Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So let's look at Acts, chapter six. Of course, this is the tail end of the portion about Stephen.
[00:00:11] We saw how that the choosing of the first seven deacons in the Bible they're not called of course, deacons, but by all accounts they are deacons in the first part of the chapter. But then verse number eight. So we'll read verse number eight through verse number 15. Actually, let's start in verse seven and read from seven to verse number 15. The Bible says, and the word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
[00:00:47] And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. And there arose a certain of the synagogue, which is the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
[00:01:11] Then they suborned men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
[00:01:19] And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and came unto him and caught him and brought him to the council and set up false witnesses which said, this man ceaseth 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. All right, let's pray together. Lord, thank you for Your word here and the fact that you have recorded these things. But Lord, I also thank you that there is something to record here that this man Stephen, not just Stephen, but also Philip and the other deacons there listed in chapter six. Lord, these were real men who really loved you and really walked with you. Thank you for them, thank you for the grace of God in their lives, just as Your grace is in our lives as well. And I pray that Your grace and Your power and faith would be descriptive of our lives as well in a similar fashion. And Lord, you can do it. We know that we can't do that at all, Lord. We just stand before you, just helpless, Lord, but with Your grace and power you can do great things with us. So Lord, as we look at Your word tonight, Lord, encourage us and exhort us and help Your people, Lord, and help them to see the truth, and help them to follow the truth and do just exactly what You've said in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:57] So what this is, is the end of chapter six is basically it sets up for what is chapter seven. Chapter seven is a very, very important chapter in the Book of Acts because chapter seven is essentially the final invitation, the final offer that the Lord makes to Israel before he basically turns. Now, of course, there were Jews saved after chapter seven, but this is a remember, everything that we've read in Acts up to this point has happened in Jerusalem, basically everything that's happened. So Jerusalem being the center of Israel, the center of worship in Israel, this is God's offer.
[00:03:43] This is it. This is chapter seven is where it culminates. And of course, we know how chapter seven ends with Stephen being stoned. And in a lot of ways, what happens to Stephen and what we read just a minute ago mirrors and parallels what happened with Christ. You think about the fact that it was the same group that Stephen is dealing with, that is accusing Stephen, is the same group that the Lord dealt with.
[00:04:06] They brought false accusers, just as they did with Stephen.
[00:04:15] They had to do that because there was nothing, no points in which they could blame Stephen for any wrongdoing. They had to take his words and twist his words, just like they did with Christ. In fact, this verse number 14 says, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place. That's one thing they said of Christ, he will destroy the temple. Of course, in that what they were quoting is when Jesus said he wasn't saying destroy this temple, he was saying destroy this temple. But they missed that and they intentionally and deliberately twisted his words to say something, to infer something that wasn't there. And of course, we know that ultimately, we know that ultimately that the Lord was executed. I mean, from a human perspective, he was executed, which is what happens to Stephen as well. So remember, the Book of Acts is the continuing acts of Christ through the Holy Spirit in the church.
[00:05:17] That's kind of our theme for the Book of Acts, right? Well, that's exactly what's happening here.
[00:05:23] There is a repetition of what happened to Jesus happening with Stephen, the Lord's servant. It's being repeated in this final offer because once chapter seven closes, the Lord is pivoting away from Israel and the gospel is going to start spreading to other places.
[00:05:42] And this is the offering. It's a climactic point in the Book of Acts and kind of a watershed moment where the whole trajectory of really the church, church history, the Lord's dealings with mankind changes after Acts chapter seven. So it's fitting, of course, that there is a culminating point. But notice the culminating point surrounds this man, Stephen.
[00:06:08] Now, just a couple other things to mention.
[00:06:11] As we've already seen in Acts chapter, the issue with the widows, how the widows were complaining.
[00:06:19] And then you also had the issue with Ananias and Sapphira, how they lied to the Holy Ghost.
[00:06:25] Usually there's usually about three things, three strategies the devil uses to destroy a church. All right, three things.
[00:06:36] Number one, persecution from without.
[00:06:41] All right, that's what we're seeing here with Stephen. The devil will apply pressure to get people we've already studied persecution right in the Book of Acts. What's the purpose? It's to get us to either deny our faith or to not live in the way the Lord wants us to live in righteousness, to get us to back off. And all we have to do in the face of persecution and this doesn't necessarily mean persecution unto blood, it could just mean pressure at work or school or whatever, but it's designed to get us just to back off. All we have to do is just stay with it. By doing that, we win. So one way, that one strategy of the devil is persecution from without. That's Acts, chapter three, chapter four. That's what we're reading here. Chapter five.
[00:07:23] Then there's also dissension from within.
[00:07:27] Dissension from within, that's Ananias and Sapphira, that's problems homegrown. That's the widows complaining. That could have turned into a real big problem. But the Church dealt with what was a natural problem in the right way. And as a result, we're reading verse seven, the word of God increased. So when we deal with things rightly, the word of God increases. Had this not been dealt with, you have dissension from within and the Church would be harmed. All right, there's a third.
[00:07:58] The third is found later in the Book of Acts, which is false doctrine. False doctrine will also, of course, these three things, particularly the last two, work together to bring harm to the body of Christ. But that's what we see going on here. For time's sake, I had some verses I want to read. In Acts chapter 20, Paul meets with the Ephesian elders and he says to the elders, now, to those who are elder, being meaning older, to those who are established in the faith, the leaders in the Church, he says, from you shall men arise, speaking perverse things, seeking paraphrasing, seeking some to follow them from within, you see? So there's dissension, there's false doctrine and it comes from the leaders of the Church. That's what happened with Ephesus. Paul is predicting this. And I could go into second, corinthians there's a couple of places there, but we won't for time. But just know there's three main strategies that you could see in the Book of Acts where this happens, and we see two of them here and we'll see false doctrine later.
[00:09:03] Verse number eight talked about Stephen.
[00:09:09] Now, you saw the on Sunday night, we saw the requirements for a deacon in One Timothy chapter three, and we also saw them partially here in Acts chapter six.
[00:09:23] But what's interesting is that obviously Stephen was an exemplary man. He was a man who was just absolutely in following the Lord, serving the Lord, walking the Lord with all of his heart.
[00:09:42] And we know he was chosen as one of the seven deacons. But I want you to know that remind you that his work for the Lord as a deacon serving tables. And again, that's not a negative thing. That was a work, necessary work in the church dealing with the carnal and the earthly matters of the church. And he was chosen for that because of his qualifications, right?
[00:10:07] But even though he was already involved in the work of the Lord in that capacity, he did not view that as the sum total of his service to God.
[00:10:17] He was a powerful witness, as we'll see in chapter seven.
[00:10:21] And you know what?
[00:10:23] He believed that making the Gospel known was the duty of all Christians. He did it. In other words, just because we might have something we do in the church or do something we do for the Lord, doesn't mean that that has to be the sum total of what we're doing for the Lord. And especially considering that the great commission is for all of us.
[00:10:44] The Lord might not want every one of us to go to the ends of the earth, but he does want all of us to have a part, whatever part he has for us in that work. And at a minimum, at a minimum, that means we are trying to reach the people in our sphere. We are trying to get the Gospel to people around us. Because you know what? There's people around you that aren't around anybody else that we are responsible for. So even though Stephen had a job in the church, he was also a powerful witness.
[00:11:17] But Stephen was what we would call a layman. Now, I say we that's not a term I use. Stephen is but just using the term because everybody understands that term. Stephen was a layman. He wasn't called to preach, as they say. He wasn't a preacher, he wasn't a pastor, he wasn't a bishop, he wasn't an apostle, but he preached.
[00:11:38] We have this idea that preachers are the ones that are supposed to do everything, right? Don't we have this idea that floats around Baptist churches that, well, the pastor will do it or the preacher is supposed to do it? Well, he's called to preach. He's called to do that. But that's not what you see in Stephen at all. You see a guy who's not a preacher. You see a guy who's not a preacher.
[00:12:01] And we also often view preachers as like another level of spirituality. But that's not what you have with Stephen. Listen to how he's described. Listen to this. In verse three, the Bible says he is of honest report. In verse three, it says he was full of the Holy Ghost. In verse three, it says he was full of wisdom. That's just not the Holy Ghost controls him. He has wisdom. No, this is the kind of the epitome, the pinnacle of it.
[00:12:29] The Bible says that he was full in verse five, he was full of faith.
[00:12:34] Down in verse number eight, the Bible says, he was full of faith and full of power.
[00:12:40] We see in this passage, we read that he was a man that had a good spirit.
[00:12:45] He was a man whose face shown as the face of an angel.
[00:12:50] Look, Stephen is a layman who is every bit as spiritual and qualified as a preacher, but he's not.
[00:13:04] And here's what I want you to understand. In other words, he is in no way inferior to someone that we say is called to preach or someone who's in the ministry. He's not in the ministry. He's a layman. I'm air quoting to death, I know, but he's not inferior. You know what that tells me?
[00:13:24] That God ever uses regular people to carry on his work and he's not using second skimmings to do it.
[00:13:34] It's not like, well, I didn't have a preacher I could call on to do it, so I'm going to use a no no.
[00:13:41] There are many preachers, this one included, that want to have the testimony of Stephen, that want to have a testimony like that. God uses regular people. And I just want to encourage all of you that even though you might not be in the ministry, as they say, you can be just as fully qualified, just as fully useful, just as fully spiritual have, just as much love for God and be just as useful to the Lord as anybody that might have a title of pastor or as some might say, reverend. Who was I talking to about that?
[00:14:21] God uses regular people to care on his work. He does great things with regular people.
[00:14:29] In the Scripture, there is no division between the clergy and the laity. It just doesn't exist. It's just not know. Brother Stuart was the pastor, I'm the pastor. Pastor Craig was the pastor. But before any of that happened, you know what we were? We were sheep. We still are sheep. We're God's sheep, right?
[00:14:50] We're just a Christian, just like you maybe have a different set of gifts, a different calling on life, but that's not like a notch above.
[00:15:00] And the good example of that is Stephen. So look at verse number nine. The Bible says, then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is a synagogue of the Libertines. The Libertines were basically a Jewish people that had been slaves. They were freemen. How many of you know that terminology, freemen or freedmen? That means someone who was once a slave, who was set free, but these were Jews who were once slaves, but now they've been set free and they gather in these synagogues. There were Cyreneans, Alexandrians, and notice the term Cilicia is a province at this time, a province of the Roman Empire that's found in the southern part of what we call Turkey, the capital of Cilicia. Anybody want to take a stab at it? Is somebody? This is a trivia question. The capital is Tarsus, who knows something about Tarsus.
[00:16:02] Paul paul put Tarsus on the map, so to speak. Right? That was Paul's hometown. So Paul was a Jew. Hebrew of the Hebrews. Right, he was a Jew, full bred Jew. But he was born in the province of Cilicia in the city of Tarsus. Okay, so what does that say to is? I would say probable.
[00:16:28] We are just a few, maybe days.
[00:16:33] Once you hit chapter seven, that all happens together at one time, one day, one moment, one event.
[00:16:39] And we know in chapter seven, Paul is present because he in Acts chapter 22, he said he held the clothes of those that were witnesses that stoned Stephen. So in chapter at the beginning of chapter seven, verse one, Paul is there. Paul is there. Okay? So it's reasonable to think, especially mentioning there was a synagogue of the people from Cilicia, which is where Paul was from, that Paul probably heard Stephen's arguments and his debates. Here's what I want you to understand. Stephen didn't know that, but God's got a plan.
[00:17:14] God's got something in the works nobody knows about. This is the very first inkling we get in the Bible of Paul.
[00:17:23] Some people say there's a place in one of the events where the Lord meets the rich young ruler. Some people say that that was Paul. And I think there's actually a good argument for that. I don't know if I believe it, but it's a good argument anyway. But this is the first clear example where Paul was likely there, where you have the first mention of Paul because of the mention of Celicia. So he did hear no doubt he did hear Stephen's testimony in chapter seven, but he might have heard some of this disputing, some of this debate that was going on with Stephen at this time.
[00:17:58] So here's what happens.
[00:18:01] Verse number ten. This is kind of what I want to get to.
[00:18:05] And they were not that is, the Jews from these various places were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Here's all you. I just want to remind you of this two things.
[00:18:25] He spoke with wisdom.
[00:18:28] That means he knew what he believed and he knew why he believed it.
[00:18:37] He was an informed disciple of Christ. He knew the scripture. You can't read chapter seven. He's standing there. He doesn't have a Bible in his hand. He's standing there going through not only the stories of the Old Testament, but he's going somewhere with it. He's proving a point. So he not only knows the events, he knows what those things demonstrate and teach, which is what his sermon is all about in chapter seven.
[00:19:05] He knew the Bible, he knew the Scriptures, he knew what he believed and why he believed it. And this is important. And he was able to articulate his faith clearly.
[00:19:18] Are you there?
[00:19:20] Are you there?
[00:19:24] Especially any major subject. Every person in this room that's not a child ought to be able to articulate our faith and explain why the scriptures teach X, Y or Z. We ought to be full of wisdom like he is, and we ought to be able to explain it in the company of people that are hostile.
[00:19:47] We ought to be able to explain it in a company of people that are hostile, people that don't believe it, people that question it. People that cast doubt.
[00:19:59] If I were to ask you for know what evidence you have that Jesus actually rose from the dead, how do we know that's not just some story that's been passed down through the generations?
[00:20:08] Could you answer that from the scripture? Could you give reasons or the deity of Christ how that Jesus is God or that Jesus was a man?
[00:20:18] Could you prove from the Bible that there is a hell, a place of conscious torment after death?
[00:20:27] Those are the big things. Those are the big things. But you know what? Those are questions that could you answer some of the issues that are brought up with evolution? Why is evolution not true? Why don't we believe that God created everything in the beginning and they just kind of wound it up and it evolved into what it is now, theistic evolution? Why don't we believe that? Why doesn't the scripture teach it? We ought to be informed. Stephen was informed. Stephen was knowledgeable. Stephen was able to dispute and argue these points because it was a matter of the truth. The second thing is that Stephen had an excellent spirit. He spoke that wisdom with the right spirit. Look at Philippians two really quick.
[00:21:21] Philippians, chapter two, verse 15. The Bible says this notice verse 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may be blameless. Notice blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke. In other words, there's no place in your life that the world would look at you and find fault. You say, well, that's a high bar.
[00:21:53] It shouldn't be.
[00:21:55] Why do I say that?
[00:21:59] Because, remember, the world is holding you to a different standard than you would hold yourself.
[00:22:06] The world thinks that if you don't get drunk on the weekends, you're a goody two shoe.
[00:22:11] Well, that's not hard to avoid. I hope not. Right.
[00:22:16] So that means when the world looks at us, of course, speaking generally, it ought to see that no place to rebuke us. Now, we look at ourselves and we see all kinds of places that need to be fixed. But again, our standard is what God says in his word. The world's standard is whatever form of morality they think is important. Of course, there's all kinds of things they don't think are wrong, that we would. But the point being is that's what the text says. Without rebuke. That doesn't mean there's a few places where they could rebuke you. No, it means none.
[00:22:53] And you know what that's doable? That's not sinlessness. That's not sinlessness. That means there's no place in your life that the world will look at you and say that's wrong. Unless of course they're going after your faith or something like that. But it says that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Notice holding forth the Word of life. So here's what you have. You have holding forth the Word of life is the Stephen's wisdom. He's giving them the word. He knows the Bible. But holding forth the Word of life is something we pair with an excellent spirit. They could not resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake. So it's giving people knowing the Scripture, giving people being able to effectively defend and demonstrate why you believe what you believe, not theologically, but as a matter of truth, what the truth is.
[00:24:04] But then doing that with a demeanor and an attitude and a conversation, speaking of the life that adorns and supports that truth.
[00:24:21] You see you can have the truth. But if you do not have the spirit that adorns the truth, the Spirit can also cast a shadow on the truth and make the truth unsavory.
[00:24:31] We have to have both. That's one reason they couldn't resist, because not only was Stephen adept and he knew what the Bible said and he knew how to defend it, but he did it in a way that no one could look at him and say his attitude is wrong or his spirit is wrong or he's hostile. I was at Bible college last night and they were telling me this one student was telling me about a preacher. He heard say that this preacher was preaching to preachers and he says some of you preachers need to you need to chew on some nails, you need to drink some vinegar.
[00:25:07] In other words, you need to be meaner.
[00:25:12] Amen.
[00:25:15] That's dumb. That's just flat out stupid. Now of course preachers can be afraid to speak the truth and be sissies and know shy by the truth. That's not right. But I don't see Stephen chewing nails or drinking vinegar. No, his spirit, where they saw him, it was like angel of God. His spirit was just perfect. It was right, it was humble, it was sincere, it was confident. I mean, you can imagine him sitting there. He was unmoved by what was going on around him. He wasn't terrified by his adversaries. He had absolute confidence and faith that what he said was the truth and that the Lord was with him. Even though know that's a spirit. Listen, Paul had knowledge, glory. These people on the council, these are wise men as far as the world goes and wise men religiously. But listen, there is nothing that accounts for that spirit except God. Except God is real in that person's life. Nothing else.
[00:26:22] Nothing else. Accounts for it except God is real.
[00:26:28] So we have to speak the truth, but we have to do it in the right spirit, in the right tone, the right attitude and that goes back to our life.
[00:26:36] And then he says back in Acts, it says this.
[00:26:40] So they could not resist. That means they weren't going to win the argument. And so what did they do?
[00:26:49] When you can't win an argument, what do you do? You resort to ad hominem attacks. There you go. There's your Latin phrase. It means to the person. In other words, you attack them rather than their argument. You resort to slander or violence. When you can't win the argument, you attack the person and destroy the person and slander them or their name and reputation or you hurt them physically. And that's exactly what they did because they couldn't resist. But even though they couldn't resist, they still resisted. In other words, despite the evidence, despite his persuasiveness, none of that mattered. They were still going to stone him.
[00:27:28] We're foolish if we think that our mere persuasiveness is going to change people. It doesn't. There has to be an absolute work of God. And that's what God did in Paul Saul of Tarsus. While he was holding he had no idea what was happening in his heart. But while he was holding those clothes or those people watching Stephen get stoned, calling upon God, god was working in his heart in ways that he probably wouldn't understand for years to come.
[00:27:57] So it is absolutely possible for you to win an argument and do it right and still not win the person. It's absolutely possible. That's why you got to pray for them.
[00:28:10] You got to ask God to get involved in the matter.
[00:28:14] It's not just about our persuasiveness and of course that's what the Lord is doing here. But notice we're about finished. Notice what it says in verse eleven. They suborned men. You know what that means? They bribed men, they colluded.
[00:28:30] They were willing to spend their money to get Stephen and of course they took his words and twisted them. They lied about him, they slandered him. They stirred up dissension and discord against him.
[00:28:52] They set up they sought out false witnesses that would lie misrepresented what he said. They taught others to lie.
[00:29:02] In other words, these people did everything that their own law forbid.
[00:29:12] They were so moral, so upright. They wore their phylactories on their foreheads, they lengthened their garments, they prayed on the street corners and then the synagogues where everybody would see them. And these very people, the religious crowd, were going behind closed doors, being immoral, deceptive, lying, tongues, trying to destroy a righteous man. You know what? That shouldn't surprise us.
[00:29:47] Listen, we should never be deceived by the thin veneer of religion on someone. It should not. Listen, I heard today about this person that went to a church and in the church, an elementary school child was molested in the church by people in church. Two different churches. Nobody did anything about it.
[00:30:18] Listen, we cannot be fooled and naive with a thin veneer of religion.
[00:30:24] Religious people are the people that are the biggest liars, deceivers and immoral wicked people that have ever existed on this planet. Listen, we got to be wiser than that.
[00:30:38] We got to be discerning, right? And know the real thing when we see it.
[00:30:45] These are the religious people and look at what they're doing, violating their own standards just so they can get to Stephen. What happened to their principles? They had just I shouldn't be amazed, but every time I see this, I'm amazed. Those that went after Christ, that go after Stephen, they're supposed to know better, they're supposed to do better, but they are nothing but bunch of bloodthirsty murderers, full of hate, liars, deceivers. And the Lord says, all liars shall have their place in a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Religion or no religion, it's just staggering. So what it does is it sets the stage. So now we know the man as we go into chapter seven in his sermon, it sets the stage for what he is going to preach. So we know the kind of man that's about to give a message. And you know what? When you hear a message, that's one thing. But when you know the man who's giving the message, that makes the message way more effective. Way, way more effective. And so hopefully we have a good acquaintance with Stephen and so when we get into chapter seven, we can have a better understanding of what he says. Let's pray together.
