Woodlawn Evangelical Lutheran Church           

Acts 7:54-60 – ⁵⁴When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
 ⁵⁷At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, ⁵⁸dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
 ⁵⁹While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." ⁶⁰Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

 Introduction – For some people, Memorial Day is a chance to enjoy a long weekend with family and friends. For many, it is a kick off for the summer season. It is a time of picnics and parades, maybe camping or getting started on those projects that might take the whole summer.

            Of course, “a day off” and a “summer kick-off” is not really the purpose for Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day for remembering how people have served and died to protect us, the people of the United States. For that reason, it can be a solemn day, where we are sad because we remember the great sacrifice of life that happens in warfare and in the public service of our nation. But it is also a day to be thankful that people are willing to put themselves in danger so that we can be safe. We are thankful that what motivates people is not self-preservation, but the preservation of more abstract concepts, like freedom and peace.

            On this Memorial Day weekend, we do remember the sacrifice of our fellow citizens and we thank God for the blessings he has given us through their sacrifice. We also thank God for the work of his Son, our Great High Priest, who gave his life as a sacrifice, so that we now have eternal peace and freedom – peace with God and freedom from God’s just punishment.

            But a priest is more than one who makes sacrifices. He is also a Mediator, one who stands in-between two groups of people, working to keep the peace between both sides. After Jesus rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven and is now sitting at the right hand of God. Why? What is he doing? He is working to accomplish everything that is good and beneficial for you and me.

We might not always recognize the good things Jesus is doing for us, because sometimes it is through pain and hardship that good is produced. But yet God is accomplishing what Jesus prayed for us the night before he died: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:11) God has brought all members of Christ together by faith. We are members of the invisible church, heirs of eternal glory, through Jesus Christ. And with faith in our ascended Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray:

 I. Stand up for me at God’s right hand

            Where do you picture Jesus? Walking by your side? Up in heaven? Both images of Jesus are accurate and each of them serves to reassure us in a special way, just as those images of faith reassured a man named Stephen, whom we remember today.

            If you don’t know Stephen, it would be good to get to know him. He was a man gifted by God with a voice of confident faith. May God help us all to be so bold as Stephen was. Through him God worked great good for a lot of people, but because he did it in the name of Jesus Christ, those who had rejected Jesus Christ saw Stephen as their enemy, an enemy that must be silenced.

            While on trial before the rulers of the Jewish people, Stephen condemned the people with his words. They were true, but the people did not want to hear them. When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. (v. 54) What did they hear? What could be so bad that Stephen told them? Unlike Jesus, he did not remain silent before his accusers. As God gave him the courage, he spoke the truth that they needed to hear. These were Stephen’s words to his accusers: “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers 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 put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” (v. 51-53)

            Were those harsh words? They sure were! They should have cut deeply like a knife into the conscience of his audience. Peter had preached a message similar to this during the Pentecost celebration, 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven. At that time the audience was looking for relief from their guilty conscience and Peter told them to “repent and be baptized.”

            How different this audience was. How ferocious and angry they were when they were compared with the stubborn unbelieving people that we hear about in the history of the kingdom of Israel, people who did not heed God’s warning about the coming judgment and so were lost. Stephen considered exactly what his audience needed to hear from God and he proclaimed it.

            Thankfully, Stephen was not alone. He had someone standing up for him. He saw Jesus at God’s right hand, a place of power and glory. Stephen was not worried about the people in front of him. His purpose was to bring glory to the name of his Lord and Savior.

            Jesus has the view of all time and space, the ability and the authority to act for the good of the members of his body. He had not abandoned Stephen, but was intimately connected with him through the faith that the Holy Spirit had given Stephen. His faithful servant was carrying out his work in the kingdom and Jesus would not abandon the one he had called to follow him.

            We have the same confidence from God’s Word, that Jesus does not abandon us, whom he has called to follow him. So why do we not have the same courage as Stephen? Why are we not as bold to tell people exactly what God says? Is it pressure from our culture, pressure not to cause conflict with anyone? Is it uncertainty about what the Bible actually says? Is it doubt about whether or not God’s Word is really true? Or is it merely the fear that you are going to stand out instead of blending in to the background?

            God says we should call upon his name in every trouble, pray, praise and give thanks. Stephen praised God while the blood of his captors boiled because his words condemned their unbelief. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (v. 56)

            The very Son of God whom we so often fail to praise in our lives is the one who even now is standing at the right hand of God, praying for us, that we might have the courage to live our faith boldly. He is also praying for God’s mercy every time we repent and turn away from those words that we spoke that brought shame to our God and those words that we should have spoken, but instead kept silent.

            As our High Priest, standing at the right hand of God in heaven, Jesus Christ pleads to God on our behalf, for the sake of the one for all sacrifice he made to release us from the punishment we deserve from God. Trust in the forgiveness that your Savior has bought for you. Let that ease your mind and give you courage to serve him in every relationship that you have.

 II. Stand up for me by my side

            When you share God’s law with people, the desire for that person is that they would repent of their sin. That certainly was the desire of Stephen. He had no desire to see his people lost forever. He knew that Jesus was his only Savior and they also needed to know that.

            But you see their response. With closed ears and hard hearts, shouting at the top of their voices, they make themselves the judge, jury, and executioner in Stephen’s case. With the charge of blasphemy, they carried out the sentence of death by stoning.

            Rabbinic writings record the method of stoning that was often used: “The place of stoning was the height of two men. One of the witnesses knocked (the convict) down on his back. If he turned over on his chest, the witness turned him on his back. If he died right away, that was enough; but if not, the second (witness) took a stone and dropped it on his chest. If he died right away, that was enough; but if not he was stoned by all Israelites (present).... All who were stoned were (then) hanged. These are the words of Rabbi Eliezer (ben Hyrcanus).” http://virtualreligion.net/iho/justice.html

            Stephen recognized that in spite of the horrible death he was facing, Jesus was at God’s right hand, working on his behalf, turning the great evil of rejecting Jesus Christ into great good for Stephen. He would even use incidences such as these to help the young man Saul recognize God’s grace after he was called by God to be the missionary to the Gentile known as the Apostle Paul.

            But perhaps more comforting than knowing that Jesus is up in heaven is knowing that Jesus is standing up right by my side. As the stones were flying and the moment of his death approached, Stephen seemed to see Jesus so close that he could reach out and touch him. He seems eager to let himself go into the open arms of his Savior.

            But not before he has a chance to do exactly what Jesus did before he died and what Jesus calls each and every one of us to do: pray for his enemies. "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." This prayer especially helps us to realize that every word of Stephen’s sermon in this chapter was intended to be a call for the people to repent of their sins and turn to the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ, for mercy.

            When is it most comforting to realize that Jesus is right by your side? When you are lonely? When you are ill? When every day you have to face a situation that is uncomfortable and you don’t know how to respond in a loving Christian way?

            You may feel as though your faith is on trial every day as was the faith of Stephen. But in reality, Stephen wasn’t on trial. The people who condemned him were on trial. They were the ones found guilty, because they refused the payment that had been made to remove their guilt.

            Were you sincere when you asked God for forgiveness today? Do you ask him for forgiveness every day? I’m not talking about going through a ritual. I’m talking about really paying attention to what God would have your attitude be toward your family and your work and your worship. I’m talking about what God would have you see with your eyes and speak with your lips. I’m talking about every day falling face down before God with tears and admitting to him, “I can’t do it! I can’t be the perfect person you want me to be!”

            Through faith in Jesus, Stephen was an innocent man. Through faith in Jesus, your only Savior, you are innocent. You don’t earn it. You can’t take credit for it. Accept it as God’s gift to you through Jesus when he placed the innocent verdict on your court record and destroyed all the evidence against you.

            The Lord Jesus is ready and willing at all times to receive our spirit. We pray that the Holy Spirit makes us ready and willing to give ourselves to him, not just when we reach the end of our lives, but when we reach the beginning of each new day.

 Conclusion – Stephen was a man who died for a cause he believed in, much like the soldiers who have fought in the wars that we have been involved in as the United States of America. We have been blessed by God with the opportunity to be citizens of two kingdoms. Here on earth, we value the freedom and opportunity we enjoy as citizens of the U.S. But we also recognize, as did Stephen, that our citizenship is in heaven. Our place is with Jesus, our Great High Priest, who is in heaven, working all of history to be a blessing for us. Jesus is here too, with you and me. He is here to bless you with his loving presence, the reassurance that he has done all that is necessary so that we will be with him forever, renewed in both body and soul on the day of resurrection. Amen.