The Power of the Witness - Acts 6:8-7:60

What we're looking at today within the theme of the power of

the church might be one of the most ways that we will allow the

Word to give us a vision for what makes the church powerful

from the 1st century to the 21st century.

And before we get into it, I'm going to share a personal story,

a reference point for my own life where I realized the need

for more power than I contained. And this comes from a time of my

life way before I was a pastor, leading a church or even serving

in any capacity. I was going to a little church

called Calvary Chapel, Boise down when it was meeting on

Longmont, right off Broadway and fun time of our church, the mid

90s. And I there was just the work of

the spirit was happening in our church.

And my older sister Becky, she got on fire for Jesus way before

I ever did. And part of her excitement was

learning of this incredible unconditional love of God.

And if you know the unconditional love of God, you

might even know some basic Greek, which is the word agape.

And my my sister learned the word agape as it describes God's

love for humanity as not based off merit or work or self

righteousness, but he just loves you unconditionally.

What a great message to have your heart ignited for.

And because she was so in love with this theological and

profound truth, she took the word agape and she got a

specialized plate and she got the word agape on this little

car that she drove around town. It just said agape everywhere

she went. She eventually graduates high

school, goes to Bible college, and I get to inherit this truck,

the agape, the Agape mobile. I'm just driving around.

One day I'm leaving what was once called Boondocks.

It's now called Wahoos. For those of you who are new to

our area, there's an arcade over off the freeway called Wahoos,

and I'm leaving. And by my recollection, I think

I was alone to tell you a little bit about who I was as a

youngster. I was just going to video game,

arcade games, playing by myself. I go out to the parking lot

surrounding this truck are about 3 or 4 young adults, and they're

just staring at the license plate.

And I see them. I approach them.

I walk up and they say, hey, are you the owner of this truck?

I say, yeah, what's going on? They said, we have been staring

at your specialized plate, and we have no idea what this word

means. Will you tell us?

I mean, talk about a softball to the gospel, right?

And I just look at them and I see that they're about my age,

and I have my high school reputation flash before my eyes.

And I look at the plate and I say, I actually have no idea.

My sister gave me this truck. And they're like, OK, I was

like, see you later. And I speed off Like, I hope I

never see them again. I'm so embarrassed at this stage

of my life. I believed in Jesus.

I went to church, went to, you know, the youth group and the

functions. But when it came to actually

living in the power to talk about Jesus, to tell people

about the unconditional love of God, I had no interest.

There was too much at stake for my teenage heart.

And today we are going to study very simply, the power of the

church through the power of the witness.

We're going to look at the very first person to stand up and

take the message into the world, witness for the gospel at the

cost of his life, the first martyr.

Stephen and I share my story because I wonder, as I've now

become a preacher, my life is very drastically different than

the person who couldn't even give a a parking lot witness.

I wonder how many people right here, right now can relate to a

story like that where you come to church, you listen to the

preacher say the preacher things, you sing the songs.

I mean, you just sing a song. You you just gave the ultimate

allegiance to Christ Jesus as Lord.

No one else is worthy beautiful name and yet you leave this

place and there's something that's lacking in your ability

to live out a witness beyond the walls that you would go out to

the real world. This is kind of like the

Christian zoo right here. This is where everybody can

come. We can, you know, all celebrate

the safety and the joy of being Christians, but outside there is

a world that wants to ask a question about who Jesus is.

And the power of the church is not the power of the institution

to just get the right invite cards to bring people in.

What we see in the book of Acts and church history up until now

is the only way the church ever has power, the only way that

revival ever comes, the only way the lost or found is if

something exists outside of the corporate gathering.

And this is what we'll study today, the the very first martyr

in Stephen. And like I said, we're going to

go fairly quickly as he stands up to give witness to the power

of Jesus in a way that by the end of this, I just want to ask

a question, how did he do that? And how can you leave this place

encouraged to be a witness if the church doesn't have the

power of the witness, The church does not have power beyond the

walls. And so the challenge today is

how do we look at this very first witness and leave this

place saying, you know what, I want to go from powerless

outside the walls to power. And so we start by, in a sense,

picking up where we left off. Acts chapter 6, verse 8, we'll

Acts 6:8

remember just the quick back story.

We were introduced to Stephen, and this is worth mentioning.

We were introduced to Stephen last week when there was a

dispute that arose between the widows, the Hellenistic widows,

the Hebrew widows, and there was a need for some ministry to

happen. The apostle said we need to

study the word and they appointed what we now call as

deacons or servants. That's Stephen.

That's how we first meet him. He stepped up to the plate and

started serving food to people who were hungry.

And I mention his back story because I think that the the

author of Acts, Luke, mentions it so that we would all hear the

power of the witness is not from the power of the preacher.

We're actually going to study the longest sermon in the book

of Acts today. And it's not the sermon given by

the apostle Peter. It's not even a sermon given by

Paul. It's a sermon given by someone

who is just serving tables. The back story of Stephen is to

invite everyone into the witness of Stephen.

So it says in verse 8 and Stephen full of faith and power,

did great wonders and signs among the people.

And here is where we now get the opportunity.

Stephen doesn't get the softball answer like just explain to me

the Bible. He actually gets what is most

likely to happen when you leave this place.

There's going to be someone who says I don't believe what you

believe and I don't believe the power that backs up your life is

real. And this is what happens to

Stephen verse 9. Then there arose from, there

arose some from what is called the synagogue of the Friedman,

Cyrenians, Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia, and

they start disputing with Stephen.

We're going to see more than once throughout this story that

Stephen inherits in some ways the ministry of Jesus, in a lot

of ways that overlap. You'll remember Jesus comes on

the scene and he he's confounding the wise.

He's doing great wonders and miracles.

And by and large, most people are just flocking to him, want

to be near him, to hear his teaching and be healed.

And, and this is what is essentially happening around

Stephen's life, except for there are some that are so tightly

gripped to the system that they belong to, namely Judaism, that

they don't care if it comes with power and they don't care if

Stephen or Jesus is doing great works.

All they care about is that their system remains unharmed.

And so this is what they do. They start disputing with

Stephen and and it says that they were unable to dispute with

him. That doesn't mean they were they

were unable to, you know, actually argue.

It means, and we'll see this. They couldn't argue with what

was happening. Verse 10.

They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which

he spoke. They, they couldn't overcome the

substance of his life and it says he was speaking with

wisdom. They didn't know what to do with

his arguments because they didn't have counter arguments.

Just so you know where this is going, if you believe in Jesus

and the authority of Scripture in your life and you have the

power of the Holy Spirit, there are going to be a lot of counter

arguments to your life. And I'm telling you this right

now. One of the ways you get ignited

to be a witness. You have the truth and you have

the way and you have the life, and the outside world will not

actually be able to contend with the truth.

So what will happen? It says when they couldn't

contend or they couldn't resist him.

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 elder or the people, the elders and the

scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him

to the council. And then verse 13 again

paralleling what we saw in the final week of Jesus life, they

also set up false witness who said this man does not cease to

speak blasphemous words against the holy place and the law.

I emphasize the reading of that. Their argument against Stephen

is going to be very much centered around the temple, the

law, the customs and the traditions.

They have a certain way that they understand how God operates

and there is no breaking their tradition fact.

It says in verse 14 we have heard him say that this Jesus of

Nazareth will destroy this place, meaning the temple and

listen change the customs which Moses delivered to us.

All of that is the author of Acts way of saying they were

going all in on the old covenant.

They were saying everything about the system that we have

been given from Moses and traditions.

And now this holy temple mount is the only way that God will

ever work. And if you go against the

current system, we will go against you, and we will go

against you in any way that we have to think about.

All the things I just read and we don't have time to to

pinpoint all of them and find cultural parallels.

But they stir up a mob against them, they bring in fault with

witness against, and they start attacking his character.

All of these things can we just be prepared for?

These should be happening for anyone who goes against the

current systems and patterns of the world.

There will be mob warfare, there will be false witnesses.

There will be character assassination and part of the

way we can answer the question, how do we have a powerful

witness is also by answering the question, why don't we have it?

One of the reasons is because it cost you a little bit of

reputation. The Bible says that Jesus made

himself of no reputation. You're his follower.

It's very difficult to be esteemed and greatly adored in

the eyes of the world and also be radical for Jesus.

And so here we now come to verse 15.

It says all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at

him saw his face as the face of an Angel.

This story is filled and I just emphasize it for our purposes

filled with the grace of God covering Stephen your story the

more radical you get for Jesus, the more bold and courageous and

the more power you have in your witness, the more you're filled

with the grace of God covering your life.

And now it says Acts Chapter 7 verse one.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Then the high priest said are these things.

So I want you to picture Stephen is now on trial.

Apparently before the same Sanhedrin that that not long ago

Jesus was standing on trial. Probably the same people, maybe

the same false witnesses and he is now asked to give a defense.

Are these things. So in other words, are you

speaking against the holy place and the law of Moses and all of

the traditions that have been given to us?

And in that one simple question, we are now going to get a 60

verse, maybe the longest sermon recorded in all of Scripture

account from Stephen to this question.

And we won't, we won't go over all of it.

And for for this, just a reminder on Wednesdays, Tom

Velasco is going verse by verse by verse, exhausting every ounce

of the toothpaste tube that is the book of Acts.

And so I asked him to do that because there is so much that

we're going to cover that is so rich and so good that he's going

to spend the next three years covering Acts.

So when he gets to this, you all need to go and get the full

details. We're going to go 30,000 foot

overview of what Stephen's going to do.

And let me just give you, you know, the flight map of our

30,000 foot view. Stephen is going to take them on

a 1100 year history of the people of Israel.

Essentially, they have called him to the mat of the old

covenant, and they think he is violating the way God has always

operated. And what Stephen is going to do

in a way that is ingenious is he's going to show them point by

point that they're actually the ones that are missing the big

picture, that he actually has a better view of the way God is

operating than they do. And to do that, he's going to

use scripture, he's going to use history, and he's going to

really highlight the heroes of the Jewish story.

And so this could be you're broken down a lot of different

ways for our purposes. I just want you to think of this

coming in three parts. First, Stephen's going to look

at the patriarchs, Abraham and his sons that lead to the 12

sons of Jacob and lead to the tribes, the patriarchs.

So you're going to look at them and say you're missing the

actual story. He's then going to highlight

Moses and say you want to talk about Moses here.

Let me show you what you've missed about Moses.

And then he's going to help them see that they've actually missed

the the story of how God's holy presence is supposed to dwell.

So he starts by looking at the patriarchs.

Verse 2. He says this and he said,

brethren and fathers, listen, the God of glory appeared to our

father Abraham. Stephen's making it very clear

that this is his history too. When he was in Mesopotamia

before he dwelt in Haran and said to him, get out of your

country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will

show you. Now this is going to set up the

main point he's making with Abraham.

Read it again. He said he came to the God of

glory, appeared to our Father when when he was in the temple,

when he was on the Temple Mount, when he was even in the promised

land. No, Mesopotamia.

He met Abraham in modern day Iraq.

That's where God has access, news flash to modern day Iraq.

He has access to a man living in the Chaldeans, and he's reached

into his life and said, I'm going to use you to bless the

nations. And then from there he goes into

the way that God worked through the patriarchs.

And none of them actually saw the temple.

None of them saw the fulfillment of the promises of the promised

land. They were all operating by

faith, and God's kept speaking into their lives person to

person. Then Stephen reminds them that

the patriarchs got this prophecy that their descendants were

going to be oppressed in a foreign land.

That even as they they put their foot into the promised land, God

was going to remove them and do a whole new work through

redeeming them out of a foreign land.

Verse 9, it says in the patriarchs becoming envious,

sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him, verse 10 and

delivered him out of all his troubles and gave him favor and

wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he

made him governor over Egypt in all his house.

He's really emphasizing these locations so that those who

would be accusing Stephen Stephen of breaking the way God

operates would understand they've missed it.

God worked with Abraham in Mesopotamia and now through the

the evil hearts of his brothers, Joseph was sold into slavery,

landed in Egypt, and while Joseph is in Egypt, he saves the

world from a famine, not in the holy place, but in Egypt.

God is everywhere. God is not limited to a temple

made with human hands, and God can move in whatever land with

whatever people He wants. This is the message that Stephen

is trying to get across. Now we get to the part about

Moses. They really emphasize that

Stephen was blaspheming against Moses and the law and the

customs given by Moses. So this is what he says.

You want to talk about Moses? Verse 20.

At this time Moses was born and it was well pleasing to God.

He was glad that Moses was born and he was brought up in his

father's house for three months. And Moses was learned in all the

wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.

And now when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to

visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

We've got a very quick snapshot of the book of Exodus.

Moses is born into the slavery of of Egypt, but he is put into

Pharaoh's household, raises in Pharaoh's household for 40 years

and then says, I got to go see my people.

I'm an Israelite and they're enslaved.

So he leaves Pharaoh's palace, He goes to his people and he had

a heart to be part of God's redemption for the people of

Israel. And so in verse 24, it says

seeing one of them suffer, he defended and avenged him who was

oppressed and struck down the the Egyptian.

This is a small little parable of God redeeming his people out

of Egypt. Moses comes, strikes an Egyptian

to avenge the Israelite. And what happens?

They want to talk about Moses as though Moses was someone that

was always revered and respected and everyone in Israel always

loved the Law of Moses. Well, Stephen adds A commentary

that's not an exodus. It's from Stephen's heart.

Verse 25. He says because Moses supposed

his brethren would have understood that God would

deliver them by his hand, but they didn't.

They did not see that Moses was coming to bring redemption.

In fact, the story will go on in verse 27, verse 27.

He who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away.

Moses tries to break up another fight and they said, who made

you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you

did the Egyptian? Then at this saying, Moses fled

and became a dweller in the land of Midian.

So Moses spends 40 years in another wilderness.

He spent 40 years in modern day Saudi Arabia.

So we now have Stephen showing them their own history, Abraham,

Jacob, now Moses, they're all people that God was using

outside of their holy understanding.

And it goes on to say, which is a verse that has even more

context now that we're hearing Stephen's sermon, verse 30.

And when 40 years had passed, the Angel of the Lord appeared

to him in a flame of a fire in a Bush.

This is the famous, you know, the the Bush that is not

consumed moment in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

And when Moses saw it, he marvelled at the site.

As he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him,

saying, I am the God of your father's, the God of Abraham,

the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And Moses trembled and dared not look, and look what the Lord

says. Then the Lord says to him, Take

your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is

holy ground. These religious zealots are now

so committed to their system that they've been convinced and

lost the sight of the God of the universe that dwells anywhere.

His presence is, is holy. And Stephen is saying, don't

remember when Moses met God in the wilderness, that he had to

take off his sandals. Because when you're in the

presence of God, it's holy. It was in the wilderness, it was

in Midian, it was in Egypt, it was in Mesopotamia.

By the end of this section. Stephen will go on to show them

and remind them that while Moses was receiving the law, which

they are now zealots for, what were the Israelites of the day

doing? They were worshipping a golden

calf. They were so quickly and they

were ready to reject Moses. They said we don't even know

what happened to Moses, make us a golden calf.

They were ready to turn into the pagans that they left.

And once again, Stephen is saying you have such revisionist

history. You act as though you were

always loved the people that God sent to you and that that God

was always waiting for him to have this perfect place to

dwell. And the only way that God could

commune with people is if he finally had the priestly system

to bring his presents. And they've missed the God of

the whole show. And by the end of this now in

Part 3, Stephen is going to bring this all to the holy place

itself. Verse 44 Our fathers have the

Tabernacle of witness, where in the wilderness, as he appointed,

instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he

had seen, which our fathers having received it in received

it in turn also brought with Joshua into the land, until the

days of David, who found favor before God, and asked to find a

dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built his house.

Where was the Tabernacle in the wilderness?

The Tabernacle was essentially a tent, a mobile place, that

wherever they went, they would set up the dwelling place of

God. And then he quotes the prophet

Isaiah in verse 48. However, the Most High does not

dwell in temples made with hands.

As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and earth is my

footstool. What house will you build for

me, Says the Lord, Or what is the place of my rest?

Has my hand not made all of these things?

God is not limited to a building made with human hands, and God

is not limited to speak only through great prophets of old.

Stephen is now going to help them understand that there is a

pattern from 1100 years until the outpouring of the Spirit on

the church where God sends a messenger wherever He wants to

communicate and the people reject him.

This is now the indictment that Stephen is going to give to the

people who are trying to seize him or have seized him.

Verse 51, you stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears

almost feel like Steven could have stopped his sermon at the

history of Israel. Let them, you know, go home and

think about it, you know, make some time to pray in journal.

But he's going to take this indictment right into the modern

moment. He says you guys are stiff

necked and you're uncircumcised in your heart, in your ears.

This was a a way to essentially put them in the class of the

pagans. You guys think you're set apart

and marked by an outward sign of circumcision, and yet you don't

have ears that are actually cutting away the flesh to hear.

And then he says this. You always resist the Holy

Spirit as your Father's did. So do you.

Which of the prophets did your father's not persecute?

And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just

one whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers who have

received the law by the direction of angels and not kept

it. Even now Stephen is using

Scripture to help them see the pattern.

He calls them stiff neck. This is the imagery of an oxen

with the with the yoke on his shoulders.

And you know, I don't know if you've ever tried to lead an

oxen with a yoke on, but the best ones are the kind that you

can just gently kind of use the reins to direct.

The worst kind, you try to direct them and their neck is

stiff, they won't move. They do what they want.

They're obstinate. And over 20 times in the Old

Testament, God calls his people stiff necked, giving that image

he can't move them where he wants them.

They aren't moved by the the commandments.

They aren't moved when the prophets raise up and say you

need to repent and turn back to God.

And then he says, which of the messengers didn't you kill?

Which of the prophets raised up and said repent?

Did you not persecute? Reminds me of the words of Jesus

as he encourages his disciples to be witnesses.

In Matthew chapter 5, he says, blessed are you when they revile

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you

falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,

for great is your reward in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This is the story of God moving. God moves and reaches into the

life of one person, and he can reach them in the wilderness.

He can reach them in the Pagan culture of Egypt.

He can reach them in their Father's home in the UR of the

Chaldeans. He can reach you in Boise, ID

God can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere.

And when He reaches people, He gives them the power to make

witness that there is actually a living God who actually has a

plan for your life and the pattern of history that all

points us to. The ultimate fulfillment of this

story is that as God raises up the messenger, people resist the

messenger, and they eventually choose the dark over the light.

This is pointing us all of history, the people of Israel is

1 long arrow that is aimed at Christ.

And in this moment, Stephen is not going to just give a

biblical history lesson. Stephen is going to play witness

to the heart of Jesus. It says when they heard these

things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at the at

him with their teeth. This is the moment of final

betrayal. There's only two times in all of

the Scripture it says they're cut to the heart.

One we looked at in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is poured

Acts 2 · chapter mention

out. Peter gives the first sermon on

Pentecost. The people were cut to the heart

and they said, what should we do now?

And and when you're cut to the heart, when the Holy Spirit

convicts you for the reality of God, there will be a fork in the

road with one of two destinations.

Either you respond like Acts 2 with humility.

Lord, I now see that Jesus is the visible image of the

invisible God. What do I do to to align with

him? Or you're cut to the heart like

Acts Chapter 7. And it says they were cut to the

Acts 7 · chapter mention

heart in the same way. And instead of responding with

humility and seeing themselves in the storyline, they respond

by hardening their hearts, by gnashing their teeth, by

covering their ears. And let me tell you this as we

ask the question, what makes a powerful witness?

A powerful witness realizes that either response is going to

happen. And if you're waiting to be the

person that walks into the the place where someone's asking for

the direction or disputing with you about what is real.

And the only way you'll give witness is if you're like, hey,

I want to tell you about Jesus. He's got a plan for your life.

He died for your sins. And they're like, Amen, baptize

me. You're probably not going to

witness to many people because waiting for all of us outside of

this sanctuary are people that need to hear the message from

the messenger and they are going to gnash their teeth and they're

going to harden their hearts and they're going to cover their

ears. And that has to be on your

radar. If your reward is that you get

to lead a bunch of people to the baptismal waters or it's not

valid, then you've missed the greater reward.

Stephen's reward was not seen a revival from this council.

In fact, it says in verse 55, but he being full of the Holy

Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God.

He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said,

look, I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the

right hand of God. Jesus says rejoice, great, your

reward will be in heaven. Every single one of you is going

to see Jesus as judge, everyone of you.

That's the message I bring. Some of you can harden your

hearts to that message. Some of you can be stiff necked

against that reality that waiting for you is the day where

you will see the judge face to face.

And when Stephen sees the judge, he stands up to receive him.

He only he. He not only sees a judge, he

sees an advocate. And for those of you who are

born again believers in Jesus, your reward is not the fruit of

your witness now. It is the reality of your

witness then that you will have a judge in Jesus that welcomes

you because he's also your advocate, He's your Savior, He's

your Lord. Verse 57 Then they cried out

with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with 1

accord, and they cast him out of the city, and they stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a

young man named Saul. And they stoned Steve as Steven

as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my

spirit. Then he knelt down with and

cried with a loud voice. Lord, do not charge them with

this thin. And when he had said that he

fell asleep. I love the the language of these

early believers. Death was just sleep until you

rise again. And this is where the witness

goes from witnessing with the power of the word and the

history of the people and looking for the pattern, helping

them see where they fit in the storyline to witnessing with the

power of his life. He witnesses by showing them the

heart of Jesus in a word he says, Father, forgive them, for

they don't know what they do. If you don't have the power of

forgiveness in your heart, you can't see a lost and dying world

as in need of forgiveness, then you'll never witness.

You're good, you already got to church, you already sang the

songs, your name is written in the book of life.

But there is a dying world who needs to hear the message of

forgiveness. They don't need just the

biblical scripture. They need the biblical life on

display that points people to Jesus to live like Jesus.

So with the the few minutes I have left, let me just offer

three suggestions on what we just encountered through the

example of Stephen, a person who took the power of the witness

into the power of life and death.

We give three things that I see in Stephen's life. 1st, I'm

going to keep preaching this message as we study the book of

Acts as being renewed in me. Stephen knew the word Stephen.

Stephen was not like well, I feel like and I think and you

know, according to my thoughts and I know your thoughts or your

thoughts. We live in such a pluralistic

world that you forget that you stand on the reality of the

truth of God. This is the pattern we see in

the book of Acts. Jesus came post resurrection.

He said let me open up the scriptures rode to Emmaus.

He showed them all from Moses to the prophets how it all pointed

to him. Peter stood up sermon on

Pentecost, he said just like the prophet Joel said, just like

King David said, if you want to have confidence, you have to

know what's true and contained in the Bible that I am

proclaiming right now is the truth of the reality of this

world. God is good.

He made a good creation. Man fell and God sent his Son

into the world, redeemed the world.

You know the Bible and you have the power of the witness.

This is why Billy Graham always says the Bible says according to

the word of God. There's a a quote that comes

from Billy Graham. The more time I spend in the

Word, the more I look out in the into the world with confidence

that we have been given the words of life.

The words of God have. The Word of God has the answers

for a country divided, for families broken, for the

hopelessness felt in a lost and dying generation.

The Word of God has the power to give us faith in the power of

God. Second thing I see in the

example of Stephen, and it's all over the way Luke writes us in

Acts says he was full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen full of the

Holy Spirit and wisdom, a man full of faith in the Holy

Spirit, Stephen full of faith and power in the Holy Spirit

over and over and over again. And this is the most exciting

part about why I'm so grateful that we've been placed in such a

time as this. If you just look at the

opponents for Stephen, there's one distinct difference between

his witness and theirs. They had all the systems of

religion, they had a specific place, they had their prophets

of old, they had their customs, and they had their traditions,

but they couldn't overcome the power of what Stephen had.

Stephen had the power of the living God and the divide of our

world, and it's a divide that goes so much farther than divide

of church. The divide of our world is

religion versus the living God and His Spirit.

The difference between what we are celebrating today and every

world religion is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Every world religion will tell you where the holy place is.

They'll tell you to make your pilgrimage and get to the actual

ground on earth where the holy place is.

And yet what we have right now, this is not a holy place.

This is a former car dealership. I am not a prophet.

I'm not a patriarch, I'm a kid that grew up in this church and

is opening the power of the word to proclaim the power of the

Spirit. I love this quote.

Religion is people working towards God.

The Holy Spirit is God dwelling in each person.

Religion is righteousness earned.

The Holy Spirit is righteousness empowered.

Religion aims at our outer reformation.

I'm gonna teach you the rules. You don't drink or chew or go

with girls that do, and you get to figure out all the stuff that

makes you an outwardly clean person.

But the Holy Spirit brings inward transformation into your

heart and your mind and your life.

Religion brings a burden. The Holy Spirit brings peace.

Religion is a work and the Holy Spirit is a gift.

And you are people of the Holy Spirit and they don't want

religion, but they're dying for life.

And we'll end with this if we consider and preparing our

hearts for communion. Stephen had the power of heaven.

He stood up and he saw a vision that went way beyond this earth.

And if I could diagnose the number one problem in our day

and age that makes believers want the preacher to carry the

weight of the preaching and the church building to carry the

weight of the Holy Spirit, it's because we don't have a vision

that goes very much beyond a couple moments in our life.

The reason I didn't give witness when someone's asked me of the

unconditional love of God is because I couldn't see past the

high school cafeteria. You can't see past your Co

workers in the judgement of you believing in one way and one

truth and one life. You can't see past the online

chatter that you actually do believe in a king of the

universe, and he's alive, sitting at the right hand of the

Father, and he's coming again to redeem everyone who's put their

faith in him. The message will be judged.

But if you have a vision that goes beyond this life, it

doesn't matter what you give away for it.

And I don't expect anyone of you to have to lay down your life

for the witness of Jesus in the next coming days.

I'm hoping for a future where more of us get the opportunity.

But never mind trying to die for Jesus, let's just start living

for him. Let's just live by the power of

the Holy Spirit that gives a vision for life beyond life.

That the treasures you're actually building up are for

heaven and not earth. That the rewards you're living

for are from Jesus and not your coworkers.

And so with those three things, you will see a revival in our

day. If people actually stood on the

power of God and it wasn't just a text, but it had the power of

the Holy Spirit going where beyond buildings and beyond

pulpits and beyond stages and people had a vision for the

power of heaven, then we will see the power of the church on

display. Not from a Sunday morning live

stream. We I'm glad you're here, but

from every single one of you who believe in the power of Jesus.

Thanks for joining us today. If you would like to watch the

full service, check out the link in the description.

For next steps and to learn more, visit calvaryboise.com.