Sermon Tone Analysis

Shine for Jesus!

Acts 6:7-15

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - Sept. 8, 2013

*Matt Redman is one of the best-known writers of Christian music today.

Shortly after the devastating terror attacks on September 11, 2001, Matt and his wife Beth co-wrote a worship song called Blessed Be Your Name."

*On 9-11, Matt and Beth were here on sabbatical from their homeland of Britain, and they wrote this song to help inspire worship in the dark and tragic times of our lives.

*The Redmonds found their inspiration in the words of Job, who continued to worship God in the face of devastating loss.

In Job 1:21, this grieving father said: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.''

*"Blessed Be Your Name" became one of the Redmonds most popular songs, and it opens with these words:

"Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name

When I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out, I'll

Turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name" (1)

*Church: In the times of darkness, our Lord Jesus Christ still shines, and we can shine for Him! How can we do it?

Stephen the deacon shows us in this Scripture.

1. First: Seek to be full of faith.

*Stephen was full of faith, and we see this great quality in vs. 7-8, where:

7. . . the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

8.

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

[1] How did Stephen get so full of faith?

-- It came from the right kind of food.

*And we see this food in vs.7.

It was the Word of God.

The only way we can ever be full of faith is by taking in this one-of-a-kind spiritual food.

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

*There Christ quoted something He told Moses to say 1,400 years before the Lord came to earth.

This Scripture is found in Deuteronomy 8:1-3, and there Moses said this to the Children of Israel:

1. "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.

2. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."

*God wants us to know that we have a lifetime supply of faith-building food right here in the Bible!

That is why 1 Peter 2:1-3 says this to Christians:

1.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all guile, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,

2. as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

3. if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

*The only real food for Stephen's faith (and our faith) is the Word of God.

As Paul said in Romans 10:17: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

*Ray Stedman suggested a little exercise with God's Word to help build our faith.

Ray said: "If you want a wonderful experience, take your Bible and use a concordance to look up the two little words: 'But God'.

See how many times human resources have been brought to an utter end, despair has gripped the heart, pessimism and gloom has settled upon a people, and there is nothing that can be done.

Then see how the Spirit of God writes in bright, shining letters: 'BUT GOD,' and the whole situation changes into victory.

(2)

*I tried this exercise, and here are some examples:

*In Acts 7:9-10, Stephen said:

9. . .

"the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt.

But God was with him

10. and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house."

*In Acts 13:28-30, Paul was preaching, and said this about Jesus:

28. . .

"though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.

29.

Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

30.

But God raised Him from the dead.

*In 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul said this to Christians:

13.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

*And in Ephesians 2:3-6, Paul said this to believers:

3. . .

we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

4. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

5. even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

6. and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

*There are many other examples we could find, and this reminds us that we have a lifetime supply of faith-building food right here!

That is the food for Stephen's faith.

[2] But also notice the fruit of his faith.

*We see some of this fruit in vs. 8, where Stephen "did great wonders and signs among the people."

God sent those signs and wonders in the early church to miraculously confirm the good news about Jesus.

It was a special demonstration of God's power for the apostolic age.

But our God is still a miracle working God! -- and all things are possible with Him.

*We see more of faith's fruit back in vs. 7.

And this fruit is more applicable to us today, unless God decides to give us the power to do great signs and wonders.

And God could do that, if He wanted to.

*But He certainly wants to do what we see in vs. 7, where:

7. . . the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

*Jesus Christ surely wants the Word of God to spread today.

He surely wants to multiply the number of disciples today.

He surely wants people to be obedient to the faith today.

*And all of those Jewish priests who got saved remind us that some of the people who are least likely to be saved will be saved.

And why? -- Because God is at work in His world!

*John Phillips explained that it's no wonder the priests came to the faith: "They, more than anyone else, knew that the old-fashioned Judaism, of which they were the most visible and venerable representatives, was finished.

*There had been a day, not long before, when some of them had gone into the Temple as usual to trim the lamps in the Holy Place.

And they had been stopped cold in their tracks.

The Temple veil had been torn in two, -- from top to bottom!

No human hand had done that.

The veil was thick as a man's hand.

And besides, no Jew would have dared commit such sacrilege.

But the awesome fact was evident: The veil was torn.

*For the first time the priests could look beyond the golden altar into the holiest of all and see the sacred Ark with the outspread wings of the cherubim.

They could see where, generation after generation, the high priest on the Day of Atonement had sprinkled the blood.

They had stood and stared.

*The priests compared notes.

The tearing of the veil had happened the very moment Jesus of Nazareth had died.