Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon April 6, 2008
When I was just a kid, there were few times when it was okay to light up a match at home without getting into trouble. Lighting up birthday candles on cakes were those rare sanctioned moments. Have you ever tried to see how many candles you could light up with just one match? You light up the candles with just one match that is until your brain begins to register pain from your fingers. I used to love playing with matches. Well, I am glad to report to you that I haven’t turned out a pyromaniac by God’s grace.
This is an analogy of Christian life. Consider your life as a match and your purpose in life as lighting up as many candles as you can. “How many candles, how many lives can you light up with your one match, your one life? There is a cost to light up as many candles as you can. It takes certain amount of pain tolerance to be able to light up as many candles as you can. And, ultimately it will cost your match, your life.
To shine brightly in darkness is what Jesus desires of us. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” And, this call to be the shining light is really about God has done for us through his Son Jesus Christ. The prophesy by Zechariah in Luke 1:78-79 speaks to this reality. “because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Jesus comes to our lives and shines on us. And, we who live in darkness, in the shadow of death, by the light of Christ, we are given the liberty, healing from diseases, peace out of chaos.
Today’s passage Acts 6:8-15 speaks to what happened to Stephen, how Jesus shone his light on him, and how Stephen responded to Jesus light and became the light of the world. It is not an overstatement to say that there is none of us whose life is not affected and influenced by how Stephen lived and died. The flame of his life was snuffed out long ago by facing a violent death, but his death was not in vain. It was who he was, what he did, how he lived and died that enable Christianity to move beyond the boundary of Jerusalem, the Jewish circle. Here was a man whose life and death was not wasted. How many lives, candles did he light up with his one life, one match? The answer is countless lives. He did this by helping Christianity break away from the Jewish mold defined by the law and the temple. Stephen experienced God’s grace that enabled him to fulfill God’s law from his heart and he experienced God’s Spirit who is not bound by the physical limitation.
To be able to do this, he had to be a man of character, courage and radiance. This is what we are going to see from Acts 6:8-15. And, his character, his courage, and his radiance are what made him shine like a star in the universe to borrow the expression Paul in Philippians 2:15.
And, your and my job is to open our hearts to the ministry of the Holy Spirit who wants to fashion us after Stephen, to be men and women of character, courage and radiance, who experience the light of Jesus Christ so that we move out of darkness and destruction into the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what God wants to do.
- A person of character.
We learned from last week that Stephen was one of the seven men chosen by the church of Jerusalem, commissioned by the apostles.
The non-negotiable quality common to all seven was that they were known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom in 6:3. And, in 6:5, Stephen is specifically noted for being a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And, in 6:8 he is described as a man full of God’s grace and power.
Wisdom for Stephen meant knowing that God is God, and he is not, that God is his Maker, and he is God’s workmanship, creation, that God is untamable one who demands utmost reverence from his creation, his people. In C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Lucy one of the children in Narnia asked Mr. Beaver about Aslan if Aslan is safe. Now, Aslan is not just any lion, but a great Lion, the King of the Beasts and the real ruler of Narnia who illustrates Jesus Christ. Mr. Beaver answered, “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” And, wisdom knows that this King, unsafe, yet good King is Jesus Christ who dwells in us among us through his suffering, his death and resurrection. Wisdom is to know we belong to our Maker, to our King, to our Lord and Savior.
And, with this wisdom of knowing where one belongs, Stephen placed his faith, his trust in God. But, his faith was not a partial or flickering deal. He was known as a man full of faith, meaning he was a person of deep conviction who took God at his word. To him, the Word of God wasn’t an optional thing to be considered or ignored at his convenience or circumstance. Full of faith is abiding faith, abiding trust in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Full of faith knows no other way than Jesus as truly the way, the truth, and the life. And, these are non-negotiable, definitive, uncompromising qualities of Christ that demands full trust.
It is like this. You have this fever, soaring temperature, causing you to feel weak, chill, and even body aches all over. You go to your medicine cabinet. You pick up a medicine bottle and start reading the direction. You know what it says, you believe what it says, how effective this medicine is to treat your problems. But, then, you put the bottle back in the medicine cabinet. And, you walk away and don’t loose the fever, chill, weakness and body aches. Many of us approach faith in this way. Yah, I know Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Well, I believe it. Yet, I turn around and walk in my way, believe in how I feel about things, and try to build my life with my effort. And, I continue believing that I am smarter than Jesus to know what the way, the truth and the life is.
We desperately needs to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We are like “Sleeper” who needs to be awakened from the dead. It says in Ephesians 5:14, “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Pause and think through. Do you have the understanding that you belong to God? Do you have the kind of faith that takes steps to take Jesus, be taken by him because you are convinced he is truly the healing medicine? And, do you know that you suffer terminal disease apart from Jesus? To be people of character, we need to wake up. We need to rise from the dead and walk to Jesus. He will shine on us. He will heal us. Really, Jesus is the only who can transform our character, to be people of wisdom, faith. If you want it, if you want it enough, the Spirit will do it. But, you got to want it and ask for it. It is the Holy Spirit who bears witness to our souls through God’s word that our ways are somehow utterly deficient to deal with life’s fevers, diseases, issues and complexities. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us that Jesus is truly the life saving medicine we must take in order to be cure of the all emotional disease, sins, and destructive habits.
- A person of courage.
As a person of character in his wisdom, faith, he was also a person of courage. It says that Stephen was a man full of God’s grace and power in 6:8, which allowed him to do great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
And, being full of God’s grace and power he met the opposition arose from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen. Synagogues were meeting places where the Jewish community assembled to read the Scriptures and worship. It started during the Babylonian captivity when the exiles didn’t have means to worship God in the temple.
Among those who met in the synagogues were Freedmen. These were basically the Jews who had been freed from slavery. Some of the descendants of Jewish slaves who were captured by Pompey in 63 B.C. were taken to Rome but later granted freedom. Cyrenians and Alexandrians: from two major cities of North Africa – Cyrene was the home of Simon who carried Jesus’ cross (Luke 23:26). Cilicia and Asia were in Roman provinces in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey.
It says in verse 9 that they began to argue with Stephen, but verse 10, they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Here is the reality. When you and I grow in character and courage, the natural thing that will happen is opposition.
African Impala has this amazing ability to jump high as 10 feet and 30 feet apart. But, when it cannot see where its feet will land, it doesn’t jump. So, a simple 3-foot enclosures that obstruct its view from seeing where its feet can land if it were to jump, the enclosures can effectively limit Impala from simply jumping over them.
Stephen’s faith and wisdom, being full of the Holy Spirit allowed him to see what’s behind the three feel enclosures, not with the physical eyes, but with the spiritual eyes. This is how he became a man of courage. He didn’t have the fear that he couldn’t see beyond the obstructing wall. With God’s help, he knew he could jump over the enclosures and land on his feel on the solid ground. These Jews, the Freedmen who opposed him could have been easily the 3 foot enclosures that would have pacified Stephen.
How about you? Are you suffering from ‘African Impala syndrome’? Are you lacking courage and are you fearful that you won’t land on the solid ground that you will fall on your face, and that things will not work out. Do you shy away from the oppositions and the obstacles?
- Radiance
It says in verse 15, all those who looked intently at Stephen… saw that his face was like the face of an angel. It means that somehow Stephen’s face had this glow about him. It was radiance of God’s glory.
In Exodus 34, you read about when Moses had his encounters with God in Mount Sinai. Moses also had this glow about him every time he met God; the radiance of God’s glory was on him so much that he put a veil to cover his face.
Radiance is simply the result of spending time with God. When you are before the Lord, when God bathes you with his glory, his presence, you become a spiritual sponge that soaks up God’s radiance, his glory, his presence and slowly release it as you go through the day.
Cogency of thinking- Jesus said so and meant then it matters – Jesus’ validity
Conviction of the word and the Spirit
- mastered by the word
Cost of the stance- rejection
Consequence – beyond his death – life that rippled through the landmark of Christianity. He sunk deep into water, but his impact felt.
- The church that fled, yet it was the very thing that propelled the greater movement of the church. The gospel was released beyond the boundaries of time and space.
- Conversion of the apostle Paul
The God on the move, expansion,
God is institution shaking God.
God is idol shattering God.
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