Word of Salvation – May 2026

A Sermon To Die For

A sermon on Acts 7 – by Rev. John Westendorp

Read: Acts 7:1-8 & 44-60

Singing:           BoW.497         Christ is the world’s true light
.                           BoW.191         Not what my hands have done
.                           BoW.402         We have heard the joyful sound
.                           BoW.117a       From all who live beneath the skies

 

Theme: Stephen’s defence is an exposition of true religion that has always been resisted but that finally saves.

Introd:  Sermons can kill congregations… they can also kill preachers.

When I was a lad our family attended a Presbyterian Church in the small country town of Bonnie Doon.
Our minister was a lively Welsh preacher who faithfully preached the Bible.
That church was well attended and on special occasions was even crowded.

But our minister left and another preacher came.
I have vague memories of my father always arguing with that preacher after church.
Later I learnt that this man didn’t believe in miracles, the virgin birth or the resurrection.

But what made a huge impression on me was that overnight that little country church emptied.
The day came when our family were the only ones there apart from the minister and organist.
The sermons of that man killed that congregation.

 

But there have also been sermons that killed the preacher.
That has happened often throughout history as men were martyred for preaching Christ.
The list is long.  People like Polycarp and John Huss died for their preaching.
That still happens in countries where Christians are persecuted – like in North Korea.

But even in the US there have been several church shootings.
The Rev. Fred Winters was preaching in his Baptist Church in Illinois.
A man walked up to the pulpit and fired three shots into him at close range.
Later in Florida a street preacher was shot by a youth to whom he was preaching the gospel.

 

Some sermons have been the death of a congregation.  Other have been the death of the preacher.

A casual reading of Stephen’s sermon might tempt you to say that this sermon could kill a congregation.
At first glance it’s just a plain retelling of some O.T. history.
And it doesn’t really seem to come across as a powerful and effective sermon.
But it is… and in the end we see that it was a sermon that cost Stephen his life.

 

A]       TRUE RELIGION IS A RELIGION OF REVELATION.

 

1. Stephen begins his sermon by talking about Abraham: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.

Why does Stephen start his sermon with Abraham?
Some have suggested that it’s because Judaism began with Abraham.
Others have suggested that it’s because Abraham was a man of great faith.
Both those things are true but I don’t believe they are the reason why Stephen began there.

 

In fact, those opening words of his sermon are not about Abraham.
They are about God.  That is where Stephen puts the emphasis.
God revealed Himself as the God of glory… to Abraham.

 

So right at the outset Stephen is saying: “The faith I hold to is a faith based on God’s self revelation.”
Our religion is not something that Jesus and His followers made up.
Ours is a revealed religion… based on God making Himself known… already to Abraham.

 

That’s an important starting point for Stephen and an important starting point for us.
A friend was once debating religion with an unbeliever.
The unbeliever said: So what’s the difference?  You made up your religion and I made up mine.
That’s nonsense.  We Christians didn’t make up anything.
Our faith is based on what God has done in history – on the fact that God has revealed Himself.
And He has revealed Himself as the God of glory.

 

2. At this point we need to keep in mind what is going on here.

Stephen is standing before the Sanhedrin to answer serious charges.
He has been accused of blaspheming God and Moses.
He is charged with treating the temple with contempt and overthrowing the customs of Moses.

 

The chapter begins with the High Priest asking Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
And this sermon is Stephen’s answer to that question.
And what a telling answer.
Doesn’t this make it absurd to charge Stephen with blaspheming God?
For Stephen God made Himself known to Abraham as a God of glory.
What could possibly be blasphemous about that?  That’s wonderful.

 

There is actually a good balance presented here by Stephen.
This God is the God of glory… but glory is what makes God totally unapproachable.
In the Bible the glory of God is what repeatedly overwhelms people.
It’s the quality of God that makes Him transcendent; far above us and beyond us. Unreachable.

 

And yet at the same time this glorious God comes to Abram and makes His will known to Abram.
Go and leave your country and your people… and go to the land I will show you.
IOW: this God of glory is also intimately involved with people.  He’s not a distant God.
In fact: this God of glory actually enters into a partnership with Abraham.
God made a covenant with Him.  He wants Abraham to go through life in partnership with Him.

 

That idea of God being a God of glory also helps put something else into perspective.
Stephen is charged with teaching that Jesus had said that He would destroy the temple.
Well if God is such a glorious God… how can He ever be contained within a temple.
You cannot limit this God of glory to some earthly sanctuary.

 

These are truths that ought to encourage us today.
Our faith is not something we have made up… this is revealed religion.
And at the heart of it is this glorious God who wants to enter into partnership with His people.

 

3. You may wonder whether I’m just reading all this into Stephen’s sermon.

No!  Because Stephen later comes at this from yet other angles.
He goes on to talk about Joseph and the way God dealt with that young man.
We see something of God’s glory in the amazing way He guides Joseph’s life.
It’s awesome to see how God overrules so that Joseph ends up exactly where God wants him.

 

We see that even more clearly as Stephen goes on to talk about Moses.
Again we have, in the case of Moses, a God who reveals Himself.
Moses doesn’t sort of work things out for Himself.
No!  God dramatically reveals Himself to Moses at the burning bush… and on Mt Sinai.

Okay… the phrase ‘God of glory’ is not mentioned in connection with Moses.
But in vs.50 there is mention of that burning bush.  It’s on fire… and yet never burns up.
Again, it’s a picture of God revealing Himself in glory to this man who was to be leader.
And if Stephen honour Moses in this way, how can he be guilty of blaspheming Moses?

 

All this revelation of God’s glory climaxes in the coming of Jesus.
He’s the one who was predicted to be a prophet like Moses (vs.37).
And while Stephen doesn’t spell it out we know that Jesus reflects the Father’s glory.

 

So we have this very encouraging picture to help us in our Christian life today.
We don’t have to get all defensive about being Christians.  It is not a human invention.
The faith we have is faith in a glorious God who revealed Himself in history; especially in Jesus.

 

B]       TRUE RELIGION IS RELIGION THAT IS RESISTED.

 

1. But there is a second major theme running through this sermon of Stephen.

And that is that this revealed religion has always been resisted.
That’s helpful to remember when you sense resistance to your faith at work or with neighbours.
Your boss does not appreciate that you are a Christian and that you go to church.
You have a neighbour who often gives you a hard time about your faith.

Well, Stephen’s sermon reminds us that resistance to revealed religion didn’t begin yesterday.
When you are opposed for your faith you are actually in very good company.

 

Let me show you some ways in which Stephen portrays this resistance.
The first one is not all that clear – you need to read between the lines.
Abraham was resisted… he never did make it to the promised land until his father had died.
It seems that there was some resistance within Abraham’s own family.
And Abraham found it tough dealing with that until after the death of his Dad.

 

So the resistance begins already with the patriarchs.
And by the time we get to Joseph that resistance is very pronounced.
Keep in mind that Joseph is a kind of Christ figure.
But in vs.9 Stephen tells us that the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph.
So Joseph… this Christ-figure… was resisted by his own 11 brothers.

 

And that foreshadows for us the rejection Jesus Himself suffered.
Do you see why I said that if your faith is resisted you are in good company?
The Psalms speak of Jesus as the cornerstone that the builders rejected.
The Messiah of our faith is a resisted and rejected Messiah.
So we should never be surprised if our faith is resisted and rejected as well.

 

2. This theme of resistance is also seen clearly in the life of Moses.

And please remember that Moses too is a kind of Christ-figure.

 

That resistance was seen already early in Moses’ life.
In vss.23-29 Stephen relates the story of Moses visiting his people for the first time.
And when an Egyptian is seen beating up a Hebrew Moses kills the Egyptian.
When he then tries to act as a self-appointed Saviour he is resisted.
As he tries to separate two fighting Hebrews the response is:
“Do you want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday.”

 

Resistance to the revealed religion of the God of glory becomes even clearer in the wilderness.
In vs.41 Stephen tells how Israel make themselves a golden calf.
Because the true faith in which God reveals Himself will always be resisted.
In fact it is our natural sinful instinct to reject the God of glory.

 

That is confirmed in a scathing way by a quote from the prophet Amos in vss,42-43.
Amos spoke about Israel’s history as a history of stubborn resistance to the Lord.
They constantly fell back into idolatry.  They even worshipped the god Moloch.
And for that stubborn resistance to the God of glory the Lord threatens them with exile.

 

Do you see how Stephen cleverly lays these two themes side by side.
OTOH God constantly reveals Himself in the Bible as the God of glory.
OTOH man constantly resists embracing this revealed religion of a glorious God.

Don’t ever be surprised by resistance to the gospel… that your faith is opposed in the office.
It lies within the very nature of our faith for it to meet that kind of resistance.

 

3. Stephen even draws the line from the OT into the NT.

He shows the continuity of that resistance even in his present hearers: the Sanhedrin.
And that’s where Stephen becomes quite passionate,
He says: You have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One.

 

That really brings home to us that the only true Messiah is a rejected Messiah.
That is something that present day Judaism has never understood.
They are still looking for the coming of the Messiah.
But a Messiah who will be a popular leader of the people.  No!  He was despised and rejected.

 

The reality is that we have an Enemy who hates the Messiah Christ.
And he hates with a passion this revealed religion of a God of glory.
And he hates the gospel so much that today he still has his followers oppose us.

 

Sometimes I must confess that I am surprised at the passionate resistance to revealed religion.
Increasingly we have very vocal atheists who tell us that God does not exist.
Why?
I don’t believe in Santa Clause but I won’t start and anti-Santa Clause crusade.
I am not going to waste my time arguing why Santa couldn’t possibly exist.
And I think most people would agree with me.

And yet some time ago Atheists spent thousands on bus advertising to argue against God.
And books like “the God delusion” are being snapped up by the dozen.

 

And now today it’s as if Stephen is saying to us: Don’t let that surprise you!
History shows that revealed religion has always gone hand in hand with strong resistance.

 

C]       TRUE RELIGION IS A RELIGION OF SALVATION.

 

1. I want to highlight one other key theme in Stephen’s message.

In this sermon we see that Stephen has a particular way of reading his Bible.
And that’s another important lesson we need to draw from this chapter.

You can read your Bible in all sorts of ways.
You can read it as a handbook on morality… like our preacher back in Bonnie Doon.
You can read the Bible as a textbook of ancient history.
You can even read the Bible just as literature to inspire us.

 

Stephen reads the Bible as the story of God’s saving activity.
Or to put it another way The Bible is the story of Redemption.
It tells us that this God of glory who has revealed Himself is a God who saves His people.
And that work of salvation especially shows us the glory of our God.

 

I remember as a teenager attending a youth camp where the speaker demonstrated this very clearly.
He had a copy of the Bible and he had punched a hole in the centre of each page.
He then threaded a scarlet string through the holes in each page.

In his talk he then pointed out that salvation ran through the Bible like a scarlet thread.
It didn’t matter which page you looked at you could always see the scarlet thread.
It – as it were – connected all the pages from Genesis to Revelation.

 

This central theme of deliverance or redemption is also central in Stephen’s sermon.
Redemption… or salvation… is the great unifying thread.
And it runs right through our Bible from before Abraham through to Christ and beyond.
And you and I need to have eye for that when we read our Bibles.

 

2. Let me share with you some of the ways this comes out in Stephen’s sermon.

It will again help us to understand why Stephen begins with Abraham.
Through the life of Abraham God was making preparations for our deliverance.
He was getting ready a people from which Messiah would be born.

We see it in that all God’s promises to Abraham were fully realised only in Christ.
Think for example of those words God spoke to Abraham:
Through you all nations will be blessed.
That happened as Abraham’s offspring, Jesus, brought salvation to all nations.

 

We could even illustrate this scarlet line of deliverance in some events in Abraham’s life.
For example, God’s command to Abraham to offer up his only son, Isaac.
That was a picture of the Father God of glory offering up His own son to save us all.

 

We could go on and notice this common theme of salvation in the life of Joseph.
Joseph’s brothers in a fit of jealousy sold Joseph as a slave into Egypt.
And Mrs Potiphar’s futile efforts to seduce the young man landed him in prison.

But in all of that God again had deliverance in mind.
The God of glory overruled so that Joseph was used by God to preserve alive God’s people.
Joseph was the deliverer of his brothers.
And he kept alive the family from which Jesus would one day come.

 

When you and I read our Bible we need to see this same big picture.

The Bible is always the story of God’s saving work.  It’s about God’s work of deliverance.

 

3. Let me mention just briefly two other ways in which this comes out in this chapter.

This idea of the Bible as salvation history can be seen especially in the life of Moses.
And so the Exodus becomes the great foreshadowing of what God will do through Jesus.
God raised up this rejected deliverer to rescue His people out of slavery.
And so much of the imagery of the Exodus is fulfilled by Jesus

 

So the Bible you hold in your hands is a wonderful book.
It tells the story about the origins of your faith – they lie in a God of glory revealing Himself.
It is frightfully realistic about the fact that this true religion of the Bible will always be resisted.
But above all it shows us God’s immense love in His passion to save His people.

 

And the wonderful thing is that this salvation is personalised in Stephen’s own life.
We see that so clearly when all the rage of the Sanhedrin is levelled against Stephen.
They rush out with blocked ears to stone him to death.
But when Stephen dies he dies as someone who knows the salvation of the Lord.

Look at the way in which he is welcomed into heaven by Jesus as he dies a martyr.
Once more there is that great theme of the glory of God.
“Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God.”
“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”

 

You see… in each case the lines continue from Abraham right through to Stephen and us.
The God of glory revealed to Abraham is the God of glory we see in the face of Christ.
The resistance to the true faith that was there all through the OT was there in the Sanhedrin.
But as their rage led to the stoning of Stephen God’s salvation was there too.

Jesus personally welcomed home His faithful servant.
And I believe Jesus will do that for all those who embrace the true faith of our glorious God,
Make sure that this faith is yours so that you too will be welcomed home the way Stephen was.
Amen.