Acts 6:8-15
February 10, 2002
Myths Shattered by the Gospel
Over five hundred years ago a well trained young man faithfully performed his ecclesiastical duties, practiced medicine, wrote a treatise on monetary reform, and turned his attention to a subject in which he had long been interested--astronomy. His efforts went largely unnoticed, for his seminal work was not published until his lay dying. The world was not prepared for the shattering of long held myths when Nicolaus Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres was read and understood.
This work challenged the geocentric cosmology that had been dogmatically accepted since the time of Aristotle. Ptolemy’s geocentric model was shown to be but a myth, the earth was not the center of the universe, despite the protestations of misguided scientists and theologians.
What Copernicus promoted marked the beginning of a new era, paving the way for the scientific revolution, allowing Kepler to determine planetary orbits, Galileo to formulate his concept of motion and Newton to espouse his theory of gravitation. The revolution Copernicus began wrecked havoc with the old myths.
Bruno was burned at the stake for his acceptance of the Copernican model and Galileo, under the threat of torture and death, was forced to his knees to renounce all belief in Copernican theories, and was thereafter sentenced to imprisonment for the remainder of his days.
The German philosopher Goethe well articulated this change when he said:
"Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the center of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind - for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke!" (www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm)
The removal of self from the center of the universe is a challenge that is still fought. The myth which promotes self-centeredness to this day brings outrage from every corner of the globe. Yet surprisingly it does so most often from those in the Church. There is an ongoing revolution greater than Copernican, a revolution in which human might and ability is challenged. But whenever that challenge is sounded, people respond with stubborn refusal to believe, even with anger.
In our passage this morning we see how that revolution removing self from the center creates a climate of such anger and hate, bloodshed seems to be the only solution. Rather than allowing truth to change lives, lies are shouted with such volume to drown out the truth, to promote the myth of self.
In the opening chapters of Acts God’s people have undergone a Copernican revolution. With the incarnation of God’s Son, with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the old way is challenged, the hopes of self confidence to please God are shattered, the desire for self salvation are obliterated. There are those whose lives are radically transformed by the freeing message that we are not the center of the universe, but that God remains sovereign and supreme. Yet they offer the good news to those believing a deadly myth, the reaction become violent. We see that in Acts 6. READ
In our passage this morning we will see two myths shattered by the gospel. When those well cherished myths are shattered, people become angry. But before we look closely at those myths, we need some background to set the stage, for the person at the center of the maelstrom is an unlikely agitator.
Last week we saw how the church responded to the needs in the body. Widows were neglected, so the apostles directed the church to find those best suited to attend to the physical needs of those less fortunate. Among those chosen was a Hellenistic Jew named Stephen. He was among those chosen who were to be (v3) of good repute, full of the Spirit, and of wisdom and later he is described (v5) as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. While he faithfully served the widows, he also had a much broader service to his fellow Greek speaking Jewish ex-patriots.
In v8 as the spotlight turns to Stephen we learn more of this man.
He is full of grace and power. There is merged in one personality the two necessary components to both excise the myth and insert the truth. There was both sweetness and strength, truth and love in harmony. The grace is seen in how he deals with the antagonism and the power with the ability to speak and explain the truth unflinchingly in the face of death.
Stephen, having been appointed by the apostles, does the works of the apostles (signs and wonders), but is also given the reception of the apostles (persecution). The two go hand in hand.
In v9 we read of the place where the myths were shattered.
As we mentioned last week, the hellenists were Greek speaking Jews who maintained their biblical identity as God’s people in other lands. Over the previous centuries the Jews found themselves scattered throughout the Mediterranean and in time they migrated back to Israel. As they returned, new synagogues would be established which would be more comfortable to their particular ethnic distinctions. The particular synagogue here was for the Freedmen.
This synagogue was composed of those from North Africa and Asia with a common trait of freedom from slavery. The place names here may be insignificant to us, but a young rabbi named Saul from the capital of Cilicia, Tarsus, will make a name for himself. The myths he cherished, shattered by the gospel, would soon bring him to prominence. Unable to answer the challenges from Stephen, Saul is tormented, perhaps complicit in Stephen’s death, and finally confronted and transformed by Christ himself.
We don’t know why these Diaspora Jews would become so enraged. It may seem that they would be more tolerant and less nationalistic. They may have grown up with a greater pluralism, less attached to the temple worship. But then again, having been once slaves in a foreign land, now freed and able to return their nationalism is all the more entrenched. They sacrificed so much to return to the beloved city they were less willing to withstand any attack on the law and temple of God.
In v10 we see the age old principle, that when logic fails, try lies, when lies fail, try the law.
Thwarted in debate, the opponents start a smear campaign against Stephen. Mud slinging is a great substitute for truth. It appears they accepted his premises but denied his conclusions as too scandalous and revolutionary. So, unable to oppose him in open debate, they took the low road. Informers were put up to represent his arguments in the most damaging light.
That they secretly instigated, some were persuaded, a term meaning “to give another person words” so that a spin would damage his case. In v12, the people are stirred up, in v13 false witnesses are called. The situation is desperate.
It is important to see here the specific nature of their accusations, for it is at these two points that the gospel still chaffs against the myths which predominate today. What they accused Stephen of is made more clear in his sermon delivered at his trial.
They said (11) he blasphemed against Moses and God. This blasphemy is further detailed in v13 “he spoke against this holy place and the law”. They get more specific, “he said Jesus will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” (14)
This is a serious accusation. Nothing was more sacred to the Jews and nothing more precious than their temple and their law. The temple was the holy place, the sanctuary of God’s presence, and the law as holy Scripture, the revelation of God’s mind and will. Therefore, since the temple was God’s house and the law was God’s word, to speak against either was to speak against God, to blaspheme.
On the surface, their anger seems justified. Stephen wasn’t attacking something blatantly sinful. It was not as though the myths they believed held no basis in reality, no connection to the God who called them and had blessed them.
What we will see here is that what Stephen is accused of saying was related to what Jesus Himself had said ... and what Jesus was accused of at his trial. When Stephen clearly articulated the gospel, the result was not that he was on trial, but Jesus was, the heart of the gospel is.
The gospel shatters the myth of self confidence
They charged Stephen with blasphemy against Moses (v11) and that he claimed Jesus would change the customs Moses delivered to them (v13-14). Noble indignation, but misplaced. What myth did they believe that made the good news of the gospel sound like bad news?
By the 1st century, there was the growing impression that the Law could make us better. There was the myth of self confidence which says we are inherently capable to obey. That with enough effort we can please God. The proper use of the law was lost and the truth was replaced by a myth of self confidence. God graciously called his people and then left them with enough where-withal to do what needed be done. Salvation was certainly by grace, but there is much up to us. We’ve got to keep the law, live obediently, maintain God’s favor in our lives.
It is interesting that the flash point comes from the synagogue of the Freedmen. These are self made people, they (or recent family members) have purchased their freedom, fighting hard to make something of themselves. A virtuous trait in daily life, becomes deadly before God.
The myth is that if God commands I can obey, ought implies can. Here’s a test to see if you believe this myth: God commands us in Deut. 6 and Jesus reiterates it in Mark 12 that we are to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart...” That is the law. Can you keep it, at all, for one moment?
If you believe that you are able to love God as he commands, the gospel will anger you. If you believe that you have the ability, the confidence to do right and avoid wrong, then the gospel will be blasphemous. If you think you can obey, you’ve believed the myth.
The gospel is a Copernican revolution. It shatters the myth of self confidence. In the gospel we hear that we are not capable to obey. Even as God’s people, as Christians, we do not possess the ability to make God smile on us by what we do. At the core of the myth of self confidence the law is used unlawfully.
To use the law unlawfully is to imagine that the law can make us what we are not. This happens is not just a theological peculiarity among Christians, but is a universal trait of fallen humanity. An example would be in our common misplaced trust in civil law. People believe that if we just make a law, I can make the world safe, at least for me. Yesterday I read this news story.
Dustin Rogers, 8, accidentally took his mother's spare keys instead of his own when he rushed out the door to Burnt Mills Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. Attached to the key chain was a fingernail clipper. "That's a pocketknife!" a classmate said when it fell out of his pocket. Someone told his teacher, who turned the clipper over to the principal. Principal Adrienne Jackson is "recommending expulsion" from the county school system, she wrote, because Dustin "was found in possession of a dangerous object. The most dangerous object being a 2 inch blade." Zero tolerance says that if we just clamp down harder people will stop doing bad.
So if the gospel shatters the myth of self confidence, the myth that if I follow the law I will be more acceptable by God, what then should we believe about the law? What did Jesus say about the Law? Is the charge in v14 correct – did Jesus say he would change the customs of Moses?
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus is quite clear – the gospel does not destroy the law. They are not opposed to one another. Rather the gospel destroys the wrong view of the Law. What should we believe about the Law here – Christ came not to destroy, but fulfill.
All the requirements of the Law, all the oughts which we cannot do – he has done. He fulfilled the requirements for us. The gospel takes that self confidence and gives us Jesus’ confidence. Rather than me saying, “I’ve got to try to love God more.” I confidently say “Jesus loves the Father perfectly – I’ll trust his obedience and not mine.”
Why does God give us the Law? To show me my sin, where I fail. It shows me that I am not the center of the universe. The revolution here is that I must not be confident in me, in my ability or even in my faith – rather I have a savior in whom I can be confident. But make no mistake about it – that shatters a preciously held myth.
What makes this so hard is that the more we explain the gospel of free grace, that our keeping God’s Law does not matter for our salvation or for our status as Christians – people unwise draw the conclusion that obedience is optional. We need to distinguish between obedience for merit and obedience out of love. The former is useless, the latter is necessary.
It hurts our pride to hear that our righteousness counts for nothing. We want to hold onto this self confidence for we live in mortal fear that if we tell people that Christ’s life of perfect obedience means their pitiful attempts to obey are meaningless, then horrible sinfulness will run amuck. We love self confidence, because we retain power and authority in the law. But our unlawful use of the law as a means to making God happy with us is a dire mistake, with deadly consequences.
The gospel shatters the myth of self improvement
What about the second part of the accusation vs. Stephen. They accused Stephen of blaspheming God (11), this holy place (13) and that Jesus would destroy this place (14). It is important to understand that any threat to the temple (real or imagined) was a threat to their livelihood as well as to their religious interests. But what they didn’t understand is that the temple’s usefulness was over.
God’s people adopted a myth about the temple, a myth of self improvement. Rather than the temple pointing to God graciously sending a sacrifice, they took pride in their sacrifices, in the temple they built.
The accusation levied by Stephen’s false witnesses were the same hurled by Jesus’ perjurers. Stephen’s trial is but a replay of Christ’s. But what is said has a basis in truth. In John 2, after Jesus cleanses the temple, the authorities demand a sign from Jesus for the temple’s perceived desecration. Jesus responds in 2:19. Those listening could not figure out what he meant. It had taken 46 years to build this place. There was an understandable pride, but very misplaced. For they were confident in what they produced rather than in the person to whom it pointed.
John clarifies the meaning of his statement – he spoke of his body, pointing to the resurrection. Only after the resurrection was all this understood. What Jesus meant was:
When I die the temple dies. When I am destroyed the temple is destroyed. This whole system--all these sacrifices, all this blood flowing to make atonement for sins, all this priestly activity surrounding the holy place where God's presence dwells--it all ends when I die. You destroy me and in dying I destroy the temple. (material adapted from Piper, Stephen’s Crime, 3/24/91)
This is why the curtain in the temple tore in two as Jesus died. It was a token of destruction. The walls were coming down. Jesus himself was taking the place of everything in the temple. The temple was not about their ability to better themselves, if only by acknowledging their own sinfulness.
- With Jesus’ death, the temple was destroyed, for Jesus is now our one and only high priest, living forever to make intercession for us. In Christ the priesthood was destroyed. (Heb 7:25)
- With Jesus’ death, the temple was destroyed, for Jesus offered himself, his own blood, once for all to make an eternal redemption (Heb 9:12). All the animal sacrifices of the temple are destroyed.
- With Jesus’ death, the temple was destroyed, for Jesus made himself the mercy seat of the temple (Rom 3:25), and made his own blood the blood of the covenant (Mk 14:24), the glory of God (the shekinah glory of the temple) came down and rested on him and raised him from the dead (Rom 6:4). The temple is no longer the place where you go to see the glory of God. Jesus is place. Destroyed and in three days raised up--Jesus is where you go to see the glory of God.
When Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up," he was about to take the place of the temple--by dying for sin once for all, and by rising from the dead to reign as the everlasting priest and Lord of glory. When I die the temple system dies. And when I rise, I am the temple. I am the sacrifice for sins. I am the priest and go between with God. I am the presence and radiance of his glory. The temple is finished.
There is nothing I can do or add to my standing before God. The gospel shatters the myth of self improvement, that by sacrifice or effort I may change my standing before God. The way the myth sounds today is found in the sentiments such as,
“Maybe I can’t fully obey the law, but God must at least be pleased by my effort.”
“God will look past my mistakes and see that I’m sincere, my heart is good.”
“I’m a lot closer to God today than I was five years ago.”
This myth affects Christians whenever they picture the Christian life as a growth that is moving by bits and pieces ever upward toward God. If you look at your life and see sin decreasing and holiness increasing – you’ve bought into a myth that has you at the center of the universe. You’ve become the measuring stick of what pleases God.
Whatever the thinking may be, the gospel forces us to recognize the painful truth – you are a lot worse off than you can ever imagine. You are incapable of change. But then along comes the good news of the gospel – God’s grace is so much greater than you can ever imagine.
Stephen faced his accusers, who were angered by the gospel, for their myths of self confidence and self improvement came crashing down. A Copernican revolution had taken place. They were no longer the center of the universe, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, had claimed that role.
What did they see in Stephen? His face was like an angel.
The life transforming power of the gospel to stand firm but stand lovingly toward those with whom we disagree rendered him capable of speaking the truth. This angelic visage is not that of a child well behaved with a pleasing smile and innocent eyes. Rather the angelic face is one that has seen
God’s majesty and knows that to stand in God’s presence demands a holiness beyond our ability.
Like Moses who had seen God on Sinai, who properly understood that only God could meet God’s own just demands – Moses’ face had shown with God’s glory.
Have you experienced the Copernican revolution of the gospel? Has your universe been turned on its head that not you, but the Son, the Son of God is the center of the universe?
