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So if he
had the face of an angel, then why did they have to kill him?
Truth With Consequences - Acts 7: 51-8:3 - August 29, 2010 -
Cicero United Methodist
Church - Everett
J. Bassett
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So if he
had the face of an angel, then why did they have to kill him? That's the
question that the story of Stephen in the Bible raises. If you were here last
Sunday, you will recall that we read the story of how Stephen was falsely
accused, arrested, and brought before the council in Jerusalem. And at the moment where you would
have expected him to raise his defense, or to show righteous anger over the way
he was being treated, he instead demonstrated the face of an angel, full of
grace and power. And we thought about how that might look.
But it
turns out that while Stephen was angelic in appearance at that moment, as the
story evolves he becomes more prophet than angel. A prophet is somebody who
brings a message of truth from God. And that's what Stephen does here. He does
it with a long speech. You could get away with that in Stephen's day, because
remember-there was no television; no one was in a hurry to get home and watch
Dancing With the Stars. So why not listen to a long speech from Stephen? You'll
probably be happy to know we skipped over most of it this morning; but it's
important, so here's a brief summary.
Stephen was
accused of perverting the law of Moses, and threatening the meaning of the Temple that was at the
center of the Jewish faith. So to answer that, he went back and told the
history of the origins of the Jewish people, stories we know today from the Old
Testament. He told about Abraham, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and David,
and Solomon. And the way he told the story, a couple themes emerged. First of
all, the story is built around promises that God made, that were never quite
completely fulfilled at the time. The full answer was yet to come. And
secondly, sticking up for God was dangerous. There was always opposition. And
the opposition, often as not, came from the Jewish leaders themselves.
Now, this
was walking right into the lion's den. The people to whom Stephen was talking
fit the picture he was describing. They had the blood of Jesus on their hands;
it was only a few weeks after the crucifixion of our Lord. And, as I mentioned
last week, the story of Stephen is very much a copy of the story of Jesus. So
the message Stephen was bringing was unmistakable. The promise of God had
finally been fulfilled, because God had sent His Son Jesus into the world. And
the resistance and danger that had been there all through the centuries was
still there, because the very people Stephen was talking to had killed Jesus.
Needless to
say, the members of the council were not happy campers at this point. But to
seal the deal, Stephen finally delivered the accusation quite bluntly, and he
did it almost entirely in phrases spoken by prophets throughout the Bible:
"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears; you are forever
opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do ... They killed
those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his
betrayers and murderers ... " I'm just going to go out on a limb here and
say that they probably no longer cared that Stephen had an angelic face.
They were
livid. But even more than that, they were terrified. What Stephen was saying
was a message they could not allow to be heard. They were supposed to be the
caretakers of God's promises. Deep inside, I imagine that the truth that maybe
they were opposite was too hard for those men to hear. They had to quiet the
voice of the prophet. And so, Stephen became the first Christian martyr. The
first, we know, of millions. In fact, our scripture lesson tells us, from that
moment on, whole scale persecution of Christians began.
There are,
of course, two great ironies here. First of all, in trying to quiet the
prophetic message, the council leaders became more and more exactly what they
were accused of being - murderers. And secondly, the harder they worked to
quiet the voice, the more irresistible the message became. It is no
exaggeration to claim that the faith we hold today was bought with the blood of
martyrs. And it is not an ancient phenomenon. According to the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (December, 2002), an
estimated 70 million people have given their lives for professing their
Christian faith throughout twenty centuries. Now here's the staggering
statistic: of those 70 million, about 45 million (65%), died in the 20th
century - the bloodiest century in the history of the world. But the strange
thing, in the early church and up to today, is that the more people die, the
more people join.
Because,
for so many people to be willing to give their lives, it must be something
pretty real motivating them. In fact, the reality of faith in peoples' lives is
the only 'proof' of the outrageous Christian claims. Think about it. When they
took Jesus down from the cross and buried him in the tomb, the Jewish leaders
and the Romans were worried that someone might steal the body, and claim that
Jesus was still alive. So they rolled a heavy stone over the tomb, and posted
guards in front of the stone 24-7. Yet within a few weeks, the Christians were
claiming exactly what the leaders feared - that Jesus had risen from the dead.
So was it real or not? The leaders decided to test it in blood. They stoned
Stephen to death - he was the first. But then came the others. Here are the
traditional stories - Peter was crucified head down during the persecutions of
Nero; Andrew died on the cross at Petrae, a Grecian colony; James, the younger
brother of our Lord, was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple and then beaten
to death; Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albenopolis Areina; James, the elder
brother of Zebedee, was beheaded in Jerusalem; Thomas, the doubter, was run
through with a lance at Coronodel in East India; Philip was hanged against a
pillar at Heropolis in Asia Minor; Matthew was slain by the sword in Ethiopos
Abyssinia; Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows; and Simon died on a cross in
Iran. Only John was reputed to have died of old age.
So the question you have to ask is, Would that whole group
endure such hardship, persecution, and excruciating death for the sake of a
hoax? Wouldn't at least one of them have cracked just before being hoisted up
on a cross or stabbed or flayed alive? "All right. This has gone far
enough. I admit it. We drugged the guards and stole the body. That whole thing
about Easter - it was just a trick." Yet we don't have any account
anywhere that one single disciple backed down. These men went to their death
because of something they had witnessed that they knew to be the truth. They
had seen the Risen Christ. And it was a truth so powerful to them, that they couldn't
lie about it - even if it meant their blood, their lives.
We've
probably all played the game Truth or Consequences. That's not the game which
our faith presents. The game our faith presents us with is Truth With Consequences.
We profess a powerful truth in this world - the Savior who was crucified rose
from the dead and sits in power at the right hand of God. And that means that
God's love is the most powerful force in this world. For many reasons, that is
not a popular message. And Stephen may have had the face of an angel, but
angels tell the truth. And that truth comes with consequences, and so Stephen
died for his faith, and millions more have walked the same path.
So here we
sit, worshipping in religious freedom and considerable comfort. Nobody is
demanding our blood for the sake of our faith. What do we do with this heritage
of martyrs? First of all, we realize that Christians are still dying for their
faith in many places in this world. We pray for them, and we strive that the
freedom that we experience can spread to others. Secondly, we recognize that
while we aren't being thrown in front of lions, or burned at the stake, there
is still persecution that takes place, even if it comes in the form of someone
making fun of us for living morally, or having our job threatened because we
will not violate our faith for the sake of making a sale, or satisfying an
employer. There are all kinds of persecutions that can touch our lives on the
job, at home, in school, in public life, wherever.
Thirdly,
and most important, we keep delivering the message that so many people have
died for. We keep bringing the truth of Christ. When the disciples did that,
often it made people very happy. They were welcomed and celebrated. We might
experience some of that response as well- it's a wonderful thing to live in the
love of God, and to be a part of a great community of faith, and to see God at
work. When you do something kind in the name of Jesus, quite often it makes a
difference in someone's life, and they can be very appreciative. You are the
face of an angel to them.
But we also
need to remember that not everyone celebrated the disciples. And that part of
the response challenges us to ask if our faith is not a little too comfortable.
Are we upset when things aren't all rosy and fun in God's work? Then why did 70
million people die? Do we never speak out, or take a bold stance, when
injustices are being done in every corner of this world? Then what is the cross
where Christ died all about? What is the story of Stephen and so many others
giving their lives for the sake of God's message all about? Surely as long as
there are hungry children in this world of plenty, and oppressed people, and
abusive situations, and disregard for God's gifts - surely God needs people of
faith to deliver the message of hope, no matter who gets offended, and whatever
consequences follow the truth.
Of course,
it gets complicated. Every situation needs a great deal of prayer and thought.
I'm not saying we all should go in to work tomorrow and start mouthing off to
the boss, and being unemployed by next Monday. I'm not saying we should get all
insensitive with friends and family and start pointing out everybody's faults.
There are caring and careful ways to go about taking a stand for faith, and we
should ask God to show us the time, and show us the way, to deliver His truth.
But on the
other hand, sometimes, when things are real comfortable, we need to ask
ourselves if we haven't taken it too easy in this hurting world? There is so
much God wants to accomplish that can only happen when you and I deliver the
message. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, knew that. He was arrested,
roughed up, and driven out from a lot of the towns where he preached. later on,
when the Methodist movement had caught on, and he was no longer in physical
danger, he still spoke hard truth against evils like greed, poverty, and
slavery. Here's one sample statement he delivered to a group that was
complacent and comfortable about slavery: "It is your money that pays the
merchant, and through him the captain and the African butchers. You therefore
are guilty, yea, principally guilty, of all these frauds, robberies, and
murders. You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion; they would not
stir a step without you; therefore the blood of all these ... lies upon your
head." Needless to say, Wesley was not trying to win a popularity contest.
He was a messenger of the truth; and as Jesus taught, the truth can be painful.
It has consequences. But it is only the truth that can set you free.
It's been said that one of the deadliest enemies you can
have is the friend who doesn't tell
you when you are terribly wrong. God wants Christian people to befriend this
world for the sake of salvation. And many times the true friend is the one who
delivers the hard truth, coated in a heavy dose of Christian love, whatever the
consequences.
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