It is a doctrine of this church, and we sincerely believe that God is in sovereign control of His creation. Theologically we believe that He maintains a permissive will and a causative will. For example, the Lord has the power and authority to decree the elimination of a man’s cancer, or He could eliminate all cancer if He wanted.
On one occasion the Lord chose to make the sun and the moon stand still in the sky. He hasn’t relinquished His power and He could do that again tomorrow, if He wanted. In the past, He has ordered locusts to devour vast crops and He has ordered quail to fill empty bellies. He even ordered ravens to fill bellies. We believe that God can do whatsoever he chooses; Amen? And even when evil things are carried out by wicked men and wicked angels, it is because the Lord has permitted those things for a greater purpose. He permitted Satan to drive Job to the brink of insanity. He approved and even foretold the Satanic temptation of His only begotten Son. But God is neither the author of sin, nor does God tempt men to sin.
Do you believe that God is in sovereign control of all things? Really? To be specific, do you believe that God foreknew and foreordained the death of Deacon Stephen? Are you prepared to say that the all-loving God wanted to Stephen to die in excruciating pain? In answering this question, let’s consider three things: Stephen’s call by God; the grace of God; and his testimony for God.
When we first visited Stephen, the church was looking for a few good men to be deacons.
Acts 6:1 – “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.”
Stephen was not an apostle, and if he had ever been anything more than a deacon we have not been told.
And as we noted a couple of months ago, to be a DEACON is to be a SERVANT. To be a deacon is to wait on tables, probably to be a stock boy, a delivery boy and a dish washer. It’s only in corrupt religion where “deacon” became synonymous with power and privilege. A “deacon” in the Anglican and Catholic religions is a cleric just under the level of priest. And to be a deacon in a lot of Baptist churches is to sit on the board of directors, over the pastor and just under the Lord Jesus Christ. But Stephen wasn’t elected by the church or ordained by God to be some sort of ecclesiastical CEO. He almost literally followed the footsteps of his Saviour in washing the disciple’s feet. He took the lowest seat at the banquet table, after serving all of the other guests. But then the Lord made room for him at his own right side and said to Stephen, “Come up hither.” The Bible teaches that God’s people cannot go wrong living in genuine humility. “By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life” – Proverbs 22:4 . “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” – James 4:10. “God resisteth the proud, and giveth gave to the humble” – I Peter. 5:5. And to paraphrase Matthew 18:4 – “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little deacon, the same may become the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Do you suppose that Stephen felt called of God to be a servant? I do.
Secondly, Stephen was called of the Lord to be a witness to His name. As he went about his servantly duties, full of the Holy Spirit and power, the Lord began ‘working wonders and miracles among the people’ (Acts 6:8). As the enemy of God saw these miracles they accosted him, and demanded to know the source and authority of his power. And when his answers didn’t suit them, his accusers summoned him to their court, giving him the public opportunity to bring further glory to the name of Christ Jesus. Do you suppose that Stephen was called and ordained of God to have this opportunity? I think that it was ordained from before the foundation of the world that Stephen preach to the Sanhedrin. But that led directly to the electric chair, the gas chamber, the stone quarry. Did God ordain that too?
Yes, I believe that Stephen was called of God to die in this cruel and unusual fashion. Do you think that when Stephen agreed to the nomination for deacon he foresaw his execution? Stephen probably didn’t, however Jehovah did. But when the time came, this servant of the church didn’t begin whimpering that this was not the work to which he thought that he was called. Many of the missionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries knew when they left England and America sailing for month to Asia and Africa that they were never going to see their homes again. I doubt that Stephen had those thoughts when he accepted the call to be a deacon. But when the time came for him to die, I guarantee that he wouldn’t have traded places with his murderers, and he probably wouldn’t have traded places with Peter, John, Philip or Nicanor either.
You see, sometimes a man’s greatest work begins when he dies. A few years ago, there was a very good artist who lived up in Sandpoint (Jackie could tell you his name). The man was making a comfortable living selling beautiful paintings. But then he was accidentally killed, and immediately the value of his art sky-rocketed. But that is completely different from the way that Jesus’ work increased in value at his death. And it’s also different from Stephen’s as well. I’m sure that this man was a valuable member of the church in Jerusalem as a deacon and common citizen, but in his God-ordained death his value sky-rocketed.
Secondly, think about the GRACE of God.
Very late in his life C.H. Spurgeon preached a message entitled “All of Grace.” And then I have a little book of his which also bears that name: “All of Grace.” The fact of the matter is, it’s all of grace or nothing.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Stephen was a child of God. Assuming that was true, then he was a child of God purely by the grace of God. Salvation is all of grace, and has nothing to do with the works of any man including deacons.
And then as we brought to your attention last Sunday night, Stephen was filled with the Spirit. That was the initial criteria used to find nominees for the office of deacon. And not only was this man filled with the Spirit prior to his election, but afterward as well. There have been hundreds, if not thousands of men elected to the office of deacon, who after their ordination became swelled with pride or some other sin, and who grieved the Spirit losing that filling.
That was not the case with Stephen. As I’ve already pointed out, this man was “full of faith and power, doing great wonders and miracles among the people.” And then he was clearly filled with the Spirit that day that he boldly preached to the assembled council. Even though sin will stifle the Spirit and rob us of His fullness, it is not sinlessness and service which entices the Spirit and convinces Him to fill us with His power. The filling of the Spirit is all of grace, just as salvation is of grace. Should the Christian long to be filled, strive to be worthy of the Lord’s filling, and pray for that filling? Absolutely, but still it is of grace, if we be filled.
Furthermore, it was the grace of God which brought Stephen through the portal of death. Can you imagine what death was like for that poor man? He had no morphine flowing through his veins that day. Every nerve-ending was alive and pulsating. Wouldn’t it be natural to raise our arms to protect our face or head as the stones started to fly? Was it one of the bones in his forearm that broke first? Which? The radius or the ulna? Maybe it was a clavicle – a collar bone. Many of us have had broken bones, and we know the pain. Not always, but for most of us it caught us off guard, like falling down the steps. But Stephen could see the stones coming. And not only could he feel, but hear, several of his bones breaking one by one. And some of those breaks were probably compound fractures with jagged bone being driven through his tissue and out his skin. Can you imagine what sort of pain he was in before shock set in? How quickly did a large stone come crashing through his skull and wipe away all his pain? My reading of these verses suggest that his death was far from instantaneous.
So how was he able to endure that pain? How was it that he could pray for his murderers? How could he so calmly commit his spirit to the Lord? Notice that v. 60 tells us that Stephen wasn’t knocked to his knees, but deliberately knelt down to pray. When is Mel Gibson going to make a graphic movie of the violent death of Stephen the martyr? And how is he going to show that it was the grace of God which brought Stephen through that agony and death? It wasn’t that good man’s strength, because I’m not sure that human strength alone can do that. It was of grace, it was all of grace.
Pray that the day in which you need it that you will be full of the Spirit and blessed with grace.
Thirdly, consider the TESTIMONY of the Lord that Stephen gave.
Stephen was a martyr for the cause of Christ. And as I have reminded you, the word “martyr” is a transliteration of a Greek word which means “witness.” Stephen died as a witness to the grace of God.
For example, he gave a testimony about Christ Jesus. He said that he saw him standing at the right of the Father.
He also gave a testimony of resurrection. He said that he saw the One who had died of the cross, but he was no longer dead. Stephen told those Sadducees that there really is a resurrection. And then the calm way in which he died, also was a witness of his faith in his own resurrection. He was telling the world that death is not the end of the book, only the end of a chapter.
And then by way of his death he was telling the church to stand their ground. Stephen marked the beginning of a period of horrendous persecution. But he witnessed to the thousands of Christians and church members that serving the Lord Jesus was worth the price.
And then he had a message for Saul of Tarsus and any of the other men who were paying attention. How many people were involved in the death of this martyr? Only one right? At least we have only one named. Of course not, there were many more than just Saul, even though we don’t know how many. But that raises the question, why was this man was named for us. I think that the Holy Spirit wanted you and me to know that Saul was present for the execution. He wanted us to know that Saul heard Stephen, and saw Stephen, and hated Stephen. But it was impossible for Saul to experience this horrendous crime while under the influence of the Holy and come away without effect.
There was a large placid lake, sheltered by mountains so that not a breath of wind disturbed the tranquility. The sky was deep blue and you could see the peaks reflected in the blue lake. And then someone tossed a big rock out into the water, and ripples of wave headed out from that spot in a complete 360 degree circle. Further and further they spread, unhindered by wind or other waves, until they reached every shore. Stephen was that rock and humanity was that lake. The ripples of his life, first struck Saul of Tarsus, an then Timothy, and then, and then and then….
Stephen even bore a testimony before the Lord. He kneeled down and asked the Lord to forgive the men who were causing his death. Was the Lord impressed? He certainly answered the prayer in the salvation of Saul.
And then Stephen FELL ASLEEP. Did he not die? Of course he died. But death is not really death to the child of God. It’s but a time of bodily repose; a time of reconstitution and refreshment. The body may rest, but we all know that the mind and soul sometimes don’t sleep a wink all night. Stephen died that day 2000 years ago, but his soul went immediately into the presence of the Lord.