-As we’ve traced the development of the early church, what’s been amazing is how quickly the church is growing. 1 sermon from Peter leads to 3,000 people being saved and baptized, the arrest of Peter and John leads to at least 2,000 additional people. That means that with 2 sermons, this group went from 120 to over 5,000, that seems to be a pretty successful ministry, doesn’t it?
-But to answer that, we need to ask: what is success? Our tendency is to view success as bigger, better, and more. We want a bigger house, we want a better car, we want more stuff in that house and car. But is that descriptive of success in God’s kingdom? As the church expands in the book of Acts, we’re also going to see worldly persecution follow along with it. But that doesn’t stop the disciples from continuing to be faithful witnesses. As we saw last week from Peter & John “We can’t stop telling others about what we have heard and seen.” Friends, success in God’s kingdom is radically different than the way we typically view success today, as we’ll see from the story of Stephen.
READ/PRAY 7:2-53 (pg. 972)
- Growing Pains (6:1-7)
-If you’ve never been a part of a team or organization that starts to grow, one of the inevitabilities of it is the need for better administration and communication! We’ve seen in the first few weeks of the new church they’ve grown exponentially. That means they had added a whole new level of complexity to their organization!
-In this case, the complexity led to a group being overlooked in the daily distribution. Remember that we’ve previously seen that the way the early church worked was by people willingly giving from their riches to care for those who are poor? That’s what this is talking about, apparently each day those who were poor were given food, but some people were being left out of this food.
-So in response, the twelve (we see them operating as the de facto leaders, that’s part of the reason we have church leaders today), called everyone together.
-In our new members class, I call this the first members meeting in the church! And it’s even in response to a conflict! I call it a membership meeting because we’ve already seen numerous instances of the church keeping track of who was a part of their fellowship, which is why they also were able to call everyone together for this meeting
-This is going to begin setting the stage for us to see the way God brings a plurality of gifting into the church, which leads to a multiplication of efforts in the church (go read Eph. 4 if you want to see why that’s significant)
-But what this means is that it requires everyone in the church working together with their unique gifting for the church to flourish as God wants. Even pastors don’t have all the giftings required for a church to flourish! If you relied just on me, our church would really struggle! We’d be great at spending time together, great at discussing theology, and really weak at building structures and policies around our ministries. We need all of us using our gifts, otherwise we’re going to be an unhealthy church! If you haven’t found a place to use your gifts yet, grab someone on staff, we’d love to get you plugged in!
-I think that what’s taking place here is we see a prototype of the 2 church offices of elders and deacons (preached on this text and those offices on Aug. 30 if you want to go back to listen to that sermon), I don’t think this is the final word on this issue, nor does it refer to those 2 specific offices, but it’s setting the stage for what will eventually become those things.
-2 important notes about that comment, first: don’t view these things as overly restrictive or as the last word about these offices. What’s potentially ironic about those chosen to serve tables is the next chapters will show their gifting in preaching the gospel message! Which means we can’t make a clear delineation between Word ministry and practical ministry, in fact I would say that the Word ministry is in place to support and foster practical ministries.
-The second note is don’t view this as a hierarchy. In worldly terms we tend to interpret this as creating 2 different classes of people, but that’s because we interpret this through our modern lens instead of viewing it as God’s dispersing of varied gifts to His people. In fact, Luke uses the same word “service” to talk about what these 7 men do, as well as what the 12 do (“wait” on tables 2 & “ministry” of the word 4). This also shows us the significance of the Word ministry in the church as both the 7 and the 12 are regularly involved in proclaiming the gospel message. One of the mottos I preach to myself regularly is let the Word do the work. Any teaching and preaching is useless unless it’s faithfully feeding us all the Word.
-I think John Stott (a British pastor) helps us to understand this final threat to the church from Satan:
-The goal of this is the protect and preserve unity in the church. That’s not uniformity, unity means we’re different, but we lay aside our personal preferences for the sake of the whole church. I heard a pastor onetime say that the church is supposed to be a mutual honoring society, where we work our hardest to honor everyone.
-And you can see that in the fact that all the names listed are Hellenistic names. Remember who was being overlooked? The Hellenistic widows. They bent over backwards to ensure that unity would be the marker of them.
-I think it’s also important to note that this isn’t a complete flattening of leadership in the church. Look at vs. 6 the 12 apostles are the ones who commission them into their new ministry, both groups are faithful in the roles they’ve been called to
-The outcome: word of God spread, that’s the unique role of the church. Other groups can (and do) mercy ministry, but the church’s primary call in the world is to proclaim God’s Word, that’s how new disciples are created and the way all disciples grow. Friends, let the Word do the work in your life, too!
- Stephen’s Betrayal (6:8-15)
-This section focuses on Stephen, one of those 7 men selected to oversee the early church benevolence fund, and this is why I earlier said to not view this as an overly restrictive idea, because Stephen is “performing great wonder and signs.” It doesn’t say what those are, but it points us back to what we previously saw the 12 apostles doing (2:43, 5:12).
-Luke tells us that there’s a specific synagogue that’s comprised of Hellenistic Jews, people who hadn’t grown up in Jerusalem but had found their way back and likely would have been strongly opposed to someone speaking against what they’d worked so hard to maintain in their faith. The term “Freedmen” means it’s people who used to be slaves but had found a way to become free.
-But Stephen was both full of the Spirit and wisdom! God used Stephen to speak the truth and continue telling this group about Jesus.
-Then begins a close parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus. Because they couldn’t come up with anything to say against him, they bribe some people AND broke the law by presenting false witnesses (contrary to the 10 commandments)
-But what is Stephen like? An angel, someone who represents God, so whose side is God on in this conversation, Stephen, or these leaders who are disobeying the law?
-Don’t miss that Stephen is a Hellenistic Jew speaking to other Hellenistic Jews about Jesus!
- Stephen’s Sermon (7:1-53)
-After these accusations, Stephen gets a chance to respond, and he chooses the same approach as Peter has each previous part of this story: talk about Jesus.
-We need to think back to last week when I said that this whole section is pointing out the new temple reality in the church. Look back at 6:13 about their fake complaints about Stephen, they said that he was speaking against “this holy place and the law,” which tells us that their primary complaint about him was regarding the temple and obedience to the OT.
-There’s some debate about a centering point of Stephen’s sermon, he’s obviously running through an overview of the OT, but is there any primary topic he’s focusing on that brings all the stories together? I found this summary from Patrick Schreiner helpful:
-Throughout this message, Stephen will glance to the temple, but fixate on Jesus, just as we should do with our study of God’s Word.
-He begins not at creation as our Bible does, but with Abraham. Did God appear to Abraham in a temple? No! While Abraham was an idol worshiper living in a foreign land, God appeared to him and called him to go to a new land that God would reveal to him.
-Abraham eventually has his son Isaac, who has 2 sons, one of whom is named Jacob. Jacob becomes the father of the 12 patriarchs who had a host of family dysfunction. One of those 12, Joseph is sold into slavery because of the jealousy of his brothers (do you remember last week when we saw the jealousy of the temple leaders). And God shows up again, but where is God showing up for Joseph? Not in Israel, this time in Egypt. God continues providing for Joseph and eventually lets him lead the nation.
-But it’s not just for Joseph, all of patriarchs had migrate to Egypt, and God continues to show up as the nation flourishes and multiplies, despite the oppression from the Egyptian king.
-Up next in the story is Moses, who was spared by God, and eventually adopted by Pharoah’s daughter, which led to him being educated by the Egyptians. Stephen’s summary breaks Moses’s life down into 3 40-year periods of time.
-Vs. 23 tells us that Moses spent the first 40 years of his life in Egypt but eventually runs away to Midian because he killed an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. Then we see a second 40-year stint in Midian where he becomes the father of 2 sons. And where does God show up this time? In Midian! It says an angel comes in the flame of the burning bush, but the voice of God spoke to him, and the place was made holy because of the presence of God. And this is all happening before the tabernacle or temple had been built!
-Then we see the final 40 years in vs. 36, but notice what Stephen says marked Moses’s ministry: wonders and signs. And what had we seen previously from Stephen? The same thing! But the people missed this connection.
-One of the most important things to know about Moses is seen in vs. 37, as I’ve shared repeatedly in this series so far, God likes to work in similar ways in history, so Moses wasn’t the ultimate leader for God’s people, he was a shadow pointing to someone else. The people throughout the OT are looking for a prophet to come like Moses.
-But Moses was still God’s representative to His people, and how did the Israelites respond? Not with obedience! I love the way Stephen describes their sin: their hearts turned back to Egypt. They repeatedly accuse Moses of leading them out into the wilderness to kill them! Saying things like: we ate our fill in Egypt! They were slaves, do you really think they ate their fill? The same could be said for us! Our hearts keep looking to the world and what the world offers as the solution to our deepest desires. We’re tempted to try ignoring God and are unwilling to obey because we’re tempted to view God’s rules as slavery, when in reality it’s only by living obediently to God’s law that we can find true freedom.
-I’ve read one author that said the book of Exodus talks about getting God’s people out of Egypt, but the rest of the Bible is getting Egypt out of God’s people. All of our hearts repeatedly run after sinful things instead of trusting God.
-Then Stephen turns to talk about the tabernacle (which eventually became the temple), but even in these buildings, the people knew that God couldn’t be constrained by them! Which is why he quotes from Isaiah. If even the earth and the heavens can’t fully contain God, why do they think a little building will?
-Stephen has just given a masterclass in how to read and interpret the OT, so before we get to Stephen’s application at the end of his sermon, I think it’s important for us to think about exactly what we’ve just seen Stephen do here. He was given a topic (in this case, God’s presence) and proceeds to give us a summary of the OT message about that topic. He knew the Bible well enough to trace that theme through the whole story. Could you do that? Could you pick a theme and trace it through the Bible?
-If you’ve never done this before, this is referred to as “biblical theology” and there are entire book series dedicated to this idea! If you want to start exploring this, talk to me or Micah, we have multiple books on it, or just pick a theme and start reading the Bible and looking for it every day. Some of my favorite themes to explore are: temple, infertility, serpentine language, choosing the youngest or weakest, gardens, and eating. Basically, all it requires is carefully reading along the entire storyline of the Bible.
-God has created humans as storied creatures. We use stories to make sense of ourselves and the world, and apart from God’s story we won’t be able to make sense of anything in our lives. The Bible gives us 2 ways to live: either for God or against Him (with lots of little applications underneath them). And you can take any philosophy or thought and trace the story connecting it. I just got a new book this week from Tim Keller and his son Michael Keller that they were working on together before Tim died called The Stories We Live By which is exploring those exact stories people in the world try to live by today. It’s a similar theme to what we studied in our 9AM class last Spring through the study “Making Sense of Us,” and if none of those sound appealing to you, coming up I believe in the new year, we’re going to be offering a class through The Story of God, more info coming soon!
-There is a story that is true, and if we live into that story, our lives will finally start to make sense. The problem is we don’t get to be the hero or the main character, that’s Jesus’s role, our role is to faithfully follow after Him, which is just what Stephen does.
-Stephen ends his exploration of the OT with an application for his hearers. The application is that even though God was with His people, they were disobedient and unfaithful. Stiff-necked and uncircumcised is a low blow! That’s how the disobedient Israelites were referred to by God, and he’s subtly calling them Gentiles, the exact thing they had worked so hard to hold on to!
-Yet another theme from the OT is that every prophet God sent was persecuted, some of them were killed, and this group in front of Stephen even killed the Righteous One, they continually disobey the law, which is the final straw for this group.
- Stephen’s Betrayal, Part 2 (7:54-60)
-The persecution of the church has been increasing in this book. At first, they were just thrown in prison, then they were threatened, then they were beaten, and it’s all been building to this point.
-Once again, the temple theme comes up here. It was thought that when you went into the temple you were able to catch a glimpse of heaven, since the temple was God’s footstool, by Stephen catching a glimpse into heaven here it’s showing that he’s currently in the temple. But Stephen’s glimpse into the temple shows us something significant about Jesus. Generally, when the NT talks about Jesus in heaven it says He’s seated, why do you think this time it says that he’s standing?
-There are a number of different proposals as to the significance of Jesus standing. One is that it signifies that He’s on the move, the gospel is going to begin its spread out to the world in the very next chapter. Another option is that Jesus is standing in judgment, either in support of Stephen or against Stephen’s opponents (and maybe both!). A third option is that Jesus is standing to welcome Stephen into heaven as the church’s first martyr. I think there’s probably elements of all 3 in play here!
-What’s ironic about this section is now the Jews start following the law, at least partially. They’re supposed to bring someone outside the city to kill them, which is what they do to Stephen (this is also why Jesus was killed outside Jerusalem). And this is the first time we’re introduced to this new character: Saul, who will become the primary character in this story soon.
-While Jesus has full authority because the earth is His footstool, all Saul has authority over is guarding some garments, and until he falls at the feet of the Son of Man he will continue to live in darkness.
-As Stephen is dying, his last 2 phrases correspond to things Jesus said when He was dying.
-You can see Jesus’s last moment on the cross in Luke 23, but here’s the 2 phrases that are paralleled by Stephen. Obviously, they’re not an exact copy, but it’s the same sentiment, similar enough that we should be thinking back to what had happened to Jesus! Just as the words weren’t exactly the same, Stephen isn’t exactly like Jesus, but it gives us a picture of what we should be aiming for: we’re supposed to work to be like Jesus in our daily lives, which also means we should expect a similar response to the one Jesus got.
-Jesus said that in John 15. One of the things Jesus promises us is hatred from the world. And whether we want to admit it or not, if Jesus has saved us we’re different from the world. We don’t think like the world, we don’t act like the world, we’re going to stick out and stand out from the world. The question for you is are you ok with that? Because that adds a level of difficulty and complexity to our lives. And friends, the world is going to be a constant source of friction for us until Jesus returns. Our hearts are daily going to be drawn back to Egypt. That’s why we need to remind ourselves of the story that’s really true.
-Following Jesus means we need to begin using a different scorecard for success. Instead of wanting bigger, better, and more, we need to look for faithfulness, fruitfulness, and intentionality. Faithfulness is aligning to God’s call for our lives, fruitfulness is demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit, and intentional is having a plan because we don’t subtly drift toward Christlikeness, it takes grace-drive effort empowered by the Holy Spirit. But what you’ll find on the other side of that pursuit is life that is truly worth living. A life where you no longer need to prove yourself, where you can find rest, and where Jesus will someday be standing to welcome you home!
