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STEPHEN, HIS SPIRIT, HIS SERMON!
When we think of Easter, which we will celebrate in about one month, we think of the death and resurrection of Christ. We’re saddened by the reminder of his crucifixion knowing full well that we can easily picture ourselves as being part of the crowd that demanded Jesus’ death. But we are overjoyed by his victory over death trusting that it takes the sting out of death for us. For we now understand that Christ died in our place for crimes he never committed himself.
What may surprise you, what surprises me, is that the Holy Spirit was rejected and killed by the same crowd. I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah sure! How do you kill someone you can’t see or touch? How do you do away with someone who is totally invisible?” I know exactly what you mean, in the abstract world of points, lines, and planes (i. e. Plane Geometry) it would be like swatting a point as if it were a fly. It’s not that easy, probably impossible. Nevertheless, it happened. As with Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was rejected and killed by the same crowd.
Look at it this way, Stephen, as seen in Acts 6 & 7, is characterized as a believer:
Full of wisdom (6:3,10)
Full of faith (6:5)
Full of grace (6:8)
Full of power (6:8)
Full of glory (6:15)
Full of respect (7:1 - )
Full of Scripture (7:2 - )
Full of self-control (7:2 - )
Full of love (7:59)
In short, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He was full in the sense that every aspect of his life was governed by the Spirit of God. When he spoke his words were in line with Scripture. When he counseled others, it was with the wisdom of God. When he challenged others, it was with the gentleness and respect due to all men. When he healed others it was not from within any ability within himself, it was the power of God being exercised through him.
And when he was mistreated, when he was falsely accused and then taken out to be stoned to death, he forgave those who killed him. In short, as far as any believer could possibly be, he was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit. He had all of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit had all of him.
His last day on earth is spelled out for us in Acts 7. He’s been falsely accused by others. He was accused of speaking against the two things that were most precious to the Jewish community – the Holy Place, the Temple, and God’s Law.
He was charged with two counts of felony, either one of which could cost him his life. In quick order, he had gone from waiting on tables to being on the docket of the Sanhedrin. In light of what this body had done to Jesus, it was not the place anyone would want to find themselves!
When asked whether or not the charges were true, he replied with one of the longest sermons recorded in Scripture. He paraded before the Sanhedrin one case argument after another beginning with Abraham and concluding with how David enjoyed God’s favor prior to the temple ever being built.
Why? Why not just tell them straight out that it wasn’t he who was “guilty” but them? They were the ones who misunderstood God and dishonored his servant Moses just as their fathers had done. I mean, why not take a “hard” line?
He didn’t take the “blunt” approach because he recognized this as an opportunity to tell all those who were listening about the grace of God. To be effective he needed to speak in a gentle and respectful manner. He knew that the root problem of the religious leaders could not be addressed by a sledge hammer. Hence, he took one case after another in hopes they would “get the picture” they had missed seeing while in seminary. We read:
“ Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
“ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, . . .”
We cannot miss Stephen’s emphasis on the divine initiative. It was God who appeared, spoke, sent, promised, and, after punishing Egypt, it was God who rescued a people for himself. Nothing about the story suggest or implies that there is anything provincial about God. He wasn’t in a box to begin with and he’s not in a box now. In fact, there is no box big enough to contain him. Not even a religious box.
In the midst of a pagan society God inserted himself into the life of Abraham and called him to follow him. It wasn’t Abraham who sought God. Abraham wasn’t even looking for God and certainly didn’t travel to the land God would “show him” to find him. God found Abraham and called him to himself.
“Okay,” argued the Sanhedrin to itself, “but God planted himself in the land he “showed” Abraham. He settled down and became our God.” Continuing with the next case we read:
“ Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and his palace.
“ Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. After this . . .”
The jealousy of his brothers resulted in Joseph being taken to a foreign land and a famine compelled Jacob to migrate to the same land, yet God was with them. Though not in the land God “showed” Abraham, and promised him, God was first with Joseph and then with Joseph’s family as he rescued them from famine. It wasn’t so much that God was their God for, in fact, they didn’t always acknowledge him as God. It was the fact that the descendants of Abraham were God’s people. Yes, a land had been chosen, but the borders of that land didn’t limit God’s activity or grace.
“Okay,” muttered the Sanhedrin, “but it took Moses to bring the people back to Canaan. He’s the one who rescued Israel from slavery.”
“In one sense, that’s true enough,” countered Stephen. But let me tell you about Moses. We read:
“ As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
“ At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up . . .”
Stephen’s handling of Moses is longer than the other case histories for he had been accused of speaking against Moses. As he outlines each of the three forty-year periods of Moses’ life he left no doubt of his respect for his leadership and yet made it clear that it was God who rescued Israel through Moses. Moses was great not because he was a well-trained leader, not even because he spent forty-years in a desolate land learning about desert survival, but because; he bent down to listen to God, he honored God by believing that he was indeed on holy ground, and, he obeyed his voice by returning to Egypt.
What up to this point had been an implicit condemnation of the leaders in Israel became explicit. Continuing to focus on Moses, Stephen told the Sanhedrin the rest of the story. The part they didn’t want to hear. He said,
“ This is the same Moses whom they (our fathers) had rejected. . .
“ This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’
“ But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!’ That was the time . . .
And yes,
“ Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua . . .
But, no building can confine God or inhibit his activity. It is evident from Scripture that God’s presence cannot be localized. He can’t be captured and compelled to stay in a box. If he has any home on earth, it is with those who know and honor him.
Finally, you will recall that when Peter spoke to the crowds he excused what they had done to Jesus on the basis of ignorance. But Stephen accused his audience of outright rebellion. Listen to his indictment of them in vv. 51 - 53.
“ You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him – you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
In short, “You asked, how do I plead. I plead not guilty for my response to God is more biblical than your response. You! It is you who are guilty of misunderstanding what it means to worship God and you are guilty of dishonoring Moses. In truth, you always resist the Holy Spirit. You resisted him when Jesus walked among you, and I can tell by the look on your faces that you are resisting him now.”
They had every chance to know better, they had the history of God pursuing them and working on their behalf, they had the prophets, they had tabernacle of testimony among them, and they had the law which reflected God’s character, and yet they forever resisted the work of the Holy Spirit within their hearts.
Well, you know what happened after that bit of “hard apologetics.” The Sanhedrin gnashed their teeth and did the very thing Stephen accused them of doing. Like their fathers, they killed the one who told them what they needed to hear. In a very real sense, when they killed Stephen, they killed the Holy Spirit.
Now you could argue that Stephen wasted his time. No one listened! No one finally “got it!” No one understood what the Holy Spirit, through Stephen, was trying to tell them. In the end, they did what they were going to do from the very beginning. They declared Stephen “guilty” of blasphemy and, in a murderous rage, they stoned him.
And for the most part you would be right. No one listened! No one finally “got it.” That is, no one but a young man by the name of Saul. He listened! It finally began to make sense to him. You see, you never know when you will be the last link between a lost soul and God.

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