Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 7:54 - 8:1 (November 3, 2025)

November 3, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 7:54 - 8:1

Good morning on yet another lovely autumn day here in Tucson. I pray that your weekend was an opportunity to grow closer to Christ our Lord, and that in that growth, you have become committed to applying the Law of Christ's Love in every circumstance in which you find yourself. I was so happy to see Teri H. back in church on Sunday morning for the first time since her new type of hip replacement surgery nearly a month ago. Her recovery is meeting her doc's expectations. Though our attendance on Sunday was low, we had guests who had just moved to town from Tempe, and they were welcomed with warmth and caring by our members. And our Gospel Music Group did a great job of providing us our music support for Luke's Beatitudes. We also celebrated All Saints and Day of the Dead as well, and we had one pet friend with us, little Cody, a pitty and dachsy mix.  He was well behaved, he only barked before my sermon, and fun to be with. And of course, we had our potluck, which was tough to keep warm because our warming cabinet started blowing switches when we turned it on, and was not available to use. It will be checked out this week to see if there is a fix for its problem.

In our passage for today we discover an age-old issue. We do not like to be reminded of our past failings and sins. The Sanhedrin was no exception to this accusation! But this reminder by Stephen was of historic proportions, including the Old Testament times failures of God's children-elect, from the killing of the prophets whom God had sent to bring them back in line with His hopes and expectations for them, to the much more recent rejection of Jesus himself, the Messiah, God's Son.  The picture which Luke reveals for us about the mind and nature of the men of the Sanhedrin shows them to be totally out of control, filled with rage, and offering verbal assaults at Stephen, while all the while physically and violently removing him to outside of the city to be murdered at their own hands, and obviously with the consent of the Pharisees like Saul. (His future is already determined by the LORD. He will be renamed Paul, and become a stalwart believer in Jesus as his Savior, guiding the early Christians with the fullness of his own understanding of the hope and forgiveness that can only come through a personal relationship and belief in Jesus as the Savior of all of God's creation, especially for the greatest of God's creation, people!)

Luke helps us understand the power and strength of Stephen's person, not only in his witness for Jesus, but also in his strength of spirit in the face of his death.

1. Stephen was filled with the courage of his faith in Jesus. Stephen saw only the Christ of God as he was witnessing to the Sanhedrin, not their brutal words and actions.

2. Stephen's own witness is the example of Christ Himself, seeking forgiveness for those who are murdering him as he holds in his heart and mind the beauty and glory that are his own in Jesus Christ, both before and during his stoning. He is beyond the fear of death and caught up into the glory of the Savior's Heaven.

3. In the face of this horrendous death Stephen falls asleep. Of course, the inference here is that even facing the brutality and pain of such a death, Stephen is completely at peace!

   
   

I have been on the scene of death beds many times for people of faith whose lives have been lived with the peace of God which passes all understanding, filling them with love and forgiveness for all the people who may have done them harm in their lives.  In what we see as the suffering of death, these children of God are at peace, seeing and feeling the reality of the faith, they have lived, now before them, welcoming them Home to God's Heaven. It is so much easier for us to want to harm those who are evil in this world, but we must remember that is the work that can only belong to the sole judge of all things, Our Savior, Jesus. This message is for me and you, we need to let go of our desire for revenge, turning it over to Christ's Grace and Mercy. That kind of thing is rightfully His work, fulfilled on the Cross, and revealed in His Resurrection.

Thanks for being with me this morning. In Christ Love, Pastor Kim

Reminder that this Sunday, November 9th, is our day to bless our pets. Please bring them in person or share a picture of them on the Altar table on the main floor of our worship space.