WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.200 This morning I'd like to go back to Acts, to where we're looking in our ongoing Sunday 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:14.880 morning series on Acts. We have read and looked at this passage, this large passage, when 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:19.160 we did it in the city a few weeks ago, but we'll kind of take a slightly different look 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:28.480 at it today, as we think of the church. Moving into a different phase of its early existence, 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.679 we have now the churches, we'll see in a minute, undergoing great persecution, the first time 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:37.960 it undergoes great persecution. If we're to ask the question, how is the kingdom of God coming? 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:46.039 We know that aspect of the Lord's prayer is that we pray that God's kingdom will come. Well, 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:52.039 how does God's kingdom come? Well, it comes by us living as Christians, faithfully and honestly, 00:00:52.039 --> 00:01:01.640 but also it is speeded by people coming to faith. His kingdom is coming as people come into the 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:06.560 kingdom and come to faith. And that is happening, and we know that's happening, we know it's happening 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:10.239 all over the world. We may be a little bit grieved that it's not happening more here in 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:15.280 Scotland, and in Edinburgh we're only a couple of percentage of the population go to any church 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:19.960 at all. And where there doesn't seem to be a great movement of God's spirit and many people 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:26.759 aren't coming to faith in Christ. But we do know that in many parts of the world, in South America, 00:01:26.759 --> 00:01:33.719 and in Asia, and in different parts of Central Asia as well as Southeast Asia, there's many people, 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:39.679 many, many people coming to know and put their faith in Jesus Christ. But how do people come 00:01:39.679 --> 00:01:45.039 to faith in Jesus Christ? Well, I've said there's two ways primarily that people come to faith in 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:51.280 Jesus Christ. It's one way really, maybe it just happens slightly differently. And I've said that 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:57.800 the first way is through covenant conversion. That is that people come to faith through the 00:01:57.800 --> 00:02:02.320 families they belong to, through belonging to a Christian family, and through the covenant of 00:02:02.320 --> 00:02:07.400 grace that works through families, which is highlighted very much in our understanding of 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:13.400 the work of the covenant and the promise being to us as believers and the sign being us to us 00:02:13.400 --> 00:02:19.280 as believers in baptism and to the children of believers. And we recognise that they are set 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:26.120 apart in this great way and they need to come to faith themselves. But they have this great 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:31.719 privilege of being brought up in a Christian home where there are great parental responsibilities 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:36.960 and a great church responsibilities, we speak about that when we take the vows, to nurture these 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:44.520 children and to point them towards Jesus Christ, to enable them to not be put off the gospel and 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:50.879 the truth. And many of us here will have come to faith that way, sort of gently, softly, so that 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:57.560 we don't have a dramatic conversion story where we change from one very maybe atheistic or godless 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:02.640 way of living and come to faith. But we've gently been, we've been whispered as it were into the 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:09.079 kingdom of God and we recognise that very often that is how people come to faith through the 00:03:09.079 --> 00:03:16.000 privilege and the responsibility and the sharing of Jesus with your, from your parents and from 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:22.679 your family and from your church family. It doesn't mean that there's not a personal commitment to 00:03:22.679 --> 00:03:29.319 coming to faith as that child grows up with the privileges and recognises the need to take Jesus 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:36.359 for themselves and recognise that it's not enough to just rely on the faith of your parents, but 00:03:36.359 --> 00:03:41.280 you take Christ, you recognise the need for Christ for yourself. So that's what I would call 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:47.519 covenant conversion. But then I've also called something else that there's contact conversion. 00:03:47.519 --> 00:03:52.079 They're really the same thing, but the way people come to faith is really what I'm speaking about. 00:03:52.079 --> 00:03:57.799 And that is people who come to faith when we reach out of our comfort zone, reach out of our 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:04.040 families and reach out of our church and where we share our faith in the world in which we live, 00:04:04.040 --> 00:04:09.680 a world where people aren't Christians and a world where people don't know about Jesus Christ 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:15.800 and we share the gospel with them. Where we're living, wherever we're living, powerful, consistent 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:22.120 and humble Christian lives and sharing our faith in Christ when we have the opportunity so to do. 00:04:22.120 --> 00:04:30.360 When our own lives as Christians are transformed by joy, you know, we have that sense of loving 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:37.519 Christ and enjoying Him and living for Him, trusting in Him. And when we're not trusting and 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:44.959 enjoying Him, we'll probably never share Him. And so it's a very important reality. If we're not 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:51.360 trusting and enjoying Him, we very probably won't share Him. So covenant conversion and contact 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:59.400 conversion. I think one of the things that burdens us is a leadership and I know many of us also is 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:09.120 there's so little of the latter happening in our context. There's, I hope and pray as we see 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:15.199 many children and young people being born into Christian families here that there will be covenant 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:20.040 conversion. But we don't see much contact conversion and it's quite a sobering question for us to 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:26.319 consider. Why aren't there more people who are coming from situations that they don't have that 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:32.280 privilege and don't have that background to know Jesus Christ? Is it that we don't really believe? Is 00:05:32.280 --> 00:05:38.800 it that we don't have joy? Is it that we're not really concerned about sharing what is so significant 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:47.400 and important to us? Do we lack the confidence so to do? Or are we fearful of being opposed? 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:54.079 Now this is a long passage. We missed out the middle chapter which was Stephen's long speech 00:05:54.079 --> 00:06:02.159 which he gave in response to their accusations. We did it recently in Citigroup. But we do come 00:06:02.159 --> 00:06:09.719 into, as I said at the beginning, a new phase of this early recording of the church in the New 00:06:09.719 --> 00:06:15.239 Testament. Up till now it's been really great. There's been thousands of people through contact 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:21.800 conversion coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Lots of people even with a covenant background coming 00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:27.840 to faith and the church is just as Corrie talked about last week. Jerusalem is a mega church. It 00:06:27.840 --> 00:06:32.639 was massive. There was hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people coming to faith and things were 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:37.319 good. They were sharing all that they had and there was a great love and a great communion and 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:44.800 great community. And we come now to this different phase where the church is attacked with very severe 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:51.079 persecution and opposition. It's not really what we expect. We want the early picture of the church 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:58.480 to be full of roses and good things. But here, very early on Acts chapter 6, we recognize that a huge 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:06.400 persecution begins to happen to the church. And we recognize that God wants us as believers, 00:07:06.400 --> 00:07:12.360 as Christians, to learn something very important from this, for our own understanding and for our 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:20.080 own prayer and for our own lives. And kind of by way of introduction, broadly thinking of this 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:27.520 chapter which introduces darkness and persecution and difficulty, there's a couple of things that I 00:07:27.520 --> 00:07:31.960 want to mention that I think God wants us to understand, not only from here but from His word. 00:07:31.960 --> 00:07:38.319 The first is, and I want to explain it, that comfort, for the Christian, comfort is illusory. 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:45.879 Comfort is illusory, okay? Let me explain that. If we think that when we become Christians, 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:54.639 that we are given the offer of a life of ease and of comfort on our terms, then that's illusory. 00:07:54.639 --> 00:08:03.519 It's an illusion. And it's unhelpful for us to think that, that we come to Christ and our 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:12.959 exegesis of the words, our explanation of the words blessing and joy biblically, we take these 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:23.079 words to mean popularity, a good job, constant health, financial security, good relationships, 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:30.599 and the removal of suffering. If that's what we think Christ, the comfort Christ brings is on our 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:37.320 terms in this way, then we will struggle in our Christian lives because what happens is that when 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:43.240 that doesn't happen in our lives, and each of us battle and struggle with many different realities, 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:51.759 then we grumble and blame God. It's too tough. What's the point of becoming a Christian if we 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:58.360 don't enjoy all these good gifts from our Father and that life is great? Because we're believing 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:03.919 an illusion and one that's never taught in Scripture. It's never His promise. Jesus has not 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:09.240 promised to be a genie in a bottle, the bottle that we rub and bring out and He gives us our 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:16.080 three best wishes. That's not the kind of comfort that is spoken of in Scripture. There is comfort 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:21.360 spoken of in Scripture, and it's very genuine and real, but it is founded in our ongoing 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:27.399 relationship with Lord Jesus Christ. That's where our primary comfort and peace and joy 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:36.000 comes from, but the paradox is that that same comfort opens up tension and opposition because 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.240 of who Christ is and because of who we are and the world in which we live. There is blessing. 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:49.879 There is comfort, but it's not ordinarily on our terms, and it usually challenges our own 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:55.480 concept of comfort. And I think that is a biblical truth that is beginning to be unpacked in this 00:09:55.480 --> 00:10:02.680 chapter where persecution happens and it's a truth that permeates the whole of Scripture. So 00:10:02.680 --> 00:10:08.600 comfort is illusory. The second thing that God speaks from this chapter and throughout the whole 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:16.680 Bible, of course, is that evil is real. Comfort is illusory on our terms and evil is real. In 00:10:16.680 --> 00:10:23.560 other words, bad stuff happens. How often is that the apologetic of the atheist that how can 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:30.239 there be a good God when bad things happen? You hear that every day. We hear that from people. 00:10:30.239 --> 00:10:37.119 Bad stuff happens to nice people. Bad stuff happens to Christians, and I guess it's Dovetail 00:10:37.119 --> 00:10:43.359 we mentioned earlier. We know that in the world we live in as Christians, people hate God and 00:10:43.359 --> 00:10:50.199 people therefore will hate and persecute Christians. And Christians sometimes will hate 00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:57.120 and be guilty of abusing their faith and the truth that they know to victimize and persecute 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:05.759 others. And we see a world and a reality not just outside, not just on the news, but in our own 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:13.800 experiences and sometimes troublingly in our own hearts. That speaks of the reality of selfishness 00:11:13.799 --> 00:11:22.000 and pain and evil and darkness. But the Bible, while it teaches that clearly, personal and 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:33.719 world darkness and evil and indeed a personal source of evil and Satan, it also, its message, 00:11:33.719 --> 00:11:40.959 its mission to us is to remind us that it's in its death throes. It has been defeated absolutely 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:47.400 and completely and entirely on the cross, not yet destroyed but defeated by the work of Jesus 00:11:47.400 --> 00:11:55.920 Christ and what he achieved on the cross. So the only place for our own sin, the confusion 00:11:55.920 --> 00:12:03.120 of sometimes the way we are in our own hearts and the darkness and evil and sometimes persecution 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:07.840 that we face in the world in which we live and of course the opposition that we feel 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:14.480 sometimes from personal illness and death itself, the only place, the only place we 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:25.120 can go to is to the cross, because it bellows out the reality of evil and darkness. Christ 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:31.840 faces it heads on and defeats it, promises its future destruction forever for all who 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:37.879 will put their trust in Jesus Christ. And more than that, he says for us, while evil 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:44.040 is that reality, he says for us and we can have the confidence that what is intended 00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:50.360 to harm us can turn, be turned on its head for good as we look to and as we trust in 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:56.160 him. It doubles evil's defeat. And we see that in this chapter, we'll see that as we 00:12:56.159 --> 00:13:03.079 look at this chapter just for a few minutes as well, a little bit more detail. So as we 00:13:03.079 --> 00:13:10.120 struggle maybe today with these two concepts, the kind of comfort we get as Christians and 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:15.600 the reality of evil, and we recognise there is only one place that we can go and it's 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:19.639 a repetitive message that we keep telling, we keep speaking about this message about 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:26.360 going back to Jesus Christ and looking to Jesus Christ. And it's kind of symbolised 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:32.720 and highlighted in this chapter where Stephen, as he himself is in his death throes to be 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:39.000 martyred, looks heavenward, looks towards Jesus and gets a tremendous vision of Jesus 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:44.279 Christ. But as we take that, we recognise that there is truth there that we need to 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:49.879 apply for ourselves. We need to keep our hearts and our lives and our focus as believers 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:56.600 on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no shortcut for us as believers. There's no other way 00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:04.000 for us to go. He has opened the way for us to be in relationship with him and as we are 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:10.480 praying and learning and growing and worshiping, then we understand more about his comforts 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:18.039 and recognise where evil and darkness and sin and illness and all of these things despair 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:24.840 is dealt with and defeated. So this chapter is really about people who have stayed close 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:30.560 to Christ at the very early stages of the Christian church. They've kept close to Christ. 00:14:30.560 --> 00:14:36.639 And as a result, even in the midst of darkness and in the midst of persecution and opposition, 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:44.000 they see many more people coming to faith in Jesus Christ who contact conversion because 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.159 they remain faithful to him. And so we see different groups in this passage and we're 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:56.480 going to just look at them very briefly this morning. We see that when this persecution 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:05.439 and opposition happened to Stephen and he was martyred, that the people rose up. The 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:11.600 people, the everyday Christians did the great work of the great commission of God. 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:17.200 See in chapter 8 and verse 1, it says, Saul, the leader, he approved of this execution 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:21.280 then we say, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem 00:15:21.280 --> 00:15:26.520 and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Sumeria. Up till now, 00:15:26.520 --> 00:15:32.720 this blossoming church had simply been in Jerusalem. But from this persecution onwards, 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:43.320 they moved out and then we're told in verse 4 that it was scattered throughout the region, 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:47.879 verse 1 still, and Judea, Sumeria, except the apostles. So everyone was scattered except 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:52.639 the apostles and then we're told in verse 4, now those who were scattered went about 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:59.680 preaching the word. So we have a really a comfortless situation and it seems that evil 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:05.519 is one the day. The church is absolutely blown apart. There's just a big bomb has dropped 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:12.079 right in the center of the church and the people are just sent out and have to scatter 00:16:12.079 --> 00:16:17.679 for fear of their lives. Everyone except the pros, everyone except the professionals, 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:22.839 it's everyone except the apostles. They stay in Jerusalem. But everyone else, all the ordinary 00:16:22.839 --> 00:16:28.879 people end up in Judea and Sumeria and did this great persecution which was horrendous 00:16:28.879 --> 00:16:40.559 and brutal. Did it lead to their capitulation? Was this early days of the church, was it 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:47.840 submerged by this persecution? Was it destroyed? No, these people left, they scattered and 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:53.440 wherever they went, they preached a word. They shared their faith in Christ. They lost 00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:58.279 everything humanly speaking. Wasn't any of the comfort that maybe they expected but they 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:05.160 knew that they had gained far more and they knew that they could be used to tell other 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:14.160 people about Jesus Christ and God used the persecution. God used this difficult dark 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:22.720 time to spread the gospel. Indeed, in many ways it's the fulfillment of his command 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:32.039 to them from Acts chapter 1 where he reminded them of the importance of going out with the 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:39.400 gospel and going out with the gospel not just into Jerusalem but he says, you will be my 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:46.480 witnesses in Jerusalem where they were but also in Judea and Sumeria and to the ends 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:54.120 of the earth. This is the beginning of this happening in Judea and Sumeria. Maybe not 00:17:54.120 --> 00:18:00.200 the way we intended, not the way they thought it would happen but we find that what was 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:08.799 intended to be destructive and bring an end to the church actually was the means by which 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:18.599 the church spread dramatically into the wider society and indeed into the rest of the world. 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:24.399 God's strategy, different from our strategy, using darkness, using the evil that was intended 00:18:24.399 --> 00:18:32.039 to destroy to bring about good and it came because the everyday Christians told people 00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:38.839 about Jesus. It wasn't about the apostolic dynamism or their power or the strength of 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:44.879 their personality or charisma, it was the faithfulness, authenticity and trust of ordinary 00:18:44.879 --> 00:18:51.680 people and that's what we stress and have tried to stress again and again here. That 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:59.759 is, your lives, it's your lives as you go out with a biblical understanding of comfort 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:07.960 and the reality of opposition yet not within knowing that, not capitulating to the society 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:16.079 or the opposition that we face and gently sharing Christ by our lives, preaching by 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:23.079 our grace, by our openness, by our warmth, by the way we open our homes and by the way 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:31.199 we are able to share the Christ who has transformed our lives and we seek to do that prayerfully 00:19:31.199 --> 00:19:35.039 and continue to do that and seven days of prayer will be coming up and we focused on 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:39.960 these seven days of prayer and praying for three of our friends and we pray for the opportunity 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:46.399 but we take opportunities to share Jesus with them. So we have the everyday Christians 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:53.200 who are looking to Jesus Christ and who are spreading the word powerfully through their 00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:59.120 witness. But we also have Stephen in the story and Stephen was one of the deacons that Corey 00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:02.880 preached about last Sunday, they set aside deacons in the church, so Stephen was one 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:08.560 of them and we saw last week that the characteristics of these deacons were characteristics we can 00:20:08.560 --> 00:20:15.759 all share in our Christian lives as we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. But we see particularly 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.119 in this passage, the passage that we read, some of the characteristics of Stephen as 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:30.200 he went about living his life for Christ and how that had such a powerful effect. He was 00:20:30.200 --> 00:20:36.839 one who was full of grace and power were told in verse 8, he preached grace, they opposed 00:20:36.839 --> 00:20:41.359 him because they thought he was preaching against the law and against Moses so he obviously 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:47.159 was preaching that the way of salvation is the way of grace and his life had been changed. 00:20:47.159 --> 00:20:52.439 He went out, we are told among the people, he spoke, we are told in verse 10, with wisdom 00:20:52.439 --> 00:20:57.399 and with a spirit that couldn't be argued against, there was something about him, he 00:20:57.399 --> 00:21:04.439 was persuasive, he knows his Christ and he knows the word behind his Christ. The sermons 00:21:04.439 --> 00:21:11.319 in chapter 7 makes very clear that he absolutely knew the Old Testament and he knew the mission 00:21:11.319 --> 00:21:18.359 of God and he understood who God was and also who Christ was interestingly calling 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:25.679 him the righteous one. Cues to being a lawbreaker himself by his opponents and he points to 00:21:25.679 --> 00:21:32.720 Jesus who is the lawkeeper, the righteous one and the one who even though he was a lawkeeper 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:41.159 and was perfect, was crucified as a lawbreaker on our behalf, wisdom and spirit, the Messiah. 00:21:41.160 --> 00:21:47.600 But also there was something memorable about him, not only could they not argue against 00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:52.400 even, there was something persuasive and powerful in his character and in his wisdom, but he 00:21:52.400 --> 00:22:00.519 reflected Christ. There was something very powerful about him in his life and as they 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:04.519 gazed on him, we are told at the end of chapter 6, all who sat in the council saw that his 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:13.559 face was like the face of an angel. So he silenced his opposition but he also in some 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:23.639 kind of, I guess, mystical way, he reflected the love and the grace and the gentleness 00:22:23.639 --> 00:22:29.480 of Christ as people looked at him and then as people heard him saying, look, don't hold, 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:34.519 don't hold this against them what they are doing. I see he is stoned and martyred. I 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:37.759 see don't hold that, they don't know, they don't understand what they are doing. There 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:44.360 was this great face that was shining out. There is another occasion in the Bible where 00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:48.720 someone's face shines like that and that is Moses as he comes down the mountain from 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:55.960 receiving. Interestingly what? The law, the law of God and it is as if God is here saying 00:22:55.960 --> 00:23:02.960 to all who are watching, you have accused him of law breaking. His face is shining. He 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:09.920 is in my presence. He trusts in the Christ who is the law keeper and I approve of him. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:19.920 And there is this great sense of God almost giving Stephen that peace and that sense of 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:24.039 significance even at the darkest of hours. Now there are a few verses that I just want 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:31.039 to throw up onto the screen which remind us of the kind of theology or thinking behind 00:23:31.039 --> 00:23:38.519 a shining face in 2 Corinthians 3, 18 and we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:44.119 of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 00:23:44.119 --> 00:23:49.039 There is that sense in which we can reflect the glory of God in our lives and our faces. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:55.639 On 34 verse 5, those who look to Him are radiant, their faces shall never be ashamed. 00:23:55.639 --> 00:24:01.720 Ecclesiastes 8 verse 1, who is like the wise and we know Stephen is spoken of here as wise 00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:06.079 and who knows the interpretation of a thing. A man's wisdom makes his face shine and the 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:12.759 hardness of his face has changed. And Daniel 2 L 3, those who are wise will shine like 00:24:12.759 --> 00:24:17.159 the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:23.320 for heaven and earth. And there is this sense in which what is almost symbolic, real but 00:24:23.320 --> 00:24:29.800 symbolizes a lot of these truths that here was someone who was very close to Jesus Christ 00:24:29.800 --> 00:24:35.880 and who was looking at Christ and who was therefore powerful for Christ with a phenomenal 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:53.760 clarity and peace. Yet, comfort? No, he's martyred. Blessing? No, he's stoned by stones. Brutally 00:24:53.760 --> 00:25:04.600 murdered. And yet, he was filled with the comfort of God and he was used powerfully in 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:12.399 his, what we would say, his shortened life in a great way. Who were told it, and not 00:25:12.399 --> 00:25:17.399 a word is wasted here, who was witnessing, who gave permission for this to happen and 00:25:17.399 --> 00:25:21.879 who watched everything that happened. It was Saul, his clothes were placed at the feet 00:25:21.879 --> 00:25:29.799 of a man named Saul. And Saul saw that and Saul was surely moved and touched by what 00:25:29.799 --> 00:25:34.960 he saw, who later himself went on to meet Jesus Christ to become the most significant 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:43.399 Christian probably in many ways who has ever lived. And so through Stephen's own closeness 00:25:43.399 --> 00:25:51.159 to Christ and influence on Saul, there was a huge influence for the gospel. And I hope 00:25:51.159 --> 00:25:57.839 none of us are called to be martyred. But we seek to reflect the grace of God in our 00:25:57.839 --> 00:26:04.519 lives, even in darkness and even in opposition. And even when we don't have the comforts that 00:26:04.519 --> 00:26:14.839 we think God should give us, we remain faithful and we don't compromise or capitulate our 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:21.799 faith. Then very briefly, also Philip is the third person in chapter eight. It speaks about 00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:28.680 another Deacon Philip who goes on to preach the word. And again, we notice with him, he 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:34.279 powerfully spoke and many people came to faith through him because not only of what 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:39.720 he said, but his life, what he did, what he was, the miracles he was able to do, his exceptional 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:49.559 life. So it was action and words. And there was proclamation and there was deed. And that 00:26:49.559 --> 00:26:59.399 remains a very significant and important duo of truth in order that our lives become effective 00:26:59.399 --> 00:27:05.759 for Jesus Christ, that we proclaim the Christ, but that we live out the Christ by our deeds 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:10.759 and that we do great and miraculous things in His name. May not be the same kind of miracles 00:27:10.759 --> 00:27:19.000 as we're done here, but we can see answered prayers and transformed hearts and new lives 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:27.440 from ourselves influencing others. And we can speak of the Christ who has done that. 00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:35.640 And we see in that section also how Philip, with the gospel, goes out to those who nobody 00:27:35.640 --> 00:27:43.759 else is interested in, the needy, the damaged, the marginalized. Everyone who wasn't part 00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:49.599 of the crowd, everyone who wasn't part of the covenant, none of whom shared his morality 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:57.279 or his outlook, he showed them grace and miracle in his life. And many of them came to faith 00:27:57.279 --> 00:28:04.920 in Jesus Christ. They opened up and listened closely to what he said because of who he 00:28:04.920 --> 00:28:11.279 was. The crowds with one accord paid attention to him and many came so that there was much 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:16.879 joy in that city. So these are ordinary people whose gifts and 00:28:16.879 --> 00:28:24.399 whose graces we can share and have because of Jesus Christ, who saw many contact conversions 00:28:24.399 --> 00:28:30.119 because they looked to Jesus Christ, even in the midst of persecution and darkness and 00:28:30.119 --> 00:28:38.240 difficulty, and lived for Jesus Christ with joy and wholeheartedness and enthusiasm. And 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:45.799 that is a great model, I think, a great picture for us. And when we're living like that, as 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:54.120 I conclude, when we're living like that, what happens? Evil happens and joy happens. We 00:28:54.120 --> 00:29:01.880 can't get away from that reality. Evil happens. We recognize and know and understand that. 00:29:01.880 --> 00:29:07.480 Chapter 8 verse 3, but Saul was ravaging the church. Entering house after house, he dragged 00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:12.839 off men and women and committed them to prison. That's the paradox, isn't it? That as we're 00:29:12.839 --> 00:29:21.200 looking to Christ and living for Christ and serving Christ and sharing Christ, the reality 00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:29.079 is that sometimes our lives are ravaged by evil. We have an enemy whose aim is to divide 00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:39.879 the church and conquer, to instill fear, to tempt us to capitulate, to just give up, and 00:29:39.879 --> 00:29:48.240 to compromise. And it's powerful, you know? I find that powerful, these temptations. But 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:54.879 we remember and we remind ourselves that God is love, God is victorious, and God is more 00:29:54.880 --> 00:30:05.760 powerful still. Saul, who went around ravaging the church, becomes the great apostle Paul. 00:30:05.760 --> 00:30:12.000 Let's remind ourselves of that. The one who was to destroy the church becomes the one 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.800 who massively is used by God to build the church in a remarkable way. And can I encourage 00:30:19.799 --> 00:30:29.119 you today not to give up praying for and loving and serving people like Saul? Maybe, and by 00:30:29.119 --> 00:30:33.559 what I mean by that is people that you think they will never become Christians. I mean, 00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:41.279 everyone around that time thought, Saul, God please just nail him, get rid of him. I wonder 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:45.079 how many prayed, well, we know Stephen prayed for his conversion. We know Stephen prayed 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:49.759 that God would not hold it against him. I'm sure that had a powerful effect. But maybe 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:55.879 that the people we think are most least likely to become Christians. Don't give up praying 00:30:55.879 --> 00:30:59.400 for them, especially if they're your friends, if you know them, if you love them, but even 00:30:59.400 --> 00:31:05.000 if you don't, just keep praying and recognize what Satan intends for evil, God will use 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:13.400 for good when we trust him and recognize where our comforts lie. So evil happens, but also 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:20.759 joy happens. So there was much joy in that city. So that's the reality. The two are a 00:31:20.759 --> 00:31:25.880 reality that we come to terms with, but we know where the victory lies. And we know that 00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:33.600 joy even in darkness and even in suffering can be our experience, because we recognize 00:31:33.600 --> 00:31:42.600 that it is temporary. We miss out if we look from Jesus Christ to give us worldly comforts. 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:49.839 Or if we forget His truth that evil is in its death throes, and if we have no confidence 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:56.039 in our God and Savior, pray that we will see that more clearly through His Word, and that 00:31:56.039 --> 00:32:01.879 we will see this city of Edinburgh that we love turned as the New Testament church saw 00:32:01.879 --> 00:32:08.599 turned upside down for Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray briefly. Lord God, help us to see 00:32:08.599 --> 00:32:15.199 you. If there are people here today who have joined us in our worship who don't know Jesus 00:32:15.199 --> 00:32:21.599 Christ, who think what on earth was the minister talking about for the last 20 minutes there, 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:27.319 may you speak to them, may they search the scripture, and may they look to hear and know 00:32:27.319 --> 00:32:33.359 and understand where their comforts will be found and where evil will be defeated. So 00:32:33.359 --> 00:32:39.159 bless us now as we move into the joy and happiness of baptisms, for we ask it in Jesus' name. 00:32:39.160 --> 00:33:07.160 Amen.