The Witness

Maybe you looked ahead at our passage today, , and you are thinking this passage may not be the best Mother’s Day passage - complaining in the church, church almost splits, some guy helps the poor and the widows but gets falsely accused of not being “religious enough” and so gets dragged out of the city and pelted with rocks until he dies. Happy Mother’s Day!!

So, to link it to Mother’s Day I decided to do some very poor biblical exegesis:

6:1 - ever “hear a complaint rise” (Hellens and Hes?)

v2 - Ever feel like it is just not right for you to serve tables? (only a few of us can pick out seven to “appoint to the duty.”

v6 - Ever want to “lay . . . hands on your kids?”

v8 - Mom “full of grace and power. . . doing great wonders and signs” when the kids rise up and “dispute” with you. Can’t “withstand your wisdom” and even though they try you “have the face of an angel.”

7:1-50 - Moms: Ever give your kids a speech that lasts 50 verses only to end with “You stiff-necked people?”“As your father did, so do you!”

V51 - ever call your child “stiff-necked?”

v57 - only to have your kids “cry out with a loud voice and stop their ears at you?”

We’ll stop before I make the analogy to stoning

v60 - you fall you your knees and cry out with a loud voice “Jesus, take the wheel!” (Wait, no) “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” and when you say that they fall asleep.

Actually, this passage fits with Mother’s Day because, as we talked about in our Child Dedication/Parent Commissioning, parents - mothers, you are the primary disciplemakers for your children. You are the first and primary witness they have for Jesus and the gospel.

“Witness” = an individual who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness. (Dictionary.com)

ILLUST - Worst Witness / Best Witness

Worst Witness - The Burger King employee eating at McDonalds.

Best witness - 5-star rating from a verified purchaser on Amazon.

Importance of the Christian witness:

Kenneth Scott Latourette, respected history professor at Yale said:

The most thought-provoking set of facts in human history is that in spite of its seemingly absurdly inauspicious start, within five centuries Christianity won the professed allegiance of the overwhelming majority of the Greco-Roman world, that it survived the demise of that world, and that within nineteen centuries . . . it penetrated to practically every corner of the inhabited globe and became a moulding force in every great cultural area of mankind.

“Never in so short a time has any other religious faith—or for that matter any other set of ideas, religious, political or economic— ever achieved so commanding a position in such an important culture without the aid of physical force, or social or cultural prestige.” (Other movements spread by conquest or politics, but not Christianity).

It is no different today. The world craves someone who can give a five-star rating on a verified purchase of something that is true and can bring meaning, purpose, and peace in this life.

The most powerful proof of the veracity and momentum for the spread of Christianity lies in the lives, the love, and the words of fully devoted witnesses changed by Jesus.

Wherever you are on your faith journey - needing a witness or needing to be a witness, Stephen’s story in will help us answer the question: What does a fully-devoted witness look like?

Let’s start with the story:

Acts 6:1

6 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

‘complaint’ = murmuring

same word used in LXX in -3:

2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

2 sinister weapons Satan uses to disable, distract, and destroy churches:

Suspicion

“I think. . .,” “I thought. . .,” “I wonder. . .,” “I bet. . .”

Hellenists ASSUMED the Hebrews were skipping over their widows on purpose

Subversion

“Because of our suspicion, we have a moral obligation to. . .”

This is Satan’s third major attack on the church:

- In he attacked it through a persecuting gov’t; - In he attacked it through the embezzling hypocrisy of one of its leaders, Ananias - In he attacked it through a spirit of grumbling; distrust; backbiting. This might be the most serious threat that endangers churches.

of one of its leaders, Ananias - In he attacked it through a spirit of grumbling; distrust; backbiting. This might be the most serious threat that endangers churches.

distrust; backbiting. This might be the most serious threat that endangers churches.

Satan does not need to bring persecution from outside the church if the church is persecuting itself on the inside.

Starts with a grumble, then turns to a rumble about a fumble or a bumble, but then gossip makes it double and causes trouble and turns the entire church to rubble.

Cure for Complaint:

(Suspicion) Believe the best until you know.

(Subversion) Go (to the source) instead of gossip.

2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

Apostles NOT saying that serving tables was too menial of a task for them, only that their primary way to serve was through the ministry of the word.

It was a matter of role not of worth.

7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Increase, number multiplied greatly, great many

It has been estimated that there were eight thousand Jewish priests attached to the temple ministry in Jerusalem, and “a great company” of them trusted Jesus Christ as Savior!

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those

who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Main charge: speaking against the Temple and the Law

Stephen messed with their religion

speaking against the Temple and the Law

Chapter 7

Stephen’s sermon (the gospel)

Abraham

God is bigger than they imagined

Not just for Jews

(2)The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

v 8 - Isaac, Jacob, 12 patriarchs

Covenant

God wants people to be with Him

v 9 - Joseph

People are stuck in their slavery to sin

v 20 - Moses

v 34 “I have come down to deliver them”

God comes down to save us

v 45 - Joshua, David, Solomon

Place of rest in the Promised Land

(49)“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? (50) Did not my hand make all these things?”

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

They believed their religion would save marked by circumcision.

Stephen says they may be set apart by religion outwardly but they are not set apart inwardly in a true relationship with God (uncircumcised heart and ears)

“you always resist the Holy Spirit”

Keep the law but resist God

Follow the religion but miss the relationship

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

A Fully Devoted Witness:

The Burger King employee eating at McDonalds.

1) . . . can be ordinary.

You are not able to be a Peter, John, or Paul, but you can be a Stephen.

God’s most extraordinary work is oftentimes done through the most ordinary people.

January 6, 1850—15-year-old Charles Spurgeon was trudging up Hythe Hill in Colchester, on his way to church. When the blizzard prevented him from going further, he turned the corner and made his way into a small Primitive Methodist Church on Artillery Street.

Church with a dozen people

preacher never showed due to blizzard and a poor shoemaker stood up read one verse, expounded on it and from that the Prince of Preachers was saved.

(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/charles-spurgeons-conversion-in-a-primitive-methodist-chapel/)

You are not able to be a Peter, John, or Paul, but you can be a Stephen.

2) . . . is a servant.

Our introduction to Stephen is that he is called to serve.

His whole life is characterized by selfless service.

The centerpiece of Christianity is found in service

Obviously, Stephen could speak well. Yet he served tables.

Jesus came to serve not to be served. His followers cannot expect to do the opposite. Yet that is often how we approach church and the world. To what does that witness?

The more the church serves, the more it can say.

3) . . . knows the importance of the Word of God.

You can’t be a witness to something you know nothing about.

What can you know about Jesus without the Bible?

If I am going to give my life to something, I want to know it is true.

Knowing the Word of God is vital to witness about the one the Word speaks about.

ILLUST - Eagles fan growing up because friends were Eagles fans

I was a fan by association. I was not a follower by relationship.

Stephen did what was necessary to make sure the ministry of the Word was not hindered.

Stephen also knew the Word of God . . . very well

He was a Hellenist - was a Jew not Gentile - Did not grow up with as strong of a cultural Jewish background, which means he may not have had the same exposure to the Scripture as others, but he knew the Scriptures well.

If asked, do you know the Scripture well enough to share the gospel?

4). . . is fully devoted.

Duh!

Look how many time and ways Stephen is stated as being ‘full of’:

Full of

Spirit and Wisdom

faith

Wisdom

grace and power

Stephen was full = “controlled by”

He was not compartmentalized

Being filled like this you will be different from the world and the world will notice

5). . . gives his/her life to Jesus.

Would you die for Jesus?

You can’t witness to that which you do not truly believe with your whole life.

ILLUST -

Will you live for Jesus?

Lay down life daily

We don’t ‘store up’ our devotion in case one day we are called to die for our faith. Full devotion is a daily dying.

It is always easier to commit to a hypothetical situation (of martyrdom) than it is to commit to a constant reality (of dying daily to our desires for Jesus).

‘Religious’ witness = someone enamored with Amazon’s rating system, who knows everything about the company and how the rating system works, but has not actually tried it - never purchased from Amazon.

The stoning of Stephen will spark increased persecution of the Church. However, the blood of Stephen will fuel the mission and expansion of the gospel beyond Jerusalem and Judea and into Samaria.

Conclusion

What is keeping you from being a fully devoted witness?

3 Reasons to NOT be a fully devoted witness:

You don’t believe Christianity is true. (Time to take a step)

You don’t think there is anyone that needs to be witnessed to. (Really?!)

You’ve been distracted about the focus of your witness. (Reflecting self rather than God)

Your witness matters!

Don’t miss this NOT insignificant detail at the end of the story:

The degree of your devotion to being a witness for Christ may just determine the rate of advance of the gospel.

Acts 7:58

58 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.

Interesting that Saul should be concerned with the ‘legal’ witnesses here but instead is focused on the fully devoted witness

The witness of Stephen had a powerful influence on Saul / Paul and the spread of the Gospel:

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Acts 22:17-21

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 7:54–60.

ILLUST - Jim Elliot

In 1949 and about a two-hour’s drive west of here, a young man named Jim Elliot graduated from Wheaton College as a Bible major with highest honors.

In October of that same year Jim would write an entry in his journal that would turn out to be a prophetic statement for his life:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Earlier the next year, a former missionary to Ecuador told Elliot about the Huaorani (or Auca) Indians. The Huaorani were a small and violent unreached people group who lived in the jungles of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

For years, the Huaorani had been harassed by workers from the Shell Oil Company as Shell looked to acquire the land for the oil reserves. Because of this the Huaorani were both wary and violent toward outsiders.

Jim Elliot, however, sensed a call from God to go and reach the Huaorani for Jesus.

Jim preached a sermon around this same time from the book of Acts:

“They preached a message not of theory or theology, such as blood atonement, which required a great deal of understanding in the Jewish scripture and also a great deal of theoretical knowledge as to the nature of God and his holiness. They preached a gospel that was simple because it was based on recently occurring facts. They preached the fact primarily of the resurrection, they mentioned the death of Christ and then they enlarged upon the resurrection and the truths which they adduced to the resurrection were those that seemed to impel the audience. They were right there around them. They could say, "We are witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ rose and walked among us for forty days." And they say that over and over again. Peter says it. Stephen says it. Paul says it and the rest of the apostles. He says that these are alive and can bear witness to the fact that they saw a man who was raised from the dead, whom we called the Christ and whom you owe allegiance, in his preaching of the Gospel. “(https://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jimelliotresurrection.htm)

In 1952, Jim and a friend, Pete Fleming headed to Ecuador as witnesses to this resurrection.

After spending some time in Ecuador learning Spanish, Jim and another missionary friend, Nate Saint, were able to establish contact with the Huaorani in the fall of 1955 .

After several friendly contacts with the tribe from Nate Saint’s plane in January, 1957, Jim, Nate, and three other missionary friends decided to land the plane on a sand bar and camp nearby in an attempt to interact with the Huaorani.

On January 7, the men shared a friendly encounter with three natives who came to meet the foreign crew. The following day, the men waited, expecting to meet a larger group of Huaorani . What met them, however, was not a friendly group looking to make friends but a hostile group coming to attack the missionaries with spears. The men did not fight back and were martyred while trying to share the gospel with the Huaorani.

The impact of these fully devoted witnesses didn’t end on that riverbank that day.

Several years later, the widow of Jim Elliot and the sister of Nate Saint returned to Ecuador as missionaries to live among the Huaorani.

As a result, many of the Huaorani trusted in Jesus, including some of the same men who killed their husband and brother.

Steve Saint, the son of the missionary pilot tells the story of how his aunt and woman who was like a mother to him lived as a witness to the Huaorani which became influential for him in accepting the gospel, forgiving the men who had killed his father, and even befriending Mincaye, the man solely responsible for his father’s death.

This has led to a national stage to witness to the love of Jesus and the gospel he brings.