Happy August 26th! It looks like today promises to be another sunny hot Texas day, I’m so thankful that some smart guy invented air conditioning years ago. What a great guy. Margie and I had a great Saturday off yesterday and after our 5MC time early in the morning, we had a nice long walk around the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. (before it got blazing hot!) What a gem this is, if you haven’t ever partaken, I highly recommend it. It’s free so just show up and enjoy God’s beauty! (free fits my budget!) Last night we had a movie night and watched The King and I. I’d never seen it but Margie was in the play in High School so it was really fun for both of us. I didn’t realize it was a true story, fascinating.
Well, here we are in chapter 7 of Acts. I guess you could call this the ‘Stephen chapter’ as the entire chapter deals with him addressing the Sanhedrin court. So let me set the scene if you missed yesterday. The early church was in need of men to serve, so the disciples called seven deacons, one of which was Stephen. We’re told he was “full of grace and power and was doing great wonders and signs among the people.” (Acts 6:8) For doing such great things for God he is rewarded by being arrested and hauled in before the Sanhedrin court. They of course could find nothing against him so they created false testimony against him (Acts 6:13) basically framing him so they could arrest him. Now here we are in chapter 7 and he is before the court to defend himself.
It's beautiful to watch how he defends himself. He doesn’t defend his actions. He doesn’t explain himself. He goes directly to God’s Word and launches a lengthy history of Israel’s rebellion against God beginning with Abraham. He carefully lays out the the resistance and rebellion by Israel against God which is still evident in the leaders sitting before him. He proceeds from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to David to Solomon. He uses the history of God’s Word to show them the continuation of their rebellion against God even unto this exact day and moment. He let’s God Word and the history within it be his defense for what he is doing. Pure genius. And rightfully so as we’re told he is full of the Holy Spirit and we know from Matt 10:20 that, “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” The Holy Spirit is his defense attorney.
Whats interesting here is that even thought they had an intense hatred for Stephen and the followers of Jesus, they allowed him to finish his entire lengthy speech. It actually says in Acts 6:10 “but they could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit with which he was speaking.” I think that God knew these leaders needed to hear this speech and allowed Stephen to deliver it in its entirety.
He concludes with a stiff rebuke which was not taken well at all by the religious leaders. The result? Acts 7:54, “they were enraged and ground their teeth at him. Now this is a special kind of anger that resulted in them erupting into the most basic, primitive form of human rebellion, violence. They dragged him out of the city and stoned him. Stephen was the first martyr of God’s church, killed for following His Lord Jesus Christ. The man with the face like an angel was stoned for his walk with Jesus. But note that he was not stoned to death. Acts 7:60 tells us that he cries out to God to “not hold this sin against them, and when he said this he fell asleep.” God puts Stephen’s body to sleep and he goes into the presence of Christ who is standing to meet him. A beautiful act of mercy by our God.
Leading up to this Stephen was allowed a beautiful glimpse into Heaven. Acts 7:55 “but he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into Heaven and saw the full glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand.” What a beautiful comfort this must have been to Stephen before he “falls asleep” and goes to be with his Lord.
This is a true story of the light and dark that is in the world. The juxtaposition of good and evil portrayed right before our eyes. This is not however just an ancient history story. This plays out even today in our world. There are those today that are in such rebellion against God that they can not only lack to tolerate God’s Word and His presence, but they will kill any who follow His call to give out His Word. In fact do you want to be shocked? What would you say if I told you that the Gordon-Conwell Center for the Study of Global Christianity reports that 900,000 Christians have been martyred in the last 10 years? What? What? Yes, you read that right, 900,000. Even if you doubt the number and want to factor in a 50% rate of error that would still be 450,000 Christians martyred in 10 years. WOW.
As Americans we take for granted that we as Christians are safe, secure and perfectly free to preach and teach the Word of God to anyone we please. The world is a much different place my friends. When Margie I were recently in China is was shocking to personally witness the lack of freedom that Christians have there. In fact, right now in China there is a major crackdown on Christian missionaries. We are blessed to be in America and be free to share, but even America is following the trend of the World. God is slowly being removed from our society.
The story of Stephen we look at today is not a foreign, distant piece of history but one of modern relevance that is happening all around us, all over the planet. I pray that everyone of those that die for the truth of Jesus Christ is allowed the same miracle that Stephen was allowed. Allowed to gaze into Heaven and see the full glory of God and see Jesus standing at His side, welcoming home His child with loving, comforting, open arms.
May God richly bless those in His service today that are risking their lives for the giving out of His Gospel.
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