lord Jesus Christ.
If any man serve me, let him follow me and where I am, there
shall also my servant be. And if any man serve me, him
will my father honour." You see, the Lord Jesus Christ was there
with Stephen. God's children are never alone
in this world. They are never alone in this
world and they are never without the presence and the protecting
and preserving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing will ever
harm one of God's little ones while they walk in this world.
Everything will turn out, everything will turn out for the glory of
God and for the spiritual good of His people and His Church. What's the response? What's the
response of the religious world? What's the response of these
extraordinarily moral, extraordinarily knowledgeable, extraordinarily
zealous religious people? Verse 9, don't forget that word
then. This is the response to the declaration
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the response of the religious
world. Then there arose certain of the
synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines. Libertines means to be liberated. It's generally in reference to
those who are either free-born Roman citizens or those who have
been made Roman citizens. And there were enough visitors
to Jerusalem, as we saw earlier in Acts, and residents of those
Grecian cities to be living in Jerusalem, for there to be synagogues. As we saw last week when it came
to the disputation between the Greek And the Hebrews in the
early church, it was in the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the
early church to choose seven men, seven Greek speaking men
to take care of that business. And Stephen is one of them. So
Stephen spoke Greek. And these people, Greek was the
lingua franca of the world. It was the common language of
the world and so the differences are often there in the early
church between those who spoke Aramaic, a variety of Hebrew,
compared to those who spoke Greek. These are all Greek-speaking
people, Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of
Asia, disputing with Stephen. Cilicia is that province of which
Tarsus is the capital city. So it's where Saul of Tarsus
came from. And there's probably almost no
doubt, given the circumstances we read of later on in Chapter
7, that Saul was one of the ones whom Stephen was disputing with. Saul, this brilliant man trained
under Gamaliel. Saul, this zealous man. Saul, this man who could say
to the religious world there that he kept the law perfectly."
It's a remarkable statement. It's a remarkable boast. But
he could say, you go to that ceremonial law of Moses and I've
kept it perfectly. How do those people respond?
Then arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the Synagogue
of the Libertines, Disputing with Stephen. Disputing with
Stephen. I think it's important to note
that they disputed with him. Stephen had one task, like all
of the apostles, didn't he? And all of the Church, through
all of the time, our task is to declare the Gospel. Our task
is to simply declare the Gospel and if necessary defend it. The
disputing comes from them. Always the disputing comes from
others. They disputed with Stephen. They disputed with Stephen, verse
10, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit
by which he spoke. Stephen simply declared the Lord
Jesus Christ as God. is the issue, isn't it? Jesus
Christ of Nazareth is Jehovah of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ
of Nazareth is God over all this world and Jesus Christ of Nazareth
rules all things. He is a sovereign ruler of everyone
and everything in this world. So Stephen died a martyr to the
Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this declaration of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is fills the early church's sermons all the
time, and it fills Stephen's sermon, and it fills his proclamation. And it is this very foundation,
it is the very foundation of our faith, isn't it? It's the
very foundation of our confidence and our hope that the Lord Jesus
Christ is God. The Lord Jesus Christ. has the
right as the one who gave the law and was born under it to
interpret the law. The Lord Jesus Christ has the
right to come to Jerusalem and say this is my temple. This is
my temple. This temple is all about me.
Everything in this temple speaks of me. Jesus Christ has the right
to go to this book and say everything in this book, everything in this
book is about me. The scriptures speak of me. It is ultimately the Deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Stephen had met Him in the preaching
of the Gospel. Stephen was acquainted with Him
and Stephen stood and He spoke. They were not able to resist
the wisdom by which He spoke. What remarkable wisdom. He spoke
the very words of God. He spoke with the power of God.
He spoke with the authority of God. I love the promise of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ promised
remarkable things. He promised persecution to His
people and He promised His presence with them. He told them in Luke
chapter 21, He says, talking about the great
earthquakes and other things that will happen before the end
of time, that before all these, they shall lay their hands on
you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, Luke
21, 12, into prisons being brought before kings and rulers for my
name's sake, and it shall turn to you for a testimony. You'll
be brought there. You shall be turned to you for
a testimony." And then he says something which is remarkable.
I pray that the Lord would keep teaching us this lesson. So often
when we go into situations, we think, well, I'm going into this
situation, I need it. They're going to say that and I need
to say this. They're going to say this and I'll have to answer
this. Because there are so many of the conversations are repeated.
But what's he saying? This is the words of our God.
Settle it therefore in your hearts. Settle it therefore in your hearts
not to meditate before what you shall answer. So you don't have
to be smart. You don't have to have a plan
worked out. You don't have to have a scheme
of evangelism. You don't have to have all those
things. You don't have to have ready answers to all the things.
Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what you
shall answer. You don't need to meditate on
it because, verse 15, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which
all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."
God will give. It's a promise from the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a promise from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those of you who have been in these situations
will bear testimony to the fact that that is true, that God has
given a word. God has given an answer. Simon
will relay the conversations he had with the eldership in
that church many years ago and how again and again and again
they would have their position and they would shore up these
theologians and the words of scripture would come along and
destroy it. And then they'd scurry around
and get together and spend weeks and months and they'd build up
another little fort, fortress, a little refuge of lies. And
then the word of God would come along and it would just destroy
it. And it happened again and again and again. And it happened
to the point where one of my friends who was a witness to
it all said, it got to the stage of being embarrassing for these
trained theologians because every position that they put up was
knocked down. Such is the promise of God. Such is the promise of God. The wisdom of God is wiser than
the foolishness of men. He says in 1 Corinthians, those
well-known verses at the beginning of 1 Corinthians in chapter 1,
In verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the
power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. This is written by one of the
men who was there, disputing with Stephen and not being able
to resist him. I will destroy the wisdom of
wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise?" God's not asking a question to get some
knowledge, is he? He's saying, when he says, where is the wise,
there aren't any, brothers and sisters. There aren't any out
there. The wise people are the wise,
made wise by simple faith in who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them. that believe. For the Jews require a sign,
and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and Christ
the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men are
to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world found
the things that are mighty. And the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and the
things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are.
And the result of all this is that no flesh should glory in
his presence. No flesh. Stephen wasn't there
glorying in Stephen's wisdom and intelligence. He was given,
as the promise of God was, he was given words by the Lord Jesus
Christ to speak. You will receive power to be
my witnesses, is the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
will receive power at a time of His choosing, with people
of His choosing, in the circumstances of His choosing, for the results
of His choosing, and all of it will rebound to the glory of
our great God. It's His promise. It's His promise. And what was the response? There's
another one of those words, isn't there? There's one in 9 and one
in 11. Then. What did they do? What did these wise, intelligent,
zealous, religious, moral people do? Then they suborned men. It means they secretly instigated
men. They secretly found men which
said, they actually brought these men under control by suggestion
or by money. That's what they did. They suborned
men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against
Moses and against God. We'll look at these charges in
a little bit. Blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
And then they stirred up the people. So this is the first
time in the New Testament Church where these people who had been
the witness to these manifold miracles and wonders that the
apostles had done, the first time the people had been stirred
up. They stirred up the people. They
shook them together like an earthquake it means. They stirred up the
people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and
brought him to the council. They came upon him as a lion
comes upon a prey." See, when they can't answer, when they
can't answer the word of God from the scriptures, all they
have left, all they have left, these carnal men, are carnal
means, isn't it? when their wisdom is shown to
be foolishness, when they cannot refute the scriptures and they
cannot refute the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ from this
book. Just simply proclaim the sermons thus far and even Stephen's
sermon are simple, simple sermons. They're not about deep theological
content, they are simply a declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ
really is. But when people can't refuse
it, what is their response? They stir up the people. I cannot
help but think of that sermon that I listened to when Norman
Beth left that place some years ago. That whole crowd in that
place were stirred up. I'm glad you weren't there to
be a witness to it. It was bad enough listening to it. But they
stirred up that whole church so that they were enraged. If
they could have got their hands on those wicked people Norman
Beth gave, they would have lynched them from the gum tree outside
that church. That's exactly what people do,
don't they? They stir up the people. They stir up the people. As soon as they can't refute
the realities of God's sovereign grace, all carnal people have
are carnal means. And it's always brought to nothing
by the testimony of the scriptures and it's always brought to nothing
by God's testimony amongst His people. We went down, Brad and
I went down to Bega to talk to some people a few weeks ago about
the Gospel. And one of the fellows was warned,
he said, you'd be very, very careful about meeting with that
Angus Fisher because he's a hyper-Calvinist. Now, I don't know what a hyper-Calvinist
is, but generally what a hyper-Calvinist is, is someone who says that
because God has saved his people from the foundation of the world,
you then don't have to evangelize anyone. That's how it's generally,
and that's what I've been accused of around here. The remarkable
thing is that this pair of hyper-Calvinists from Nara are prepared to drive
seven and a half hours, seven or eight hours after church,
up and back, sorry, to speak to these people just to simply
declare the Lord Jesus Christ, the activities of God amongst
His people prove the lie of what they say. I have yet to meet
anyone who knows what a hyper-Calvinist is in any particular way. I have
met a bucket load of people who will tell me that I am one or
tell us that we are them. Carnal means they stirred up
the people and they set up false witnesses and said this man ceases
not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the
law. Then we hear what they say, for
we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy
this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered
us. And the remarkable thing about
these charges is that there's a sense in which there are some
things that are very profoundly true in the charges, but all
of the charges come to nothing if you simply believe, as the
scriptures declare, that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. So we'll just look at their charges.
Firstly, they say that he's blaspheming against Moses. It's extraordinary,
isn't it? The blasphemy in the scriptures
is a blasphemy always against God. That's what to be a blasphemer
is, is to speak against God. But they say that he blasphemes
against Moses. they show that they have a devotion
to a dead prophet. But also I think they are revealing
the fact that they believe that the words of God came through
Moses and Moses spoke from God as he was met by, with God on
that mountain and at other times. And so then to speak against
Moses is to actually speak against God himself. unless the God that
Moses spoke to is the Lord Jesus Christ, which is exactly what
the Scriptures declare, isn't it? When we hear of God speaking
in the Scriptures, almost invariably it is God the Son who is speaking. It is God the Son who is the
mediator. It is God the Son who is the
Word. The only instances I can think of are when there is a
voice from heaven, an audible voice from heaven, and the Lord
Jesus said, this voice is for you to hear. God the Father spoke
at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ and He spoke again in
John chapter 12. But the rest of the time you
hear God speaking in the scriptures and in all the times where you
have people meeting with God, they are meeting with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Abraham met with God. Moses met with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so this charge of blasphemy
declares Moses to be equal with God And yet Moses said, and the
Lord Jesus said, that Moses spoke of me. Moses spoke of me. And Moses promised, as we saw
in Acts chapter 3, Moses promised that there was a prophet, like
unto me. A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me. And I
love the promise of God about this prophet. Him shall you hear
in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come
to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall
be destroyed from among the people. And all of the prophets, from
Samuel to those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have
likewise foretold of these days." They had a devotion to Moses
which implied that they trusted him more than the one that Moses
wrote about. and Moses spoke about. And then
they say that he speaks blasphemy against God. And Stephen declared
and proclaimed that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God
and He is one with God. And that's what Stephen declares
at the end of this sermon. It's the reason they pick up
stones to stone Him. It's the reason that the Jews
picked up stones to stone the Lord Jesus Christ. You who are
a mere man make yourself out to be God. The remarkable thing
about the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is you who
are God make yourself out to be a man. But when Stephen declares
him to be God, he looks steadfastly up into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Stephen declared that the Lord
Jesus Christ is God. He is God. He is God over all. And then
the third charge in verse 13, he speaks blasphemous words against
this holy place. So these people thought that
the very centre of all their religion centred on this temple
and there is certainly truth in the scriptures about the temple
being the place where God met with people and the Lord Jesus
was. When he came to that temple he
declared that that temple was his and it caused all sorts of
rage amongst the Jews as Stephen declaring that the Lord Jesus
Christ had promised to destroy this temple. He had promised
that this temple, those stones that they looked at and admired
would be torn down one upon another. Very early I say to you that
there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall
not be thrown down. Matthew 24. The Lord Jesus Christ
declared that this building was going to be destroyed because
of their rejection of Him. In Luke 19.44 He says, He says in Luke chapter 19, He
beheld the city and wept over it and saying, If thou hadst
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemy shall cast a
trench about thee, and compass thee around, and keep thee on
every side. and shall lay thee even with
the ground and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave
in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation." Stephen was declaring simply what Daniel
had declared in Chapter 9. He speaks about This coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ is 70 weeks in Daniel 9, those well-known verses, determined upon thy people, upon
thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end
of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and
to anoint the most holy. The most holy that's anointed,
of course, is all of the holy people are anointed. All of God's
children are anointed by him. But then he says, And after three
score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself,
and the people of the prince shall come and destroy the city
and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. and to the end of the war, desolations
are determined." This holy place was promised by God to be a holy
place that was going to be destroyed. But this holy place, as I said
earlier, was a holy place that spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all about Him. The mercy
seat was about Him. The candlestick was about Him.
The show break was about Him. Everything in the temple was
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He died, He tore that
curtain. He tore that curtain apart to
show now that the access into the Holy of Holies was in a person. The temple is the person, isn't
it? He is the temple of God. And
they said he preaches against the law. It's extraordinary, isn't it,
how relevant the charges are against the Lord's people even
to this day. They do declare, they do declare,
don't they, that if we do not preach the law, people will just
live in wicked licentiousness. If we do not put people under
a law, they will live as they want to live. And yet the promise
of God is that He works in the hearts of His people and His
people are led by the Spirit, they're not led by the flesh.
And His people serve and they are compelled and constrained
by love, not by rules and law and regulation. It is Christ
in you, the hope of glory, and Christ in you leads his people
to live lives in this world like Stephen, full of faith and power,
full of the Holy Spirit, of honest report. The Word of God And the
purpose of the law is to reveal the glory of God. The purpose
of the law in the lives of the wicked is to restrain some of
their wickedness. But also the word of God and
the law of God strips men of their righteousness altogether,
which is why they find it so offensive. Religious men hate
to be told that they are unrighteous. Religious men hate to be told
that their religious activities, that they think are the cause
of their salvation, are ultimately the cause of their damnation,
because religious people will cling to them. They'll cling
to them like a limpet. Religious people hate, as these
religious people did, they hate to hear of a sovereign God who
does as He sees fit, who chooses some and leaves others. Religious people hate for God's
glory to be given to His people in such a way that He gets all
of the glory. And sinners, all sinners by nature,
hate to be told that they are in the hands of the Sovereign
God and He is not in theirs, that He rules. Like Nebuchadnezzar
learned, the heavens do rule. Ultimately what they do to these
people is they reveal that ultimately they hate God. What an extraordinary
thing to be involved in all of that religion, to turn all of
your life over to all of that religion such that you boast
about it, you brag about it, you talk about it, and to have
all of that religion be the cause of your damnation because you
haven't met Him. It shocks me sometimes when I
hear people talk about people in false churches and they're
saying, someone will say, well he has his faith. I'm really
troubled about people who have their faith. We want the faith
of God. We want the faith of God's elect.
We want a faith that is tested and tried and we want a faith
that is in accord with the Word of God. To die in the assurance
that Stephen died in and the comfort that Stephen died in
is to bear testimony to the Scriptures declaring who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. As he said, If you believed Moses,
you would have believed me, because he wrote of me. Stephen simply declared that
the Lord Jesus Christ is God Almighty, manifest in the flesh,
and this is blasphemy to the religious people. To declare
that the Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law and by faith
in Him we simply fulfill the law. We fulfill the law in Him
by simple faith, not by our activities. To declare that is to be declared
someone who blasphemes and someone who is not worthy to be of this
world. to declare that all of those
shadows in the Old Testament had one reality and that one
reality was the Lord Jesus Christ and the shadows passed away when
the reality came, is to declare and to take away from this religious
world the things that it clings to, all of the icons that it
clings to. There is a religion which is
saving and there is a religion which is damning. But let's look
at 15 as we close. There is something remarkable
about God's work in the life of this Stephen, this remarkable
man Stephen. And all that sat in the council
looking steadfastly on him, saw His face as it had been the face
of an angel." It is remarkable, isn't it? That God, as He has
in these other meetings of this Council when it's in secret,
He actually lets us in to the secret understandings of what
was going on. It is remarkable, isn't it? They
saw His face as it had been the face of an angel. The angels declare, don't they? Angels declare the glory of God. Angels bear witness to the glory
of God. The angels in Acts have been
the ones that have opened the prison doors. Angels have been
involved in declaring the Lord Jesus Christ and proclaiming
Him. But Stephen's face before this opposition, in the midst
of all of that opposition he had a calmness, He had a serenity. He had in his face a declaration
of his innocence before a holy God. He was like Moses in the
very presence of God and it shone. It's remarkable, isn't it? And it shone. And they are the
ones that saw it. Like Moses wasn't aware of it
himself. If you go back to Exodus you'll
see he wasn't aware of it. When he came down the mountain
he was shocked that the people saw it. Here again are these
people bearing witness, this council, this Sanhedrin, bearing
witness to the beauty and the glory that God puts upon His
people. And it shut their mouths for
Stephen to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. God clothes his people with a
beauty that's not seen by this world. Seen by him. What's he saying in the Song
of Solomon? She's all beautiful. Psalm 45. She's all beautiful
within. There's not a spot in her, according
to our God. He looks upon his bride in this
world and he smiles, has a smile, comfortably. delight in her because
she has the beauty, doesn't she? She has the comeliness, it's
His comeliness, it's His beauty that He puts upon His people.
That's how He sees them. The world may not see them that
way, but that's how our God sees them. and he will shut the mouths
of the opposition until the proclamation of the Gospel is done. Our God
will reign. He reigns over the hearts of
these wicked people who are about to stone Stephen to death. So
what a testimony he bore. I hope it's something that you're
jealous of, brothers and sisters, to bear his testimony in this
world before people as being a man of honest report, full
of faith, full of grace, full of the Holy Spirit, and full
of a simple testimony about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.