Brown's Daily Word

Good Morning ,
We drove up to Boston last Wednesday and spent a few days with Janice, Jeremy, and Micah. Micah is 19 1/2 months old now; she is changing into a beautiful young girl. She says Hallelujah, Jesus, and Amen. She recognizes her grand-parents and calls us grandma and grandpa. I had a very good follow up visit with my surgeon on Thursday. We drove back home Friday, and arrived safely on Friday night.
I performed two funeral services Saturday. One of the two was a war bride, who came to New York from Arkansas. She was married for 62 years, serving the Lord in the church. The other person was a World War 2 veteran who served in the Pacific theater, with the navy Seals. He was involved in some of the most clandestine operations in China and India. He and his wife were married for 61 years. Tom Brokaw calls World War II veterans the greatest generation.
Funerals services are wonderful settings to share the good news of Resurrection and life in Jesus. We offer to the hurting and grieving people what the world can not offer. What a way to live, what a way to die, and what a way to live again. It has been said that two things are inevitable: death and taxes. I once read somewhere that the task of a pastor is to prepare people for a good death. John Wesley said that Christians die well.
Chapters 6 and 7 of the Book of Acts tell the story of Stephen. Stephen has the distinction of being the first Christian martyr—the first follower of Jesus to be killed for his faith. This is a story of a good death, not because Stephen was a martyr for the cause of death isn’t the issue. This is the story of a good death because Stephen was prepared. About Stephen’s life we don’t know much detail. We do know that he was a Hellenistic Jew—that is, he spoke Greek better than he spoke Aramaic; he was comfortable in the predominant culture of the Romans and Greeks; but he was nevertheless Jewish (like all the earliest Christians). We know that he was one of the seven men chosen to assist the twelve with leadership responsibilities, specifically the daily distribution of food to the widows in the growing Christian community in Jerusalem. We also know he had a powerful ministry in Jerusalem, and that he did “great signs and miraculous wonders among the people.” On the other hand, we don’t know exactly when Stephen became a Christian. Since Jesus’ ministry was mostly in the countryside of Judea among Aramaic-speaking Jews, Stephen probably came to faith in the risen Jesus sometime after Pentecost. He may have been one of the 3000 who were baptized on the day of Pentecost. In any case, Stephen wasn’t a follower of Jesus for very long, at least not on this earth. In Acts 6:5, Stephen is described as being “full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” In verse 8, this is emphasized again: “Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power…” Every indication is that Stephen’s life as a follower of Jesus, though not long, was very full.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death without fear. It was not without conflict, not without persecution, not without suffering, not without grief, not without trouble, not without pain, and not without a lot of things that most of us would just as soon do without. Yet, it was without fear.
By the grace and power of God, Stephen’s ministry had gained a lot of attention in the community. He certainly had to know that trouble was coming. His opponents were outspoken in their criticism of him and his ministry. Public debates were common. Stephen won all the debates, but that just made his opponents even more angry. They stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified against him. Things did not look good.
The text says that all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. (No wonder they looked at him so intently; they expected him to be worried too.) That his face looked like an angel could mean a lot of things, but I am pretty sure that one of the things that it means is that they saw in Stephen’s face serenity and confidence. What they did not see in Stephen’s face was worry or fear.
Stephen answered their charges, not with a defense of himself but with a proclamation of God’s faithfulness throughout the generations. He challenged his opponents to see their own unfaithfulness in the mirror of their ancestors’ recurring unfaithfulness. He spoke the truth with clarity and directness, and without fear. Around Stephen, the anger of the opposition forces turned to rage. They dragged him out of the city, where they began throwing stones at him. Yet Stephen stood utterly without fear. Stephen faced death without fear.
Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because, by the power and grace of God, he had learned in life to trust in Christ without fear. Stephen was prepared to face death without fear because Stephen was equipped to live life without fear.
As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart. Stones fell like hail all around Stephen. The text says that he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Some of the stones hit their target. The impact forced him to his knees.
If anybody ever had good reason to be angry and bitter, Stephen did. The rage of others was literally killing him, but he did not rage. Instead he prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” By the grace and power of God, Stephen faced death without fear. By the grace and power of God, Stephen decided to forgive his attackers. Wow!
When the shadow of death wanders near, even in the best of us old wounds, long-buried, emerge from the shadows. Bitterness, long-forgotten, surfaces, even bitterness we didn’t even know we had or bitterness we thought we had put behind us. Bitterness makes a good death impossible. Forgiveness makes a good death beautiful.
The threshold of death is a hard place to learn the art of forgiveness, however. When the muscles of forgiveness are weak from disuse in life, the threshold of death can be a fount of bitterness unleashed. On the other hand, if the art of forgiveness has been well-practiced in life, then the threshold of death offers no obstacle to forgiveness and no platform for bitterness.
Stephen faced death with no bitterness in his heart, but with a readiness to forgive because, by the power and grace of God, he practiced in life the art of forgiveness. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen faced death with his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. When opposition arose, Stephen kept his eyes focused squarely on Jesus. He didn’t concern himself with his own standing in the community. He didn’t concern himself with his own ambition. He didn’t concern himself with avoiding conflict for the sake of avoiding He didn’t concern himself with himself. When struggle came his way, Stephen concerned himself with Jesus.
As the anger around him escalated Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. With that vision before him, Stephen was fully prepared to die a good death. I suspect that Stephen was so accustomed to focusing on Jesus that he was prepared to face death with his eyes focused on Jesus because he lived his life with his eyes focused on Jesus.
Stephen was no super-man. He was full of faith and the Holy Spirit—both of which are available to all of us. As a follower of Jesus, Stephen knew scripture. He didn’t just know scripture as ancient history. He knew scripture as God’s story. He knew scripture as his story. He understood the world around him according to scripture. He interpreted the world around him according to scripture. He was immersed in scripture. In fact, most Jews of his time were immersed in scripture. That’s probably why the Sanhedrin listened to Stephen speak as long as they did. They heard him telling the stories they all knew. Stephen’s stories were their stories. He told of Abraham… Jacob …Joseph…Moses…David…Solomon. (In fact, if you want a quick overview of almost the whole Old Testament story, read Stephen’s speech in Acts chapter 7.)
When the circumstances of Stephen’s life reached crisis proportions, Stephen drew on scripture to interpret what was happening, to respond to what was happening, and to find encouragement in what was happening. By the grace and power of God, Stephen found in Scripture the reassurance to face life and death without fear and the resources to forgive. By the grace and power of God, and because of the witness of Scripture, Stephen knew Jesus was the promised Messiah. By the grace and power of God, Stephen was prepared for a good death, in part, because he lived and breathed scripture and because he was equipped for a full life.
I read Stephen’s story and I pray, "God, by your grace and power, fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit, and equip us to live and die without fear. By your grace and power, equip us to truly forgive. By your grace and power, equip us to keep our eyes focused squarely on Jesus. Enable us to view the world through the lens of scripture, and not scripture through the lens of the world. By your grace and power fill us with faith and the Holy Spirit. Prepare us for a good death, that we might live a full life."
In Jesus our Lord, the AUTHOR of LIFE.
Brown

Eternal life is not an unending continuance of this life--that would, perhaps, be Hell--but Eternal Life is quite a different life, divine, not mundane; perfect, not earthly; true life, not corrupt half-life. We cannot form a conception of Eternal Life. What we imagine is ever simply of the earth, temporal, worldly. Nor could we know anything about our eternal life if it had not appeared in Jesus Christ. In him we realize that we were created for the eternal life. If we ask, what is this eternal life? what sense is there in thinking about it if we can have no conception of it?, the answer is, "It is life with God, in God, from God; life in perfect fellowship." Therefore it is a life in love, it is love itself. It is a life without the nature of death and sin, hence without sorrow, pain, anxiety, care, misery. To know this suffices to make one rejoice in eternal life. If there were no eternal life, this life of time would be without meaning, goal, or purpose, without significance, without seriousness and without joy. It would be nothing. That our life does not end in nothing, but that eternal life awaits us, is the glad message of Jesus Christ. He came to give us this promise as a light in this dark world. A Christian is a man who has become certain of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
... Emil Brunner, Our Faith

Frightful this is in a sense, but it is true, and every one who has merely some little knowledge of the human heart can verify it: there is nothing to which a man holds so desperately as to his sin.
... Søren Kierkegaard, Three Discourses at the Communion on Fridays


When I get to heaven,
I shall see three wonders there.
The first wonder will be to see
many there whom I did not expect to see;
the second wonder will be to miss
many people who I did expect to see;
and the third and greatest of all
will be to find myself there.

John Newton (1725-1807)
English evangelical minister and hymn writer



Wrong Wish
A Fairy Godmother told a married couple: "For being such an exemplary married couple for 35 years, I will give you each a wish".

"I want to travel around the world with my dearest husband" said the wife.

The Fairy moved her magic stick and abracadabra! two tickets appeared in her hands.

Now it was the husband's turn. He thought for a moment and said: "Well this moment is very romantic, but an opportunity like this only occurs once in a lifetime.

So.....I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me".

The wife was deeply disappointed, but a wish was a wish. The Fairy made a circle with her magic stick and.....abracadabra!... Suddenly the husband was 90 years old.