It is good to be here for 1,000 different reasons. I echo Bentley’s thanks to you. Being a campus minister here this weekend, this is the time of the semester where disappointment begins to set in. The beginning of the year is over, our football teams have lost already, we are trucking toward the end of the semester and already tired, and yet this Sunday has really filled me with life. So thank you for the encouragement. It’s good to be here because this church is one of the most faithful supporters, a church that prays for RUF, a church that loves RUF, and I don’t think y’all do that because you just love the ministry of RUF. I don’t think you do that because you love your universities. I think you do that because you love Jesus and you long for college students to love Jesus and you’re investing in the future of the church. And for that, we are so grateful as your campus ministers as you send us your children, as you pray for us, as you think of us, as you encourage us. So thank you for encouraging us this weekend.
Another reason why I am so grateful to be here is because this was my church home for four years while I was in seminary. I was an intern among you with the young adults and I am constantly reminded by how well this church loved me and my family and taught me so much and continues to love me and my family. And so thank you for being a church that loves Jesus and loves others. But I’m not just here to thank you for 30 minutes; I am here to preach. So we will be in Acts chapter 7 if you have your Bibles. Acts chapter 7, on page 916 of your pew Bible.
And tonight we are going to be looking at a passage that is one of my favorite passages of Scripture that I refer to often. And I wonder if you would be surprised to know that one of my favorite passages of Scripture is actually about a man named Stephen dying. As morbid as that may sound, we might not be too surprised by something like that. We put our entire hope on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But one of the reasons why I think I love this passage, the end of Stephen’s life, is I think we see in the way this man dies, how we are to live. In other words, in the last moments of his life, what Stephen shows us is what it looks like for a person to be enamored with the beauty of Jesus. Stephen dies staring at Jesus, gazing upon His beauty quite literally, and I believe dies with a smile on his face because he can see his Savior and knows who he will be with for eternity. And the question that I want to ask as we look at this passage together tonight is, “Do we find Jesus beautiful? Do we find Him beautiful and worth our life and everything that we are?”
So to set some context here, Stephen is a deacon, one of the first deacons of the church. He was commissioned by the church to do a certain work and he did that work to gain the attention of a group of powerful men who question him on trumped up charges of heresy, bring him in, ask him to defend himself, he gives a defense of the Gospel and of Jesus, and then we find him in the world of trouble that is verse 54 of Acts chapter 7. This is God’s Word for us tonight:
“Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he” – Stephen – “full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fade and the Word of God stands forever. Let me pray and ask for God’s help.
Our Father in heaven, this is Your Word that we just read and we are Your people. And so mold us and shape us, make us who we were meant to be, and Jesus, help us to see You more clearly and find You more beautiful. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Anne Lamott tells a story in her book, Bird by Bird, of a family, a family we presume have two adopted children – one, about 7 to 8 year old boy, and a little girl about 1 year old. And they very quickly found out that this little girl, their daughter, was having some health problems and the diagnosis came in of a form of leukemia. The prognosis was not good, but the doctors did say there was a treatment we could do that would involve a blood transfusion that may help. And so the search was on for a match. Who could be the donor for this little girl? And the only donor found in the family was that of the brother, about 7 or 8 years old. And so the parents set the little boy down to ask him a question. “Would you be willing to give blood for your sister?” And these are one of those questions that parents ask where we’re going to make him do it anyways, but we’re presenting an opportunity to show character. And so they asked the question. And the little boy stops and thinks for a second and says, “Can I think about it and get back to you in the morning?” If I was the dad in that situation I would say, “No, you cannot think about that until the morning! You are going to do this!” But the parents respected him and said, “Think about it. We’ll talk in the morning.” The little boy got out of his bed in the morning and said, “I’ll do it.”
So the day of the procedure arrives. He was sitting in a hospital bed, blood was being drawn from his arm, and he closed his eyes and signed. And the nurse, thinking he was scared, asked him the question, “Do you need anything?” And the little boy opened his eyes with tears in his eyes and said, “Would you let me know when I’m about to die?” He was misunderstanding what he was being asked to do. He did not know he was being asked for some of his blood. He thought he was being asked for all of his blood. And so then go back to that night where he was thinking about it. That night, that little boy was thinking about not going through a little bit of suffering but giving his life for his sister. And at some point in that night he said he is going to do it because at some point in that night he said she was worth it. That is an amazing little boy.
And I tell that story because reading a story like this in the Bible, I don’t want us to lose amazement by what is happening here. Yes, this story is important for church history. Absolutely. Stephen, the first martyr of the church. Yes, this story is a display of faith that we should emulate. But I really just want us to be amazed at the sight of a man who finds Jesus so beautiful that he’s willing to give all of his life and all of his death to him. In other words, Stephen, gazing upon his Savior, dies with a smile on his face because he finds Jesus worth it. And the question that I want to ask tonight, as we walk through this text is, “What does Stephen see that we need to see? What does Stephen see that we need to see? What does Stephen see that I want my students to see and what do I need to see?”
And I’m going to say he sees three things. He sees the beauty of Christ’s location, the beauty of Christ’s love, and the beauty of Christ’s plan. Location, love and plan. I’m not as talented as David Strain. I’ve got two words that start with the letter “L” and not three. I’m a young minister – give me a chance.
The Beauty of Christ’s Location
First, he sees the beauty of Christ’s location. Following Jesus will take us to places that we did not ask to go or maybe we don’t want to go, and that’s certainly true for Stephen, isn’t it? To back up the story a little bit, in Acts chapter 6 we find overworked apostles who are focusing on Word ministry but are also focusing on feeding the poor, the orphans, the widows, and they are overworked with a growing church. So carried on by the Holy Spirit, they create a new office, the office of deacon, setting aside godly men to lead in this way to care for orphans and widows and the poor among God’s people. And Stephen was chosen as one of those. And twice the text tells us he was full of the Holy Spirit. At once, as he began his ministry the text tells us, he was doing many signs and wonders. And we don’t really know what that means but we know this – that Stephen’s ministry was incredibly fruitful, so fruitful it gained the attention of a group of men he probably didn’t want an audience with; a group of men of the synagogue who would form a Sanhedrin, a council to bring him in on these charges – preaching against Moses and preaching against the Law. “What do you have to say about these things Stephen?”
And then Stephen launches into a speech, the rest of Acts chapter 7, which we’re not going to get to tonight – I urge you to go read it if it’s been awhile – where he goes through redemptive history showing that Jesus is not against those things but actually He is the fulfillment of those things. But listen to the way he ends his speech, and this is verse 51 if your Bibles are still open. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” That’s a tough way to end a speech. That’s a harsh way to end a sermon. I’m not going to end my sermon like that tonight. But when Stephen gives his faithful defense, it’s absolutely amazing. He finds himself in the world of trouble that is verse 54. “They heard these things,” powerful men, “and they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him.” This is respectable, learned men who come to be falling apart at what they are hearing from Stephen.
This is – whenever I read a story like this – I always have questions that I wish I can ask the people in the story. I can’t wait to sit Stephen down in the new heavens and the new earth and ask him questions. And one of the questions I want to ask is, “What were you thinking in verse 54? What were you thinking after you gave your speech and before you saw Jesus?” Because if he’s anything like me, he might be thinking something like this – “I did not ask for this. I asked to care for orphans and widows and the poor. Who’s going to get mad at a guy who wants to care for the poor? I didn’t ask for speeches in front of counsels. I did not ask to be surrounded by a group of powerful men looking for rocks to throw at me. Why is this happening to me?” And maybe, “Why am I alone right now? How is this going to come out?” Do you ever ask God that in your prayers? “I didn’t ask for this hard season of marriage. I didn’t ask for this worry for my children. I didn’t ask for this hard situation at work. I didn’t ask to be part of this diagnosis. And why do I feel so alone in it?”
Well whatever Stephen was thinking, we know the beauty that verse 54 stops and verse 55 begins when it says this – “But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” Now what this looks like, I don’t know. I wish I could know. He sees heaven opened and the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God standing. Now if that sounds strange, it kind of should because every other time in the New Testament that Jesus is at the right hand of God He is sitting, but here He is standing. And commentators go back and forth if this really does mean anything, but I think for our purposes tonight it at least means this – that in that moment, when Stephen sees Jesus, he realizes he is not alone and that he has never been alone. Jesus is standing in solidarity with His man. He is standing with Stephen in this moment as His audience. He is standing getting ready to say the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Stephen looks at Jesus and sees Jesus’ loving and proud gaze upon him. And blown away by what he sees in the beauty of Jesus. And I am convinced of this, that if I were to bring Stephen here and ask him the question, “What happened that day? Tell us the story,” I think he would say something like this. “I gave my speech, they got really mad, but you won’t believe it. I looked up and I saw Jesus and He was there with the scars still on His hands and His feet and His side. He was there, looking at me, and He was talking to the Father about me. He was talking to the Father about the church. He was there interceding for me the whole time.”
And I know this is grammatically incorrect, but I live in Starkville, so go with me – Where do you need to hear in your life that Jesus is there? Where do you need to hear that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father for His church, interceding on our behalf? In your fight against sin in your life, that He is there interceding for you. Your difficult family life, that He is there for you. This is John Frame in his systematic theology, writes this – “What is Christ doing right now? Right now, He is interceding at the Father’s right hand that even now He is thinking of us and bringing our needs to the Father’s attention.” Do you know that whatever the suffering and trials we are going through, do you know that we are not alone, that what Stephen saw is true for us. The beauty of Christ’s location. He is there.
The Beauty of Christ’s Love
But then second, Stephen sees the beauty of Christ’s love. And I want to talk about the love specifically for enemies, because can we say that Stephen specifically made a few enemies this day, at least a few dozen. Then all of a sudden when Stephen says what he sees, all he does is say what he sees – he sees Jesus at the right hand of God – and all of a sudden these men that are grinding their teeth at him, plug their ears and rush together at him, cast him out of the city and stone him. In other words, they become like my three-year-old when I tell him he can’t have any more candy. Learned, dignified men become undignified at the anger of what they just heard from Stephen. Why? Because Stephen just said the most offensive thing he could have said to them. He sees Jesus at God’s right hand. What he just said is that Jesus is God. What he just said was that Jesus’ death was not the end of the story but actually it was just the atonement for His people and He rose again and ascended into heaven. What he just preached to them was the Gospel. And what we see here is that the Gospel really is beautifully offensive because this undermines everything these men believe about themselves and their own righteousness. Because if Jesus is King, that means we are not. Because if Jesus came to save sinners, that means we are sinners who can do nothing on our own about it. The Gospel is beautifully offensive.
Sometimes I think about the ridiculousness of going to the college campus with the message of the Gospel. And I’m always so blown away when we see responses. I’m always so blown away when we see people give their lives for Christ because it starts with, “You’re a sinner and you’re in need.” But here’s the truth that we get out of this passage. If we follow Jesus long enough, we will make enemies. If Stephen had enemies, we will have enemies. If Jesus had enemies, we will have enemies. And there’s two wrong ways to react to that; two wrong ways to react to the fact that we will have enemies. And the first wrong way is this – it’s to be a little too excited about that. It’s to think about, “What it means to be faithful is to make everyone around me angry. I’m going to look for fights. I’m going to stand for truth. I am going out there and I am going to do sanctification by conflict and if everyone is angry at me it means I am being faithful.” I don’t see that with Stephen. I see a man who really wants to quietly go about doing the business of the church. I see a man who was called in and gave a bold answer for truth. But I don’t see a man looking for a fight.
But the second wrong way we can react to that idea that we will have enemies as Jesus’ people is to shy away from it at all costs. It’s to never seek to offend. It’s to avoid every awkward or tense moment that we can. To not mention Jesus. To change the way we live. But if we have the greatest news the world has ever known, if we have the Gospel that saves sinners, how could we not share that with those around us? How could we not, even at cost to ourselves, socially or at work, how could we not say those things? And so the question is, “Okay, what do we do with our enemies?” Well Stephen shows us. We engage with them with both truth and love because here is what Stephen as he is dying. He prays for the men who are murdering him. He actually prays twice before he dies. First, he prays for Jesus to receive his spirit. And second, he prays for the forgiveness of the men killing him.
I can’t get over this, because if those two things sound familiar, they kind of should because those are basically two of the last seven sayings of Jesus from the cross, almost word for word. And I’ve always wondered, “How did Stephen know to say those things?” I mean, he didn’t have a New Testament to pick up. There’s no record that he was at the crucifixion. Maybe there was an oral transmission and he sort of had those words memorized, but however he said them, this is what we know – that at the end of Stephen’s life, when he was gazing upon the beauty of Jesus, he began to sound more like Jesus. He began to look more like Jesus. He began to give off the aroma of Jesus because isn’t that what sanctification is? It’s growing in holiness and growing in devotion to God and looking more and more like Christ to the world.
They tell us young preachers, “Be careful listening to a certain pastor’s podcast too much because you might begin to sound like them accidentally. You might begin to carry their cadence.” So I come back soon and I start speaking in a pretty offensive Scottish accent – you know I’ve been listening to your pastor too much! If I come back with a long Hoosiers illustration I’m listening to David Felker a little too much! I’m glad we remember that! But the advice for Jesus’ people is the exact opposite. To be so steeped in His Word, to be so steeped in His promises, to be so in awe of His beauty that we cannot but help sound like Him and be like Him and reflect His love to the world, because what Stephen was doing was he was able to love his enemies and forgive his enemies because he was looking at the One who, while His people were still His enemies, He died for them. Are we enamored with the beauty of Jesus and His love for His people and then to give that love to the world around us?
The Beauty of Christ’s Plan
But then thirdly and lastly, we see that Stephen sees the beauty of Christ’s plan. And I don’t want to speak too irreverent here, but I can’t imagine this is what Stephen wanted for his life. I can’t imagine this was in the ten-year plan. I can’t imagine this was what the church wanted when they ordained him as a deacon. Actually, from the outside perspective, Stephen’s life seems like a failure, doesn’t it? I mean we meet him in Acts chapter 6. He’s dead by the end of Acts chapter 7. And we don’t really know much about him. Did he have a family? Did he have a wife? Did he have kids? Did he want those things? Did he want to continue his ministry? Did he have dreams and aspirations and a plan that maybe those were good plans that would be honoring to God? And actually, I wonder if there were witnesses there that day that watched that happen from the outside perspective, I wonder if the word around town was, “Things aren’t going great for the church. They just lost one of their rising leaders. I don’t know what’s going to happen with them.”
But though Stephen never knew what happened here, he did not know the plan, what was enough for him was gazing upon the King who is in control. Because we actually know the beauty of God’s plan here, don’t we? Stephen’s prayer was answered. At least one of those men were forgiven. It was Saul who, who on the road to Damascus – I heard Sinclair Ferguson say one time he wonders if Saul was thinking about Stephen on the road to Damascus – that comes in contact with this same Jesus, ironically going blind. And what God does is take the greatest enemy of the church and makes him the greatest missionary the church has ever known. This was not a failure at all. God used Stephen in a very unique way to pray a prayer as he is dying, to hit that person’s heart, and to convert that person and to launch the church around the world.
And it makes us ask the question, “Maybe God’s plan for our lives is better than ours?” That maybe – this is convicting as a campus minister at the end of September, maybe God’s plan for RUF at Mississippi State is better than mine and that it might involve things I don’t really want to go through, I don’t really want to do. Maybe God’s plan for my children is better than my own. Maybe God’s plan for our future is better than ours. It doesn’t take the pain of suffering away. It doesn’t take the pain of hearing the diagnosis away. It doesn’t take the worry of our children away. But it puts our eyes solely on the King who is enthroned on high, doesn’t it? It puts our eyes on the beauty of Jesus who will not fail, whose church the gates of hell cannot prevail against. It puts it in perspective that one day, some day, we will see His plan in full and we will not be disappointed.
Thomas Boston, in his book, The Crook and the Lot, says this. “Standing on the shore of heaven and looking back at what we pass through, Christians will be made to say, ‘God hath made all things well.’ Those things that are bitter to Christians in passing through are very sweet in the reflection of them.” Again, we are not on the shores of heaven, and pain and trials come, and disappointment sets in, but can we gaze upon the beauty of Jesus and knowing one day, some day to come, we won’t have to ask Stephen what it looked like, what Jesus looked like, but we will behold Him with unveiled face. What do I long for as an RUF campus minister? I long for Mississippi State students to find Jesus more beautiful than they did when they got there. I long for them to see that the good life they seek is actually a life of following Him. And what I desire for myself and for us tonight is to really see that Jesus is worth our whole life and worth our whole death. And maybe one of the signs of Christian maturity is that we are finding Him more and more beautiful with every year that goes by.
Let me pray.
Father in heaven, we oftentimes find things more beautiful than You. But Lord, poke and prod our hearts. Help us to see the things that we put before You. Jesus, help us to gaze upon You as Stephen did. Help us to think of that death that is described as him going to sleep because of the hope he found in You. Help us to think about that often, to be able to spread that beauty, show that beauty to the world around us, and to be changed by Your beauty. Jesus, help us to sound like You. Help us to look more like You. Help us to be a holy people who show the world the love, Jesus, You have for Your people. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.