The first Magnificent Seven

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Many of you may be too young to remember the Magnificent Seven movie, the film stars Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, and Horst Buchholz who play a group of seven American gunmen who are hired to protect a small agricultural village in Mexico from a group of marauding native bandits.  If you are one that enjoys seeing the good guys win then you will enjoy this movie, but doctor Luke tells us of another group of seven good guys who were also hand picked by the church to be called out to serve those in need, and they were referred to as deacons.

These seven were much different than those in the movie, those seven man in the movie were actors playing a fictional part in a story, where as the seven in doctor Luke’s account in Acts 6:5-15 are ordinary men, who are being guided by the Spirit of God.   Just normal men who have chosen to let God’s Spirit rule in their emotions and their actions, and in doing so have set themselves apart from the other disciples.  We have this account of what happens when a man sets aside his ambitions, his desires for world success, and then his objective and goals take a back seat to the will of God; Stephen was such a man.

Picking up doctor Luke’s account in Acts 6:8, “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

If you have watched the movie the Magnificent Seven, you will remember how one of the peasants sold out the seven men who came to rescue them, not for money or any kind of gain, but out of fear.  But these men who lied about Stephen were willing to do whatever to stop Stephen from telling about Jesus.  This is a far cry from what many of the most popular preachers are proclaiming in their sermons and on television, when it comes to following Jesus.  I often wonder if they are following the same Jesus that Stephen followed?

I will leave you to read Dr. Luke’s account of Stephen’s speech in Acts 7, but this was the question asked of him by the high priest: “Are these things so?”  As you read the account in Act 7, you will see that Stephen is giving an accurate account of the Jewish history from Abraham to Solomon’s building the temple and I am sure that all who were present would have said amen.  If we did not know who was putting the words in Stephens mouth we would have said; Stephen you sliver tongue has got you out of a bad situation. 

But God was more interested in confronting these evil religious men who had set themselves up against God’s only Son, that He gave Stephen the boldness to confront them.  This is the account: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51-53 ESV)

If you’re a listener of one of the guys who write books and preaches sermons with a message that only good will happens and you will never see harm if you are following Jesus, once more ask the question; what Jesus is he following?  The Scriptures tell us that Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and his actions are still being told to day, but he was stoned by evil, religious men, who did not want to follow a man who had, as Isaiah states, no form or majesty.  The prophet Isaiah tells us this about Jesus, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)  Not any of us may be stoned, as Stephen was, but we will all, at some point, make the choice to stand and proclaim what the Holy Spirit tells us, and we will at that point understand God may for reason we do not understand, but so that He might show Himself strong allow bad things to happen to us.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice