Reformed & Expository Preaching

The Gospel Advances: Embracing the Ordinary (Acts 8:26-40)

Introduction We can easily fall into the mindset that if something is working, then we must have figured out the system. We look at the growth of the church in Acts, the conversions in Samaria, and the gospel going forward it seems like we figured it out. We want to look at the history and then figure out the method to move forward. But that is not how the Lord works. John 3 reminds us that the Spirit blows where the Spirit wishes. We cannot force God’s hand to work on our timing. In Acts 8, Philip is sent away from a place where the gospel is experiencing visible success and into the middle of nowhere. He is to go on a desert road leading toward Gaza. This seems like a waste of valuable resources. Why send a man to the middle of nowhere when he is having success in his current location? We are reminded that the Lord is not governed by our measurements of success. The Lord is sovereignly building his church, and he uses his appointed means to accomplish his purposes. The Lord sends his servants to unlikely places Philip had already seen remarkable things happen in Samaria. Yet the Lord sends him away from that work and down a desert road. He knows that he has to go because an angel tells him to go. This makes it pretty easy to discern the Lord’s will. This reminds us that we are often tempted to think that God is most present where we see the most visible success. We want the large numbers, the obvious fruit, and the places where the opportunities seem plentiful. But the Lord sends Philip somewhere that appears insignificant. Philip follows the Lord’s command. He heeds the angel’s word and travels down the road to encounter an unlikely disciple. He meets a chariot with an Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian eunuch was a prestigious official, a treasurer of the queen. This man had traveled to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Yet he was also a foreigner, an outsider, and a man trying to understand the Scriptures. From Philip’s perspective, this encounter may have seemed completely unexpected. Clearly, the Lord had his purpose. The Lord used Philip as his means to bring the gospel to one of the Lord’s people. Philip sees the chariot, or maybe we could say small stagecoach. The Spirit tells him to approach the stagecoach. Normally, prestigious people travel with armed bodyguards. However, Philip follows the Spirit’s command. He is invited to join the Ethiopian dignitary in the chariot. We can sometimes long for the extraordinary. We want spectacular experiences, dramatic interventions, and obvious signs that God is at work. But Acts 8 reminds us that God's extraordinary providence often leads us to ordinary means. The Lord’s work is ordinary The Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah 53, the passage concerning the suffering servant. He is confused by what he is reading. Who is this servant? Who is being described? Is this the prophet? Is this someone else? Philip begins with that very passage and tells him the good news about Jesus. In other words, he preaches the text. He exposits the text’s intention about Christ and the gospel. Philip does not need to invent a new message. He takes the Scriptures and opens them up. He shows how the suffering servant is Christ and how the death of Christ was not an accident or an unfortunate turn of events. It was the purpose of God. His opening up the text echoes Christ opening up the word and eyes of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. The intention is that the messiah suffers to make the necessary payment for sin. This is the beauty of the gospel. We are the sheep who have wandered away. We are the ones who have gone astray. But our Redeemer comes as the suffering servant and lays down his life to gather his sheep. The point of the Scriptures is not ultimately to give us better advice, better systems, or better lives. The Scriptures reveal Christ. Preachers are called to preach the Gospel. The good news of being redeemed in Christ. The good news of being new creatures in Christ who are set free to live for their Lord. The good news that they are made right before the living God in the suffering servant once and for all. Seeing the unlikely result After hearing the gospel, the eunuch sees some water and asks, “What prevents me from being baptized?” He understands that he wants to be identified with Christ’s people because he knows that Christ is the messiah and redeemer. Baptism is the sign of entrance into the visible covenant community. It marks a person as belonging to the people of God. It is a sign of being united with the Lord and identified with his people. It is the sign that calls to the world’s attention and the community’s attention that the Spirit is working in the midst of God’s people. Again, notice the pattern: the Word is preached, Christ is proclaimed, faith is worked in the heart, and the sacrament marks the person as belonging to the Lord. The Lord uses his ordinary means to accomplish his extraordinary purposes. Philip is sent to preach the Gospel. The Lord could have had the angel do it, or the Spirit could have conferred extraordinary knowledge. The Lord sends Philip. Philip the evangelist is to do more work for the Lord. This is why the Spirit snatches Philip away. It is also a reminder for the Ethiopian that he cannot say, “You're coming back to Ethiopia with me. I have a job for you.” The Lord is making clear that this is his church. The Lord sends his messengers with his gospel. Yes, the Lord uses his means, but the Lord works in his timing. Conclusion The extraordinary events of Acts eventually lead us back to something very ordinary: two men sitting together, talking about the Scriptures and the suffering servant. We can take for granted the radical call of the gospel. The suffering servant is the intended messiah. Christ’s intended mission was to suffer for his people. We also see that in terms of the gospel ministry, the intention is for the preachers to preach the gospel. The Lord could have done it through angels, but there is an intention that the normal way for the church to go forth is for preachers to preach the Gospel from the canonical writings. This happens for the unlikely Samaritans. It also happens on an unlikely desert road. The Lord’s means will accomplish his purpose. Let us not take the gospel for granted. Let us celebrate the normal means of Gospel advancement. Let us have the ears to hear and the hearts to be receptive to the message.

Pursuing God's Reward (2 Timothy 4:6-8; LD 24)

Introduction If salvation is by grace and our good works do not earn our redemption, what motivates us to live faithfully for Christ? Scripture speaks openly about rewards, crowns, and even Christ repaying his people for what they have done. At first glance, this can seem to conflict with the Protestant conviction that we are saved by grace alone.  The answer is not to deny the biblical language of rewards, but to understand how those rewards are given. We do not merit God’s favor, but we receive these rewards by grace (LD 24 [https://threeforms.org/heidelberg-catechism/#lords-day-24]). If it is by grace, then what can these rewards be? Why would we work for Christ if these rewards are freely given to us?  Our Blessings Are Established, Not Earned The standard for earning God's blessing through our own works would be nothing less than perfection. There is no acceptable margin of error before a perfectly holy God. If we were to stand before him on the basis of our works, even our best efforts would fall short.  The problem is that even our best works are stained by sin.   This helps us understand Paul's confidence at the end of his life. When he says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7 [https://www.esv.org/2+Timothy+4/]) he is not boasting that he has accumulated enough merit to purchase his crown. His confidence rests in the faithfulness of God and the finished work of Christ.  He has kept the faith, not the works.  Paul knows that his departure is near, yet he can face death with peace because his salvation does not rest upon his own performance. His hope is established in Christ.  This is why Paul is confident that God will rescue him from every evil deed. (2 Timothy 4:18) [https://www.esv.org/2+Timothy+4/]. Our Rewards Are Given by Grace It is true that Scripture does speak about God rewarding his people.  We have to deal with that language. Christ speaks of treasures in heaven, Paul looks forward to a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8) [https://www.esv.org/2+Timothy+4/] , and Scripture repeatedly teaches that God sees and remembers the works of his people. But these rewards are not wages that sinners independently earn. They are rewards of grace. When God calls attention to our good works, he is ultimately displaying what his grace has accomplished in them. These are not works that sinful people can or will produce by their own will.  These works will only come by the Holy Spirit’s power.   Paul's description of himself as being “poured out as a drink offering” (2 Timothy 4:6) [https://www.esv.org/2+Timothy+4/] illustrates this beautifully. His suffering does not add to Christ's atoning sacrifice. Christ's work is complete. Paul's life and suffering simply demonstrate the sweetness and effectiveness of Christ's finished work. Therefore, when God crowns his people, he is not rewarding autonomous human achievement. He is crowning the work of his grace that produces the visible fruit.  We Are Called to Fight the Good Fight of Faith Many people assume that if the rewards are given by grace, then we are not motivated to work.  However, grace does not make Christians careless or passive. The opposite is true. Because we have been united to Christ, we now desire to live for him.  People who do not have grace will not desire to live for Christ even a little bit.  Paul tells Timothy to preach the Word, endure suffering, remain sober-minded, evangelize, and fulfill his ministry. Timothy is not told to earn a greater reward. He is exhorted to be faithful to Christ. (2 Timothy 4:1-5) [https://www.esv.org/2+Timothy+4/] Likewise, when Paul says that he has fought the good fight, he is describing the persevering Christian life. The fight is not an attempt to finish Christ's work. Paul is a drink offering.  His life is spent, poured out as he nears death.  Paul sees his life lived in Christ’s power as a garnish alongside the true offering, not the offering itself. The drink offering does not add to or improve the sacrifice; it accompanies it, showing its sweetness. Christ's offering alone is what makes him right before God. His works are merely the sweet fruits that show the power of God's grace. (Leviticus 23:13 [https://www.esv.org/Leviticus+23/]; Numbers 15:1-10 [https://www.esv.org/Numbers+15/]) Paul is using the metaphor of the Olympic games.  The Christian life is a marathon, or an Olympic boxing match (I Corinthians 9:26-27) [https://www.esv.org/1+Corinthians+9/].  Paul’s point is that he is living a deliberate life before the Lord’s face.  It is our continual turning to the Lord.  We do not persevere in our own strength, nor do we persevere in order to earn God's love. We persevere because God is preserving us, and his grace produces a new desire within us to turn toward Christ and away from sin.  The threat of God’s judgment is frightening.  However, if one is left in sin, then one will not care.  Only those informed by the Lord’s grace will care about truly pleasing the Lord.  One truly informed by grace will see that they cannot please God in their works.  Conclusion We do not deny that God calls us to do good works.  We do not deny that God rewards the good works we do as a fruit of our faith.  The problem is we can fall into a trap that we do good works to finish Christ’s work.  Paul was poured out as a drink offering.  His works are not the basis of his righteousness.  We do not obey Christ so that He will finally decide that we are worthy of heaven. Christ has already secured our redemption. We do not serve Him so that we can have a better mansion than someone else. We serve him because he is our Redeemer. The servants in Luke 17:10 [https://www.esv.org/Luke+17/] understood this. When their master commended them, they did not boast about what they had earned. They simply recognized that they had done what their master had commanded. They merely did their duty! We should have the servant’s perspective: Lord, we are just doing our duty to serve you.  Christ has given us everything we need for salvation. He has given us His Spirit, united us to himself, and secured our eternal inheritance. Therefore, we joyfully serve him because we belong to him.  Whatever reward he chooses to give is an expression of his grace. Whatever good work he produces in us is ultimately a testimony to his grace. And whatever perseverance we display is evidence that he is faithfully preserving his people. So let us fight the good fight of faith, finish the race set before us, and keep the faith.  This is not for our praise, but for his glory alone!

The Unlikely Advancement (Acts 8:4-25)

Introduction We would expect that Stephen’s death would halt the gospel’s advancement. One of Christ's faithful servants had been murdered, and the gospel agitators grow in boldness. The church is being persecuted. Yet what looked like defeat was actually another step in the fulfillment of Christ's promise. Christ promised that the Gospel is to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This is exactly what is happening. Clearly, Christ is standing and ruling at the right hand of God as Stephen testified and witnessed. Does this defeat silence Christ’s mission? Preaching to Unworthy People We were just outside Jerusalem where Stephen was executed by a brutal mob. So, Philip went down to Samaria. This is unsettling because Samaria historically mixed pure worship with pagan worship. They have also shown hostility to the Jews and vice versa. Why so much tension between Israel and Samaria? This is a place that was resettled by foreign peoples who mixed the worship of the Lord with the worship of their own gods (2 Kings 17). This is a place that not only refused to help rebuild the temple, but actively opposed it (Ezra 4). So, it is safe to say that we would not expect Samaria to be receptive to the Gospel. We are reminded that the unworthy hear the Gospel. So often we can forget how unworthy we ourselves are. We can look at our upbringing, our knowledge of Scripture, our membership in the church, or the blessings we have received and begin to think that we are somehow more deserving of God's grace. However, we must remember that the gospel came to us as an unworthy people. The Lord has been gracious in progressively purifying or sanctifying us, but he receives the credit. We must always remember that his work in our sanctification does not make us worthy of his grace. It is his grace that is at work in us. Preaching to Apparently Receptive People Acts 8 also reminds us that outward reception of the gospel is not necessarily the same thing as genuine faith. Simon the magician heard Philip, witnessed the signs, and appeared to believe. In fact, Luke reports that he believed, was baptized, and was even amazed at what he witnessed (8:13). Luke is only reporting his observation. He does not know if Simon really embraced Christ or not. Simon only professes to believe. Eventually, his fruits exposed his heart. Luke reports Simon's profession and baptism, but the subsequent events reveal that his profession was not genuine saving faith. Understand that Simon was not amazed by the Lord’s power, but by what the apostles possessed. He tried to buy their power, but man does not control the Holy Spirit. The Apostles could not sell the Holy Spirit even if they wanted to. Man cannot sell what man cannot control. Peter rebukes Simon harshly. Simon misses that the apostles not only bear witness to Christ’s work but also to the gospel going out. This is why Peter says that the Holy Spirit falls just as at the beginning. (11:15). The apostles do not bring the Holy Spirit as the norm. Rather, they testify to the Spirit’s work. They are testifying that this place, which should be hostile, has received the Spirit. You could almost hear the Jewish apostles report that if the Samaritans can be saved, how much more the Gentiles. That is a danger for us as well. We can be around the things of God without truly submitting ourselves to God. We can admire Christianity, enjoy the blessings of the church, know our Bibles, and even make a profession of faith, while still wanting our lives to revolve around ourselves. We can want Christ's blessings without wanting Christ himself. Simon wanted the power of the Holy Spirit, but he did not want to truly surrender to Christ’s yoke. Preaching with Principle Peter therefore does not offer Simon a technique for obtaining spiritual power. He calls him to repentance. Peter says, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” Simon the magician was trying to be a better magician. He may have been dabbling with demonic influence, and certainly using deception to gain significance. He thought he could just acquire a new spiritual power, and then have even more significance. No, the apostles are moved by the Spirit. They do not move the Spirit. Peter's answer reminds us that God is not someone we manipulate or control. He is the living God. We do not harness him; we submit to him. His Spirit does not serve our ambitions. We are called to submit to the work of his Spirit. Tragically, Simon does not obey, but rather begs Peter to pray for him. The prayer is not that Simon would turn, but that Peter’s pronouncement would not come true. Simon does not realize that Peter cannot change the terms of the gospel. This is why the gospel must always be preached according to God's principles rather than our own. Philip goes where God sends him. Peter and John go into a place where they might reasonably have feared for their lives. They preach Christ, and they bear witness to the work of the Spirit. They are not building their own reputations. They are not trying to make themselves great. They are servants of Christ, and the gospel belongs to him. Conclusion And there is great comfort in that. Stephen has died, but the gospel continues. Persecution scatters the church, but the gospel continues. Even a man like Simon can appear to believe and reveal an unchanged heart, and the gospel continues. The success of Christ's kingdom does not depend upon the worthiness of the people who receive it or the strength of the people who proclaim it. The Lord himself preserves and advances his church. Our covenant privileges are precious, and we should be thankful for them. We should teach our children the promises of God and rejoice that the Lord has placed us within his church. But we must never turn those privileges into a reason for thinking ourselves superior to those outside. The Samaritans remind us that God's grace reaches people we might never have chosen. We should be a humble people. So let us remember where our worth is found. It is not in our family, our upbringing, our knowledge, our church membership, or our Christian accomplishments. Our righteousness is found in Christ. Our life is found in Christ. Our identity is found in Christ. Our peace is found in Christ. We come to him not as people who have earned the right to be there, but as sinners who have been received by grace. We do not need to make ourselves great. We do not need to manipulate God or manufacture spiritual power. We simply need to bow before our Savior, trust his promises, and walk in faithful obedience. The same Lord who carried his gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria continues to preserve his church today. He will gather his people, sustain his people, and bring his gospel to its appointed end. The gospel is for the unworthy. This means that the Gospel is for you and me. Thanks be to God that our hope does not rest upon our worthiness, but upon Christ and his finished work.

What Benefit is This Knowledge? (LD 23; Romans 3:21-26)

Introduction There can be a disconnect in the Christian life. We can become so focused on doctrine that we forget that we are called to live out the gospel. Or we can become so focused on living the Christian life that we lose sight of the doctrine that gives us the strength and assurance to live it. The Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 23 [https://threeforms.org/heidelberg-catechism/#lords-day-23] understands this tension. As we come to justification by faith, it essentially asks us, Is this doctrine really helpful? Is this something that actually benefits us? Does knowing that we are justified by faith make any difference in the Christian life? I think those are important questions.  So, let’s begin.  Is This Helpful? The first thing we have to understand is the seriousness of our problem. Our problem is that we minimize sin.  We sometimes like to think that if we can just clean up enough of the outward problems, we will be okay. Maybe we haven't done everything right, but we have done better than the person next to us. Maybe we have kept 99.99% of the commandments. But the problem is that sin is not merely a collection of bad behaviors. Sin is at the core of who we are. Our behavior or actions are merely the fruit of the deeper root problem.   In the fall, humanity essentially told God, We don't want your order. We don't want your holiness. We don't want you ruling over us. We were exiled from Eden, and God gave us what we wanted.  And that leaves us in a desperate position. We see this even in some of the great saints of Scripture. Jacob spent much of his life trying to accomplish the promises of God in his own strength. He wrestled with God and came away limping, learning that the promises of God come through weakness and submission to the Lord. Job wanted his day in court with God. He wanted to present his case and demonstrate that God had gotten things wrong. But when Job finally comes face-to-face with the living God, he puts his hand over his mouth. He learns that God's wisdom is far greater than his own. Paul was a man who considered himself blameless according to the law, yet Christ had to stop him on the road to Damascus. Even Paul had to learn that God's strength is manifested in weakness. And then there is Isaiah. Isaiah appears to be one of those Old Testament saints who was pretty dialed in. Yet when he comes into the presence of God, he doesn't say, "I dwell in the midst of unclean people who make me unclean."  No, he says, “Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips” That is the point. Apart from Christ, we have nothing. Paul makes this very clear in Romans 3 [https://www.esv.org/Romans+3/]. He gives a staccato of Old Testament references and demonstrates that there is a universal problem that impacts Jew and Gentile. It doesn't matter how religious you are or how well you have cleaned up your life. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is why justification by faith is so helpful. It tells us the truth about our condition. We cannot save ourselves. We need a rematch and not a participation trophy. The championship game has already been played. Adam failed, and in Adam we have all failed. The verdict has been issued. We need someone to reengage the competition and overturn the previous verdict.   And that is exactly what Christ does in his work.  However, this can still be all doctrine.  Is there a place where this really impacts our Christian life?  Is This Assuring?  This is where the beauty of justification really comes into view. The Heidelberg Catechism says that I share in all of Christ's benefits. He has made perfect satisfaction for my sin. He has given me his perfect holiness. And I am regarded before God as if I had never sinned and as if I had perfectly obeyed all that God commanded. Think about the beauty of that. It is not my righteousness. It is Christ's righteousness. It is not my perfect obedience. It is Christ's perfect obedience. It is not something I have earned. It is a gift.  God has freely given it to his unworthy children. Paul says in Romans 3 that we are justified by God's grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justification is a legal declaration. Before the heavenly court, we deserve condemnation in Adam. But in Christ, we are declared righteous. And this is what makes grace so amazing. Sometimes we define grace as “unmerited favor.” But I think Scripture gives us an even deeper picture. Unmerited favor could mean that God just gave us something.  We did not earn it.  However, we could be neutral.  For instance, you love your kid, so you just buy your kid ice cream.  The kid did not specifically deserve it, but you want to spend some quality time together. We actively rebelled against him. We told God that we didn't want his holiness, his rule, or his order. If we continue with the illustration of buying a child ice cream, we can ask: Would you buy your child ice cream after your child washed your car with a Brillo pad?  I am guessing that the child is not getting ice cream.  However, we did far worse to God in the fall.  He also gives us more than a participation trophy or ice cream.  God gives us heaven through the work of his son.  Christ doesn't simply overlook our sin. This is why Paul uses the language of redemption.  Redemption is buying someone out of slavery.  That is what Christ did.  He purchased us out of our bondage of sin to set us free to live in him. Christ had to lay down his life in our place.  He has to die because sin is that heinous.  It is not that God is so villainous, but sin is that heinous.  We cannot find a simple solution to this complex problem.  So if someone wants to mock justification by faith as a “participation trophy,” I say, "I'll gladly take it." I'll put it on the shelf and proudly say, I am in Christ Jesus, and apart from Christ I have no hope. However, we need to remember that Christ reengaged the championship game.  He won the game and gives us the credit. Conclusion So is justification by faith helpful? Absolutely. Because we have a 100% problem, and we need a 100% Savior. Is justification assuring? Absolutely. Because Christ has done what we could never do. He has satisfied God's justice, paid our debt, redeemed us from slavery, and given us his righteousness. And is my faith good enough? No, but Christ is. That is the good news. The gospel isn't that God looked at us and decided that we were basically good enough to receive a participation trophy. The gospel is that we were condemned in Adam, and Christ came into the heavenly courtroom and stood in our place. He took the judgment we deserved and gave us the righteousness we could never earn.  He overturned the previous loss and won us our victory.  And so we don't use grace as an excuse to push the boundaries of sin. If we really understand what sin is, why would we want to return to it? Sin is destructive. It tears us away from the true peace and shalom that God created us to enjoy. So let us continue to take hold of Christ by faith. Let us forget what lies behind and press forward toward what lies ahead. Christ Jesus has made us his own. And as the Holy Spirit continues to conform us to Christ, let us walk in him, trusting not in the strength of our faith, but in the strength of our Savior.

The Unhealthy and Unwealthy Gospel (3) (Acts 7:53-8:3)

Introduction Stephen's trial draws to a conclusion. We are confronted with the hardship of living in a sin-cursed world. Stephen is doing everything right. He is faithful to the Lord. He speaks the truth. He boldly proclaims Christ. The apostles' faithfulness has been rewarded with thousands of converts. One would think that this is going to be the trend. Stephen tells us otherwise. Stephen is faithful, and his reward is rejection, being dragged outside the city, and killed. We are moved to a question: What do we do with a gospel like this? We might second-guess and ask, should Stephen have backed off? Should he have softened his message? Should he have simply swept Christ under the carpet so that he could preserve his life? This narrative forces us to question: Is Jesus really essential to the Christian life, or is he something we can make optional when following him becomes difficult? We see in Acts 7 [https://www.esv.org/Acts+7/] that Christ is not optional. We need Christ because our own righteousness will never be enough. And what we discover in Stephen's death is that earthly suffering does not mean Christ has abandoned his people. In fact, Christ is standing in heaven. He is not taking a passive stance, but an active stance in advancing his gospel despite this setback. The Contrasted Perspectives: Stephen and the Mob The first thing we see is the contrast between Stephen and the crowd. Stephen has just laid out the history of God's covenant interaction with Israel. His summary is that God is faithful and his people have been unfaithful. The crowd is furious. They are shouting, grinding their teeth, covering their ears, and eventually rushing him as a group. Stephen has called them "uncircumcised in heart and ears." The crowd only confirms his indictment. They cover their ears, they refuse to listen, and they refuse to evaluate their own history. They are physically demonstrating fruits that prove Stephen's accusation. They have decided that they know the truth, they know their theology, they know their system, and they are not going to listen to anything that challenges it. We are reminded to be careful when we are so certain. How do we know when to be certain and when to repent? The real issue is Christ. Stephen is not saying that Moses was unimportant or that God's covenant dealings with Israel were meaningless. He is showing that all of these things were pointing beyond themselves to Christ. The law reveals the holiness of God, and it exposes our inability to meet that holiness by our own efforts. The administration given through Moses points us toward the greater reality that comes in Jesus Christ. If we think we can stand before God on the basis of our own accomplishments, we will end up aligned with the crowd. We need Christ. Christ is not optional. We need to take his yoke upon us because there is no other way to life. He is the proper successor to Moses. The ultimate contrast is that as the crowd accuses Stephen, he receives vindication. Luke tells us, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looks up and sees heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. The very Christ whom they rejected, the Christ whom they killed, is standing in glory. Stephen sees the risen and vindicated messiah advocating on his behalf. A Contradictory Profession of Faith This leads us to the second thing we see: Stephen's profession of faith stands in direct contradiction to the profession of the mob. Political wisdom might have told Stephen to keep his mouth shut. Sometimes silence is golden. They are already angry, and Stephen has every reason to know that saying more is not going to make things better. But Stephen is overwhelmed by the Spirit, and he says, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Stephen's testimony is very important. Stephen is identifying Jesus as the Son of Man, the Messiah, the one Daniel 7 points us toward. The very man whom they had rejected and killed is now standing in the glory of heaven. And notice that Christ is standing. Normally we think of Christ seated at the right hand of God (Psalm 110 [https://www.esv.org/Psalm+110/]), enthroned in glory. But here he stands. The picture is not of a passive Savior who has gone to heaven and simply watches what happens to his people. Christ is active. He is ruling. He sees Stephen. He knows what is happening. Stephen may look abandoned from an earthly perspective, but heaven tells us that Christ is active in his rule. The crowd thinks they are judging Stephen, but Stephen has already been vindicated by Christ. They want to put down a dangerous heretic, but Stephen bears witness to the reality that they did kill the messiah. This communicates the complexity of a fallen world. We might think that our current circumstances mean we are bearing the weight of our sin. However, we might be part of the bigger picture. We need to see that our hope is not found in our circumstances, our reputation, or our earthly success. Our hope is found in the risen Christ who stands at the right hand of God. We might not always understand why history unravels the way it does, but we know that Christ is standing as our shepherd-king. The Contrasted Victories The world will view Stephen's death as an absolute failure. Stephen is dragged outside the city and executed. The crowd gets what it wants. The Sanhedrin does not stop them. A man who faithfully preached Christ is dead. If we were simply looking at the circumstances, we might ask, "Where is the victory?" But Luke is showing us something much bigger. Stephen's death identifies him with Christ. Stephen is now experiencing exactly what Christ said would happen. He is cast outside the city, just as Christ was rejected and cast out (Luke 4:29 [https://www.esv.org/Luke+4/]). And even in his death, Stephen echoes the posture of his Savior. He asks the Lord not to hold this sin against them, and he entrusts his spirit to Christ (Acts 7:59-60 [https://www.esv.org/Acts+7/]; cf. Luke 23:34, 46 [https://www.esv.org/Luke+23/]). There is no bitterness here. There is confidence. Stephen knows that death does not have the final word. He is passing from this life into the presence of the Lord who is standing at the right hand of God. And then Luke gives us another remarkable detail: Saul is there. Stephen's outer garment is laid at Saul's feet. This tells us that Saul has authority and could stop it. He might not give the order, but he approves of this execution. This is the man who goes to ravage the church. The Lord's victory still shines through. The persecution drives the gospel to Samaria. Saul will become one of the most aggressive missionaries in the early church. Ironically, this man will have a passion to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. We see that Christ is still ruling in the midst of what appears to be a setback. That is the irony of the Christian life. The Lord does not promise that faithfulness will always produce earthly comfort. Sometimes obedience hurts. Sometimes faithfulness costs us something. Sometimes the church appears to be losing. But Christ is not passive. He is standing and ruling over history. The gospel advances despite what appears to be a huge setback. Conclusion Should Stephen have watered down Christ's significance? Should he have made Christ less central? Should he have treated Jesus as something optional? No. Because Christ is Lord. Stephen sees him standing in heaven. And that is what gives Stephen confidence in the middle of suffering. The world may say that Stephen is the loser, that he was a fool for being so committed to Christ, that he should have kept his mouth shut. But Stephen knows something the mob does not know. His life is not ultimately defined by what happens to him in this age. His life is defined by Jesus Christ, and his certainty is guaranteed in Christ. And that is our hope as well. We live in a sinful world, and God's redemptive purposes often work themselves out in ways that are not pretty or comfortable. But Christ is not passive. He is standing in the glory of heaven. He is ruling, defending, protecting, and advancing his church. And even when we cannot see how he is doing it, Christ is still at work. Stephen's confidence was not in Stephen. It was in Christ. His hope was not that this life would turn out in victory. His hope was that Christ would shepherd him through this life and into the life to come. And so when we find ourselves facing suffering, opposition, disappointment, or things that simply do not make sense, we remember where our hope is. It is not in ourselves. It is in Jesus Christ. We are assured that taking the yoke of Christ is not tyranny. It is life. And because Christ has made us his own, we can press forward with confidence in his power. Our life is found in Christ. Therefore, let us press forward, trusting him, even when faithfulness is costly, because Christ Jesus has made us his own.