Stephen ends like Jesus
Acts 7:45-60
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In Acts 2, following St Peter’s great Pentecost Sermon, Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, …” St Stephen his preaching to people who are described as, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.”
We have heard how God called Abraham from his Mother and Father to make him into a great nation. God was with Joseph through the highs and lows of his life even while he was separated from his Mother. Stephen recalled for us God providing us with a greater Moses who is the very temple of God who stretched out his hands to provide you a way to everlasting life. Finally, we come to St Stephen’s conclusion and his sentence being carried out.
Stephen continues his history lesson, by telling us how Joshua conquered the Land of Canaan. Even telling how up to the time of King David, God dwelt in a tent. Solomon built a house for God, and a place for people to come and worship.
But Stephen also reminds us that God does not dwell in a house made by hands. God Almighty, the Most High does not dwell in what you build for him, but you dwell in what he has made for you. God is the Lord of Heaven and Earth. He is the creator of all things. So speaking against a building is not speaking against God. But speaking against his prophets and angels may be speaking against God and his Word.
Remember the rejection of Jesus was the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy. Christ death and resurrection were prophesied by Isaiah, and many others. But just as Moses was rejected by the people who God delivered out of Egypt, even so the prophets were rejected by the people in their own time.
Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” In Acts 5, after the apostles were beaten and charged not to speak in the name of Jesus, “Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”
If it was not bad enough that Stephen told them they persecuted the prophets with their forefathers. He tells them they betrayed and murdered the Righteous One of God, or to uses Isaiah’s phrasing the Holy one of God, or even the Servant of the LORD. You have killed him. And you have not kept the teaching that was delivered to you by the angels of God.
The council hears this speech and the debate is over. They are enraged and “they ground their teeth at him.” These people have been filled with anger. They are no longer thinking clearly. So after Stephen further insults them by saying that he sees the heavens open and Jesus at the right hand of God, they stopped their ears.
These people have closed their hearts, ears, and minds to hearing the word of the Lord. There are many lapsed Christians, who have become so frustrated with the people, teaching, business, and so on of the Church, they have simply hardened their hearts to the truth.
When we harden the truth from our own lives, we drag it outside and we shoot it, or stone it, or even crucify it. Pilate asked what is truth, when he had the living breathing truth standing in front of him.
You may not be harding your heart to the word of God. But your heart like mine may have become calloused when it repeatedly has to deal with our own failings and disgraces in life. It is those sins we repeatedly find in our life, that just become part of life. These sins we have stopped struggling with, because the battle is taking to long.
Stephen stood there before his enemies continuing to fight. He did not give up. Even after telling them the entire history of Israel and connecting it to the promise of the Righteous One, who is Jesus Christ. Stephen continues to call them to repentance. Stephen does not give up the fight. He can see the anger in their faces. He even calls them stiff-necked people and unbelievers.
When they are fully enraged, Stephen turns back to God and filled with the Holy Spirit he continues to speak. Jesus Christ is standing at the right hand of God. Jesus Christ is still there for you and for me. He is still pleading for our life and our forgiveness.
So Stephen follows in Christ’s footsteps and takes up his cross, or rather in this case his stones, and follows him. He is lead out of the city as the stone the builders rejected. Just as Jesus hung on the cross, and pleaded “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Stephen himself prays, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” and “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Stephen does not die for our sins. But he dies like Christ. Jesus did die for the forgiveness of our sins. He did stretch out his arms upon the cross providing us with the way to everlasting life. And just as Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead, we know that Stephen will rise from death. You will rise from death. This is the teaching, which we have received from God and his angels, or messengers, and we now pass onto you. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
