God’s Presence Helps Us Act Like Jesus

Let's take our Bibles.

Let's open to Acts chapter 7 for the last time.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

We're in Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

As you're turning there, I love the story of the two pastors on staff together.

It's a worship pastor and a senior pastor.

And they were having a bit of conflict that was spilling over into the service.

And it went something like this.

The pastor would preach on giving and the importance of giving, and the song leader would sing, Jesus paid it all.

The pastor would talk about not slandering each other, not gossiping against your neighbor, and the song leader would sing, I love to tell the story.

Finally, the pastor resigned.

He just gave up.

I can't work with this guy.

Everything he sings is against my sermon.

I quit.

And the song linger, the song leader would sing, What a friend we have in Jesus.

You know, I think I like that story.

Here's why.

We don't know how to deal with conflict.

We don't know how to deal when the pressure's on.

And uh conflict is part of life, and so we have to learn this.

You will very soon be in the midst of an attack, you will be in the midst of pressure, you will be in the midst of relational strain, you will maybe even be persecuted or ridiculed for your faith.

That is coming.

And the truth is we don't know how to deal with it.

For many, your next steps to conflict is really to run away, to escape, to retreat.

And that's a lot of people.

That's the strategy for a lot of people.

That's why a lot of people will leave church or leave a church.

That's why a lot of people will escape.

They don't want to do the hard heartwork.

They don't want to face the ugly inside of them and the ugly inside of others.

And so, because of our lack of boldness, our lack of our lack of power, it's easier just to run away.

For others, we tend to fight back.

I don't know if that's you, but that's certainly me.

Uh, in fact, you probably heard the statement don't get mad, get what?

Get even! Don't get mad, get even, get back, fight back.

In fact, this is a um really it's a long-term attitude for so many people, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, that tallionic justice, and we become like the very people who hurt us.

We lie, we uh we attack, we slander, we give innuendo.

In fact, I would even say that there's an element in every one of us that enjoys the attack.

There's something inside of us that uh enjoys bitterness, unforgiveness.

We celebrate when our enemies fall.

We celebrate when the bad guy gets what's coming to them.

And the problem is that all of that, everything that I've just described, is so different than Jesus.

In fact, I would say the main problem is that we're so, when the pressure is on, we're so unlike our Savior.

Rather than mirroring the image of Christ, we mar the image of Christ.

Wasn't it Mahatma Gandhi who said that I like your Christ, but I don't like your Christians because they're so unlike Christ.

The world sees it.

And this is the problem that we're addressing today.

Today in Acts chapter 7, we're in a series I've entitled Dwell, and we're learning some things that we never would have discovered unless we were doing expository preaching.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Uh we go verse by verse, passage by passage, and we're gonna finish chapter seven today.

We're learning how to dwell with the Lord.

And really, this is the climax of the story.

Stephen has been preaching the longest sermon in the New Testament, the longest sermon in the book of Acts.

And he's been talking about the presence of God.

He'll talk about Abraham, that God's presence reaches to this pagan land, to Abraham who was far off.

God's grace meets Abraham right where he's at, and that's a good message for you.

God's grace will meet you right where you're at.

God is a seeking God.

God is a merciful God.

He goes to the people who are far from God and he seeks them.

That is so powerful.

He's with Moses in Egypt.

He's with Joseph in the pit.

Some of you are in the pits of life.

Some of you are in the wilderness.

God's presence is in all those places.

Last week we saw that God's presence cannot be contained in a box.

That whether it's a job transition, you're not doing what you used to do, it's a different city.

I was meeting with a guy just a few weeks ago, and he has moved here from a different city, far from home.

Here's the good news.

Even if you've transitioned jobs, even if you've transitioned cities, God's presence is still there.

God's presence won't fit in your little box of what you think life should be.

Saw that last week.

Now, Stephen is at the high point of his sermon.

Stephen is at the moment of application.

And you know that point in the sermon when I'm preaching where the pastor goes from preaching to meddling?

You know what I'm talking about?

We're at that place with Stephen.

Stephen is going to go from preaching to meddling.

He is going to get in their face, he is going to confront sin.

He is going to come with conviction and power.

And Stephen, here's what I've noticed about Stephen in Acts chapter 7.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

He looks more like Jesus than anyone else in the whole New Testament.

He puts on the characteristics of his Savior.

And he shows that God's presence can't be contained, and God's presence will even help us look like Jesus and act like Jesus.

So let's take our Bibles.

Let's stand together.

We're in Acts chapter 7, verse 51.

Acts 7:51

This is what it says.

You stiff-necked people.

How about that for an opening line to your sermon?

Isn't that great?

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears.

You always.

I was always told you don't you don't do that.

Like in marriage counseling, don't say that to your spouse.

You always do this.

You always do that.

That's not true.

But Stephen's building a pattern.

You always what?

Resist the Holy Spirit.

There's a pattern on your life.

And he says, as your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.

You who received the law as delivered by angels did and did not keep it.

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 open, and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.

But they cried with a loud voice, and stopping their ears, rushed together at him.

And they cast him out of the city and stone 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 said this, he fell asleep.

Dear friends, here's what we're seeing today.

When the pressure is on, you and I need to learn to act like Jesus.

That's it.

That's the whole sermon.

You will have moments of great pressure on your life.

And if you can remember this, you can succeed when the pressure is on.

When the pressure is on, act like Jesus.

I have three movements to the sermon, three simple points.

Number one, I want you to say hard truths.

You need to learn to do this.

We've got to learn to do this with each other.

We've got to speak hard truths, even when it stings.

If you have something to say, something that needs said, you've got to learn to do that.

Stephen teaches us that.

And it will.

It's gonna sting.

Be bold.

Be brave.

Speak the hard truth.

Number two, we've got to pursue perfect peace even when the mob attacks.

This is a mob attack.

This is not a legal execution, not a legal judgment.

The mob is attacking, and there will be moments it is unfair in your life.

But you can have perfect peace even in that moment.

And Stephen's gonna show us how.

Lastly, we're gonna see Christ-like love.

We've got to show Christ-like love even to the ones holding the stones.

It's not about you, it's about the mission of God to seek and save the lost.

And Stephen keeps that in mind.

So may God bless his word.

May God bless all of you.

You may be seated.

Number one, let's speak hard truths even when it stings.

We've got to learn to do that.

And it will.

Just like Jesus, Stephen is willing to speak the hard truth that God has given him.

Well, he's not afraid to speak.

And by the way, this is almost like a doctor.

When you go to a doctor, you don't want the doctor who sugarcoats it, right?

I don't want the doctor who dances around what my condition is.

In fact, you might even heard that, have heard that line.

Doc, give it to me straight.

Tell me what's going on.

Give me the diagnosis.

It's unhelpful if you don't have a doctor who's doing that, right?

You want a doctor that speaks the truth.

Now we see Stephen transition in tone.

He's becoming pastoral.

By the way, this is the role of an elder.

This is the role of a pastor.

Pastors are constantly having to speak hard truths to people.

And that's why passages like Hebrews 13 exist.

That you're to obey your leaders, you're to submit to your leaders.

Why?

They're ones who have to give an account for their shepherding.

They have to speak the hard truth, and you have to learn to submit to them.

You have to put yourself under their authority.

It's so important.

Why?

Because they are speaking hard truths.

This is their role.

Like a doctor, he gives the hard diagnosis.

What is the hard diagnosis?

The heart.

He addresses their heart.

In fact, look at our first verse here.

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in what?

Heart.

He starts addressing the heart.

Now there's two things he's going to address with his speech.

He's going to address their heart and their sin.

But first, the heart.

Why is it so important for us to address the heart when we're talking to someone, when we're trying to help someone, when we're counseling someone?

Why is it so important that we address the heart?

Well, over in Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 6, excuse me, in Luke chapter 6, what we discover from Jesus is the heart is the control center for everything that comes from a person's life.

Luke 6 · chapter mention Luke 6 · chapter mention

Out of the heart, the abundance of the heart, what?

The mouth speaks.

If you've got a person who's uplifting and joyful, that's the good treasure that pours out from the heart.

If you've got an evil person, out of the evil treasure, it produces what?

Evil.

Out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

If you know someone just constantly complaining or gossiping, if you have that person, it's a heart issue.

And we've got to learn that.

There is a heart issue that is upon this audience.

And Stephen is not afraid to just look at them and call it out.

Now notice what he says, and I don't necessarily recommend this, but there is a time for this.

Don't let this be your reflex.

You stiff-necked people.

This is how to win friends and influence people, amen?

You stiff-necked people uncircumcised in heart and ears.

Now, this is not your excuse to go nuclear on somebody, okay?

This is not your excuse to be ruthless with the truth.

I just say it like it is, just like Stephen.

That's not what this is telling you to do.

No, you need to notice this.

Stephen is using covenant terms.

This and this, stiff-necked and uncircumcised, these are terms with the Israel covenant that God made with Israel.

These are terms, he's quoting their Bible back to them.

He's saying, you remember the contract.

You remember the contract that God made with you.

You remember the mark in the flesh that God made with you.

And what he's saying is these external marks are there, but you don't have the internal marks of someone who wants to please God.

And that's the problem.

Notice the heart he critiques.

He critiques a rebellious heart.

It's rebellion.

Uncircumcised, stiff necks.

This is rebellion towards God.

It's not a reflex to submit and obey and to follow.

It's rebellion.

Not only is it rebellious, write this one down, it's resistant.

Verse 51, you always what?

Resist the Holy Spirit.

This is a life that's dull of conviction.

Now, when I think of resistant, I always think of like driving down the highway.

When I'm on a road trip or something like that, and I start getting too close to the edge, you start hearing that right?

It's a warning.

It's a wake-up call to people who are falling asleep or veering from the lane.

And you can ignore that, you can, but there will be a disaster.

God's saying, essentially, you have become resistant to the warnings that I'm giving you.

And it's going to end bad.

You're resisting the warnings of the Holy Spirit.

Is that anyone here today?

When someone calls you to repent, what is your reflex?

You see, we have to understand that God's grace allows us to respond and be responsive.

You need to ask for God's grace to make you a responsive person.

They had a rebellious heart, they had a resistant heart.

They also had a repetitive heart.

A repetitive heart.

This has just become a pattern of life for them.

Verse 51, it says, it says that as your fathers did, so do you.

This is repetition.

They're just following in the pattern that their fathers laid down of external religion.

Now, this is the key to speaking truth.

You have to address the heart condition.

You see, you can stay at the surface level with just addressing actions, but you'll never get to the true issue.

You can say, okay, this person's engaged in pornography or adultery or addiction.

Those are real issues.

Somebody say, Amen.

Those are real issues.

Yes, they are.

But the biggest issue is the issue of the heart.

It's the root issue.

We have to learn that when we give correction, that when we call out sin, we've got to get to the heart level of a people that are unresponsive to God.

A dead heart.

You haven't reached deep enough to help them with their real problem.

And by the way, the gospel solves this problem.

Only the grace of God can break a hard heart.

If you feel yourself here today and you've got a hard heart towards God, you recognize there's a sin in your life that you are unwilling to address, the grace of God gives you the power to do that.

This is a mark of someone who's saved, someone who's received the gospel.

You're able to take God's side against your sin.

You're able to come out of hiding.

You can either put fig leaves on or you can put Christ on.

There's one of two options.

You can put, you can go into hiding or you can put Christ on.

You can admit, yes, I've sinned, and God has to give me grace to come out of that sin.

Only Jesus can change this.

How does Jesus do this?

Well, in Numbers 21, let's go back to the Old Testament.

In Numbers 21, we get the story of Israel's great rebellion in the wilderness.

Do you remember this?

And God gets so fed up with their rebellion.

Do you remember what he sends as punishment?

Snakes.

Snakes.

And they're snakes, these venomous vipers, they go throughout the camp and they they bite all these people.

And they're dying.

I've never been bitten by a snake.

I don't know if anyone in this room has been bitten by a snake.

I'm not interested in finding out what that's like.

Amen.

Like that doesn't sound exciting, but but apparently it messes with your heart.

Apparently it causes swelling, and eventually, if you don't get treatment and it's a especially venomous snake, you die.

And so what does God do?

God says, Moses, this is what I want you to do.

I want you to take a pole.

I want you to make a bronze serpent.

I want you to put it up on the pole.

And anyone who will look at that snake, they will receive life and they will live.

And Jesus will use this illustration in John chapter 3 as the grace of God in Jesus.

John 3 · chapter mention

In John chapter 3, this great passage of where we get John 3.16, right before John 3.16, we get the illustration of Numbers 21.

John 3 · chapter mention

Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

As Moses did that, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Guys, this is the grace of God.

This is the solution to a hard heart.

It is to first believe the gospel.

To turn from your sin and turn towards Jesus, to look up at the cross.

And when you enter into a relationship with Jesus, he frees you from hiding and putting on the fig leaves instead to put on Jesus Christ.

And you can live.

You can acknowledge your sin, you can put on Christ, and you can ask for that change of heart.

But that's where it begins.

Some of you need to do that today.

Now, Stephen will address their sin.

This isn't saying you just address the heart.

Sometimes addressing the sin behind the heart, it actually helps in showing people a reason to respond.

Like sometimes people have to have their eyes open to the sin.

Notice in verse 52, he does address their sin.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

There's the pattern.

You who received the law as angels, as delivered by angels, but did not keep it.

Guys, you didn't keep the law.

You, a people who pride yourself on your legalism and keeping the law.

And you didn't keep it.

Stephen is looking at their actions just a few short days earlier to kill Jesus.

And he's saying, You didn't keep the law.

The trials were done in the dead of night.

There's injustice.

He's pointing to a specific sin to prick the conscience.

I will say this: this is so different than the modern church in America.

Every once in a while, people will get upset whenever I touch on a specific sin.

We do that here.

We address sin.

We talk about all kinds of sins, not one, but many.

People will even cultivate their churches in this age to not talk about hell, to not talk about sin, to not talk about specific sins that the culture has embraced.

That's the age we live in.

And there's a problem there.

They look at it and say, well, we might offend people.

They may not come back.

It might affect giving.

But friends, the gospel is only good news when you understand the need of the gospel, when you understand it alongside the bad news.

Our sin is the reason that God's judgment is coming upon the world.

Our sin, when we see it, when we see our need of grace, when we acknowledge it, it's eye-opening.

In fact, that was true of the story of the prodigal son.

It wasn't until he saw his sin that he actually got out of the pig pen.

It wasn't until he saw his sin that he left his sin and ran towards the father.

Don't you love that line in the prodigal son story?

It's like he's in the pig pen.

Do you remember this?

He's in the pig pen.

He is practically starving.

He how did he get there?

Well, he got there.

He basically went to his dad and said, Dad, I hate you.

I wish you were dead.

I'll take your money.

I'll take the inheritance.

That thing that you don't normally get until someone dies, I'll take that.

And the father gives it to him unbelievably.

If my kid came to me doing that, I would tell him, get out of here, go kick rocks, right?

That's not something that's gonna happen.

But the father does it.

And he spends his money on basically drink and prostitutes.

And when his money is gone, he ends up as an indentured slave, a servant, and he's in a pig pen feeding pigs.

And the text says that he longed, he desired to eat the pods that the pigs were eating because he is starving.

And then there's this great line in that story.

What does it say?

It says, He came to himself.

It's like he came to his senses.

He saw where his sin put him.

He came to himself.

He said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread?

But I perish here with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father.

Notice the connection.

He sees the depths of his sin, and when he sees what he has done, when he sees the ugliness of his sin, that's what motivates him to pursue.

Grace.

That's what motivates him to respond.

And so we can't lay this down.

We can't lay down the call to preach both Christ and sin, the reality of sin.

We've got to preach God's grace.

But we also have to preach the urgency to respond to the gospel because the sin will bring the very wrath of God.

And so what is this teaching us?

Well, it's teaching us that you and I, in our conversations, we've got to become like Stephen.

We've got to recover the bravery to speak hard things.

We've got to recover courage, the urgency.

This is so important.

Some of you need to have a hard conversation with someone in your life, and you have been neglecting it.

You have been withholding it.

I saw this video this week.

You guys, it was it was gut-wrenching.

And I think I saw it on Monday.

I thought about it every day this week.

There's this video of a police officer pulling over, pulling over a 16-year-old with his girlfriend.

He was going a hundred miles an hour on the highway.

Pulled him over.

And the police officer only gives him a warning.

The guy speeds off.

Twenty minutes later, that same police officer is called to the scene of an accident, and it's the young man and his girlfriend.

Two fatalities.

And he, you could just see it on his face.

He was grief-stricken.

Because he thought to himself, I could have done more.

I had it in my power to address this.

And I just gave a warning.

That was a powerful thought for me.

I'm still just kind of thinking about that and how it relates to my life.

If you've been given a role and a responsibility, friends, people are on the edge of eternity, and you've got to be willing to say the hard things.

Why?

Because you don't want to wait till the crash.

You don't want to wait until someone.

Love doesn't wait for the crash.

Love is bold.

You have to be able to say, I love you too much to stay quiet.

You have to be able to say that to your kids.

You have to be able to say that to your family.

You have to be able to say that to the person that you work with.

I love you too much what you're doing.

It is scaring me.

Love says the hard thing.

It doesn't wait for the crash.

And so, parents, some of you need to say something to your children, but you dread the eye roll from your kids.

Spouses, some of you have lived with a lie so long it's become a shared lie.

And there's something that you see in each other and you're unwilling to have the conversation.

You'd rather just hide, put the fig leaves on rather than putting Christ on.

You'd rather just hide and not talk about it because you want to keep the peace.

Don't ignore God's call for you to say the hard thing, even if it stings.

That's how you respond.

And don't ignore the heart's role.

Don't merely camp out on the actions.

You've got to get to the root heart issue.

What is it that I want so bad that I'm willing to sin in order to get it?

That's a great counseling question.

What is it that do I that I want so bad?

What is the heart idle?

What is it that I want so bad that I'm willing to sin in order to get it?

We've got to become more like Stephen.

We've got to put on Christ-like actions.

Number two, if you're taking notes.

Number two, we need to pursue perfect peace, even when the mob attacks.

There will be a flood.

There will be a sweeping attack on Stephen.

I don't know if you saw this this week.

This was one of the most horrific things I've ever seen in my whole life.

And this is kind of a dark sermon, isn't it?

I want you to, did you see this in Tibet this week?

That flood?

Did you see that?

As Jennifer just flips through these pictures, this building was completely consumed, and there were people running down below over a hundred feet of water, just flooded over them, thousands, dead or missing.

It was remarkable just to watch this unfold, this giant mudslide.

And life is like that.

One day you're just working your job, and then all of a sudden it's an emergency, and then all of a sudden, you do not know when you will perish.

But I think this is a good picture of really what the mob attack was like for Stephen.

It was like this flood.

It was this mob.

They descended on him.

How do you have perfect peace when you're in the midst of something like that?

How do you have perfect peace when the flood comes, when you're consumed, when you are attacked?

Stephen shows us perfect peace before God and man.

Notice in verse 54 the flood, the attack, the mob.

They heard, they were enraged, they ground their teeth.

Now, let's just pause here for a second.

How come some people respond and some people don't?

It's the same sermon Peter preached in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You did this.

God sent his son, the righteous one, you killed him.

It's the same sermon.

How come there's one group that responds?

One group that doesn't respond.

This is just true in evangelism.

You will have great conversations, you will have terrible conversations.

And that's just that's just part of the deal.

It's Jesus' parable of the soils, right?

Or the sower.

There's some soil that's just hard.

And you give out that truth and you speak the hard things, and it just bounces off, and the birds eat it.

There'll be other soils that are fertile.

Peter has great soil, and the people respond.

Not Stephen.

Stephen experiences mob violence.

He experiences injustice.

But you can still have peace even in the midst of attack.

Notice their attack, they ground their teeth.

Isn't that an interesting phrase?

They ground their teeth.

It's like you just you can see the muscles in their neck, in their jawline flexing out.

It's that idea.

In fact, this is what's interesting about this phrase: ground their teeth.

This is the same word choice that Jesus has in the Gospels.

For how does Jesus use it?

For people in hell.

Remember this.

These are the noises of hell.

It's people grinding their teeth.

In fact, go to Luke chapter 13.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

Notice Jesus says that in that place, what place?

Hell.

In this place of eternal punishment, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That is a very vivid picture of hell.

Now, the gnashing of teeth, it's the same idea.

It's one of hostility and anger.

You might even write those two words down.

It is not one specifically of pain.

It's more specific of hostility and anger.

These people in hell, these people that are with Stephen, they are furious.

Now, this goes against everything that I kind of assume about hell.

I assume that people in hell, there's a level of contrition and sadness and sorrow of what they have done.

I think there's a level of, I would think there would be, but that's not what Scripture says.

Scripture actually says the opposite, that the people in hell, they hate Jesus.

They hate God.

They're angry with God.

I think they would kill God if they could.

These are the sounds of hell.

And yet Stephen has perfect peace.

How?

How does Stephen have perfect peace with surrounded, being surrounded by this type of hostility?

Well, write this down.

He's choosing to be controlled by the Spirit.

He chooses.

He chooses to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Look at verse 55, full of the Holy Spirit.

This is a word that's used constantly of Stephen.

In fact, three times in two chapters, this word is used of Stephen.

It's used at the appointment of those deacon-like individuals in Acts chapter 6, that these were guys who were to be full of the Spirit.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Then it singles Stephen out, that he was especially full of the faith and the Holy Spirit.

He gets singled out, and now the third time.

He lived this pattern, this life of being filled with the Spirit.

Stephen was ready for the flood because he got ready.

You will only be ready for the flood that comes to you by your preparation, because you are constantly living your life this way.

It's the preparation.

You've done the work to be ready.

Stephen lived his life, and so he didn't know this day was coming to him.

He didn't know the flood was coming on this day, Acts chapter 7, but it was there and he was ready.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Now, some of you know that I have become a part-time Jeep mechanic.

Did you know that?

I'm opening a body shop.

It's called Shaq's Body Shop.

Uh only work on Jeeps.

Jeeps that belong to my son.

Um, those are the only ones I'm working on.

That's my life now.

I just I'm constantly working on this thing.

This week, uh, there was an issue.

I just noticed that on the dash the the lights were kind of flickering, and I'm like driving down the road, or Caleb's driving down the road.

There's just a flicker going on.

And I I lift the hood and I notice that the battery uh cable uh to his negative side terminal is broken.

It's just sitting there, and that's why there's a loose connection.

So I'm in there this week and I'm putting in a new terminal.

That's my life now.

I work on the Jeep.

Um you guys know what what the acronym Jeep stands for, right?

Just empty every pocket.

Amen.

Just just just every I mean it's gonna cost you.

And um and so I'm working on this thing, and we get the connection tight, and now it's ready for the crank.

Now it's ready for the drive.

That's the idea.

That's the idea.

Stephen put in the work before the drive came.

He put in the work before the crank was necessary.

Stephen was up.

He was reading his Bible, he was steeping himself in the scriptures, he was preparing himself to respond.

He was filled, he was being controlled by the Holy Spirit.

That's what that word means.

Now, now, how did he have peace?

You see, we we tend to think that I can skip my reading today.

It won't matter.

It won't make a big difference.

Stephen shows us that if you skip your preparation, you will skip your peace.

If you skip those moments where you are being filled by the Spirit, prepared by the Spirit every day, you will miss out on the peace that God provides for you.

He offers you.

That's why your small group matters.

It's why your daily Bible reading matters.

It's why your conversations with other Christians really matter.

Notice how did he have peace?

A second way.

He focused on a heavenly perspective.

He focused his life on a heavenly perspective.

We get just one of the most beautiful sections in the entire New Testament.

Look at verse 55.

He gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

I think that you and I could endure anything if we saw that.

You know what I mean?

Like if we're being persecuted and we look up and see Jesus, it changes things.

It's unusual even.

I mean, this is one of the only pictures of Jesus standing at the Father's right hand.

It is the only picture of Jesus standing at the Father's right hand in your Bible.

It's the only one.

Every other place, it's like he's seated.

And the question is, what is he doing standing?

What does the standing matter?

There's all kinds of explanations of this.

It could be like honor.

Like when I was at graduation and all the PhDs would walk across, they would stand and walk across the stage.

Uh, the other PhDs would actually stand in recognition of all their hard work.

Like honor.

It could be welcome.

It could be that he's welcoming his son into heaven.

Have you ever seen these videos where where like a soldier comes home from Iran or a soldier comes home and they meet their family, and you see the family surprise that they're home?

You see the, and everybody just breaks out in tears and they rise and they basically tackle the guy because they're so excited to see it.

It could be that.

I think the best explanation, though, of what it means that Jesus is standing is to connect this to Jesus' heavenly ministry.

What is it that Jesus is doing in heaven?

What is his activity in heaven right now?

I think that's the best way to see this.

Well, number one, the Psalms tell us that he's ruling over his enemies, that he's overruling bad judgments.

He's overruling sinful judgments.

In fact, he is ruling in the midst of his enemies.

What else is he doing in heaven?

He is interceding.

In fact, Romans chapter 8 tells us that God intercedes for us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Jesus is at the right hand of God who is interceding for us.

I think this is that moment where Stephen sees Jesus essentially looking at him and saying to the Father, He's mine.

He's in.

He has confessed me before man.

I will now confess him before you.

He's one of ours.

I think that's what's going on.

The priest was never to sit down.

Jesus' work was done.

And he sat at the right hand of the Father, that priestly ministry.

The only priest that sits.

But in this moment he stands.

And I think if we had that perspective, I think we could endure anything.

I think Stephen was prepared for this moment.

That's how he had peace.

You can't tighten the battery cable when you're going down the road.

You got to do that preparation beforehand.

I think he was also keeping this heavenly perspective.

And he saw Jesus.

He saw the smile of Jesus.

And he had perfect peace.

Well, the smile of your father, it's a powerful thing.

And I was upstairs.

I was upstairs in student ministry this week.

I'm at that point in my life where I think about what matters to me.

You would think that this moment where I'm preaching to you is like one of the most important things in my week.

It's not.

I mean, it's good.

I love doing this.

I love my job.

Thank you very much for letting me do this.

But I'll tell you what, I was upstairs this week, and my son was my son was leading in worship.

He was on the piano, someone else was singing, and he was just serving the Lord.

I just found myself in the back of the room, just kind of watching, just kind of smiling.

Kind of like, yeah.

And I love telling my son that, son, I'm so proud of you.

I'm so proud of what God's doing in you and through you.

It was a powerful moment.

I want him to know my love.

I want him to know my acceptance.

Stephen felt something far more than even I could feel towards my son.

Man, he sees his dad.

He sees Jesus, the person he wants to be like more than anyone else.

He sees the smile of Jesus Christ saying, Well done.

I think you could have peace in any situation.

And whether you work in a job where there's persecution, whether you're under attack by evil forces in this world, I think you could endure anything if you kept this heavenly perspective.

My dad.

My dad's proud of me.

My dad loves me.

My dad's committed to me.

I think you could keep your peace if we had those kind of thoughts like Stephen had.

Final point, we're done.

How does Stephen do it?

When the pressure's on, he speaks hard truths.

Just like his hero, just like Jesus.

Jesus was willing to do this.

How does he do it?

He pursues perfect peace just like his hero, Jesus.

Jesus went to the cross.

Like a lamb, silent before his shears.

Like a lamb to the slaughter, silent.

Peace, trusting the Father.

How does he do it?

He shows Christ-like love.

Man, even to the one, even to those holding the stones.

Even to the people who are going to take his life.

What does love mean?

What does it mean to show love?

It means that you have to learn to endure the hate that comes your way.

And there will be hate that comes your way.

Notice in verse 57, this flood of hate, they cried out with a loud voice.

They stopped up their ears.

Now, that phrase, there's some interesting phrases there.

It says that they did all this together.

This is a word for unity in the book of Acts.

In fact, it was the early church that united around the apostles' teaching.

They united together in prayer.

This is how that word is used.

They're uniting around killing a man.

And they stopped up their ears, this pious response to blasphemy.

And yet it's interesting.

These pious people will soon commit murder.

Mob violence.

No trial, no judgment.

They'll rush him.

This is a lynch mob.

Love.

Love means that you endure the hate of others.

Love also means that you pray and you don't harbor bitterness against the people who offend you.

No resentment.

No bitterness.

Verse 59.

He gets strength.

He calls out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

Verse 60.

Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

What is he praying for here first?

We have to understand that.

He is praying for them to be saved.

That's the only way their sins won't be held against them.

He is praying for his enemies to receive the gospel.

He is others focused even at his death.

He is others focused even when he has sinned against.

Lord, don't hold this sin against them.

How does Stephen, how is he able to do this?

First of all, he was saved.

Stephen was saved.

This is the mark of someone who's been forgiven.

Forgiven people are able to forgive.

Forgiven people are able to release bitterness.

Forgiven people act just like Jesus.

In fact, these words right here are the same words that Jesus gave from the cross.

Same phrase.

Father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

Where'd Stephen learn that?

His hero.

Stephen was able to forgive because he was forgiven.

Stephen was able to love because he was so secure in God's love.

Look at his security in verse 60, and we're done.

He fell asleep.

These are words for a believer's death.

He fell asleep.

These are the words of really, it's almost poetic.

It's like for a Christian, dying is like falling asleep and you wake up in heaven.

He knew that his heaven was secure.

He also knew that the mission was secure.

He knew that there would be fruit from his death, and God would bury his workers and pick up the mission and go on with the next guy.

Stephen saw the long-term plan of God.

In fact, in the very next chapter, what we're going to see is that the church, after this moment, will start spreading and go to Judea and Samaria.

And really that's what that's what Jesus wanted in the first place.

That's Acts 1.8, right?

That the gospel would spread and go to other nations.

And so he is secure in his salvation, in his place in heaven, but he's also secure that this mission doesn't just depend on me.

God will pick up after I'm gone.

It's not about him.

Bitterness is a real problem for us, and we have to confront it.

I like this statement that the difference between someone who's bitter and someone who's better is just one letter.

It's the letter I.

And when you take I out of the equation, you get better.

That's the difference between bitter and better.

If you make it about you, how dare they do this to me?

How dare they say this to me?

How dare they hurt me?

You're missing God's mission.

He had security in Christ.

Because Christ was sovereign, Christ was reigning, Christ was on the throne, and Christ can work beyond my wrongs.

So he was able to release that bitterness.

And what happens?

Who shows up next?

Verse 58.

The witnesses lay down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Saul might have actually been the ringleader.

It's interesting here.

He might have been the primary accuser, the prosecutor.

And what will happen to Saul?

It's almost like his prayer, don't hold this against them.

It goes to work on the first person that it can find.

And God says, okay, him.

Saul.

And God answers that prayer, and we're going to see that in the next chapter.

God saves this young man named Saul.

And God will use Saul to save many and plant many churches.

God buries his messengers, God buries his workers, and he continues on.

And so Stephen has peace.

And Stephen is able, with that mindset, to live with love.

I've changed over the years of the people that I respect, that I honor, that I love, that I admire.

When I was a kid, it was all I want to be like Mike.

Do you guys remember that?

Michael Jordan?

Me and my brother John had that hoop on the back of our bedroom door.

We'd do those slam dunks off of a chair with our tongue out.

Like Cory Tinboom, who was able to forgive the people that locked her away and abused them in a Nazi internment camp.

Like Elizabeth Elliot, who forgave and went to minister to the very people who speared and killed her husband Jim.

Stephen's hero is Jesus.

And when Jesus is your hero, you'll start living like this.

Your heads bowed, with your eyes closed.

I want to lead us through a time of response.

I'd like to invite to the front of the room our response team.

Every week we're trying to do this, guess trying to ask you to respond.

We have a couple elders coming forward, a couple pastors.

We also have others on the prayer team that are going to just line the front of the stage here.

We need to be responsive people.

We need to be a people who are a praying people.

And I want to just call you to respond.

Here's the question: How will you act like Jesus Christ this week?

What's that gonna look like for you?

I'm gonna lead you through this.

Heads bowed, eyes closed.

Mark, would you come down here?

Would you just come right here and just I want I want you guys to come on spread across here.

We have people across the front ready to pray with you.

And I want you guys to be ready for this, alright?

Heads bowed, eyes closed.

I want you to respond right now.

In fact, if you want to come down and pray with one of these prayer partners, if you want to come down and pray by yourself, you can do that.

Just take a knee.

Is there anybody here with bitterness in your heart?

That God is, you know it's wrong.

Like you feel the depth of your sin before God today.

You know it's unchrist-like, but you have bitterness and unforgiveness that you need to lay down.

Who's that name that's coming to your mind right now?

They have harmed you greatly.

This passage does not sugarcoat the harm.

I mean, Stephen was harmed, but man, he was Christ-like.

He was able to lay down the things that were done against him.

No bitterness in his heart, just love, just peace.

During the song, I want to challenge you to respond in your heart.

Maybe come down here and pray.

Maybe come down here and seek counsel.

Maybe come down here and just pray with a brother, pray with a sister.

You can ask for that new heart.

You can ask for new desires.

Some of you need to repent of your unchrist-like actions.

You need to use this time to drop your grudge, see it as an opportunity.

For others of you, you need to make a choice right now.

Choose to bless the very people who persecute you.

To pray for them.

Stephen prayed for their salvation.

Maybe you need to come down here and pray for your enemy.

Maybe you need to say the thing that Stephen and Jesus said.

Father, forgive them.

Let them find forgiveness.

Father, forgive them.

They don't know how they've hurt me.

They don't know what they've done.

They don't know what their actions have done.

You can do that today.

In Romans 12, 14, it says that we're to bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse.

You can turn that next attack into a witness.

Some of you need to come down and pray for boldness to have a conversation, to speak the truth in love.

Conflict is an opportunity, it's a chance to speak to the heart.

You need to pray for that today.

And for others of you, if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ, I'm telling you, as an ambassador of Christ, you will never be able to be like Stephen, who is trying to be like Jesus, unless you repent of your sins and trust in Christ.

And the example is there.

Just as the snake was lifted up in the wilderness, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, was lifted up on a cross.

He was lifted up for all to see, bare and naked and beaten and bruised and bleeding.

And he died in your place for your sin.

He took your punishment.

And he rose from the dead with an offer.

Any who would trust in him, any who would believe in his name, he can wash away your sin and get this.

He can give you a new heart.

Won't you respond today?

Church family, let's stand together.

I'm going to pray for us.

And I'd love for you to, during this song, make moves to respond.

If you want to come down, talk to a pastor, talk to an talk to an elder.

Now's your time.

Father, thank you for this moment of response as we sing, as we worship.

Lord, I pray for submissive hearts.

Lord, I pray that all of us would say, Jesus is my hero.

I want to be like him.

That's what Stephen was doing.

He was acting like Jesus.

When the pressure was on, he acted like Jesus.

So, Lord, would you teach us all to do that?

And I pray, if there's someone here who does not know your precious son, Jesus Christ, Lord, would you draw them right now to repentance?

Make the gospel call so irresistible that they cannot resist your call anymore.

And that today, right now, would be the day they mark on their calendar that they've become a Christian.

Today would be the day, no turning back.

They trust in your son.

And Father, their sins are washed away.

You give them a new heart, and all of life starts to change.

All the bitterness is gone.

The forgiveness is experienced, and then the forgiveness is offered to others.

Lord, I pray that would happen too.

So, Lord, we love you.

I ask that you'd work in this room right now during this song.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

All God's people say it together.

Amen.