Howdy You know whenever I was younger my my dad
always liked to speak in parables and stories
Half the time they actually made sense. So that
was always nice But he had this one where he
would say that I always needed to make sure that
I was listening to him and he would give this
story where There was a boy that was running
out through a field and all of a sudden his father
yells out stop Don't run And the boy stops and
he's saying, why? Why, dad? He said, just come
back to me slowly. What's going on, dad? I don't
understand. It's OK. Just come to me. Don't worry
about it. Just don't go any farther. Come back
here. And finally the kid, oh, whatever. And
he finally gets back to his dad. He's walking
slowly, oh, just like this, dad. And then finally
he gets to the dad. The dad picks him up and
he shows him that right at his feet where he
was standing, was a snake. And from then on,
I knew that if I did not listen to my dad completely,
I'd be bitten by a snake. So, that's one way
to keep your kids in line, so there you go. But
you know, this idea though, of we don't always
know what's always in front. Being willing to
trust what we've been told by Christ Himself.
That's something that we often times lose sight
of. If you've ever listened to how rescue teams
or emergency crews talk about critical moments,
there's a pattern where you can't always know
the whole plan in advance. You just have to know
that next step. And they stay with the one who
is giving the directions. Because in unstable
situations, disasters, emergencies, moments where
time matters, you can't wait until everything
makes sense before you move. If you wait for
everything to have full clarity, you may never
move at all. So you don't need the whole plan,
you just need to know who it is that you trust
to follow their lead. During the Apollo 13 mission,
when too many issues were arising, astronauts
had to follow the step -by -step instructions
from mission control without fully understanding
what they were working out on the ground. During
Hurricane Katrina rescue operations rescue teams
often had to act with incomplete information
Because waiting for clarity might have cost lives
that hung in the balance each and every minute
and In moments like September 11th when the first
responders were there. They didn't have a full
picture, but they still needed to walk forward
Knowing that they were with someone that they
trusted to lead them In each case, the question
wasn't, do we understand everything? It was,
do we trust enough to take that next step? This
morning, we're looking at what I'd call a tale
of two situations. Yes, that is the pun for today.
You're welcome. Not two different truths, not
two different paths, but two very different responses
to the same question. In one situation, You have
the disciples who were sitting with Jesus Christ
and they're confused. They're unsettled. They're
asking all these questions. But in the other,
you have Stephen who is standing in front of
a crowd that is already turning against him as
a follower of Christ. But Stephen keeps speaking
even when it will eventually cost him his own
life. Because remember, Stephen was the first
martyr of the church. after the resurrection.
One group was asking, do we know the way? But
this other man is already walking it. So here's
what we're going to do today. We're going to
walk through what Jesus is saying in John 14,
piece by piece. And every time we do, we're going
to look at Stephen and ask, what does that actually
look like in real life? Because it's one thing
to nod along in a quiet room when everything
is stable and calm. It's another thing to live
out in the world when the room is not quiet anymore.
John says about Jesus, Jesus is saying, let not
your hearts be troubled. That word troubled,
it means stirred up. It means shaken, like water
in a storm. So let's not pretend that the disciples
are calm and thoughtful here. We read the Gospel
of John and we treat it as this nice, calm book
of all these teachings. This is the night when
Jesus was betrayed. Jesus has been talking about
things not only regarding the one who would betray
him, who could have been anyone, but also as
if he's about to leave them. And so they're anxious.
They know something is wrong. They just don't
know what. And Jesus does something interesting.
He doesn't give them a timeline. He doesn't give
them a strategy. Here are all the things that
you need to do when you're not sure how to move
forward. He gives them Himself. Believe in God,
believe also in Me. The disciples want clarity
about the future. But Jesus gives them certainty
only about Himself. And that's important because
it tells us something about how God works. God
does not always answer your questions about what
is to come, but He always anchors you in who
He already is. But let's look a little bit at
Stephen again. Stephen is described as full of
grace and power. Luke... Writing in the book
of Acts is saying that he is pleris caritas cae
Domineus, full of grace and power. Grace or carus
means God's active favor. His presence is resting
on a person in a way that shows up in real life,
not just head knowledge. And power, the dynamis,
that's where we get words like dynamite. But
in the New Testament, it's not explosions or
destruction or terrible sitcoms catchphrases.
It's spirit -empowered strength that produces
visible action and endurance. So Stephen is not
described as a man who is just good at serving
tables. He's described as someone saturated with
God himself. Stephen wasn't assigned to something
small. Isn't that so easy for us to think of
when it talks about this phrase? Well, you go
take care of serving the tables. Good pat on
the head. Stephen is not just sitting there asking
questions, but rather now the person who was
serving the tables is now facing real and immediate
opposition. I can assure you this is not what
they had in mind when they put him on those tables.
See, Stephen, we know that he is full of grace
and power, but he's not full of answers. He's
not clear on everything that is to come. He's
full of the presence of God. See, the disciples,
they wanted clarity before they could move. But
Stephen? He already has enough clarity in Christ
Jesus to stand. When we heard from John that
Thomas is saying what everyone is thinking, we
don't know where you're going, how can we know
the way? That's not a bad question. We keep spending
week after week getting after Thomas for all
the things that in reality we would have said
ourselves. We don't know where you're going.
How can we know the way? That's very revealing.
Because what Thomas is really saying is, I'm
not sure I can follow unless I understand everything
to expect. And let's just be honest. How often
is that the same in our prayer lives? We're not
always asking for guidance. Sometimes we're asking
for guarantees. God... I see this job in front
of me. I think this would be amazing. So could
you go ahead and give me that job? But only if
it's your will, God. But I'd really like that
job. Or God, I'm really struggling in this relationship.
I'd really like for you to be able to give us
honesty, good communication, figure out why it
is that I made them really upset on Friday night
at me. I don't know what the issue is, but if
you could just solve that, that'd be great because
we've got tickets to rodeo. Lord God, I need
to figure out why it is that over here I can't
seem to get my health where I want it to be.
So Lord God, if you could somehow just bless
All of the food and all of the nourishment that
I receive, especially that donut today, make
it fat free. How often is it that we're seeking
out with God how to take the paths that we want
and just make sense of them? But you see, what
does Jesus say? You know how He does all of those
I am statements? He does that here. I am the
way, the truth, and the life. This isn't about
directions to follow. It's not giving them a
map. It's saying, you already have the way because
you have me. The way is not something you figure
out. The way is not some path you're trying to
follow that you've figured out. It's someone
that you follow. So when we're looking at Stephen,
and it says they appointed people to serve tables,
the phrase in the book of Acts says, And that's
where we get the word deacon. But you see, in
the New Testament, deacon is not about a lower
status. It's about a designated service. It's
specifying what they're going to do. So it's
not less spiritual work. It's not as if you've
got, oh, here are the pastors, here are the elders,
here are the deacons. That all of us have different
roles that are so important to what the church
does It's about structure Intentionality for
the good of the body. So when the church appoints
deacons, it's not saying well These are the ones
that do lesser things because they can't do something
else These are the people who are entrusted with
what is essential because service is not opposite
to the power of the spirit It's one of its expressions
You've probably seen it before the people who
set things up, the ones who clean up, the ones
who are checking on people quietly, the times
whenever Annie is asking to make sure that we've
got volunteers for the next event, and everybody's
like, did you sign up to prep? Yeah, I don't
want to stay afterward to clean up. We know.
But you know, people aren't on the stage because
it's about what you can see them doing. That's
why even in this congregation, we don't separate
those who serve from those who lead and those
who study. The people who are closest to the
needs are often the ones who see what the rest
of us miss. This is why we've been making sure
that anybody in any form of leadership here is
also someone who is involved in worship, study,
fellowship, serving, and giving. And also why
anybody who is also serving in some capacity
is in worship and studying the Word. because
it's never one or the other. Stephen, then, he
doesn't pause his speech and say, alright, I'm
just a deacon, so let me go double check with
all the apostles and the elders and make sure
that I say everything exactly right. He speaks.
Because it is time. And that's where we often
get uncomfortable. Because there are a few places
where Stephen, he's retelling history, but we're
like, That doesn't sound right. Like, he says
Abraham bought a burial place in Shechem. But
in Genesis, Abraham bought a burial cave in Hebron
while Jacob is later associated with Shechem.
So, Stephen's kind of like blurring together
the details a little bit, sort of like whenever
the pastor accidentally says Moses instead of
Noah in a sermon and someone in the back has
to correct him. Never happened here. Or it talks
about 75 people went to Egypt with Jacob, but
the Hebrews said it was 70. It was the Greek
translation of the Old Testament that said 75.
And that's what Stephen probably would have had
at that time, the Hellenistic Jews, the ones
who were reading in the Greek. But was that the
actual dependable number? Or Stephen's saying
that Moses had 40 years, 40 years, and 40 years,
and that structure isn't laid out that neatly.
But you see, Stephen, he's emphasizing the stages,
not a strict timeline. So, do we look at this
and say, ah, the details don't matter? Or do
we say, ah, you can't really trust the Bible?
You see, it's contradicting itself. What it's
doing is that Stephen isn't trying to say I've
got all the details right He's being a faithful
witness he's showing a pattern of God acting
people resisting and Even so they're resisting
his witness now See Steve is not worried about
if you got every detail, right? He's worried
about whether they're listening, but let's be
honest when we read his words We also start to
wonder, did he have to say it that way? Could
it Stephen have been a little more careful, a
little more strategic, a little less direct?
We know what it's like to be in a world of conflict.
Was Stephen really being faithful, or was he
just being too unnecessarily antagonistic? But
if we're not careful, we start to put ourselves
in the role of evaluating. And we sit at a distance
and say, what would have been done better if
we had handled it? How often before we judge
Stephen, do we need to recognize that we do the
same thing when we look at anything in history?
We always assume we would have done better than
the people who have lived in it. Think about
the early 1900s and all the child labor laws,
kids that were eight years old working in factories,
and the reformers pushing to change that. Yet
there were already people saying, you're disrupting
the economy. Or women's suffrage and the right
to vote leading up to 1920, but people even saying,
why do you need to push that? Can't you just
wait? Or even the civil rights movement of the
50s and 60s and the marches and the sit -ins
and the protests and people saying, it's too
fast, it's too much, you're too confrontational.
But even today, there are people who still look
back on these moments and question Why they pushed
as hard as they did to protect children and to
listen to women and to give equal rights to all,
even wondering why they had to make such a big
deal about it. Yes, people today even question
why those who fought for child protections, women's
rights, and equal rights for minorities, and
why they had to be so difficult. But you see,
here's a question that we have to ask honestly.
Are we second guessing what was necessary in
the moment? Because we live on the other side
of it. Faithfulness in the moment often looks
uncomfortable to those watching from a distance.
So when we put the two situations side by side,
the disciples say, we don't know the way, and
Stephen walks forward without knowing the outcome.
The disciples want clarity before they obey.
Stephen obeys before he has clarity. And this
is where it comes to us. Because we don't usually
reject truth outright. We don't reject truth.
We just adjust it. We make it a little more comfortable.
Last week we heard from Reverend Chris Yang,
who's about to go to mainland China. You see,
in China the expectation is not always that you
abandon your faith, but it's that you reshape
it. That faith gets filtered, adjusted, brought
into alignment with what their government approves
of. It's not, don't believe, it's believe, but
in a way that we're comfortable with. Before
we think that that's just something for other
people, how often do we say, yes, I will confess
Jesus, but maybe if I say it this way, people
will like it better. Yes, I will serve Jesus,
but Maybe I can wait a little longer. Yes, I
will believe in Jesus, but maybe there's a version
of this whole Jesus thing that's easier. And
at some point, maybe we have to ask better questions.
Not just, is what I'm doing godly? Because let's
be honest, following God, we make that mean a
lot of different things in our minds. But can
I actually picture Jesus saying this? doing this
Standing here Because you cannot redefine Jesus
We're very creative We're not that creative But
here's where we need to be careful Because let's
be honest if we're trying to be more like Stephen
We're all in trouble His example is not the place
where we find our salvation. Jesus Himself is.
Jesus is the way that we keep failing to walk
perfectly. Jesus is the truth that we sometimes
try to soften. Jesus is the life that holds us
even when we hesitate. He does not say, find
the way. He says, I am the way. So this week,
what I challenge you is, It's not to ask, do
I understand the way of Jesus? It's asking, am
I still walking with Jesus? Am I adjusting Jesus
to fit where I want to go instead? Be honest,
there are places where we already know the answer
to that. The places where we've hesitated. The
places where we've negotiated with God. The places
where clarity just became an excuse to delay.
But here's a better word that Jesus gives today
It's not saying catch up because you're way too
behind He's saying I am the way with you right
now and that means this The weight of your life
is not held up by how perfectly you followed
him or but rather by how faithfully he continues
to hold you It's not about how clean our obedience
is we're saved because of how complete His mercy
is. Where you already know what is good, right,
and true, even if you don't get what's going
to happen, even if you're not sure what is to
come, take that next step. Not because you know
what's going to happen next, but because even
when you don't move fast enough, you are still
held by the One who is the way. May He continue
to strengthen us and encourage us now and always.
Amen.