Disclaimer: This transcription is provided for informational purposes, reference, and convenience. Please note that it may contain errors, omissions, or spelling mistakes due to the nature of live audio transcriptions. While we strive for accuracy, this document should not be considered a fully authoritative record of the sermon. For clarification, we recommend referring to the original source. Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

In the providence of God, we now find ourselves in Acts chapter seven, and this morning we will be looking at verses 54 through 60 as we endeavor to understand more about the life of Stephen and I have entitled my discourse to you this morning, "Fearless in the face of death."

This is a bittersweet passage. It is bitter with the gall of wickedness, and yet sweet with the aroma of righteousness. Here before us is the age-old battle between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and deception; and here we see a dramatic demonstration of the inevitable clash between false teachers and a true servant of God. As always, both sides are convinced that they possess the truth, yet only one, in fact, will. Here we see the temporal triumph of Satan, and yet the ultimate and eternal triumph of Christ. For here we see a victim who, in fact, was a victor.

Follow along as I read, beginning in Acts seven, verse 54.

"Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

"But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently 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 up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.'

"But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse.

"And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man Named Saul.

"And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!'

"And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!' And having said this, he fell asleep."

But before we look closely at what happened in this historical account, before we gaze upon the character of this choice servant of God, I would draw your attention to a truly startling reality, and that is the amazing stubbornness of sinful men - men who deliberately harden their hearts against the truth concerning their sin and the Savior. In this case, the Jewish leaders, who hardened their hearts against Jesus, the Messiah. This was a sin so grievous, so offensive to a holy God that eventually he judicially sealed many of them, if not most of them, in their unbelief. Now think about this: the Jewish Sanhedrin, in this case, now standing in judgment of Stephen, had an opportunity to see for themselves the Lord Jesus Christ. They were eyewitnesses of the deity of Christ. They saw his miraculous signs and wonders. They saw, as well the miracles of the apostles, and even Stephen. They knew full well of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and remember, they did everything they could to somehow distort that truth. They were also, the text tells us, unable to cope with the with the wisdom and the spirit of Stephen and his defense, just prior to this scenario that we're looking at this morning. They also gazed upon Stephen's face, and from his face emanated the Shekinah glory of the living God. They saw all of this. They were witnesses to all of this, and they even heard Stephen's brilliant defense and his irrefutable condemnation of their treachery, of their wickedness, of their hypocrisy, of their blasphemy. And in verse 54, we read that rather than being convicted, it says they were "cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him."

Now, friends, please understand: when a person repeatedly rejects the gospel of Christ, when they know full well that it has been offered to them, and they hear it and they resent it and will have nothing to do with it, when people refuse to humble themselves before the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant faith, when people refuse to have anything to do with the truth, even though they know that it's resonating within their heart - because of the Word of God tells us they suppress the truth in unrighteousness -  when people do that, God eventually withdraws his influences from them; those influences that would normally restrain them from sin, and God lifts his restraining grace, if you will, and he abandons people to the consequences of their own iniquity, and in essence says, "Okay, if you're going to refuse me, then I will turn and let you experience the ultimate end of your wickedness." And that's what was going on here. God abandoned these men - not all of them, but most of them - to the consequences of their iniquity and judicially sealed them in the very tomb of darkness that they loved.

You know this is a horror that's repeated countless times. I've seen it many times in my life, and I continue to be grieved over it to this day. There are some people even within the sound of my voice who are in this category, and you just wonder if God has fully abandoned you to the consequences of your iniquity. You just wonder if you have not been basically given over to the enemy completely.

Well, the wickedness of these furious religious bigots in this historical account really provides for us the natural outworking of what is called the unforgivable sin. Remember, Jesus warned of this in Matthew 12. Blasphemy against the Spirit, he says, shall not be forgiven. And friends, this is rejecting Christ with full knowledge of who he is. This is to consciously and deliberately choose to deny the Lord Jesus Christ, even in light of full revelation, the revelation that the Spirit of God has given through his Word, certainly through his messengers that preach the Word, as well as through common grace that once again reveals the glory and the holiness of God. This is to know with complete understanding the deity of Christ and yet deny it. Such persistent, willful rejection, my friends, is unforgivable. And if that is your condition, you will spend an eternity in hell because of it. This is the truth. You know, these men even attributed the works of Jesus to Satan. Remember, such blasphemy is irremediable. It is unforgivable. This is the wickedness of a calloused heart that has exchanged the truth for a lie, has exchanged humility for defiant pride. Jesus pronounced the divine verdict upon such callousness in Matthew 12:32. He said, "Whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." In other words, there is no forgiveness in this life on earth, nor in the eternal state, so those who outwardly pretend - and this is what I want you to hear - those who outwardly pretend to somehow be religious, and yet inwardly they have no secret devotion to God. They really do not know and love the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not motivated to serve him; they really have no passion to honor him in their life. For those people, God has reserved his worst judgment for that kind of hypocrisy; and certainly, that was the kind of people that we're looking at today in this text.

Remember, these were the most religious of the religious. In fact, if you study the course of history, you will not find a more religious group of people than those who made up the Sanhedrin. And we have that even today. They may not parade around in some of the robes that the Sanhedrin would have worn, even though many do, with all the funny little hats and all of the things that would somehow scream to the world, "Look how religious I am!" Rather, many of them today are wearing suits and they fill pulpits. But dear friends, God hates pretenders; they are a stench into his nostrils, the word tells us. And someday the mask of their pretense will be ripped off in the presence of his holiness, and he will then read the secret diary of their iniquities, and the penetrating eye of divine omniscience will peer into their heart and expose their proud rebellion.

Well, such will be the fate of most who accuse Stephen on that day. Theirs was a religious charade. They were religious on the outside but utterly reprobate on the inside. And now they're gnashing their teeth in rage. Why? Because they've been judicially sealed in the hardness of their heart by the very God they pretended to worship. Isn't that an amazing thought?

And so now they rush upon Stephen with one impulse, and they stone him to death. Now I want you to see the contrast here. We have Stephen, who we know according to the text and verses prior, was a man who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit. He was full of grace and power, full of wisdom and the Spirit, and he was ultimately affirmed by the very glory of God. But now, as we fix our eyes upon the last minutes of his life - and certainly, if you want to really understand a man or a woman, look at how they conduct themselves and what they say in the last minutes of their life - but as we look upon these last few minutes of Stephen's life, we see an even fuller manifestation of the virtues that are his, described in the Word. And I invite you this morning to come with me and to look at a man who was fearless in the face of death, and that is the title of my discourse to you this morning, and together, by God's grace, we will endeavor to understand the source and the substance of such nobility in the life of the first Christian martyr.

I would draw your attention this morning to three stunning realities, and the first is this: his speech was Spirit-empowered. His speech was spirit-empowered, and here we look back for a moment at some of what we studied last week. You know, I was fascinated when I really studied the supernatural brilliance of Stephen's extemporaneous, and I want to underscore that word, his extemporaneous defense and condemnation that's recorded in chapter seven, verses one through 53. Now, obviously, he was a man of the Word. He was able to quote many relevant scripture passages as we studied. He was able to trace the history of Israel precisely in an economy of words. And at the same time, think of this, he was able to weave a web that would ultimately expose and entrap his perfidious and guilty accusers. Now, friends, this is nothing short of miraculous that he could do this.

Now, I want you to think about it. Here, Stephen had been falsely accused in secret. He didn't even know what the charges were. He didn't know what was going on behind his back. And then he was suddenly dragged away. The text tells us he was arrested suddenly and brought immediately before the Council, and he's still unaware of the charges against him. And then, without any legal due process, without an attorney, without anyone to give him counsel, without any time to prepare his case, he's brought before the Council, and the high priest says to him, "Are these things so?" And then he goes on to give a supernaturally brilliant defense. That's an amazing thing to me. I ask you, how could a man, even a brilliant theologian, respond to every charge with such eloquence and theological genius? How could that happen? How could a man offer such an ironclad polemic in such a calm and clear way, knowing he had been falsely accused, knowing that his judges despised him, knowing that the jury was rigged, so to speak, and knowing that he was certainly going to be tortured to death? How could a man do that? Well, my friends, there is only one answer. It's because his speech was Spirit-empowered. But I want you to catch this because his life was Spirit-filled. Now I ask: If you were suddenly arrested, if you were falsely accused of all manner of things, and then brought before a mob of religious bigots foaming at the mouth in such a way, knowing that they had such contempt for you, would you be able to answer in a similar manner? And the answer is yes, if you were Spirit-filled, because if you are Spirit-filled, you will be Spirit- empowered. That's the key.

May I remind you, as we studied earlier in chapter six, verse five, the text tells us that Stephen was "full of the Holy Spirit." In other words, he was saturated, he was satiated, he was filled up with the Spirit of God; he had not quenched the Spirit or grieved the Spirit in his life because of spiritual apathy or disobedience, but rather he had surrendered his life completely to the control of the Spirit of God as the Spirit revealed himself in the Word of God. You will recall in Ephesians five, verse 18, the apostle Paul tells us, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation." And again, that was a common religious practice of that day with the pagans. Instead, he says, "Be filled with the Spirit." In other words, be intoxicated with, or be under the influence of, if you will, the Holy Spirit, and the result he gives us in verses 19 through 21, He says, "You will speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things." And certainly, this was true for Stephen, even in the midst of such incredible hatred. Also, in Galatians 5:16, we're told to "walk by the Spirit." In other words, to have a habitual pattern of your life be that of obeying the Spirit of God. Once again, as He has presented the truths of life in His Word, and when you do that, the text goes on to say, when you walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And then remember, in verse 22, we have those wonderful fruits of the Spirit that naturally come out. out of the vine of one who is walking in the spirit. It says the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and certainly all of these were hanging on the vine of Stephen's life when he stood before the Sanhedrin. First, you've got to walk-a metaphor requiring volition. You must choose to put one step in front of the other and move in a direction consistent with the truth. And as you do your part, then the metaphor changes. Suddenly, there is fruit. Fruit requires no volition. Fruit naturally grows upon a vine, and that's the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. So, friends, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be assured of God's grace, knowing that not only has He saved us, but that His grace will be sufficient for us in a time of great crisis. And you never know when one of us will be in that position someday. He will not leave us when we are most vulnerable, and then we can say with the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians 1210, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Furthermore, I want to remind you that our Lord has made a promise to the Spirit-filled saint-a most encouraging promise, one that should encourage us, especially if we find ourselves in the midst of great persecution and severe testing. Remember in Luke 20. Beginning in verse 11, here's what Jesus promised the disciples. He said, "When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Isn't that a wonderful promise? You know, as we witness the moral freefall in our country, combined with the religious intolerance of Bible believing Christians, and then you combine that with the invasion of Islam, not to mention many other apostate religious systems. Dear friends, we can be sure that the hour of crisis for those who truly know and love the Lord Jesus Christ is coming. It's just a matter of time. In fact, we were told in Second Timothy three one, “Realize this that in the last days difficult times will come.” Difficult means perilous, savage times will come. And then in verse 13, the Spirit of God speaks through Paul and says, "Evil men and impostors. Impostors referring to false religious teachers, even apostate Christians, not to mention all other religions which are false, that these evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Galatians 5:16 tells us to “walk by the Spirit”—to make obedience to the Spirit of God, as revealed in his Word, the consistent pattern of our lives. When we do so, we “will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Verse 22 then describes the fruit that naturally grows in a Spirit-led life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” These qualities were evident in Stephen as he stood before the Sanhedrin. Walking requires a deliberate choice: we put one foot before the other and move in the direction of truth. Fruit, however, grows naturally on a healthy vine. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit develops as we walk in obedience. Therefore, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can trust God’s grace—not only to save us, but also to sustain us in times of crisis. We do not know when any of us may face such a trial, but God will not abandon us when we are most vulnerable. Then we can say with the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Furthermore, I want to remind you that our Lord has made a promise to the Spirit-filled saint - a most encouraging promise - one that should encourage us, especially if we find ourselves in the midst of great persecution and severe testing. Remember in Luke 20 beginning in verse 11, here's what Jesus promised the disciples. He said, "When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not become anxious about how or what you should speak in your defense or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." Isn't that a wonderful promise? You know, as we witness the moral freefall in our country, combined with the religious intolerance of Bible believing Christians, and then you combine that with the invasion of Islam, not to mention many other apostate religious systems, dear friends, we can be sure that the hour of crisis for those who truly know and love the Lord Jesus Christ is coming. It's just a matter of time. In fact, we were told in Second Timothy 3:1, "Realize this that in the last days difficult times will come." Difficult means perilous, savage times will come. And then in verse 13, the Spirit of God speaks through Paul and says, "Evil men and impostors..."  - impostors referring to false religious teachers, even apostate Christians, not to mention all other religions which are false - that these evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, "deceiving and being deceived."

Now, because of the power of satanic deception, of which we are warned over and over again in the New Testament, and because of the increased persecution, I must tell you that as a pastor, and I know many of you share this, I have a a real concern for all of us, especially for our children, we must not only lead them and lead them to Christ, but we must train them in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Because someday they may have to stand before a similar kind of enemy, and we want them to be prepared in that day of crisis. Child of God, please hear this, you know the weakest saint can become the strongest warrior when that person is Spirit-filled, even if it is a child. Now, a person may be unassuming, a person may be unimpressive to the world, but please hear this: If that person has surrendered his life to the Spirit of the Living God, his zeal for the truth and love for the Savior will make him a most formidable and ferocious foe of the enemy, even our own children. Fill a man with the Holy Spirit of the Living God, and he will lead the charge against the forces of darkness, against the forces of wickedness, and not a flaming dart will even so much as singe his hair until he has accomplished that which God has purposed to do in him, and when that happens, dear friends, then the world will know that there is a Joshua marching upon Jericho. Then the world will know that there is a Caleb marching on Hebron. Then the world will know when they see that kind of a man stand up for the glory of God, they will know once again that there is still a Gideon that will march upon the camp of the Midianites. They will be able to see even a young David stand up against a Goliath. They will know that there is yet another Samson that will press himself against the pillars in the temple of the Philistines, and yea, they will know that there is still a Stephen who can stand fearless in the face of the enemy. O child of God, be careful to lay hold of the promises of God for yourselves and for your children and strive to be Spirit-filled.

Now, notice the text in verse 54, "When they heard this," referring to Stephen's defense, "they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him." You see, there's no conviction here, there is no humility, there's no repentance, despite all that they had seen and heard. Instead, they were "cut to the quick." The original language means they were sawn in half; to think of it this way, they were pierced to the very core of their being with rage. They were absolutely ripped apart, ripped in two. They were out of their minds with fury. Not only that, it says they were "gnashing their teeth." It's the idea of grinding your teeth and just being so enraged that you show your teeth like a snarling dog would do. We've all seen that, rolling their lips and exposing their teeth before they tear into their victim.

Dear friends, this is a terrifying scene, and yet I want you to notice Stephen's demeanor. In verse 55, it says, "But being full of the Holy Spirit," again, there's the key, "he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." So, not only was Stephen's speech Spirit-empowered, but secondly, I want you to notice that his gaze was heavenward. Here again is another fruit of the Spirit's filling. I want you to notice with me: his eyes were not somehow focused upon the furious mob, nor were his eyes cast down upon the ground in defeat. You don't see that here. Why look upon the inevitable wickedness of the world when your hope is in heaven? You see, instead, Stephen, as we know, trusted in the purposes of God, even if it meant relinquishing his life, and so Stephen could say, "God, thank you that you are in charge here. I know that you have ordained all things for my good and for your glory, and I trust you completely. My life is yours, and whatever you choose to do with it is fine with me. In fact, if I die, I know that will immediately usher me through the veil into your glory." That was Stephen's attitude. He understood the words of Job when Job said in Job 14, verse one, "Man who was born of woman is short-lived and full of turmoil." Well, we can all say amen to that, can't we? "Like a flower, he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain." Later on in verse five, he says, "Man's days are determined; the number of his months is with Thee, and his limits Thou hast set so that he cannot pass." What a testimony to the sovereignty of God in our life. Stephen understood this. Stephen understood the mystery of the resurrection. Remember, Jesus said in John 14, "Because I live, you also shall live." Stephen understood this. He understood that in death, the soul vacates the body. The Word of God tells us "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." He understood that he was merely awaiting that time when Christ will transform his lowly body and conform it to his glorious body. He understood that because of Jesus' death, that king of all terrors, namely death, is no longer something that we need to fear. We have actually been released from its grip, and we can even look forward to it, as Paul would later on say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is" what? "To die is gain." "Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?" These glorious doctrinal truths resonated within the heart of that man of God because he was Spirit-filled. And dear friends, when you stand on the Gibraltar of sound doctrine, you will not be moved.

So armed with these truths, Stephen focuses his gaze not on the temporal but on the eternal. You know, I have to to think that this was nothing new for Stephen, for indeed a Spirit-filled man will live his life focusing on the things above, not the things on earth, constantly seeking the Lord's face. This would have been a man who spent his life laying up his treasures in heaven. This was a man that knew that his citizenship was somewhere else, certainly not on Earth. That heaven was his home, not the Earth. A man that spent his life worshiping and communing with the lover of his soul, and now, the one to whom he was constantly looking, he actually sees.

Notice verse 55, "Being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”  Like Isaiah that had gone on before him and Ezekiel and the Apostle Paul and even John later on, Stephen beholds the ineffable, dazzling, brilliant light of the Shekinah glory of the living God. An amazing thing. Now think about this: the one who was highly exalted and sits at the right hand of the Father - sitting being a symbol of his completed work of redemption on the cross - this one who was seated now rises, and he rises from his throne; I believe in indignation as he beholds his enemies. Likewise, he rises because he is enraged at Satan's joy, and he rises in deepest sympathy for his servant, who now will suffer on his behalf. And I believe also he stands to welcome him home. What an enormous encouragement this must have been to this fearless, suffering servant! And now he looks upon the glorious countenance of his Savior and his King. He can see him in the glories of heaven, and as his soul is being ravished with the scene, somehow the howling mob around him is kind of insignificant. They don't really matter. There's something far more glorious that he is seeing. What a fulfillment of God's promise to us as the Spirit spoke through Peter in First Peter 4:14, and certainly Peter, you know, understood this firsthand. Not only as he watched his wife being crucified for the Savior, but also when he too was crucified. And you will recall that, according to tradition, he wanted to be crucified upside down. Here's what Peter said, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed."  And here is why, "...because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you." This was what was happening with Stephen. Like a bird secretly and securely nestled in the cleft of a great rock, safe from the howling storm, likewise, Stephen's heart and his mind was tranquil as he found refuge in the Almighty. I'm reminded of what God said to Moses, "I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand." And so too now, God reveals some of his glory to Stephen, but yet he covers him in protection.

The blind hymnist Fanny Crosby saw this clearly when she penned the lyrics of that great hymn that came to my mind when I was living with this text, you will recall the words of that hymn He Hideth My Soul. The verse, a couple of the verses, go like this:

"A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
where rivers of pleasure I see.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord;
He taketh my burden away,

He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved;
He gives me strength as my day.

When clothed in his brightness, transported I rise
to meet him in clouds of the sky,
His perfect salvation, his wonderful love,
I'll shout with the millions on high”

and then the chorus goes:

"He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of his love
and covers me there with his hand,
and covers me there with his hand.”

Dear friend, what comfort this should be to all who have perhaps come to this place, struggling with some great difficulty in life. Many of you live on the very verge of tears because of some of these difficulties, and I know about that for many of you, some of you I work with and pray with almost on a weekly basis. But I want you to hear this: you should find great comfort, dear friend, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom you have placed your faith, is the Savior who is seated at the right hand of the Father because he has purchased your redemption. But I also want you to know that in those great days of trial, when Christ comes your way, you should be delighted to know that he rises as your faithful High Priest that sympathizes with all that you are experiencing, and he stands ready to welcome you home. And likewise, we can have a solemn satisfaction to know that he rises as well. He stands as the enraged holy monarch of all things, promising a day of retribution. My friend, if you are troubled, don't be cast down. Don't be cast down. Rather, look up. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, be assured that he sits as your Savior. He stands as your sympathetic High Priest, as well as he rises as your avenging King that will come someday to deliver you.

Well, Stephen sees his Savior and his King - a scene so glorious that he cannot keep silent. Notice verse 56, and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Beloved, is this not a statement worthy of utmost rejoicing? The one in whom we trust is not dead, but he is alive. Our God reigns. Though the battle rages all around us, we fight a battle that has already been won. We're not victims; we're victors. In Christ, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Years ago, I was deeply moved by Charles Spurgeon's reaction to this very scene, to this marvelous truth illustrated in Stephen's vision of the glorified Christ, and certainly it resonated within my heart. I first read this when I was considering moving more into a  full-time ministry of the gospel, and in light of the inevitable sorrow that pastors will experience, when I read this, I thought, "My, I need to remember this." Here's what Spurgeon said: "My brethren and sisters, this doctrine has been to my own soul the only one which has cheered me in times of extremely deep depression of spirit." He says, "As I have told you before, so I tell you now. I have known what it is to be brought so low in heart that no promise of God's word gave me a ray of light, nor a single doctrine afforded me a gleam of comfort, and yet, so often as I have come across this text, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, I have always found a flood of joy bursting into my soul, for I have said, 'Well, it is of no consequence what may become of me, if my name be cast out as evil, and if I myself am left in darkness, if pains should multiply, if sorrow should increase beyond number, it does not matter. I will not lift up a finger so long as my Lord Jesus is exalted.'" And he went on to say, "I believe that every Christian heart that loves the Savior feels that, like the dying soldier in the hour of battle who is cheered with the thought, 'The general is safe. The victory is on our side. My blood is well spent. My life well lost to win the victory.'" Then finally he says, "Let Christ reign, and I will make no bargain with God as to myself. Let Jesus be King over the world over. I care nothing for nothing else. Let Him wear the crown. Let the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hands. Let His covenant purposes be fulfilled. Let His elect be saved. Let the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Why? What mattereth if it if even though 10,000 of us should go pining through the valley of the shadow of death. Our lives and deaths were all well spent to earn so great a reward as to see Jesus glorified." End quote. Amen and amen. May we all share in such a noble conviction.

Well, obviously Stephen's public testimony did not go over very well with the Sanhedrin - to say that Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, was indeed the Son of the Living God, the Messiah, and now he's standing at the right hand of God. And so, how did they react? Well, as you would expect, verse 57, "They cried out with a loud voice and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse." Dear friends, here we see the true colors of a charlatan; the true colors of someone who claims to be religious but is not. There's no dignity here. There's no morality. There's no justice. There's only a vicious, barbaric, murderous rage. Jesus even described false teachers you will recall, as vicious wolves. Peter and Jude described them as unreasoning animals, and now, like a pack of wolves, the religious elite of Israel rush upon God's innocent yet fearless servant.

In verse 58, it says, "And when they had driven him out of the city..." Now let me pause there. You see, according to Mosaic law in Leviticus 24:1, that's what you had to do with a blasphemer. You had to take them outside of the city to be obedient to God to deal with them. And certainly, it was death by stoning. But again, what hypocrisy! Let's falsely accuse this guy of blasphemy and then let's be sure to obey the law to take him outside the city to stone him. Dear friends, hypocrisy knows no bounds; it has no limits. And it says they "began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul." And again, think of the providence of God here in the life of Saul. Saul, who would later be transformed as he too saw the light of the Shekinah glory of God on the road to Damascus, and then became the Apostle Paul. To think that God was orchestrating his life, even in his vehement denial of Christ and his hatred of his servants, even with that, God, in his infinite sovereign care, was taking one of his elect and placing himself, or placing that person, in that position. We know according to verse one of chapter eight that Saul was "in hearty agreement with putting him to death." Well, that's a story for another time.

I want you to see here this issue of stoning. Stoning was a method of execution that was carefully defined by the Jewish Mishnah. Mishnah means repeated study, and that was the oldest authoritative collection and codification of Jewish oral laws. But it is doubtful that this howling mob obeyed what they were supposed to do. Now, normally, according to the Mishnah, the criminal was to be taken outside of the town, certainly, but then they were to be placed up on a cliff or a wall at least 10 feet high, and then they were to be shoved off, and that would cause great injury, if not death, but usually just a maiming. And then, at that point, the next thing they were to do is to take the first witness, and that first witness had the responsibility of taking a large stone and throwing it down upon the heart of the victim. And if the person survived that, then the second witness would do the same thing, and they would continue until the person died. Well, since Stephen was able to speak coherently, it is highly unlikely that this process was carried out, and probably he was shoved off of some kind of a wall or a cliff, and then just merely pelted by a barrage of stones.

In verse 59, it says, "And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' You know it's hard to conceive of such cruelty, is it not? And yet, this is the potential of every unregenerate heart. But I would draw your attention finally to yet another astounding result of a man who is Spirit-filled, that would therefore make a man fearless in the face of death. His speech was certainly Spirit-empowered, and his gaze was heavenward. But finally, I want you to see that his heart was forgiving. His heart was forgiving. Verse 60, it says, "And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them!' And having said this, he fell asleep." Dear friends, herein is Christian love - one of the fruits of the Spirit - to even love your enemies; and here Stephen seeks divine forgiveness for his enemies, even as Jesus did on the cross. And it's interesting that later on, Paul, who saw all of this, would write, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

Well, what a contrast to the hate-filled hearts of the spiritual phonies, and what a powerful testimony that must have been to Saul, and to I'm sure, some others. Dear friends, we must love our enemies, even as God loved us when we were living in rebellion against him. And we must never question the providence of God, even if the day comes when we face our own martyrdom. Without fail, you must remember that the saving purposes of God will be concealed in calamity.

Perhaps, in conclusion, I can summarize my thoughts as I put them to meter and rhyme.

Men hate the truth and love the lie, deceived but joyfully so

Convinced that they can earn the right themselves to heaven go;

loving darkness, hating light, their sins they must conceal

With hardened hearts they rant and fight till God their fate doth seal.

In such a state of calloused rage, no preacher can prevail;

like vicious snarling wolves, uncaged, God's servant they assail.

Yet howling mobs of vicious brutes for him is no concern,

what matters most is loving truth; for God's glory doth he yearn.

And if the wicked seek to kill, to silence him one day,

in that hour the Spirit will give him words to say.

Praise be to God, whose glory shines and lights the martyr's way,

who stands in majesty sublime, all suffering to outweigh.

What joy! What triumph! Hope and power, our Savior, King, doth rise.

Press on, ye soldiers, never cower. His glory is our prize.

Well, dear friends, in our day of suffering, if indeed it comes - and well it may - may we all remember well our brother Stephen, a man who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, so that we too may stand fearless in the face of death. Men and women who have our speech empowered by the Spirit of God, those who gaze heavenward and whose hearts are forgiving, may God be pleased to make it so, and may He have mercy on our souls. Let's pray together.

Father, we reflect upon this historical truth in the life of Stephen, and we say thank you for such a brother who gave us such a model. And Lord, we thank you for what you did in his life, as you have done for ours, and we thank you as well, Spirit of God, for empowering him and for as well giving us the promises to do the same, if indeed we will be Spirit filled. So, Lord, we thank you and we praise you for every expression of your grace in our life. And Lord, I pray that you will dismiss us with these truths resonating within our hearts and mind, and may you cause us all to be submissive to the glorious truths of your word. And I pray especially for those that know nothing of you as Savior, those who have never seen the depths of their sin and cried out to Christ for saving grace. Lord, I pray that today you will overwhelm them with the truth of the gospel, and that by the power of your Spirit, you will cause them to bow the knee to the cross, and that today will be the day that they will experience the new birth in Christ. We pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus, and for His sake, Amen.