SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with the world in need of hope.
SPEAKER_00: For more resources, articles, and updates, visit us online at enduringgrace.com.
SPEAKER_00: And now, here is this week's message.
SPEAKER_02: If you have your Bibles this morning, I would love to encourage you to go ahead and take them and turn to the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to be in Acts chapter 6 here this morning, here in just a few minutes, but we've got a lot of scripture to cover.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to ask that you buckle up and you listen close because we are covering verses uh chapter 6, verse 8, all the way through chapter 7, verse 60 this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I promise we'll be out in time for lunch.
SPEAKER_02: We might not beat everybody, but we'll beat in time for lunch, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yesterday was incredible.
SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you everyone that uh helped make that possible.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Jamie Children's Committee, for planning and putting that together.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it was absolutely incredible.
SPEAKER_02: And as you can see, your pastor is the dumb one that does not put sunscreen on when the sun starts getting brighter.
SPEAKER_02: And so I am very red this morning.
SPEAKER_02: It's not because I'm embarrassed or I'm too hot, it's just that I am fried like a tomato.
SPEAKER_02: Um, and so I learned a valuable lesson yesterday that I will not heed again next time, obviously.
SPEAKER_02: Because I got like to get sunburned, apparently.
SPEAKER_02: But that's okay.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna have a wonderful time this morning in God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Hasn't it been awesome to celebrate five baptisms today?
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: We had four baptisms last week, so we've had nine baptisms in two Sundays.
SPEAKER_02: It's incredible what God is doing.
SPEAKER_02: And if you've been on the fence, I would love to baptize you next week.
SPEAKER_02: So come on down after the service.
SPEAKER_02: That's all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02: Because there is a great movement of God that we're seeing all across America.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we see this in really the younger generation.
SPEAKER_02: These young men are a great testimony because young men are flocking to the church, and we've seen record Bible cells uh in high, high numbers over the last year.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if you follow any of the guys that do the gin uh next gen ministries, they're telling you that they there is a movement of God all across our country in youth, and so we want to pray that that continues.
SPEAKER_02: Um, we have saw uh young people testifying that they are trusting in Christ this morning.
SPEAKER_02: We saw young men testifying that they're trusting Christ last week.
SPEAKER_02: And what we're going to see is that we have another young man in Stephen who is testifying of Jesus in our text this morning.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't remember, Stephen is one of the seven chosen of the Hellenistic Jews, the Greek-speaking Jews that we saw last week.
SPEAKER_02: He has been selected to serve tables, but we know that he's an able man full of the Holy Spirit, and as a result, people get jealous.
SPEAKER_02: And what we've seen repeatedly in Scripture is when the Pharisees, Sadducees, and those in charge get jealous, they attack those that they are jealous of, which so often occurs.
SPEAKER_02: And so this morning, what we're going to see in Stephen's life is three lessons that applies to us as believers that we can learn from and replicate through the power of a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm going to encourage you, if you found your place in Acts chapter 6, to stand in the honor of reading God's Word.
SPEAKER_02: We're only going to read verses 8 through 15, and then we will tackle the other text as we come to them.
SPEAKER_02: And we love to say word here when we find our place in God's Word, because we love God's Word.
SPEAKER_02: So if you found your place, would you say word?
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read these verses together.
SPEAKER_02: It says, starting with verse 8, and Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
SPEAKER_02: Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Syria Syrians and the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilcia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
SPEAKER_02: But they would not withstand the wisdom of the and the spirit with which he was speaking.
SPEAKER_02: Then they secretly instigated men, who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I just want to ask that you would speak to our hearts, that you would speak through the your word to change us, to encourage us to faithfulness, Lord, that we would not be led astray, that we would be men of and women of faith like Stephen, that we would reflect his love for you, to the world around us, that we would not be deceived in who you are or what you've called us to, Father.
SPEAKER_02: May you move in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_02: This morning, the first thing I want us to see of these three lessons from Stephen's life is that you can shine with his presence.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, the he or his in this text is Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can shine with Jesus' presence.
SPEAKER_02: We see this in Stephen's life.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 15 again, if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_02: It says, And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know about you, but there are some times when you run into people that they just seem different.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever ever had that interaction with someone where you start talking to them and you can just tell there's a little something different about them than most people?
SPEAKER_02: And as you talk, you find out, oh, they're a Christian and they're irradiating Jesus' love.
SPEAKER_02: I've had that happen on many occasions over the years, and what I would hope is that you are one of those people also that when people come in contact with you, they're quick to say, there is something a little different about this person.
SPEAKER_02: Because that is Stephen's testimony here in these first few verses, is that he shone a light that was different.
SPEAKER_02: He shined like a face of an angel.
SPEAKER_02: And if you think back to the Old Testament, which we're going to get into a lot of Old Testament here as Stephen begins to speak, is that Moses too shone like an angel.
SPEAKER_02: He shone radiance of meeting with God.
SPEAKER_02: And we see this in uh Exodus chapter 34, uh, really playing out on Sinai as Moses would come down from the mountain.
SPEAKER_02: He would shine so brightly that they had him cover his face because they did not feel comfortable being in front of him.
SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it was like for Moses to meet with God, that he shone so brightly that people were uncomfortable to be around him.
SPEAKER_02: Here's Stephen being falsely accused, who is radiating the same kind of glory, which is the glory that only comes from God.
SPEAKER_02: He is reflecting God's love in a way that the other people can't help but see.
SPEAKER_02: And think about the context in which he is in.
SPEAKER_02: He's in a very dark place of a group of men who hate Jesus, who want to snuff out the very light of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And do you know what is so powerful about darkness?
SPEAKER_02: When you turn a light on, it goes away very quickly.
SPEAKER_02: It reveals all that's there.
SPEAKER_02: My kids uh love aquatic animals, and I grew up loving aquatic animals.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we took Archer for his birthday to the aquarium down in Charleston, and so as we're sitting here looking at all these animals, that one of the coolest things I think about that Charleston aquarium is it's got the deepest uh uh American United States aquarium in the whole United States.
SPEAKER_02: Like it's the deepest actual aquarium.
SPEAKER_02: And so it it just spurred my mind to think about the very deep, very deep, we're talking three to thirteen thousand uh feet underwater animals.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the crazy things about the animals down there is not only do they withstand the incredible pressure of the water that's all around them, they also, many of them, most of them, have the ability to use bioluminescence.
SPEAKER_02: One of these is the anglerfish.
SPEAKER_02: If you're familiar with the anglerfish, they're quite ugly.
SPEAKER_02: You might remember it, kids, from finding Nemo when uh uh Nemo or sorry, uh when Dory and all of them are down deep in the water and they're trying to figure out where they're going, and they see this nice glowing light, and you might remember Dory going up and going, ooh, pretty light.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's bioluminescence.
SPEAKER_02: And that anglerfish is using it for a purpose to draw that fish in so that it can eat Dory.
SPEAKER_02: That's not a good thing, right?
SPEAKER_02: Not for Dory.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing is that we are to shine the light of Christ for a purpose, not to eat people, thank God, right?
SPEAKER_02: But to instead invite people to know the one true God who loves them, to show them the way of hope, the way of radiance.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen is doing that with his life.
SPEAKER_02: He is reflecting the truth of God to a people who are in a dark, sick and dying world, just like we are.
SPEAKER_02: We're in a dark, sick and dying world.
SPEAKER_02: But here's the thing about Stephen is that the reason why they'd want him on trial, that they're lying about him, is because of verse 10.
SPEAKER_02: It says, But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, they couldn't beat him in an argument.
SPEAKER_02: They couldn't justify their own actions because his wisdom exceeded their own.
SPEAKER_02: Because they knew he knew God's word, as we're going to see here in just a moment.
SPEAKER_02: He understood who God was, he understood God's purpose, and he understood that he was called to testify of the goodness of God just like we are.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta remember, Stephen is not an apostle.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen is a called, set apart man of God who was identified for his faithfulness, for his wisdom, that he was full of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: He was a lay person in the church just like you.
SPEAKER_02: This is the Stephen that we're studying this morning.
SPEAKER_02: The faithfulness of a man who had met with Jesus and follows Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so what we see is that you can shine with his presence when you have a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And that relationship with Jesus allows you to withstand the pressures of the outside world, it allows you to be able to withstand false accusations like Stephen.
SPEAKER_02: And it allows you to be a testimony to the world around you as you testify of the truth of who God is.
SPEAKER_02: So not only do we see in our text that we can shine with his presence, secondly, as we look at the verses one through fifty-three in chapter seven, is that you and I can speak with his power, with Jesus' power when we have that relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse one through sixteen.
SPEAKER_02: Says, and the high priest said, Are these things so?
SPEAKER_02: So the accusation is that he is saying that uh basically blasphemy Moses, saying that Moses is going to be done away with, that his law is no good, that this temple is no good.
SPEAKER_02: So therefore you are going to have everything destroyed.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so he asked, Is this these things true?
SPEAKER_02: This is Stephen's response.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_02: And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.
SPEAKER_02: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.
SPEAKER_02: Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_02: And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
SPEAKER_02: Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
SPEAKER_02: And God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and inflict them four hundred years.
SPEAKER_02: But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.
SPEAKER_02: And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
SPEAKER_02: And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him, and rescued him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all of his household.
SPEAKER_02: Now there came a famine through all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
SPEAKER_02: But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our father on their first visit.
SPEAKER_02: And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_02: And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.
SPEAKER_02: And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers.
SPEAKER_02: And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in a tomb in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamar, or Homer, in Shechem.
SPEAKER_02: And so we'll stop right there.
SPEAKER_02: So what we see is that he then begins a history lesson of sorts.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen goes, Okay, my accusation is I'm speaking falsely.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to take you through a journey.
SPEAKER_02: He starts with Abraham, and as we will see, he keeps going because he is going to talk about four specific covenant moments in the history of the Jews.
SPEAKER_02: First with Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: We call it the Abrahamic covenant.
SPEAKER_02: And what we see is that God called Abraham out of Ur, and it led to ultimately Joseph and the people of Israel, the Hebrew men of Abraham's descent, inside of Egypt, where they would be in captivity for 400 years.
SPEAKER_02: This covenant is one that is interesting to me personally, simply because Abraham has promised something that he does not receive in full, but his descendants do.
SPEAKER_02: It's one that's further along.
SPEAKER_02: But also in this text, what we see is that also, while we have the Abrahamic covenant between God and a person, we also see that you have Abraham's obedience, that God was with Abraham outside of the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: So Stephen is sitting here arguing, saying, hey, look, it was not God with Abraham in Ur when he first started meeting with him.
SPEAKER_02: But not only was he there, he was also with him as a nomad as he traveled.
SPEAKER_02: God continued to be with Abraham.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a relationship that Abraham had with God even though he wasn't in this temple.
SPEAKER_02: But also he reveals that there is one in the patriarchic line, the patriarch line in Joseph that was rejected by his peers.
SPEAKER_02: Just like Jesus was.
SPEAKER_02: Church is not a place, it's a people.
SPEAKER_02: And it's a people that have a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That means that we have the Lord with us everywhere we go.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the whole point that Stephen's making as he outlines the rest of these texts is that Jesus, God, is with his people when they have a relationship with him, and it doesn't matter where they are, it doesn't matter where they're gathered, it is the church who gathers together for the purpose of worshiping the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We gather together for encouragement, for equipping, so that we can go and be the church with Jesus outside these walls.
SPEAKER_02: But not only do we see that, next he introduces us to the cyanadic covenant in Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Look at the next set of verses in verses 17 through 43.
SPEAKER_02: 17.
SPEAKER_02: But at but as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.
SPEAKER_02: He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.
SPEAKER_02: At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God's sight, and he was brought up for three months in his father's house, and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
SPEAKER_02: Notice that he's already said Moses was beautiful in God's eyes, and that God has now preserved his life by allowing Pharaoh's daughter to adopt him when he should have been killed.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
SPEAKER_02: When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.
SPEAKER_02: He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.
SPEAKER_02: But they did not understand.
SPEAKER_02: Notice Moses was trying to help his brothers, not harm them, trying to give them freedom, not trying to enslave them.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_02: And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brothers.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you wrong each other?
SPEAKER_02: But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
SPEAKER_02: Has that ever happened to you where someone you were trying to help just really just got in your face about it?
SPEAKER_02: It can happen.
SPEAKER_02: And here, Moses is being pushed aside by another man who he's trying to help yet again.
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptians yesterday?
SPEAKER_02: At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when forty years had passed, hey guys, just FYI, Moses is 80 years old when this is taking place.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're under 80, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: You're definitely not done.
SPEAKER_02: If you're in your 80s, Moses did a whole lot after this point.
SPEAKER_02: So you're not done either, right?
SPEAKER_02: Encouragement for our older folks.
SPEAKER_02: Remain faithful.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of fire in a bush.
SPEAKER_02: When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.
SPEAKER_02: And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and Moses trembled and did not dare to look.
SPEAKER_02: You notice Stephen is drawing out that the presence of God took form in a bush.
SPEAKER_02: In a wilderness, nowhere close to where the temple is at the moment.
SPEAKER_02: He's saying God met with Moses on a mountaintop.
SPEAKER_02: He met Moses in the wilderness in a burning bush.
SPEAKER_02: I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac, and of Jacob and Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Trembled, and Moses trembled and did not dare to look.
SPEAKER_02: He had the fear of the Lord upon him.
SPEAKER_02: Then the Lord said to him, Take off the sandals from your feet, for this place where you are standing is holy ground.
SPEAKER_02: I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them, and now come, I will send you to Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge?
SPEAKER_02: This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Once again, Moses was rejected by his own people at the time.
SPEAKER_02: Forty years later, God is sending him back as the redeemer and the freeing man, the man who's going to help lead the people of God, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: God was not done using Moses.
SPEAKER_02: Moses is a man who is going to have influence over Israel.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 36.
SPEAKER_02: This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, he is quoting Moses for the purpose of reminding them that there was someone coming like Moses, that Moses himself prophesied.
SPEAKER_02: The one that you're saying, I'm blaspheming, I'm telling you, I'm using as a source for telling you that this Jesus is the man that Moses was talking about.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 38.
SPEAKER_02: This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers.
SPEAKER_02: He received living oracles to give to us.
SPEAKER_02: Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, the people of God, the Israelites, rejected Moses and went right back to the idolatry in the wilderness at Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_02: While Moses was meeting with God, the people of God were worshiping idols.
SPEAKER_02: He was still rejected.
SPEAKER_02: Even though he is one of the greats that they were looking up to, he's reminding them that even in that moment the people of God were resisting Moses and the truth that he was bringing to them.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 40, saying to Aaron, make for us gods who will go before us.
SPEAKER_02: As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
SPEAKER_02: And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifices or sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
SPEAKER_02: But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven.
SPEAKER_02: As it is written in the book of the prophets, did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
SPEAKER_02: You took up the tent of Mo Maloch and the star of your God Raphan, the images that you made to worship, and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.
SPEAKER_02: Our fathers had the tent of witnesses in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.
SPEAKER_02: Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispose or when they disposed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.
SPEAKER_02: So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
SPEAKER_02: So he outlines that God was with our people through and in Moses in the wilderness, not in a specific place.
SPEAKER_02: While we had a place we worshiped God, God spoke to Moses intentionally in a special place on Mount Sinai where he met with God.
SPEAKER_02: That this relationship with God is not limited to a specific place.
SPEAKER_02: He spoke to Moses in Egypt and to Median and also Sinai.
SPEAKER_02: And ultimately, Moses served as the rejected servant in much of his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: As Israel, the Israelites rejected over and over God and disobeyed God and got them stuck in the wilderness for 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: And even when they got into the promised land, they still didn't follow all of God's instructions to the T.
SPEAKER_02: There was rebellion that kept rising up.
SPEAKER_02: But then there's also the Davidic covenant that we see that starts unfolding in verse 46.
SPEAKER_02: He says that is that David, finding favor in the sight of the Lord, asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built a house for him.
SPEAKER_02: Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hand, as the prophet says.
SPEAKER_02: Notice what he says.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Even though the temple was built, our God does not dwell in a house.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the prophet says, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
SPEAKER_02: What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?
SPEAKER_02: Or what is the place of my rest?
SPEAKER_02: God reminds all of us through the prophet's words that he reigns sovereign over all things, that there is no place that can contain God, because God is omnipresent.
SPEAKER_02: He is everywhere at all times.
SPEAKER_02: He is beside you when you're doing bad.
SPEAKER_02: He's beside you when you're doing good.
SPEAKER_02: He's beside you when you are crying.
SPEAKER_02: He's beside you and with you when you're glad.
SPEAKER_02: But our God is sovereign in all things.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 50.
SPEAKER_02: Did not my hand make all these things?
SPEAKER_02: God reminds us that he made it all.
SPEAKER_02: And so what we see in the Davidic covenant is that God's presence, while it is in Solomon's temple, it is so much more than that.
SPEAKER_02: It is encompassing the entire world.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing that God does not see or does not know because he is in all places.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, also what we see ultimately is that these prophets are rejected by the people of God.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, Israel went back to idol worship.
SPEAKER_02: Even though they had a temple, they fled to idols, the Asheras, the Baals, and they worshiped the false idols yet again.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, that's the reason why they got thrown into captivity.
SPEAKER_02: Babylon came in and defeated them, was because they had rejected God.
SPEAKER_02: And as a result, the prophets testified of the goodness of God, but they were rejected.
SPEAKER_02: And then what we see is that Stephen introduces them to the new covenant, the covenant between God and those who trust in Christ for salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verses 51 through 53.
SPEAKER_02: It says, You stiff-necked people.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's stop right there, real quick, because we all know some stiff-necked people, but we might not understand what he's talking about to the fullest extent.
SPEAKER_02: This actually comes from language that they would use talking about oxes that would not, would not cooperate when they put the yoke on.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, they would resist the yoke and they would stiffen up, they would be stiff-necked, and they would be stubborn.
SPEAKER_02: They wouldn't do anything.
SPEAKER_02: They were useless for farming.
SPEAKER_02: And let me tell you, an ox that is useless for farming is a useless ox.
SPEAKER_02: You can't do anything with it.
SPEAKER_02: So what he's saying is, you stiff-necked people, you ox that are stiff that resist the yoke of God.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: As your fathers did, so do you.
SPEAKER_02: He says, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I just gave you a bunch of examples.
SPEAKER_02: You're always the negative person in these examples.
SPEAKER_02: Whether it was Joseph's brothers, or whether it's the prophets or the people that rejected the prophets, you are resisting Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You're a stiff-necked people, the people who resist the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
SPEAKER_02: He says, hey, which of the prophets did not have trouble from your fathers?
SPEAKER_02: They all had problems from your fathers.
SPEAKER_02: But not only that, he says, and they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and murdered.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Those prophets that you say you know so well, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: You talk about them, but you kill the man they talked about.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You don't listen to the prophet yourself.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just your fathers that didn't listen.
SPEAKER_02: You're not listening.
SPEAKER_02: He's pleading with them, essentially.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 53.
SPEAKER_02: You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.
SPEAKER_02: He says, you have the very law and yet you can't keep it.
SPEAKER_01: You have the truth and you do not follow it.
SPEAKER_01: Because you do not accept Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The whole purpose of his testimony here, we see his wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: We see that he loved God, loved his word enough to understand it so that he could tell the people the right way to believe and understand it.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Spirit was guiding his steps all along the way.
SPEAKER_02: Because he had met with God and became a follower of Jesus and he loved the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He was able to stand his ground in the face of opposition.
SPEAKER_02: You and I have been called to not resist what God is doing, but to come alongside God and follow him and pursue him fully alongside him, not saying, I haven't done it that way before.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to do it that way.
SPEAKER_02: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Companies that don't do it, don't adapt, they die.
SPEAKER_02: Look no further than Kodak.
SPEAKER_02: Now you might not remember Kodak, some of you young people in the room, because you're probably thinking, what is that?
SPEAKER_02: It was a company that specialized in photography.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, they were in the chemical business, they were in the Lightroom business where you would actually mix the chemicals with the film so that you could uh get them developed in that room.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, my dad used to do all that with printing, and all the stuff came from Kodak.
SPEAKER_02: They were very popular.
SPEAKER_02: But what many people might not know is that actually a man at Kodak named Sanson, he developed the first digital camera.
SPEAKER_02: It was like a toaster with a little lens, and it shot like 0.001 megapixels.
SPEAKER_02: That's absolutely awful, but it was a first.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what happened with that company?
SPEAKER_02: That company said, that's a threat to our business model.
SPEAKER_02: We're not going to pursue it.
SPEAKER_02: They had the patent for it, but they didn't pursue it.
SPEAKER_02: That was in 1975.
SPEAKER_02: In 2012, they filed bankruptcy because they never adapted.
SPEAKER_02: Churches that do not adapt in how they reach people die.
SPEAKER_02: Look no further than England.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot be a church that is not willing to do whatever it takes to reach some for the glory of the Lord like Paul did, like the early church did.
SPEAKER_02: Doesn't mean we ever compromise on truth.
SPEAKER_02: But what it means is that we get strategic and we go to where people are and we minister to those people.
SPEAKER_02: That's the whole reason why we have a focus on one more this year.
SPEAKER_02: Because every single one of us has influence over at least one person that doesn't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And we want to share Jesus with them because there is no greater hope than Jesus, as we see with Stephen's sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: So not only do we see that in the life of Stephen, that we see him speak with the power that God has given him, and that he shined with the presence of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Lastly, what we see is that we are called to surrender to his purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Very quickly, let's look at verses 54 through 60.
SPEAKER_02: It says, Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him.
SPEAKER_02: But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
SPEAKER_02: Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
SPEAKER_02: And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
SPEAKER_02: And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, listen to Stephen's word, says he's dying.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
SPEAKER_02: And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
SPEAKER_01: Stephen's own death is reflective of Jesus' death on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: That he was willing to pray that God not hold this sin against them because they were deaf people and incapable of understanding what they were doing because they were blinded by their own hate.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen was totally surrendered to the purpose of giving God glory with his life, no matter the cost.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't care if it meant that he had to die.
SPEAKER_02: He was going to stand with Jesus because Jesus is better than any other route.
SPEAKER_02: We have a modern day version of this a few years back, back in 2019, there was a very tense courtroom case in Dallas, Texas.
SPEAKER_02: And it was between different races, even.
SPEAKER_02: And Brand Jean stood before a lady named Amber Geiger.
SPEAKER_02: Geiger, the former police officer who had been convicted of taking his brother's life.
SPEAKER_02: In that moment, the judge is about to give the verdict.
SPEAKER_02: Sat on the bench.
SPEAKER_02: Brandt was given the floor for just a moment.
SPEAKER_02: And what he did was he didn't call for retaliation.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't call for someone to uh be punished even further.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, he took his moment to simply say these words.
SPEAKER_02: I love you as a person, and I don't wish anything bad on you.
SPEAKER_02: I personally forgive you.
SPEAKER_02: And I know if you go to God and ask him, he'll forgive you.
SPEAKER_02: To everyone's surprise, what ended up happening is after that, the judge was so moved after after all of it, she ended up giving a Bible and encouraging that person to go to John 3.16 after the courtroom case.
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes we allow our own rage and anger to get in the way of what God really wants us to do, and that is to demonstrate, even in the hardest of situations, to have forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: He was reflecting Christ because he was walking with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Are you reflecting Jesus with surrender today, church?
SPEAKER_02: In order to do that, we must first surrender our entire life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: As we saw the testimony of so many this morning of these five people, they have said yes to surrendering all and trusting Christ alone for their salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen trusted Christ alone for his salvation.
SPEAKER_02: Have you trusted Christ alone for your salvation?
SPEAKER_02: It's simple.
SPEAKER_02: You just cry out and say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: I know I've broken your law.
SPEAKER_02: I know I've lied.
SPEAKER_02: I know I've cheated.
SPEAKER_02: I know that I am not a good person all the time.
SPEAKER_02: I know I'm a broken person in need of someone to fix me.
SPEAKER_02: Save me, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm trusting in the work of Jesus that he died on the cross and he rose from the grave for my sins to be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: You cry out to him, God's word says, He will save.
SPEAKER_02: Will you do that this morning?
SPEAKER_02: For those that have surrendered all.
SPEAKER_02: How's your walk?
SPEAKER_02: When people meet you in the streets, do they see Jesus quickly?
SPEAKER_02: Or do they just see another person just like them walking by?
SPEAKER_02: With every head bowed and eye closed this morning.