AMC Sermon
3rd July, 2011
Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han
Acts 7: 1- 53.
Main Idea: Jesus, the centre of focus of Christianity
Objectives: a. To challenge the congregation to honour Jesus as Stephen in everyday life. b. To challenge the congregation to be righteous as Jesus is righteous.
A. Introduction
- Jesus is the centre of focus in our faith. You remove Jesus away, you do not have Christianity on earth. You cannot consider yourself as a Christian if you do not believe that Jesus is God, the Almighty God who is in-charge of your life. For the Agape Methodist church or any Church, if Jesus is not at all worshipped, I guarantee you nobody will come to Agape Methodist Church. This is simply because people believe Jesus is the true God and they desire to worship.
- You take Jesus out of your faith; I assure you will have nothing left. You have nothing to be proud of. Everything in Christianity and anything to do with church becomes meaningless without Jesus!
- If Jesus, a real person, a real human being, who desires to be personal with each of us is set aside, the so called religion, Christianity will collapse any time. Jesus matters so much to Christianity.
- The long passage today really inspires us to take the person of Jesus, seriously, and all the more personally. I pray that at the end of the day, you will take Jesus so seriously and personally like Jesus’ disciple, Stephen.
- Let us see how he took Jesus so personally.
B. Explanation of how Stephen took Jesus so personally
- Remember Stephen in chapter 6 was one of those selected by the Apostles, to do the ministry of taking care of the widows; full of Spirit and wisdom; full of faith and the Spirit; full of grace and power. He did wonders and miraculous signs. He was arrested and handed over to the Jewish Sanhedrin by the members of the synagogue of the Freedmen to be questioned and confronted in every sense for his new faith in the resurrected Jesus, the Jesus who died, buried and resurrected.
- They accused him of blaspheming against Moses and against God. They conspired to accuse Stephen of speaking against the Holy place of the temple and also speaking against the Law of Moses.
- Now in chapter 7 verse 1, the high priest asked, “Are these charges true?” For the Jews, blasphemy against the Law of Moses which was given by God was equivalent to blasphemy against God. The punishment was death sentence. Can you imagine how critical is the question and all the more the answer. A Yes to the question means death. That was what was at stake. If you were Stephen who had probably witnessed the resurrected Jesus, what would you say?
- This was question of the truth or not. This was when the Jews from the Sanhedrin believed Jesus was not God; the dead could not resurrect. That was the truth, the whole truth. That was the conviction of the Jewish highest religious body. On the other hand, Stephen and the rest of the disciples and apostles, believed Jesus who died, buried, and resurrected; He is sent by God, the Yahweh, He is the Messiah, the Saviour; Jesus is God. This is the truth, the whole truth which cannot be denied and compromised. That was the conviction of the disciples and apostles of Jesus.
- Therefore, it was a question of the truth. It was a battle of truth. What is the truth? The truth of whether Jesus had resurrected and He is God was at stake right at the confrontation of the Sanhedrin.
- Stephen knew the moment had come for him to make his defence that Jesus is God, the Righteous One, the son of God, sent by God the Father that is the truth. Stephen knew his Jewish heritage and the origin of Judaism. Before he answered yes to the charge, he traced back to the history of the faith of their own Jewish ancestors, right from Abraham to Moses and the later prophets. Highlighting God’s call of Abraham to the Promised Land for his descendents. Highlighting major Jewish historical events which helped to trace the roots of their faith in their forefather’s God, God of Abraham.
- Highlighting the circumcision covenant that God made with Abraham. Highlighting Isaac who became the father of Jacob who became the father of the 12 patriarchs. How Joseph and the whole family (patriarch) migrated to Egypt because famine and how their descendents were ill treated and oppressed (400 years). How God raised Moses to deliver the Israelites with signs and wonders at the Red Sea and 40 years at wilderness before entering the Promised Land. God gave his word to Moses at Mt Sinai and how their ancestors disobeyed God by worshipping idols. How God instructed them to build the tabernacle and remained with David and eventually Solomon built the temple.
- After giving a brief history of Jewish faith to show how Jesus was linked to the God of Abraham, he now turned his defence into attack. I strongly believe he was filled by the Holy Spirit to have courage to prepare for the worst, the death, after answering yes to the charge.
- You see how he turned the defence into attack and at the same time link God of Abraham with Jesus and at the same time, he answered Jesus was God, the Righteous One.
- For the Sanhedrin, linking Jesus with God was blasphemy, for Stephen and apostles, it is the truth, not a blasphemy, and it was a huge theological difference, a difference that could not be compromised. For both sides, it was a great offense to God. For both sides, they want to their lives to ‘bet’ on it. That means they were willing to die for what they believe, they want to die a death of martyrdom for what they believe. Do you see the great convictions from both sides? How can you blasphemy my God? You see the great battle for truth.
- Obviously, Stephen was prepared to die for what he believed about Jesus, if not, he would not attack the Sanhedrin and crucify them like this (verses 51 to 53), “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.”
- What an intimidating, sarcastic and daring attack on the top Jewish religious leaders. The attack was very serious, it meant they were circumcised outwardly which supposed to make them holy and close to God but now Stephen said they were uncircumcised in their hearts, they were most unholy in their hearts; they outwardly seemed to obey the law and Stephen accused them they did not obey the law inwardly.
- It was outright humiliation; most unacceptable accusations according to Jewish theology, the stage was set for a death sentence according to the Mosaic Law!
C. Applications and Actions
- What is the big deal about this Righteous One that deserves Stephen to stake his life on it? Why not Stephen played smart and gave a so called white lie answer in modern terms since his life was at stake? Like what Chinese proverbs say, “Keep the green hill and you will not afraid that there will not be wood to burn.” Tell a lie, save your life, and you can continue to serve Jesus. Why not he just denied it, like Apostle Peter denying his relationship with Jesus 3 times? Why he didn’t just keep silent and save his life as silence is gold in our modern understanding?
- My personal reflection which I want to share and preach to you is this: Firstly, I strongly believe that when you are so filled by Holy Spirit, you are so intimate with Jesus, you will be so focused on Jesus and whatever He desires you to do, you will do, you will not use your mind to think of negative things like denying, lying, play smart, you will go all the way out to make sacrifice for Jesus, including your life. Secondly, the powerful reality of the resurrected Christ was such strong evidence that how could you deny the divinity of Jesus. Stephen encountered Jesus in such a personal manner, real manner. How could he deny the divinity of Jesus? How could he say Jesus is not God?
- No wonder at the end of the day, in his attack on the Sanhedrin, he called Jesus the Righteous One, the Son of God, sent by God. The one is who is always right, the Righteous One, who never sins.
- To such a God, Stephen was willing to die for Him; he wanted to honour Jesus so much so that he was willing to pay the price of death. Rather than at the crucial moments, choosing to dishonour Him by denying Him.
- Brothers and sisters, by now, I pray that you will find in life, in everyday, our life has everything to do with Jesus. Can you honour Jesus with your life? Especially at crucial moments? When you are entrusted with big amount of money? When you are alone out there, as a married person or a single person, do you relate to opposite sex with all holiness? When you are angry, do you use foul language? When people are poorer than you, less qualified than you, do you look down on them? When you are taken advantage, hurt, defeated, embarrassed, do you take revenge, hate, fight back and show your true colour? When you are given a certain kind of trust, a position of trust, do you abuse the trust? When your children give your all the troubles and frustrations, do you dismiss them as stupid? All these, you see, in our everyday life, if your answer is Yes, you are not honouring.
- As a disciple of Jesus, if your answer to all these is a definite Yes, you really bring shame to Jesus; you really sell Jesus away; you really deny Jesus as your God; Jesus is not your master; Jesus is not personal to you; Jesus is not living in your life. Jesus is not there in your life. Of course people cannot see the presence of Jesus in your life.
- On the other hand, if your answer is no to all those questions, of course, you honour Jesus. You are very powerful for Jesus. People will become attracted to your life as you offer Jesus to them. Because you have righteousness of Jesus which they do not have. They want to come to this Agape Methodist to see what Jesus has done to your life and they want to learn. You will be like Jesus, people see righteousness in you. So, by all means your life must smell Jesus. Can you?
- Since Jesus is the righteous one, your life needs to be righteous like Him. It does not mean you need to be perfect. If you can be perfect, then, you do not need the Almighty God anymore. It is exactly you are not perfect, you need Jesus to forgive you; to empower you with His Spirit; to enlighten you with His word, etc. Though you are not perfect, you work towards being righteous; doing things right. When you answer no to the above questions, you do it right.
- What if you do it wrong? You answer yes to some of the questions above. Remember you have Jesus to turn to, you can do self-correction; you can delete and give the right answer with the help of Jesus; you can say sorry; you can ask for forgiveness; you can compensate (like Zacchaeus, he paid back double to people whom he wronged); you can repent; you can turn around; you can start all over and do it right with the help of Jesus and His Church.
D. Conclusion
- Do you now see the presence of Jesus is at stake all the time in your life? It is not only when you come to church on Sunday; not only when you do not serve Him.
- Stephen honoured Jesus with his life as he felt worth to do so. Are you now convinced that Jesus is worth your life investment, your honour, your living for Him? I pray you honour Jesus with your life on earth.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Share as many reasons as you can how convinced you are to honour Jesus in your life.
2. Share testimonies of how you honour Jesus in the past or how you plan to honour Jesus.
