Preparing To Die Well

Acts 6:8-15

If you have a choice of two books to read, one titled, How to Live and the other How to Die, which would you pick up?

When I googled “how to live” and “how to die” there were more than five times as many entries for how to live than for how to die. Why focus on something so negative? Be positive! Look on the bright side! Sure, one day we will die, but why dwell on it?

We tell jokes to relieve the tension we feel about things like death that make us uncomfortable. So Woody Allen said, “I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Jack Handey, an American humorist wrote: “When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.”

We live in a culture that avoids the reality of death and because of this, not many people know how to die well.

During the French Revolution when prisoners approached the guillotine, they were expected to take a calm, stoic and brave approach to their own deaths. Most prisoners did this, but Madame Du Barry, for example, died screaming for help.

I have seen people approach death with anger and bitterness because of the perceived injustice of it all. I have seen people approach death with great fear because they did not know what would happen next. And I have seen people approach death with peace because they were ready to die and were confident of where they were going.

Pope John Paul II clearly wanted to teach the world about how to die and the world was impressed with how well he died. Billy Graham, at the end of his life, has talked about modeling for others how to die well.

As we are moving forward in Acts, we come this morning to the account of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Of all the ways to die, stoning is not one of the more pleasant, but despite this, Stephen died well.

Luke wrote that Stephen was a man full of God’s grace and power and when I read this account, I am impressed with the character of Stephen as he entered his trial and I am impressed with how well he died. And I wonder how I would die.

Did something miraculously happen to Stephen at the last minute that allowed him to die so well? Yes in part, but Stephen also came to this trial in his life prepared to die. It takes time to develop character and faith so that one can die well.

What difference does it make if we look this morning at how Stephen died? Would this be a lesson we file away in our memory to be pulled out in the unlikely event that we are put on trial and sentenced to death? I doubt that many of us will die as martyrs. So why look at the death of Stephen?

Here is my contention, up front in the sermon: I think it makes a huge difference if we are prepared to die well. Those who are prepared to die well are those who are able to live life well. To the extent that you are not ready to die, you are not able to fully live. So even if we never face execution because of our faith, we will benefit in knowing how we can better be prepared to die. Prepare yourself to die and you will live a more powerful and more fulfilling Christian life.

We will take a look next Sunday at Stephen’s speech and death. This morning we will focus on the events leading up to his trial.

In Luke’s recounting of the history of the early church, it is clear that with this story of Stephen, we move from the Hebraic Jews to the Grecian Jews.

For those of you who were not here last week, the Hebraic Jews were the initial followers of Jesus. Most of them came from Galilee. Their mother language was Aramaic, the mother language of Jesus.

The Grecian Jews were Greek-speaking Jews who had immigrated from Palestine to one of the other nations of the ancient world. These Jews came back to Jerusalem for the annual festivals and some decided to stay for one reason or another. They did not speak Aramaic and read the Scriptures from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

In Acts 1 the disciples asked Jesus, now that he had risen from the dead, if he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. And Jesus replied:
It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

In the early chapters of Acts in fulfillment of these words of Jesus, Peter led the disciples in being witnesses in Jerusalem and the church experienced miracles and wonders and rapid growth.

Now, in chapter 6, Luke moves us forward in the expansion of the church and it is Stephen and Phillip who further fulfill the words of Jesus and lead the church to be witnesses in Judea and Samaria.

The church was born among the Hebraic Jews. The second stage in its growth came through the Grecian Jews. In Acts 9 Saul of Tarsus, a Grecian Jew, is converted and the church moves into its third stage, the movement of the church into the world of the Gentiles, non-Jews.

But in this second stage of the growth of the church, the story concerns the actions of Grecian Jews. Stephen was one of the Grecian Jews. Those who opposed him were Grecian Jews. Saul of Tarsus who stood as a witness at his execution was a Grecian Jew.

In Acts 8 when the church is scattered, the apostles remain in Jerusalem. It is the Grecian Jews who lead this movement out of Jerusalem and into Judea and Samaria.

Who was Stephen? The Bible does not say when he became a follower of Jesus. It might have been at Pentecost or some time after that, but when the Grecian Jews were asked to pick from among them seven men to lead their part of the church, Stephen was one who was picked.

This tells me that Stephen was an intelligent, talented leader. He understood the teaching of the apostles and was able to clearly articulate this himself. Stephen’s intelligence and leadership did not appear all of a sudden when he became a follower of Jesus so it is logical to infer that he had also been a leader in the synagogue before he became a follower of Jesus.

We don’t know what synagogue he went to, but as a Greek-speaking Jew, it is likely that he attended one of the Greek-speaking synagogues, perhaps one of the synagogues of the Freedmen that opposed his preaching about Jesus.

So think of this situation from the perspective of the leaders of the synagogues. Stephen had been a leader among them, had spoken in the synagogue when they met for their services. He had been looked to as one of the bright young men who would lead the synagogue in the future. And now he, along with others, had left the synagogue and joined those who claimed that Jesus was the Messiah.

Those who left the synagogues were not a small number. The number of men in the followers of Jesus was more than five thousand by this time. It would make sense that hundreds among them had come out of these synagogues.

So you have a man who had been well respected when he was in the synagogue, teaching and preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. This was not the apostles teaching in Aramaic and then having what they said translated into Greek so the Grecian Jews could understand. This was a Grecian Jew teaching and preaching in Greek to the Greek-speaking Jews that made up their synagogues. Hundreds had already left putting strains on the finances of the synagogues. Stephen’s preaching and the wonders and miraculous signs that accompanied his preaching were pulling more people out of the synagogues.

From the perspective of the leaders of the synagogues, they were facing a crisis and had to do something to deal with it.

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.  9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen,  10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

When the leaders of these synagogues met to discuss what they could do to stop the drain of people and money from their synagogues, they decided to pick a few skilled debaters to argue with Stephen. If they could show, in front of all those who listened to Stephen, that he was wrong, they might even be able to win back some of those who had left.

They assembled an all-star team from their synagogues. It is possible that Saul of Tarsus was part of the synagogue made up of Jews from Cilicia since that is the region he was from. As we know from later in Acts, Saul, or Paul as he came to be known, was an extremely intelligent and skilled debater. Was he one of those who argued with Stephen?

I would imagine these men met to plan what they would say and how they would refute what Stephen was saying. I would imagine that when they were preparing, they came up with what they thought were some real zingers that would leave Stephen speechless. They thought they had an advantage because they knew what Stephen was teaching and could lead him into a trap.

But when they got out into the temple area where Stephen was preaching and teaching, they were defeated by his wisdom and by the Holy Spirit who was helping Stephen with his speaking. All of their brilliant logic, clever questions and creative traps came to nothing. They set out to discredit Stephen in the face of the crowd who came to hear him and instead they were the ones who were discredited.

This happened just as Jesus had taught.
Luke 12
When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say,  12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.

The men sent out from the synagogue went back, perhaps embarrassed by their failure to defeat Stephen and perhaps angry.

Stephen was fighting against the world and the devil, and the world and the devil do what they always do when they are not able to win.
Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”
12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.  13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.  14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

When they lost the battle of theology, they moved to slander and then to violence.

Money was probably paid to get these witnesses to lie and when they lied, they broke the ninth of the ten commandments,
You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

This was a serious offense for which the penalty was death. This was the same thing Jezebel, the evil wife of Ahab, did when Ahab lusted for the vineyard of Naboth. She paid to have two witnesses bring false testimony against Naboth and he was killed. Jews viewed the actions of Ahab and Jezebel as among the worst in Israel’s history and yet these Jews followed their example.

One of the lessons from this passage is that when opposition rises up against you, do not be surprised that it is not fair. Justice is not the issue when opposition to the gospel arises and the tactics used will not be fair. We may be angry at the injustice of the opposition and anger is the godly response to injustice, but we should not be surprised.

We, like Stephen, are to preach the gospel of Christ and when opposition arises, it does not matter if the tactics used against us are fair or not, we are not to resort to the slander of our opponents, we are to continue to preach the gospel and leave those who slander us in the hands of Jesus who will administer final and perfect justice.

The men sent from the synagogues were not able to defeat the wisdom of Stephen and the Holy Spirit who was inspiring him so they resorted to slander and had him arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin.

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

This must have been a very frustrating period in the life of the Sanhedrin. First Jesus was brought before them and they arranged for him to be crucified. Then they arrested Peter and John when they healed the man born lame and reprimanded them. Then they arrested all twelve of the apostles but they were miraculously released from prison and when they came to be questioned, they were not at all intimated or repentant.

Now they bring Stephen and again, he is also not intimated. He is not nervous. He is not anxious. He is perfectly at peace and has the face of an angel.

I imagine this was not the norm. I imagine that most people who were brought before the Sanhedrin were nervous and anxious and fearful. I imagine that even the educated who were brought before the Sanhedrin could find their knees knocking and their voice less than steady. Perhaps there were a lot of people who suddenly found themselves stammering when they appeared.

But not these followers of Jesus.

We will get into Stephen’s speech next week. For this week, I want to focus on what allowed Stephen to be on trial with false accusations made against him and to be so at peace his face was like that of an angel.

Also next week, we will look at the influence of Stephen on Saul/Paul. For this morning, it is interesting to note a way in which observers saw a similarity.

A second century document titled, Acts of Paul, described Paul as
full of grace, for at times he looked like a man and at times he had the face of an angel.

Two angelic faces: Stephen and Paul. This was not the description of Paul at the beginning of his life as a Christian, but a description of Paul in his later years after he had been beaten and flogged and stoned and left for dead.

When Paul was in prison in Rome, at the end of his life, he wrote to the church in Philippi about his view of life and death.
Philippians 1
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!  23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;  24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Given a choice, Paul would gladly choose to be with Christ.  I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; Yet he was aware of his need to serve Christ by working for his church and so he remained for that purpose.

This helps me see how Stephen was prepared for his death. Paul and Stephen lived in balance between their earthly existence and responsibilities and their longing to be in heaven with Jesus.

It is all about balance.

There is an image that has rested with me for a few months now.

In my image, we all stand in a boat on a lake. When we become Christians, we take one foot and place it in a second boat and there we are, trying to keep our balance on the lake with a foot in each boat.

I have tried to do this and fallen into the lake as a consequence. Standing in two boats is very difficult to do and I think this is apt because becoming a Christians complicates life and to live a full Christian life, we need to keep our balance in both boats. We cannot put all our weight in either boat. We have to keep a balance.

To live a full Christian life, you need to keep your weight balanced between the two boats. A Christian who puts all his weight in the heaven boat is to be, as someone once remarked, so heavenly minded that he is no earthly good. There are some in the history of the church who have retreated from the world to focus on meditation of Christ. I am not going to say they were wrong to do so and we benefit from their writings. But this is not what most of us are called to do. We are meant to live in this world without being pulled into the traps of this world.

We live in a sensual world and God created us as sensual beings so we could enjoy the good things he created for us. To put all our weight in the heaven boat is to be ungrateful and unappreciative of all the good things God has put into our world to enjoy.

We are meant to enjoy the sensuality of this world without longing for it, without desiring it.

To put all our weight in the earth boat is to live for what this world offers and to abandon Christ.

Balance is required for Christians and when we live in balance, we are able to live in this world as God intended, enjoying and being grateful for this life, and finding fulfillment in working with Christ for the salvation of those who live next to us.

In what way is your life out of balance?

If you do not enjoy the sensuality of this world, you need to learn how to enjoy what God has given you and be thankful. There is nothing unspiritual about a good meal, having a fun night with some friends, enjoying the delights of marital love or watching a beautiful sunset. You don’t have to pray to make something a spiritual activity. If you are not taking time to enjoy the beautiful things God has given to us, you need to make this a focus of your Christian life.

Some of us struggle with enjoying the delights of this world. Most of us struggle to keep our proper weight in our heavenly boat.

It is God’s plan for us that we fully enjoy the sensuality of this world without desiring the things of this world. Our desires and longings need to be for heavenly realities.

When you read Paul’s words to the Philippians, For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain, can you say those words for yourself?

If I were to tell you that we could vote this morning in church and it would be up to us to decide if Jesus would come back right now or this afternoon or five years or ten years of fifty years from now, how would you vote?

Would you vote not yet because you want to first get married? Not yet because you first want to have children? Not yet because you first want to see how your grandchildren turn out? Not yet because you want to first take a vacation to Greece for which you have already bought the tickets?

In other words, is there anything that makes you hesitate about leaving this world. Is your desire for something this world can offer you stronger than your desire to be with Jesus? If so, then you need to wean yourself from desiring the things of this world that will never satisfy your deepest longings. Even good things like family cannot satisfy our heavenly needs.

Nothing in this world can ever compare to what we will enjoy in heaven. If you do not believe this, really believe this, deep down believe this, then you have something to work on in your Christian life.

Is it perhaps that you are afraid of death? Does the unknown frighten you?

Listen to the teaching of Jesus.
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.  5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.  6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.  7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

It is very human to have fears and to be fearful of death, but this is part of our spiritual path, to grow in confidence that the promises of God to us are real. God promises in Scripture to be with us through whatever we face in this life and to take us to be with him when we die our physical death. This has to be reality for us. If it is not, then you have work to do in your Christian life.

Stephen argued with the men who came from the synagogues. He did so with power and with grace. Wisdom flowed from him as he relied on the Holy Spirit to lead him. When he came before the Sanhedrin and heard the false accusations against him, he stood with his feet firmly balanced between earth and heaven.

It is with this balance that Stephen spoke with confidence and power to the Sanhedrin and when his speech was interrupted with calls for his death, he walked in peace to where he was to be stoned, and as the stones began to fall, he shifted his weight to the heaven boat and lifted off into eternal life.

He looked to the heavens and received from God a view into heaven and after praying a blessing on those who were stoning him, he pushed off, abandoning his earthly boat.

When the time comes for us to die, we need to be ready to transfer our weight to the heaven boat, leave the world behind and spring forward into our new, eternal life.

In your devotional times this week, get quiet and then ask, before the Lord, “Am I ready to leave all this behind me and come to be with you?” Pay attention to where your mind goes. Write down the thoughts that come to you. Pray that God will help you release your hold on the things of this world that you desire.

Living a balanced life is not easy. We are always working to maintain balance, to correct our imbalance. But this is our spiritual struggle, to fully enjoy the delights God has created for us on earth but to deeply desire only the things that God holds for us in heaven.

May God give you grace and mercy as you try to find your balance.