The 3^rd Sunday After Trinity

SERMON - The Ultimate Sacrific

1. It is not Stephen’s but Christ’s
2. We love to share in His victory don’t we? Well, then…
3. What about us specifically?
4. Still, still though dead they speak.

Text: Acts 7:59-60

"And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice. ‘Lord do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep."

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

We are part of an unconquerable movement. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us. But there are some Christians who look upon their Christian life and the living of it as if they are in a "grin-and-bear" it mode. They live as if the Christian life is a drudgery that "well…I guess, after all, has to be endured." There are other Christians who look upon their Christian life as, at times, a venture for Him, but a rather daunting venture. There are other Christians who look upon their life as a risk-filled challenge that causes them to dig deep down within them. How are you? Shall we live a life of temerity or a life of timidity? Shall we live a life of boldness in Christ, or a life of cowardice?

On June 30^th, nearly 140 years ago, two armies were lumbering toward each other. On this day, nearly 140 years ago in the sultry heat of July 1^st, they met. George Mead’s army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee’s army in northern Virginia. In the rattle of musketry that began on July 1^st and for three days thereafter, a great engagement took place—a great battle.

We know the village where that battle took place. This was a battle that made sure the issue would not be in doubt for it was up to that time. When July 4^th rolled around the issue really had been decided. The Emancipation Proclamation that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed on January 1, 1863 was merely on paper for it only applied the slave states and there were no federal troops in the slave states to enforce that emancipation. But after Gettysburg in 1863, and that July 4^th, it was a freedom day because the South was going to be defeated and the amendments to the Constitution would guarantee freedom, not only to those in the slave states but to all those enslaved in the North also.

In November 1863, Lincoln came to that battlefield and he made the address that many of us know at least part of, that we learned by heart in high school. Lincoln referred to "the last full measure of devotion." The issue was not in doubt. The last full measure of devotion had been paid. It was decided.

We are part of an even greater cause than the preservation of the Union or the emancipation of the slaves. The issue has never ever been in doubt. If in Old Testament times you read the prophesies you knew it. In New Testament times when you read the Gospel message that declared the great victory on Calvary you knew the issue was never in doubt (even though some times in our Christian lives we may wonder). This great victory that Christ achieved on Calvary guarantees to us TOTAL, and COMPLETE, and UTTER emancipation—not from some puny earthly taskmasters, but from the Devil and from the legions of hell, and from sin itself and all of its horrible consequences, and from that dreadful eternal darkness, that lake of fire, hell itself!

We are part of an unconquerable movement not because of OUR last measure of devotion, not because of Stephen’s last measure of devotion, but because of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary.

You see Stephen there at this scene and you might wonder "how did he learn how he should live, serving in the congregation at Jerusalem as he did, witnessing to both Jews and Gentiles as he did, and, ultimately, dying?" Listen to his words: “Lord Jesus receive my Spirit,” and remember our Lord who said, “Father into Thy hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Listen to Stephen’s words and you know where he learned how to die. "Lord," he said, "do not hold this sin against them;" and listen again to the Lord’s words (the first ones He spoke from the cross of Calvary"): “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are do” (Luke 23:34). Stephen kept his focus on the ultimate sacrifice and that’s how he then could give his last full measure of devotion.

There are some people who think that they are sacrificing a little too much. We remember Peter’s words when he said, “Lord, we have left everything to follow You” (Matthew 19:27). Now, we don’t know exactly how Peter said those words but we know how sometimes WE say those words. Sometimes we say those words thinking we’ve sacrificed too much with a boastful pride: "LORD! WE’VE left EVERYTHING to come and follow You!" Sometimes we say those words in a complaining whine, wringing our hands, "O Lord, we’ve left everything to come and follow you." Sometimes we also say those words with a whisper of despair: "Lord….we’ve left everything….to come and follow You."

The best thing to do with these words is to not say them. They are best unsaid. Remember our Lord, remember the ultimate sacrifice. When did our Lord boast in pride upon this earth? He always gave glory to His Father in heaven, ALWAYS pointing to His Father. When did our Lord speak words in which He whined, complained, murmured? He never did! The Lamb went UNCOMPLAINING forth to redeem us! (cf: Isaiah 53:7; Hymn 142, TLH). And when was our Lord ever in despair? The closest we can get is when He was kneeling in Gethsemane and yet it wasn’t despair for listen carefully to those words: “Father if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Those weren’t words of despair. By us keeping our focus on the ultimate sacrifice as Stephen did, we can leave those words that Peter spoke unsaid.

There are some who think that they reach a certain point by which they sacrifice enough. We had a congregation in Nigeria at the village of Indineo. One time, the chief headman of that village told me (and he was an older man), "You know, I’ve sacrifice a lot. I’ve really sacrificed enough, now I want the blessings!" Needless to say, that congregation is no longer with us in the NCLC.

Can you imagine Paul after he had been stoned at Lystra, getting up, dusting himself off, and saying, "That’s IT! I’ve had ENOUGH! I’m not going through any more of this!" Was it just because he was "mule-headed" that he went on TWO MORE missionary journeys and ultimately the "prison trip"? Was it because he had some fixation in his mind that he proceeded on? NO!! He kept his focus on the ultimate sacrifice of Christ!

Think about the apostles after they had been beaten by the Council—right out in public in front of the Council. Can you imagine them putting their heads together and saying, "You know, this was really an embarrassment because we’re APOSTLES of our Lord Jesus Christ. No more of this. As a matter of fact, you know, they could KILL US next time!" No. Sacrifice enough? Ultimately, nearly all of the apostles died a violent death because they realized they must keep their focus on the ultimate sacrifice which might call forth from them then the last full measure of devotion.

Listen to what Peter says, “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). We as Christians love to follow in His steps when we consider His victory. We love to follow in His steps when we consider his glory. We all delight to hear the passage, 2 Corinthians 8:9, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” Oh, that is delightful to hear! There we are walking in His steps—He abandoned the treasures of heaven, He set them aside, He came to earth, He emptied Himself, and He gained for US the treasures of heaven, the greatest of which is eternal life. We now have that righteousness, we possess all of this, He’s MAGNIFICENT!! Yes, I’ll follow in His steps!!

Or think about what Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Have this mind among yourselves which you have in Christ Jesus who though He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross. THEREFORE, God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5ff). YES! Those are the steps we want to walk in. YES! we’ll bow the knee to Jesus here. YES! we’ll confess Him with our tongues because He is such a magnificent Lord.

When you think about how this magnificent Master has brought us unworthy churls, us vile peasants, us rude and crude louts into His palace. He came to us in our pig sty and He reached down to us and brought us, not only into His palace but into the banqueting chamber. He washed us clean and He dressed us up in festal garments, and He had us sit at board with Him—Oh, what a magnificent liege, Lord! YES! we will be vassals to THIS magnificent Monarch!

But then at the head of the table the Master stands up and says, "I beckon you now to go into the fray." And He says, "There is the armor. Buckle it on and go out to battle with Me, to the field of gore, to the field of carnage, to the field soaked with blood." Mmmmm…will we stand up so quickly to follow in His steps that lead to our suffering? Listen to the Word of God. Paul wrote to Philippi, "…that I may share His sufferings." He wrote to Corinth in the second letter, "We share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings." Over and over again in his second letter to Timothy, Paul said, "take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ…take your share of suffering…endure suffering." Peter even went so far as to say, "REJOICE! insofar as you share Christ’s suffering."

You see, a coin has two sides. One side of a coin and the other side are both yet composing the same coin. The one side of the coin is victory and glory, but the other side of the coin is suffering. If you take the coin you not only follow in His steps with regard to victory and glory, but you follow in His steps with regard to the other side of the coin of suffering.

What about us personally in this selfish, materialistic age? Think about how hard it is for us to face up to this suffering. For what would you suffer? A cause? Would you be willing to enlist in the Federal army and go with Mr. Lincoln’s army into the South to preserve the Union…to emancipate the slaves? What about that greater cause of Jesus Christ? For whom would you die? You children, you love your dad and your mom and you think, "Oh, they’ve done so much for me. They took care of me from infancy on up. I owe them so much! All of this they’ve given me. I’m still prospering with that wonderful gift of forgiveness of sins they’ve taught me from youth on and all the other things! YES! I would die for my dad or my mom…wouldn’t you? You parents, you know very well that you would die for your child, wouldn’t you? Why? Because you LOVE that child! It is the same with the cause of Christ—that unconquerable movement. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:21). We know that everything we have from the top—forgiveness—right on down is from a gracious and merciful Lord who loves us without end.

Who, now, or what would you LIVE for? The other side of the coin—suffering.

Some people think, "Is it not better to run away, to fight another day to avoid suffering?" Again, focus on the ultimate sacrifice. What if Jesus Christ had skeedadled into the bushes with His apostles on that dark, that doleful night? What if Jesus Christ had done that? Where would we be if He had run away to fight another day? We follow in His footsteps.

Some people think, "I can deny Christ, I can compromise Christ with my words but yet, in my heart I will really still believe in Jesus." Oh, no! Listen to our Lord Himself tell us: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32-33).

We as Christians do face a hard struggle that involves suffering. Listen to what we read in Hebrews, chapter 10 (vv.32ff): “But recall the former days when after you were enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated, for you had compassion on the prisoners and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

We’re not called upon to do as these Hebrew Christians did but we are called upon to suffer yet today. You go out and you speak to some folks about the Bible and say it is infallible, it has no errors, it is perfect in all its parts and…just listen to their scorn as they disdain you as some Neanderthal, somebody from a bygone age who doesn’t really know what’s "up" – "That was written by men…"

Just go out and speak to someone about the miracles of the Bible and say, "Yes, from creation with those miraculous events that occurred by the power of God and everything came into being; right on through our Lord when He walked upon earth and did those supernatural things, YES, those were miracles! Say these things, and hear the mocking of people who know "so much better" than you.

Just go around and tell people that there is only way to heaven. As Jesus said there is only one way. He is THE way, THE truth, and THE life (John 14:6). Tell them, and listen to the whispered chuckling – "You mean that nice man…that nice man, that Buddhist man from Tibet who leads all those people and seems so sweet, he’s going to hell?!?" Oh…no.. (posh!)"

We are facing a hard struggle with suffering and it will take many forms, but this has always been the lot of Christians throughout the ages…and let me take you throughout the ages….

In Hebrews, chapter 11, Abel is referred to and it says this of him: “…through [his faith] he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4). "Still, still, though dead they speak" (TLH #259, st. 2).

After the apostles there were ten dreadful persecutions that fell upon the Christian church, heaped upon them by the Roman empire with the Devil behind it. Christians were executed. Christians were threatened with execution unless they denied the Christ. In the city of Smyrna, the bishop was hauled before magistrates. He was an old man whose name was Polycarp. The magistrates felt so sorry for him and they said, "Deny Christ, you’re an old man, you won’t be able to bear up under the torture that will finally extricate from you the denial of this Christ." Bishop Polycarp answered, "Eighty and six years have I served Him and He has never done me harm. How can I deny Him now?" So he went to the flames, but he was not consumed by flames. He was consumed by the blood of Christ.

After those dreadful persecutions the emperor became a Christian—Constantine. Everything seemed so wonderful for the Christian church until the Devil raised up a rival religion in Saudi Arabia, a rival religion that spread their message with the sword into the Mid-East and across northern Africa. Then the Devil inveigled Christians to think that they should really respond to this by going on Crusades and trying to retake the holy city, Jerusalem, which is but a plot of ground. They went with motives which were at least mixed. They wanted to get money. They wanted political power. They wanted to establish a kingdom in the Holy Land where THEY would be rulers and along the way they not only killed other Christians; but when they came to the Muslims they killed so many of them instead of converting them.

But there was a man who didn’t go along with that in those days. His name is Raymond Lull. He read in the Bible how we are supposed to love our enemies. He crossed the Mediterranean into north Africa where the Muslims held complete dominance and he talked about Jesus Christ to the people from the seashore inland. He was warned, "Don’t you tell us about this Jesus, we don’t want to hear about Him." He was deported, but he came back again. He snuck into north Africa again. They warned him, "If you come back again we’re going to kill you" and they sent him away. He came back again and he was killed. But "still, still though dead he speaks, and trumpet-tongued proclaims…"

After the time when the Christian church defeated that threat, darkness continued to envelop Christianity under the papal system. Finally, then when God raised up Luther and the other reformers, the Gospel again shined in Europe. Two monks in Holland heard the message of this reformed monk, Luther, and THEY decided to be reformed monks. They decided that justification by faith is true. That we have one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus (Cf: 1 Timothy 2:5), that we should not pray to this pantheon of saints. The monks were arrested by the authorities and threatened and told, "you deny this faith." They would not deny it and so they were executed. The hymn we sung (259) is the hymn that Luther wrote to commemorate the execution of those two faithful monks, those two faithful Christians—still, still, though dead they speak…don’t they?

After the time of the Reformation, Christianity in Europe got sort of fat & sassy and self-satisfied and even began to teach (with the Devil’s inveigling) that the Great Commission has been fulfilled. We don’t have to send missionaries out. The apostles fulfilled it! But there was a Baron in Germany who didn’t believe that. His name was Von Weltz and he wrote saying, "The Great Commission still is our duty…still is our task." And he went around trying to get even Lutheran preachers (because he was a Lutheran) to go overseas, he would fund them. "No," they said. So the Baron sold all his possessions, had himself ordained, and he said, "Sail for the north coast of South America." He was never heard from again. He died in the wilderness. "Still, still though dead HE speaks! And trumpet-tongued proclaims…"

Then in the 19^th century which was a great century of expansion during which missionaries went all over the world, there was a man by the name of Robert Thomas. He went to Korea which was still a heathen nation then. He went with his wife. His wife died. He got onto a ship and started to proceed up a river, bandits attacked the ship, and as he kneeled down (like Stephen) and held up his Bible and spoke the name "Jesus Christ" the bandits "WHAPPED" off his head.

Some years later missionaries came to that part of Korea and a man came out to them knowing they were missionaries and he spoke about Jesus Christ—a Korean! They asked, "How do you know about Jesus Christ?" He took them to his little cottage. As they looked into the cottage they saw all along the walls of that cottage the pages of pastor Robert Thomas’ Bible! "Still, still, though dead they speak, and trumpet-tongued proclaim to many awak’ning land the One availing name…"

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are mirrors of the Great Light. We are not the light. May we in the mirror that other people see—may we in that mirror present a clear and distinct image of our Lord Jesus Christ picturing Him to them as the Ultimate Sacrifice. See in our lives—yes, sometimes our last full measure of devotion, but never to our glory, but always to His glory as it was with Stephen and all the other saints.

And when you are dead and buried may people say of you, "Still, still though dead they speak and trumpet-tongued proclaim to many awak’ning land the One availing name…" Amen!

—Pastor David Koenig
CLC Foreign Missionary