7/24/11 - Martyrs 2: Stephen - Acts 6:2-5

FULL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Stephen’s Commendable Actions / Qualities

If you were to pick one person from Scripture as your role model, who would it be? Other than Jesus himself, what one Christian throughout the pages of the Bible would you look to as an example to follow? Maybe Abraham for his unwavering faith in the Lord’s impossible promises? Maybe Peter for his boldness on behalf of his Savior? Maybe Ruth for her kindness or Simeon for his patience or Esther for her courage or Job for his faithfulness? There are any number of exemplary Christians whose lives are at least partially written down for us in God’s Word and we could hardly go wrong picking one or the other to imitate.
But what about Stephen? Have you ever thought about Stephen in this way - as one whom you would hold up as an example to follow? Or do you usually just remember Stephen as that guy who was stoned to death somewhere in the book of Acts while a young man named “Saul” stood there and watched it happen? Hopefully, now that we’ve read through a good portion of the story of Stephen, you realize how commendable a Christian he really was. He wasn’t just a martyr; he was an outstanding believer, someone who demonstrated an incredible faith in his Savior. In fact, Stephen is one of the few main characters in the stories of Scripture who has nothing bad written about him. Everything that we know about Stephen is good! And there are quite a few of those good things attributed to him in just two chapters: he was able to perform miracles and outwardly impressive signs; he was so adept at defending the truth that entire religious sects couldn’t stand up against his argumentation; he was so spiritually brilliant that it drove the enemies of God into a frenzy; at one point his face was like the face of an angel as he preached the Word of God; he was allowed to see Jesus himself standing at the right hand of the Father towards the end of his life; and, of course, right before he died he displayed a level of love and mercy and forgiveness for his enemies that is unequaled in the rest of Scripture other than the forgiveness Christ himself displayed when he forgive his enemies on the cross. The way that Stephen lost his life is memorable. But the way Stephen lived his life is worth taking to heart. He truly is one of the great Christian examples in all of Scripture. Which shouldn’t be a surprise since Stephen was filled with the one essential ingredient that produces Christians of a noble character: the Holy Spirit.
The believers in the early Christian Church knew that. And, in fact, they handpicked Stephen because of it. “The Twelve [apostles] gathered all the disciples together and said, ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.’ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit…” The apostles wanted a few men who were known to be full of two things: the Holy Spirit and wisdom. And the first man chosen who fit that description was Stephen, someone whom Scripture itself says was “full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” But this isn’t the only time that Stephen’s commendable qualities are mentioned. Three verses later Stephen is said to be “full of God’s grace and power.” And in the next chapter the book of Acts records that Stephen was “full of the Holy Spirit” once again as he looked up into heaven and saw Jesus himself. Scripture wants us to be clear: Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit to the point of overflowing! He was full of faith. He was full of God’s grace and power. No wonder he acted how he acted! No wonder he lived how he lived! No wonder he is such a good role model for everyone else to follow!

Our Questionable Actions / Qualities

And what a great way to be known by others! To be known as a person who is full of the Holy Spirit, to be described as someone who exudes faith and grace and God’s power. Just think how you would have to act in order for others to describe you like that! Think of the kinds of things you would have to do and the kinds of words you would have to say and the kind of attitude you would have to have on a daily basis to earn that kind of reputation! Can you imagine someone saying about you: “Oh, he’s full of the Holy Spirit. It just radiates off of his face and his words and his attitude.” Or “She’s full of faith in her Savior. Her entire life is a testament to God’s grace and power.” Do you think you have ever been described in this way? Could you be? Why not? Why wouldn’t someone speak about you like Scripture speaks about Stephen? Isn’t that what a Christian is supposed to be? Isn’t that how a Christian is supposed to act and talk and live? I know that most of you are really nice people; I know that you are loyal and faithful Christians; but I doubt that any of you has been referred to as being full of the Holy Spirit, faith, grace, and the power of God. I’m pretty sure I have never been talked about in those terms. That would be giving me a lot more credit than I deserve! I’m full of something, but it doesn’t usually seem to be the Holy Spirit.
Because when I compare my life to the life of Stephen, there really is no comparison. I don’t boldly stand up for the truth like Stephen did. I don’t fully trust in the Lord during times of trouble like Stephen did. I certainly don’t immediately forgive those who harm me and make life miserable for me and even hate me like Stephen forgave those who stoned him. My actions are nowhere near the quality that Stephen demonstrated in his life and my reputation doesn’t match up to his either. Full of the Holy Spirit and faith and grace and God’s power? Not even close. Full of weaknesses and selfishness and hatred and an ugly, inbred, inescapable little parasite called the sinful nature? That sounds more like me. Does it sound like you?
Ya know, it’s probably a good thing that our lives aren’t included in the pages of Scripture like Stephen’s life was because then all of those faults and all of those mistakes that are somewhat hidden or soon forgotten in this world would have been written down for millions of people to read for thousands of years! A recorded description of who we are and what we have done probably wouldn’t be all that pretty. In fact, it would be embarrassing and humiliating and shameful.

But are We Really All That Different?

Of course, I’d be willing to bet that if we had asked Stephen while he was still living on this earth to describe himself, he probably would have said the same thing. He would have probably admitted that he was full of weaknesses and selfishness and hatred and an ugly, inbred, inescapable little parasite called the “sinful nature” just like we are. Because he certainly wasn’t perfect! He wasn’t any less sinful then we are. And he wasn’t any more pure. Stephen was filled with weaknesses and selfishness and hatred and a sinful nature. And yet Scripture describes him as being “full of the Holy Spirit” anyway. He is forever known in the pages of God’s Word not to be full of sin. Not full of errors. Not full of failures and stubbornness and rebellion like every sinful heart is. But full of the Holy Spirit. And notice when he was described as being full of the Holy Spirit: it was before his martyrdom, before his merciful request that his enemies be forgiven, before his courageous stand on the Word of God, before his miracles, before he was even chosen by the early Christian Church. He was “full of the Holy Spirit” before he ever gained that reputation. Because he was full of the Holy Spirit when he was brought to faith. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you,” Peter said earlier in the book of Acts, “in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). And later Paul would write to the Corinthian congregation: “We have not received the spirit of the world by the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us” (1 Cor. 2:12). Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit just like every Christian is: through faith. The Holy Spirit entered his heart through the powerful Word of God and made his home there. Stephen may have certainly been given some extra-special abilities by the Lord to carry out the work he was assigned to do, but the basic gift of the Holy Spirit wasn’t any different than yours. You are full of the Holy Spirit just like Stephen was. Yes, you may sin. Yes, you may say things that are inappropriate. Yes, you may do things that are ungodly. But you are still full of the Holy Spirit. You are a believer in Jesus as your Savior. The Spirit lives in you. That’s who you are. “Do you not know,” Paul says, “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have received from God (1 Cor. 6:19)?
And so in the end, we really aren’t all that different from Stephen. He was a sinner; we are sinners. He was forgiven by Jesus’ death on the cross; we are forgiven by Jesus’ death on the cross. He was guaranteed a spot in heaven through Jesus’ resurrection; we are guaranteed a spot in heaven through Jesus’ resurrection. The Holy Spirit worked on his heart and brought him to faith; the Holy Spirit has worked on our hearts and has brought us to faith. Scripture describes Stephen as being full of the Holy Spirit; Scripture describes us as being temples of the Holy Spirit. As far as our salvation goes we are no different than Stephen. There just may be a little difference in the way we live our Christian lives.

Filled to Overflowing

I think it’d be safe to say that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit to the point of overflowing. He took what he had been given and he poured it out. The faith that he had been blessed with was unmistakable to those around him. The grace that he had been saved with was shared to others. The power of God that he was supported by was clearly on display. The Holy Spirit that lived in him was bubbling up and out and over in everything that he did and in every word that he said. He could not keep it in. He could not hold it back. He was compelled to let the love and the power and the mercy of his Lord overflow to the world. Is that how you live your life? Is the Holy Spirit evident in what you say and do?
Each of us has been given different talents and different responsibilities in this life. We don’t all have to preach to the crowds or distribute food to the widows or argue with religious leaders like Stephen did. And we aren’t even able to perform some of the miracles or see some of the visions that Stephen was blessed enough to witness. But like this famous martyr in the New Testament, we do have the opportunity to pour out that Holy Spirit and let it influence the way we live our lives. We do have the responsibility to demonstrate that faith and that grace and that power of God to the nations. We do have the privilege of letting others know what we firmly believe. By God’s grace we are full of the Holy Spirit. By God’s grace others will know that. By God’s grace Stephen is in heaven. By God’s grace we will be too.
Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Rom. 15:13

7/17/11 - Martyrs 1: Abel - Hebrew 11:4

"ABEL" TO GIVE

What Was the Difference?

The first children ever to be born on this earth also became the first murderer and the first martyr. The story of Cain and Abel is one of the most tragic events in Scripture as well as the story that immediately follows Adam and Eve eating that piece of fruit in the Garden. Cain took the life of his younger brother Abel. But it wasn’t because they had had a fight, it wasn’t because of what Abel did against Cain or even because of something Abel said that upset his older brother. Cain murdered Abel because he was mad that God was pleased with his brother’s offering but not his own. That’s it! That’s all there was to it. It seems like a rather trivial reason for wanting to kill your own brother, but that’s exactly what happened because Cain’s sinful nature got the best of him. He just could not handle the fact that Abel’s offering was better to the Lord than his was; and so he killed him for it.
But why was Abel’s offering “better” than Cain’s in the first place? Was it because God appreciated the fat of animals over and above the grains and fruits and vegetables that Cain brought? Was it because Cain didn’t give the best of his crops to the Lord while Abel gave the best of his flocks? Was it because Cain didn’t follow the unnamed instructions God had given them about offerings? No, there wasn’t anything wrong with Cain’s offering itself. Scripture doesn’t indicate in any way that what Cain brought to the Lord was inferior to what Abel brought to the Lord in any way. But Scripture does tell us this: “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” The difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering was faith.

Faith Inspires Gratefulness

Abel believed. And not just in God, of course. Cain knew that God existed too; Cain was even able to talk directly to God if he wanted. No, Abel believed not only in God but also in what God had promised. Remember what the Lord promised to Abel’s father and mother: The Savior would come from Adam and Eve’s offspring to crush the serpent’s head and save all people from the consequences of their sins. Abel believed this. Abel looked forward to that Savior who would come into this world. Abel was overjoyed that the Lord would be so gracious to him. And so by this faith he brought his offering to the Lord out of gratefulness.
Faith inspires gratefulness. When someone believes what God has done for them, when a person fully grasps through faith what the Lord has promised and truly appreciates his love, gratefulness is a natural response. Zacchaeus, a tax collector in Jesus’ time was so grateful for Jesus’ forgiveness that he not only threw a great banquet for Jesus and his guests but also gave half of his possessions to the poor and paid back anyone he had cheated four times the amount. In the Old Testament, Josiah the king of Judah was so grateful for the Lord’s patience with him and the rest of the people that he celebrated the Passover according to God’s instructions for the first time in 400 years, contributing 30,000 sheep and goats and 300 cattle from his own possessions. The apostle Paul was so grateful for God’s gracious intervention in his life that he dedicated the rest of his days to preaching and spreading the gospel about Christ to everyone that he could. Faith inspires gratefulness. And Abel was so grateful for the Savior God had promised him that he wanted to give, he took pleasure in being able to give something back to the Lord out of all the blessings the Lord had already given to him.

Gratefulness or Habit?

I write a couple checks each week and place them in the offering plate on Sunday mornings, one for the general offering and one for the building fund. And I don’t really think about it too much; I just do it. I’ve done it that way for years and so it’s become a habit for me, one of the many little things I do in preparation for a Sunday morning. But that’s what worries me: it’s become a habit. And so I give the same amount almost every week not necessarily because it’s what I am happy to give but because that’s what I always give. And it’s not something that necessarily brings joy to my heart as I drop those envelopes into the offering plate; it’s sometimes just another item that I can now check off a long list of weekend duties. Now, getting into the habit of giving is not wrong and failing to have an overwhelming feeling of joy in my heart every time I give back to the Lord is not wrong either. But I have to be careful. I have to be careful that I don’t start giving to the Lord out of habit or out of some sense of obligation rather than out of faith.
And I would encourage you to re-evaluate your own reasons for giving too. Tonight or tomorrow, at least sometime before next Sunday comes around sit down and determine what you have been giving and why. I would hope and assume that most of your motives as Christians are commendable. But I also realize that, as sinners like me, you probably have some less-than-commendable reasons mixed in as well. Whether it is giving out of habit or obligation, a sense of duty or guilt, there are plenty of inappropriate reasons why we give to the Lord. And if habit or obligation, duty or guilt are driving those offerings, they are just as unpleasing to the Lord as Cain’s offerings were. They are not “acceptable” to him; they don’t make him happy. They are empty actions as far as the Lord is concerned. They are pointless exercises on which the Lord does not look with favor.

"Why" Not "What"

Because the Lord doesn’t care so much about “what” you give than he cares about “why” you give it. Just think about the offerings of Cain and Abel along with the rest of the sacrifices and offerings that were presented to the Lord in Old Testament times: For what purpose was the Lord ever going to use the fat trimmings of sheep and cattle? Or how would the Lord benefit from an entire animal being consumed by fire on the altar? Or what advantage would there be to the Lord for requiring a drink offering of wine to be poured out on the sanctuary floor? God was not going to personally gain anything from these offerings of his people. He didn’t have to. God doesn’t need anyone’s help or assistance in anything he does. These offerings were simply opportunities for his children to show their appreciation to him. And when those pieces of fat or fruits and vegetables or lambs and goats or bread and oil were offered through faith in their coming Savior, God was pleased.
It is no different for us today. The Lord cares more about “why” we give instead of “what” we give. Because he doesn’t need our help or assistance either. He can do whatever he wants at whatever times he wants for whatever reason he wants. He will certainly use what we give to him for the good of his kingdom, but he does not restrict himself to our meager contributions. And so if he doesn’t absolutely need what we can offer, why does the Lord still want us to give? He wants us to give because it’s an opportunity for his children to show their appreciation for everything that he has done and everything that he has promised. It is a way in which we can thank him for who he is and what he has made us to be.

Review of the Reason Why

And if the Lord cares more about why we give than what we give, then it’s probably beneficial for us to review the reason why we as Christians would ever want to give something back to the Lord. 1) We shouldn’t even be here! After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, that should have been it. That could have been it. The punishment for sin was death and the Lord could have automatically sent Adam and Eve to hell, destroyed the world he had made, and he still would have been just as fair and patient and loving as he is today. But you are here today - by God’s grace. You are living on this earth because the Lord forgave the sins of Adam and Eve and provided for their salvation. Abel understood that. Abel knew it was by God’s grace that he even existed. And that’s the reason he wanted to give back to the Lord.
2) We were born into a race that is completely sinful, spiritually depraved through and through. We were not initially God’s children, but God’s enemies. But here you are today as a child of God anyway - once again because of the Lord’s grace. He sought you out. He worked on your heart through his Word. He gave you the gift of faith through the Holy Spirit to believe everything that his Son did for you on this earth and on the cross and on the Third Day and now on the throne. Abel knew that too. He didn’t have the New Testament perspective we have, but he did realize that he was nowhere close to the perfect standard that his parents had once enjoyed. But God had brought him into his family anyway and had promised him an eternal life in heaven.
3) Nothing we have really belongs to us anyway. The home that you live in, the paycheck you receive, the clothes that you wear, the vehicle you drive, the very body that you occupy is not yours! Everything, both physically and spiritually, comes from the Lord himself. There is nothing that you have earned, nothing that you have gained, nothing that you have accomplished without the gracious hand of your Lord giving it to you. You can be sure that Abel trusted that this was true. And so he had no problem giving back to the Lord what was already his.
4) No matter how many times you have sinned in this life, no matter how awful those sins have been, and no matter how many times you have been ungrateful for what the Lord has provided for you, his promises still stand. Heaven is still yours and God’s love will never be taken away. These are the reasons “why” we would want to give. There is no “have to” here; there is no “must,” no “necessary,” no “should.” There is only what the Lord has done. How could we not respond to that in gratefulness?

Countless Opportunities

And so let’s get a little practical here: In what ways can we respond in gratefulness for what the Lord has accomplished? In the offering plate? Sure. That’s a wonderful way to show your appreciation for what the Lord has done for you. It doesn’t matter what. It doesn’t matter how much. It matters why. If you give something out of love and thanks and faith in your Savior, the Lord is more than happy and will use whatever it is according to his will.
We have another obvious way to give sitting right in front of us: Builders for Christ. It’s not money in the offering plate, per se, but it is a sacrifice of time and talents and skills for the greater good of God’s kingdom. What a wonderful example of giving to the Lord out of what he has given to us. And look at the back counter and tables: there are multiple things that are waiting to be purchased for the new church building and even more things that can be helped out with in the meantime.
And let’s take it outside of these congregational walls. There are plenty of avenues available to you to give to the church body at large for things like called worker education, foreign missions, humanitarian aid, and the like. There are neighbors that need a helping hand, relatives that need your support, friends that need your time. There is an astounding array of ways you can give something back to the Lord, and he is pleased with all of them! He does not consider one way grander than another. Nor does he require specific manners in which to give. He just gives to us so that we can give back in some way.
We are able to give; there is no doubt about that. And we have the opportunities to give; there is no doubt about that either. But how will we give? Like Cain, hesitantly, begrudgingly, out of obligation? Or like Abel, willingly, joyfully, energetically, out of faith in your Savior? I pray that we are all filled with the faith of Abel and the willingness that he displayed. Because what a wonderful blessing it is to be able to give something back to our Lord who has given so much to us!
Amen.

“God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” - Philippians 4:19-20