One of my favorite hymns we just sang just a
closer walk with me with thee Granted Jesus is
my plea daily daily walking close to the be let
it be their dear Lord. Let it be It's an amazing
lyric in the sense of My plea when do we plea
in life when we plea for something what comes
to mind? When we get to the point where we're
pleading for something, it might be for a newborn
going to sleep. I know a lot of parents, and
if you haven't, you're lying, that they just
are pleading, please just go to sleep. When else
do we plea? What? For forgiveness. That was a
really, really good answer. That, I may have
to, oh man, that's a big one. Others. Desperation.
Others. Peace. Plea for peace. Oh, absolutely.
Man, okay, you guys are in the back. For money.
That took a turn, right? Said from a kid and
immediately looked at his parents. I thought
that was interesting. For money. And then looked
right at mom. Yeah, we could do that. Anywhere
else do we plea? For answers. Absolutely. There's
one I'm looking for. Healing? Sure, getting closer.
Strength? Backing away. A plea bargain in court?
Wow. Really good. Not what I was looking for,
Randy, but that was really good. Others? To God?
You thought that would be the easy answer, right?
Yeah, welcome back from your hunting trip, but
that was wrong. Actually, I'm going to incorporate
it. Unbeknownst to the elk, right? You were shooting
elk? What were you shooting? Fine. Mule deer,
right? In Greek, mule deer means elk. I guarantee
you that if that mule deer knew what was about
to happen, that mule deer would what? Plea for
its life. I know. That just took a really weird
turn. Knowing that we're talking about Stephen's
martyrdom. We also none of us have probably ever
been in that situation where we are pleading
for our life But desperation is really what has
all of that Kind of impacted in it that when
we are granted Jesus is my plea that my plea
in life this side of eternity because we know
we're gonna have a closer walk with the with
Jesus in heaven but think about it if the plea
in my life is that I would just walk closer with
Jesus if that was really the plea in our life
I think our life would look a lot differently
because we all have different pleas you've mentioned
them Right? Things that we think we need more
of or we need to be closer to. Success, money,
fame, all the things, relationships. But if our
plea in life could be a closer walk with thee,
with Jesus, I wonder how our lives would look.
I wonder how it would be to live in those lives.
But before I transition us to the heart of the
sermon, there's a big chunk of Acts we're not
going to read. Mainly because of time, but I
can also kind of summarize It's Stephen's speech
in the beginning of chapter 7 because if you
notice we kind of went from 6 to the middle of
7 without doing the beginning of 7 because the
heart of the sermon is Stephen's death, but we
got to see how we got there So before we pick
up at verse 51 I'm just going to summarize kind
of the first 50 verses of chapter 7 because it's
important to understand what has been happening
in the verses 1 to 50 which leads us up to where
we're going to start in a couple minutes to 51.
Stephen has just given the longest recorded sermon
in the book of Acts and actually the second longest
in the entire scriptures outside of Jesus's sermon
on the mount. It's a sermon that that costs Stephen
everything And we may think that it's you know,
he's gonna get a bad name in the town He's maybe
gonna lose money on something. No, it costs him
his life when Stephen was brought to the council
We talked to that about that last week. They
accused him of speaking against Moses the temple
the and the law and In his response Stephen doesn't
defend himself. He defends the gospel. There's
something we can learn in that too He doesn't
defend himself first, he defends the gospel.
He takes the council on a journey through Israel's
history from Abraham to Solomon showing how God's
presence and purpose were never confined to one
place or to one people. He reminds them that
God called Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia,
that Joseph found favor in Egypt, that Moses
met God not in a temple, but in the wilderness
with a burning bush, and that even David longed
to build a house for God, yet the Most High does
not dwell in houses made by human hands. So in
Stephen's words, his sermon, his speech, if you
will, declares a massive truth and this is where
we see him getting in trouble quote -unquote
God has always been on the move his grace can
never be contained his presence no longer is
bound to the temple because now through Jesus
the true temple has come what a declaration for
us today it doesn't mean much We don't worship
a temple. We don't have to come here. You don't
need me to be the mediator between you and Jesus.
That Jesus makes his grace available to all of
us, right? That relationship with a savior, you
don't need to do it through a church. You don't
need to do it through sacrifices. You don't need
to do it through the priesthood. And this is
what enrages the council. If Stephen is right,
everything changes. The temple, the priesthood,
the sacrifice, the very structure of religious
power. We see that throughout our history, right?
Those that speak out against power usually get
silenced. His sermon ends not with an attack,
but with an invitation to see Jesus as the fulfillment
of all God's promises. What if what if the temple?
Received that what if they said you're right
We got to change all of the ways that we have
perverted this religious system the temple the
sacrifices the money all the things what if Unfortunately
don't get that I would have loved to see that
would be a lot easier sermon to preach But we
don't Rather than repent what do the people do
they resist? the truth that should have set them
free only hardened their hearts and that's where
we step in today we're going to start with verse
51 of chapter 7 at the moment where truth meets
fury where faith meets fire and where Stephen
walking closely with Jesus becomes the first
to follow him all the way to his end so we're
going to jump in into chapter 51 The words we
sang just a closer walk with thee should bring
comfort and commitment To walk closely with Jesus
is to walk the same path He walked a path of
obedience a path of courage a path of love and
sometimes suffering Stevens final moments show
that when we walk closely with Jesus we can even
face death with peace forgiveness and unshakable
hope yet for a lot of us. This is hard to say
because I have to look at myself first. When
life and death is on the line, I wonder how many
of us, myself included, will compromise. I wonder
how many of us will be able to stand courageous
even with that stone being tossed to our head.
So let's jump in. Let's jump into Stephen's prophetic
kind of confrontation, as I'm calling it. We're
going to be in verses 51 to 53 first. So Stephen
is going to preach. Well, it's more of a speech,
because he wasn't a pastor. He wasn't seen as
that. He wasn't seen as one of those that would
preach. But Stephen's speech cuts to the heart.
He says, 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 have now
betrayed and murdered you who received the law
as delivered by angels and did not keep it He's
not mixing his words. He's cutting straight to
the heart you stiff necked people Who does that
sound like? Hmm Israelites and who said it? No,
God said it not someone in the back. God called
the Israelites you stiff -necked people You're
nothing people but through you I will get the
world to know that I am Yahweh through you if
you kind of want to continue it to 2025 November
16th through us We're still stiff -necked. We
still lose our way But he calls them uncircumcised
heart you always resist the Holy Spirit like
the prophets before him Stephen speaks truth
even when it costs him everything even when it
costs him everything he charges the council with
rejecting God's messengers and God's Messiah
and we know all the messengers right all the
prophets we're gonna get into the minor prophets
in the beginning of January are gonna point to
the Messiah to Jesus His words fulfill what Jesus
warned in John 15 if they persecuted me they
will persecute You also they will persecute us
if we're standing for Jesus and Again, what if
they received it? But unfortunately didn't they
raged against it the rage of the crowd comes
in verse 54 Now when they heard these things
they were enraged and they ground their teeth
at him. It's kind of a weird way to say that
they were enraged. I don't know how many people
grind their teeth when they're mad. That's a
lie. I bet I'll have more than you do. But thank
you, Joel, for being honest. I'm sure I do, right?
Cleance draw, right? You grind your teeth when
you get mad. You want to say something, you want
to do something, but you don't. When they heard
these things they were enraged another translation
says they gnashed their teeth at him the gnashing
of teeth right the again I don't fully know what
that means if you got if you go into the Greek
they bear their teeth and when they bear their
teeth It's because they're angry and mad which
makes us sound more like a pack of wolves and
human beings But they gnashed they grind their
teeth. It was it meant they were mad at something
specific Right? The Greek word here, deprario,
means to be sawn through, their hearts were cut.
And usually in life when you're cut to the heart,
you get remorseful, you get respondent, you maybe
go to repentance, but they respond with fury.
Because we have to remember, the same gospel
that melts some hearts also hardens others. But
then he gives the vision. I love this in verse
55, this vision from heaven, this heavenly vision
he gives in verse 55, but he full of the Holy
Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of
God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God
and he said behold I see the heavens open and
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of
God. So this goes all this harkens back to the
book of Daniel when he sees a vision like a son
of man this goes to Luke chapter 3 and 4 when
when Jesus Talks in first person that he is the
son of man. He is the son of God Normally scripture
speaks of Jesus sitting at the right hand. We
see this also in Hebrews 3 1 3 but here he stands
As if to welcome his faithful witness home. I
think about this when my loved ones have gone
to glory, what that would be like. A lot of this
comes, and I've said this before when we lost
my sister in 2019, right? That what it looked
like for her to get up there, right? I don't
think Jesus is just sitting. I think he's there
to walk with her and hug her and hold her. We
see Jesus standing. This is the climax of Stephen's
closer walk. We're being brought into court side
seats. Even as the world rejected him, heaven
is about to receive him. The Belgian Confession,
Article 37, affirms that Christ will come bodily
and visibly to judge the living and the dead
before the believer. That sight is not fear,
it's joy. Stephen sees us not as his judge, but
as his Savior. This is an intimate moment and
we're being brought into it. And then the judgment
comes, the earthly judgment comes. The stoning,
and again we know this, stoning was even you
being thrown to rocks, or rocks being thrown
at you, but it doesn't really matter. The stoning
comes in verse 57 and 58. But they cried out
with a loud voice and stopped their ears and
rushed together at him then they cast him out
of the city and stoned him and The witness laid
down their guardments at the feet of the young
man named Saul the mob Dragged Stephen outside
the city echoing how Jesus was crucified outside
the camp Saul later Paul okay that was too easy
for lunch Saul later Paul appears for the first
time watching and approving Showing how God can
later redeem even those complicit in evil another
rhyme for another time But here we see we see
the murder we see the death it's tragic isn't
it that they had an opportunity to receive but
instead they reject they reject so strongly that
they're like you know what the world would be
better without whatever this guy is selling whatever
this guy is believing the world would be better
with him not in it I'm here whether I'm your
pastor or you're seeing me for the first time
if you are sitting here or watching online I
want you to know one truth that I have about
you even some of you I don't know the world is
better with you in it But the world is so in
this is so raging against the gospel that changes
everything They'd much rather see him dead Now
I kind of fell into my flesh a little bit That
that maybe if I'm Stephen and I see those rocks
coming It might be the last second chance to
maybe do something in my flesh Right maybe to
say something or to give some kind of gesture
or something Right in my flesh because I know
the end is coming but for the believer That's
not how it's supposed to go and I have to fight
against that and so do you daily? The prayer
a prayer comes There's a part of me that thinks
I would curse those that are about to do this,
but that's not our job. Our job is to forgive,
even in the midst of the rocks coming to our
heads, the prayer of forgiveness in verse 60.
And falling to his knees, he cried out with a
loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against
him. I'm sure 80 % of us, for a stat I just made
up, When we see those words Lord do not hold
this sin against them go to where think of what?
Jesus on the cross where he says what father
for they know not Father forgive us for we know
they know not we know not what we do sometimes
in life We know that Jesus is Lord. We believe
it. We walked in it. We've maybe even made profession
of faith before We have maybe been an elder or
a deacon committee member Sunday school teacher
rocked a baby in nursery We know who Jesus is
we live for Jesus yet still sometimes we go to
curse than we do to forgive Saw or sorry Stephen
is taking this all the way to the end just like
Jesus did Stephen is not Jesus But Jesus is in
Stephen as all this is happening Lord, do not
hold this sin against him. This is the power
of walking closely with Jesus, friends. Even
when it's uncomfortable, even when it's hard
to forgive the unforgivable because you've been
forgiven beyond measure. How many of you have
been forgiven in your life? Every hand better
go up. Chandler, you're dozing off, it's alright.
You all have been forgiven if you've never been
forgiven if you're living a perfect life. I love
you. You're dismissed You don't have to be here
what we all have in common here at Munster Church
Whether you're a member a guest a visitor online
is you are a sinner in need of a Savior One that
is going to walk with you in life. Even if that
means someone else takes your life That is the
power of walking closely with Jesus to forgive
the unforgivable because we've been forgiven
beyond measure. So not only do we see a prayer
of forgiveness, even in the midst of his death,
we see a peace, a peace of surrender, peace of
surrender. And when he had said this, he fell
asleep. There's a paradox here. You know what's
about to happen? you know why it's happening,
that in the next couple moments, it's gonna hurt.
How many of you have ever gotten a rock thrown
at you? Anyone with, yeah, absolutely, that way
more I'm sure have. This was not just, this wasn't
just you and your buddies at a park tossing rocks
at each other. The intent, I don't know why that
was funny, but the intent of this wasn't to hurt
you. This intent wasn't to just paralyze you.
The intent here was to keep throwing until you
are dead. Yet he falls asleep. Luke's phrase,
Luke's writer's phrase, isn't accidental. For
believers, death is not the defeat, but rest
is. When we lay a loved one to rest means something.
His walk with Jesus ends with the same fate as
it began. Trusting the one who conquered death
itself. It's a weird account to read. If it makes
you uncomfortable, I get it. It makes me uncomfortable.
But what can we learn from this? Well, walking
close means something. Walking closely with Jesus
means standing firmly for truth. It means not
wavering. Now, it doesn't mean that you bash
that truth over the head to others, but you live
it out. Right? Through your words. You live it
out through your actions. You live it out through
your thoughts. That walking closely with Jesus
means standing firmly for truth. Stephen's faith
didn't waver when the costs rose, when the pressure
was put on, when things got uncomfortable. The
closer you walk with Christ, the steadier your
steps in crisis. Second, the Spirit gives courage
to speak, not just comfort to feel. Stephen's
words weren't reckless. They were Spirit -led.
The Spirit empowers truth not to be timid. To
stand for truth. Right? Now, that doesn't always
mean you debate. Sometimes you might. But you
stand. And he gives you the words. The third
one I want us to kind of hear today, that heaven's
applause matters more than earth's approval.
Sit in that for a second with me. Well done,
good and faithful servant. That should be the
goal for all of us. But I know for my life that
isn't always that. Success, finances, popularity.
not being boring on stage, all of those sometimes
get put ahead of that thought. Well done, good
and faithful servant. What does that mean when
you get up there? That means you stood for something.
It wasn't the numbers in a bank account. It wasn't
your notch on the corporate ladder. It wasn't
that you raised an honor student. It was that
you stood on truth. You walked with people as
Jesus did. When the crowd condemned him, Christ
stood to commend him. The opinions of people
will always fade away. The presence of Jesus
endures. 20 years doing this. Almost 100 funerals.
When I'm in the funeral home. Right? When I'm
seeing the line going through at Smiths or Schroederlauer
or wherever. Rarely do I see if ever someone
come up to the loved one and go, you know what,
he still hold me 50 bucks. I've never heard it.
I don't think I will. Because at the end, the
funeral isn't for the deceased. The funeral is
for closure for us, for remembering our life
with that individual, the things we wish we could
have said, the things we wish we could have done.
But now we pay our respects as we lay them to
rest. I love that there's a sacred moment in
that but it doesn't matter Heaven's applause
the well -done's the good and faithful servants
will always mean more It will always be more
when we witness and that's the fourth one friends
and this one's hard You come and ask me. How
can I give ultimate witness to Christ? Forgive.
Be someone who's known for forgiveness, not manipulation,
not deceit, not drama, not twisting words, not
holding grudges, not wanting the pound of flesh,
but forgiveness is the ultimate witness. When
Stephen prays for his killers, the gospel shines
brightest. Walking closely with Jesus means reflecting
his mercy even towards his enemies. And that
is hard to do. Because we want to live by Hammurabi's
code, don't we? Eye for an eye. You did this,
I want to do that. You hurt me, I hurt you. And
that could just be in marriage. That could just
be your relationship with your kids. We even
let that junk damage those relationships, let
alone... the co -worker that got the raise and
you didn't, right? The neighbor who still hasn't
done anything with his leaves. Forgiveness is
the ultimate witness. You get so upset about
their leaves, ask them if you could go do it.
I'd say just go and do it but they may hit you
with trespassing and then you end up in jail.
But probably not for doing leaves, I get it.
But understand we speak into forgiveness all
the time Yet we struggle with it too and fifth
as I land the plane Death is not the end for
those who belong to Christ this I want to spend
a minute on Don't get me wrong the plane still
descending right the wheels are still coming
out Do you believe this This is a hard one Death
is not the end for those who belong to Christ
some of you might be so uncomfortable right now
because the thought of death scares you But let
me permit you one conversation I got to have
that I'm gonna try not to cry when I say this
and I can't look over to Where is where are they
to Joel and Jess? But I remember I was asked
to come to Nuria White's room two and a half
years ago Because at 90 just she was about 96
at that but at that point she was 96 I think
that comes before 97, right? Okay All of her
friends were dying because at 97 96 years old
that's what happens Exactly. They all start to
wail and cry and die She had no peace The things
she thought she knew, the things the way she
thought she lived or believed in life weren't
finding her comfort at all. And I remember starting
the conversation reading Lord's Day 1 of the
Heideberg Catechism. Nuria, what is your only
comfort in life and in death? She had no answer.
She didn't know how to respond. She talked about
family. She talked about history. She talked
about all those things, but nothing was giving
her peace. Friends, when you make it that long
in life, You know that death is looming, right?
If you're here today, 40, 45 years old, you're
not thinking that way. And if you are, let's
talk about that, right? Because that's not something
we should be constantly thinking is looming,
though today could be the last day. We don't
know. But those in faith, right? Those that have
Jesus, that are trying their best to closer walk
with thee, that, can you go back to that last
point? This point should be where we find comfort.
Death isn't the end. Well, Pastor, what happens
to you when you die? I lovingly try to give answers,
but I start by saying, I don't know. I've never
died. What is it like when you get up to heaven?
I appreciate you think I know that. I don't.
I've never been there. I read in scriptures,
and I really like the Ray Bolz song. But that's
all I got. If you don't know, thank you by Ray
Bolz. Thank you later. Death is not the end for
those who belong to Christ. I can't fathom not
being in this world We just welcomed our first
kid. We just had our fifth kid or for the Schleichers
We just had our whatever number kid that they're
gonna have I Just got a new job. I just found
the career. I wanted I just met the girl I'm
going to marry whatever it is. We love to put
those things on there I can't go until these
things happen. That's for someone who thinks
death is the end. Friends, that's why this is
so hard. Death is not the end for those in Christ.
I love what Luke's writer says, he fell asleep.
Those words remind us the grave isn't final,
friends. Resurrection hope should be our firm
foundation. Just a closer walk with thee Granted
Jesus is my plea Stephen didn't just live for
Jesus He died walking closely with him his final
words were not anger, but love His final sight
was not of pain, but it was glory That's the
power of a closer walk with Christ The world
can't take your comfort though. It will try It
can't take your reputation, though it can, even
your life. But the world can never take your
Savior. Munster Church, the closer we walk with
Jesus, the more we'll look like Him. Courageous
in truth, gentle in love, steadfast in hope.
So may this hymn become our prayer, our purpose,
and our peace. Just a closer walk with thee granted
Jesus is my plea Please stand if you are able
and we will close together with our prayer of
unison our prayer in unison People of God, let's
pray together Lord Jesus Christ our Savior and
friend Grant us a closer walk with you when trials
rise and the world resists your truth Fill us
with courage to stand for grace to forgive help
us see beyond this world to your glory and live
each day with eternity in view strengthen us
to walk faithfully until we see you face to face
amen and until that time may the Lord bless you
and keep you make his face shine on you be gracious
on you lift up his countenance upon you give
you his peace which always passes our understanding
in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit
we all agree and said amen