ACTS 6-7 LIVE YOUR LIFE SOLD OUT TO GOD2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 6-7 Live Your Life Sold Out To God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. We'll be in Acts chapter 6 this evening and finishing up the chapter and then jumping a little bit into chapter 7 as well.

And what I'd like to do is begin by reading Acts chapter 6, verses 8 through 15 to kind of close out the chapter. And then we'll dive into this man, Stephen, that the book of Acts is referring to here. Acts chapter 6, starting in verse 8, says this, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

Then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Verse 11. Then they secretly induced men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.

And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.

Verse 15, and all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel. Here in Acts chapter 6, we get to see an important person in the scriptures. His name is Stephen. He's important not because there's a lot written about him or we get to see a lot of what he did, but he's important and stands out because he is the first martyr in

of the church. You could maybe back it up a little bit and say Jesus is the first martyr of the church, but after the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit has poured out a

upon the disciples and the church is established there, Stephen is the first to die for his faith in Jesus Christ. And as he proclaims faith in the gospel message that's found in Jesus Christ. And so he stands out as one who had this great honor and this privilege, this really important role of being the first one

to hold fast to Jesus in such a way that even upon the penalty of death, upon the threat of death and danger to his own person, he was faithful to bring forth the gospel message to the religious leaders.

And so as we look at the example of Stephen this evening, I've titled the message, Live Your Life Sold Out to God. I think that Stephen is a really good encouragement for us of the worth that is found in the gospel message. It is worth it to die for Jesus Christ. It

It's worth it to live your life to this extent, or in other words, to live sold out to God. That is just completely without any bounds, without any boundaries or limits. It's worth it to be so devoted to Jesus, to be so engrossed in what he's called you to do, that even if it costs you your life, it's worth it. It's the right thing to do.

And so in that, Stephen provides a very good example for us. Now, we were introduced to Stephen a couple weeks back as we were in the first part of Acts chapter 6, and there was that problem in the church where certain widows felt that they weren't receiving a fair share of the distribution that was being given out. And you remember the apostles gathered together and said, you know,

we need to be focused on what God's called us to do. So let's do this. You guys pick seven men full of, you know, the Holy Spirit and of good reputation who can handle this and we'll appoint them over this situation. And that's what they ended up doing. If you'll look with me at verse five for a moment.

It says, And it says, And so,

Stephen is one of these seven who was selected to handle this distribution of funds to the widows who were in need and to make sure that it was done fairly between the Greek-speaking Jews and the Aramaic-speaking Jews. And so Stephen is one of these guys. Now, I think that's also important to note because the first martyr of the church is not one of the Apostles.

We would, you know, think, hey, that would make sense, right? If it was Peter or even James, as we see that he's martyred later, we would understand that it would make sense. But I think God does these things in subtle ways just to give us a little bit of a reminder that the Bible is about normal people, right?

And the things that we see here in Stephen, we need to understand it's really relatable to us. You might look at this and think, well, you know, nothing like me, never experienced anything like I experienced. You know, I don't have the battles or the struggles or the giftings or the power that he had. You know, we might relate or think that we don't relate, but

But I'd just like to take a moment to emphasize and remind us, this is a normal guy. Stephen was probably one who became a believer after the church began.

We don't know his history for sure, but we know that at the day of Pentecost, there were a couple thousand people who received the Lord and began to follow Jesus at that time. That's as the church began, there was 3,000 who responded. We know a couple chapters later, it says now the church had grown to 5,000. And so there's a lot of people coming to Jesus and believing in Jesus,

but they're brand new in the Lord. And it's likely that Stephen was amongst that group that he hadn't been around and been trained by Jesus and, you know, been, been part of all that. Uh,

Again, we don't know that for sure. It doesn't give us the background, but it's likely with the number of Jews in Jerusalem and being that Stephen, along with the others, had Greek names, they were from other places probably, it's likely that this guy, he's been a believer in Jesus for maybe a couple of years at the most, and he's a normal guy. He's just like you if you were living in that day and you got saved and had been walking with the Lord for a year or two.

Now, Acts is going to go on to highlight a couple of these guys. So there's seven guys that are, you know, set for this work. Stephen, we'll talk about tonight as well as next week. Then in a couple of weeks, we'll see Philip. He's also in Acts chapter 8, and there's some attention that is paid to him there. It doesn't mean that the other five were ineffective or, you know, not very good at their job or didn't go on to do great things for the Lord, but it's going to be a couple of

But remember, the Bible is recording specific things that are appropriate for us to know and understand. And so I would suggest, you know, the other five guys went on to serve the Lord and did great things according to their calling. But these two are highlighted for a specific reason. First of all, Stephen is significant, as I mentioned, as the first martyr. But as we'll see at the end of chapter 7, he's also really significant in his impact on

in the life of a man named Saul. And Saul goes on to become the Apostle Paul and is a significant part of the book of Acts. And so, you know, he's part of the narrative. He's part of the accounting of how Saul was, you know, grabbed a hold of by the Lord. And so his story is really important and essential to the rest of the book of Acts. And then Philip, as we go on to look at Philip in a

He also stands out, he's significant as the first one in the Bible to be called an evangelist. And so he had a unique calling, a special calling, but he also was hugely involved in the spreading of the gospel to the region of Samaria.

which, of course, that's part of what Jesus said at the beginning, right? You'll be witnesses to me in Acts 1, verse 8, in Jerusalem, and then to Judea and Samaria. And so Philip has an instrumental part in that as well. And so these guys are highlighted not because they're not normal people, not because they're, you know, super deacons or anything like that. These are normal guys. These are guys that are just like you and me who had believed in Jesus, right?

trusted in Jesus, and became an important part of the work of the kingdom of God. God does his amazing work through normal people. He does great things through normal people. And everything that God does, he does with using normal people. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1? He said,

In verse 26, which I put 27 on the screen, but we'll get there in a minute. He says in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 1, you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

So Paul says, look around the church and you look and you see, yeah, there's not a lot of noble people. There's not a lot of mighty people. There's not a lot of, you know, highly esteemed people that are there around you as believers in Jesus. But instead, in contrast to that, in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says, God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.

God works exactly opposite what our natural tendency would be. Not to use, you know, the super popular, the super influential, the super, you know, mighty or rich or whatever. He uses normal people. He uses the foolish. He uses the base. He uses the weak. Paul will go on in a couple of verses from there in 1 Corinthians 1 to say, "...so that no flesh should glory in his presence."

The whole purpose, the whole reason, the method or the reason for the method that God uses is so that nobody gets to glorify themselves in the work. Nobody gets to say, yes, this is what we accomplished for God because we're so awesome.

No, it's this is what we accomplished for God and we don't know how it happened and we're not worthy and we don't, you know, measure up and we don't have the wisdom to do this and we don't have the resources to do this. We don't have the capacity to do this, but this is what God did through us. And this is an important element. This is an important aspect of living your life sold out to God, recognizing that.

That God wants to use you for his glory to do awesome things for the kingdom of God. And you might disqualify yourself in your own mind and say, well, I'm just a normal person. But that's the point. That's who God uses. And so this evening, as we look at Stephen, I want to encourage you. I let it be an encouragement to you that this is about normal people. This is about what God can do with a life that is sold out to him.

Here in verse 5 of Acts chapter 6, when it says, Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, we see he's filled. He's a filled man. He's a normal man, but he's filled with something outside of himself. And what is he filled with? He's filled with faith, and he's filled with the Holy Spirit.

These are chief characteristics for Stephen. We'll see them mentioned a couple times as we work through the life of Stephen here in Acts chapter 6 and 7. He's a man filled with faith and the Spirit. The word full here, when it says he's full of faith, it means to have something completely covered. It's to be soaked thoroughly or permeated just completely.

It's not a question of, you know, is the glass half full or half empty? There's no question when you're talking about this word full. It's completely full. It's to the brim. It's, you know, ready to overflow. The commentator J.B. Phillips translates it this way. Stephen filled through all his being with faith and the Holy Spirit. He's filled in every aspect of his heart, in every aspect of his life, in every aspect of his mind.

He's filled completely, consumed completely, full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Now, I like to define faith this way. Faith is obeying God at his word. Faith is obedience to God at his word. And that could be applied to the written word that is obeying the scriptures, but also obedience to that personal word that God delivers to you specifically and personally today.

The things that he directs you to do and tells you to do. Faith is trusting God and doing what he says. Letting his mind, his will, his desires override our own. That's really what faith boils down to. And so as we talk about Stephen being full of faith, this is the kind of man he was. He trusted God and

to the point of obedience, no matter what he thought about it, no matter what he felt about it, no matter what he wanted to do, he completely had given himself over to trusting and obeying God. Or in other words, sold out to God. He sold himself out completely to God. This whole concept and idea as I've been working on the message for this evening, it was taking me back to

This is like super old school, okay? I was like a teenager. I was like in junior high, and there was like this old school Christian rap group, Transformation Crusade, that had a song about getting sold out, and I'm not going to try to attempt to sing it or perform it, and you wouldn't know it anyways. No, no, no, no, no. Let's not make this about me. But one of the lines of the song that always stood out

was as they said, get sold out. Then the next line said, stop paying rent. Get sold out, stop paying rent. And that always stood out to me. I like that concept. I like that picture because, you know, you're renting. It's like you're there and you're invested, but there's not just that full, complete investment. It's partial. It's temporary. And it's like, well, I can stop paying rent and leave anytime I want to.

But that's not the kind of commitment that God has called us to. And that's not the kind of relationship that we're called to have with God. It's not the way that Stephen was with God or with faith. So he wasn't just obedient to God at his word when he wanted to or when it was convenient, but he was sold out. He had no choice. He had given himself over completely to the things of God. He's full of faith.

and he's full of the Holy Spirit. We've talked a lot about being filled with the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. It's one of the emphases that we're called to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. And Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. We're commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and Stephen obeyed that command. He received the Holy Spirit. He was full of the Holy Spirit. He was under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He was led by the Spirit.

To a great degree, he was consumed completely by the will of God, by the leading of the Holy Spirit. These are two things that really characterize the life of Stephen. I would encourage you to consider. Could you be introduced this way? Richard Bueno, full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Pastor Pule, full of faith and all you can eat. No, I'm just kidding.

Well, while Kim and I were out of town this past week, we went to try something new. We had a Brazilian barbecue and oh my goodness, it was just like amazing food. Just meat after meat, after meat, after meat of all flavors and varieties. Just, and we were the first ones in the restaurant and everything was already prepared. So we sit down and within five minutes, like our table is just, you know,

It looks like a grill, you know, it's just like just completely covered in meat. We just have meat coming out our ears. We were filled, but Stephen was filled with faith and the Holy Spirit. And that's how we need to be to live our lives sold out to God. Now, here's the thing, as we continue now, I'm working through my introduction here, getting back into the message. As we look at 4.5,

points this evening. We're looking at four results of living your life sold out to God. We're looking at Stephen as one who sold his life out to God. He was just completely given over, and the results that is demonstrated in his life can also be demonstrated in your life if you will be sold out to God. So let's look at the first point found in verse 8 here of Acts chapter 6. The first result that we see is you will have power to serve.

If you will live your life sold out to God, you will find that you have power from God to serve in the capacity that he's called you to. And we see that in verse 8. It says, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

So here is he elaborates a little bit more about Stephen. We saw him in verse 5. He's mentioned in the list. It says he has, you know, he's filled with the spirit and, sorry, filled with faith and the spirit. Now in verse 8, he mentions him again, introduces him again, and says he's full. Same word, same idea. He's, this is something that really characterizes his life. He's full of faith and

And he's filled with power. That word power is dunamis. It's the same word in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 when Jesus says, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will have power to be witnesses to me. And so filled with faith and power also, you know, it could be looked at and understood as he's filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.

And the result of that in his life is that he did great wonders and signs among the people. This is a powerful combination. He has great faith in God. He has resolution to be obedient to God no matter what. And he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And so then the result in his life is that he does great wonders and signs among the people. If you will trust God, if you will be filled with faith,

you will be in a place where God can do incredible things in your life. Again, Stephen was a normal guy. He wasn't one of the apostles, although you could also understand and make the case that the apostles were normal guys. But just to emphasize that a bit, he wasn't one of those elite, you know, he was a guy in the church who really had turned his life over to the Lord and

And as he's filled with faith, God is able to use him to do great wonders and signs among the people. Remember what Jesus said in Luke chapter 17, verse 6? Jesus says, In the parallel passage, he says, Faith is

is an important part of our life and our relationship with the Lord. And if you have faith, miracles can happen. Great things can take place. Now, there's, of course, some bad teaching about faith that takes you in the wrong directions. And so we want to keep the biblical balance. And that's one of the reasons why I like to define faith as obedience to God at his word.

It's not about your will, that if you have faith, you can accomplish your will. No, no. If you have faith, if you will trust God and be obedient to him, you can accomplish his will. And whatever miracles need to take place for God's will to be accomplished, they're going to take place as you trust God and obey him. When you have faith, you have unlimited resources to do God's will.

And so if you need a mountain cast into the sea or a mulberry tree moved from one place to another in order to fulfill the will of God for your life, if you're filled with faith, you have what you need. You have the resources you need to do the will of God, unlimited resources for God's work. Now, in Stephen's case, that specifically involved doing great wonders and signs among the people. We've talked a lot about

serving in different roles and capacities within the body of Christ. We've also talked about through the years, the different gifts of the spirit. I'd like to remind you a couple of things that we looked at as we went through the Equipped to Serve course, was it last year or the year before? But we talked about the gifts of,

of the Spirit for serving the Lord. They're referred to as the manifestations of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And you can check out that passage later on, but I have them listed there for you. They're the manifestations, the revelation of the Holy Spirit at work in your life. These are the workings of the Holy Spirit in you so that you can accomplish your

your role in the body of Christ so that you can accomplish what God has set before you. And so we have the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues. As we went through that and talked about all of those manifestations of the Holy Spirit, we related to them as tools in a toolbox.

And the idea here is that all of these, any of these, are available to you as needed for whatever role that you have or whatever your calling is in the situations that you face. In other words, that as you face a situation, as you're walking in obedience to God, trusting in God, the Holy Spirit can hand you the right tool that you need for whatever is at hand. For Stephen, according to his calling and the role that God had given to him there within the church,

He had a unique role where he is gifted by the Holy Spirit with the working of miracles, possibly gifts of healings. It doesn't go into great detail about what these signs and wonders were, but the whole idea of signs and wonders is it makes people stop and marvel and say, what is going on? How is he able to do these things? It was accompanying, it was testifying to the message that he was bringing forth. And notice it says he was working these among the people.

He was out ministering to people, fulfilling his role in the church. And the Holy Spirit was giving him these gifts and saying, all right, use this and use that and put that to work and take steps of faith here. And miracles were taking place. And it was causing people to have awe and wonder. Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs there.

Again, as we look at Stephen here, we have a good sample for us, a good model for us.

But everybody's calling is different. So that doesn't mean if you're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit that you're going to go, you know, necessarily lay hands on people and heal them and, you know, cast mountains into the sea. If that's part of God's calling in your life, you will when you're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit. But whatever your calling is, whatever God has planned for your life, whatever God's will is for you, the Holy Spirit will give you every tool that you need.

Whatever it might be. And so maybe you need more of the gift of prophecy or the discerning of spirits or the different kinds of tongues. Maybe you need words of wisdom or knowledge. And the Holy Spirit is going to give you what you need as you trust God and seek to be obedient to him. When you live your life sold out to God, again, this is the point, you will have power to serve. You'll have power from God. The power of the Holy Spirit at work in your life.

to accomplish whatever it is that God has set before you. So many times we try to do things that we want to do. And so then we have to come up with our own resources, our own power, our own strength to accomplish what it is that we want to do. But if we would surrender ourselves to the will of God and be obedient to God at all costs, no matter what, if we would be sold out completely, we would find the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us to accomplish everything.

God's will for us. And so sure, we could try to fight it. We could try to do our own thing and do what we want. But Stephen was filled with faith in the Spirit. And the result was he had power to serve. He was empowered by God to do great things for the kingdom of God to the glory of God.

Well, the next result that we see as we go on in verses 9 through 15, you will have wisdom to speak. Another aspect of what we see in Stephen's life is that he had great wisdom from God as he's ministering to people and dealing with those who are unbelievers. Check out verse 9 and 10. It says, then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen,

Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. So again, notice there's a strong emphasis of the Holy Spirit at work in Stephen. And one of the manifestations of that was this wisdom that he had as this group of Jewish people were disputing with him.

They were from a particular synagogue. There's lots of discussion about that particular synagogue. It seems that it was, you know, those who had been freed from slavery. They were Jews, but they had been enslaved, you know, by Rome in some capacity. And so after they'd been freed, they kind of grouped together, gathered together in different places. But it's the synagogue of the freedmen. But that's not so much important as these group of men are there in Jerusalem where the church is.

They're seeing the work that's happening. They're encountering Stephen in some capacity. And there begins this dispute. The word dispute means to seek or examine together. And so it can refer to maybe what you and I might call conversation.

that we seek to examine together. It doesn't have to be necessarily an angry thing or an antagonistic type thing, but it's, let's examine this together. Let's talk this out. Let's work this out. Let's examine the different aspects of a certain situation or idea. But it can also go into the idea of debate or, as it's translated here, dispute.

to have disagreements. And sometimes we get a little bit too timid and fearful, I think, about disagreements. Again, there's nothing wrong here for there to be a dispute. There's nothing wrong here for there to be a disagreement. In fact, especially in this context, as the

These guys are not yet believers in Jesus. There should be an expectation of disagreement because God's ways are not man's ways. And so this isn't like some crazy, unusual, weird thing. This is just kind of a normal thing. There's disagreement. There's dispute. There's room for debate. And so they're talking these things out. But it does begin to build into something more than just a conversation.

But it becomes more than a conversation when they find in verse 10 that they're really not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. There was a wisdom that Stephen had. As he taught, as he participated in this discussion, as he worked on this disagreement and this dispute with these guys, they couldn't win by logical arguments. They couldn't win by some type of, you know, debate technique. They...

They were not able to shut him down or shut him up, but they also weren't willing to accept the truth that he was being or that he was presenting. And so they're going to work in other ways to try to put a stop to it. And so they're having this discussion, but he's making really good points and he's proving it from the word of God. And they really cannot refute the things that he's sharing because of the wisdom that he has. Verse 11 says,

So they couldn't win that discussion, that debate. Now,

Win maybe isn't the appropriate word, you know, as we think about these things. But from their perspective, that's what they were concerned about. They just wanted to win. They wanted him to be quiet, to stop bringing forth this doctrine, just like the religious leaders who had threatened the disciples earlier. But he wasn't going to stop. They couldn't convince him to stop. And so they come up with their own plan to make him stop. They stir up the people, it says in verse 12.

They stir up the people as well as the elders and the scribes. Now, I'm sure the elders and the scribes, it wasn't real hard to stir them up because we've already seen some conflict between the elders and the Christians. But it's interesting that it says that they stirred up the people because earlier in Acts chapter 5, we saw a couple times where the people, it says in Acts chapter 5 verse 13, the people esteemed the Christians highly.

And remember in Acts chapter 5 verse 26 when they arrested Peter and John and the other apostles there, it says that they didn't bring them with violence because they feared the people lest they should be stoned. There was such a reverence and esteem for the apostles amongst the people that the religious leaders wouldn't use force because the people would turn on them and stone them for touching these guys. And so there was a...

an esteem that the people in general, speaking of the Jews in Jerusalem, had for the Christians, even though, as it talks about, you know, they kind of weren't ready to join them yet. They weren't ready to believe in Jesus, but they respected them. They honored them. But here, these guys from all over who are part of the synagogue, they stir up the people. And how do they stir up the people? By speaking lies about Stephen.

Oh, he's been speaking blasphemy, words against Moses and God. These were lies. These were not, you know, real accusations. They were false accusations. And you can see that in verse 13, as they gather the council together, the Sanhedrin, it says they set up false witnesses there.

who said, this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. And so he's accused of blasphemy, but it's a false accusation. It's false witnesses who are bringing forth this testimony. In verse 11, when it says, they secretly induced men to say blasphemy.

These false accusations, they were secretly induced. That means to go behind this. This is talking about plotting and planning this ahead of time. They're bribing people. They're compelling them in some way to bring forth this lie, this false testimony. Again, their goal is to shut Stephen down, to keep him from presenting this message any longer.

And so they bring him now before the Sanhedrin, the same guys who tried Jesus right before the crucifixion, the same guys who have been, you know, put Peter and John on trial a couple of times in Acts chapter four and five. Now Stephen is standing before them. In verse 15, it says, and all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel.

So Stephen is brought before them. The accusations are brought forth. All these lies and things are being spoken against him. But it's interesting how it describes Stephen's face. It's so unique. It's so different that the council is looking steadfastly at him. It means to fix their eyes on.

You ever have somebody fix their eyes on you? Hey, what are you looking at? You know, I got something in my teeth or it happens a lot when we wear our prayer shirts, right? You're like, you're like, Hey, why is that? And you remember, Oh, cause I'm wearing a crazy shirt that they're trying to figure out. And so they're staring at me, they're fixing their, and that's what the whole Sanhedrin there. They're looking at Steven, like trying to figure out what's going on because his face was as the face of an angel. Now there's lots of discussion about what exactly that means. Perhaps, perhaps,

Stephen's face was literally glowing, shining like the Shekinah glory that Moses experienced, perhaps. But it also could be just a piece that Stephen had. I don't know what your face would look like, but in that situation, being on trial before the highest court of the Jewish people and having these false witnesses and accusations, you know, railed at me and thrown against me,

I don't know if my face would express much peace, you know, maybe stress, worry, maybe anger, maybe, you know, all those kinds of things. But, but Stephen, he had a different kind of face. It was like the face of an angel. Dave Guzik says it this way. His face was not filled with fear or terror because he knew his life was in God's hands and that Jesus never forsakes his people. It's a good trait. It's a good characteristic of,

of one who is sold out to God. There's a wisdom. There's also a peace. It's not about winning a debate. It's not about winning an argument. It's about being able to bring forth the truth of God. And even when it's rejected, and even when there's attack against it, there's wisdom to have peace, to trust in God, to rest in God. When you're full of faith in the Holy Spirit,

You will be able to have wisdom in your conversations, but also you'll be able to have peace, to have the face of an angel.

When those conversations don't go so well. When we get all worked up and in the flesh, that's falling short. We're not filled with faith and the Spirit. When we're grumpy and bitter and sour about how the conversation goes and how they don't receive what we want them to receive, that's falling short of being filled with faith and the Spirit. When there's strong opposition, you can still be shining with wisdom and peace when you're filled with faith and the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to look at the results of living your life sold out to God, we're going to fast forward a little bit. There's a little bit of a gap. We're going to jump now to Acts chapter 7 at the end of the chapter, starting in verse 54. Now, what happens in between is Peter brings forth a message to the Sanhedrin.

And we'll look at this message next week and we'll kind of dig into it in a little bit more detail. But he basically recounts for them the history of the nation, brings that to the life of Christ and brings the gospel message to them. And the result is going to be similar to these guys he's been disputing with already. There's going to be opposition to the message and Stephen is going to be put to death.

Acts chapter 7 verses 54 through 56 gives us the third result. When you live your life sold out to God, you will see God's glory. If you want to see the glory of God and what happened here in Stephen's life is really amazing. If you want to see this kind of response in heaven, you need to live your life sold out to God, to be completely given over and consumed with the will of God.

God's plans for your life. Verse 54 says, Verse 54 says,

they were cut to the heart. The message that he brought forth, the message that he shared before that Jewish court was a powerful message, but they didn't like it. It says they're cut to the heart, and then the result is they gnashed at him with their teeth. Now, this is really important to understand. When you're filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,

You have wisdom in your conversations. You'll have power to serve. There's going to be a work that happens, and sometimes that work is received well. We have an example of that in Acts 2, verse 37, on the day of Pentecost, as Peter, filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, brings forth his first real sermon.

And as he comes to the conclusion of his sermon, it says, In other words, how do we get right with God? How do we correct this situation that we have crucified the Messiah? What do we need to do to get right with God? They were cut to the heart.

And it prompted them to seek repentance, to seek right relationship with God. And that, of course, is the kind of response that we prefer. But it's not the only kind of response when you are filled with faith and the Holy Spirit, when you're doing the work of God. There's two kinds of responses. The Holy Spirit's going to do the work of cutting to the heart, and then it's up to the person as far as how they respond. And some will respond well and say, I want to get right with God.

But some will gnash their teeth. Some will be violently opposed when they're cut to the heart and completely reject the message from God. Now listen, in both cases, the being cut to the heart, that's the work of God. Both cases are important and necessary. A negative response does not mean necessarily a failure on your part.

When people are cut to the heart, sometimes they respond well and they turn to God, but sometimes they turn against God. You can look at the example of the prophets in the Old Testament. God sent people, prophets, to the nation even though he knew they would not receive the message. But even though God knew they wouldn't receive the message, the message still needed to be delivered. It was still the work of God to deliver the message even though God knew that the message would not be received.

You can look at the specific example of Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 3. There is God is commissioning Ezekiel. He says, listen, Ezekiel, if I was going to send you to a foreign nation, they would receive the message. They would respond to the message I'm giving to you. They would respond to the ministry that I'm giving to you. But I'm sending you to the house of Israel. And God says in Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 7, he says, but the house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me.

for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. They're not going to listen to, I'm sending you Ezekiel. I'm giving you a message. I'm calling you to even live out and do some practical things along with this message, but also understand they're not going to receive it. And notice why God says they won't receive it. They're not going to listen to you because they don't listen to me. That's an important note to make. Sometimes we work really hard to try to get people to listen to us who won't listen to God. If they're not going to listen to God, they're not going to listen to you.

Many times we're convinced, though, we can convince them, you know, we could. But God says, if they're not listening to me, they're not going to listen to you. But I'm still sending you. You see, it's important to still bring the message, even when it's not going to be.

received. Now, God goes on to tell Ezekiel, but I've made your face strong against their faces and your forehead strong against their foreheads. So they're not going to receive it, but I've made you strong and you're going to have to bring forth this message, even though it's not received well, even though they're going to gnash their teeth at you. Your face is going to be strong against their face, even when they're opposed to the message I give you. And so here in verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and

And they didn't receive it. They gnashed at him with their teeth. You know, they're really angry about, they're really upset about this message of Jesus Christ, the resurrection, the gospel. So they gnash at him. But then verse 55, but he being full of the Holy Spirit. Notice the contrast. They're gnashing. He has the face like an angel because he's filled with the Holy Spirit.

He has peace. He has joy. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. He's consumed with the Holy Spirit. He's controlled by the Holy Spirit. Not that he's lost, you know, the control of his own functions or decision making, but he's just surrendered himself over to the will of God and the working of the Holy Spirit. And he's gazing into heaven.

This word gaze, as it says he gazed into heaven, it's the same word we saw a few moments ago back in verse 15 of chapter 6. When they looked steadfastly at Stephen, their focus was on him. They're consumed with him. They're like, you know, really analyzing him, looking at him. Stephen is captivated by heaven. I would suggest to you this isn't, you know, when Stephen started gazing into heaven, but that he's been focused on heaven. He's been focused on eternity.

That's why he's filled with faith and filled with the Holy Spirit. His eyes are set on eternity. His gaze is fixed there. And as he looks into eternity, what does he see? He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he says, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. What did Stephen see? First of all, he saw the glory of God.

The idea here is that he saw the glory, the outshining of the presence of the Father in heaven. He's seeing the throne room in heaven. What Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6, what Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel chapter 1, he's seeing the glory of God, the presence of God. Now, this is not a deathbed vision. They're about to stone him. They're about to put him to death, but they haven't beaten him yet. They haven't attacked him yet. This isn't, you know, he has this kind of

Maybe a crazy vision because he's on his deathbed, you know, just in the last few moments of his life. No, he's focused on eternity as he ministers to these people. God gives him this vision, this look, this insight into how heaven sees the events that are happening. So he sees the glory of God and then he sees Jesus at the right hand of God.

Now, without getting into the details, this is a strong statement about the deity of Jesus Christ. A strong statement that Jesus is equal to the Father. Jesus said something similar in Matthew chapter 26. He says, after this, you're going to see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father. And the Jewish leaders called it blasphemy because they recognized Jesus was saying that he's equal to the Father. Stephen is saying that same thing. Jesus is equal to the Father.

Important aspects of the faith. But also Stephen, when he saw Jesus, notice says that Jesus was standing. That's different. That's unique compared to all the rest of the references to Jesus being at the right hand of the father. In Mark 16, it tells us Jesus ascended into heaven and then he sat down at the right hand of God.

In Ephesians 1 and Colossians 3 and Hebrews 1, 8, 10, 12, we see Jesus over and over in heaven at the right hand of the Father, seated, but here Jesus is standing. And why is he standing?

It's interesting to consider, and it doesn't say specifically, but we can kind of speculate a little bit. I would suggest to you, Jesus is standing to receive Stephen. Maybe you could think of it as a standing ovation, saying, well done. Remember in Matthew 25, in the parable that Jesus gave, when the master says, well done, good and faithful servant. I would suggest to you, Jesus is standing here. He gives Stephen a glimpse of heaven to say, listen, Stephen, listen.

Well done. You're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit. Well done, good and faithful servant. He's standing to receive. He's standing to show approval and acceptance for what Stephen has done. Another interesting passage where Jesus is talking is found in Luke chapter 12, verse 37. He says, blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching and

Jesus shared this to say, hey, you need to be ready. You need to be watching. You need to be doing the work of God and living in the will of God. But the promise here is if you do that, if you're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, you do what God's called you to do, then when the time has come, you're going to be ready.

You're going to sit down and Jesus is going to say, have a seat and I'm going to serve you. And so here Jesus is standing and Stephen is sitting, not literally, but you get the point that Jesus is standing because that's what he said he would do for those who are faithful to him. If you will live your life sold out to God, you will see God's glory.

You'll get to have a reception into eternity like this. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 3, an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. There's only one way to receive that, and that is to be filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, to live your life sold out to God, to just completely surrender and say, God, I want your will and your plans, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes and whatever that cost is, even if it costs me my life.

Well, the final points found in the final verses, verses 57 through 60, the result of living your life sold out to God is that you will impact lives. Check out verse 57 and 58. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. The life of Stephen and really now the death of Stephen,

is going to make a huge impact into this man named Saul. Now the people, of course, they're upset when they hear him talk about Jesus at the right hand. They cry out with a loud voice. They stop up their ears. That's like, la, la, la, you know, that kind of thing. Like, I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear what you're saying. And they rush at him with one accord. They're united together to get rid of Stephen. They cast him out of the city and they stone him. If this account were being lived out today,

I wonder what we might think about it. What would the news report about it? What would our feelings be about it? You know, what kind of, what place would we boycott in response to this? You know, like what kind of response would we have? And I would suggest probably we would, oh, what, you know, it's so sad, you know, what a tragedy, what a waste, you know, and so wrong. And we could go down that path for quite a long time. Sometimes I think we need to come back to,

what the scriptures say about reality as opposed to what we see around us in reality. And that is, listen, the death of Stephen for the gospel message was worth it. This wasn't some, you know, mess up in the plan of God. This wasn't Stephen in rebellion to God. This wasn't, this was God's plan. This was God's will. Would you sign up for that? If you're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, you will sign up for that.

But if you're not filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, you're not going to sign up for that. If Rick would tell us today, hey, I'm going here. It's a dangerous place. Oh, Rick, you shouldn't. That's not wise. That's not smart. You're going to leave Zelda behind? What if she becomes a widow? What's going to happen to her? Listen, you need to do what God's called you to do. And if it costs you your life, it's worth it.

Now, it doesn't mean you be reckless with your life. It doesn't mean that you run off and do dangerous things just because they're dangerous. But if God calls you to do it, it doesn't matter if it's dangerous. Even if it costs you your life, if God calls you to do it, it's worth it. That's the point. That's what we need to grasp hold of and have that kind of conviction that

To be filled with faith in the Holy Spirit means we're going to be obedient to God. We're going to trust in God. We're going to rely upon God. And we're going to do that no matter what the cost is. That we have a conviction to do what God wants us to do no matter what, even if the cost is great. We don't know if Stephen had a wife and kids. Perhaps he did. It was still the right thing to do. It was still worth it. We wouldn't try to go back and rewrite history. Okay, Stephen, now, have you ever get the situation where

Try to calm down. Don't dispute so much. Don't be so right so that you don't get stoned because, you know, then your kids are going to grow up fatherless. No, even if your kids grow up fatherless because you do what God's called you to do, it's worth it and it's the right thing to do. Now, not that God is going to call everybody to that, right? Probably the likelihood of us experiencing that, we probably won't. We need to have that conviction. We need to have that commitment regardless of what the cost is.

And when we do, well, it points out here in verse 58, the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Saul of Tarsus, who goes on to become the Apostle Paul. This, it seems, becomes an important part of God's reaching Saul of Tarsus. Later on in Acts chapter 9, when the Lord appears to him, Jesus says to him, it's hard for you to kick against the goads. Perhaps he was part of the disputes with Stephen. We don't know.

But he's been kicking against the goats. God's been prodding his heart. God's been reaching out to him and he's been fighting it and fighting it and fighting it. But he's first mentioned here. Stephen makes a mark on him, stands out in his mind, stirs up his heart. He's not able to resist the conviction that is brought upon him by this man and his faithfulness to God. If you will live your life sold out to God, you will impact lives like Saul of Tarsus.

In verse 59, they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He's full of faith. He's just surrendering himself. Okay, Lord, this is your plan. Receive my spirit. I'm ready. I want to be home with you. This would make a mark on Saul of Tarsus. But then, verse 60, then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he said this, he fell asleep. Radical forgiveness. Radical forgiveness.

It makes a mark on Saul of Tarsus. Stephen valued eternity above all else. Very similar to Jesus on the cross, right? When he's hanging there, he says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Stephen, following the example of Jesus, which is what we're all called to do, to follow the example of Jesus, to demonstrate radical forgiveness. When you're sold out to God, filled with faith, filled with the Holy Spirit, and you follow the example of Jesus,

Forgiveness is one aspect of that. There's many other things that we could consider, but the point is you will make an impact in the lives of people around you. The life that we are called to as Christians is radically different than the world around us. It will make a mark. It will make a difference when you're filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, when you live your life sold out to God. You will have power to serve God.

You'll be empowered by God, gifted. The manifestations of the Holy Spirit will be at work in your life, demonstrating this is not my strength. This is not what I do, but the Holy Spirit is at work in me. You'll have wisdom to speak, a wisdom and a peace that's demonstrated even in great adversity. You'll get to see the glory of God. You have the great promises of eternity. Jesus will stand to greet you when you enter into eternity. Don't you want that?

When you live your life sold out to God, you will have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God because you will impact lives. And whether that's received or not, when they're cut to the heart, you've done your part. When you've submitted to God in such a way, you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're filled with faith, and it's making a difference and people are cut to the heart, you've done your part. If they receive it and repent, that's, of course, far better. We want that. But if they reject it and fight against it,

That's on them. You still get the standing ovation. You still get the well done, good and faithful servant. You still get to see the glory of God because you've impacted the lives of the people that God has set before you. Let's live our lives sold out to God, no matter what. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would stir up within us, Lord, great clarity as far as where we are in our relationship with you. Lord, are we sold out?

Are we just casual tenants once in a while? We come, we go. We're lightly committed. We're loosely committed. Are we completely consumed with you and your will? I pray, Lord, that you would stir us up, Lord, that we would pursue you with such a passion. Lord, it's not about works. It's about knowing you.

and taking the steps that you set before us. Help us, Lord, to do that, to be filled with faith, to obey you at your word, to hold fast to the scriptures, to live them in the power that you provide. Lord, also to hear from you personally, individually, to hold fast to the convictions that you've given to us, to hold fast to the things that you've spoken directly to us. Help us, Lord, to be completely turned over, consumed,

with you, your glory, your kingdom, your plans. And Lord, may we follow them at all costs, that we might make an impact in the lives of people around us. Lord, we might think that Stephen going on to live, he would be able to make a better impact. But you had a different plan. Your plan was better. The costs of Stephen's life made the right impact at the right time in the right hearts, that your kingdom lives.

could be established in the way that you set it forth to be established. Help us, Lord, to surrender to your will, to let go of our ideas and stop trying to force our way, the ways that we think is best. Help us, Lord, to be consumed with you and let you override what we desire. Help us to live our lives sold out for you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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