"The Heavens Opened" (Acts 7:54-60)

Transcript:

This morning's sermon text comes from Acts chapter 7. We'll be looking at verses 54 through 60. If you were using a pew Bible, this is on page 1088. 1088. Hear now the word of the Lord from Acts 7:54, 60.

Now, when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out and with a loud voice, and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

And as you are taking your seats, let's please join our hearts together this morning in prayer.

Gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the faith of our fathers that suffered in so many ways as an example for us, as a cloud of witnesses that we can look upon their legacy and be encouraged and exhorted in our own faith. Father, we do continue to pray for the persecuted church who are facing the fires of persecution even today, even this moment.

And we pray, Father, that you would ready in us a spirit that holds fast to Jesus Christ no matter what comes to our doorstep. Fueled by the rage of the world and of the devil, we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, this morning we are reading about the story of the very first martyr of the church, the very first person to give his life as a faithful witness to Jesus Christ. Now, since this moment in the history of the Church, a great number of Christians have suffered, and many have even died for their faith. One estimate from 2019 suggested that perhaps as many as 70 million Christians had died for their faith. And what's shocking about that is more than half of those died in the 20th century alone, especially under the rule of fascism and communism in many places in the first 20 years of the church, then probably another 2 million believers gave their life as a faithful witness and testimony to the reality that Jesus Christ suffered and bled and died and rose again and is reigning as king in heaven. But that number continues to rise.

Now, I think when we think about martyrdom, especially in the United States. We probably have some confusing thoughts about this and maybe conflicting and thoughts in tension with some things. First of all, we probably hold as extraordinarily honorable those saints who have given their lives, their blood, their last breath, faithfully bearing witness to Jesus Christ. We probably hold that in the highest esteem. But the tension comes in as we think about our own lives.

It is probably the very last thing, if we're honest with ourselves, that we would ever want to face either in our own lives or in the lives of our friends, loved ones. But then as we think about the possibility of that happening, there probably is then a swing back, consolation. I guess if that did happen, I would go to be with Jesus. I guess we'll figure it out when the time comes. Now, I think there's a lot of that that's good.

And there is probably also some of that that falls short of the example, particularly of the early church, particularly of Stephen in this church story, in the example of the early church and how they related to martyrdom. Now, this was the first person to give his life to the cause of Christ, but he was not the first person to suffer for the cause of Christ. There have already been two prior waves of persecution that hit the church. The first time, Peter and John were warned, stop preaching about Jesus and released. But the second time, the apostles were beaten for their faith.

And as they departed, they. They rejoiced. They rejoiced that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake, suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. I don't know how many of us would rejoice. And as we read or as we sang the song that we just sang, how many of us think that it would be a sweet thing if we would also give our lives for Jesus in the way that our fathers did?

And so we have to ask, what did they perceive? What did they understand? What was a settled conviction in their hearts that maybe we don't have just yet? Now, they weren't cavalier about life. We'll read in the next passage, Lord willing, next week, in chapter eight, verse two, that devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.

They weren't cavalier about life. They lamented Stephen's death. And not only that, but they also sought to protect themselves so far as they could do faithfully. In chapter eight, verse one, we read that they scattered, they fleed persecution, they fled persecution. That is not a wrong thing to do, so long as you can do it faithfully to Jesus.

They loved their lives, but they loved Jesus more. How can we cultivate that kind of strength and resolve as we think about the persecution that may one day come to our own doorstep? My theme for this morning as we study this passage is that Jesus reign as king transforms Christian suffering into victory. Jesus reign as king transforms Christian suffering into victory. Brothers and sisters, I wish I could tell you that this is a theoretical thing that we could just read about and hold at arm's length and go on with our lives.

But this is incredibly practical in our day, and we need to give attention to it. And as we do, we'll see three parts to this text. First of all, the reign of Jesus. The reign of Jesus. Number two, the rage of the world.

The rage of the world. And number three, the redemption of persecution. The redemption of persecution.

Now, as we start the first section on the reign of Jesus, it's important to remember where we were. You remember in the previous section, verses 1 through 53, which we looked at last week, Stephen gave an extended defense for himself, although he never explicitly defended himself. Instead, what Stephen did was to draw a very sophisticated and subtle picture from the Old Testament, from various scenes in the Old Testament to show that just as ancient Israel, the fathers of ancient Israel, had consistently resisted the Holy Spirit, had consistently resisted God and the redeemers that God had sent into their midst, Joseph and Moses in particular, so also the modern Israelites, and at least the contemporary, I should say the contemporary Israelites of Stephen's day were doing the exact same things as your fathers did. So do you. He said that the Sanhedrin who was judging him was resisting the Holy Spirit by rejecting Christ.

And that brings us to our text in verse 54, that when they heard these things, they were enraged. The word here very literally is they were cut in the heart, or literally sawed in two in the heart. In some ways, it's very similar to Acts, chapter 2, verse 37. After Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and accused those Jews who had gathered for the feast of Pentecost, let the house of Israel know for certain that you have crucified the one who God has made both Lord and Christ. And they were cut to the heart.

We read and they said, brothers, what shall we do? There was a spirit of seeking repentance for the great crime they had committed against God's only son, Jesus Christ. But that language is similar, but it is importantly different. It's not the same word for cut. If that word was cut, this word is sawed, sawed in two in the heart.

And you can See the very different responses. Whereas many of those in Acts chapter two repented and turned to faith in Jesus Christ, these men are enraged, as the ESV paraphrases this phrase. This is actually the same word, the same expression that appeared in Acts, chapter 5, verse 53, when the apostles were eventually beaten. But originally the Sanhedrin wanted to put them to death for the faithful testimony they were giving to Jesus. But that's when Gamaliel, a Pharisee, warned them not to do this, but to just let them be.

Because if they stopped them, they might be found to be opposing God. Well, Gamaliel does not stop their rage this time. They carry out exactly what their hearts set out to do. In verse 55, then we read about Stephen as they are enraged against him, as they are grinding their teeth at him because they are so furious at what he is saying. We read that he full of the Holy Spirit.

This is not the first time that we read that Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit. Actually, the very first time we met Stephen, back in Acts, chapter six, verse five, we read that Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. In other words, full of the Holy Spirit back in Acts, chapter six, verse five. But here we are reading about a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and an extraordinary filling of the Holy Spirit, a filling of the Holy Spirit that gives him an extraordinary vision where he sees the heavens open and sees mysteries that are invisible to merely human eyes. And so we read that when he looks into heaven, he sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

In verse 56. Then we read that Stephen tells those around him about what he is seeing. He says, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Now, this expression, Son of Man, is the only time that the title Son of Man is used to describe Jesus. Outside of the descriptions that Jesus himself provides, only Jesus talks about himself as the Son of Man.

No one else does in the New Testament, except for right here, when Stephen looks and sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And then we read that I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Well, who is the Son of Man? Why did he call him the Son of Man? Well, by calling him Son of Man, he is tapping into a prophecy from Daniel, chapter seven, verses 13 through 14, where we had read earlier in Daniel that the Ancient of days was seated, and before him the books were opened, Judgment.

And as the Ancient of Days, God himself is seated there. One like A Son of man is presented before him. And to this Son of Man is given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. This prophecy points to the reign and rule of this one who is the Son of Man.

So who is this Son of Man? Who is this King of Glory? It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was persecuted by the same Sanhedrin, the one who was sentenced to death and who was crucified a bloody death, which he died not because of his own sins, for he was sinless, but for the sins of sinners like you and me, who suffered under the full weight of the curse of God's wrath and exhausted every bit of what God's righteous justice requires against sinners. This Jesus died, this Jesus was buried. And on the third day, this Jesus rose from the dead and 40 days later, he ascended into heaven, where now he is at the right hand of God in heaven.

This emphasizes that Jesus is alive and he is reigning. Now, why then does it say that he is standing in heaven? You may be familiar with a number of the descriptions of Jesus in the New Testament that consistently speak of him as seated at His Father's right hand. Seated at His Father's right hand. If you're interested in such things and the debate and the discussion that this one little word has brought about, I guess it occurs twice.

You can look at the sermon notes. I've dealt with that and the different debate that happens there. I think the best explanation is probably the simplest. I heard a lecture recently by a man named David Noe, and he points back to Theodore Beza, who was a contemporary of John Calvin. And Theodore Beza argues that the word standing here is not a discussion of posture, standing versus sitting.

It's rather used throughout the New Testament to describe location. One of the clearest places that this is signifying location is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, where we read that the Pharisee is standing by himself. That is, he is putting himself forward. That's the location. Whereas the tax collector is standing far off.

His location is he is not willing to come close the temple to the presence of God. Elsewhere in Revelation, Jesus is portrayed in Revelation 3 as standing at the door and knocking, but then promising that to those who conquer, you will sit with me on the throne. He's standing and sitting at the same time. But again, it's not referring to a posture sitting versus standing, it is simply emphasizing where Jesus is located, that he is stationed, we might say heaven. And what this emphasizes again, is that he is alive and that he is exalted as king.

Now, the reason for all of this, the reason we read this, is that in the face of Stephen's death, what he is given at that moment when the world is literally crashing in around him, he sees a vision that focuses and emphasizes and underscores the unshakeable power and dominion and reign and rule of Jesus Christ, the Son of man, who has been presented before the ancient of days, who has received a kingdom and a dominion over all peoples, who will serve him, a kingdom and a dominion that shall not pass away. And what this vision reminds us is that gas, the death that is looming in front of Stephen, death could not conquer Jesus. He's alive. And more than that, the Sanhedrin is not in control. Jesus is.

He is reigning in heaven. And with those two facts firmly in place, with Stephen strengthened and encouraged in his soul over what's happening, the scene now turns to focus on what the Sanhedrin does to Stephen. In the second section, the rage of the world. In verses 57 through 58, if you remember, this had actually been in the context of a trial. And a trial had been set up really for the purpose of legalism, to dot external and formalistic I's and to cross legalistic tease, so that it would appear from the outside that Stephen was receiving a fair and impartial process.

The same thing happened for Jesus, which is why, in fairness and impartiality, Jesus was tried with false witnesses under the COVID of night, which was illegal in their laws of those days. The whole thing was a sham. And again, the whole thing is a sham. Here they drop the pretense. They don't even get to a verdict.

They simply rise up to put Stephen to death. They shift from at least having a pretense of being fair and impartial judges, to shift and take the mask off, to simply be a mob, putting Stephen to death immediately. And in verse 57, we read, they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Now, don't forget what they're stopping their ears against. They're stopping their ears against his ongoing proclamation that Jesus, the Son of man, is at the right hand of his Father in heaven.

Now, this is a heart issue. They don't want to believe this, and it's an ear issue. They shut their ears so they can't hear what they consider to be blasphemy. Remember what Stephen had said about them in verse 51, you stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and in ears. They prove the justice of what Stephen had said against them in verse 57.

Then in verse 58 we read, Then they cast him out of the city. Why did they cast him out of the city? It's for the same reason they took Jesus outside of the city, because in their mind, legalistically, formalistically, externally, they were concerned about the ceremonial purity of the city of Jerusalem, the place in which God's temple had dwelt. And he had a lot to say about their failure to rightly understand the importance and place and value of the temple in his speech. But they wanted to make sure not to shed blood in the city because that would pollute and defile ceremonially the city in which the temple of God dwells.

They do not care in the least about their immorality of injustice and hatred and murder that has so much more, spiritually speaking, defiled the city by their actions, first with Jesus and now with Jesus servant Stephen. And so they cast him out of the city and they stoned him, they took large stones and they threw them at him until he died an incredibly painful way.

At the end of verse 58, we have just sort of an offhanded comment, sort of an aside. It's very important, obviously for the rest of this book as well as the rest of the New Testament. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. This Saul is Saul of Tarsus, who will later be known as Paul, the one who would go on to be a mighty apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would write many of the books of the New Testament. But here we see him in probably an official capacity in this trial where the witnesses are laying their garments at his feet, somehow in his official capacity.

And he's introduced here for a couple of reasons. One what we will find out later is that this man Saul was from Tarsus, a city in Cilicia. Now, if we remember back to chapter six, verse nine, the Sanhedrin, who originally sought to have Stephen arrested and brought to trial before the Sanhedrin were populated by Hellenistic Jews from the whole world. But one of those areas was Cilicia. This was probably Saul's synagogue that brought Stephen to justice as he imagined.

And here he is with his official role in approving of the execution of Saul. And that's what we read at the beginning of chapter eight. And Saul approved of his execution, but not only that in the next section, we are going to read that Saul goes on a rampage. The boundaries have been tested, they have been breached. And now Saul goes on a full rampage.

Persecution against the church of Jesus Christ.

So far then, we have seen Stephen's vision of Jesus, the Son of man, reigning as king, and then the wicked, violent, raging reaction of the world against that vision. Well, in the final third section, Luke portrays Stephen's death in a very important way. He shows this death. He writes about this death. Death.

We're to read this death and hear echoes of Jesus own death. And this is crucial in how we interpret and understand what's happening in the martyrdom of Stephen. So we come to the third section, the redemption of persecution. In verses 59 and 61, commentator Polhill writes that Stephen seems to have consciously followed the pattern of his master. So we're in verse 59, he says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

He's echoing Jesus words from the cross. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. In Luke 23, verse 46. Then when Stephen prays, lord, do not hold this sin against them, he's echoing Jesus other words when he was being crucified in Luke 23, verse 34, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But there's an important difference.

Stephen is in some ways following Jesus example. But we also read in verse 59 that Stephen called. That Stephen called out to the Lord, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Now, this is very important because that word called out echoes a word that was used in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. Acts, chapter 2, verse 21.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls out upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In this dying moment, Stephen was looking to Jesus for salvation. Also, one commentator, Bach, points out that as he falls to his knees. That's really important. Could have just said that he fell over.

But first we read that he fell to his knees. This is a posture of prayer. And what does he do? He prays. He says, lord, do not hold this sin against him.

So what we are seeing is Stephen is both following the example of Jesus and he is also praying to Jesus. He is calling out to Jesus for his salvation. He is praying to Jesus for the forgiveness of those who are persecuting him. In this moment, because Jesus is Savior, Stephen is calling out to Jesus to receive his spirit in the moment of death. But because Jesus is his Lord, Stephen is conforming his pattern of death to the example set by his master, Jesus Christ.

What Christ has done is that he has redeemed not only Christ's persecution, his suffering and death on the cross to make this the great victory of God over sin, death and the devil. The very thing that has led to Jesus being exalted is the right hand where he is reigning as the Son of man from heaven. But Christ also redeemed the persecution and the suffering of his people. And we're seeing that, by the way, that Stephen patterns his own death after Jesus victorious death on the cross. So what's our application again?

I deeply wish in some sense that this could be a theoretical sermon. Aren't these nice, encouraging stories about the faith of our fathers? But this is something that we need to be prepared for. For it's one of the things the elders discussed at a recent retreat that we need to be praying about. And we need to be preparing ourselves as a church for to whatever degree it comes, prepare for persecution by establishing your faith in Jesus reign as king.

The persecution of the Church began by the persecution of the head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ. But very quickly it moved almost immediately to the persecution of Jesus's followers. Now, again, this is the third wave of persecution that we have seen in the book of Acts so far. And so far, they've been testing boundaries. They've been seeing how far they should go in this persecution of the church.

It started with a warning. The next move was to beating the apostles. And this last move is to kill Stephen. But this is not the end. They will not be satisfied in their bloodlust.

This will simply open up a new wave, a tsunami of persecution that is going to hit the church because violence begets violence and persecution begets more persecution. And throughout history, if you look at how persecution arises in different areas, very often persecution against God's people is emboldened and fueled by initially testing of boundaries. Initial waves that sort of lap up against the shore, followed by great tsunamis not long afterward. Now, for countless brothers and sisters around the world, persecution is already a raging reality. It's not a theoretical possible one day, someday, maybe it is today.

It is right now. In Nigeria and parts of Niger, the Boko Haram have been slaughtering Christians. In India, particularly emboldened by the election of the most recent prime minister, Hindu nationalists have increased their attacks on Christians and churches, especially in the 20th century. Communists in the former Soviet Union, China, North Korea and Cuba have persecuted the church for over 100 years. And even in the west, in Great Britain and Canada, Christians are being arrested for preaching or even for silent prayer.

And in the United States, we've seen the testing of boundaries. States and federal governments have harassed Christian businesses, nonprofits and even churches. We are also seeing a rise in individual cases of vandalism against churches, against testing of the boundaries. But where that breaks forward is into violence. We've seen both the high profile murder of Charlie Kirk a couple of months ago and we've seen a rising number of church shootings.

Just this week, a man in Florida was arrested for conspiring and plotting a church shooting in his area. If, and perhaps the question is when persecution comes here to us, the question is what will be our hope in life and in death? The issue is we are not given promises that in that moment we will see the heavens opened and behold Jesus Christ, the Son of man, reigning at the right hand of God. We're not given a promise that it may happen, it may not. But we are not promised that in this life.

That was an extraordinary event. Why? So that that extraordinary event could be recorded in Scripture for the ongoing ordinary comfort and consolation and encouragement of the church. You may not see this vision, but you see this vision through Stephen's eyes as recorded and given, for example, in the Scriptures. Because what Stephen saw is still true today.

And it is still the hope that we are to cling to still today. That Jesus Christ is not dead and buried and raised rotting in a grave somewhere. He did die, but he is risen from the dead and he is alive forevermore. And he is the alpha and the Omega, the one who holds the keys of death and life. And this Jesus Christ is our only hope, our only comfort, our only confidence in life and death, that our souls belong to him, to the King.

As Heidelberg Catechism question number one spells out, your only comfort in life and in death is that you are not your own, but that you belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And this morning, the hope of the Gospel. The hope of the Gospel is that if you are looking this morning to Jesus Christ in faith, then you can have absolute confidence. This passage of scripture tells you why. Because Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, reigning and ruling from heaven, so that you can be confident that he has fully paid for all your sins with his precious blood, and he has delivered you from the tyranny of the devil.

And he also watches over you in such a way that not a hair can fall from your head without the will of your Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for your salvation. Is that your hope? Is that your comfort? Is that what you cling to today.

Because if you don't cling to it today, then it will offer you little comfort on the day when persecution arises. But if Jesus is your hope today, and if he has not met your hope today or before today, I would encourage you look to Jesus in faith. Then on the day that persecution comes, you may be certain that the Holy Spirit will walk you through that moment, that he will call to mind the Scripture promises that Jesus Christ is and even if you must bear that sweet witness unto death in the same way that the faith of our fathers did, that you will be soon translated into glory to be with your Savior. Rejoice if you were given the opportunity to suffer dishonor and violence and even death for the sake of the King.

Establish your faith in the truth that Jesus Christ is reigning in heaven right now. And that makes whatever you face, or whatever you face, something that in God's grace you can handle. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we are so weak and weary. We are so feeble.

We do not have the strength to stand up to even mild opposition.

But we pray that you would make us invincible in the face of the rage of this world. Not for our sake, not for our glory, not from the strength of our flesh, but that he. But because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. And so we pray that he who is in us and the one to whom the Holy Spirit connects us in heaven, unites us to in heaven, Jesus Christ our head in heaven, that he would be honored and glorified by whatever opposition and persecution and suffering that is put in our way. We pray this for Christ's glory and for our good.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.