Why did Stephen look up to heaven while he was being executed?
WATCH
Sparking the Flame, 7 of 7 from October 18, 2026
“Jesus makes good out of what was meant for evil."
Acts 6:8-8:3 by Ryan Gagnon (@RyGagnon)
SUMMARY
This sermon explores Acts 6 and 7, Stephen faced lies, persecution, and death with boldness because he was filled with the Holy Spirit and focused on Jesus. Pastor Ryan teaches that God used Stephen’s suffering to spread the gospel, showing that what the enemy means for evil, God can turn for good.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 When in your life did it feel like the opposition was too great but you can now see what Jesus was doing more clearly?
💬 Are you serving Christ through serving the local body? If not, why? If so, how?
💬 Who in your life seems hardened to the Gospel? How have you been praying for them?
💬 How are you sharing the way Jesus has redeemed evil for good in your own life?
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What percentage would you guys say wildfires are man made?
We're going to get real interactive real early because it's going to be a really interactive sermon. We're going to. All right. Ding, ding, ding. She got it.
Nice job. Yeah, it's 84 to 90%. Give it up for us. That's what's up. Come on.
Okay, 84 to 90% of forest and wildfires in the US are man made, based on the National Park Service. Now double down. Now we're all just gonna stare at you. What percentage of those would you say are campfires?
10. 10. See, I was gonna put it all on Melissa, but you guys are helping her out. All right, 5%. 15.
Okay, 5% are campfires. So wildfires. Right. And we have a big forest here, so we know a little bit about that. So you have controlled burns.
You have different things going on there. But why would 5% of wildfires happen? Because there were man made campfire accidents. Right. Clearly, the people who are doing this don't know that.
The way that you're going to put out a campfire is when everybody's done, it's time to go to bed, you come over and you just stomp on the thing as hard as you can, Right? What? Hold on. That totally works. You just get up there and just stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp.
And if I stomp like that, I'd fall through this platform. But you just like. That's how you stop a campfire, right? Why not?
I love that. That's what you're concerned about, Ms. Candy, burning my shoes. Okay, I'll take it. Oh, say that again. Embers.
What are embers?
Little coals. Okay, so what happens if I go up and I stomp on the campfire? So then what happens to those embers? Where are those embers gonna go? In my shoes, in the air.
I thought somebody said in my hair. I got real scared. I don't want anything mess with my hair. But yeah, you stomp on this campfire, and if you do that, embers are gonna go everywhere. And what are you gonna end up doing?
Yes, but the right answer is you're gonna be part of that 5%, right? So you're going to start a wildfire there. Okay, so in these past few weeks, we've been going through the book of Acts and Pastor Michael's been leading us through this, and we've been talking about this idea of a sparked flame that Jesus has created when he ascended into heaven. Right? So he ascends into heaven, he tells Them that the Holy Spirit's gonna come.
And after the Holy Spirit comes, we have some crazy stuff going down in Jerusalem. We got people getting healed. We got people coming to know Christ. We got people giving freely of themselves and living in community in, like, a really radically cool way. Lot of stuff is going down now.
While that's happening, though, we've been noticing some pushback. So pushback's been happening over the last couple weeks as we've been studying this. Because there is an enemy. There is an enemy to the gospel. So we talk about the work of Jesus and how Jesus gives of himself, led a sinless life, came down from heaven, was both fully God and fully man, lived with us in a sinless life.
It's so important that we say that. Let's say it together again. Sinless, okay? The reason that that sinless thing is so important is because after he lived a life with his disciples and. And taught them what it was like and how they should live and how they should follow him, he died.
And he died because of us. He chose to be a sacrifice for the sins of the entire world. And that's all the world. That's not just like Marion county, right? It's not just Highlands County.
It's the entire world. He paid for the sins of the entire world because he was. Louder. Sinless. Okay?
That's. It's so important. Okay. So then after he does that, he shows them what it's like, and then he promises that he's gonna return, but he Superman's it up to heaven. They see it happen, and then he tells them, I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit.
I'm gonna send you a helper. And it will make things better for you that you will get this helper. Because this helper will be with you and direct you and will give you the words to speak and will pull you along in the way that you need to go.
So now the city of Jerusalem is ablaze at this point with the gospel. Thousands and thousands of people have come to know Jesus in the city of Jerusalem. Amazing stuff is going down, right? The fire's burning, but the enemy is trying to halt this work. Right?
We talked about. Jesus was right in front of the Sanhedrin, Right? Then you had Peter and John in front of the Sanhedrin. That council. Don't worry if that doesn't make any sense to you.
We're gonna get more into it here in a moment. But over and over and over again, there's been pushback to the gospel. But over and over and over again, God has done this really cool thing and he's taken that pushback and he's flipped it on its head and he's turned it for his good over and over and over again. It's really cool. That's our big idea this morning.
The big idea that we're going to be unpacking. My clicker's not working. Can we click through?
There we go. Jesus makes good out of what was meant for evil. Now, you've probably heard this before because it's kind of a big deal what is meant for evil, the thing that the enemy will use to try to stop God's work. Jesus over and over and over again will take that thing, flip it on its head and make it used for good. And we'll cover quite a few scenarios of that happening here this morning.
But before we jump into that, it's our pattern each week to pray the disciples prayer together. Now, the disciples prayer is just Jesus explaining to his disciples, this is how you should pray. So we have it up on the screen. So if you don't have it memorized, that's completely cool. We're going to read it out together and we're going to pray to God.
But the point isn't the words. The point is where it's directing our heart to tune itself to what God has for us because he is the source of everything. If we just try to do this on our own this morning, it's going to be worthless. This is a meeting with him. So let's read the disciples prayer together.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and, and the glory forever.
Amen. So if you have one of the big blue Bibles, we're going to be in Acts, chapter six, beginning in verse eight. That's going to be on page 1056.
So while you're flipping there, we're going to just do a quick recap of what Pastor Michael covered last week. So after all of these folks have come to know Christ, you had a problem come out, right? You had the Hellenists, right? Remember, the Hellenists were the Greek speaking folks. Their widows were not being fed as much as the native Hebrews, right?
She had people speaking Hebrew, you had people speaking Greek. And in that happening, the widows were not getting everything that they needed. So they had this problem. So they brought it to the leaders. And then you had the disciples, they're looking at it and they're going, okay, we need to solve this issue.
So they get seven people to lead this. And you guys remember what they were called? Gold star, if you can remember. It's an office in churches now. A lot they were called deacons.
Okay, so this group of deacons, right? The Word idea was to serve. Now, Pastor Michael explained that the root of the word serve, serve tables and then serve in the ministry of the Word. So you had the apostles who were continuing to preach and continuing to get the word of God out there. People were coming to know Christ.
Lives were being changed. But then you also had practical needs. And those practical needs were being met now by this group of seven. And this group of seven people, they were called the deacons. Now, we're gonna be covering this guy Stephen today.
That's gonna be our. Not necessarily our primary subject, but we're going to be spending a lot of time with Stephen today. But that's our circumstances of where we find ourselves on page 1056.
So we're going to jump in chapter six, verse eight.
Now, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and 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, who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit of God gave him as he spoke. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law.
They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced these false witnesses who testified, this fellow never stopped speaking against the holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us. All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. So now we have this character, Stephen.
Okay? So he was selected to be a part of this group of the deacons. And in doing so, it says that Stephen was a man full of God's grace and power, and he performed great wonders and signs among the people.
So Stephen is serving well. He's serving God's people well. And in doing so, he's filled with the Spirit. And incredible things are happening now while he's performing these signs and miracles. It was because he was led by the Holy Spirit.
We talk a lot about the Holy Spirit, but it's really important that we kind of take a pause and really think through what we're talking about here. Jesus leaves and says, it's better for you that I'm gone. How could it be better for his creation if he was not here side by side with us? Because through the Holy Spirit, he's walking with us daily. And Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The reason that Stephen is serving well is because he's being led by the Spirit. He's following what God has for him. He's not thinking about what he wants to do. He's thinking about what God wants him to do. And in doing so, people are getting saved.
Miraculous things are happening.
Remember that Pastor Michael talked last week that something was starting to happen. It was actually in verse five, just before we got started. Some of the priests of the synagogues were coming to know Jesus. So these are the religious leaders of the Jewish temples are coming to know Christ. And part of the reason that was happening is because they saw how they were caring for the widows.
It wasn't a sermon.
It wasn't a sermon. What it was was they saw that they were caring for people, and Jesus said this would happen. He told us that they will know that you are my disciples, by the way, you love one another. It was already happening. Stephen is not giving some grand sermon.
Stephen is serving God's people. He's serving the widows. And in doing so, following the Holy Spirit, miraculous things are happening, not because of him, but because of God.
So take a pause and think back to where we are. We're in Jerusalem. Thousands and thousands of people are coming into Christ. Okay? The Jewish leaders of the time were not on board with this, and now they're losing leaders.
Do you feel the powder keg? Yeah. The pressure's going up. Like this is becoming even more of a thing. Because it's one thing when you hear about these people that maybe they're out on the edge of the forest and they're there, you know, they leave the doors open, you know, and they just.
They talk about Jesus. But when all of a sudden, other people are starting to engage with it and starting to see what God is doing and lives are being changed. Now all of a sudden, they're paying attention.
They stirred up people to lie about Stephen. Did you see that? They couldn't do anything to actually overcome him. They would go and they would try to debate with him. But Stephen's led by what?
The Holy Spirit. So because he's led by the Holy Spirit, he can have conversations with these leaders, and he's boldly and confidently having a conversation with them. Not boldness and confidence in himself, but boldness in the same Holy Spirit that has provided miracles. So he's now talking to them, and he's overcoming these objections that they're giving him. So they resort to lying, feel the powder keg.
Pressure is going up and up and up and up and up. So what they do is they get a crew of people and they say, hey, this guy is speaking against Moses and he's speaking against God. He's speaking against our law. So they're saying his theology is bad, he doesn't know his Bible, he's saying things that aren't accurate at all.
It's kind of interesting. You'll see this a little bit as we continue to go through this. But did you notice it says his face was like the face of an angel?
If you're taking notes, Exodus 34, that's the same way Moses is described. You, you know when Moses is described of having a face like that after he's spending time with God. So just think about the little bit of humor in this. This guy is following God. The Holy Spirit is moving in him in miraculous ways.
They can see there's a difference on his face. And their response is he's speaking against the guy who. The same thing happened in Exodus 34. That kind of silly, but they're trying to stop the work of God because God is moving. Remember, they're trying to create something that would cause evil.
And what did we talk about at the beginning? God is going to take this and he's going to turn it for his good.
That's our first idea, is that pushback is to be expected and it's an opportunity. We talked about this a few weeks ago as well. Same exact point. When we're following God, when we are listening to the Holy Spirit and we are being directed in what it is we are to do, why get weird? When you see pushback, you're following the God who's trying to tell an entire earth that they don't know any better, that they need him, that they need a king.
And when that happens, the people who are hearing that message don't want to hear that message. I didn't want to know that there was a king of the universe. I wanted to be the king of my own life. Those are the people that we're interacting with every day, they don't want to hear that there's a God. They'll hear there's a God that loves them, but not a God who calls me to walk with him, to trust him daily, to listen to him, to give my life over to Him.
I want to hold on to my own life. I want to do my own thing. This is my life.
But Jesus says, you're dead. You are dead in your trespasses and sins. And he offers eternal life. And he says that no one will come to the Father but by Him. No one doesn't mean there's five options.
Pick your favorite. No one means no one. It's Jesus or nothing. And that's what he's saying. And this is the gospel message that we have.
And this is the way that they're trying to stop that gospel from getting all across Jerusalem. So for us, expect pushback. And know that when the pushback comes, that's an opportunity to share the gospel. And that is what we're here for. That's it.
We could pause the sermon right there. You could literally write that out. Do that. We're moving. There's a lot more coming, but that's it.
Expect to push back. Trust the Holy Spirit and follow. Now, this next section, remember, Stephen's now being pulled in front of this Sanhedrin, okay? So he has these charges against him. These people have made these false charges.
Now, you would think Stephen calls in his lawyer. You know, let's get the A team in here. Cause remember, we got Jesus has been in front of this group. So is Peter, and so is John. So this is kind of becoming like the every Wednesday meeting is at the Sanhedrin.
They just keep going before them, right? But it's gonna be different this time. And that begins in chapter seven, verse one. Now, I'm going to ask you to play a game with me. If you're taking notes, just write this out.
If you're not, I'd ask you to. Each time we go through this story that we're about to read, I want you to think about each time that the people of Israel missed the Mark. They blew it. They didn't listen to God. So look for those.
There you go. All right. Chapter seven, verse one. It's good, Brian. Don't worry about it.
Then the high priest asked Stephen, are these charges true to this? He replied, brothers and sisters, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. Leave Your country and your people, God said, and go to the land that I will show you. So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran.
After the death of his father, God sent him to his land where you are living now. He gave him no inheritance there, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land. Even though at that time Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way.
For 400 years. Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own. And they will be enslaved and they will be mistreated. But I will punish the nation. They serve as slaves, God said.
And afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place. Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. Verse 9. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery into Egypt.
But God was with him and rescued him from all of his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace. Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.
On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, 75 in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb of Abraham. Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor and Shechem for a certain sum of money.
Verse 17. As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so they would die. At that time, Moses was born and he was no ordinary child.
For three months he was cared for by his family. Then he was placed outside. Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people.
The Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian. So he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them. But they did not.
The next day, Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, men, you are brothers. Why do you want to hurt each other? But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?
When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight, and he went over to get a closer look. He heard and heard the Lord say, I am the Lord, your God, of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals, for the place which you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to see them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt. This is the same Moses they had rejected with their words, who made you ruler and judge?
He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them through Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red sea, and for 40 years in the wilderness. Verse 37. This is the Moses who told the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people. He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors.
And he received living words to pass on to them. But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him. And then their hearts turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, make us gods.
Who will go before us? And for this fellow Moses, who led us out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices and revealed and reveled in what their hands had made. But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars.
This agrees with what was written in the Book of the Prophets. Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings? 40 years in the wilderness, People of Israel, you have taken up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your God rephon the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile Beyond Babylon. Verse 44.
Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses according to the pattern he had seen after receiving the tabernacle. Our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations of God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who build a house for him.
However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Says the Lord, or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all of these things?
Verse 51. You stiff necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet?
Your ancestors did not persecute. They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. You who have received the law that was given through the angels, but have not obeyed it.
Stephen takes them down a long walk to really land that point. So put yourself in the Sanhedrin. So they're there together and they ask Stephen if the charges are true. And then he proceeds to give them a whole history lesson. And in that history lesson there's a couple of things that are really important he points out to them.
We have missed the Mark consistently. We have consistently not understood what God was doing and actually been at odds with God while he has been moving. He talked about Joseph being sold into slavery, an evil act that God then redeemed and took what was evil and made it good. Remember that? That's actually where you hear that from when Joseph is talking with his brothers.
After Joseph, he moves on to Moses, tells the story, talks about him being changed completely.
But there's this phrase that he uses, you stiff necked people. Anybody get a little bit of a chuckle with that? Maybe, yeah.
So the idea of stiff necked people, there's a couple of reasons why he says that. First, it's this thing they understand immediately. So when I say stiff necked people to you, maybe you know exactly what he means. But for them, they're thinking about an ox, they're Thinking about tilling land and you know when you go to take the animal and you're pulling it to the left and it tightens up its neck and pulls to the right. That's how God describes his people.
You stiff necked people. I'm directing you in this way. I'm telling you where to go and you keep pulling off to the side. I'm trying to till some land here, but you're fighting me over and over and over again.
That's the first thing that they hear. There's something else again if you're taking notes. Exodus 32, verse 9 is the first time that phrase is used. Let me read to you. When it's said God says to Moses when he was up on Mount Sinai and the Lord says to Moses, go down to your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt.
They have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I have commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and, and sacrificed to it and said, these are our gods, oh Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen these people. And behold, it is a stiff necked people.
So Stephen is talking to the religious leaders who have taught this lesson and walks them through the entire history of the Hebrew people and how they have consistently got it wrong. And this isn't just them, we miss it too. But then he hits them with you stiff necked people. They're charging him, remember, with speaking against who? God and Moses again you see the irony, it's just dripping, right?
It's crazy. They like their forefathers are stiff necked people that are following a well worn pattern of rejecting the messengers of God over and over and over again. God has a message, he sends it out and they're like, nah, it's not for us. They're wrong. Read any of the prophets over and over and over again.
People think they know better than what God has.
He doesn't stop there. He leans in and says, their ears and their hearts are uncircumcised. So remember the idea of circumcision, right? Circumcision was a physical representation that you're on God's team, I'm one of God's people. That's a way that he set his people apart from everyone else.
And then Stephen says, your ears and your heart are not circumcised. Your heart is not with God. And because your heart is not with God, you know what you can't do Listen for him, because this is off. Everything else is jacked up.
They think they are the team and he's telling them they're not even on it. You see that they've resisted the Holy Spirit just like their forefathers. So Stephen, empowered by the Holy Spirit, has a boldness about him. Not because Stephen's awesome. I'm sure he's a great guy.
I'm excited to meet him in heaven. But he's led by the Holy Spirit. And he has a boldness and a confidence to be able to say this to this group of people. And says over and over and over again, this pattern has happened. And you did it again.
You've been teaching people about the coming Messiah. He came and you nailed him to a tree. You missed it.
The Holy Spirit equips us to face pushback with boldness. Think about the last time you were holding your kid's hand in a public place and you're just trying. And that kid's only like 5 years old, but is pulling you around like they're 25. Now imagine that's an ox, right? That's God talking about us.
This is Israel in this scenario. But we are God's people. He has saved us. We are the church. We have the Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit is directing us in confidence to step out and say that to that person and we don't do it, you know what? We are stiff neck people. We're pulling away. We're doing the same thing.
What lies are you encountering throughout your week and how are you engaging with those? Are you boldly confronting them in love or are you allowing the pushback to win? Stephen confronted the lies with the Holy Spirit and he was able to clearly articulate and address the lie. Again, not because of his ability, but because of the Spirit that was directing him.
That same Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit isn't different. Now, if you have decided to follow Christ, if you've given your life over to him, if you have submitted yourself and said, I know that I'm spiritually dead. I know that I cannot have a life of eternal salvation apart from Jesus, I need to follow you, Jesus. I've surrendered my life to you.
If you have done that, you have the same Holy Spirit. That's amazing. That is amazing. How dare we act like stiff neck people with that dwelling inside of us. How dare us?
The God of all is directing us. It's incredible. The passage isn't over. I know it's a long one, but we're getting there. I Promise.
We're going to continue in verse 54. Now, when they had 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 and stopped their ears and rushed 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 on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had heard this, he fell asleep.
And Saul approved of his execution. Verse 2. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house to house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Now, this. We've talked a lot in this series about the Sanhedrin, but I just. I want to get real practical here for a second. That is best. We can tell what it probably looked like.
Okay, so you had a group on one side, a group on the other side. You had the high priest in the middle. You had the person who's giving testimony in front of all of them standing in the middle here. And then you had the clerks that were documenting everything. So I want you to think through everything we just read.
Stephen is in the middle of that with all those eyes on him. And that's what this is, the context of where we are.
This council. Think of like a courtroom hears these words, and they meditate on it and pray over it, right?
No. What does it say they did? They turned into a frenzy. They gnashed their teeth at him.
They stopped their ears up. They didn't want to hear any more of it, guys. And they rushed him. He's standing right there. And this group of people around him.
Remember, we had Jesus in front of this group. We had Peter in front of this group. We had John in front of this group. Now we have Stephen in front of this group. And they're getting out of their chairs, and they rushed at him, stopping up their ears because they didn't want to hear the words anymore.
They were confronted with the truth. They were confronted with God's word and they saw their sin. And their response to that was to kill. That's their response. We gotta shut this guy up.
We gotta end this right now. So they run at him.
The fuse has now been lit.
Notice that Stephen doesn't look around. Where does Stephen look in the middle of all this?
Stephen looks up.
He gets to see verse 55. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God.
A screaming mob grabbing him. They take him out of the city. On the outside of the city walls, it's about 1200ft. Okay, so about 1/5 of a mile, this group grabs him and is taking him out to stone him. And he looks up and he gets to see Jesus.
This was an extremely public act. He was dragged out one of the gates in front of everyone. This would be like literally someone grabbing someone and dragging them as a mob across the square. Right there in downtown Ocala, they're dragging him out. And as they're doing that, his eyes are on his risen Savior.
They remove their robes.
You take off the robe, your arm's freer for the stone, but you're also not going to get it bloody. This is a brutal thing. This is an execution. And all the while, this brutal thing is happening to Stephen. His experience is a heavenly one.
He's not experiencing the brutal act. He's gazing upon Jesus.
What anyone would look at and say that's probably the worst thing that could happen to him was actually a highlight of his life. Guys, think about that for a second. He's being killed, but he gets to see Jesus. He's looking up at Christ and is seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father. And all the stuff that's happening on the earth doesn't matter.
It does not matter. It can't hold up to seeing Jesus.
He was so enamored with what Jesus was doing. His final physical act was a prayer for the lost. Did you see it? He repeats similar what Jesus said on the cross and asked that their sin not be held against them. He's seen Jesus.
They're killing him. And his prayer is for their salvation. How incredible is this? It's so good. The temporary pain of this world is nothing compared to an eternal communion with Jesus.
Nothing, nothing we can go through here compares. And I'm not trying to belittle pain, and I'm not trying to make things shiny. Happy people stuff. That's not what I'm saying. There's real pain, there's real loss, but bad stuff.
Happens all the time. But it does not compare to our risen Savior. It just doesn't. Stephen got to see that. And this same Holy Spirit that dwells in him, dwells in you.
What are you currently going through? Are your eyes drawn to the circumstances or are your eyes looking up at your risen Savior? Are you self focused and constantly thinking about improving your situation? Or are you asking God, how can I be obedient in this season of my life? That's what he was doing.
Over and over and over again. Jesus makes good out of what is meant for evil. This is a pattern that goes all the way back to Genesis. Notice in Acts 1:8, Jesus says to them, you will be my witnesses in all Judea and Samaria.
Guys, they were still in Jerusalem. But what did the other verses say we just read? The persecution rises. Saul sees it. Saul proceeds to start going house to house, rounding up people.
And you know what that did? It says it sent them to Judea and Samaria. God used an awful, horrific situation to get them out, to send them out. The devil looked at the fire and stomped on it, thinking he was going to end it. But all the embers went everywhere else.
Do you see it? This is the God we serve. This is the pattern over and over again in scripture that we can cling to that whatever happens, he's gonna handle it and he's gonna turn it out for our good and his glory. And it's gonna happen over and over and over again. We get to be a part of that.
Stephen's life was the catalyst that led to millions being saved. Wasn't Stephen that did it. Wasn't some sermon. Started with Jesus, then it went to people listening to the Holy Spirit, getting people to serve. And in serving, the Holy Spirit showing up.
And then in people seeing people being served, people being healed, people coming to Christ. And then as that happens, notice the pattern. The enemy involves himself, tries to stomp out the fire. And you know what? The boot hurts.
It hurts. But God uses it. God does not waste pain. And then what ends up happening is over and over and over again. Nothing can stop the fire that God has started.
You are a part of that fire. And if you're not, understand, he is the only way. There's nothing. I don't know how to make it any clearer. It's Jesus or nothing.
No self help book is gonna get you there. No class, no tutoring, nothing. It's Jesus or nothing. He paid for your sin. He loves you.
And he calls you out of sin and death into a life of being. A part of the fire that he has started. Let's pray. Father in heaven, you are everything. God, I thank you so much for the way that you led Stephen.
Lord, I just. I love your word.
Thank you. That you love us and that you care for us and that you've not lost the ability nor the desire to deal with us.
I ask, Lord, if there's anyone in the sound of my voice that does not know you, Lord, that you would just rip their heart apart. Whatever it takes, God, show yourself to them and make sure that they understand that the path is you or death.
You are everything. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
