Stephen Held in the Arms of the Lord
46who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 47But Solomon built him a house. 48However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, 49‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord. ‘Or what is the place of my rest? 50Didn’t my hand make all these things?’ 51“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. 52Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 53You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!” 54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. 58They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
5. Stephen’s Sermon
Today is Stephen’s last sermon. Listening to Stephen’s sermon, you will have seen how much he loved God and how he gave himself for God. As he showed his faith by his life, believers must live as Stephen did.
Faith is never something abstract. Faith is three things at once. Knowing the will of Jesus Christ with certainty. Being sure of the work of atonement. Entrusting all of yourself to him. None of the three may be missing — knowing, being sure, entrusting; only when these elements come together can one hold a whole faith.
Faith must have an object. This object must not be an uncertain idol but one complete, certain, and worthy of trust, like Jesus. Believers say they trust the Jesus Christ who came to this earth, yet in the end they do not entrust themselves. Without trusting God wholly, they want to receive many worldly things from God and want their wishes granted. And so, although God knows that believers carry the cravings of the heart, he leaves them as they are. For when a person’s heart cannot judge between righteousness and unrighteousness, they do not grasp it even when God is angry and judges.
Romans 1:17
17For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
In the words *from faith to faith*, the first faith is the faith that receives Jesus Christ as our only Savior, and the second faith speaks of the faith that comes out of complete trust. Abraham, who received God, believed God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness. That righteousness was shown through action, and God acknowledged the works of faith as a whole faith.
For example, when a child attends school they are called a student. But since one does not attend school in order to be called a student, if the child studies hard for their own future, that child will be recognized by their parents, because they know the purpose for which they must study. They simply studied hard, and yet they will also receive their parents’ thanks. Believers must not be satisfied merely with attending church; like this student, they must know the reason they attend and keep the faith diligently.
When God saw Abraham obey the command to offer Isaac, he said, *now I know that you fear me*. He was acknowledging the Abraham who had gone from faith to faith. This is exactly why James said that a person is justified by works. When we trust the unseen Word by faith and depend on that Word completely, God acknowledges through our action that our faith has been completed.
In Jeremiah 32, God commanded Jeremiah to buy the field at Anathoth. This happened immediately after God had said that the children of Israel would be captives in Babylon for seventy years. Why did God tell a man who was about to be carried off as a captive for seventy years to buy the field at Anathoth? Even if Jeremiah returned to his homeland after seventy years, claiming ownership of that land would be impossible.
But he did not look at his own judgment or at the circumstances; because he believed God’s promise, he acted as commanded. Because he believed God’s promise that when the seventy years of captivity ended the people would return and be allowed to claim ownership of that land, he bought the field and kept the deed of purchase in an earthen vessel. The reason he preserved the deed in an earthen vessel is that over so long a span as seventy years iron would rust and wood would rot, and so he chose earthenware. Look at what Jeremiah did. Faith invests a whole life in God’s promise and holds nothing back.
Acts 7:39-41
39to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ 41They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
Stephen declared to the people that although God had raised up Moses, who led Israel to salvation, there was a faction that would not obey. Those people were in Satan’s grip, and that is why they were carrying out his plan to bring down their leader Moses. When we see that Aaron, who until then had spoken for Moses and shared in God’s ministry, became the ringleader of that faction, we can see that anyone who lets down their guard can become Satan’s tool.
In the book of Job we see Satan going right up to God’s throne to speak against Job, and we see Judas Iscariot in Satan’s grip right at Jesus’ side. God is not deceived, of course, but there is nothing Satan will not do. This is proof that Satan can go anywhere and can speak against you at God’s side — so you must stay nearer to God than Satan is.
The people of Israel were God’s people; they had seen the ten plagues, crossed the Red Sea, and eaten quail and manna and drunk from the spring. But because they had not been fully born again through the Word, they had not put off the evil habits of human nature. The people of Israel raged, saying that Moses had driven them into suffering, and they said that the one who had led them this far was not God but the golden calf.
What did you think, watching them grow excited about abandoning the God who had planned and worked over so long a time in order to serve a golden calf? What sort of faith do you hold now? God has helped you this far so that you could hear the Word and grow, and has helped you not to live a shameful life in the world — consider whether you may have forgotten it. That heart which cannot endure even a little trial and pain and complains against God is exactly the same as the people of Israel making the golden calf.
The people seated in the council could no longer let Stephen live, because he had declared that they themselves were that faction which made the golden calf, and that they had killed the Messiah to whom the law testified according to the prophets’ prophecy. Of course, among those people there must have been some who knew perfectly well that Stephen was right but could not find the courage, because the mood was running toward killing him. When we find ourselves among people who do not know the word of truth and are enraged, we get swept along by the opinion of the many regardless of our own. When they complain we complain with them, and when they sin we sin with them — so we must judge carefully by the measure of the word of truth.
Acts 7:41
41They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
People really are a mystery. The people lived forty years in the wilderness because of their own sin, yet God gave them manna and quail, and granted them the miracle of clothes that did not wear out and sandals that did not wear through. And he protected the people of Israel with a pillar of cloud that shaded them from the burning sun by day and a pillar of fire that kept off the cold by night.
They had seen the spring flowing from the rock, the Red Sea parting, the ten plagues, and the miracle of being freed from slavery — but they gave no thought to the grace they had received. At the slightest discomfort they resented God, disbelieved, and betrayed him. While Moses was fasting forty days for their sake and receiving the Word, they complained that Moses and God had abandoned them, and in that short time, seizing the moment while Moses was away, they made a golden calf.
The time God takes to make a person into a complete child is long and careful. But the time a person takes to betray God is far too short. The moment in which people are deceived by Satan’s temptation is an instant. People’s hearts can change that instantly because God’s protection and Satan’s attack and temptation are both present at once. That is why, in order to live by faith, believers must show the works of faith that drive Satan off. People do not think of the grace and blessing they have received, and when a small hardship comes they despair easily and do not depend on God fully — and so in the end the prodigal and the debased have each made themselves so.
Acts 7:42
42But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
Through the forty years they lived in the wilderness, Israel did not truly sacrifice to the God who protected and kept them, and never offered him an offering. And so, even while they were committing the sin of serving the host of heaven, he did not give them the grace to turn back.
*The host of heaven* does not mean angels. It stands for all the idols the people of Israel worshipped — that is, the sun, moon, and stars. Because the worship of sun, moon, and stars persisted throughout Israel’s history, Stephen used the expression *the host of heaven* to stress the hardness of the people of Israel. The people did offer sacrifices to God, but they had no heart of reverence for him; they offered a formal worship according to the regulations of Moses. A formal sacrifice with no sincerity is not received by the almighty God, and such a sacrifice only draws his anger further. When the people he had truly loved and protected worshipped idols, God’s heart must have been grieved. Even in human relationships, an action without true love provokes anger instead. If someone says *I love you* but the other person already knows the words are a formality, then the more often the words come, the more hurt and anger will pile up.
You worship every Lord’s Day. This same rebuke can land on you. Worship without a sincere heart and honest love is not received by God. That is why you must worship in truth and in the Spirit. Worship offered out of duty is in the end a selfish act for yourself, and God will not regard you as revering him.
What is truly sad is that when hardship comes, because idols cannot help them, the people of Israel will in the end repent and ask God for help. They have no one but God — so what is the psychology of setting up gods of abundance and fertility and worshipping idols? It is the evil human thought that wants to fill up fleshly pleasure and satisfaction first, because one can always go to God and be forgiven whenever one likes.
Because God always gives only love, people do not fear him. But what believers must know is that for a person who uses God there is no wonder, no joy, no satisfaction, no reward, and no salvation. The people of Israel always lived for their own safety and advantage, and used God’s glory only for their own purposes. Knowing their hearts, God asked them whether they had ever once truly offered a sacrifice.
If we cannot truly trust God, then we ourselves become the idol, our children become the idol, and our highest values and decisions become the idol. We pray to God, but because those prayers are all for ourselves God does not receive them. This is exactly what idolatry is, and it is why God told the people of Israel that they had no faith worth receiving.
Acts 7:43
43You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
Stephen stresses this part in verse 43. Saying *you took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; I will carry you away beyond Babylon* — God brought upon those who had abandoned him the judgment of being carried off to Babylon.
Israel lives on God’s grace, and still betrays God again and again and fails to keep a whole faith. Look at that, and you see how ungrateful, how thankless, how evil the human heart is. Only by not forgetting God’s grace and being thankful can one receive Jesus Christ; but because they did not keep God’s word itself, they could not receive Jesus as the Messiah. And so they could not but receive discipline and judgment.
When the shelter of God’s grace is gone, anyone falls into sin. Once fallen into sin they will keep the word of God at a distance, and then God will give up that soul, and judgment will come down naturally. Believers must grasp that this very time they are living now is God’s grace. Only then can they see how precious they are, living within God’s grace, and only then can life be happy and joyful.
For example, a person who builds a ship will do their very best so that not even the smallest hole appears, because the ship must go out to the open sea. But if the person using the ship takes a drill and bores holes as they please in the middle of the ocean, that ship will sink to the depths. Then, however much they shout, there will be no one to save them, and however they thrash about they cannot live in the middle of the sea. But the person who values and cares for the ship until the day they return to land will come back and give thanks to the one who built it so well.
God has given believers a safe ship called Christ, and as long as believers do not abandon that ship called Christ they will be safe. But if, having always lived a safe life, someone thinks it might not be so bad to jump into the sea once and does jump in, they will meet many dangers. Only then will they grasp how safe the ship was, but climbing back aboard is not easy.
At that moment, if someone inside the ship reaches out a hand and takes hold of them, they can live. This is exactly the work that believers who have become brothers and sisters in the church do. If you believe that God is always watching over you, that faith will show itself in real life. Do not set your heart on the visible world; believe that the Holy Spirit always walks with you, and live by a holy faith.
Acts 7:48-49
48However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, 49‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord. ‘Or what is the place of my rest?
When the people of Israel marched, the ark always went before them. Because miracles happened wherever the ark went, the people were able to enter Canaan safely. When David became king, it always grieved him that the ark was in a tent. Wanting to build a great temple where the ark could rest, David prayed to God, but God refused David’s earnest wish. And he said that his son Solomon would build the temple. It would seem natural for David, who had always been faithful to God, to build the temple, but God did not permit it because of David’s sin. So it is that human thinking and God’s thinking are different. Later Solomon built a magnificent temple, but the God who created heaven and earth did not dwell in the building Solomon built. For God is the Creator who made the whole universe.
Even now, people who serve this almighty God put up huge and splendid church buildings and call them temples. But God does not dwell in buildings made by human beings. Believers try to possess God by their own experience, taste, and ability, and to use him as suits them; but because God is almighty and is the Savior of all, he absolutely does not work according to human will. The whole universe is God’s house, and this universe is God’s creation and his possession. So do not try to shut God up in a building called a temple. Obey the Word, and be a temple yourself.
To the Pharisees and scribes and people who had made this glorious God their own possession, Stephen said that because they had killed the almighty Messiah who came as the Righteous One, they were sinners who had received the law delivered by angels and had not kept it. When they heard Stephen’s sermon they came to see how great a sin they had committed. When they realized that they, the ones chosen by God, had in the end obstructed God’s plan, and that they were the stiff-necked and uncircumcised whom God so hates, they were deeply shaken. This very moment was their opportunity to repent. But because they could not tear down the merit they had piled up until then, they killed Stephen.
Friends, when we grasp our sin, it is a blessing to turn without any condition and simply believe. The believer who says amen and confesses their sin when the Holy Spirit gives the chance to turn is exactly the soul God wants.
They killed Stephen because they did not want to admit their sin then and there — but what if heaven really does exist, and Jesus really is God the Son? What if one can go to heaven only by living according to God’s word, and, as Stephen preached, Jesus Christ alone is the way to heaven? We must turn now, while the Word is being proclaimed. And we must believe that the only one who will save us is Jesus Christ, and that nothing whatever can separate us from the love of Christ.
Stephen was stoned to death, but the word of truth he preached, and the works of his faith as he did his utmost to preach the gospel, are alive even now and are saving us thousands of years later. You cannot know whose soul the work you do today by faith will save. Do not compromise with people, situations, and circumstances; keep the faith alone, and live enjoying God’s love and grace.
May you always live out your faith as Stephen did. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.