CPAC sermon 3 May 2009
Stephen – God’s Servant Acts 6:8-15
Last week I offered 3 key points about the importance of looking at the “original church” in the Book of Acts and using it as a model for ourselves while adapting it to suit the context in which we live today?
By looking at the original church:
Firstly, we'll have a biblical standard to follow.
That means we will operate as a church according to God's design. One of our key motivations will be to come to know God, to love God and to serve God and in so doing we will be motivated to tell others about God.
Secondly, Acts shows us that anything is possible when we are empowered by the HOLY SPIRIT.
Remember, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply. That supply comes from the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly, the book of Acts is unfinished!
That’s because God is not finished. He is still working in and through us, His people, His church. So WE, along with every other church, are in the process of writing the final chapter of the book of Acts.
Today I want to pick up on that second point about the importance of the Holy Spirit, using the brief life of Stephen in the book of Acts.
(Discuss “shower experience” … sometimes we get in/out of shower without thinking twice about it; other times we want to stay in hot, refreshing shower all day! Either way, the shower is the same shower and the end-result is typically exactly the same – you are well washed/refreshed ….. This is a bit like God – we can experience His presence in different ways, some ways “feeling” more powerful and significant than other ways but the reality is that one way is no less significant than the other way – God is still fully present, loving, and fully active in our lives no matter what. He is active and present by His Holy Spirit, all the time… it’s good to soak in the Holy Spirit!...)
In chapters 6 to 8 we read how Stephen was considered to be a man who was always full of God’s Spirit and therefore full of God’s grace, power, and wisdom.
This aroused the religious leaders against him and so they plotted his downfall by charging him with blaspheming Moses and even God.
In chapter 7, Stephen defends these charges by pointing to the hard-heartedness of the religious leaders and their blindness to the truth about God.
And his punch line to them is this, he says,
“Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?” (Acts 7:51)
When we soak in the Holy Spirit…..
Spirit-filled person is someone who literally makes Jesus Saviour and LORD of their entire life – of their thoughts, their actions, their reactions.
The best way to receive more of the Holy Spirit (HS) is by lifting up Jesus!
Jesus was always quick to point to the importance of the HS.
Read John 14:16,17 - Jesus said, “Holy Spirit will never leave us,
HS lives with us, and in us…”
St. Athanasius referring to our Lord he said,
"He became what we are, that He might make us what He is."
In other words, Athanasius was saying God sent Jesus to earth as a human being to pay our sin debt so He could cleanse us of sin and then send His Holy Spirit to live in and through us-making us into truly Christlike people.
The word "Christian" literally means "little Christ."
Stephen was a “little Christ”, as we are called to be….
Acts tell us that Stephen let Jesus live in and through Him.
There are numerous parallels between Jesus and Stephen.
§ The Bible says Jesus was full of grace. It says the same thing about Stephen.
§ Jesus performed miracles. So did Stephen.
§ Jesus boldly confronted the religious establishment of the day. So did Stephen.
§ Jesus was convicted by lying witnesses. So was Stephen.
§ Jesus was executed though innocent of any crime. So was Stephen.
§ Both were accused of blasphemy.
§ Both died outside the city and were buried by sympathizers.
§ Both prayed for the salvation & forgiveness of their executioners.
How can we be ‘little Christs”?
Lee Strobel, the acclaimed author, was once an avowed atheist-but through the witness of his wife he became a Christian and he experienced the life-transforming power of God. His wife was a little Christ, he became one and his daughter became one…
He writes,
"My daughter Allison, was 5 years old when I became a follower of Jesus, and all she had known in those 5 years was a dad who was profane and angry. I remember I came home one night and kicked a hole in the living-room wall just out of anger with life.
I am ashamed to think of the times Allison hid in her room to get away from me. Five months after I gave my life to Jesus Christ, that little girl went to my wife and said,
'Mummy, I want God to do for me what he's done for Daddy!'
At age five! What was she saying? She'd never studied the archeological evidence supporting the Biblical accounts like I had.
All she knew was that her dad used to be this way - hard to live with. But now, more and more her dad was becoming different in a good way.And if that is what God does to people, then, she was saying, sign me up! At age 5 Allison gave her life to Jesus." (Unquote)
Strobel invited Jesus into his heart and his life by giving Jesus the "reigns" of his life and allowed Jesus to change him. And others noticed.
Hollywood's famous, and sometimes infamous, Baldwin brothers… > Stephen Baldwin – he became a Christian… His wife is from Central America - they hired a maid from that same region.
She didn't speak English and she sang the entire time she worked.
Baldwin didn't speak Spanish but he recognized one word that kept coming up in the songs that she sang: JESUS.
So, one day he asked his maid, with his wife translating, why she sang about Jesus all the time.
When he did this, the maid began to laugh and told Stephen and his wife that she was a Christian and that she had taken the job as his maid because she felt God had called her to do so.
She had prayed and felt God answer telling her that this job would give her an opportunity to lead Baldwin to Christ and that he would then begin his own Christian ministry.
And eventually this is what happened!
First his wife decided to follow Jesus and then a year later Baldwin became a Christian. And when that happened he took the Great Commission personally just like Stephen in Acts.
He felt, he had a realm of influence that no one else had and that this was his assignment from Jesus. That realm of influence is the film industry as we know. So one of the first things he did was use his skills to make a movie to be shown to teens who like to skateboard. The film shows them doing amazing things on skateboards but it's also filled with the testimonies of Christian teens who are themselves skateboarders.
Understand that all this is as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.
The HS acts in exactly the same way in our lives. He will connect us with so many various life experiences and people; He will speak to us about certain situations and issues in our lives.
Have an open heart and mind when connecting with the HS.
Invite Him to speak to you and show you what you need to know.
Even this morning I awoke about 5am feeling really uncomfortable with a deep seated throbbing across the back of my shoulders. It felt like a “stress” related discomfort so I prayed about it as I lay there and do you know what the HS said to me in my thoughts, almost instantly? He said, “Water!” I immediately got up and drank a glass of water and the discomfort went within 10 minutes. I thought about that experience and I can recall past experiences where my body is affected like that when I don’t drink enough water! The HS reminded me! God knows about every aspect of our life, even the most practical things which affect us. Always be ready to ask for His help. He's a very practical, down-to-earth God!
Testimony about how Kathi Pelton heard the HS:
“My year started with a dream I had in the wee hours of New Year's day. In my dream, I was in a worship band that was playing Spirit-filled instrumental music. We were waiting for the Lord to speak to us regarding the new year. As we waited, I saw a picture of a large sunflower, pointed towards the brightness of the sunlight. As I saw this picture, I clearly heard the Lord begin to sing over His Church the song You Are My Sunshine:
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how
much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away..."
In this dream, I felt the Lord's delight for His children in a way I have never experienced before. As I awoke, the Lord's delight continued.
I was quite moved by this experience because when my husband and I adopted our oldest daughter, we would sing this song over her every night before putting her to bed. Just looking at her would fill us with such delight that it would often leave us in tears. We had never known such love for another human being.
This was the same delight that I felt the Lord showering over us His children. Then I heard Him speak to my spirit, saying,
"This will be a year that I express My delight for My children. I will sing over them as a Father who is filled with delight. This is how I see you, and I want you to receive like a child would receive and to believe like a child would believe. This is the year of My delight!"
Isaiah 62:3-5 says,
"You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God….for the LORD delights in you….. your God will rejoice over you." (unquote)
Allow God’s light and sunshine to shine on you and His delight to be showered over you.
Expect to feel and experience His delight for you through God the Holy Spirit.
How has the HS impacted your life in recent times?
Invite people from the congregation to share their testimony….
Close….
Stephen was Spirit-filled
he took the Great Commission personally,
he was a skilled student of God's Word
he had great courage because he knew God was with him.
God favoured him highly.
Like Stephen, may the favour of Jesus be with you and may He be proud of the way YOU are serving Him now!
Amen.
