For a Christian, death is not the worst thing
that can happen.
Don’t misunderstand. God gave each of us a natural survival instinct. It is a human thing, and a good thing, to want to live as long as we can. Suicide is wrong, for a lot of reasons. Living recklessly, putting our lives in danger for no good purpose, is wrong. God put each of us here for reasons, and as long as we are here God has things for us to do. It is not for us to say when we’ve done all the things God put us here to do. That’s for God to say. When it’s time for us to move on, God will take us home.
But my point is that for a Christian, there are things that are worse than death. And one of the biggest ones is denying Jesus Christ. We are called to be faithful to God, and to serve God, and to love God, even to the point of death. And a Christian cannot be faithful to God, we cannot serve God, we cannot love God, without accepting the divine Son, Jesus Christ, as the Savior. And if we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, we cannot refuse to acknowledge that to others. In fact, we are told that we need to spread the word about who Jesus is to everyone we can.
That’s what Stephen was doing in our Bible reading for tonight. Stephen was letting people know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. Stephen was filled with God’s Holy Spirit. He was full of God’s grace and power. He was performing great wonders and signs among the people. There were, of course, people who did not like that, and they tried to argue with him. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave Stephen.
Now, at that point, someone who was actually interested in the truth would realize that they had lost the argument and would admit that Stephen was right. But the people who were arguing with Stephen were not particularly interested in the truth. They were interested in winning. They were interested in trying to keep people from accepting Jesus as the Savior. They were interested in defeating Stephen and everything he stood for. And if they could not do that with the truth, they would do it with lies. So, they got some people to say that Stephen had committed blasphemy. They said that Stephen had been speaking out against God and against Moses.
Stephen was in trouble. He had the truth on his side, but it did not look like that was going to help him. He might be killed. But he did not try to run. He did not give in. He continued to proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior. In fact, we’re told that, when he heard these people lying about him, his face was like the face of an angel.
Now, in the part of Acts that we skipped over, Stephen did give a defense. But it was not a defense designed to get him off the hook. His “defense” was an indictment. He went through all the times, starting from the time of Abraham, when God had been there for the people of Israel, when God had helped the people of Israel. And Stephen went through all the times when the people of Israel turned on God, and disobeyed God. He went through all the times when the people of Israel refused to listen to God’s prophets. He went through Abraham, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and all the way up to Jesus Christ. And then he said to the people who were accusing him, “You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
And you heard what happened to Stephen after he said that. They took him out and stoned him until he was dead.
Now, Stephen was not a fool. He was not naive. He knew what was likely to happen when he said what he said. I don’t know whether he knew he would be killed, but he certainly knew he would not be set free. At best he might be thrown in prison for a long period of time. And I have to think he knew his death was a distinct possibility.
And yet, he would not give in. He would not compromise. He would not do or say anything that would deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And in fact, listen to what he said. As the people are charging at him, he says, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” While they were stoning him, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And just as he was about to die, his last words were, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
Now, I don’t believe that Stephen wanted to die. I believe he wanted to live, just as you and I and everyone else wants to live. Stephen had that survival instinct in him, too, just like you and I do. I would think that he had hoped to continue to serve the Lord on earth, to continue to perform wonders and signs, to continue to feel God’s grace and power. But Stephen knew that his first priority was not to keep himself alive. His first priority was to love God. His first priority was to serve God. His first priority was to be faithful to God. He was going to love God, and serve God, and be faithful to God, no matter what happened to him.
And Stephen also knew that for him, and for all Christians, dying was not the worst thing that could happen to him. Because he knew that, if he stayed faithful to God, then when he died he would go to heaven to be with God. The worst thing that could happen to him would be if he denied God, if he denied that Jesus was the Savior, if he failed to be faithful. Because that denial, that failure, while it might help him hold onto his life on earth a little longer, might cost him his eternal life in heaven.
Now, we say, “That’s a lot of faith”, and of course it is. Stephen had a tremendous amount of faith in God. And Stephen had complete trust in God. Stephen had so much faith and trust in God that he did not look at what he did as a sacrifice. He looked at it as a trade--trading his life on earth for eternal life in heaven. And he knew he was coming out on much the better end of that trade.
But while we recognize what a great example Stephen is, sometimes we have trouble applying it. I mean, what are the chances that you and I are going to be faced with giving up our earthly lives because of our faith in God? Sure, there are places on earth where it can happen, but most of us are not likely to find ourselves in one of those places. So for us, living here in South Dakota, how can we apply this example to our lives?
Well, try looking at it this way. We may not be asked to be willing to die because of our faith in Jesus, but we still may be asked to give up our lives, or at least part of them. Because, when you think about it, every time we do what we know Jesus wants us to do, rather than doing what we might selfishly want to do at that moment, we’re giving up a part of our lives for our faith.
For example: any time we’d really like to stay home and relax, but instead we go and visit someone or call someone who we think might feel alone, we’re giving up a part of our life for Jesus. Any time we’re feeling tired and just want some time to ourselves, but instead we do something with our kids, we’re giving up a part of our life for Jesus. Any time we’re feeling rushed and wonder how we’re going to get everything done, but we still volunteer to help with something in the church or in the community, we’re giving up a part of our life for Jesus.
We could go on and on with examples like this. I’m sure you can think of some. In fact, I’m sure you can think of examples from your own life. Times when you really did not feel like doing something, but you did it anyway, because you knew it was the right thing to do, you knew it was what the Lord would want you to do. Any time you did that, you gave up a part of your life for Jesus.
And that’s not a small thing. Any time we give up a part of our lives, that’s something we can never get back. Any time you spent a day, or a few hours, or even a few minutes, doing something for the Lord, that day, those hours, those minutes are gone. They’re gone forever. We cannot get them back. And all of us only get so many on this earth. And so, to that extent, we’re doing what Stephen did. Not completely, not making a total sacrifice. But still, we’re trading a part of our lives on earth for eternal life in heaven.
You say it that way, and it sounds like it should be easy. And maybe it should be, but a lot of times it’s not. We can all think of times where we’ve done these things, but if we’re honest, we can all think of times we’ve failed to do them, too. I know I can. Times when I told myself I was too tired, or I had other things to do, or I could wait and do it tomorrow, or that I just plain didn’t feel like doing it. Maybe it should be easy, but in real life a lot of times it’s not. We want to save up those days, those hours, those minutes for ourselves.
But you know what? No matter how jealously we try to save those days, those hours, those minutes we have on earth, at some point we’re going to run out of them. Our lives on earth are going to come to an end. But that’s okay. If we hold onto our faith, we know that death is not the worst thing that can happen to us. The worst thing would be to lose eternal life in heaven. So let’s be willing to give up those days, those hours, those minutes on earth because of our faith in Jesus Christ. When we do, we will get eternal life in heaven. And getting that eternal life is the best thing that can happen to us.
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