Formed in His Image | Sunday Sermon

Formed in His Image | Sunday Sermon

Series: Acts: The Story Continues...

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

We've been in the book of Acts, and a quick reminder: the series that we're in is called The Story Continues, and the theme that we've been operating under is that Christ's ministry and work on the earth did not stop at the crucifixion. It did not stop when he went into the tomb. It didn't stop when he rose from the dead. It didn't stop when he commissioned the apostles and when he ascended to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The story of the book of Acts is that the ministry and work of Jesus continues on the earth even to this day through his church. So last week we saw the apostles as the church is growing and growing and growing, the needs of the church are growing as well. And so the apostles raised up leaders and they appointed them and they laid hands on them and then they just released them into leadership in the church. And so over the next several chapters, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, is going to highlight two of those deacons that he read that the apostles raised up that day. And the first one's Stephen, the second one's Philip, but this section right here, the first one we get to see, is Stephen. So in verse 8 it says, And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Now, was Stephen an apostle? Was Stephen an apostle? No. Nope. Stephen wasn't an apostle. Stephen was just an ordinary disciple. He was just an ordinary disciple that got saved through the preaching of the word of God. We don't know exactly what his conversion moment was when he, you know, moved from, you know, being a traditional Jewish, you know, follower to being an actual follower of Christ. But we know that he at some point came to faith in Jesus. He, you know, as the Bible's been saying in the book of Acts, he devoted himself to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. And over time he began to grow and mature in his faith. And so when the apostles went to the church and the overall gathering and they said, Listen, appoint from among yourselves seven people, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, full of power. Stephen was one of them. He was a person who had taken his faith seriously. He had decided I'm not gonna just pray a prayer and then sit in a pew or sit in a chair for the next couple of generations. I'm gonna go ahead and devote myself to the apostles' teaching. I'm gonna grow in my faith. I'm gonna become the person that God has called me to be. And so he was an ordinary disciple. He was a committed one, he was a faithful one. And his story is powerful, but he was just a normal disciple. And I want to point that out because if we don't stop and acknowledge that, and I think then I think that we'll be tempted when we read a passage like this to think, hey, this Stephen guy was some kind of super Christian. Right? We're gonna think that's a super Christian. That's like, oh, no one will ever be like Stephen. You know, we can't be like that. That's Stephen. He was really a zealot, you know, he was kind of like all out there, you know. I'm just going to a normal, average Christian. I just want to kind of be like a, you know, one of those Christians is kind of a Christian, but you know, I just kind of, you know, I'm I do that on Sundays, and then I go and I do my career and I have my other things. But but Stephen just was a disciple in the truest sense, and that every part of his life revolved around the fact that he was a follower of Christ. It defined him as who he was, as a person. And so up to this point, though, in the book of Acts, the signs and the wonders were primarily done by who? The apostles, yeah. You guys can talk, remember? I want to remind you week after week until you get comfortable with this. You guys can talk in church as long as you're talking about this. Okay? So, no Facebook, no Instagram, but you can go ahead and talk and respond. So, who was the ones doing, who were the ones doing the signs and wonders at this point in the church?

unknown 3:53

The apostles.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

The apostles were doing the signs and wonders, right? But here we see for the first time the signs and the wonders begin to move through one of the disciples, somebody else. And then later, Philip also in chapter eight. See what it we get to see in Stephen and then in Philip, what we're getting to see is we're getting to see what it looks like when a disciple becomes fully formed. Okay, they've devoted themselves, they've followed Christ, and they're beginning to become mature. They're beginning to look like Jesus. They're beginning to have the same things happen and manifest in their lives as happened in the life of Jesus, because they're following their Lord, he's sanctifying them, and he's forming them into his own image. Amen? And that's what's supposed to happen with us. And so it says he was full of grace and power and doing great wonders and signs among the people. And in verse 9, it says, Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So the question is, who are these people? Who are these people that are arguing with Stephen? It says they're from the synagogue of the freedmen, okay? There's Cyrenians, there's Alexandrians, there's Cilicians, there's Asians, there's all kinds of different people that are all gathered here. And we don't know for sure if they're all part of the synagogue of the freedmen or if these are separate synagogues. We don't know. But the an idea that someone has posited is that maybe these were people who were part of the Jewish dispersions. They'd been dispersed to other parts of the Roman kingdom. They may have served as slaves at some point, but had been released from their slavery and had returned to Jerusalem. But these are Jewish people, they are not believers in Christ, and they hear Stephen preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. But I wanted to stop for one more second because why is Stephen preaching? I thought he was a deacon. Aren't deacons supposed to just do the normal practical stuff? They're supposed to like give out the Cheerios and stuff, right? And they set up chairs. They don't, they don't preach, right? How weird. Just because Stephen was entrusted to a practical ministry, the ministry of the deacons, which was to be, you know, serving the needs, the distribution of the of the widows, the the offering to the widows, and all that, just because he was placed in that position and trusted with that position, that doesn't mean that was all that God was ever going to do with him, does it? This is like what we talked about last week, that part of our preparation, part of discipleship is not just being in the Bible and reading the Bible and learning about the Bible. Okay, this is a big part of it, and we need to know God's word. But part of discipleship and part of growing is practicing, being a part of ministry. You know, I have served in all kinds of different things since I became a Christian. I was an altar worker, I was a youth volunteer, I sang in a choir, I eventually sang on a worship team, I was part of a drama ministry, I've been the guy that sets up chairs and tears down chairs and sets up tables and breaks down tables, been the guy that sweeps and cleans up. I've done all kinds of things in my time as a Christian. But all of those things, every single thing I've ever done, including the things that I've done outside of church ministry, all those things have prepared me on the journey of discipleship that God has had me on for the things that He has in store for me. And you know, that doesn't stop even now. At 50 years old, God is still continuing to work in me, to form me, to grow me, to shape me. Definitely need a lot more maturity, okay? So he's shaping me and moving me. He's going, I don't know what the plans that God has for me in the future. And neither do we know what the plans are that God has for you in the future. And so don't disdain the small responsibilities, the little things, and think, well, this isn't important. You know, this isn't important, just setting up the tables, arranging the room, doing this thing or that thing. That's not that important. No, it's extremely important. And every part of everything we do in the body of Christ, every ministry is just as important and just as relevant. It's a part of what God is doing in the world. Amen. And so what did Stephen preach? Well, he would have been preaching what the apostles preached. He was their disciple. He had grown up under their teaching, so he would have been teaching the person and the work of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah that was promised in the Bible through Moses and the law and the prophets. He's fulfilled the law and the prophets, that he's the fulfillment of all the promises of the old covenant. He's the ultimate fulfillment of the temple, that he was crucified as prophesied by the prophets, that he rose from the dead because God raised him from the dead and that God exalted him and seated him at his own right hand. He would have been urging his fellow Jews to repent and receive forgiveness in Jesus Christ, to accept him as their Messiah, and to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But as these Jewish people engaged him, they they didn't like what he was saying. And I think at first the conversation might have just been, you know, honest debate. They might not have just initially just came up with their fists up like this, wanting to box. They probably were just kind of debate him to correct him, you know, and what they thought he was saying wrong. But the problem is the text says they they could not resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. So I want to talk about both things here: the wisdom and the spirit. Because I think sometimes we just focus on one of them. Okay. And when I read this, I was reading it a couple days ago and it instantly reminded me of Jesus. When Jesus spoke, people could feel that there was just something different than what they were used to hearing. He spoke from a deep well of wisdom. Why? Well, I don't know, maybe because he is the God of all creation and universe, and he has all wisdom and knowledge within himself. Okay? In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, Colossians says. So he spoke from a deep well of wisdom, but it wasn't just what Jesus said, it was also how Jesus said it. When people would hear Jesus speak, they would say, Wow, there's something different about this guy. When when um there was one time when the religious leaders had sent the temple soldiers to go arrest Jesus, and they went, and then after a while they came back, and they're like, the leader's like, Where is he? Why didn't you bring him? And the leader of the soldiers, he's like, Man, no one ever spoke like this man. There was another time Jesus finishes the sermon on the mount, and Matthew says, When Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. Then later on in the Gospel of Matthew, the scribes, the lawyers, they're challenging him. They're trying to get him like tripped up. They're trying to get him to say something they can use against him, right? But everything they say, he just outsmarts them, he outmaneuvers them. He's smarter than them, he knows more. And here's the other thing, he's right. And they're not. And it says in Matthew chapter 22, and no one was able to answer him a word, nor that from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. So Stephen is out there preaching and teaching the word. He's sharing the gospel with everyone he meets, and these Jewish people try to debate him, but they just can't overcome his wisdom or the spirit by which he speaks. And I thought there was one more layer to that part, the spirit part, right? The spirit by which he speaks. I think this has to do with the power of the message and the Holy Spirit's inspiration, but I think there's something else too. I think it also has to do with the graciousness of Stephen's delivery, of his posture toward the people that he was speaking to. Because it's not always just what we say, right? It's not always just what we say, it's also how we say it. We could be a hundred percent right in what we're saying and still be wrong because the way that we say it is arrogant or judgmental or condescending. We could possess the wisdom of heaven, but if we try to impart that wisdom in a way that's just a turnoff, in a way that is arrogant, in a way that is condescending or judgmental, that wisdom's not going to be received. I think Stephen's gift was that when he looked at other people, he saw them as someone created in God's image. He saw them as someone who was inherently worthy of dignity, as a person who is inherently worthy of respect. And we can have theological debates. Since I became a Christian, I've had plenty of theological debates. I went to Western. When I was at Western, there were all kinds of different people on all kinds of different sides of the theological debates. And at first we kind of went and there was like this tension there between all of us because we knew that we disagreed. And see, the human instinct, our instinct is to label people. Our instinct is to categorize them. Well, you believe this, and that means all these other things about you. You believe this, and so that means all these other things about you. And we don't want to take the time. We don't want to take the time. What we want to do is we want to put labels on people that are easy for our lazy little brains to not have to engage another person and actually do the hard work of trying to understand where a person is coming from. That just because they think a certain way doesn't mean they're a bad person. That their intentions, their motivations are bad, right? And so we can have conversations about people that disagree with us about baptism or about communion or about eschatology or about, or I can talk to atheists and agnostics, and I can have a respectful conversation at the end of it and go, you know, I like that guy, I like her, I like this person. They're a good person. We just disagree on this thing. But sometimes Christians can come off as arrogant. We come off as judgmental, we come off as know-it-alls, we come off as lacking any ability to comprehend the fact that there's such a thing called nuance. That not everything is black and white. Now, God's law is black and white, God's commands are black and white, God's justice and holiness is black and white. But humanity, oh, we live in a sea of gray. And you can't define someone and everything about them, all based upon what they think about one topic or one the way they vote or whatever it is. The people are deeper than that. And so as we read the rest of Stephen's interaction with those who opposed him, we're gonna see that he was gracious and he was kind even to those he disagreed with. But at the same time, he was also completely unafraid to just say what was true. So we need both. We can't be afraid to just say that this is true. This is just what the Bible says. I'm sorry. You don't like it, that is what it is, okay? But there's a scripture that I really like in 1 Peter. Where Peter says that we should always be prepared to make a defense to anyone that asks us a reason for the hope that is in you. And it says this though: do it with gentleness and respect. Say gentleness, gentleness and respect. Say gentleness and respect. I keep it waking you up every once in a while. I'm boring, I guess. And so when they couldn't overcome his arguments, they turned to violence. In verse 11, it says, Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God, and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses. He said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. So when they couldn't overcome his reasoning and his logic, when they couldn't come up with a clever way to put down his armor, when he continued to prevail in their conversation, they turned to slander and lies. And it's amazing how similar Stephen's experiences are to Jesus's. They brought in false witnesses, they twisted his words to mean things he never said, they accused him before the councils. And the accusations were he's speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against the law, that he's speaking words against the temple, that he's saying that Jesus is going to destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses. But what was Stephen actually preaching? Stephen was preaching the exact same thing that Jesus preached. The same thing Jesus preached and got accused of these exact same things, actually. See, Jesus didn't come to overturn the law of Moses. Christianity is not opposed to Judaism. Did you know that? We're not opposed. We're not opposites. Christ is the fulfillment of the law of Moses. He didn't come to set aside the law. He said, as long as long as the law stands, not one dot or tittle will will depart from the law. Not one of them is gonna depart, not one of them is gonna fade away. I'm not overturning anything. I didn't come to overthrow it, I didn't come to set it aside, I didn't make come to disparage the law. Jesus came to fulfill the law. We talked about this in communion. See, God gave the commandments, he gave the law, and humanity, well, at times, at moments, did our best to fulfill them, and yet always failed every single time. So Jesus came as our substitute to fulfill the law of Moses on our behalf. I'm the one that Moses talked about, I'm the one that the law pointed to, I'm the one the temple pointed to, the dwelling place of God, where God dwells amongst his people, the one you go to for prayer, the one you go to for forgiveness, the one you go to to interact with God. Jesus is the temple, he's the fulfillment of the temple. Jesus spoke of himself as the temple. When Jesus went in John 2 and he walked in to the temple and he made a whip of cords and he was driving out the animals that were in there. He was driving out those who handled the animals. He was overturning the money changers' table. See, they had taken God's temple, this place of prayer, this place that was supposed to be a place where people who were estranged from God could come and to get into God's presence, a place where they could get quiet and focus on Him, on their creator, a place where they could come and bring an offering to be sacrificed for their sin, a place where God was to dwell with His people in the midst of this earth. And they took that and they had turned it into like this marketplace where there's animals and there's the smell of the animals and they're bleeding and the, you know, the moose and the and all that kind of stuff. And I don't know what sound oxen make, but there were some of those too. They were going, I don't know what they make, but they did something. Okay, and then they drove them out, and there's these people with scales, right? And you had to pay the temple tax, you had to pay the right kind of money. You couldn't just pay with Gentile money, you had to pay with the temple coins, right? And so they would go to the money changers' tables, but then the money changers were shrewd, and they had these weighted scales. So you'd bring in your money, and then they would rip you off and give you less than the value of your money for in the in the temple uh coinage. He's saying you've turned my father's house into a marketplace, a noisy, smelly, loud thing that inhibits the reason why God gave it for you to come and be with my father. And so he drove them out. And the leaders came to him and they said, Well, what sign do you give us that you do this thing? Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The leaders misunderstood him. They're like, This temple has taken 46 years to rebuild, and you're gonna raise it in three days. But the apostle John said he was speaking of the temple of his body. See what Stephen was trying to do is he's trying to help the Jewish people understand. Look, Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses. He went to the cross to bear the burden of your sin. God raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand. He's poured out his Holy Spirit. Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets, he's the one the whole Bible was talking about. He's the one we're waiting for. It's him, it's him, it's him, guys. He saved me, he filled me with his spirit, he changed me. Look at me, look at the signs and the wonders that he's doing to confirm his message, but they didn't want to hear it. And so they twisted his words into a caricature of what he was trying to say. And you know, this is one of the most frustrating things in life, being falsely accused. When someone takes your words and they twist them to mean something that you never intended, that you never even thought of. They take what you say and they twist it and they they use it against you. It's the most frustrating thing. It feels disrespectful to be intentionally misunderstood. Because deep inside every human being is a desire to be heard and to be understood. We long to be able to communicate what's in our hearts and minds and to be heard and to be rightly understood. And so one of the most painful and frustrating things that we experience is being misunderstood or misrepresented. See, when a person expresses their innermost thoughts and feelings, it it's you know, before another person, it it's a vulnerable thing. You're putting yourself out there, and so when we take the time and effort to express ourselves, and then someone twists our words into a way that doesn't actually Represent us, it hurts. And so the situation for Stephen, it must have felt incredibly unjust. He's out there trying to share the good news. He's trying to share the message. You guys, you guys, he came. He's here. Jesus is here. He came and he saved us. He did it. He completed the work. He just wanted to tell about the world about Jesus, but they dragged him before the council. And false witnesses are being brought to lie about him, to falsely accuse him. Powerful, respected leaders in the community are looking at him like he's a disgusting little bug. And yet, in the midst of it all, Stephen maintained his peace. His focus was fixed upon his savior rather than upon his circumstances. His heart was fixed upon the one who had stood in this exact same place before some of these exact same men and faced some of these exact same accusations. And Stephen knew that he as he stood before these men, he didn't stand alone, did he? Jesus wouldn't abandon him. The one who had told the disciples, Behold, I'm with you even to the end of the age. And the one who had told him to go into all the world, the one who had commanded him to preach these things, the one who had filled him with his spirit, the one who showed his signs and wonders as a confirmation, that one, that one was not going to now leave him now that he's standing in the lion's den. Instead, Jesus loved him and he gave him his strength and he gave him his peace and he gave him composure in the face of lies and corruption and even his impending death. Stephen knew his Lord was with him, and in verse 15 it says, and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. And this is such a powerful moment, but but what does this mean? I know sometimes people go to great lengths to stop the shininess on the face, right? When I worked at the Crystal Cathedral, they would have me go do a scripture reading or something like that, sometimes on the hour of power. And so they would put you in the dressing room and they'd powder you and put lipstick on you and all kinds of stuff. It was the most uncomfortable thing, you know. But Stephen's face glowed and shined like the face of an angel. Well, this imagery should remind us of Moses. In Exodus 34, Moses was on the mountain with God. He was receiving the Ten Commandments, the tablets of stone that were written, the commandments of God, but the finger of God, and he was up there for 40 days. And in verse 29 of Exodus 34, it says, When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone, because he had been talking to God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. And in verse 33 it says, When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. And whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with them, he would remove the veil until he came out, and told the people of Israel what he was commanded. The people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was shining, and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him. What was happening is that Moses was entering into the manifest presence of God, and he could not do that without being affected and changed. So Moses would go in and speak with the Lord, and the glory of God would still be shining off of him, reflecting off of his face as he came out to tell the people what God said. This was God's sign to his people that this is my messenger, this one who brings you this law and these commandments and this tabernacle, this is my messenger, and he speaks with my authority. And isn't it interesting that this beautiful disciple Stephen is brought before the council of religious leaders of the Jewish people, and as he faced the accusations that they leveled at him, that he was speaking against Moses, that he was speaking against the law, that he was speaking against the temple, that he was speaking against the traditions, that God would perform for him the very same miracle, the very same sign that God had given to Moses to confirm the authenticity of his messenger. It was as a witness to these men and a witness against these men who would harden their hearts and once again reject the merciful grace of God toward them in sending them this messenger, Stephen, who so very beautifully represented his Lord. And so you ask, how does this relate to me? How is this more than just a story of an amazing disciple from 2,000 years ago? Are you saying that, or are you just saying, I can't wait for a donut? Paul the Apostle speaks about the glory of God and the veil of Moses in 2 Corinthians. And describing, what he does is he describes the difference between the glory that was on Moses' face when he would go into the presence of the Lord and how he would put a veil over that face, because when he would come out, speak to the people, immediately the glory would begin to fade off his face. And so he would cover his face with a veil so the people couldn't see the glory fading off of his face. And it wasn't until he'd go back into the presence again that he would get filled up, shine again, and come back out, tell the people, and then it started to fade. So we'd put a veil over his face. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, it says, Since we have this hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they when they they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So Moses would go into the tent of meeting, he would receive the glory, he'd come out shining, and he'd put a veil over his face. But the difference for us, we live in his glory. We live in the cloud of glory. We live in the presence of Yahweh because of what Jesus has done, we are brought into his presence where we have the absolute honor of beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Church, how can we be given the opportunity to live and move and breathe and have our being within the presence of God Himself and not be changed? Stephen wasn't an apostle, he was just an ordinary disciple. He wasn't an anomaly, he wasn't a super Christian. He was just a normal follower of Christ, just like you. He just simply heard the call of the Lord and he obeyed and he followed Jesus wherever Jesus called. But Stephen belonged to Christ, and because he was, because he did, he beheld the glory of Jesus. And his face shone with that glory so that all who gazed upon him could see it. And so what I thought of for us this morning was you know, our faces might not shine like the face of an angel. But we cannot stand in the presence of God in Christ and not be changed and not begin to look like our Lord. But when we're true disciples of Christ, he calls us to himself and we do the things that disciples do. We devote ourselves to the apostles' doctrine, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. The Holy Spirit fills us, and in that process of devoting ourselves to those things, of participating in the life and the work and the ministry of Christ and in his church, we're changed. We begin to manifest our Lord too, and the things that the apostles did, we might do. The things that these disciples did, like Stephen did, we may do. Especially things like Stephen and like Philip, who we're gonna read in chapter 8, goes down to Samaria and is doing signs and wonders there. Do we want to look like Jesus? Do you want to look like Jesus? Then Lord, may you grant our desire. Jesus, we want to we want to look like you. We want to manifest your glory. We want to be like you. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would fill us today. That you would fill us anew with your power, with the power to be your disciples, with the power to follow you, with the power to walk in your statutes and obey your commands, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross and follow you. We pray, Lord, that you'd give us a hunger and a desire for your presence and for your word that is greater than our desire for TV and Netflix and Facebook. We pray in the name of Jesus, Lord, that you would not leave us unchanged, that your kingdom would come and your will would be done in each one of us and us collectively as a body. Lord, we give you our lives, we give you this place, we give you our jobs, we give you our relationships, we give you our possessions, and I pray that you would make of us whatever you desire. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.