Do You Look Like a Lion?

 

Stephen stood before the angry mob. They glared at him; each fist held a stone. Stephen gazed toward heaven; his face held a glow.

Why was the mob so angry?

Stephen was just the guy in the back, mopping the floor and taking out the trash. The only time he was out front was when he stood in the food line, dishing out meals to widows; the poorest of the poor.

If the widows spoke, it was all Greek to him (that’s a joke, kind-of, because Stephen’s mission was to Greek speaking widows).

But no matter, he didn’t need words. He could hand them their food, pause just long enough to catch their eye, and smile.

Love in the eye, and a smile, can say more in a moment, than a thousand sermons.

The widows viewed Stephen as a kind and gentle lamb.

But not everyone.

No-strings-attached Love that comes from Above, sends tremors through the hordes of hell. It’s viewed as a threat, like the stalking of a Lion.

Words of wisdom are like the roaring of a Lion to demons of the deceived. Civil discourse with them is impossible, because all they hear is the roar, all they feel is fear.

They won’t debate, they can’t, they have no words, just fear. Like a venomous dog backed in a corner, it’s fight or flight.

They rage over everything…and nothing.

So, why were they so angry with Stephen? After all, feeding the poor was something the virtue-signaling, sanctimonious agreed with.

David asked it in Psalms and the Disciples prayed it in Acts:

‘Why did the nations rage,

And the people plot vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand,

And the rulers were gathered together

Against the Lord and against His Christ.’ (Acts 4:25-26)

The mob wasn’t mad at Stephen, they were afraid of him—actually, the Lion of Judah, in him.

behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed. Revelation 5:5

WHAT DID STEPHEN DO WHEN STARING IN THE FACE OF EVIL?

1.      He looked toward heaven.

That glorious glow that comes from being close to the Father, that clothed the couple in the garden, that shown from the face of Moses radiated from the face of Stephen.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

 

2.     He told HIStory.

Beginning with the patriarchs, he talked them through the peaks and valleys of their nation.

HIStory is a map, revealing where you’ve been,
and where you should be going.

Stephen told how the founding fathers waxed mighty with authority, but over the years failed to stay engaged; allowing a new government to rise, that didn’t know them, only feared them. That fear caused the ruling class to oppress them, enslave them…abort them.

The evil against them, was a wake-up call to them, and they cried out to God.

He heard and sent a deliverer with great authority, power and might.

But they rejected the man God had chosen, so he fled and dwelt in a different land.

Their rejection delayed the deliverance, but God, in His mercy, appeared in a burning bush to the deliverer and told him to return.

By mighty signs and wonders God delivered His people and judged the nation that oppressed them. His deliverer led them out with silver and gold and not one feeble among them…yet they continued to reject and rebel against the man He’d chosen.

God took it personal and turned them over to a debased, reprobate, corrupt mind. They craved the security of bondage and lusted for gods of other nations. They dropped in the desert until all who rejected God’s deliverance, were dead.

HIStory should be retold, not rewritten.

 

3.     He told the Truth.

Stephen’s words to the angry mob, echo to US today, “Oh you stiff-necked, perverse generation, how long will you resist the Holy Spirit and reject God’s deliverance?”

Like a pack of ravenous wolves, they gnashed at him with their teeth.

Looking up, Stephen said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

The Lion’s roar was all they heard. Red was all they saw. Like a riotous mob burning down the city that fed them, defunding the ones that protect them, they grabbed the man who loved them and cast him out of the city to stone him.

Our courts oppose the righteous man; fairness is unknown. Truth falls dead in the streets, and justice is outlawed (Isaiah 59:14).

 

4.    Stephen imitated Christ, in life…and in death.

Heaven’s curtain was open for Stephen. Jesus stood next to the Father. All heaven gave a standing ovation.

What else could he do, but imitate his Savior.

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  

Maybe for a moment, Stephen dropped his gaze from heaven to earth. Perhaps he scanned the rock throwing mob. Perhaps he locked eyes with a young man standing at the edge of the crowd and echoed Jesus one last time, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.”  

God, rich in mercy, already selected a new deliverer.

And those who picked up stones, had dropped their coats, at the feet of a young man, named Saul.

What will you do?

Pick up a stone? Walk away?

Or, be His deliverer...and be delivered, too.  

Let me know how to pray for you.

 

I love you

Most importantly,

Jesus loves you.