Gamble, Alan: The Deacon Stephen ~ Acts 7

Now, to bring our day to a close, just a little word about Philip the De- Verse number four: Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. Verse twenty six: And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Kandasi, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophecy? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Verse forty, Philip was found at Azota, and passing through, he preached in all the city till he came to Caesarea. And the Lord will bless his work. Now, in chapter one, our Lord had, uh, commanded his disciples that they should begin at Jerusalem, that then they would move through Judea, and that they would come to Samaria with the word, and eventually to the uttermost parts of the earth. And in accord with that command of the Lord, work has indeed begun at Jerusalem. It has extended to Judea, and now indeed it has come to Samaria. The apostles, however, they remain at Jerusalem, and in the purpose and providence of God, the, so many of the others are scattered, as we have already heard. Stephen now is dead. Philip is called from Samaria, from a very successful work there, to meet this man at Gaza, and, uh, the scripture distinctly tells us that it was desert. So it seems that it was a very strange direction that called Philip from a very busy ministry in Samaria, where so much was happening, to bring him to an individual soul in the, on the Gaza road. What we want to do this evening, just very simply and briefly, is to try to glean some lessons from Philip's contact with this man and the way that he dealt with him and some of the circumstances. And I want to gather my thoughts around three very, very simple expressions that are here in the text that we have read. Behold a man. He was a man of Ethiopia. We shall learn quite a lot about this man, but in spite of all his greatness, he is introduced to us just as a man. Now, a little bit further down, this man is perplexed a little bit. He's reading, but he doesn't understand. And when Philip begins to converse with him and asks him if he does understand what he's reading, he says, how can I accept some man to guide me? So the story begins with a man, and now it proceeds to some man who has got to guide this first man. And then as they continue to discuss together, and Philip is preaching Jesus to him, he says, um, of whom speaketh the prophet? Is of himself or of some other man? And it's nice that the story moves like that, from a man to some man, to some other man, and reaching a climax in this other man, this glorious man, whom Philip preaches to the eunuch. I suppose that if you wanted a little bit of alliteration, you could say that a man who was introduced to us here is the sinner, that some man coming to help him is really the saint, but that this other man, some other man, is none other than the Savior. And we are concerned this evening with a story, really, which is all about sinners and saints and the Savior, and we're going to learn, I trust, in a very few moments, a good deal about this interesting man, Philip. When eventually the eunuch is saved and he goes on his way, Philip is caught away, and it be- and the eunuch sees him no more. We have read of him at the end of the chapter that he came to Caesarea, and it's rather interesting that some years later, in chapter twenty one of the Acts, you find one of the last, if not the last, references to Philip, and he's got his home at Caesarea, and he's got a believing family, and he's got four daughters that are involved with him in the work of the Lord in their own sphere. He's at Caesarea, and no doubt much has happened between Caesarea of chapter eight and Caesarea of chapter twenty one. So here is a man then busy in his work, in the work of the Lord of Samaria, but he's called to see this other man of Ethiopia. This man of Ethiopia, it seems to me that he has many of the characteristics of the men to whom we preach, the men to whom we carry our message. Philip, you see, becomes eventually known in chapter twenty one um as Philip the Evangelist, a nice kind of movement from the deacon work of chapter six, and he has come to the spiritual work of evangelism. Philip the Evangelist, and he comes now to see this man of Ethiopia. And I want to just remind you of the kind of people to whom the evangelists, to whom the men like Philip bring the message in this present time. This man is a rich man, no doubt about that, but really he's poor. And it's very sad, you know, that this is the kind of people to whom we preach. We live in a society which is a little bit layered of seeing. The rich have increased with goods. They have needed nothing, and in so many instances, these are the kind of people to whom we preach. People who don't really need and don't really want what we bring. The rich leave us alone. People don't want to be disturbed. They don't want the messy. They're happy as they are, in a sense. Leave us alone. We are rich. This man was rich, but he was poor. And at least in some senses, he recognized his poverty, but he was a rich man with poverty nevertheless. You know, there were other men like that. Naaman was a bit like that. I suppose so was Nicodemus, and so was the little man of Jericho, Zacchaeus. Rich men, but poor. The Lord Jesus had a strange thing to say about them. He said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom. And then he went on to give a little illustration that my brethren sometimes use in gospel preaching. He said, you know, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. And my brethren have a little thing about this. Some alleged or supposed little gate within some of the gates in Jerusalem, and they called it apparently the eye of a needle, which was opened when the larger gate was closed. Very common story. I confess that in many visits to Jerusalem, I have inquired about it, I have asked about it, I have searched for it, and I confess to you that I know nothing about it, and that I don't believe it, and that what the Lord Jesus was saying was literally this, that it was easier for the a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. And when Luke tells the story, he's a doctor, of course, he uses the word which actually is the word for a surgeon's needle, and he says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a surgical needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. The disciples are aghast. They say, Lord, who can be saved? And the Lord goes on to to to to confirm that it is indeed impossible. Now, the story that I hear sometimes is that, well, the camel did get through the eye of this missile, this, this, uh, little gate which was allegedly so called. And my dear brethren, very dramatically picture this great beast with his burdens and his humps and how he gets down and too slow and somehow with great difficulty squeezes through. But the Lord Jesus says it's impossible, and what is impossible with men is only possible with God. The Lord Jesus, I suggest to you, he could hardly have chosen a more suitable illustration to preach the impossibility of a rich man entering the kingdom. And this is why the disciples are amazed. They say, Lord, who then can be saved? But it's very simple, you know. There are no rich men enter the kingdom. Every man who enters the kingdom enters it as a poor man. Rich men don't enter the kingdom. Here's a rich man, but he's got to learn that he's very poor. He'd not get in with his riches, and he'd not get in by his riches. He'd not get in by means of them. He'd be stripped of everything, and as a poor man, as a pauper with nothing, he will eventually enter the kingdom. Rich men don't enter the kingdom. That's what the Lord is teaching. We've got to remember that. When, like Philip the Evangelist, Philip the Deacon, we meet men li- like this, we've got to keep reminding them that all men are poor, and we've got to preach this. I need not remind you, need I, that we live in days of lights and preaching and easy decisions, and it wasn't so in the Acts of the Apostles. These early men, like Philip the Evangelist, they preached the poverty, they preached the utter depravity of man in his natural state. They preached the poverty, and they preached the, the absolute uselessness of human effort and human endeavor. Men were rich. The evangelists of the Acts, they saw them as poor men, and so should we. And as our brother Alan has reminded us, it might be that sometimes such a message will give offense. Now the, the point is this, that if my attitude in the preaching gives offense, then I'm responsible for that the truth that I preach gives offense. That's an entirely different thing, and I'm not responsible. So we preach the poverty of men in their natural state. Rich they might be, but they're very poor. Now, he was another kind of man that Philip had met. This is very sad. He was a man who apparently was a trusted man, but himself, it seems that he had nothing to trust. He was a man whom others trusted and whom the queen herself trusted with the charge of her treasurer. He must have been a man of some character and of some moral caliber, a trusted man, but himself with apparently nothing to which to hold, nothing to trust. Sad when people like that come to our gospel meeting. Men of a kind of a, an upright, uh, character, men of, of a, a moral uprightness which is attractive and commendable, and men that you could touch in things material and practical. And yet they themselves, not trusting, nothing and no one to touch. We need again to expose that opposite and to point out that whatever the caliber of the man, in the end he's just a poor sinner needing to be saved. This rich man, though poor, this trusted man, though not himself trusting, is a religious man. But although religious, dissatisfied, obviously, and searching for something else, a little bit like the Greeks of John twelve. You see, they had probably left, uh, uh, some, uh, pagan religion of their own, and they had turned to Judaism, but now they're still discontented, and they come and they say, sir, we will see Jesus. Here are men, and here is a man with religion, but with it all, with dissatisfaction. And again, I suppose we must remember that many of the men to whom we preach are just like that. The bane, the blight of our days, religion, Christless religion. Religion that has nothing for man. Religion that has a form and nothing else. This man was religious, but he was dissatisfied. He was a man of great authority, but I'm afraid he's going to have to come right down and depend upon help from a very humble deacon, and this again is required in the gospel that we preach, that men come right down. And from his great authority, he's got to be contented just to sit beside a humble deacon, or to have a humble deacon sit beside him and to give him exposition of the truth of the gospel. A man of great authority, but like Saul himself going to Ananias, like Cornelius having to go to a fisherman, to Peter, for some explanation of the truth. So this man has got to come down from his authority. Such is the gospel that we preach, that makes demands upon people. May the Lord help us as we come like Philip the Evangelist and meet men in the desert conditions in which this man was found. To remember this, that we have a gospel which with great dignity makes demands upon people, demanding men to be repentant. A man, a man, rich, trusted, with authority and religion, and a man searching and inquiring. And we are glad that he did indeed, uh, show himself a man of some humility, and he did come down to meet with Philip. Now he's reading, and as he's reading what we know was Isaiah fifty three, Philip says, understandest thou what thou readest? He says, how can I? I need some man to guide. Now, what kind of man will this be, this Philip who will guide the man of Ethiopia? I'll tell you one thing about him. He's a very busy man. And this seems to be the kind of man that God delights to use, busy man. He's a man who's preaching, preaching, preaching all down this chapter, verse four, verse five, verse six, verse twelve, verse twenty five. Every time I read of him here, he's preaching, preaching, preaching. He's a busy man. He's involved, I suppose, in what we would call a kind of a revival in, in some area, and a very, very busy man. A man already useful. Our dear brother, Mr. William Gilmer, used to say that reward for work well done was more work to do. And so the angel called Philip. Philip, a busy man. There must have been others with a bit more time on their hands than Philip, but Philip the evangelist, Philip the deacon, is the man who was called to leave this busy work in Samaria and to get away to the desert road on the way to Gaza. A busy man is Philip. You'll notice that he is a very obedient man, swift to obey without argument, without reasoning, without any query, a man who is quick to obey. Arise and go, says one verse, and he arose and went, says the next verse. A man obeys. He has heard the call to a need, and he responds immediately. A little bit like Saul of another day. What wilt thou have me to do? Mind you, Philip could have queried it. He might have said, Lord, there's an awful lot to be done here, the work that's going on, and he might have argued that he felt he was needed there in Samaria. Does there seem any point in leaving all this, this, this busyness of the work at Samaria and, and moving to, to the desert to meet a man? He doesn't care. Here is an individual man who needs to hear. And so today, we need young men who will be obedient to the call of the gospel, the call of the service, and to carry the ministry, carry the word in implicit obedience to souls that perish all around. So people need to hear. Some years ago, many years ago, I was preaching with a brother in the south of Ireland. We were preaching in the open air. We were preaching in towns where there hadn't been much open air preaching, where it was very strange, very new, and we were continually being moved on by the Pacific Guard. They would come and they'd tell us we had no right to preach here, and they'd move us on. We were getting very, very large numbers of people, hundreds of people listening. We would have to move on again and again. We were moved until we got a bit frustrated about it. We decided we'd go to some higher authority and see if these guards had a right to move us on, or could we stay and preach? So we went from one office to another, until eventually we were granted an interview with the, the commissioner of police in Dublin Castle. We were a little bit overawed, but, uh, we were shown into his office, and, uh, he received us very courteously, and he said, well, what's the problem? We told him the problem, that we had a message to preach, we were gospel preachers, but that every time we we we stopped to preach and the people gathered, the guards were moving us on. We said, we just want to know what the position is. We said, have we a right to preach in these towns in the Republic of Ireland? And he sat back, he looked across the desk at us. I remember so well his words. He said, you have no right to preach anywhere in the Republic of Ireland. And we sort of dropped our heads. We had, as we would say, taken the wind out of our sails. We, we were really deflated, and we just sat speechless. And then a kind of a twinkle in his eye, and he said, but, he said, the people have a right to hear. So now we, uh, we didn't know what the position was. Now he said, you may smile at it. We were really perplexed, but he said, that is exactly the constitutional position here in the Republic. He said, you have no right to preach, but the people have a right to hear. And he said, the position is this, that if you go into a village and the people come out and they want to hear, they've got a right to hear. But if you go into a village and the people to a man say, we don't want you, he said, you can't stand and say, look, we've got a right to preach here. You've got no right, he said. The people's right to hear. Eh. So it was a great day, the next day when the guards tried to move. He said, look, these people have a right to hear. And oh, how often I've thought about it since. Not only the people of the Republic, but the people of Africa, of China, of India, of South America. There's some young man in our gathering this evening wasting his time. The people have a right to hear. This gospel is for them. This obedient man, Philip, he rises and he goes immediately. He's a busy man. He's an obedient man. And like his colleague and his brother Stephen, of whom we have heard, he was a spiritually intelligent man. And if you examine his preaching, now not that we know much of the actual wording, not that we have much of the text of his preaching, but what we do know is this, that he preached the word, verse four. he preached Christ, verse five. He preached the kingdom, verse twelve. and he preached Jesus in verse thirty five. Here is a spiritually intelligent man who knows what needs to be preached, and he preaches it. Preaching the Word. What a basic and yet what a far wide-ranging thing, the preaching of the Word. Preaching Christ. What a theme is this, the Christ, the Messiah, and he did that, and he preached the kingdom. When so many Jews were probably thinking that the kingdom was far away, but he preached the kingdom. But then, I suppose he reached the climax of it all when he preached Jesus to this man. Of whom speaketh the prophet, says the eunuch, of himself or of some other man? Oh, says Philip, let me tell you about this other man, this other man. And beginning at the same scripture, he preached unto him Jesus. How he would have described the sufferings of the lamb, the gentle meekness of the lamb. A lamb led to the slaughter. Would he have rehearsed to the eunuch all that they did to him on that night when they stripped him of all that he had? When he stood shorn, bereft of his rights, bereft of his very garments, when he stood like a shorn lamb, and in all that suffering opened not his mouth. I suppose that in a sense, Philip could have said to him, behold the Lamb of God, and preach the Lamb, preach Jesus. Brethren, we need to preach Jesus, yes, and the Lamb, the sacrifice, the blood. Some of us never thought we'd live to see the day, but I was in an assembly quite recently, and a dear brother came to me weeping, weeping, an old brother, after the meeting. He said, you know, things are sad around here. I said, what do you mean? He said, we had a young man preaching here two weeks ago. He said it was a wishy-washy gospel. And when he came to the end of the meeting, he said he gave out a closing hymn, and he asked us to omit a certain verse. He said, I went to him afterwards. I said, excuse me, the gentle brother this. He said, excuse me. He said, but could I ask you, why did you omit that particular verse? This young preacher said rather abruptly, said because of time. We hadn't time to sing the whole. Oh, said the brother, I, I, I don't mean that, he said. He said, I'm asking, why did you omit that verse? Ti- time, he said, we, we, we had no time. And he showed a bit of impatience with this old brother. This old brother said, and he was weeping to me as he told me. He said, I don't believe you. He said, could I suggest to you that it is the only verse in the hymn that sings the blood of Christ, and that that was why you admitted. In one of our meetings, he shuffled from foot to foot, and he got rather embarrassed, and he said, well, there are religious people here, we mustn't offend. How can you preach Jesus? How can you preach the Lamb? How can you preach a gospel that will save poor sinners from hell if you don't point them to Calvary and make much of the blood of the sacrifice? And so, in the days in which we live, there are men like this man. There are some men needed to do the work that Philip did. And we can all preach that other man. Lift him up, lift him high. And then together we'll go on our way rejoicing. Shall we pray? Please. Chapter six verse eight. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. But there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And 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 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 to us. And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, men, brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show him. Let's go further down. We won't have time tonight, unfortunately, to read this address of Stephen. We're just going to read some selected verses from it. Verse twenty: in which time Moses was born and was exceeding fair and nourished up in his father's house three months. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him that was oppressed and smote the Egyptian. For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver him, but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren, why do you wrong one another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and judge over us? Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, was a sojourn in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came to him saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt. I have heard their groaning. I am come down to deliver them, and now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to them in the bush. Verse thirty seven: This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him ye shall hear. Now down to verse forty four. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen, which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers unto the days of David, who found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him a house. How be it, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What house will you build unto me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and ye have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been now, now become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it? 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 Spirit, 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. But 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 out with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep, and Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles, and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. Now, I want to read one other verse, please, in the book of the Acts and in chapter eleven, verse nineteen. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus. Now we trust that God will bless to us once again the reading of his word tonight. Now, friends, tonight we direct our attention to this very interesting character, the first martyr of the Christian church, Stephen, one of the seven of whom we read last night, to take charge of that practical work in Jerusalem, and now we see tonight his witness to Christ. As we think about the ministry of Stephen, right at the beginning, I suggest we learn the very important lesson that quality rather than quantity counts in work for God. Just as much as in every sphere of life, quality rather than quantity counts in work for God. I get the impression, I don't know about you, that Stephen was a relatively young man. Be that as it may, he had a very short ministry. Could not have been more, I submit, than a few weeks in Jerusalem. And that ministry of a few weeks is passed over in a few verses, and the emphasis falls on the last day of his life. And the emphasis falls on the last address he ever gave, and it's recorded in amazing detail. More space is devoted to it than to any other sermon preached in the book of Acts. So the emphasis falls on a short ministry, but even more particularly on the last address of that short ministry, on the last day, in the last few hours, maybe in the last few minutes of his life, and his life ends with a violent death. And yet, and yet, there is this record on the pages of the Word of God of Stephen. Yes, it was a ministry that was short, a ministry that was promising, and yet a ministry that was ended so suddenly in such circumstances of unjust accusation, and yet of violence, and yet quality rather than quantity counts. Because I want to submit to you tonight, my friends, that we here tonight, and companies like us, gathered no doubt in many places, many, many places throughout the world at this hour, are the result of the ministry of Stephen, the result of the ministry of Stephen. Seems to me, as we look at Stephen's ministry, there are three things that stand out about his witness. He's called Thy Martyr Stephen, the Authorized renders it. And of course, he was a martyr in the sense we use this word, that he was faithful unto death. But the word really should be rendered witness, and that's a broader sense. He was a martyr in the sense that he laid down his life for Christ's cause, but he also was a witness throughout his Christian life, and especially sealing his testimony with his blood. So in his witness as a whole, my friends, there are three things that stand out. Stephen's witness was marked by courage. Stephen's witness was marked by insight, and Stephen's witness was marked by amazing effectiveness, though he little knew it at the time. Stephen's witness was marked by courage. Stephen's witness was marked by tremendous insight, as we're going to see, and Stephen's witness was amazingly effective, as we'll see in a few minutes as well. He was marked by courage, wasn't he? Oh yes, he was marked by courage in the synagogues. He was marked by courage as he engaged in discussion, in dialogue, in debate with these men. He was courageous there. So courageous was he there that they had to resort to hauling him before the council. So his courage in the synagogue led him to the Sanhedrin, and in the Sanhedrin, if possible, he was more courageous still, just like the apostles of whom we looked, whom we looked at the other evening. There was no retraction. He was there, as we shall see, as the defendant, but he became the prosecutor. He turned the tables completely, and instead of their being charged, he charges the nation with the whole sad history of their rejection of God. He was marked by courage before the Sanhedrin. And that led on again, didn't it, to that final stage of his ministry, and he's marked by courage too as he stands, and then he kneels down amidst the flying stones outside the city walls of Jerusalem. He was marked by courage. You know, my friends, just at the start of the meeting, is that not a challenge to us? You know, we got a little bit of that challenge, didn't we, in our hymns tonight, thinking of all the Lord Jesus has accomplished for us and how little most of us have ever given to him. We see the same, don't we, in this man Stephen, this short ministry, a ministry that ends in the brutality of the mob outside the city walls of Jerusalem. A ministry that ends in a hail of boulders outside the wall, and yet nonetheless he's marked by courage. He faced that for Christ. Perhaps most of us are reluctant to face the sneer. Perhaps most of us are reluctant to face the comment behind our back. Perhaps most of us are afraid of the comment that we're over religious, or that we're fanatical, or that we're spending too much time on the things of the Lord. Oh, my friends, we feel even the little shame that sometimes we are called to bear. We shrink from it. And so often our witness is ineffective. So often our witness is muted. So often we are silent when we should speak. Let's learn tonight this tremendous lesson of courage. It's not too likely that the stones will fly at us in our day and age, not at the moment anyway. But here we have the lesson, don't we? What a challenge to us. This witness of Stephen was marked by courage, outstanding courage. We see the courage right through, don't we? We see his courage in the synagogues. We see his courage before the Sanhedrin. We see the courage reaching its climax as we see him laying down his life amid such brutal conditions for the cause and the name of Christ. What, in what did his courage really consist? Well, his courage consisted, my friends, in his willingness to express and his willingness to proclaim the insight that he had. Now we want to develop this for a few minutes. Stephen was charged before the Sanhedrin, wasn't he? And he was charged with certain crimes, blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. This man never stops saying that sort of thing. That's what they said about him. For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered unto us. You know, my friends, these were not altogether false charges. These were half truths. They were half truths. Of course, that made them all the harder to fight. But you see, these were different charges that were never brought against the apostles. I wonder if these charges could ever have been brought against some of the apostles. What am I saying? Stephen had far more insight at this point than most, perhaps more than all of the apostolic bands. He saw, you see, that Christianity and Judaism were ultimately mutually incompatible. He was probably the first to see that. He saw maybe far more clearly than any of the twelve that the new wine could no longer remain in old bottles. He saw more clearly than most of the twelve that the new that God had introduced was not just a patch. Remember that other figure our Lord used? Not just a patch on the old. Oh yes, he saw that. So there was probably a strong element of truth lying behind what the charged Stephen was saying. Now that, I suggest, is why Luke places so much emphasis on the ministry of Stephen. Because until this barrier was got over, until the leaders of the Christians began to see that the ceremony, that the ritual, that this place, the temple, had been done away with in Christ, until they clearly saw that, there was no hope, humanly speaking, of a Gentile mission at all. And of course, the great burden of Luke is to depict the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth. And that's why he makes so much of Stephen, because Stephen was the first to perceive so clearly the bankruptcy and the end of the ceremonial system, the end of the temple, the end of the ritual, the end of what Paul calls the enmity contained in ordinances that forever stood as a barrier to the evangelization of the Gentiles, that forever emphasized the exclusiveness of Israel, that forever underlined national privilege and racial distinction, and until the clear insight became more and more obvious that all of that was gone, that all of that had been done away in Christ, there was no hope, no hope that that prejudice associated with it would begin to disappear. Now, that's why there is so much emphasis on the ministry of Stephen. Stephen, we'll develop this in a moment, had a penetrating insight as to what was really at stake. It could not be, for too long at least, that the new society, the new ecclesia, would remain as a sect of the Nazarenes, to take its name along with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essenes and however many other sects they had in Jerusalem. It could no longer be for too long that the new ecclesia gathered in Jerusalem would just be another synagogue, another group of Pharisees, which is probably what most of them were, with a little bit tagged on at the end that they believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Now, most of these dear believers probably thought of themselves in these terms at this point in time, but not Stephen, but not Stephen. Stephen had a penetrating insight. He saw somehow or other that there was far more at stake than that. He saw more clearly than the twelve at this point, the radical implications of the death of Christ. Now you see this, my friends, it was that insight that took courage to express. It was for expressing that insight that Stephen got into hot water, so to speak. It was for expressing that insight that Stephen at last appeared before the council. And when he comes to the council, he gives that insight, as we're going to see, immortal form that is now recorded for us permanently in the page of scripture. Because in this great defense of Stephen, we see a tremendous defense and explanation of the insight he had that God no longer, if he ever did, dwell in temples made with hands. And it was for that insight that he died amidst the stones, amidst the boulders, amidst the rocks outside the wall of Jerusalem. An effective ministry? Doesn't look like it, does it? He fell asleep. What a word. What a touching word. Amidst the lynch mob, amidst the boulders, he fell asleep. Devout men carry him to his burial. Great lamentation is made over him. Are you trying to tell us, Luke, it's an effective ministry? Ah, yes, but it was, wasn't it? Our Lord says, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. It did bring forth much fruit. It is bringing forth much fruit even to this present hour. Even to this present hour. It brought forth much fruit in a twofold way. The first way it brought forth much fruit in the providence of God was this. The result of Stephen's death was an outburst of persecution against the church at Jerusalem, and the pressure grew so intense that they were all scattered, except the apostles. And as they were scattered, they went scattering. Right? They were scattered, but as they were scattered, they went scattering. Scattering what? Scattering the seed of the word of God. And that was restricted at first to the Jews, but not for long, because in Acts chapter eleven we see the record of the full implication of all that Stephen stood for and all that Stephen died for being worked out. For we see some of those scattered as a result of the persecution of Stephen beginning to preach, beginning to speak at least to the Greeks as well, and proclaiming to them the Lord Jesus. But that's not all, my friends. Notice the death touch with which Luke ends chapter seven: And Saul, and Saul was consenting unto his death. Ah yes, the goads were beginning to tell, weren't they? Did you notice the folks that were disputing with Stephen? Just look for a moment in Acts chapter six, verse number nine. The groups of people who were disputing with Stephen, who were they? Among them were those of Cilicia. Where is Tarsus? Tarsus is in Cilicia. Here's a man probably about the same age as Stephen, an able young man from Tarsus, now in Jerusalem. I want to suggest that he saw equally as clearly as Stephen what the issues were. Probably those in the other side were equally confused as to what the issues were until Stephen started to speak, but there was one who saw what the issues were. He saw just as clearly as Stephen did, though, at this point on the other side, what was at stake. He saw it had to be one thing or the other. He saw it had to be the law or Christ. He saw it had to be this Nazarene or our temple, our law and Moses. He saw that it could not possibly be, this was how he would reason at this time, that one who had so manifestly died under the curse of God on the cursed tree could ever be the Messiah. Am I stretching things too far? Here we have Saul of Tarsus disputing with Stephen, and he would hear it, wouldn't he? He would hear it. He would hear all the argument. He would hear all the exposition of the Old Testament scripture, and God was beginning to work. Who told Luke, may I ask, that when Stephen stood before the council, he had a face like an angel? Well, surely the answer's obvious. There was a man who sat there. His name was Saul of Tarsus. And then, surely, we don't need to speculate at all, even as mildly as I think I have been speculating, when we come to the end of chapter seven, for there we read, and Saul was there. And he tells us later on, doesn't he, that the clothes of those who were stoning Stephen were laid at his feet. So at each stage of Stephen's witness, you see, Saul almost certainly was there, and he certainly was there at the last stage. And Stephen prays, lay not this sin to their charge. And at least in one case, that prayer was answered, and how marvelously it was answered. For who was the real teacher of Saul of Tarsus? Ultimately, it was not Gamaliel, it was Stephen. For who took the insights of Stephen under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and developed them even still further? Surely it's the great apostle to the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus. Friends, it was an effective ministry in a way that Stephen could never have begun to guess or understand. There was his opponent, destined marked out by God as the one who would carry that same message that Stephen was carrying to the very ends of the earth. Do we learn the lesson, my friends? I think we do. We learn this lesson. Success in ministry can be a very long-term affair indeed. Oh yes. Isn't that one of the dangers we have in our day? We think short-term, don't we? Very short-term, very, very short term. That's the spirit of the age. It is, isn't it? Shortcuts, instant coffee, fast food, and all that affects the spiritual scene as well, doesn't it? But here we learn the lesson that in God's work, success can take a very long time indeed. We must think very long term in God's service, and we need to notice, secondly, that the success of our ministry ultimately is a matter for God. It's not our concern. Here we see Stephen, the corn of wheat, falling into the ground and dying. Because he died, it brought forth much fruit. Who can calculate the much fruit that has come through the ministry of Paul? And in God's hands, Stephen was to Paul what Andrew was to Peter, in a sense. Ah yes, like Samson of old, he slew far more in his death than he ever did in his life. What a ministry. Can we learn this lesson? Allow me to repeat it. Success in service can be a very long-term thing indeed. And secondly, success in service lies with God and not with us. But we learn a third very important lesson from Stephen too in this connection. Our concern is not success in service. We leave that with God. Our concern in service is faithfulness. Oh, the faithfulness of Stephen's service, and amidst all its apparent failure and loss, he dies a short ministry, a brief life. He dies in these brutal circumstances, but oh, the fruit tonight of which even we form a part, the long-term results of the ministry of Stephen. Oh, my friends tonight, his concern was faithfulness, and he left the rest to God. Can we learn that lesson? I believe we badly need to learn it today. For we crave, naturally speaking, for success. Oh, I mean success in the very best sense of the word, of course. For that we crave, and rightly so, but that ultimately we must leave with God. Paul may plant, Apollos may water, but God gives the increase for us. Our responsibility, whatever sphere of service we find ourselves, is to be faithful, as Stephen was, and as the risen Lord said to the church at Smyrna, to be faithful even unto death. Now let's look briefly, for a moment or two, at the three phases of Stephen's ministry. Stephen's witness had three phases, as we've already indicated. Now I've adopted alliteration tonight. These three phases we've looked at, we first of all see the course of Stephen's witness, then we see the climax of Stephen's witness in his ministry in chapter seven, Then we have the culmination of his witness in the account of his martyrdom. But as we've been seeking to labor, we see each of these being built upon the other. It was a continuous witness right from the start to the finish. Now let's look briefly at the course of his witness, at the course of his witness. As we notice the course of his witness, we see some interesting things about Stephen. We see he was a man of Christian maturity. We see he was a man of Christian maturity. Now, this comes out in several ways. First of all, it comes out in this way, my friends. He was willing to engage in relatively humble service, wasn't he? We noticed this last week. A man of Stephen's obvious gifts and considerable ability was nonetheless willing to engage in the relatively humble, although important service that our brother Jim brought before us last night. For he first appears in the word of God as someone who was one of these seven who were engaged in this work of serving tables. He was faithful in little, and soon we see him faithful in much. We notice too that his life in a special sense, was clearly seen to be under the control of faith. He was full of faith, and he was full of the Holy Spirit. His whole life was seen as directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit of God. We see too that he had a good reputation among his fellow believers. We notice that he was one of those who can be described as a man of good or honest report. That's the kind of man he was. That's how he commences his witness. Notice the course of his witness. Verse eight, Stephen full of faith, probably more accurately, Stephen full of grace, following most of the translations. He was full of grace, full of grace. He must have reminded them of the Lord, you know. He was full of grace. I suggest this refers to the way he spoke, perhaps. He was full of grace. Remember what they said about the Lord Jesus? They marveled at the gracious words which proceeded from his mouth. I think it's the same thought here. The divine favor rested conspicuously on Stephen. There was a beauty, there was a grace, there was a wonder about how he spoke. No wonder, verse ten, they could not resist him. If he was full of grace, and he was in verse eight, surely he was full of grace in verse fifteen. as now the course of his witness, probably very brief, a few weeks, has drawn to its conclusion, and he stands before the Sanhedrin. Almost certainly it was Saul of Tarsus who noticed this. They all probably noticed it, but almost certainly it was Saul of Tarsus who told Luke later about this as he stood there. His face was like the face of an angel. What does it mean? Well, I hardly know what it means, really, but I suggest it must involve at least this, that he was in a conscious sense of communion with God, so much so that even his face was alight, so much so that his face was warmed, his face was illuminated, his face was irradiated with the sense of the presence of God Almighty. What a sight. Stephen stands there full of grace. Ah yes, he's even fuller of grace, if that were possible now. The divine favor rests upon him, even his very face, like Moses' face, shone with that conscious sense of the communion of God upon him. The course of Stephen's witness. Oh, friends, if we are to witness effectively, we have to be like this too, in some small measure. It will demand increasing maturity of character, will it not, to give force and weight to our witness. As we emphasized the other night, if we were to, if we are to witness to Christ, we must spend much time with him, so that our words are full of grace, not words of brusqueness or roughness, not words of rudeness, but rather words that are full of grace. And oh, increasingly we need to depend on this, a sense of the divine presence of communion with God. But the climax of Stephen's witness is surely brought before us in chapter seven. This, no doubt, is much of the ministry that he had constantly been giving in these synagogues, and here it's recorded at great length and in great detail. What is Stephen getting at in this address? Well, I submit to you briefly that he is answering the charges that were laid against him. Are these things so? And you know, in a sense, Stephen more or less says that they were. Read it carefully, and that is more or less what he's saying. He's more or less, in a sense, admitting the charges, not quite in the way that they intended them. What was he charged with doing or saying? Well, we have it, don't we? He was really on a twofold charge. He was charged with speaking against the law, later referred to as Moses, and secondly, he was charged with speaking against this holy place. These were the two charges elaborated for us in verse fourteen. This, don't we catch something of the sarcasm, something of the reproach, something of the sneer, something almost of the spit that's involved in this. This Jesus of Nazareth, this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place. The very thought was despicable to them and shall change the customs which Moses delivered unto us. That's what he's charged with doing, saying that. What does he do in his defense? Well, I think he takes up these two charges, and let's look at them briefly. I won't have time to expound it in detail. You've charged me with speaking against Moses. What is the whole history of Israel but a rejection of Moses? And he takes them back right to the very day when Moses first appeared, maybe prematurely in a sense, but at least he appeared to be the deliverer. How did they react? Who made him? Who made him a judge and a ruler over us? So right from the start of Moses' ministry, he was rejected, and read right through this chapter. That's what it's all about. Moses was rejected time and time again in the wilderness. They rejected him. They despised him. That's what Stephen is emphasizing. You've charged me with speaking against Moses, have you? Well, you've rejected Moses personally right through your history. Not only have you rejected Moses personally, you notice in verse forty, this Moses, this Moses. I wonder, is Stephen, with the penetrating insight he had, answering back their comment, this Jesus of Nazareth? Maybe he is. This Moses, that's your language about him in your fathers. You rejected Moses personally. You rejected his law. You rejected the system of religion that he instituted because you turned away from the worship of God, and even in the wilderness itself, you carried about the idols of the false gods. And he brings it to this conclusion, you have always resisted the Holy Spirit. You have received the law of which you're so proud, but yet you have not kept it. Now study the passage, my friends. That's what Stephen is. You say I've rejected Moses? That's what I'm charging you with. The nation have long since rejected Moses personally, and long since rejected the system that Moses brought in. And anyway, says Stephen, don't you remember what Moses said? There will come a second Moses, verse thirty seven: A prophet the Lord your God shall raise up like unto me. Him shall you hear. Why then do you charge me with something strange when I say that the Mosaic order will be temporary? Why then do you charge me with saying something bizarre, heretical, when I'm asserting that Jesus will change the customs of Moses? Did not Moses himself teach that there would come a second greater prophet to whom the people would hearken, which implies, does it not surely, that he had a right to change that which Moses had instituted. But then they charged him, this holy place. Now, it's very interesting to study the account that Ste- that Luke gives us of Stephen's defense in this connection. Notice how he begins. It's not incidental. He begins in Mesopotamia. What's he saying? God's not tied down to the land of Canaan. God's not tied down to holy places. God's not tied down to Palestine. And as we read through the passage, what does he say? God worked in Palestine. Yes, he did, but long before that, he worked in Mesopotamia, and he worked in Egypt. Notice all the stress in Egypt, and he worked in the desert, and he worked in Midian. And what Stephen is simply saying is this: God's purpose does not depend on the land of Palestine. You should know your Bible well enough to know that God had a purpose long before his people were settled in Palestine. Not only so, but God manifested his presence. God manifested his presence outside of the Holy Land, so-called. We're back at verse one. He manifested his presence in Mesopotamia. He manifested presence at Sinai in Arabia. He manifested his presence in Egypt. He manifested presence in all these places. How can you talk about this holy place? But then he presses this home even more, doesn't he, in verse forty four? Don't you remember that God's first dwelling was not a temple but a tabernacle? Have you forgotten that? Have you forgotten that? No wonder they were sawn asunder, literal reading of verse fifty four, as Stephen applies the word of God to them. And then he goes on to say, God's purpose shown outside Canaan. God's presence manifested outside Canaan. Not only so, but God's presence manifested in a movable tent. And then comes his final argument, verse number forty eight. Even when the temple was built, God made it abundantly clear that that was not essentially his dwelling place. What does it come to, my friends? God was not dependent on the temple. The temple was not indispensable to God. It was only an interim measure in God's plan, and when God saw fit, he could end the temple, just as we've noticed already, when God saw fit, he would raise up the second Moses, who would change the whole system that Moses instituted. It's masterly, isn't it, my friends? What lesson do we learn from it? Well, I suggest the key lesson to learn from this is the message that Stephen was familiar with the Word of God. Another very important lesson tonight. Stephen was familiar with the Word of God. Verse number thirty eight, Stephen says, who received living oracles. I want to highlight that. Doesn't it prove to us that was how Stephen thought of the Word of God? And aren't they living oracles in his hand tonight, my friends? The more we look at this, the more we see the penetration and the understanding of scripture that was in Stephen's heart and mind. He's not just stringing together a few old texts here and there with no connection between them. He's not just stringing together a few texts from here, there, and everywhere with no connection with their context and meaning. How tragic it is when that masquerades as gospel preaching or as ministry. Here we have Stephen, and he is presenting penetrating knowledge and insight into the deep meaning of the Word of God itself. To him, it was not a dead book, it was living oracles. What a lesson for us tonight, friends. In our witness, we need to take up the Word of God. If we are to witness for Christ, whether publicly or privately, we need to be steeped in the Word of God, not its mere text alone, though that is crucial and important, but a deep understanding of what the book is saying. And also, friends, this constant sense that it is speaking still, even today. For my friends, can I emphasize this again? It is still living oracles. What a lesson we learn from the climax of Stephen's defense, the climax of his witness, as we see it tonight in God's word. He takes the sword of the Spirit, and mightily he wields it, guided by the Holy Spirit of God before the Sanhedrin. If we are to be effective witnesses for Christ, this book to us must be.