Church at Wieuca

Dr. Kevin Head: Thank you so much, Brock, and all of our musicians. It's good to have you back. We missed you all last week. Rick as well, glad to have everyone back today and appreciate those blessings. Paul and Lydia and Jeremy and Jocelyn, thank you so much for your sharing. What a wonderful time of sharing this morning. On behalf of the church, we are so glad you're part of this church family as well. Thank you so much for sharing. I was thinking as I was listening to you talk, the next time I'm out on vacation, I'll have all four of you just fill in and preach the sermon for me, if that's okay. You all did a great job. That was wonderful.

It's a little warm today, and we've got fans going, so I'm going to speak loud. It kind of reminds me of that old story of the preacher who had a weak point in his sermon, so he wrote in the notes, "Yell, make it loud so that you overcome the weak point." That's not the case today. I'm going to speak loud because it's hard to hear, but I hope you can hear me today and thank you for bearing with us in the heat. We are continuing our summer sermon series on women and men of the Bible. It's been really fun learning from folks in the Bible that we don't often focus on, we don't often think about. This morning, we have someone, maybe he's a little more familiar than some of the other folks we've talked about. This morning, we're thinking about Stephen.

Our text for today describes what happened to Stephen at the very end of his life. Let me just give you a little bit of context. We'll talk about it more in the sermon, but Stephen is facing trial for his life, and he is before the Sanhedrin. He is addressing the Jewish rulers there, and he has just finished a very strong, harsh indictment of these leaders. So we pick up in our text for today, Acts chapter seven, verses 54 through 60, as Stephen finishes his strong indictment of these Jewish leaders. And here's what the scripture says happens after he finishes speaking.

When they heard this, they were furious, and they gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." At this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him.

Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. May God bless the reading and the hearing of this word this morning. Well, today, as we said, we are focused on the person of Stephen. And like many people we have looked at in this sermon series, we really don't know a whole lot about Stephen.

The little bit of information we do have about him comes from the sixth and the seventh chapters of the Book of Acts. In the sixth chapter of the Book of Acts, we learn that the early church needed deacons. There were some pastoral care needs in the early church that were too great for the disciples to try to meet. So they proposed to establish the office of deacon to help meet those pastoral care needs. And those people who were elected to this position would be responsible for visiting the sick, caring for those with particular needs, making sure that the widows and the poor in their community were taken care of and had plenty to eat.

So the early church chose seven individuals from among their congregation to fill this capacity of the role of deacon. And the very first name that is mentioned as deacon in the early Christian church is Stephen. Well, just after we hear that Stephen was the very first deacon in the early church, Luke then shares some more information about him. Later in Acts chapter six, here's what we read.

The Bible says, "Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great miraculous signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from the members of the synagogue of the freedmen, involved with the Sanhedrin. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom of the Spirit by whom he spoke." So Acts goes on to say, "Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, 'We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.'

So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified, 'This fellow never stops speaking against the holy place or against the law.' They said, 'For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.' All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw his face was like the face of an angel."

Now, there is so much we could say about this little information we know about Stephen this morning. But let's start with this. Isn't it interesting that what happens to Stephen here in many ways parallels what happened to Jesus just before his death and crucifixion? It was very similar, for Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin. Stephen was brought before them on charges of blasphemy. This group produced false witnesses to come and testify against him and basically to lie about who he was and what he had done.

And then following these accusations, Stephen was asked by the Sanhedrin to defend himself. So in the seventh chapter of Acts, we find this long speech where Stephen talks about his Christian faith. And in this speech, Stephen went through the history of the Jewish faith, and he explained how he saw Jesus as the fulfillment of all that the Jewish people had believed about God. He stood his ground. He gave ample evidence of why he believed that Jesus was the Messiah. And then he ended his speech with some really harsh, devastating words for his accusers, the members of the Sanhedrin.

I could read for you what he said from the New International Version that I often read from, but I really like the way Clarence Jordan in the *Cotton Patch Gospel* translates what Stephen said when he was talking to the Sanhedrin. He puts it in more contemporary language. Here's how Clarence Jordan says what Stephen said to the Sanhedrin. "You pig-headed pagans, you are forever turning a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit. You are just like your fathers before you. Can you name just one man of God that your fathers didn't ride out of town on a rail? And besides, your fathers assassinated the forerunners of the Just One, Jesus. And now you are his betrayers and killers, you who got the Bible straight from the angels, but refuse to live by it."

Those are some strong, harsh words Stephen said directly to the members of the Sanhedrin. Now think about this. He's standing before a group of people who have the power to decide whether he lives or dies, and he chooses to blast these people and their reputation by saying they are responsible for killing Jesus, and they are responsible for not following and living by the Bible and not doing what God would have them to do. And so, like Jesus, these leaders condemn Stephen to death.

And in our text for today, Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr, the first person to die for his faith. Think about that. He was the first deacon in the early church. He was the first Christian martyr, the first person to die for his faith in Jesus Christ. Now, there are so many things we could say about him this morning. We could talk about his incredible faith. He truly lived a life of faith. He followed what Paul said when he said, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

We could also talk about Stephen's wisdom. Stephen is described as a wise person, and we know from his lengthy speech that he knew a lot about God. Stephen was wise and knowledgeable. But this morning, the thing that stands out to me, the thing that I think about when I think of Stephen, is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in his life. The Bible tells us that Stephen was a person filled with the Holy Spirit. Listen to just a few reasons I would say that.

The very first words written about Stephen in Acts chapter six say this: "He is a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit." Later in that chapter, as he stands before the Sanhedrin, we read it. They saw that his face was like the face of an angel. It was shining with the glory of God. It reminds us of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he literally glowed with the Shekinah presence of God. That was Stephen. Then at the end of his speech, Stephen told the Sanhedrin that their problem was, quote, "they always resist the Holy Spirit."

And then just before his stoning, the Bible says in Acts chapter seven, verse 55, "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit once again, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God." All through the biblical material, in the little bits of information we have about Stephen, time and time again, we are told that he was a person filled with the Holy Spirit. This morning, if there's anything you take away from this brief look at the life of Stephen, remember this. He is a person who teaches us that the power of the Holy Spirit that filled him can also fill us.

The power and presence of the Holy Spirit that enabled him to live according to his faith is the same power and presence of the Holy Spirit that can lead and guide us each day of our lives. One of the lessons we learn from Stephen about living a Spirit-filled life is that the Holy Spirit gives us power and strength in spite of the circumstances of our lives. Now, that's not a new message, but it is vitally important for us to hear.

We often find ourselves thinking that life is either good or bad depending on the circumstances we are experiencing. We describe the day as good or bad based on what happened to us that day. We think about life as either going well or going poorly based on the circumstances of our lives. But Stephen says, for the Christian, the Holy Spirit is with you, always enabling you to live a life of abundance and meaning in spite of your circumstances.

As I was preparing for this sermon, I was reminded that for several years in a row earlier in my ministry, I went to Haiti on mission trips every summer. Now, it's warm in here, but it was a lot hotter in Haiti, trust me, I promise. It was really warm there, but that's not exactly what I remembered about Haiti. What I remembered most is the people that I met and the impact they had on my life. Just a few of the people I met.

There was a pastor of a church in a remote village. At the time I met him, he was almost 70. For 40 years, more than 40 years, he had started a church and served as a volunteer pastor for more than four decades. More than four decades, starting a church and serving as pastor in this community on a volunteer basis. A smile never left his face. His mother attended the church. She was over 100 years old. She walked to church every Sunday. She climbed steep, difficult steps to get into that small little sanctuary, all just to worship God.

And inside that church, men and women who were living on meager food that they were able to grow. They bathed in muddy, polluted streams. They walked for miles to the market to sell a little bit of goods to make a few dollars. They never knew what air conditioning was. They never knew about running water in their homes. They never knew about things we take for granted. And yet joy radiated from them. Children wearing old dirty clothes, desperate to play with someone, wanting to be tickled, quick to laugh, always wanting to hold your hand, smiles constantly.

I remember in church, a brother and a sister walked in the door. They were holding hands. He, the older, the brother, was probably five years old. His sister, maybe two. They walked in by themselves, holding hands together into the sanctuary. And when she started crying, her brother picked her up, took her outside, wiped off her tears, comforted her, and they came back in with smiles on their faces. Life is tough for the folks that I met there.

But when these brothers and sisters come together for worship, when they pray, the Holy Spirit moves in powerful ways. When it's time to pray and worship in Haiti, everybody prays all at once, all across the congregation. And I have no idea what they're saying, and you can't hear a single person above the other. It's just a roar of prayer. But the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is palpable in that place. They live Holy Spirit-empowered lives in spite of the circumstances of their lives.

Our world today tells us that your life is determined by what happens to you. Our world tells you to determine the goodness or difficulty of your life based on the circumstances, based on what life brings to you. But Stephen says, for the Christian, your life is determined by your reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. As Paul says in the Book of Romans, "I am persuaded that nothing, absolutely nothing in all of life, is more powerful than God's presence with us, for we are always more than conquerors with that power in our lives."

Stephen reminds us this morning that the Holy Spirit has power that is above and beyond anything we can possibly imagine. I read a story of Ed Silvoso. Ed tells the story of the Olmos prison in the city of La Plata, southeast of Buenos Aires. Several years ago, this prison, 2,700 inmates, Argentina's largest maximum security prison, was totally out of control. There was extortion, murder, rioting, many other harmful activities taking place on a daily basis. The mafia bosses, drug dealers, gangsters were out of control in this prison.

There was so much evil in this prison that there was even a church of Satan operating daily with animal sacrifices inside the prison walls. Well, in a city nearby, a pastor was accused of committing a crime, and he was sentenced to serve time in this particular prison. The pastor repented of what he had done, and he cried out to God, "Oh God, would you give me a second chance? Would you fill me with your Holy Spirit and use me in a powerful way?"

Well, the pastor sensed the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life, and he decided that when he went into that prison, he would be light. He would be the source and the power of God's Holy Spirit in this evil place. And as he went in, he began slowly but surely to share the good news of Jesus Christ with other inmates. Well, at the same time, another pastor was applying for a job as a chaplain in the prison. But the place was so out of control that all three officials that interviewed this other pastor said to him, "We don't want you here. We don't want you to be in this place. We hate you, and if you get this job, we will kill you."

Well, he accepted the job, accepted the position, and he began working in the prison. And this pastor and the inmate who was a pastor met each other, and they began to work with one another. One Christian pastor in the cells, another in the administration, two pastors beginning to work together in the power of the Holy Spirit. And they prayed. Their first prayer was, "Let us be able to get on the prison radio system." It took a while, but eventually they got an hour and a half every week.

And the Gospel began to be shared all around the prison, and slowly but surely some inmates became Christians. But these Christians were persecuted. The evil of this prison lashed out against the goodness as it was beginning to form, and some of those early Christians were harmed for their faith. But they didn't stop believing. They formed a church inside that prison. They recognized one of their own as the pastor of their church.

And they recognized others in their small group as servant leaders, similar to the deacons in the early Christian church in Acts. They divided themselves into teams of six. And one team was on duty every night from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM the next morning. Two would pray, two would read the Bible, two others would go around and lay hands on different inmates, interceding before God to bless them and their families. After two hours, they would switch roles, and this prison continued in this ministry for several months.

Within a few years, Ed Silvoso says the power of the Holy Spirit became so strong that that prison of 2,700 inmates later had 1,500 who became Christians. All from the power of the Holy Spirit starting small with one person, then another, then a small group of people, but living in the Holy Spirit, changing this place of evil to become a place filled with God's Holy Spirit. I wonder, what would it be like to live every day with that kind of power, the power of the Holy Spirit? What would it be like to experience that kind of faith and the presence of the Holy Spirit that Stephen had in his life?

If Stephen were here today, he would say that power is available to each and every one of you. The power of the Holy Spirit in my life is available to each and every one of you, and all it takes is to begin in faith with one simple step. There's a bridge in South America. It's made up of interlocking vines which support a precariously swinging wooden walkway hundreds of feet above a river. Philip Yancey, the Christian writer, says that he once stood at the edge of this chasm trying to decide whether or not he was going to walk across this bridge.

He says, "I knew the bridge had supported hundreds of people before me over many years." He said, "I knew that even as I stood there, I saw people walking across in front of me. But," he says, "the engineer in me wanted to weigh all the factors, measure the stress tolerance of the vines, test the wood for termites, survey all the bridges in the area to see if there might be one that is stronger." And he says, "I could have spent a lifetime determining whether or not I was going to walk across that bridge. But eventually, if I really wanted to cross, I had to take one step.

And when I finally put my weight on the bridge, I walked across. And even though my heart was pounding and my knees were shaking," he says, "I was making a statement. I was declaring my position. A step, a step of faith, a step of belief, a step of trust." This morning, Stephen teaches us about the life of faith. Relying upon the Holy Spirit with every step of our lives, Stephen says, is the key to an abundant life. In spite of the circumstances of our lives, just like Stephen, we too can be filled with the Holy Spirit. All it takes is a first step of faith. Let us pray.

Good and gracious God, we are grateful this day for people who continue to teach us about the life of faith. Today, Lord, we thank you for the example set for us by Stephen. Thank you, Lord, for one who shows us what it means to take a step of faith and belief in you. And we pray, God, that you would give us that same faith and courage. For we make this our prayer in the precious and holy name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. Our song of commitment today is "Ancient Words." It's a wonderful opportunity for you to respond as God so leads, would you respond? Let's stand together as we sing.