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My old mother, who is 92 years
of age, but very sharp and quick on it, asked me a few weeks ago,
she said, Ian, when I close my eyes in death, what will it be
like really when I awaken? What indeed? I think we have some answers
here. Acts chapter 7 verse 54 and we'll
read down to verse 60. We'll look at this chapter tonight
before we go forward with our studies. When they heard
these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on
him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on
the right hand of God." Not sitting, but standing. Twice over, he
sees him standing. Then they cried out with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses
laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling
upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down, and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said
this, he fell asleep. We have in this closing section
of Acts 7, one of the longest chapters in the New Testament,
the martyrdom of Stephen who was the first martyr of the New
Testament church. It's a story of a victim but
it's also the story of a victor. Although it's not said that a
vote of the Jewish council of Jerusalem preceded the death
of Stephen, remember it was before this council in the previous
chapter, chapter 6 verse 9 to 13 and verse 15 that he was called
to give an account. And so it is very likely and
probable that it was by a vote, a majority vote of the religious
Jewish council at Jerusalem that Stephen was condemned to die
by stoning, which was the method under Jewish law that blasphemers
were put to death. Stephen was ushered to his death
by, in reality, the professed upholders of religion in his
own day and in his own generation. they had condemned the Saviour
to die and now likewise they condemned Stephen to die and
he gladly followed in his master's footsteps. Though Stephen was
crushed by the stones that rained down round about him, Stephen
was not conquered by those stones and the victim became a victor
in giving his life for Christ and his cause. And I think it
behoves us tonight, those of us who have followed the Master,
to consider how Stephen laid down his life for Christ. We're
given a remarkable glimpse here of the dying moments, the dying
seconds of a child of God. What will it be like when we
come to the crossing of the river? What will it be like just in
those final moments between time and God's great eternity. There
are not many passages in the Bible that open it up to us as
these closing verses of Acts chapter 7 do. And as we meditate
upon them tonight I trust that it will be an encouragement to
you because we are, all of us, marching toward that river and
one day we'll have to cross it and in those final moments it's
reassuring to know that we're not victims but we're victors
through the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to notice firstly
in Stephen's circumstances the satanic malice that was already
against him. Satan was after him. The Bible assures us that Christ
loved the church and he gave himself for it. He loved the
church and yet the same scriptures warn us concerning the hatred
of Christ for the cause of Christ and the hatred of Satan for the
cause of Christ and his church and if we are to trace it right
away back to Genesis chapter 3 from the very gate of the garden
of Eden the serpent has been aiming his venom at the church
of Jesus Christ and the hatred of hell it knows no boundaries
or it knows no limitations against those who are the heirs of salvation
so when you and I come to die The stones might not be railing
round about us but when we come to die you can rest assured in
this thing that you will have to face the satanic malice of
Satan just as Stephen did and all of those who have crossed
over ahead of us. Verse 54 tells us when they heard
these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on
him with their teeth. This same phrase is translated
in Hebrews 11.37 as sawn asunder. Their minds were filled with
indignation. They were not pricked in their
hearts with sorrow as in Acts 2.37 but with rage. Here was
a dear Christian dying, giving his life for Christ, witnessing
the gospel to them, but it was with rage that these men approached
the death of this dear child of God. Others in the church
mourned and made lamentation over him but these men rejoiced
over the fact that here was a child of God who was being taken. Of course we know that that anger
had been simmering for some time. Chapter 5 and verse 33 tells
us concerning the opposition that was wrought. When they heard
that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them.
So the plans came to fruition in chapter 7 and when Stephen
stood before them the Bible tells us he was to them as an angel
and he sounded like one. But he met with those whose minds
were so corrupted by Satan that they refused to yield to his
message. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. The carnal mind of the natural
man cannot understand the things of God. And when you go to talk
to the carnal mind about how a child of God dies, do you know
what you're doing? You're casting pearls before
swine. Because they don't understand it and they can't comprehend
it. And until their mind is illuminated, they'll never understand it.
It tells us here in verse 54, They gnashed on him with their
teeth Job 16.9 tells me he tarries me in his wrath who hateth me
he gnashes upon me with his teeth mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes
upon me gnashing of teeth of course is equated with the damned
and now such hellish malice is unleashed against the angelic
Stephen and with hellish forces they bare their teeth and they
want to gnash upon him, gnaw upon him. They want him to feel
that pain. Their intention is one of solid
evil. Verse 57 tells us they cried
out with a loud voice. False religion is always loud
religion. It is. You study it in the Bible, it's
always loud and noisy. And it was their intention to,
of course, by crying with a loud voice, to drown out Stephen. They didn't want to hear him.
Even as he died, they didn't want to hear him. Just like the
martyred, the covenanters of old, as they went to die, before
they would listen to them, they had the drum roll. They didn't
want to hear any last message that they had to give. They drowned
out what they had to say. And what was wanting in their
arguments against Stephen was made up in their war-like voices. They were working themselves
up into a frenzy into their murderous state. And murderers usually
do that. There are very few who can go out in a cold, calculated
manner. Most of them have to go out and
work themselves up to do the deed. Verse 57 tells us they also stuck
their ears Here was a dying man, a dying sin. He had preached
one of the most eloquent sermons recorded in the New Testament
that heard enough and they didn't want to hear any more and they
were determined not to obey. They stopped their ears. They
closed their ears. They didn't want to hear anything
more. What a precursor to judgment.
It was a foreshadowing of that judicial judgment because as
they stopped their ears God was going to stop his to their pleas
and to their cries and a generation down the road Jerusalem would
be wiped out they ran upon Stephen with one accord verse 57 this
was religious fanaticism and now the people and the judges
and the false witnesses and the spectators they all flew in rage
against this one dear child of God We've seen it before on our
screens. I remember watching those two
brave young soldiers being pulled out of the car, you remember,
by the mob. They were just lynched there
and then. This is what happened to Stephen. Verse 58 tells us they took him
out of the city and they stoned him. There's one thing about
the Jews, these Orthodox Jews, They believed in what they were
doing, and though they were murdering an innocent man, they believed
they were fulfilling the law of Moses, and they took the law
of Moses as their justifying step. We read in Leviticus 24,
16, He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall be surely
put to death under the old law. And all the congregation shall
certainly stone him, as well as the stranger, as he that is
born in the land. When he blasphemeth the name
of the Lord, shall he be put to death. And of course the false
witnesses had to take the lead in the execution and we read
in verse 14 in Leviticus 24. This is what they were basing
what they were doing on. Bring him forth that hath cursed
without the camp and let all that heard him lay their hands
upon his head and let all the congregation stone him. As we
read down this Closing section of chapter 7. Such was the amount
of physical energy required in doing to death this dear child
of God. The Bible tells us that they
took their coats off. They had to gather the stones.
It wasn't some little small pebble they were gathering remember.
They had to gather these stones. And such was the effort required
under the hot eastern sun. They took their coats off in
case they would get in their way and they led them at a young
man's feet. Verse 58, whose name was Saul.
This young man was to become one greatly feared amongst the
New Testament Christians and then greatly revered amongst
them. The persecutor was by the grace
of God transformed into the preacher. But that day he kept the clothes
of the men who had worked up such a sweat and a frenzy that
they wanted to take those stones and to hurl them at that first
martyr of the New Testament era. But God was overruling here at
the death of Stephen. God was overruling as God always
overrules in all of our circumstances. I thought of Wealthy Macfadyen
and of the whole church gathering together on Saturday night, forty
years as clerk of session. Those who have served in the
session know just how difficult it is and especially a clerk
of session is a most difficult task. Forty years and the church
met together to send him off and the next day the Lord took
him home. God overruled And even in the
most tragical circumstances God overruled. And that young man
who held those coats was to become the greatest soul winner, missionary
and preacher that probably the New Testament Church has ever
seen. We all have to face death, brethren and sisters. But if
at our death such a work of grace is wrought as was wrought at
the death of Stephen, it will be to God's glory and the advancement
of God's kingdom such as never before in life and in death. Let us seek to glorify and to
live for God. When we come to die expect malice. I've been reading again a pilgrim
as he crossed the river and as Pilgrim crossed the river his
whole mind was saturated with all of the sins and how he had
failed the Lord and he took his eyes of the Lord and the river
he couldn't feel the bottom and he felt himself sinking, sinking
in the river but Hopeful told him keep your eyes on the Lord don't let your mind be preoccupied
with your failures let it be upon the Lord And then his faith
was strengthened and Bunyan's wonderful narrative tells us
how he found his feet again and he made his way across. John
Trapp, one of the Puritans said, when he came to die the hounds
of hell were still snopping at his heels. And there was snopping,
there was mollusk right to the end but there was victory over
the mollusk. God overrules even our very deathbed
saints to his glory and to the praise of his great eternal name.
I want you to notice secondly the strength of grace that was
in the life of Stephen at death. Verse 55 tells me that he was
full of the Holy Ghost. The persecutors of Stephen were
full of satanic power but this man was full of grace and full
of Holy Ghost power. When initially chosen chapter
6 and 3 tells me he was full of the Holy Ghost and now at
death He is still full of the Holy Ghost. It's a wonderful
thing, brethren and sisters, to live as you die and to die
as you live. Those who are full of the Holy
Ghost are fit for service, either to live or to die for Christ. And if your service is especially
difficult in life, He'll equip you for it. And if your death
is especially difficult, He'll equip you for it. That's what
the promise of the Holy Ghost is. And it doesn't matter how
we die. None of us know how we die. We say sometimes some Christians
don't get away easy. Others get away harder. But irrespective
of how the Lord takes us or how we cross over, there's grace
in the dying. because there is the strength
of God in the dying. He was full of the Holy Ghost.
Our greatest requirement is to live for Christ in the power
of the Holy Ghost and we read in 1 Peter 4, 12-14 that we are
not to think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you as though some strange thing happened unto you. We read in
verse 14, If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy
are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken
of, but on your part he is glorified. In life as in death, let us ever
glorify God. There is grace, there is strength
of grace in the life of Stephen which enabled him to die well.
Do you know how you die well, Christian? You live well. That's how you die well. You
live well. Thirdly, notice the Saviour's
manifestation of himself to Stephen. We're at the final moments, he's
just at the river, he's crossing over. Death is about to usher
him out from life completely into God's eternity. and facing
death and the pain associated with it. There was pain and with
some believers there is pain as they die. But facing death
and the pain associated with it, Stephen was given a glimpse
of the glory of Christ just prior to it. A glimpse that very few
that we read of in the New Testament were so privileged with. And
this experience I believe it was given to Stephen to fortify
him that he might be enabled to bear a good testimony right
to the very end that as those stones reeled in upon him that
he would be enabled to keep the faith right to the very last
moment. Stephen looked beyond his present
circumstances into heaven. He saw what was ahead of him.
and it's the heavenly gifts which enables us to face the trials
and tribulations of life. Remember when Christian and hopeful
were in Beulahland they looked toward the city and the city
was so bright it dazzled them. Keep looking toward the city.
Keep your eye on heaven. In looking heavenward he signified
his sufferings were for the glory of God. Others would have to
follow him. Like Saul. Saul one day would
have to follow Stephen. He was being taught even before
he enlisted in the school of Christ. And one day Saul would
be able to say I am now ready to be offered. He learnt it from Stephen in
Acts chapter 7. I have learned much from dying
saints, and I have seen how God has glorified
through them. In looking, God gave him a glimpse
of Emmanuel's land. I see the heavens opened, and
the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. here is a man surrounded by a
mob they are baying for his blood stones are raining in upon him
and what does he say? I see your venomous face I see
your murderous intentions he has his eyes of all of time
and he says I see heaven opened what a sight he had for he saw
the son of God standing on the right hand of God. Stephen sees him standing. That's very unusual. The usual
depiction is of Christ sitting but in this instance he's standing.
He's standing up for his servant. All of this mob is against him
but here we have one in heaven and he's standing up for this
dear blood-bought child of God. He's standing up for him and
he's saying he's mine. He's standing up for Stephen. He's looking out for him and
he stands there welcoming him, ready to beckon him and to receive
him in. When we come to die, there's
a Saviour. the same saviour as Stephen had
and he's standing up for us he's victorious over death he's victorious
over the grave and through his victory we too shall be victorious
and he's standing there ready to receive us and to welcome
us in we could not even begin to imagine what
this must have meant to Stephen Christ standing up for him. And
when we come to die there's nothing that cheers that lonesome valley
so much as the thought that there's a light in the valley of death
now for me since Jesus came into my heart. This is the bright
hope for all of the people of God. It's a lonesome valley and
it's beautifully depicted by Bunyan in going over the river
but it's not a dark valley. because the Saviour brightens
it. He is our faithful shepherd, one that will see us through.
We don't get grace today before we come today. You needn't look
for it tonight. If you've got it tonight, you're
saying something that the rest of us don't understand, you get
it when you come to the river. Stephen saw this mighty picture
of Christ standing in heaven, standing in heaven at the right
hand of God ready to receive him just when he came to die.
And when you and I come to die there will be one standing there
too to receive us all. Fourthly I want you to notice
Stephen's supplication in facing death. Verse 59 and 60. Oh how Christlike he was. As they stoned Stephen He prayed. He prayed for himself. And we
are taught to commend our souls and our spirits into the hands
of Christ at death. In Luke 23, verse 46, we read,
When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. His soul was his sole concern
as he was dying. We leave these bodies. Our souls
leave these bodies for death. The definition for death for
the Christian is the moment the soul departs the body. They might
keep the body alive physically by machines as they can do nowadays
but the body is dead because the soul has departed. And the saviour is the only one
who can help us in our dying moments. and it is sweet consolation in
knowing that in death Christ receives these unworthy souls
of ours into his presence. He prayed for himself, he prayed
for his persecutors. Verse 60 Lord lay not this sin
to their charge Be ye angry, Ephesians 4.26 says,
and sin not, and let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Don't close the day, dear brother
or sister, in anger or in wrath. But before you close the day,
pray for those who have misused you today. Pray for those who
have slighted you today. Pray for those who have wronged
you today. Pray for them. Because that's exactly what Stephen
did. at the very point of death. What
an example he was following. Remember Jesus in Luke 24.34
he said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Fundamentalists are usually caricatured
as angry people. Sometimes some Christians say
they have every right to be angry. Well if you can be angry and
not sin, you have a right to be angry. Because that's righteous
anger. But I will guarantee you, 99
times out of 100, it's not righteous anger. It's just sin. I don't know what impression Stephen's death
made on others, but it made a mighty impression on the soul of Tarsus. Oftentimes deathbed scenes you
don't get an opportunity to preach but you'll get one to pray and
on such occasions prayer can preach and his action was done
so that all would hear. He must have prayed out aloud
as recorded He prayed out aloud. What they had done needed God's
forgiveness because it was sin. He prayed, forgive them. And
if they had to answer for the charge, how great would be the
reckoning? And he didn't wait until they
asked his forgiveness, did he? They had no opportunity to ask
his forgiveness. He prayed, Lord you forgive them. Proverbs 29.10 tells me the bloodthirsty
hate the upright but the just seek his soul. Though their sin
was great Stephen desired forgiveness from God for them even as he
died. It is likely that Saul of Tarsus
heard Stephen pray and was moved by it. But God answered that
prayer of a deathbed. And we read of Saul's conversion
just a few chapters over. I wonder when you and I come to
die, will we still be praying? Will we be praying for ourselves?
Will we be praying for those who have wronged us? will we
be praying for those who need the mercy and the forgiveness
of God. To such heaven is opened and to see the Saviour standing
at the Father's right hand. Don't go through life, dear brother
or sister, with anger or bitterness towards your fellow believer. Because of death it all fades
away. or even toward your bitterest
enemy don't be bitterer because a death that all fades
away we see Stephen and he says Lord
lay not this sin to their charge and when he had said this he
fell asleep just another fatal blow struck him God said enough
and took him out into his presence. His death is likened unto a sleep.
It's not the sleep of the soul but it's the sleep of the body.
When we put the body in the earth we're really in essence saying
the body is sleeping because one day it's going to awaken
again isn't it at the resurrection when the trump of God shall sound
and the dead shall be raised. It's going to be raised again
and be reunited with the soul and be perfectly made into the
likeness and image of Christ. His departure was peaceful, he
went to sleep. Though wicked men aimed their
stones at him, they didn't achieve their objective. He was at rest
and he was at peace in the Lord. When we come to die and depart
this scene of time, may the peace and the grace that was exemplified
in the life of Stephen, may it be likewise exemplified within
our own lives. May we have rest at the end of
the journey and peace. Peace with God but peace with
each other and to leave behind a peaceful
legacy and not full of bitterness or wrath or mass. I've looked at Stephen and I
think he teaches us not just how to live but he shows us how we ought
to die. May God give us the continued grace to live in the light of
the life of Stephen. And when he comes he only brings
us to the end of the journey to die the death that likewise
this dear child of God experienced.
When believers come to die
| Sermon ID | 741012245 |
| Duration | 32:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Prayer Meeting |
| Bible Text | Acts 7:54-60 |
| Language | English |
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