I'm going to read a few verses
from the end of the chapter, Acts chapter 7, and we'll read
from verse 54. We're continuing a little bit
on the history or the story of Stephen. And we remember that
he had been brought before the high council, the great council,
the Sanhedrin probably, and there before his accusers, he had opportunity
to preach a message of the grace of God to the people of Israel. And as he approached the end
of his message, it seems around about verse 50, he realised that
things were not going well. There perhaps was a stirring
of anger amongst those who were listening to him. Perhaps there
was some gestures being made that they were refusing any longer
to hear his voice. But he accused them and their
fathers of stiff-necked and a rebellious attitude towards God. So let's just read from verse
51 for continuity. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised
of heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your
fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not
your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which
showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have
been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by
the disposition of angels and have not kept it. And then verse
54. When they heard these things,
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 opened 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 down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned 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. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading. Stephen was very clear with these
men that he was speaking to on this occasion at his trial. He told them, you have disobeyed
the will of God the Father. He told them that you have resisted
always the Holy Spirit. And he told them that you have
murdered and betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ, the just one. Whether it was God the Father,
God the Spirit, or God the Son, the attitude of the people of
Israel had been to reject and refuse, to resist and to destroy
the things of God amongst them. In Zechariah 9, verse 9, we read,
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of
an ass. These men would have been familiar
with these Old Testament prophecies. In their theory, in their thinking,
they probably thought to themselves, soon the Messiah will come and
he will ride into Jerusalem on the back of an ass. Soon this
one whom the prophet calls the Just One will come to Israel. And Stephen stood up before them
and he said, you've just murdered the just one. You've just slain
the one whom God was sending to his people, Israel. And when
they heard that, we're told that they were cut to the heart. Now we might think that that
little phrase, cut to the heart, means that their conscience was
pricked when they realized what they'd done to the Lord Jesus
Christ. But you know, there was a different
reaction when the conscience of the hearers of a sermon were
preached. We're in Acts chapter 7 at the
moment and this is a testimony, a sermon that Stephen is preaching
to these Jews. But the Jews had also heard another
sermon just a few chapters before. Perhaps you remember from the
second chapter of Acts when Peter had preached on the day of Pentecost. We're only a few days apart. Listen to what happened when
Peter preached his sermon on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2,
verse 36 says this, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart. and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Under one sermon, the people
who heard it were pricked to their heart and they cried out,
men and brethren, what shall we do? Under another sermon,
we are told that when a similarly forceful allegation and challenge
was made, They were cut to their heart, but their reaction was
completely different. The Holy Spirit had softened
the hearts of some people under the preaching of the gospel,
and he hardened the hearts of others. He had applied saving
grace to some, but he did not apply saving grace to the others. Do you see the difference? The
sermons were the same. The ministry was the same. The
preachers were faithful men of God bringing the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And yet the reaction to one was
to cry out for salvation and the reaction of the other was
to rail against the preacher and endeavour to slay him. The
Holy Spirit left these men in their sin to vent their wickedness,
to pursue their own will. And now these wicked people would
carry and bear the blood of Stephen the martyr on their hands, just
as much as they carried the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in their
hands and in their conscience. They gnashed on him with their
teeth. I've often wondered whether that
was a metaphor or whether they actually were so in his face
with their ranting and their shouting and their screaming.
You know what it's like when you see maybe football players
getting angry with one another and they stand and they shout
in one another's faces? I wonder if they shouted in his
face with such close proximity that they turned around and bit
him. they gnashed on Stephen with their teeth. Stephen's testimony
then at that point becomes more intimate and more glorious and
it seems as if rather than speaking any longer to these hard-hearted,
stiff-necked people, he is merely dwelling bathing in the light
and the presence of his saviour, Jesus Christ. We're told he looked
steadfastly up to heaven. As they bit him, he looked up
to heaven. He stopped looking at the people
to whom he was preaching. And as I was thinking about this,
I wondered to myself, He says here that he can see the Lord
Jesus. His life is not at an end yet.
They've still to grab him and drag him out of the room where
they are, where the council was meeting, out through the streets
of Jerusalem, out past the wall and the gates, out into the outer
wall beyond the city, and there they are going to stone him to
death. but I don't think he ever again took his eyes off the Lord
Jesus Christ. I think when he looked there
in the midst of that council and saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
that his eyes were fixed on him for the rest of his natural life. He saw Jesus standing up, not
sitting down. You know that the Bible tells
us all the time that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of
God, except here. Here he stands. Here Stephen
sees him standing, undoubtedly to receive this child of God
as his life comes to an end. Acts 7 verse 56 says, And behold,
I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the
right hand of God. As I was thinking about this,
I thought I would say this to you. Do you fear death? Do you fear death? Perhaps a
death like Stephen's death? A violent death? a death of aggressors
against you? But does not these words of Stephen
imply that there will be portions of blessing in times of need? That the Holy Spirit will give
gifts to his people, gifts of grace to see them through the
trials of the passage that they must walk? I believe it does. And I believe
that the Lord's people should not fear death, but that we should
believe and hope that the same Lord Jesus Christ that stood
to meet and greet his child there that day will give sufficient
grace, sufficient vision, sufficient view of the Lord Jesus Christ
as to bless and comfort us as we make that journey into his
presence. Here we meet a young man called
Saul, a young enabler, a young man consenting to the death of
Stephen, contributing to his death. And it was a day that
would mark and make a mark on him that he would remember for
a long, long time. Many years later, as an old man,
Paul the Apostle would look back on this day and testify that
he was there when Stephen was slain and he enabled and facilitated
the death of this faithful servant of Christ. The Holy Spirit would
turn this grievous wolf, Saul of Tarsus, into Paul the Apostle. and he would break his heart
and lead him into a knowledge of Christ. Let's return to Stephen. This is his day. This is his
moment. Here is a faithful brother in
Christ, and he is standing in the midst of these violent wolves. and he is praying to his Saviour. And as he stands in the midst
of the circle, they pick up stones and Stephen is martyred as he
prays to the Lord. He's not fighting. He's not resisting. He's not shouting. He's not angry. He's not crying. He's praying. He's composed. He is a man who
is assured of the will and the purpose of God in his life. The prayer that he prays is,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. You know, when our souls and
when our spirits come to the end of this physical mortal life. They don't go to sleep when we
die, waiting for the resurrection. They go immediately into the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was standing,
waiting for Stephen, and Stephen says to his Lord, Lord, receive
my spirit. The final prayer that the martyr
Stephen made was like the Lord's own prayer at his death. Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge. It was a sin. It was a sin that
they did. But what a blessed thought it
is that Saul of Tarsus, found forgiveness at his victim's request. And then he fell asleep in the
Lord. He died. That's what that little
phrase means. But the death of the Lord's people
is simply like them falling asleep. That's what it is to die in the
Lord. It's just to close our eyes and
enter into his presence. It's a gentle process. It's a peaceful process. It's a blessed experience. As the death of the saints is
precious in the Lord's sight, so the Lord knows his own. Thank you, Lord, for faithful
Stephen. Thank you for showing to him
your glory at the moment that he fell asleep. Thank you for
leaving this witness from our dear brother in Christ, this
child of God, and may our end be as glorious as his. Amen.