The Example of Stephen

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, October 10, 2021.  The Bible verses used are Acts 6:8-15; 7-1, 51-60.

            The stoning of Stephen.  Older Christians will probably remember hearing about it, but it’s a story we don’t seem to talk about much anymore.  Most church school materials don’t talk about it.  When I googled it, the most recent church school lesson I could find on it was dated 2010.  There are not many Bible studies on it, and most of them are old, too.  I don’t remember the last time I heard a sermon preached on it.  And I’m guilty of being part of that, because I don’t believe I’ve ever preached on it before, either.  But it’s an important story.  And given the state of the world, it’s a story that may become more and more relevant to us as Christians.

            We don’t know anything of Stephen’s backstory.  He’s first introduced to us just a few verses before what we read today.  He’s one of seven people that the twelve apostles choose to oversee the distribution of food among the followers of Jesus, so that the twelve can devote themselves to ministry.  Stephen is described as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”.  And that’s all we learn of Stephen until the verses we read today.

            As we read it, some of you probably thought of some parallels to the story of Jesus.  Stephen was “full of God’s grace and power” and he “performed great wonders and signs among the people”.  We don’t know what kind of wonders and signs.  Did he heal people the way Jesus did?  Did he feed people the way Jesus did?  Could he drive out demons, calm a storm, turn water into wine?  We don’t know.  But whatever they were, they must have been pretty impressive.

            Opposition arose to Stephen among the religious leaders of the time, just as it did with Jesus.  And just as with Jesus, these religious leaders tried to argue with Stephen.  And they had about as much success arguing with Stephen as they had arguing with Jesus, which is to say none at all.  Stephen had the wisdom of the Holy Spirit behind him, and there’s no greater wisdom than that.  So Stephen won all the arguments.

            And so, just as with Jesus, the religious authorities made up some stuff against Stephen.  They accused him of blasphemy.  They hauled him in front of the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin.  And again, just as with Jesus, the religious authorities stirred up the people and produced a bunch of witnesses to lie about what Stephen had said and done.  

            And as all this is happening, people look over at Stephen.  And we’re told “his face was like the face of an angel.”

            We don’t really know exactly what that means.  After all, none of us has ever actually seen the face of an angel, so we don’t know what that would look like.  It could mean that there was some physical change in Stephen, that his face took on some sort of unearthly glow, like we’re told happened to Moses after he would be in God’s presence.  That’s possible, but I don’t think so.  We’ll come back to that.

            But Stephen is sitting there, listening to all these lies.  And finally, the high priest asks Stephen, “Are these charges true?”  

            This is where the parallel to the story of Jesus breaks down.  Jesus, as you may remember, made no attempt to answer the charges against him.  He was silent.  Stephen was not silent.  Stephen makes a fairly long speech.  We just read the end of it.  He goes back through the history of Israel, starting with Abraham, then Joseph, then Moses.  He talks about how the people rejected Moses, and by doing so rejected God, and so God turned away from them.  

And then Stephen says the part we read.  He tells them that they are just like their ancestors.  He calls them “stiff-necked people” who are resisting God’s Holy Spirit.  He tells them that they and their ancestors have prosecuted every prophet God ever gave them.  They killed the one who predicted the coming of the Messiah.  And then, then killed the Messiah himself.  

Now, Stephen was not a fool.  When he said this, he knew what the reaction of the religious authorities would be.  He knew that he was pretty much condemning himself to death by saying what he said.  But he said it anyway.  

Like Jesus, Stephen could have avoided death.  He could have compromised.  He could have recognized the authority of the religious leaders.  He could have backed off, backed down, soft-pedaled things.  But, like Jesus, he would not do it.  God’s Holy Spirit had led him to do what he did and say what he said.  And Stephen was not going to compromise or soft-pedal what God’s Holy Spirit had led him to do.  Stephen was going to follow God’s Holy Spirit wherever it led him.  I think that’s why Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel.  He was at peace, a heavenly peace, because he knew he was following God’s Holy Spirit.  He would follow the Holy Spirit wherever it led him.  Even if it led him to his death.

We admire Stephen for that, of course.  But, as I said, we don’t really talk about his story very often.  I wonder if the reason why is that the story of Stephen convicts us.  We see Stephen’s incredible faith in Jesus, a faith that was so strong that he was willing to die for it.  And we admire Stephen for the strength of his faith.  But thinking about the strength of Stephen’s faith makes many of us realize how much weaker our own faith is.

Now, I don’t mean to judge anyone, and I don’t mean to criticize anyone.  The only ones who know how strong your faith is are you and God.  But could you do what Stephen did?  Could you stand up in front of a hostile group of powerful people, and openly proclaim your faith in Jesus Christ?  Could you do that, knowing that these people you’re talking to have the power to kill you, and in fact probably will kill you after they hear what you’ve said?

You’ll have to answer that question for yourself.  And maybe it’s a question we cannot answer for sure until we’re in the situation.  Speaking just for myself, I very highly doubt that I could do what Stephen did.  I’d like to think I could.  I wish I had that much courage.  I wish I had that much faith.  But if I’m honest, I’m pretty skeptical about it.  I doubt that I could do it.

Let’s look at it another way.  Suppose we took the threat of death out of it.  Could you just stand up in front of a hostile group of people and proclaim your faith in Jesus Christ?  

Suppose we took the hostility out of it.  Suppose the group is neutral.  Could you just stand up in front of a group of people and proclaim your faith in Jesus Christ?

In fact, let’s take it still farther.  Suppose the group is a group of your friends.  Could you stand up in front of a group of your friends and proclaim your faith in Jesus Christ?  And if your answer is yes, here’s another question.  When’s the last time you actually did that?

Again, my point is not to judge you.  I’m not saying we’re all going to hell if we cannot do these things.  And also, I cannot presume to know the answer for you.  I hope you’re better at this than I am.  I don’t doubt that some of you are.

But here’s the thing.  We think about these questions, and we think of them as hypothetical.  We think of them as theoretical.  We don’t really think our faith will ever be tested in this way.  And so we don’t worry about it very much.

And maybe our faith won’t be tested in this way.  Living out here, in our small towns in the middle of South Dakota, there’s probably a pretty good chance that it won’t.  A pretty good chance--but I would not say a zero chance.

There are people all over the world who are having their faith tested in ways they never thought possible.  And it’s not just people in places half-way around the world.  There are pastors in Canada who have been jailed for holding church services that the government did not approve of.  There are pastors in the United States who have been threatened with jail, and with large fines, for holding church services that the government did not approve of.  We want to think it cannot happen here, but there is no reason it cannot.  The people in the places where it did happen probably thought it could not happen there, too.  But it can.  It can happen anywhere.

Are you ready for it, if it does happen?  Am I ready for it, if it does happen?  Again, I cannot answer for you.  But for me, the answer is, probably not.  I don’t think I’m ready for it, if it happens.  So what can we do to get ready?

Stephen was able to do this because he was “filled with the Holy Spirit”.  So if we want to have the courage Stephen had, if we want to have the courage God wants us to have, we, too, need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That’s something we pray for.  We pray for it every time we take Communion--part of our Communion liturgy asks that God’s Holy Spirit be poured out onto us.  We pray for it at various other times, too.  

We pray for it--but are we really serious about it?  Do we really want to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit?  Or do we really want to do things our own way, and just have God’s Holy Spirit in the background, something to rely on to bail us out when we get into a tough spot?  

The reason Stephen was filled with God’s Holy Spirit is because he was obedient to God’s Holy Spirit.  He had decided that he was not going to do things his own way.  He was not going to wait until he got into a tough spot to call on God’s Holy Spirit.  He was going to live his entire life, every bit of it, being obedient to God’s Holy Spirit.  Again, he was going to do what the Holy Spirit told him to do, and say what God’s Holy Spirit told him to say, regardless of the consequences.

So it seems to me that’s where it starts--with a decision.  A decision to follow God’s Holy Spirit, no matter what the consequences might be.

We make that decision not fully understanding what the consequences might be.  When Stephen first made that decision, he probably did not fully understand the consequences, either.  He probably did not realize that the decision he made was going to lead to his death on earth.  But he made it anyway.  And because he had made that decision, he was able to follow through on it, even at the cost of his life.

It’s not an easy decision.  It was probably not an easy decision for Stephen.  It’s not an easy decision for us.  But we need to think about it.  We need to pray about it.  And we need to do what we can to get ready.  Because if we wait until the test actually comes, it may be too late.

Stephen’s faith is an example to us.  May we follow his example, and have the courage he had.  May we decide to follow God’s Holy Spirit, no matter what the consequences may be.