How to Handle the Haters - Ben Stuart

Well, as we jump in today, I wanna start by honoring the Harkey boys. Many of you know who they are. John Harkey, who was leading worship right up here, and Jacob Harkey, who leads our spiritual formation, neighborhood nights, all those sort of midweek gatherings, and much more. Both of them, our entire team was in Atlanta this week for our team day, kind of a training and learning. They left after that, and they both independently went to different funerals to minister to families from our church community. And so that is the life of pastors, and life of ministers, and the life of many of you, that we're always moving between sorrow and rejoicing, celebrating life, and then grieving the end of life. And both of them did a wonderful job of grieving and mourning for families in our church. I don't know if you know this, maybe you missed the statistics. Our church skews young. Just look around and you'll see. And so we do a lot more weddings and births than we do funerals. But we have done a few, and it's a fascinating thing when you watch death enter into a community, be it a church, or be it a family community, or a friendship group. Death is a weighty thing, and it can break some communities, or it can bond some others more tightly together.

I remember a friend of mine telling me, she said, you know, when I was young, and someone would die, it was so shocking to me, and she said it instantly made me evaluate my life, and what struck me immediately was how flimsy and trite all the things were I was consumed with at the time. She said, when I encountered death as a young woman, I realized I care about things that seem so shallow. And she said, but you know what, Ben, now that I've walked with the Lord for decades, and I'm able to be a part of such vibrant ministry to other people, she said, the most interesting thing happened. Now, when I encounter death, I look around at the ministry we're doing, and I say, everything I'm doing has never been more important than now. That suddenly my life has purpose and meaning, because I understand life is limited, and so I want my life to count. Why am I mentioning this? Because we're gonna look at the first martyrdom in the Christian movement, that's where we are. Up until now, we've watched the church just grow and thrive, now we're gonna see them hit hardship. And the way they do it is instructive to us, because if you don't know what you're willing to die for, then you don't know what you're really living for. And so what is worthy of your life? We're gonna watch somebody face death well.

And I'll say this, some sermons, often you gotta add a lot of personal stories to illustrate the text and keep people conscious. There's other texts where you just kinda need to get out of the way and let the text tell the story. This is one of those. So I don't really have three points in a poem, although we will have some application at the end, I promise. I just wanna walk you through a little Bible study. I want you to see the life and death of Stephen. And as we do, the application for us will be how do we handle the haters? How do we handle hate well? Is it possible to have peace even when we're persecuted? So Acts chapter six, we're gonna begin in verse one. It says this, and Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Now if you recall, we met Stephen last week. He was the first among the seven who were appointed by the apostles to run the bread distribution for widows. But now we see him doing something more than administration. Actually, we see him doing something that up until now we've only seen the apostles do. He is performing signs and wonders that the power of God is on display through him while he preaches to the people the grace of God available in Jesus.

But as he spreads the message of Jesus, opposition comes. And you see in the next verse, then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it is called, and of the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and those from Sicilia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. We won't go into the detail of who these people were, but a group emerges that starts debating Stephen about these ideas, and they realize that in the world of debate, they are unable to refute his arguments. And so when arguments fail, they go for slander. Can you imagine? It happens. Verse 11, then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. So they produced false testimony and claimed that Stephen is disrespecting the Old Testament. The first five books of the Old Testament are called the Pentateuch or the Law. They were written by Moses. So that's why they named Moses here. And so what they're saying is, hey, he's disrespecting the scriptures and he's demeaning God. Incidentally, it's the same accusation

they leveled against Jesus just a few months before this. They're running the same play. And in verse 12, it says, and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon. and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs of Moses delivered to us. Again, this is the exact same thing they said against Jesus, that he's gonna disrespect the temple, he wants to destroy our customs, and so they drag him before the same council that voted to execute Jesus and beat the apostles. Jesus said, if they hated me, they'll hate you. And here Stephen is feeling what that feels like. And yet in verse 15, look at his response. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw his face was like the face of an angel. Now that does not mean he's hot. It means that he's serene, that he's peaceful even in the face of persecution. How did he do that? This passage is about how to face persecution. The sermon's entitled, How Do You Handle the Hate? And it's really just kind of three parts. Stephen is seized, Stephen speaks,

and Stephen is stoned with rocks, not weed. But we've already covered the first part. What we're gonna watch, this is the third time in the book of Acts that believers have gone to trial for preaching in the book of Acts. The first one, it was Peter and John together. And the guy they had healed stood next to them, the crowd was praising God, and so the council took no action against them. The second time, all 12 apostles were arrested together, and an angel showed up and instituted a jailbreak and got them out. Now it's Stephen's turn. And if you notice the pronouns, he's alone. There is no one to stand with him, no one to protect him. And like a good quarterback who feels the defense pressing in on him, has to have the discipline to plant their feet, feeling them coming, and deliver the ball, knowing he'll take the hit. And that's what we're gonna watch Stephen do. Here in the midst of a raging crowd, Stephen speaks. And he gives the longest recorded sermon in the New Testament, which I think is wild because he's not an apostle. He's not a paid pastor. He's one of you, but persecuted, but filled with the same Holy Spirit to speak the truth. And what follows in Acts 7 is a fantastic summary of the Old Testament. Now I've heard people preach this passage

and they just skip this part and get back to Stephen's behavior. I decided not to for this reason. I've talked to so many of you in the lobby that these past few months, this past year, it's your first time ever really seriously reading the Bible. And so this passage, Acts 7, is actually a good starting point to understand the flow of the story because Stephen will give an overview of the Old Testament. They accused him of denigrating Moses and the temple, so he'll speak to both. And so I'll read it and comment on it and I believe we'll survive the experience. So Acts 7, one. Says the high priest said, are these things so? And Stephen said, brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. And said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you're now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length. But promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

And God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them for 400 years. But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs. Now, in that first paragraph, Stephen just summarized 24 chapters of the book of Genesis. How about that? He starts with what's famously called the promise in Genesis 12. That God grabbed Abraham and promised him, I will move you to a piece of land, I will give you a seed, a child, and through your seed, I will bless every family on the world. And he says, God did this and Abraham moved and God gave him a son miraculously named Isaac. Isaac had a son named Jacob. Jacob, after a life-changing encounter with God, had his name changed to Israel and he had 12 sons and they became the patriarchs. Here, Patri is father, Arke is first. These were the first fathers of the nation of Israel, these 12 tribes that came from these 12 brothers.

And so those 12 brothers moved down to Egypt and were enslaved, right? So, so far, so good. Accurate story. These people that are accusing him of denigrating the Bible are like, okay, he crushed those 24 chapters, let's see what else the man has. And in verse nine, it says, in the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph. Joseph sold him into Egypt, but God was with him. And he rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and all his household. Now there was a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan and great afflictions and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, 75 persons in all. And Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, he and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor and Shechem. Also, solid summary. That was the last 13 chapters of the book of Genesis, right?

But I want you to notice an emphasis he gave. He said 10 of the patriarchs persecuted their brother, Joseph, Joseph who had been given dreams by God of how he was gonna lead his family by the power of God. And so he adds into the story an emphasis on the fact that, hey, your first fathers missed the moment. God was on the move and your first fathers missed it. And yet they did not thwart God's plans. Then he moves on to the book of Exodus. Here we go, verse 17. But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. And he dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive. At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight. He was hot, that's what that means. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house. And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in his word and deed. And when he was 40 years old, it came to his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, men, you're brothers, why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside and said, who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? And at this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. Also, solid summary. But I want you to notice what story about Moses he emphasized, not many of the ones you know about the parting of the sea and stuff like that. What did he emphasize? He emphasized God was clearly working through Moses and the people resisted Moses. Thrust him aside. They missed the moment. God was moving and they missed what God was doing. And so Moses had to grow up outside of his people in Midian, right? Verse 30.

Now, when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire and in a bush. And when Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight and he drew near to look and there came a voice from the Lord. I'm the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off the sandals from your feet for the place you're standing is holy ground. I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I've heard their groaning. I've come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt. This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge? This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. This is the one who was in the congregation of the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai with our fathers. He received living oracles to give us

and our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside. And in their hearts, they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, make for us gods who'll go after us. As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idols and were rejoicing in the work of their hands. But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven as is written in the book of prophets. Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices during the 40 years of the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your God, Rephan, the images that you made to worship, and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. Again, all true. They accuse Stephen of denigrating Moses, and so he tells the story of Moses. But notice what he points out. Moses told you one like me will come later. Look for him. And then Moses, as he led, your fathers kept resisting him. And then he brought up a very embarrassing story of the nation of Israel. Your fathers, in the wilderness, rather than worshiping God, built idols to Molech. That was where they would burn children

to this foreign deity. And he says, your fathers missed the moment. They missed God, and they did some detestable things. Right? Verse 44. Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness. Just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers, in turn, brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it wasn't to the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the most high does not dwell in a house made by hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all things? So I want you to notice what he did. He just jumped from Moses all the way to David. So he skipped Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, right? Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and went straight to 1 Samuel. Like many of you in your reading plan. You're like, I think, I think, David, I know that guy. Get that giant, man. You're not alone. You are following Stephen.

But don't miss the argument. Are we doing okay so far, class? What did they accuse him of? Denigrating Moses and the temple. So he says, hey, Moses was following God. Your fathers resisted him. And then God gave him the pattern of the tabernacle outside the land of Israel. And then when they brought it in, fast forward, David wanted to build it. God said no, Solomon built it. And yet God told him, I don't live in a house. Like you're building this as a symbol in a picture of what it looks like to communion with me as you do these sacrifices here. But God is on the move and your parents missed it. And yet here, it was never about a specific land or a specific building. God has been moving across lands and across purposes. God has always been on the move. And at every step, your forefathers missed the moment. Now is where he brings the sermon to a landing. And he's gonna quote something God said about their forefathers that's going to make them very upset. Here's the end of his sermon. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand

the coming of the righteous one, whom you now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels, and you did not keep it. Jesus's blood still stains the stones of this temple. And so Stephen gives an arrow sermon. Did you notice the pronouns? You. People don't like you sermons. They like we. We all struggle. It's painful for all of us, right? Jonathan Edwards got fired because he gave a sermon where he named the names of some boys who he felt were disobedient, and they fired him for that, right? People don't like that level of conviction. And so Stephen says, you did this. Your fathers missed God back then, and then when the son of God, the righteous one, came now, you missed him now. And so after this great review of the Old Testament, he says God has always been on the move, and your fathers missed it, and now you're missing it right now, that he sent Jesus, and you don't like the idea of submitting to him. They do not like that. So now we're in the last part of our sermon, the stoning of Stephen.

Verse 54, now when they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. Notice him. The apostle Peter and John were arrested together. 12 apostles were arrested as a team. Stephen has to stand alone, and sometimes you have to. How do you handle a mob who gnashes their teeth at you? Verse 55, but full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In the midst of the pain, how does he have the face of an angel? Your first application? He looks up rather than down. He sees beyond the people who seem to have control, and he sees the God who has control. And he looks up and he sees God, and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now that's interesting verb there, standing. Because in the Old Testament, those books you often skip, go in great detail about the furniture in the temple and how it's made. Tables and lampstands and altars, but if you're an astute student, you realize there's no chairs. that the temple in the Old Testament never had chairs, the priests never sat. And the writer of Hebrews in the New Testament leans into that.

Do you know why they never sat? Because their work was never done. He said the imagery in the temple was an innocent lamb, an innocent animal is sacrificed to cover the sin of God's people. God's people were constantly sinning, so lambs were constantly being sacrificed because the blood of bulls and goats and lambs can't really cover sin. This was a picture of someday someone has to cover our sin against God so we can have a relationship with him, and so the priests were sacrificing all the time. There were no chairs. But Hebrews says, but when Jesus, whom John the Baptist said behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, when Jesus came, he says it's necessary that I suffer, that he live the perfect life we could not, and then behold the lamb slain on our behalf, that he who knew no sin became sin for us so we could be right with God. And Hebrews said, and when Jesus once for all offered that sacrifice to cover all sin, he sat down. That you don't have to work to be forgiven. The work is finished. That's why Jesus on the cross said, testelestai, the perfect tense of the verb, it's finished. My life and my death was sufficient to forgive you for all time, those who trust me. Do you see it?

And so he sat down. And yet here, the only time in scripture, he gets up from his seat. And he does it to welcome his faithful servant home. And Stephen sees it. Jesus stands. And he says it in verse 56. He said, behold, I see heavens open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. Now they are not gonna like that. That's the same quote from the book of Daniel that Jesus said that God had crucified. If you recall, they did not have anything to convict Jesus with. And so Jesus quoted this text. You will see me seated at the right hand of God. And they tore their robes and crucified him. So he says the very thing you couldn't say, that Jesus sits on the throne of God. People will handle a vague spirituality. You tell your coworkers that you pray or attend some sort of service, they don't care. You say Jesus is Lord, you bifurcate a crowd. And here he says, I see Jesus seated upon the throne. They don't like it. So in verse 57, they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

They forego all the protocol they did with Jesus and the others. Justice is thrown to the wayside. The mob steps in, right? And they take him out of the city like they did with Jesus, and yet they beat him to death with stones. What's interesting is the Apostle Paul says, to some, when we preach the gospel of the forgiveness of God available to Jesus, to some, that's the aroma of life. I can be forgiven. To some, it's the stench of death. How dare you say I need forgiven, right? The same aroma, smells like life or smells like death. When Peter preached, 3,000 came to Christ. When Stephen preached, they hit him with rocks till he died, right? Sometimes they celebrate you, sometimes they stone you. But you have to do what's right. If you just try to play to the algorithm, you don't really have a standard. And yet Stephen holds up the standard. He presents Jesus Christ to the crowd, right? And then Luke, like he always does, loves to introduce a character at the end of an episode that's gonna figure later in on the season. And he mentions a young, arrogant man who holds their coats while they kill Stephen named Saul. We're gonna see a lot of him later. But look what Stephen does in 59.

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Again, he quotes the same thing his Lord Jesus said when Jesus was being crucified on the cross. Stephen is a true disciple of Jesus. In the midst of my pain, it's his words that are on my lips, right? How can he do that? He looked up, not down. And he saw God in control, not the mob in control. That can give you peace, regardless of the circumstances, right? That's how David did it when the king was trying to kill David. When David was hiding out in a cave and King Saul was trying to kill him, David wrote that poem. And he says, God most high determines my destiny. That's what gave David peace. When someone's attacking me or someone who's over me wants to persecute me, the reason I don't freak out is because I go, no, there's someone over him. And it's not just that I believe generically in some deity. I know him as Jesus. I can know what his character was like. I know he died for me. I know he loves me. I don't just hope there's some ethereal being that will bless me, that the universe will smile.

I know his name and he knows me. And so when I know that Jesus is on the throne. I'm not scared. You got a big God, you got small problems. You got a small God, you got big problems. And so here in the midst of a raging crowd, he's not scared because he sees God in control, not the mob in control, and he sees himself in God's hands, not the mob's hands. God, you determine my destiny. You determine my story. It's into your hands that I commit my spirit. And then with his dying death, he quotes the Savior one last time, and it's a prayer for those who persecute him. Verse 60. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he said this, he fell asleep. Jesus told us, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. And then Jesus backed it up. When he was on the cross, while he was bleeding out, he prayed, Father, forgive them. He did what he called us to do. Paul told Timothy, when someone persecutes you, don't see them as an enemy, see them as a captive. When they rage against you online or someone mocks you for your faith, don't see an enemy you have to beat.

He says they've been held captive by Satan, that they can't see the glory of God in the face of Christ. They can't see it. And when you understand them that way, that can allow you to have compassion. How do you pray for your enemies rather than gnash your teeth right back? John Perkins just passed away. I don't know if you are familiar with John Perkins. John Perkins was raised in Mississippi several decades ago, picked cotton with his family. And then when he had the opportunity to escape the South, as a young black man, he did it and moved to California. But there he took his kids to church. And as he saw his kids' life change, he showed up and he became a Christian. And he realized this grace of God, forgiveness of God, the hope in God, I need to go share with people back in Mississippi. So he moved back to Mississippi and they started a daycare center and a church and a thrift store and tried to elevate the community they had come from in this poor rural Mississippi. And as they were doing that in the late 50s and 60s, he was arrested at one point, put in prison, and he was beaten all night by some police officers. And there as he was being beaten on the floor of this prison, he thought he was gonna die. And yet I remember he wrote something in a book that stuck with me for the rest of my life.

He said, as I was laying there bleeding out, he said, I looked at the faces of these white officers, so twisted with hate. And he said, for the first time, I saw what hate did to them. And he said, when I saw that, I couldn't hate them. And I prayed, God, if you let me live through this night, I wanna preach a gospel that can even transform the whites. That was his prayer. And he lived through that night. And so a big part of his ministry was not just the elevating of the poor black community in Mississippi, but preaching the gospel of reconciliation with God and with one another. Even went on to co-write a book with a former Klansman that he understood the grace of God is powerful enough to turn enemies into friends. And when you understand all of us are sinners, all of us who fall short of the glory of God, all of us in prison to sin, but God graciously rescued me, and the Lord knows me, and the Lord reigns, and I'm gonna see him, and I see him standing at the right hand of God, he is welcoming me home, and then I look at them, I don't have to get revenge, gnash my teeth, I look at them and say,

God, would you be merciful to them too? Because you were merciful to me. It's when you have a high view of God, you can have a merciful view of your enemy. That's what we're meant to do. That's what Jesus did, that's what Stephen does. And so here at the end, he prays, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And then he fell asleep. How does a spirit-filled person handle persecution? You look up and see Jesus in control. You look up and see Jesus in control. You entrust your spirit to that same Lord. I know him, and he knows me. Polycarp was a Bishop of Smyrna, he was discipled by John, and he was martyred by the Emperor Pius. They were killing Christians at that time in Roman history, and they went and tried to grab him. He was a Bishop, and his people hid him, but they kept searching for him. And after a while, he's like, you know what, guys, I just don't think we're gonna outrun this. And so the soldiers showed up at his house to arrest him, and he fixed them refreshments, which instantly made them feel really bad about arresting him. But they brought him to a Colosseum, and they told him, worship Caesar, curse Christ, and we'll let you go.

And he said, for 86 years, my Lord has been faithful to me. How can I deny him now? He said, there's no way. And they said, we'll throw you to the beasts. He said, bring him. And the judge said, okay, if you don't fear the beast. Peace will burn you. And Polycarp said, this is a quote, you try to frighten me with a fire that burns for an hour. You forget the fire of hell that never goes out. And so they lit him up. And he prayed out loud, sovereign Lord, I thank you that you've deemed me worthy of this moment to join with you and the martyrs and share in the cup of Christ. When you understand God determines my story, then you can stand even in the midst of the flames of persecution. St. Patrick was not Irish. He was English and was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was a little boy and enslaved in Ireland. He was able to escape, he ran away and made it home. But when he got home and put his faith in Christ, he had dreams about these crazy pagan Irish people who kidnapped him. And he said, the grace of God that saved me is sufficient to save them. And so he went back to his former captives to preach the gospel to them. He's not the God of beer or the God of shamrocks.

He's the God of the Trinity that preached grace to the people who had oppressed him. How did he do that? Because he prayed prayers like this. I arise today through God's strength to pilot me, God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eyes to look before me, God's ears to hear me, God's words to speak for me, his hand to guard me, his shield to protect me, his host to save me. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right and on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. He saw his life surrounded by the powerful love of God. And so he wasn't afraid of those who persecuted them. He had compassion on them. And the Irish are different because of the courage of a Patrick, right? All this ties together. When you have a high view of Christ, it liberates you to trust. I don't have to seek control. Christ is in control, which liberates you to forgive. Doesn't mean you'd say they're not evil. Did you notice what he called them earlier? You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart.

That's a serious burn, but it's true. But he didn't say it out of malice. He wanted God to forgive them, right? This is what Jan Hus did. Jan Hus who condemned indulgences. There was a time in history where to raise money for the Crusades, the Pope issued an edict that said, you can buy forgiveness for your relatives. And Jan Hus said that's wrong from the University of Prague. So they brought him in to discuss it. When he came in, they arrested him. They had promised him safe conduct, but they said no promise to a heretic is binding. And so they put him on a pyre, and they cooked his hus. That's where cooked his goose comes from. And yet as he burned, he said, Lord Jesus, it is for thee I patiently endure this cruel death, and I pray thee, have mercy on my enemies. You and I have this book because of the faithfulness of men and women who thought it was worth dying for, that this message was worthy of their life because it could save yours. But some of you hear this story and go, I hate this sermon. He trusted God and they killed him. Bad guys won. Let me read the last couple verses. Chapter eight, verse one. Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution

against the church in Jerusalem. You're like, that doesn't sound good. And they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation for him, but Saul was ravaging the church. And entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. You know, Ben, how does that encourage me at all? Little Bible study, we're almost done. In Acts chapter one, Jesus said you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. We're in chapter eight. The Holy Spirit came in power, and they all preached in Jerusalem. And then they started small groups in Jerusalem. And then they preached in Jerusalem. Then they started small groups in Jerusalem. And they're all hanging out in Jerusalem. And they just were like, we like it here. And then Stephen died. And what happens? They scattered. And where does Luke let you know they went? Judea and Samaria. That Stephen's death was a catalyst for the gospel of grace to go to the nations. It's sad that it cost that.

The Bible says that God keeps your tears in a bottle that precious to him are the blood of his saints. not lay down your life cavalierly at all. He remembers things you forgot you were praying for. And yet we're all gonna die. Death rate is what it's always been, one per person. But I want mine to mean something. And Stephen's death was a catalyst for gospel expansion around the world, like so many who've gone before. I don't wanna be martyred. I'm not aiming for that. I'm preaching this week, doing a video series for a Bible study community, and they said, hey, we want you to film 2 Thessalonians. I said, I'll do it. And they said, okay, we want you to do it in San Francisco. I said, that's fine. And then I started studying 2 Thessalonians. It's one of the clearest passages on hell and one of the clearest passages on the Antichrist. And all these videos are gonna be done out in public in San Francisco. I was like, wow, bold choice. So as I was studying this, I'm like, is this a precursor? God, I wanna live. You know, are you just preparing me for this? So pray for me, church. I'd rather get Peter's deal than Stephen's. But I want my life to count, and so do you.

And I'm gonna seek comfort. And someone hurts my feelings, and I rage against them, and they rage at me, and I rage back, and we rage back, and we rip the country apart, and churches apart, and cities apart. That's a tired story we're all looking to escape. And Jesus came into a dark world as light. He came into an angry world with love. He came into a scared and frightened world with peace. And He gave His life so that the enemies of God would become friends. All of you, any of you, far from God, you're not too far from the grace of God. His blood is sufficient to save anybody. And He knits us together as a family. And our eternity is secure. He will stand to welcome us home, and we will rise to meet Him. So now when I look out at the world, you may disagree with me culturally, politically, philosophically. You may hold ideas I think are abhorrent and dangerous. And I can disagree with your ideas without ever disrespecting you. Because I don't look at you as enemy, I look at you as captive, and I pray God's mercy for you. Because what God does is He loves to turn enemies into friends. And the only way you can do that is if you see the Lord seated on high,

that He is above the fray. So I look up at Him, not down. I trust my soul into His hands, not theirs. And that gives me the power to have peace, and the power to pray that God would heal all those around me.