Examples of Faith in the Fire
Most people's hero's or at least the people they admire are celebrities and people who have power, honor, fame, or money in this world. Unfortunately the things the world considers great are things that God usually doesn't like at all and the things God considers important are things the world turns it's nose down at. Once again in this area we see that what the world teaches us, and what it shows us is "good" is the opposite of what God teaches us. So who should be the people we look up to then? We all need someone to show us how this life is supposed to be lived. Thankfully God provides us with plenty of people to look up to right in His word to start with. We've looked at many of them already: Paul, Job, Abraham, Moses, David, Stephen, etc. and of course our most important role model is Christ Himself. The Lord tells us we have a huge number of role models to look at and that we should always keep our eyes on Jesus:
Hebrews 12:1–2, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The great thing about having biblical role models is that they aren't fake like so many of the celebrities are. They're all just regular people just like us, who grew up in their faith to spiritual maturity through many trials and hardships and by doing so give us great examples of how we can do the same. They slip and fall and we watch as God picks them up, dusts them off, and sets their feet back on the rock of Christ once again. We can learn a great deal by studying how each of these people handled the trials and the suffering that came into their lives.
Stephen is a great example to study and I don't think we looked too much at him before so let me show you a few things about him. Maybe that will encourage you to check out his story more on your own and see just how we can use him as a role model.
Stephen was one of the greatest defenders of the faith in the NT. but his excellence as a role model is shown mostly in his death. Let me give you the basics of what happened:
Acts 6:5, ... They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit;
Acts 6:8–10, Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Acts 6:15, All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 7:55–56, But 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. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:59–60, While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
When we look at the story of Stephen we can see that he was constantly filed with the Spirit of God and we're often in awe of that--and we should be because that's an amazing thing in and of itself! But what we often don't seem to realize is that we are also filled with that very same spirit! We have just as much as Stephen did! God doesn't play favorites! God's command to us to be filled with the spirit shows us that this filling is continual, not something that just happens once. In fact that's one of the big differences in how the Spirit worked in the OT and how He works in believers now. Now we are constantly, continually, filled with His spirit; we are constantly being renewed in our minds, or at least we can be if we allow Him to do His job in us.
Ephesians 5:18, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
So how do we "allow" Him to do this and constantly fill us with His spirit? We do it by simply abiding in Him instead of in the world and by remembering that God is in control and sovereign.
Stephen knew God was in control, both of his life and of his death so he simply chose not to worry about it and to instead be filled with the Spirit by abiding in Christ and keeping his mind on Him. Just so you can hear this said (probably better) by someone other then me, let me quote MacArthur on this:
Because there is so much confusion, misunderstanding, and false teaching today regarding the fullness of the Spirit in the believer’s life, we need to elaborate just a bit more on the Holy Spirit’s role. A computer-related adage says, “Garbage in, garbage out.” In a similar way, we are controlled by what fills our minds. If we let the Holy Spirit control our minds, we’ll be controlled and renewed by Him and we’ll exhibit godly behavior. The command in Ephesians 5:18 does not mean to have some kind of mystical experience. It simply means believers should let their lives be controlled by the Spirit of God.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
The problem for us may be that we don’t believe we can handle a crisis situation like Stephen’s. But such doubting is unjustified. Look again at 1 Peter 4:14 where Peter says in response to persecution that “you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” We can infer from this that God provides for us in a special way when we are severely tested or persecuted. It’s as if His Spirit were poured out in a double portion at the time of crisis. Certainly that’s what happened to Stephen in Acts 7, to countless thousands of other martyrs throughout church history, and to you and me when we face difficulties. God is more than adequate to meet all our needs at such times (Phil. 4:13). That’s why we have no logical reason to fear or shrink back at the prospect of suffering for Christ’s sake.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Let me point one other thing out that vividly shows Stephen keeping His eyes on Jesus the way we should. Notice that in Acts 7:55–56 when the crowd is about to attack him, where is he looking? Is he looking in fear at the crowd wondering what/how/when they're going to hurt him? No, he looks UP and he sees Jesus! He not only sees Him, but then testifies to the crowd that he does! He didn't do that because he was "brave", he did that simply because he had done the right thing by taking his eyes off his circumstances and looking up in faith. God blessed him by actually appearing before him and he was so amazed and excited that he told the crowd. So now, here's Stephen who is about to be killed and knows it. Yet instead of shaking with fear, he looks up to His God and in His mercy the Lord blesses his faith and obedience by appearing to him. So now Stephen is not only filled with faith by the Spirit, but instead of feeling scared, he's feeling in awe and excited! Stephen had his heart set on "things above" so it was natural for him to "look up".
Colossians 3:1–4, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Please, when you're reading these stories, keep reminding yourself that these people aren't any different then you and I. They're no more special then you are, they weren't given "more faith" then you were. They started out this life as babies just like we did. They were born again as babies in Christ just like we were. They started out with the same questions, fears, doubts and frustrations that we did.
This is what drew me to Christ in the first place. Because I knew that about these people and wanted to know why we didn't see this happening now with people who are saved. I knew that it couldn't be because God had changed, because He doesn't change. So it had to be the people. But we know that people don't change--they just get more evil if left to their own devices. So why weren't people who were saved now acting like these people in the bible???? The answer, when the Lord showed it to me, was so simple that it shocked me: Because they hadn't grown up yet; they never become spiritually mature!!!!! Now days people "get saved" and that's the end of their journey, which is really very sad considering that God meant it only as the very beginning of a wonderful adventure. When you look around with your eyes opened by the Lord though, you can see a few people living life today just way these folks in the Bible did. So God is still working, He's still moving, He's still changing hearts and He's still growing people to be more and more like Jesus. It's just that those who allow Him to do so are few and far between now days. They're out there though, I promise! I hope that someday soon I can be counted among them.
Remember what David said:
Acts 2:25–28, David said about him: “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
Psalm 16:8–11, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave,nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
As I said, I know we've talked about many of the other bible's hero's who withstood great trials before so I won't go into them again here. What I would like to do however is leave you with a list of a few of them that you could study on your own whenever you have time or whenever you need to see how they handled things. There are MANY of them so please don't think that the few I give you is all there is! These are the models we should be thinking about and following instead of hanging on the words of celebrities, financial brokers, sports stars, presidents or politicians etc. These are the true heroes. These are the people I want to be like when I grow up!
Stephen: Acts 6:5-Acts 8:3; Acts 11:19–20; Acts 22:12–21
Daniel and his 3 friends: The story about Daniel himself starts in Daniel 1:6;
The story about The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace can be found in Daniel 3:1–30
Daniel in the Lions Den can be found in Daniel 6:1–28
Abraham's sacrifice of his son can be found in Genesis 22:1–19
The Temptation of Jesus can be found in Matthew 4:1–11
The story of the disciples being scared because of the storm can be found in Matthew 8:23–27 and Mark 4:35–41
And the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water can be found in Matthew 14:22–36 and John 6:16–24
Some of the passages that show how Paul suffered can be found:
1 Corinthians 4:9–17;
1 Corinthians 15:9–11
2 Corinthians 6:4–10;
2 Corinthians 7:5–6;
2 Corinthians 11:21–33;
2 Corinthians 12:1–15;
Phil. 1:20;
Phil. 2:17
Phil. 3:1–17
Phil.4:18
Acts 13:50–51;
Acts 14:5–7,
Acts 14:19–21
Acts 16:19–24;
Acts 20:18–35
Acts 21:13-27
1 Thes. 2:1–12
Gal. 1:6;
Gal 4:14–20
Gal. 6:17
2 Tim. 4:10-17
And finally for some other ideas too don't forget to check out the great "Hall of Faith" which can be found in Hebrews 11:1–40
Once we have overcome our tendency to avoid or deny the existence of sufferings or trials, we can begin to see that it is possible for us also to deal with any kind of suffering. We serve the same God as Stephen, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are superior examples of believers who cultivated a godly life style and resolutely put God first, not looking to the right or to the left. Those traits prepared them well for the tests and sufferings they endured. They genuinely fit the pattern of Hebrews 12:1–2,
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Let these examples as well as the many others from scripture motivate you and encourage you. Remember too that our motivation is from our faith in Christ and not from some mysterious thing that is only given to certain "special" people like Stephen or Daniel or or Paul or Abraham etc.
Most people's hero's or at least the people they admire are celebrities and people who have power, honor, fame, or money in this world. Unfortunately the things the world considers great are things that God usually doesn't like at all and the things God considers important are things the world turns it's nose down at. Once again in this area we see that what the world teaches us, and what it shows us is "good" is the opposite of what God teaches us. So who should be the people we look up to then? We all need someone to show us how this life is supposed to be lived. Thankfully God provides us with plenty of people to look up to right in His word to start with. We've looked at many of them already: Paul, Job, Abraham, Moses, David, Stephen, etc. and of course our most important role model is Christ Himself. The Lord tells us we have a huge number of role models to look at and that we should always keep our eyes on Jesus:
Hebrews 12:1–2, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The great thing about having biblical role models is that they aren't fake like so many of the celebrities are. They're all just regular people just like us, who grew up in their faith to spiritual maturity through many trials and hardships and by doing so give us great examples of how we can do the same. They slip and fall and we watch as God picks them up, dusts them off, and sets their feet back on the rock of Christ once again. We can learn a great deal by studying how each of these people handled the trials and the suffering that came into their lives.
Stephen is a great example to study and I don't think we looked too much at him before so let me show you a few things about him. Maybe that will encourage you to check out his story more on your own and see just how we can use him as a role model.
Stephen was one of the greatest defenders of the faith in the NT. but his excellence as a role model is shown mostly in his death. Let me give you the basics of what happened:
Acts 6:5, ... They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit;
Acts 6:8–10, Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
Acts 6:15, All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 7:55–56, But 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. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:59–60, While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
When we look at the story of Stephen we can see that he was constantly filed with the Spirit of God and we're often in awe of that--and we should be because that's an amazing thing in and of itself! But what we often don't seem to realize is that we are also filled with that very same spirit! We have just as much as Stephen did! God doesn't play favorites! God's command to us to be filled with the spirit shows us that this filling is continual, not something that just happens once. In fact that's one of the big differences in how the Spirit worked in the OT and how He works in believers now. Now we are constantly, continually, filled with His spirit; we are constantly being renewed in our minds, or at least we can be if we allow Him to do His job in us.
Ephesians 5:18, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
So how do we "allow" Him to do this and constantly fill us with His spirit? We do it by simply abiding in Him instead of in the world and by remembering that God is in control and sovereign.
Stephen knew God was in control, both of his life and of his death so he simply chose not to worry about it and to instead be filled with the Spirit by abiding in Christ and keeping his mind on Him. Just so you can hear this said (probably better) by someone other then me, let me quote MacArthur on this:
Because there is so much confusion, misunderstanding, and false teaching today regarding the fullness of the Spirit in the believer’s life, we need to elaborate just a bit more on the Holy Spirit’s role. A computer-related adage says, “Garbage in, garbage out.” In a similar way, we are controlled by what fills our minds. If we let the Holy Spirit control our minds, we’ll be controlled and renewed by Him and we’ll exhibit godly behavior. The command in Ephesians 5:18 does not mean to have some kind of mystical experience. It simply means believers should let their lives be controlled by the Spirit of God.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
The problem for us may be that we don’t believe we can handle a crisis situation like Stephen’s. But such doubting is unjustified. Look again at 1 Peter 4:14 where Peter says in response to persecution that “you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” We can infer from this that God provides for us in a special way when we are severely tested or persecuted. It’s as if His Spirit were poured out in a double portion at the time of crisis. Certainly that’s what happened to Stephen in Acts 7, to countless thousands of other martyrs throughout church history, and to you and me when we face difficulties. God is more than adequate to meet all our needs at such times (Phil. 4:13). That’s why we have no logical reason to fear or shrink back at the prospect of suffering for Christ’s sake.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Let me point one other thing out that vividly shows Stephen keeping His eyes on Jesus the way we should. Notice that in Acts 7:55–56 when the crowd is about to attack him, where is he looking? Is he looking in fear at the crowd wondering what/how/when they're going to hurt him? No, he looks UP and he sees Jesus! He not only sees Him, but then testifies to the crowd that he does! He didn't do that because he was "brave", he did that simply because he had done the right thing by taking his eyes off his circumstances and looking up in faith. God blessed him by actually appearing before him and he was so amazed and excited that he told the crowd. So now, here's Stephen who is about to be killed and knows it. Yet instead of shaking with fear, he looks up to His God and in His mercy the Lord blesses his faith and obedience by appearing to him. So now Stephen is not only filled with faith by the Spirit, but instead of feeling scared, he's feeling in awe and excited! Stephen had his heart set on "things above" so it was natural for him to "look up".
Colossians 3:1–4, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Please, when you're reading these stories, keep reminding yourself that these people aren't any different then you and I. They're no more special then you are, they weren't given "more faith" then you were. They started out this life as babies just like we did. They were born again as babies in Christ just like we were. They started out with the same questions, fears, doubts and frustrations that we did.
This is what drew me to Christ in the first place. Because I knew that about these people and wanted to know why we didn't see this happening now with people who are saved. I knew that it couldn't be because God had changed, because He doesn't change. So it had to be the people. But we know that people don't change--they just get more evil if left to their own devices. So why weren't people who were saved now acting like these people in the bible???? The answer, when the Lord showed it to me, was so simple that it shocked me: Because they hadn't grown up yet; they never become spiritually mature!!!!! Now days people "get saved" and that's the end of their journey, which is really very sad considering that God meant it only as the very beginning of a wonderful adventure. When you look around with your eyes opened by the Lord though, you can see a few people living life today just way these folks in the Bible did. So God is still working, He's still moving, He's still changing hearts and He's still growing people to be more and more like Jesus. It's just that those who allow Him to do so are few and far between now days. They're out there though, I promise! I hope that someday soon I can be counted among them.
Remember what David said:
Acts 2:25–28, David said about him: “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
Psalm 16:8–11, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave,nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
As I said, I know we've talked about many of the other bible's hero's who withstood great trials before so I won't go into them again here. What I would like to do however is leave you with a list of a few of them that you could study on your own whenever you have time or whenever you need to see how they handled things. There are MANY of them so please don't think that the few I give you is all there is! These are the models we should be thinking about and following instead of hanging on the words of celebrities, financial brokers, sports stars, presidents or politicians etc. These are the true heroes. These are the people I want to be like when I grow up!
Stephen: Acts 6:5-Acts 8:3; Acts 11:19–20; Acts 22:12–21
Daniel and his 3 friends: The story about Daniel himself starts in Daniel 1:6;
The story about The Image of Gold and the Fiery Furnace can be found in Daniel 3:1–30
Daniel in the Lions Den can be found in Daniel 6:1–28
Abraham's sacrifice of his son can be found in Genesis 22:1–19
The Temptation of Jesus can be found in Matthew 4:1–11
The story of the disciples being scared because of the storm can be found in Matthew 8:23–27 and Mark 4:35–41
And the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water can be found in Matthew 14:22–36 and John 6:16–24
Some of the passages that show how Paul suffered can be found:
1 Corinthians 4:9–17;
1 Corinthians 15:9–11
2 Corinthians 6:4–10;
2 Corinthians 7:5–6;
2 Corinthians 11:21–33;
2 Corinthians 12:1–15;
Phil. 1:20;
Phil. 2:17
Phil. 3:1–17
Phil.4:18
Acts 13:50–51;
Acts 14:5–7,
Acts 14:19–21
Acts 16:19–24;
Acts 20:18–35
Acts 21:13-27
1 Thes. 2:1–12
Gal. 1:6;
Gal 4:14–20
Gal. 6:17
2 Tim. 4:10-17
And finally for some other ideas too don't forget to check out the great "Hall of Faith" which can be found in Hebrews 11:1–40
Once we have overcome our tendency to avoid or deny the existence of sufferings or trials, we can begin to see that it is possible for us also to deal with any kind of suffering. We serve the same God as Stephen, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are superior examples of believers who cultivated a godly life style and resolutely put God first, not looking to the right or to the left. Those traits prepared them well for the tests and sufferings they endured. They genuinely fit the pattern of Hebrews 12:1–2,
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. The Power of Suffering
Let these examples as well as the many others from scripture motivate you and encourage you. Remember too that our motivation is from our faith in Christ and not from some mysterious thing that is only given to certain "special" people like Stephen or Daniel or or Paul or Abraham etc.
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