Title: Those Who Overcame God (11)
Contents
2010, 2, 21 weeks. Those Who Overcame God (11)
Stephen's testimonies of the Lord
(Acts 7:54-60)
One day, a man in his early fifties visited Dr. Norman Vincent Peel.
He was so desperate that he told Dr. Phil about his situation.
“Doctor, now I am all done.”
A lifetime of hard work was in vain.
With a deep sigh, he vomited a desperate confession.
The doctor interrupted the man and asked.
“Did you say everything? Has everything really disappeared?”
Yes, everything is gone. The man continued, emphasizing the word everything. Now I have nothing left. They all disappeared like bubbles.
I am old and unable to recover. There is no hope and no belief that anything can be done. Do you really think so? The doctor asked again as if to confirm.
Yes, there is not even a hair of hope for me.
Because I lost everything I had.
The man spoke of his desperate situation, emphasizing the word “everything.”
Dr. Phil took a piece of paper from his desk and handed it to the man and said:
Then come with me to find out what is still left of you.
As I said a while ago, there is nothing left.
But let's find out. There will definitely be things you still have.
Does the teacher have a wife? yes there is A very nice woman.
All right, write it on paper.
How many children do you have? three. They are very cute guys.
All right, write it on paper.
Do you have any friends? I have a few, and they are very good friends.
How is your health? very good. Ok,
Write it down too.
So what do you think of America?
The only country I want to live in is the United States.
Do you have a religion? I have your religion. Write that too. Now read aloud what you wrote.
- I have a loving wife.
- I have children who are always on my side.
- I have close friends.
- You have good health to be proud of.
- I live in the country I want to live in.
- have faith
When the man finished reading, Dr. Phil exclaimed loudly.
No, you said you didn't have anything when you came in, but what did you read now? The man said with a shy smile as if he had realized something.
I didn't know. As I write this, I have quite a few.
Now it looks like we can make a fresh start.
That's right. We still have a lot left to do.
You have to have hope for the rest.
This time “Those who have overcome God (11),”
I want to receive grace together with the word.
1, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The early Jerusalem church elected seven ordained deacons for the first time.
Verse 3, brethren, choose from among you seven men of praise, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
We learn important facts from the text.
You must be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and you must also be a person who receives praise from your neighbors in your life. In other words, it means a person whose faith and life are exemplary.
Verse 8 says that Stephen was full of grace and power.
We see Stephen's sermon throughout chapter 7.
I am fluent in the Old Testament. Church officers must have deep knowledge of the Bible.
You can't devote yourself with unconditional zeal, but you must know God's Word well and have the wisdom to discern. This is because we must dedicate ourselves based on the truth of God, not according to our own will or claim.
2, Stephen testified of the Lord.
Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great wonders and signs.
However, there was an argument in the synagogue with those from Asia.
These were Jews from all over the world. But they could not withstand Stephen's speaking with wisdom and the Holy Spirit. Then they gave false testimony.
That is, we heard Stephen speaking blasphemy against Moses and God. They provoked the people, the elders, and the scribes to arrest them and set up false witnesses in the council.
False witnesses said
He will destroy this place and change the ordinances that Moses gave to us by Jesus of Nazareth. falsely testified that we have heard that Stephen had to make excuses at the council hall, where a large number of people were gathered: the people, the high priests, and the scribes.
This is a place where you are afraid to be punished if you do it wrong.
In this fearful field, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit and preached the gospel.
3, Stephen criticized the toughness of his people.
Verse 52: Which of the prophets your fathers did not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous, and now you are the raptors and murderers of the righteous.
They are people who have received special blessings from God.
Still, they did not believe in God. So I was often disobedient. Each time God took the Gentiles to suffer, but they did not realize it.
The result was the destruction of the kingdom by Babylon.
Verse 52: Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the righteous,
Now you have become the raptors and murderers of the righteous, and you received the law that the angel preached, and you did not keep it. They liked and honored Moses, who gave the law.
But Moses prophesied about Jesus Christ,
Deuteronomy 18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers, and you shall listen to him.
Yet, instead of obeying Jesus Christ, who came as the Messiah, we put Him to death by hanging on a cross.
When we heard Stephen's sermon, our hearts were pierced.
Verse 54, when they heard these words, they were pierced in their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him.
They were pierced in their hearts when they heard Stephen's sermon filled with the Holy Spirit and overflowing with power.
But they did the wrong thing.
Verse 54, when they heard these words, they were pierced in their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him.
Being pierced in the heart means that the Holy Spirit still loves them. If so, they must realize it and repent immediately. Rather, they had a heart of resentment toward Stephen who made them aware.
Acts 2:14- Below, we see Peter's sermon.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and preached the gospel to all who had gathered.
The gist of the gospel is that God sent Jesus Christ as the Messiah as prophesied. You hung him on a cross to kill him, but God resurrected him on the third day.
Then Peter said:
Be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and your children and to all who are far away, to all whom the Lord our God will call. . If you hear the sermon and get stabbed in your heart, you just need to repent.
That is the secret to being blessed. But instead of repenting, they grinded their teeth to kill Stephen.
4, Stephen became a sacrifice for martyrdom.
In verse 56, when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven, and looked up, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, he said, Behold, I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
The time when Stephen's eyes were opened was the moment when he heard Stephen's sermon and the Jews were grinding their teeth to kill Stephen. In other words, just before Stephen's martyrdom, the Lord had him witness the opening of heaven to comfort Stephen at the last moment.
Dear saints,
I pray that you will also be given the experience of opening the sky.
Verse 56 says that Jesus stood at the right hand of God.
The Lord arose from the right hand of the throne of God to welcome His loyal servant, who was to be sprinkled with blood and be martyred.
Even in the world, when welcoming guests, there are guests who sit and greet, and there are guests who stand up and greet. The fact that the Lord rose up for Stephen means that Stephen is an important object to the Lord. I bless you in the name of the Lord that the Lord will rise up for you.
Verse 57: And they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed to him with all their heart, and threw him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses took off their clothes and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. They stoned Stephen, and Stephen cried out, "Lord Jesus, receive my soul." And he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them," and he fell asleep.
The reason I prayed like this is because they are committing this kind of sin because they cannot open their eyes if they say it again because they do not know.
Dear saints,
The Bible does not tell how old Stephen was when he was martyred, but it proves that his life was a wonderful life.
This is because only God's special providence can be offered to God as a sacrifice for martyrdom.
Stephen is a victor who finished a beautiful life while witnessing the gospel. Perhaps the Jews who killed Stephen by throwing stones without mercy brought him to death with the cruelty that such a body should die, but their future was only miserable.
The reason is that, by the Roman general Titus, unrepentant Israel was thoroughly destroyed, and furthermore, during World War II, an astronomical number of Jews had to be slaughtered horribly by Hitler because of Hitler.
The sin of rejecting the gospel is a sin that cannot be washed away forever.
We must obey the gospel that Stephen preached while vomiting blood, and we ourselves must become those who risk our lives to preach the gospel.
So we must become the blessed ones who do the Lord's will.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will risk your lives to testify to the Lord like Stephen in our place.