A Matter of Life and Death

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 7. And so glad you’re here today. Welcome to Gospel City Church. My name is Micah, worship/creative pastor, but I’m excited to dig into God’s Word. We’ll be looking at Acts 7:54-60 where Stephen is stoned by the Sanhedrin. So we’re finishing what we began last week. And if you’ll remember, there was kind of a shift taking place in Acts chapter 7.

We’re introduced to this man Stephen who is called by the apostles to be a deacon to serve the local body of believers, to serve the widows. And yet he must have been like a sponge in his faith. So he’s just soaking up the Word of God. He’s soaking up the teaching of the apostles. And he becomes this bold defender of the faith. He was a Hellenistic Jew.

So he gets outside the walls of Jerusalem and he begins sharing the message of Jesus Christ in different synagogues. They didn’t like the message that he had to share very much, and yet they couldn’t refute him. It said in Acts 6:10 that they couldn’t withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

And so we said last week, what do you do with someone that you can’t refute? You either have to receive their message as truth, repent and believe, or you get rid of the messenger. You accuse the messenger. That’s precisely what they did, the Jewish leaders did. They arrested him and they came up with four false charges of blasphemy. And they took him before the Sanhedrin and in chapter 7 verse 1 it was said, “Hey, are these things so? Stephen, are these things true?”

And then he went into his masterful speech where he looks at Old Testament history, he looks at Israel’s history. He unlocks for them the Old Testament, ultimately pointing to them and saying, “You are the ones guilty of blasphemy. You missed whom everyone was always pointing to, Jesus Christ, and you crucified Him on a cross.” Stephen basically stands before the Sanhedrin and says it’s always all been about Jesus whom you crucified. And you’re stiff-necked and you’re an idol worshiper because you are more concerned with your religiosity than you are the coming Messiah.

Now remember this is the third time before the Sanhedrin where we see the Christians, the believers. So the first time they were let off with a warning. Don’t preach the message of Jesus. Well they were bound to obedience to Christ and they went out boldly and they preached the message of Jesus.

The church began to grow, and they were brought before the Sanhedrin a second time. That time they were beaten and flogged and told not to preach the message. They went and did anyways in boldness. The church begins to grow and now here’s the third time Stephen is before the Sanhedrin. And today he becomes the first martyr in history, the first to die for the faith that you and I enjoy here today.

And the way Stephen spoke to the Sanhedrin last week, it was massively impactful, wasn’t it? I heard from people how it was just awesome to unpack that. I enjoyed unpacking that. But we’ll see today that the way that Stephen is maybe even more impactful. And I was praying about how to approach this passage of Scripture, his death, and there’s probably several different ways you could take it. But as I was praying, I was thinking it’s easy in our humanness to focus on progress, advancement, productivity or staying busy on the mission. So easy that we could focus on those things and msis that the power actually comes from the Spirit of God, doesn’t it?

Even in the book of Acts, it’s such an exciting book. There are so many things happening. There are these bold people rising up and speaking the message in the face of opposition. It’d be easy if we’re not careful, we could miss the beauty that God Himself sent the promise of the Spirit to indwell, to help, to give wisdom and to grant boldness to His followers. Stephen is just an ordinary man and yet he’s filled with an extraordinary power, the power of the Spirit of God.

And when the Spirit of God filled believers at Pentecost, He has never left the church and He is indwelling you here today. The same power that conquered death is alive in you. And so it’s an opportunity for us to operate in the Spirit of God, by the Spirit of God. But today in our text we’ll see that there is a stark difference between those who resist the Holy Spirit and those who are continually being filled by the Spirit of God. The big idea in the text that we’ll look at today is this: How you respond to the Holy Spirit is a matter of life and death. How you respond to the Spirit of God is a matter of life and death.

Remember what Stephen said about the Sanhedrin. They always resisted the Holy Spirit. He accused them of always resisting the Holy Spirit. And today we see exactly what happens when we resist the Spirit of God. And so let’s get our eyes on a copy of God’s Word. Acts 7:54. And I’m going to read it and then we’ll begin digging it apart together.

Now hear the Word of the Lord, Acts 7:54. Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 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 opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
(Acts 7:54-60)

Now four points from our text today, and each of them contrast one another. The first point that we’ll look at is this: Without the Holy Spirit, the truth will enrage us for eternity. Without the Holy Spirit, the truth will enrage us for eternity.

Let’s look at verse 54. It says, Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. So it starts out, “Now when they heard these things.” Stephen had a long speech, didn’t he? He gave this very long speech before the Sanhedrin. They could have stopped him at any point, yet everything he was saying about the Old Testament was something that the Sanhedrin, they loved their history. They loved Israel’s history, Jewish history. They would have agreed with everything he was saying.

He masterfully kind of turned it on the patriarchs. They wouldn’t have known to stop him. It wasn’t until Stephen turned his attention toward the Sanhedrin and said, “You stiff-necked, unclean idol worshippers. You killed the Messiah.” It wasn’t until he shifted his attention there that they understood that Stephen was indeed calling them the blasphemers.

And so do you ever wonder as you read this why Stephen didn’t give them an invitation to respond or an invitation to repent and believe? You wonder that maybe? I’ve heard Pastor Nathan say this statement. Maybe you’ve heard this statement. “A question pricks the conscience, but an accusation hardens the heart.”

When you’re confronting someone with sin, it’s better, it’s often the best to ask them a question regarding the sin issue so that it pricks their conscience. It causes them to think about their sin. It gives them an opportunity to deal with their sin and repent of their sin. An accusation, when you accuse someone it often causes them to rise up and respond with a hard heart. I think as often as possible we should give people the opportunity to repent of their sin, to surrender to the message of Christ.

But I also believe that time and character go hand in hand and show when someone has hardened their hearts so frequently that an accusation is absolutely necessary. You have to think about the Sanhedrin. So they have seen Jesus. Jesus stood before this very Sanhedrin and they’ve heard Jesus’ message. They’ve heard that He is the Messiah. They’ve seen Him heal the sick. They heard about the new covenant. And they took him away and they crucified Him.

Not only that, the Sanhedrin, they’ve heard that Jesus rose from the dead. And they’ve seen this now new following, these emboldened apostles, and this new following. They’ve seen these apostles healing the sick, doing signs and wonders. They’ve heard the message over and over again at this point. Repent and believe. and still they continually show that their hearts were hard and their necks were stiff when it came to the Messiah. And Stephen’s accusation was exposing the reality that was deeply rooted in their hearts.

And so it goes on and it shows us exactly how they responded to these accusations. It says that they were enraged. Other passages, other versions, say that they were cut to the quick or they were furious. Literally in the Greek it means that they were sawn in half or cut into two. It’s as if to say that their polished veneer and their religiosity was now fully exposed. And it was something that they tried very hard to maintain in their pious, ritualistic persona.

We do this kind of thing all the time. It’d be like somebody coming and accusing you of something that you know is true and yet you’re trying to hide the truth. And so rather than confessing and saying, “You know what? I was wrong. I need to deal with my sin.” Rather than confessing your sin and dealing with the accusation, you rise up in anger and you say, “How dare you accuse me of that?” As if to say me getting angry proves my innocence.

It’s kind of funny, right? And yet that’s how we do it. Maybe in your marriage even or in a relationship or you have a friendship where you guys just get in bickering arguments and you kind of argue with one another and your voice eventually rises and you start throwing out insults and you kind of get fired up about something that if we could all just die to ourself we could deal with it. And yet we kind of rise up in anger. We kind of rise up in our Spirit because we’re willing to fight for what we’re willing to protect.

And too often as humans, as sinful human beings, we’re trying to protect our reputation. We’re trying to protect our right to be right. We’re trying to protect how we look in the eyes of others. And so rather than confessing our sinful tendencies, rather than confessing what is in our hearts, we rise up in anger and try to prove that we are innocent.

Now remember, the Sanhedrin, they always resisted the Holy Spirit and this is how they act when they’re confronted with truth. Can I suggest today that when we resist the Holy Spirit of God, we can often act the same way when we are presented with truth? The Holy Spirit wants to reveal sin in your life. The Holy Spirit wants to help you repent of your sin today. The Holy Spirit wants to show you your need to come clean. So when we choose to hide our sin or deny our sin, we are resisting the very power of God that can make us like Christ in our weakness.

This accusation was a chance for them to just bring into the light what has already been exposed. And yet in their anger they tried to cover it up more. Not only were they enraged, but look at verse 54, the end. It says they ground their teeth at him. Can you just picture the seething rage of these Jewish leaders who have been exposed, yet they are unwilling to admit that they’ve been exposed? They’re angry about it. They’re angry at the wisdom and the spirit that Stephen has just given to them, has presented to them.

The language of grinding their teeth is interesting. It’s one that is familiar to Scripture. Consider a couple of verses. Psalm 37:12 says this: The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him. But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

That’s a great representation of what’s happening in Acts chapter 7. You see the wicked. Clearly the Sanhedrin is acting like the wicked. Clearly Stephen is the righteous. The wicked plotted against the righteous. They came up with four charges of blasphemy. They plotted against them. They brought them before the Sanhedrin. And now they’re gnashing their teeth. They’re grinding their teeth in rage at the righteous one.

Look what it says though. The Lord, He laughs at the wicked. Our attempt to cover up the truth in our anger is humorous to God. He’s up there like,”Huh, I’ve seen this all along. Like I’ve seen what you’re trying to keep covered up. I’ve already seen it, and when you stand before me in my holiness, it will all be brought into the light. So now is the opportunity to repent and believe. But the Lord, He laughs because He sees that the day of the wicked is coming. Those who resist the Holy Spirit, those unwilling to deal with the deep rooted sin in their hearts, their day is coming when they stand before the Lord.

Jesus often spoke of hell being a place where the wicked will gnash their teeth for all of eternity. Luke 13:28 says this: In that place, talking about hell, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, the patriarchs, in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves will be cast out.

This gnashing of teeth is a result of anger, hatred and bitterness toward God. Get this. It’s every human being’s response to the holiness of God without the Holy Spirit in your life. To die without the Holy Spirit is to be enraged at truth for eternity in hell and gnash your teeth as God’s holiness reveals your sin, and still you refuse to repent of what has been exposed by the truth.

Hell will be full of angry, stiff-necked people who always resisted and rejected the Holy Spirit. It’s sobering. The Jewish leaders’ response to Stephen was only a fraction of the rage that they would endure for eternity if they continued to resist the Holy Spirit as they proved to on that day.

Time and time again these leaders refused to bring their darkness, their sin, into the light to see Jesus as the Messiah. And their rage, their grinding of the teeth, was only a foreshadow of the rage and the gnashing of teeth that was to come if they were unwilling to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. The same is true for us. May we not resist the Holy Spirit. Without Him we’ll be enraged for all of eternity.

But let’s go to point number two. And we see a stark contrast in Stephen’s response. With the Holy Spirit, we will point to Jesus no matter the opposition. With the Holy Spirit you can point to Jesus no matter what opposes you. Verses 55-56: 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 opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Notice the difference maker in our friend Stephen. The Sanhedrin always resisted the Holy Spirit and they got enraged. Stephen is filled with the Holy Spirit and is peaceful, focused and determined to show them Jesus under opposition.

I think it’s really worth pointing out what Luke recorded Jesus saying back in Luke 12:11-12. Listen to this. Jesus said this: The one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, and when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.

Stephen is living out, in Acts 7, he’s living out exactly what Jesus predicted would happen. The Holy Spirit gave Stephen that wisdom and that spirit with which he spoke. The Holy Spirit enabled Stephen’s boldness and ability to accuse the Sanhedrin through the message of the Old Testament. It was the Holy Spirit’s power in Stephen that made him effective before the Sanhedrin.

We don’t see in the gospels the apostles or any followers of Jesus teaching from the Old Testament because they didn’t get it. It wasn’t until Jesus gave them understanding of the Scriptures and filled them with the Holy Spirit that the truth of all of the Bible was illuminated to their souls. And now Stephen didn’t just have memorized this Old Testament tradition. He had a source that pointed to the Savior who is Christ the Lord, who is the Messiah. It’s the power of the Spirit in Stephen.

And Scripture says he was full of the Spirit. Before we see what he does, I think it begs the question, “How can I be full of the Spirit? How do we as a people be full of the Spirit? Whenever you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit. When you gave your life to Jesus, you had one baptism of the Spirit. He took up residence in your life. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need filled constantly and consistently. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be filled with the Spirit every single day as you wake up.

So clearly Stephen is full of the power of the Spirit of God. How do we be full of the Holy Spirit? I’ve got three things that I want to give to you that are practical. The first one is this: Get under His influence. Get under the influence of the Spirit of God.

Ephesians 5:18 says, Don’t be drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. So to be drunk with wine in Jesus’ day, you would have had to drink a lot of wine. It was super watered down. And so you would have to drink a long time, all day, in order to be drunk. It was a conscious decision to intake something that would slowly but surely take over your mind, your body, your will, your emotions. That’s debauchery to get drunk with wine.

And yet, in the same way, we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The verbiage is to continually be being filled. Every single day is a conscious decision, a consistent decision, to drink in the Spirit of God, to take in the Spirit of God. You have to do something about it. You have to get under His influence by continually submitting yourself to the Spirit of God, filling your mind with the things of the Spirit.

So this might help you. How do you get under His influence? Here’s the second thing so you can be full. Seek the things of the Spirit. How do you get under His influence? You seek the things of the Spirit and you do it consistently and continually every single day.

Colossians 3:2 says, Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

So how do you seek the things of the Spirit? You set your mind on the things of heaven. You set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are right in front of you. Not on the chaos, not on the struggle, not on the suffering, not on the opposition, not on the persecution. You look to the things of the Spirit, the things of heaven.

When we don’t renew our minds as Romans 12 says, we get fixated on the things of earth and we are strengthening our flesh rather than being filled with the Spirit of God. And when we look to Christ in every circumstance, when we memorize Scripture, when we meditate on God’s Word, when we worship the God of glory, when we pray to the God of glory, the Spirit is filling us up. We are taking in the Spirit for a new day, for a new struggle, for a new moment.

It might be as simple as like replacing the music you listen to in your car on the way to work each day. I mean, it sounds simple, but what you take in will eventually come out. What you take in does something to your mindset. And so maybe you need to…I know Van Halen rocks harder, but maybe you need to like put some worship music in your car and turn it up and just set your mind on the things of the Spirit as you drive to work that day. And it could help you in your flesh. It could help you to look to Christ in the midst of everything.

And then the third way how you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. The third way is this: Ask Him to fill you. Ask Him to fill you. Luke 11:13 says, If you then you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

Our Father, He wants us to be under the influence of the Spirit. Our Father wants us to seek the things of the Spirit. Our Father wants to give us the power of the Spirit. And often I just forget to ask. Every single day, every day that your feet hit the ground is an opportunity for you to say, “Come Holy Spirit. Fill me, Holy Spirit hour by hour. Lord, may I not operate in my own strength, but by the strength of the Spirit of God.” When hardship comes, when you’re feeling frustrated, when you’re feeling in your flesh, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up fresh and anew.

Stephen, he shows us in this passage what it looks like to be under the influence of the Spirit of God even in opposition. Let’s look at what he does in verse 55. So he, full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven. The stiff-necked Pharisees couldn’t lift their heads to God. They were obstinate, and rather than looking to God they tried to cover up their false spirituality. Stephen, who was full of the Spirit, lifts his eyes to the heavens under pressure. He lifts his eyes to the hills, for where does his help come? His help comes only from the Lord.

There are so many opportunities for the Sanhedrin to see the God of glory, so many opportunities for them to lift their eyes and look to God. And yet in their stiff-necked…trying not to say naked like I did last week. In their stiff-necked obstinance they look at the problem at hand. They look at what they don’t want to believe in and they won’t lift their eyes. He gazed to heaven.

In the midst of your suffering, in the midst of your battle, in the midst of your pain, lift your eyes to the God of glory. Look what it says. He lifted his eyes, he turned his gaze to heaven and saw the glory of God. That’s amazing. That’s something that not many were privileged to see this side of heaven. Stephen sees the weight of his God. The glory of God is the outward shining of his inward perfection and excellence. God has weight. God is in control. God is all-powerful.

And Stephen in this moment of opposition, he sees God in all of His glory radiating from heaven, radiating in the midst of his opposition, radiating in the midst of persecution. It goes on. He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. When we’re under the influence of the Spirit we see Jesus as the ruling, reigning King in His rightful place.

It’s interesting to note this is the only place in Scripture where we see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Everywhere you’ve probably read or everywhere you’ve probably heard you see that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. Here Jesus is standing.

It begs the interpretation that Jesus is as kind and as compassionate as He has ever been. Stephen in this moment, in this moment, in his final moments, in these moments of persecution and opposition, it’s as if he turned his gaze to heaven and he sees his Savior, His Lord, Jesus, standing on the threshold of heaven in the kingly rightful place. And yet Jesus is looking down and saying, “I’m with you. I’m here. My arms are open. I’m ready to welcome you into heaven and say, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’”

And it’s an example to all of us that whatever we face in this life, whatever you might be going through, whatever pain, whatever circumstance, whatever hardship, when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit we can point to Jesus regardless of the opposition and know that Jesus is King, but He’s also the compassionate friend of sinners. It’s beautiful.

And Stephen, he doesn’t just look into heaven. He doesn’t stop the mission that he is on. As long as he’s breathing, he has work to do. And so as he’s standing there against his opposer in verse 56, he says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God even in the face of the seething, teeth grinding Sanhedrin, Stephen stays on mission of pointing them to Jesus as King.

And because he is under the influence of the Spirit of God, he remains faithful to the message of Christ in the face of opposition, and so can we. If we’re full of the Spirit we can stay faithful to the mission, the point of every single day, and that’s pointing others to Jesus Christ, showing others that Jesus Christ is King and Lord and the God of glory is reigning and in control. And so I can constantly turn my gaze to heaven and point others to Christ.

Let’s keep going. The third thing that we see in the text is without the Holy Spirit we will silence truth with a false sense of justice. Without the Holy Spirit you’ll silence truth with a false sense of justice.

Verse 57-58 says, But they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped up their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. (Acts 7:57-58)

So we thought they were angry before, but Stephen in his Spirit-filled boldness pushes them over the edge. It was Stephen declaring that he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s interesting to note that Jesus, He would have stood before this very Sanhedrin not long ago. And in Luke chapter 22, Jesus is before the Sanhedrin and He says this: The Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God (Luke 22:69). And it’s then that we see the enraged Sanhedrin, falsely accuse Him, beat Him, take Him to the cross, crucify Him and murder Him for something He never committed.

Why does the Sanhedrin lose their absolute mind whenever somebody says that Jesus will be at the right hand of God or Jesus is standing at the right hand of God? Because the Sanhedrin, the world does not want Jesus to be King. The world does not want to bow to Jesus as King. So without the Holy Spirit showing us that Jesus truly is the King, we will silence the truth with a false sense of justice.

It’s an incredible moment when Stephen looks to heaven and sees Jesus there. It’s a confirmation of exactly what Jesus said. He would rise from the dead and He’d be seated in the place of power as King. And Stepehn confirms it when he looks to heaven and sees Jesus in the place of power as King. And the world doesn’t want to hear that. And so they stopped up their ears it says. The Sanhedrin and its mob would hear no more.

You see how immature we actually are in our flesh without the Spirit of God. They’re throwing an absolute tantrum. They’re grinding their teeth and they’re enraged and they’re plugging their ears like your two-year-old might do. The truth that ripped their religiosity to shreds was too much to handle. And you either have to surrender, repent and believe or you’ll do whatever it takes to put an end to the truth.

And the world outside of the church does this all the time. The world is constantly stopping up their ears to the message that Jesus is King. The reality is that most of the world, most of Michiana, does not wake up on Sunday morning and come to this place where they hear these truths. Most people don’t want to come into a place like this and hear that Jesus is King or hear the message of salvation to repent and believe.

The family holiday gatherings are coming up. And many of you know you’re going to go over to dinner at family member’s houses, and there are people in those families who are going to say, “Hey, don’t bring your religious stuff into here. Don’t bring your religious values. No one really wants to hear what you have to say about Jesus. Can you just keep it on the DL?” And you get that.

People don’t want…they want to stop up their ears to anything that has to do with them changing anything morally until it comes time to pray for the turkey and the Thanksgiving dinner, right? And they’re going to turn to you probably and they’re gonna say, “Brother, can you pray for us today?” And you don’t have to accuse them of anything, but you know it’s true right?

And it’s an opportunity for you to in grace and in love, just like Stephen, to stand before those people and to just pray a gospel-centered prayer, to pray a prayer that gives hope, to pray a prayer that thanks Jesus Christ for all that He has done for the blood that can be applied to our sin, and that if we repent and believe in Jesus as Lord, we can be saved. And as you pray those prayers, all you have to do is be loving and compassionate and kind and you rely on the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do- plant seeds, water seeds, save the lost.

So we walk into all these places, no matter where it is, no matter where you face the opposition or the stopping up of ears, and with grace and kindness and love, you preach and point people to Jesus. It’s what they to Jesus. They couldn’t find anything wrong with Him nor could they stand the wisdom and the Spirit that broke down their hypocritical ritualistic spirituality, so they crucified Him on a cross. And they jumped through just enough self-righteous hoops to appease their false sense of justice as they delivered Him over to His death.

Here they do the same thing with Stephen. Look what it says in the text. They rushed at him, they cast him out of the city, and they began to stone him. It was murder. It was wrong. And yet they’re trying to make it seem as if it was civil, as if it was judicial.

Interesting in Leviticus…so in Old Testament Jewish law it was said that if someone was accused, or rightfully accused, of blaspheming God, you would seize that person, take them outside of the tent or outside of the city, and you would stone them to death. There was an orderly way of stoning somebody. It’s crazy. And yet the law also said, “Thou shalt not murder.”

And so Stephen, he wasn’t accused, he wasn’t condemned as a blasphemer. If anything, he proved that he wasn’t a blasphemer, that he was innocent. And yet here the enraged Sanhedrin, they seize him and grab him. They lose their minds. This was not orderly. This was like a mob attack. And they grab him, they carry him out of the city so that they can stone him.

Stephen had proven that he was not a blasphemer, thus proving they had no right to murder him. And yet the enraged, they drag him off, begin hurling rocks at his head. And in their self-righteousness they tried to give Stephen’s death the appearance of formal justice. You see how deceived they were. They’re trying to make it look like, “Oh, we’ll do some things according to the law just to justify our sin.” That’s such a hypocritical thing, a self-righteous thing. And it says that they laid down their garments at the feet of Saul.

So without the Spirit of God we are deceived into believing we are right when we are blatantly and obviously wrong. That’s how deceptive sin is in our lives. That’s how deceptive pride and self-righteousness is in our lives. The pride and self-righteousness of the Sanhedrin is the same pride and self-righteousness that I can wake up in and live in every single day.

Pride, it makes us fault-finding. Pride gives us a harsh spirit toward others. Pride makes us superficial. Pride makes us defensive. Pride makes us desperate for attention. Pride causes us to neglect others. If you do any of those things, you might be a prideful, self-righteous person. And we have to cast it off. We have to extract it. We have to bring it into the light, repent of it and turn from it and know that Jesus paid it all so that we could live in the spirit and not that flesh.

Even the slight order of taking Stephen outside of the city and laying down their robes at Saul’s feet show us where their allegiance lied. And it was with man rather than God. and you hear about Saul. Here’s this man standing there. In chapter 8 verse 1 it says that Saul approved of Stephen’s death. So he’s standing there; the mob is attacking. They’re laying down their coats probably so they could throw rocks better, but also in self-righteousness, allegiance to a man. They lay down their coats and Saul stands there.

It’s fascinating how God works out the pieces, but Saul is someone that God is going to radically redeem and use to build His church, to take the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. Spoiler alert: Saul becomes Paul. We’re going to get to that in the New Year, and it’s fascinating. God is amazing. But God can take the worst of sinners, the most offensive person, the greatest opposition to His church, and God can change him and redeem him and use him for His glory. He can do the same in our lives if we’re willing to repent and believe and call upon the Holy Spirit to save us.

It moves us into point number four. Again, in contrast to the Sanhedrin, with the Holy Spirit we can be like Jesus even if it cost our life. With the Holy Spirit we can be like Jesus even if it cost our life. 59 and 60: And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this he fell asleep (Acts 7:59-60).

Here we see maybe the most impactful moment of all that we know about Stephen. In his dying moments as rocks are being hurled at his body we see Stephen full of the Holy Spirit in the most remarkable way possible. It’s almost as if he was a direct reflection of Christ in this moment, and that is what the Holy Spirit does for the believer. It helps us reflect Jesus Christ. It helps us become like Jesus Christ. It points us to Jesus Christ.

And notice Stephen. He doesn’t pray, “God, save me! God, get me out of this! God, protect me from my enemies!” That wasn’t Stephen’s prayer. Stephen doesn’t ask that God would save him but that God would save the ones who are killing him. And it’s in that beautiful moment you see Stephen had a love for the Sandhedrin. Stephen had a love for the lost people. Stephen had a love for his enemies, for his opposers, for his persecutors. Stephen didn’t accuse the Sanhedrin to condemn them, but to call them to righteousness.

And the only way someone could possibly have this much grace, courage, faith is if they are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Do you have that much grace, courage, compassion? I can get mad and frustrated when my kids throw Cheerios on the ground, let alone people throwing rocks at my head. And Stephen, he demonstrates to the fullest what life under the influence of the Spirit of God is capable of.

Notice Stephen prays two prayers in his dying moments, and they’re the same prayers that Jesus prayed when He was on the cross. Amazing.

Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

And Jesus in His dying moments on the cross said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Stephen said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them,” his accusers, his enemies.

And Jesus on the cross said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Stephen figured out the meaning to life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Stephen modeled what he preached from the Old Testament to the Sanhedrin. He modeled that it’s always all been about Jesus. And if Joseph was like Christ and if Moses was like Christ, and if the temple pointed to Christ, and if the law helped us love Christ and if Christ came, suffered and died a death He didn’t deserve and rose again, giving us the message of hope for all the world, then I’ll be like the faithful men of old and point to Jesus and forgive like Jesus and love like Jesus even if it cost me my life.

Notice in the text it says that he fell asleep. After he prayed these two prayers, these Christlike prayers, he fell asleep peacefully. Stephen left this earth for the presence of his Lord and God. You realize what a chaotic moment that was- enraged Sanhedrin throwing rocks at him- and yet it describes his death as falling asleep. It’s a beautiful way to describe the death of a believer. When we die with Christ as our King, we merely fall asleep to the pain, the trouble, the brokenness of this world, only to wake up in eternal perfection and glory.

2 Corinthians 2:8 says, To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Now at the beginning of the message I said the big idea for this passage is how you respond to the Holy Spirit is a matter of life and death. Do you see the irony in that statement concerning this passage? To the world it appears like Stephen lost. To the world it appears like the Sanhedrin has won. Stephen died; the Sanhedrin lived. God didn’t spare Stephen; God spared the Sanhedrin.

And yet we see why the difference maker, the Holy Spirit means everything. To die with the Spirit of God is to merely fall asleep to this world and to live for all of eternity. To die resisting and rejecting the Holy Spirit is to gnaw and gnash your teeth forever in hell fully exposed yet unable and unwilling to repent. So may we not resist the Holy Spirit. May we long for the Spirit of God to fill us, to help us be like Christ. May we get under His influence. May we seek the things of the Spirit. May we ask the Holy Spirit of God to fill us up every single day.

Sometimes when we talk about persecution and opposition of the faith, it’s almost humorous when you read these passages and then you think about how comfortable our lives are when it comes to faith. How much opposition of the faith do we really face? How much persecution for the faith do we really face? And yet everybody in this room faces hard things. Everyone in this room faces suffering and hurt and pain.

Between services there was a group of people, a family in our church, going through massive heartache, massive suffering. As the Body of believers we were family gathered in the loft and they were praying bold prayers over this family. They’re going through hard things. How do we look to Christ, turn our gaze to heaven, in the midst of the suffering, in the midst of the pain, in the midst of opposition? It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit. And not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.

And you know that often so much smaller of things in our lives cause us to operate in the flesh, don’t they? It’s so easy to stay fixated on what we don’t see, to walk by sight rather than by faith. And so every day, hour by hour, moment by moment, circumstance by circumstance, we have to say, “Holy Spirit, fill me fresh and anew.” We have to make a conscious decision to come under the influence of the Spirit of God.

He wants to control you. He wants to move you. He wants to help you. He wants to shape you and mold you and fill you. Are you submitting to Him every single day as we see Stephen?

C’mon, let’s stand to our feet. Let’s pray. We’re going to respond together. Let’s pray to the Lord. Father, we come and we just magnify You. You are the God of glory. And we thank You for sending Your perfect Son Jesus who is the name above every name, the name at which we are saved, at which every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

But Lord, we thank you that Jesus as He is seated in HIs rightful place as King. you didn’t leave us on our own, but you sent forth the promise of heaven, the Spirit of God, to take up residence in our lives, to take up residence in the life of your followers and to shape us and to convict us and to make us like Christ.

God, would you help us in our moments of weakness? Would you help us in opposition? Would you help us when the heat gets turned up to turn our gaze to heaven, to look to the God of glory? To see that Jesus is truly King and in His rightful place. And Lord, would you help us regardless of the opposition, regardless of the pain, to point others to Jesus at all costs? Lord, would you make us like Jesus at all costs even if it cost our life?

Lord God, we can operate that way. We can think that way by the power of the Spirit of God. So we thank you that you haven’t left us on our own. We thank you that you, a triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is constantly working on our behalf. And Lord, here in this place today we say that we will submit to you. We will follow you. We will trust in you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.