Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
August 26, 2026 | This episode explores the example of Stephen in Acts 6-7, highlighting his faithfulness, wisdom, and the powerful contrast between believers and religious leaders who reject God's grace. It emphasizes Stephen’s courage in the face of opposition, his vision of Jesus, and his forgiveness toward his persecutors, encouraging listeners to fix their eyes on Jesus and to respond to God's grace.
Bellevue Baptist Church Middle School Ministry
Amen, amen, holy, holy, holy. He is so worthy of our praise, he is so worthy of our worship. Can we just give the Lord a hand of praise. Thank him for who he is and what he's done. Come on. Thank you, Connor. If you have a Bible, go ahead and raise it up in the air. Let me see them. Come on. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I love to see. Y'all are bringing your Bibles. Y'all are awesome. Put it back in your lap and open up to Acts 6. Open up to Acts 6. And while you do that, who wants to give me a little bit of a recap of what we talked about last week? Anybody brave? Anybody want to give us a little recap of last week? You want to give us a little recap? What did we talk about last week? Yes? Yeah, he does. He provides right on time. Come on. Yes, the Holy Spirit makes us bold. He provides for us right on time. He gives us exactly the kind of words to say. So, yes, we talked about that. We talked about how Peter and John, they healed a lame man by the temple and they were made bold by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we saw how they spoke with boldness and the religious leaders didn't really like that. And they came against them and they forced them to go before a council and they questioned them. But they spoke with boldness because of the power that the Holy Spirit gave them. And another cool thing about it is it was very clear that they had been with Jesus, right? And so tonight we're going to be looking at another person in the book of Acts who showed remarkable Christ-likeness, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and people could see that he had been with Jesus. So tonight, week three of More Than Meets the Eye, we're going to be talking about how God's spirit develops a divide. God's spirit develops a divide between someone who's a believer and they're filled with the Holy Spirit and someone who does not know Jesus and they're rejecting him in the grace of God. So several years ago, I had the opportunity to go for a run with a good friend of mine. And now this friend of mine, he wasn't just like a normal runner. He was like crazy committed, like crazy person runner. Like he would run like miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles a week. He ran marathons. He did these like Spartan races where he was like climbing through the mud and then also running like a hundred miles. He was crazy. He's awesome. Super cool guy. But he loved to run and he wanted me to come and go on a run with him because we were friends and I had to warn him before we started running. I was like, dude, I don't think I can run as far and fast as you because at the time I didn't really run at all. Now I run a little bit. But at the time I wasn't running at all. And I was like, dude, I probably got like one mile in the tank and he could probably run 50 and be fine. And so I warned him. I was like, dude, I could probably only run a mile. So we start running. We start, we're going at a kind of a reasonable pace. And we're going and we get to right about at a mile. And I was like, I was sweating. There's sweat dripping down my face. My arms and legs started feeling heavy. I was like, I don't know if I can keep going like this, bro. So we run maybe another half mile and I'm tapping him on the shoulder. I'm like, bro, we got to be done. I'm tapping out. If we run any further, I think my feet are going to fall off. We can't do it anymore. And so we finish up and we go back to the car and we're just sitting and talking and it became very clear to me one thing. And it was that he had trained for this and I did not. It became very clear to me that he was very ready for this. He was prepared. He had the skills. He had the power to do this. And I very much did not. He had been training and I had not. And tonight we're going to be looking at the contrast between Stephen, who had been with Jesus, who was close with God, who was faithful to him and the religious leaders who go up against him, who they were committed to the law. They were committed to the rules and the regulations in the temple, but they didn't know God personally. And so we're going to be looking at Stephen, and I want to point out three key spiritual differences between Stephen and the religious leaders who opposed him. And so the first thing I want you to see in these verses is wisdom versus false witness. Wisdom versus false witness. So we're going to start reading in Acts chapter 6, verse 8. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freed men, as it was called, and the Cyrenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed, they argued with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Stephen was being faithful to what God had called him to do. Stephen was going and he was preaching the gospel. He was teaching people about who Jesus was and what he had done. He was going and he was healing people. He was performing miracles. Wonderful things were being done through Stephen by the work of the Holy Spirit. And so he was out and he was being faithful to what God had asked him to do. And similar to the situation with Peter and John last week, the religious leaders, the people in the synagogue, didn't like it. They didn't like what he had to say. They were against all of the things that he was teaching. But the cool thing is he was full of the Holy Spirit and he was full of wisdom. And it says that they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So let's keep reading. It says in verse 11, then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. They knew that they couldn't argue with Stephen. So they went their own way and they're trying to get at him. And they're saying, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. So they're so frustrated with him and they realized they couldn't argue with him. So they go and they are planting these people to go and stir up the people, get people frustrated, get people mad. And there's people who are going in there, they're proclaiming, he's a blasphemer. He's speaking out against God. He's saying things that are not true. He's speaking against God and Moses. And because of this turmoil and the frenzy that they create, they're able to stir the people up enough that they go and they arrest him and they bring him before the council. So let's keep going. It says they set up false witnesses who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. So they planted not only people to stir up the crowds, not just people to get him before the council, but in the council they place false witnesses. Can somebody tell me what a false witness is? Right here, Jacob. Yeah, so they're claiming to be somebody who's seen what's happening, but they're telling a story that's not true. That's right. So these people, they go in and they're proclaiming falsely the things that Stephen was talking about. And they're twisting his words. They're giving false accusations. And they say he never stops talking negatively about the law or about the temple. They're saying that he is against God. And, you know, this reminds me of like when I was little and where I was going maybe to a new school or with a new group of people and I'm meeting some new people. I'm getting their names. We're hanging out a little bit. And then somebody just decides, just for whatever reason, I don't like Sam. Maybe they don't like my shoes. Maybe they don't like my shirt. Maybe they don't like, you know, the jokes I make. Maybe those kinds of things. They just decide they don't like me. And so they go behind my back and they start talking with the people around, like all the people in this group. And they're like, you know what? You know what I heard? I heard Sam doesn't brush his teeth. Mmm. You know what I heard about Sam? I heard he only takes a shower once a week. Ooh, nasty. Gross. I heard Sam doesn't like to watch movies. Can you believe that? Unreal. And so that is the kind of things that these people are doing. It seems so petty, right? They're going behind Stephen's back. They're going to all these people and they're saying Stephen is against
God he is a blasphemer. He's a liar. He's a false teacher. Don't listen to what he has to say and In the middle of all of this Stephen is steady and he is reliant on the Lord even though Stephen's words are being taken out of context They're being misinterpreted. They're being skewed and they're being used against him He is steady and he trusts God and he stood for what he knew was true He wasn't shaken he didn't compromise He knew what God had said was true and he was not afraid to share it and he wasn't aggressive with him He wasn't angry. He just spoke the truth in love and now here's the deal I don't think you guys and I don't think I will ever have this happen I don't think you guys are gonna be dragged before a court and asked to defend your faith in Jesus but There will probably come a time when you have to face somebody who doesn't like the fact that you are a Christian That they don't like the fact that you're a believer in Jesus That you know your belief in Jesus means that you have said that you're a sinner and that you believe that Jesus has saved You from that and that'll make that sometimes that makes people mad They don't like to be told that they've done something wrong And so there will be a time when somebody will come at you and they'll be like I don't like the fact that you're a believer Jesus are you going to stand firm for what you believe to be true? Are you gonna stand firm like Stephen and say no, this is what is true about God Yes, Jesus is good. And he loved me and he died for me and you're gonna stand on that truth Are you gonna share it in kindness? Can you be described as Stephen is being full of grace and power? Are you gonna hide from that opposition are you gonna hide from it and and turn away and say, you know what? Whatever they say, I'm not gonna stand up for that. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go it go against them Another thing that's true is you can't argue someone into believing in Jesus. You can't argue them to that place You can provide the facts you can provide the truth of Scripture, but you can't argue someone to believing in Jesus But are you gonna be like Stephen and have the opportunity to in grace and love and power Present the truth of the gospel and pray and love them pray that the Lord would bring them to saving faith You can show them by your words and your actions who Jesus is the next thing I want to point out to you is the difference between Stephen's gaze and the gritted teeth of the religious leaders And so after being taken before the council Stephen is Questioned about whether or not what the people are saying is true. They say all right, dude This is what all these people are saying. What's the deal? Is it true? Are you a blasphemer? Are you saying these things against the temple and against the law and against Moses and against God? and in response Stephen presents the longest sermon in the book of Acts and I wish we had time to go through all of it It is so good, but it takes up most of chapter 7 and he talks about Abraham. He talks about Isaac He talks about Jacob and he talks about Moses. He talks about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt he talks about the faithfulness of God all throughout Israel's history and it comes to a head at the very end and he says God presented this law to to his people out of love and You guys are the lawbreakers and he calls the religious leaders out and he says you guys are holding so close to the law But you don't even realize that you yourselves are the lawbreakers and you have rejected God. You've rejected his grace You've rejected the opportunity to to be in a right relationship with him because you're trying to hold on to this control and this authority that you have by holding to the law like this and So he talks about that and he talks about how they rejected God They rejected Jesus as the Messiah and they have they have turned away from God And they've held too closely to the law and they've opposed anyone who questioned it That that they've they've killed the prophets who've come to share about who Jesus is He calls them a stiff-necked people their hearts and their ears resist God They've refused the grace of God and they've rejected it and so that then brings Stephen to To the the end of his sermon and they are enraged at what he had to say And so let's keep reading in verse 54 in chapter 7 It says now when they heard these things They were enraged and they ground their teeth at him but he Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him Stephen's accusation of them calling them out on their lawlessness on their rejection of God It enraged the audience and they ground their teeth at him. Have you ever been so mad that you ground your teeth? You ever done that? I don't know if I've ever actually been that mad, but they were so mad It says they ground their teeth at him. They were furious but the beautiful contrast between their reaction and Stephen's is that Stephen is calm cool Collected with all the anger and the rage all around him He looks up to the beautiful sky and I don't know exactly what this would have looked like But he sees the glory of God He sees the glory of God and he sees Jesus the Son of God at his right hand And he says I see I see him. I see him up there. I see Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father and They're so frustrated and they're so mad at him that they stop their ears and they rush at him And so I as I was reading this it reminded me of a video I saw one time That I just thought was hilarious and I wanted to show it to you guys I don't know about y'all, but if I was that big dog, I would be I'd be fighting I'd be fighting But here's the deal Here's the deal Stephen is like the big dog. He's he's laying there. He's calm He's cool collected and his eyes are fixed on Jesus He is looking up into the heavens and he sees Jesus not just physically in that moment being able to see Jesus in the sky But spiritually his eyes have been focused on Jesus this whole time When he was going and he was teaching the people his eyes were fixed on Jesus when he was before The the people who were angry at him He was his eyes were fixed on Jesus When he was confronted his eyes were fixed on Jesus when he got arrested and was taken before the council His eyes were on Jesus when he was accused his eyes were on Jesus When he spoke the truth about the Old Testament and all the ways that God had been so faithful His eyes were on Jesus. His eyes were never taken off of Jesus. But in contrast, what does it say about the religious leaders? It says they stopped their ears and they rushed at him in anger They stopped their ears. They plugged their ears to the truth of the gospel They turned their faces away from Jesus and they refused and rejected the grace of God the message of the grace of God That Stephen was sharing just as he had said Just as he had said in sermon that you guys have rejected God Again they were doing the same and so my question for you is where are your eyes? Are they fixed on Jesus in the midst of a hard time? Are they fixed on Jesus or do you have your face turned away like the religious leaders turned away from him? do you put your fingers in your ears when you hear about the grace and the goodness of God and What it means to surrender to him The religious leaders were enraged at what Stephen had to say because they wanted to have the power to control their own lives They wanted to have the power to to say this is the way that I'm supposed to live. This is what's right This is what's wrong. They didn't want to submit to God And so they were enraged at that at the message and they didn't want to experience the grace So do you love control over your own life more than you love Jesus? Or are you like Stephen and your eyes are fixed on Jesus and what he wants for your life? If your eyes are fixed on Jesus just like Stephen You'll have everything you need to face the trials that will come and that doesn't mean that everything's gonna be easy That doesn't mean the things are gonna be gonna be all all good But the Lord will bring you through the hard times. He'll bring you through the trials and so the last thing I want us to see tonight in this passage is the difference between forgiveness and folded cloaks forgiveness and folded cloaks Verse 57 says But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul and as they were stoning Stephen, he called out Lord Jesus receive my spirit and Falling to his knees. He cried out with a loud voice Falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice
Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. After hearing Stephen talk about the grace and the power of God throughout the Old Testament and being unwilling to listen, the religious leaders rushed at Stephen, they threw him outside the gates and they began to stone him and they threw their cloaks down on the ground at the feet of a man named Saul. And if you've been around the church, if you've been around the Bible at all, you probably recognize his name. This is the same Saul who would go and would gather Christians and he would hunt them down, he would persecute them, the same Saul that would later encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus and be radically saved, the same Saul whose name would be changed to Paul and would be one of the greatest missionaries to the Gentiles during the early church. They laid down their cloaks at his feet so that they could stone Stephen and Saul approved of it. They were furious, they were enraged at the idea that Stephen would go against their understanding of God. How dare he call us lawbreakers? How dare he say that we oppose God? How dare he say we persecuted every prophet that God sent? How dare he say we rejected God? How dare he speak against the law of Moses? When people don't like the truth, but they know it's the truth, they do everything they can to silence it. And so their response that they saw was fit for what Stephen did was to kill him, to stone him for what he stood up for, to stone him for speaking the truth. And the most beautiful part of this whole story is what Stephen says as he's being stoned. He cries out to God on their behalf, on behalf of the people who are actively persecuting him. He calls out to God on their behalf and he says, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. His words echo Jesus's words on the cross as he died for our sins, for the sins of everyone who would believe. Jesus said in Luke 23, verse 34, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus' death was so unjust. And if the just penalty for our sin is death, then Jesus' death was the most unjust death in all of history, because he was the only person who had never sinned. Jesus did not deserve to die. And while he hung on that cross, he had such grace and such love for you and me that he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They don't know the severity. They don't know the gravity of the sin that they are committing right now. Even in the midst of an unjust death, Jesus showed his love for people and his overwhelming grace, saying, Father, forgive them because they don't even understand what they're doing. Don't hold their sin against them. And Stephen, having his eyes fixed on Jesus, echoes those words, even though the religious leaders' cloaks were folded on the ground and their hands were raised with stones, he said, God, would you forgive them? God, would you not hold their sin against them? Forgive them. Don't hold this against them. Help them to unplug their ears. Help them to turn their eyes to you, to look to you for grace and for mercy and for salvation. And that is the kind of grace and mercy that God has for us, that even in our darkest moments, even when we have stones raised above our head, even when our cloaks are folded at the feet of Saul, that he has grace and he has mercy for us. And he asks, God, would you forgive them? Have mercy on them. They don't know what they're doing. Don't hold this sin against them. And so for the believer in the room tonight, you should feel so full of joy and full of gratitude for what God has done in your life, for the forgiveness that he has extended to you, that he's given you such an opportunity to be saved from your sin, that he has said, don't hold this sin against them. Father, forgive them, that he has extended a hand of forgiveness to anyone who believes, that he's given you the wisdom to speak with grace and power of the truth of who God is, that he's given you the opportunity to look at him and that he will carry you through the worst situations, that he's given you a heart that's willing to extend a hand of forgiveness to even the meanest of people. Because at one point, we too held our hands up in rebellion against God, but he extended a hand of forgiveness for us and he showed us that we could be forgiven. So we should be so grateful for what he's done. But maybe tonight, as you look at the spiritual contrast between Stephen and the religious leaders, you may say, I don't really look like Stephen. I really, I've had my fingers in my ears when I've heard the gospel before, that I've looked away from the grace of God, that it makes me mad when somebody says, yeah, you've sinned against God. The truth is that Jesus is extending the same invitation to you tonight that he did on the cross, that there is an opportunity for forgiveness. And so he loves you and he shed his blood so that you could be forgiven and you can be forgiven tonight. No more anger at his grace, no more gritted teeth, no more cloaks on the ground, but forgiveness for your sins because of the grace and the mercy that God has for you through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. And all you have to do is surrender, to ask for your sins to be forgiven and to believe in him as the only one who can save you from your sins. So if that is you tonight, I want you to do something bold. And as we go into this next song, what I want you to do is I want you to come to the back and I want you to find me. Come and find me. And I wanna help you find somebody to talk to you tonight about what it means to accept the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness that you can find in Jesus. So once the song starts, I want you to come and find me in the back and I wanna help you to talk with somebody about Jesus. So as we close tonight, the presence of God's spirit at work in the life of a believer creates a clear divide between us and the people who do not know Jesus in that way. The one who rejects God's grace, plugs their ears and turns their face away from him. But the believer in Jesus is full of grace and power and can feel the goodness and the grace of God. And you've experienced his forgiveness. And they have the opportunity to face so many trials, even like Stephen, such a hard trial that he faced. We can face trials even like that because our eyes are fixed on Jesus. So let me pray for us tonight and we'll worship together. Father God, thank you so much for the example of Stephen, Lord, for his faithfulness to you, for how much he trusted you and loved you. Lord, thank you that you loved us so much that you would lay your life down for us. And even in our worst moments, even when our sin is at its peak, you love us and you extend the same invitation to forgiveness that you did all those years ago, that you say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Lord, help us to realize what we are doing. Help us to realize our sin and help us to ask you for forgiveness. So Lord, I pray if there's anyone here tonight that hasn't believed in you, that hasn't had their sins forgiven, that they haven't asked you to clean them up, to forgive them of their sins, Lord, I pray that they would do that tonight. They would come to know you. And so Lord, I thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the encouragement that you love us and you forgive us. Lord, I pray you would be with us now as we worship. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.