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Well, today we're going to continue
our consideration of this book called Let's Study Acts by Dennis
Johnson. We're at chapter 16 in that book. And we come to, right now, Acts
chapter 6, verses 8 through 15. And I will read that for you,
and then we'll make some comments on that. So Acts chapter 6, beginning
in verse 8. And Stephen, full of grace and
power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then
some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen,
as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians,
and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with
Stephen. but they could not withstand
the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they
secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous
words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people
and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized
him and brought him before the council, and they set up false
Witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against
this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the
customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all
who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of
an angel." So in the previous passage, in
the first part of chapter 6, understood that there was a problem
in that certain widows weren't being given the distributions
that should have been given to them. And so the apostles, instead
of dealing with it themselves, they asked for the people to
choose among themselves some men that would do that task for
them. So we're given a list of men
that were chosen to do that. And Stephen was named first in
that list. And when we're introduced to those
men, it is said of Stephen that he was a man full of faith and
of the Holy Spirit. So now the focus, so the writer
of Acts calls attention to Stephen by placing him first in that
list, but now continues this focus on Stephen based on what
he is doing. And the focus is on Stephen and
his invincible witness, which leads actually to his death. and also to the dispersion of
the church out of Jerusalem. And we read in Acts chapter 1
verse 8, Jesus is speaking to his disciples just moments before
he ascends into heaven and he says to his disciples, but you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and
you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the end of the earth. So up to this point in Acts,
the apostles are in Jerusalem. They're witnessing there in Jerusalem
in the temple and probably various other places. But Jesus said,
you're not just going to stay there. You're going to have to
go out to Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth,
right? And so this begins that transition
from the witness being in Jerusalem to the witness going to Judea
and Samaria. And this is probably the incident
that kind of starts that whole process of going out to Judea
and Samaria. So let's consider first, there
are three sections in this chapter. The first one is strong testimony
and impotent opposition. The second one, framed by false
witnesses. And then thirdly, the face of
an angel. So let's consider this first
one, strong testimony and impotent opposition. Now, three times
this passage, chapter six of Acts, describes Stephen as full
of the gifts from God. So in verse 3, we read, full
of the Spirit and of wisdom. And this applies to all of these
particular men that were chosen, not only Stephen, but it applies
to Stephen. And then in In verse 5, we read
that Stephen was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And then
in verse 8, which we had just read a moment ago, it says of
Stephen that he was full of grace and power and that he did great
wonders and signs. And so the wonders and signs
were kind of a confirmation that his testimony was true. And this is kind of interesting,
because up to this point, the wonders and signs, the healings,
and other miracles were performed through the apostles only. And
this is the first time, at least, that's recorded in Scripture,
that someone who was not named particularly an apostle also
did wonders and signs. Now, this is actually implied
in the previous chapter in Acts, that's Acts chapter five and
verse 32, and Peter is there giving his defense against, to
the council, and he says in this particular verse, and we are
witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God
has given to those who obey him. And what Peter is saying there
in that particular verse is that the Holy Spirit is given to all
believers. And so it should not be too much
of a surprise that some of these believers will actually be doing
miracles, great wonders and signs. Now, the Holy Spirit is given
to all believers, to some extent at least. so that all believers
will participate in the church's witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why, that's one of the
purposes of the Spirit, that we participate in that witness
about Jesus. Now, the fullness of the Spirit
in Stephen enables him to speak Christ's message with irresistible
power. And we read that verse. It's
verse 10. They could not withstand the
wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So I see it
this way. We read in what follows here. Stephen gives a defense. He obviously
knew the scriptures. able to recite much of scripture
and talk about it. But it was the Holy Spirit that
enabled him to converse with these people that opposed him
to such a degree that they were unable to withstand him. Whatever
argument they would come up with, he would have an answer. And
the Holy Spirit enabled him to do that. So let's consider who these opponents
were. It's believed that they are Greek-speaking
Jews belonging to the Synagogue of the Freedmen. And based on
that name, the Freedmen, it is believed that this synagogue
was established by slaves that were freed, and they came from
Italy. So they had been slaves for some
time, they were freed, they returned to Jerusalem, they set up this
synagogue, which is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen. And
over time, more people joined that church or synagogue. They associated with that synagogue. And these were Jews that came
from Cyrene, Alexandria, which is in North Africa, from Cilicia,
and from Asia, which is really Asia Minor. And these Jews were fiercely
loyal to the law of Moses and the temple. And probably what
happened was that these people, having been slaves in Italy and
people that had lived in all these other places, they saw
the sinfulness of the people around them. They lived in a
decadent culture. And so in reaction to that, they
were fiercely loyal to the law of Moses and the temple. They
were trying to go back to the religion that they learned when
they were young. And it was in reaction to what
they had seen. Now, that is not bad in itself,
although it can lead to self-righteousness. And so they were fiercely loyal
to the law of Moses and the temple. It's also interesting that Saul,
who was later called Paul, and we know who Paul is, Saul was
probably associated with this synagogue. He was born in Cilicia. Tarsus is in Cilicia. And so Saul, it's very likely
that he associated with that synagogue. And we recognize as well the
attitude that those people had is similar to what Paul's attitude
was before he was converted. In Galatians 1, verses 13 and
14, we read this. For you have heard of my former
life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and
tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism
beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous
was I for the traditions of my fathers. You see that same pattern
there. You see at least somewhat of
a self-righteousness in there. You see a very zealous attachment
to the law and to the traditions of the fathers. Now, Stephen's message would
have threatened this historic Judaism. And you can imagine
why, right? The gospel, really, in order
to understand the gospel, to receive the gospel, we must first
understand that we're sinful and that we cannot save ourselves. But these Jews of this synagogue,
they thought that they could establish their own righteousness
by performing the law through the law, and that wasn't true. So this is something that unbelievers
resist, and we probably have all seen this, that an unbeliever
resists this particular knowledge that I'm a sinner, right? And so we see that actually in
scripture. Jesus experienced that, the apostles
experienced that, Christians throughout history have experienced
that. In John chapter three, verses
19 through 21, we read this. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus.
And he says, and this is the judgment. The light has come
into the world and people love the darkness rather than the
light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked
things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his
works be exposed. But whoever does what is true
comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his
works have been carried out in God. And so you see that resistance,
right? They love the darkness because
their deeds are evil. They don't want the light. They
love the darkness. But it goes further then in John
chapter seven, verse seven we read, the world hates me because
I testify about it that its works are evil. So Jesus experienced
this hatred of people who didn't like what he said because basically
what he was saying is, you're a sinner, you're sinful, your
works are evil. And they did not like that. There
was an example, for instance, at the very beginning of his
ministry, He went to the synagogue in his hometown. And at first,
they were amazed at him, at the gracious words that he spoke.
But then he talked about the woman in Zarephath and also about
Naaman. And somehow, those words pricked
their conscience. And they understood that. They
weren't going to be saved because they were Jews. They weren't
going to be saved because they were children of Abraham. They
weren't going to be saved because of their religion. And they wouldn't
accept that, and they wanted to kill him. They actually attempted
to throw him off a cliff. So we see this. this resistance
against that part of the message of the gospel. We're sinful.
We need to be saved. And many people will say, oh,
I'm good. I don't need this. I can get
there without Christ. No, you can't. But then if you
press that, then you will get hatred. We also read that Jesus,
in John chapter 15, verse 18, told his disciples, if the world
hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you, right? So Jesus warned his disciples,
they're gonna hate you, even though you speak the truth to
them. Well, Stephen's witness was unanswerable
because he spoke the wisdom of the Spirit. And again, going
back now to Luke chapter 21, Jesus tells his disciples, for
I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries
will be able to withstand or contradict. So Jesus promised
this. Jesus promised these people,
his disciples, I'm gonna give you a mouth, I'm gonna help you.
The Spirit is gonna be with you and teach you what you need to
say, and they will be unable to contradict you. Well, now
we come to the second section, which is framed by false witnesses.
So these people of this particular synagogue began to understand
that they aren't gonna win this debate, right? Stephen is speaking
and they just can't answer him, they can't contradict him, they
can't withstand him. And so they basically resort to perjury. And so in verse 11 we read, then
they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak
blasphemous words against Moses and God. The word instigated
suggests that these men were bribed. So these people of that
synagogue actually went to people, looking for people who would
who would bear false witness and they even perhaps paid them
to do so. Now we don't know the details
of all the reasoning that was used. However, the accusations
involve the temple and the law of Moses. So these people are
zealously defending the temple and the law of Moses. And so
this is what they feel is threatened. And so that's where their accusations
lie. And so the witnesses actually
said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy
place and the law, for we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth
will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses
delivered to us. There's probably some truth to
that, right? Jesus did predict the destruction
of the temple. Much of the law of Moses no longer
was effective or in effect. You know, the the whole sacrificial system
had ended because Jesus was the one and only perfect sacrifice
and there was no need for another sacrifice and such things. And Stephen probably spoke of
these things but not in a blasphemous way. I'm sure that he probably
used scripture Old Testament scripture to support that. There
are predictions in the Old Testament of the destruction of the temple and so on. And of course, the
Old Testament is a testimony of Jesus himself, right? We know
that because Jesus spoke to those two men of Emmaus and went through
the whole Old Testament and showed how the Old Testament really
pointed to him. And so Stephen would have used
that kind of argumentation and they couldn't answer him because
it's there in the scripture. And yet they used that in a false
way to accuse Stephen. Similar testimony, false testimony,
was also used against Jesus. So in Matthew 26, verses 59 through
61, we read, Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking
to seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him
to death. But they found none, though many
false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward and
said, this man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God
and to rebuild it in three days." It's interesting. right, they
sought false witnesses. They're seeking them out, just
like those men seeking false witness against Stephen. We can actually observe this
in the world today, when people don't like another group, they
will twist their words, they will find false accusations to
accuse them and to discredit them. And we will experience
that as well, okay? That when we proclaim the gospel,
some people will resist to the point that they will twist your
words and accuse you. Here in this case of false testimony
against Jesus, we see that their testimony involved distorting
the words of Jesus, right? Jesus said, destroy this temple,
and in three days, I will raise it up. And as I read that, I
think you could change it just slightly. You could add the word
you. You destroy this temple, and
in three days, I will raise it up. Because that's exactly what
happened. You will destroy this temple,
which is my body, but in three days, I will raise it up. But
they say, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of
God and to rebuild it in three days. See how they've twisted
the words? And this is very common. It happens
quite often. Stephen was the victim of the
same kind of treatment. This is what happens quite often. We must not be too surprised
at that. Well, now we come to the third
section, which is the face of an angel. So it's said of the council,
And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face
was like the face of an angel. The council included chief priests,
elders, and experts of the law." So these are men who are familiar
with the scripture. and they are accusing Stephen,
and they see that his face looks like the face of an angel. Now,
we don't know what this actually was like. It doesn't clarify
what kind of physical changes took place in his face that made
him look like an angel. But we can glean a little bit
of a hint or a little bit of help from scripture itself when
we consider that Moses experienced something similar. And you remember
he spent some time on the mountain speaking with God face to face. And when he came down, his face
shone. Yeah, let me read that. that passage, it's in Exodus
chapter 34 verse 29. It reads, when Moses came down
from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his
hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know
that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with
God. And so this shining face Okay,
Moses had that, Stephen had something similar. It was an indication
of an intimacy with God, right? So Stephen, full of faith, full
of power, had an intimate relationship with God, and God was actually
commending Stephen in this particular case by causing his face to shine,
to say, I have an intimate relationship with this man. I think that's part of at least
the reason why we're told that, that Stephen had this intimate
relationship with God. Stephen, in what follows, Stephen
is going to bring a very convicting message to this council. He's gonna speak in his own defense,
per se, as it were. His message is going to be convicting. He isn't going to relent and
say, oh, you're right. He's gonna say, he's gonna speak
about their sinfulness. And this face of an angel does
not deter them. It does not change their mind.
They saw it. They could testify of it. They
knew that it happened. But that didn't change their
mind. It didn't change them at all. And so eventually, of course, they kill
him. Jesus warned his disciples that
such opposition will come. They will lay hands on you and
persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons,
and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's
sake. This will be your opportunity
to bear witness. You will be delivered up even
by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you
they will put to death. You will be hated by all for
my name's sake. So that summarizes it. You know,
when we become believers, we are actually, in a sense, opposed
to the world. The message that we carry is, is one of salvation, but we have
to begin with this idea, we're all sinners. We're all sinners. We need salvation. We aren't
going to get there by our own self-righteousness. We're not
gonna get there by performance, by holding to the law or anything
like that. It has to be faith in Jesus Christ. And the world doesn't like that.
The world is going to be opposed to that. So let's conclude our
time in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the gospel, and we thank you that you have
worked in our hearts so that we receive your word, we agree
with it that it is true, we rejoice in it, we worship you for your
grace and your mercy, We pray, Lord, that you would help us
to be your witnesses, that we would be faithful to your testimony. We pray, Lord, for your Holy
Spirit to work within us, to give us boldness and strength
to do so. We pray, Lord, that you would
also be with us in the coming hour, that we might truly worship
you in spirit and in truth. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Let's Study Acts, Dennis E. Johnson, Ch. 16
Series Let's Study Acts
| Sermon ID | 119251530275923 |
| Duration | 30:12 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Language | English |
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