Acts 7 Troubed days

You remember, Stephen has given his defense, which in effect is an attack upon the position of the Sadducees and the Pharisees concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and their reaction to it. They are incensed at the bravery and the eloquence of this young man, and here is their reaction set down from the fifty-fourth verse and onwards. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

But he, Stephen, 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. 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 knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.

Amen. Now I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bibles open at the passage that we've read together. It was found at the end of the seventh and on into the first few verses of the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

I wonder if you know what I mean by the convention feeling, the convention feeling. I'm referring to that sort of feeling that one has at the end of spending two or three days or maybe a week or perhaps a fortnight in a Christian community. You've gathered together for the meditation upon the Word of God.

You've come together to praise the Lord and to really have a good time, a sort of Keswick convention. And the convention feeling is very much with you. Heaven has kissed your soul and you think, my, this is great to be a Christian.

I could live in this atmosphere all the days of my life and it really would be wonderful. But the convention feeling didn't last. It never does.

You see, the reason is this, that Christians are called to live out their beliefs, not in some secluded, closed community that generally gathers at convention time, but rather in the world in front of a contemptuous and often hostile crowd. And the genuineness of Christian faith is tested as experience rains its own hammer blows down upon the anvil of our faith. And it's that sort of experience that I reckon the early Christians were going through at Jerusalem, as is depicted from the 54th verse onwards of the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

I'm so bold as to make this observation, there was little of a convention feeling because there they were having to live out their lives, not in a closed community, not in a rarefied atmosphere, but amidst all the hostility that was let loose at Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen and the persecution which followed. It is good, and one thanks God for the interest that is being shown these days in the work of the Holy Spirit and the desire to recapture something of the power and something of the enthusiasm and something of the initiative of the Christians whose story is depicted so colourfully and so accurately in this fifth book of the New Testament. But in your studies of the experimental work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early Christian Church, you are not to be choosy.

You are not just to spotlight your attention upon the sensational and the supernatural, and therefore the enjoyable and the encouraging, over against those things in the Acts of the Apostles that speak of problems, of difficulty, of hostility, of the hammer blows being rained upon the anvil of the early Church. True, one rejoices in the way that God in remarkable fashion inaugurated the Church on the day of Pentecost and of the blessing that attended those 120 or more who were present and received the fullness of the Spirit, the baptism of the Spirit. And when one rejoices to see the demonstration of apostolic power in the experience of the lame man who was begging for arms by the beautiful gate and solicited the aid of Peter and his colleague, one is grateful that this man received strength and was able to walk.

One praises God for the bold, if not the eloquent fashion, indeed the eloquent fashion in which the disciples conducted themselves when they were brought before the Sanhedrin and gave an account of their faith in Jesus Christ. But when you've thrown your attention upon these attractive things, don't pass the unattractive. Don't wear blinkers when you're trying to work out some understanding of the experience of the early Church, because the path that they trod was not strewn with primroses, it was saturated on occasions with blood.

And those of us who would love to regain apostolic power must recognize that the people of the early Church paid an apostolic price, and sometimes we're more concerned about the power than what we are about the price, more concerned about the attractive than what we are about the way the early disciples had to crucify themselves with Christ and count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus. And that's why I have felt this week completely unable to leave this study of Stephen and what followed his death and go on into the eighth chapter, the hearts of the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, because as I read the experience of Stephen and as I see what happened at Jerusalem in the first four verses of the eighth chapter, there is here at least for me some leveling of my approach to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and some greater understanding granted as to what is meant by a spirit-filled man and the sort of characteristics that such a man should display. It's all right to claim to be spirit-filled, to have an experience of Jesus Christ and for everything to be lovely in your garden when you're in the atmosphere of a convention, but when all hell is let loose on the streets of Jerusalem as to be the case when Stephen was stoned, then what level is your spirit fullness at? In other words, what I'm saying is this, when you enter the reading of the Acts of the Apostles from the fifty-fourth verse of the seventh chapter, you're entering into one of the valley experiences of the early church.

If I may quote a series of sermons I preached some while ago, and this fifty-fourth verse onwards right down to the fourth of the eighth chapter describes what was a very terrible experience for the members of the Christian community at Jerusalem. And when you read these verses, then you should read them reverently and carefully and accept everything that is set down here and ask yourself, in that sort of environment could I live for Jesus Christ? In that sort of environment would I still be claiming that I am a spirit-filled Christian? They were going through the waters of persecution, through the fires of persecution, through the waters of great temptation and difficulty, and how do we find these men reacting? Let me just spend a moment or two setting the scene a little more clearly in case the scenery is not familiar to you. In fact, the scene hardly needs setting any further than what we find explicit in Scripture here, because we're told that when the Sanhedrin and those who were listening to the defense of Stephen heard him, they became incensed.

Look at the fifty-fourth verse, when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth, gnashing of teeth as a result of this man's declaration of his faith in Jesus Christ. And after they did him to death in such a foul and also illegal fashion, we discover in the opening verses of chapter 8 that there had come a leader for the party who would persecute the Christians by the name of Saul, and he fanned the fires of persecution throughout the whole of Jerusalem. Look at the way the persecution is described in the first verse of the eighth chapter, a great persecution.

With a net result, there was upheaval. The Christians were scattered. They were fearful as to what the next knock on the door would bring for them, whether it would be a summons to be brought in front of Saul, whether they would have to be thrown into jail at Jerusalem.

And all this is implied within the story, is it not? Look at the third verse, Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. And that word havoc there is a very interesting one, if you want to get the context of this passage really into your mind. It's the same sort of word as the Greeks would have used to describe the effect of a wild animal after it has set upon its foe.

It played havoc, it savaged him. And this is precisely what Saul and his colleagues are doing at Jerusalem, that animosity is directed towards men of the ilk of Stephen, and they savage them. Now, I've taken time in putting this into relief because I must come back to what I was asking you a few moments ago.

In that circumstance, in that situation, how would you cope? In troubled days, for this is what is described here in this passage, in troubled days, how would you live for your life for Jesus Christ? In troubled days in the 20th century, how do you live them? All right, the scenery may be different for you. It must of necessity be the case, as I doubt whether anyone has been through this same situation as these early disciples experienced. But we all know what trouble is.

We all know what testings are in our Christian experience. We all know the truth of what I was trying to say some while ago, and perhaps expressed it dramatically, but only in the clarity that the path of the Christian is not strewn with flowers, but is sometimes stained with blood. Well, how do spirit-filled people cope with circumstances that are untoward? How do they react in a situation like that which confronted Stephen to the point of his death, and confronted the members of the church at Jerusalem as they were caused to leave the holy city because of the persecution? How does spirit-filled people cope with a valley? Let me say this, and I make all my observations, and I trust to be able to demonstrate this point from this passage, which has occupied a great deal of my thinking this last week.

Spirit-filled people continue to practice the presence of Jesus Christ. They continue to practice the presence of Jesus Christ. This is the thing that stands out supremely in the experience of Stephen.

It didn't really matter what happened to him during those days of his Christian experience, and his time of being a Christian was not very long. You remember I made comment on that last week. The thing that stands out paramountly, I say, is his experience of Jesus Christ.

And even to the moment of his foul execution, he was in contact with the Savior, which leads me to make this observation that Jesus Christ is never incommunicado. He's never out of contact with ordinary people who name his name, such as you and me. He can't be.

He's bound to be involved in the affairs of his church. Why? Well, Scripture tells us this, that Jesus's church is his body on earth, and he is the head. Physically, it would be impossible to sustain life if the head was severed from the body.

And I say the fact that Jesus Christ has a direct relationship to his persecuted church at Jerusalem is discovered in the experience of Stephen, who practices the presence of Jesus Christ, even at a time when everything is going terribly, terribly wrong on the human level in his life. What happened to Stephen? Well, just before he was stoned to death, that's what I'm getting at. What happened then? He had a tremendous experience of Jesus.

He had a vision of Jesus. He saw Jesus in heaven, at the right hand of his father. This is what we read of in the fifty-fifth verse.

He being full of the Holy Ghost, mark that expression, 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. Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Is that what you said, Stephen? Because there are other scriptures that refer to the Lord Jesus Christ and his position in the glory as one who is seated at his father's right hand.

But Stephen, you say that you saw him standing, and if you're right, as you must be, because the record's inspired by the Spirit, then what is implied by the fact that Jesus Christ was standing at the moment of Stephen's being stoned to death? Listen to Campbell Morgan at this point. Campbell Morgan says this, that Jesus Christ is depicted as standing on the right hand of God at this particular time, because a member of his body was in pain and suffering. He stood to minister to him in his hour of agony.

When Stephen, a member of the great body on earth, was in pain, the agony was felt in heaven, and the head of the body stood. You see what I mean, my dear friends, when I argue this point, that spirit-filled men during a time of trouble practice the presence of Jesus. And it's not a one-way thing.

It's not just me reaching out to Jesus in the fires of persecution, in the depths of my depression, when all the billows of life are sweeping over my head. The scripture implies this, that Jesus is reaching out to me. Jesus standing as an acknowledgement that there's a man down there on earth who's going through great pain on behalf of the propagation of his gospel.

And as a token of this, as an acknowledgement of this, Jesus stands to show his involvement in the spread of the gospel here on this earth, his fellow feeling in the pain received by Stephen, because he is going through this difficulty in the name of Jesus Christ. And I say it's always the same, this interrelationship between Jesus and those who belong to him. He is the head, we are the body, and the head feels when the body is in pain.

And the man or the woman who this morning is going through difficulty in their Christian life, surely there is balm for you here, surely there is consolation for you here. Jesus is not incommunicado. Jesus is not insensitive.

And the spirit-filled man, as he reaches out to Jesus, appreciates that Jesus in turn is reaching out towards him. How does a spirit-filled person react in times of difficulty, in troubled days? He practices the presence of Jesus. But the second thing I observe from this passage of Scripture is that spirit-filled men always recognize the sovereignty of God.

They always recognize the sovereignty of God. I never make apology from this pulpit in saying that I believe in the absolute sovereignty of God. I cannot logically explain all its ramifications, all its developments, but the Bible teaches this most clearly.

And my own experience dovetails with the teaching of Scripture, that our God is sovereign in all things. There is one who sits on the circle of the globe. All power eventually is traced back to him.

It is through him that kings rule. It is through him that power is delegated. Now this situation that had occurred at Jerusalem, the outbreak of persecution which followed the death of Stephen, did this take God by surprise? Was it something that happened and caught heaven looking the wrong way? Was it a sort of ambush approach on the part of the devil? Is this the way that you read the story? No, indeed.

God was sovereign. God was aware of what was happening. And it's the very doctrine of the sovereignty of God that qualifies the Christian to cope with all the difficult circumstances that life might bring, qualifies him far more than any other person on this earth.

How do I reckon to claim this teaching on the sovereignty of God, to find this teaching of the sovereignty of God in this passage of Scripture? Well, quite easily. Come down to the fourth verse of the eighth chapter, will you? And there you find, if my English grammar lessons stand me in good stead, a conjunction, the word therefore. It's a link word.

It is hinging together what has been expressed in the previous verses, with the thoughts that follow. What has been expressed in the previous verses? Well, there's been a further description of all the trouble that the church has been in since the death of Stephen. This terrible persecution brought about largely through the evil working of one man's soul.

Now, all this has happened at Jerusalem. Men and women have been carted off into prison. Others have had to leave the holy city.

Why has this happened? What is the purpose behind it? What is the result? Well, go on with verse four. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the gospel, preaching the word. It was Tom Reese who quipped, whenever you come across the word therefore in the Bible, ask yourself what it's there for.

Why is this word included? It's not just an extra one that Luke has used to fill out the narrative. I say it's a linchpin. It explains the link between what went before and what followed.

The persecution arose at Jerusalem. The net result was the dispersal of the Christians around Palestine and eventually further afield. And because they were scattered abroad, the purposes of God were fulfilled.

In what sense? In the sense that Jesus left his disciples with the mandate of going into all the world and preaching the gospel. And there was the possibility that Jerusalem itself would entirely house the headquarters of Christianity, be the focal point. All the evangelistic work would center around Jerusalem.

And this was not within the providence of God for the early Christians. So the great eagle, if I may use an illustration from a sermon I preached some while ago, the great eagle came down and disturbed the nest of the early Christians at Jerusalem and caused them to be dispersed around Palestine and eventually sent them out to the uttermost parts of the world. God working out his sovereign plan in and through the experience of these Christians at Jerusalem.

I say these were not panic-stricken measures on the part of God. He did not cause his church to disperse simply because of the persecution having caught him unawares. All dovetails, all fits together in this picture of the sovereignty of the Lord.

The devil never taking God by chance, never finding him unawares of what is happening. And I dare say this, my friend, that the early church, the members of the early church recognized the sovereignty of God in this. They appreciated that God indeed did want them to go throughout the world and to preach the gospel.

And they realized that in the unpleasantness of their experience at Jerusalem, nonetheless, God was working out his plan for them, his purpose for them. And as it was in the days of the early church, so it is today in the 20th century. Things come into our lives, experiences occur, days of trouble crop up.

And what do we find? We find that in it all, through it all, by it all, and because of it all, God is working out his purposes. And the man who is spirit-filled is the man who, during days of darkness, is the man who, when he's going through the waters of tribulation, can still place his faith in a sovereign God and believe that he's working out his plan and his purpose for him. Easy enough to claim to be a Christian, to be walking with the Lord when you've got the convention atmosphere, but not so easy when your atmosphere is akin to that that was on the streets at Jerusalem.

But oh, may God in his infinite grace give us the ability to recognize his sovereignty in foul weather as well as in fair. So I say that the spirit-filled man, during days of problems, practices the presence of Jesus, and he still clings to the doctrine of God's sovereignty in his life. But let me conclude by breaking the text up, by breaking the passage up in one, under one further heading.

The spirit-filled man always seizes the opportunity. What do I mean by that? Well, come back to verse 4 and go on even into verse 5. Here are these people who have rudely roughly been treated at Jerusalem. They've had to leave.

And what do they do when they leave? Do they for a while abdicate as far as their faith in Jesus is concerned? Do they refuse to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do they say, well when things get easier, you know, when my circumstances are sorted out, well then I'll come back and I'll take up where I've left off. No, they don't. The spirit-filled man never does that.

He seizes the opportunity that is presented to him during days of difficulty and distress. And this is precisely what the fourth verse is saying. Therefore, they that were scattered, those who had experienced this breakout of persecution at Jerusalem and were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the word.

And that word preaching is not the technical word that is generally applied in the acts of the apostles to the man who has been given a specific gift of ministry. It's rather the general word that covers gospel communication by every Christian, by every member of the family of God. Now I find this to be a tremendous picture.

And sometimes when my heart desires to go back to the days of the acts of the apostles, I have to ask myself, am I of the same ilk as these people? Think of it, my friends. Let me try and put it to you in a contemporary situation so that you can understand just what these people were going through. Imagine some bizarre happening here in Worthing and we suddenly discover that all of the town authorities were against us.

All the police were against us. It was dangerous to continue living in Worthing. We had to up anchor.

All the means of our livelihood have been severed and we're going somewhere and we're not quite knowing where the destination is. Now I ask you, in that sort of situation, would you preach the gospel? And I ask myself the same thing. And honesty makes me waver in giving an affirmative for my answer.

And would to God that more of us could give an affirmative to an answer as an answer to such a question as that. And when we can, and when we reach that particular place, then I think we will understand what I meant some while ago when I said that apostolic power requires an apostolic price. You may have a naive doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the experimental work of the Holy Spirit.

I'm always very, very suspicious about easy, simple formula that go around proclaiming that they are able to unlock the mystery of God's dealings with us in our lives. The doctrine of the experimental work of the Spirit of God is not as easy as that. It's not as simple as that.

But what I do say is this, that when a person can go through a situation the like of which broke out on the streets of Jerusalem and still proclaim the gospel as he's got his bags packed and he's setting off for some remote part of Palestine, then that man is Spirit-filled. Then that man knows what it is to be baptized in the Spirit in all the fullness of that term. And would to God that more of us were of the ilk of these people who were the first members of the glorious Church of Jesus Christ at Jerusalem.

Let me conclude my meditation this morning. I've tried to show you certain further characteristics that attend the Spirit-filled man as he copes with problems. He's a man who's always practicing the presence of Jesus and realizes that the Lord Jesus Christ is reaching out towards him.

He's a man who always appreciates that the sovereignty of God is at work despite what happens to him in his life. He's a man who's always a gospel communicator no matter what the circumstances may be. Now, as I say, let me draw these thoughts to a conclusion.

And I do it by reminding you of one or two things that we've already learned, but perhaps they're not at the forefront of our attention. There were two graves at Jerusalem, by the time you get into the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. One grave housed the mortal remains of Ananias and Sapphira.

The other grave housed the mortal remains of Stephen. Someone has said this, in one or other of these graves, we shall be buried. Over the grave of Ananias and Sapphira there was no lamentation, as there was according to the second verse of the eighth chapter of the grave of Stephen.

These were people who claimed to give their all to Jesus Christ and yet kept back a great amount. And when they went, they were not missed. There was no memorial that they had erected in their lives to Jesus Christ.

There was no success that attended their ministry. They wanted the power, but they weren't prepared to pay the price. That was one of the graves at Jerusalem.

The other was the grave of Stephen, a man who not only said, I surrender all, but he did surrender all. A man who committed all that he had to Jesus Christ, and when he died, he was missed. One of the greatest Christians of all time was done to death by the stones of Jewish antagonists outside the city of Jerusalem, and when Stephen was buried, there was great lamentation made over him.

And yet the ministry of Stephen lived on, because he was successful in the way that he conducted his life for Jesus Christ. Now I tell you that in these two graves is a distinction, is a differentiation that can be drawn right down the ages and into the 20th century between Christians. Those who are buried in the grave of Ananias and Sapphira, and those who are buried in the grave of Stephen.

Let me change the metaphor, but sustain the point. And now I'm quoting A.W. Tozer. He refers to the Christian who is like the fallow field, and the Christian who's like the ploughed field.

A fallow field is never disturbed by the tractor, and the net result is it never produces anything of much benefit. The ploughed field is disturbed by the plough. It's churned up.

It's made to feel uncomfortable. It goes through difficult experiences. The fallow field, and the ploughed field.

Ananias and Sapphira, the fallow field. Stephen, the ploughed field. Miracles only follow the plough, and that field that is left fallow never produces anything for Jesus Christ.

And the man who can take trouble and tribulation as it comes, the man who works out God's sovereignty in and through his circumstances, and does not abdicate his faith in Jesus Christ, does not go in parentheses as far as his service is concerned until things come a smoother in his life. That man is following the same course as was set by Stephen. It's in the terms of that man's ministry that the power of God shall be felt, because miracles only follow the plough.

And may God in his grace, as we cope with any problems that come into our lives, help us to accept what God brings, and to ensure that our ministry is in line, traces its ancestry back to that of Stephen, rather than that of Ananias and Sapphira. In one or other of those graves, says the commentator, we shall be buried unless the Lord comes before our departure from this scene of time. May it be that our grave will be in the same place, metaphorically speaking, as that is the spirit-filled man, Stephen.

For the sake and the honour of our Saviour. Amen.