The Weight of Glory - 05.17.26 - Kyle Morris

 This sermon walks through Acts 6:8–7:60 and the story of Stephen, an ordinary man full of faith and the Holy Spirit who courageously stands before false accusations, suffering, and death with his eyes fixed on Jesus. Stephen’s speech shows that the temple and the law were never meant to be ultimate, but were signposts pointing to the greater reality of Christ, the Righteous One who fulfilled the law and made a way for sinners to be made right with God. His death reveals what Spirit-filled courage looks like: not denying suffering, but seeing that the temporary weight of pain cannot compare with the eternal weight of glory. Like the 21 Coptic Christians who died with the name of Jesus on their lips, Stephen reminds us that followers of Jesus can suffer and even die with hope, forgiveness, and peace because Jesus is alive, standing in glory, and ready to receive His people. His martyrdom also becomes a turning point in Acts, as persecution scatters the church and the Gospel continues to advance. 

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Transcript

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Through the reading of the same word. And so, God, we ask for that. In the mighty and powerful name of Jesus. And everybody said, Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Welcome to Revive Church. My name is Pastor Kyle Morris, and I have the honor of bringing you God's word today. If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to turn it to Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 8. If you are newer to Revive and you haven't had the opportunity to pick up an Acts journal, we have plenty of these in the lobby, and it gives you an opportunity each day of the week to open God's Word, and it also has space for you to write down what God is speaking to you. God's a talker. I don't know if you know that. And he wants to speak to you. And the primary way that he speaks to us is through his word. And so we want to invite you to be in his word and walk through the book of Luke, not just when we gather for this 35 minutes, 40 minutes on a Sunday morning, but as you are studying each day, we're going to take a big chunk of scripture today. We're going to look at Acts chapter 6, verse 8, all the way through the end of chapter 7. And the reason why we're going to do this is this story of Stephen is kind of one unit. And we're not going to read every verse in this text because if we did, I would be reading for like 15 minutes. I would encourage you this week to read Acts chapter 6, verse 8, all the way through the end of 7. When we get to Stephen's speech this morning, which I'm not going to read any, I'm going to summarize what I think Stephen is trying to do in this speech before he is killed. And so we're going to start, we're going to read Acts 6, 8 through 15, which is kind of the beginning, and then we're going to read the end. So we're going to read the bookends of this passage, ending with Acts 7, 51 through 60. Acts 8, verse, or Acts 6, verse 8 says, And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, 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. And they set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place, the temple, 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. Verse 15, and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his Stephen's face was like that of an angel. Now skip over to Acts 7, beginning in verse 51. This is Stephen's final response to his accusers. He says, This, You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. 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 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 standing at the right hand of God. 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, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Let's pray. Father, this morning, as we look at this text, there is a lot of things that I could say, there's a lot of things that I have written down. And I just pray that by your Holy Spirit, that you would fill me to say the things that you want me to say. And God, I know that in a sermon like this, there's gonna be things that I miss, there's gonna be things that are confusing or even missing, or things that I left out that I should have included, or even maybe something that I'll say that's wrong. And God, I pray that this morning, as we're sitting under your word, led by your spirit, that the words that your spirit confirm in our hearts would be the ones that we follow. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. On February 15th, 2015, the world watched in horror as 21 Christians were led to their deaths on a beach in Libya. Most of these were Coptic Christians who were from Egypt. They were not famous pastors or theologians or global Christian leaders that anyone had ever heard of their names. Many of them were ordinary laborers, construction workers who had actually traveled to Libya in an effort to support their families. And as they nailed before their executioners in their orange jumpsuits, they were given a choice, a simple choice: convert to Islam or die. Many of them could be seen moving their lips in prayer. Some reports say that they were actually whispering the name of Jesus. And then one by one, all 21 lives were taken. This is likely not the first time that you've seen this picture. In fact, this is a picture that I can remember and call to mind at any moment. As you look at this story and as you consider these men, these men, they they knew something that every follower of Jesus must know, and that is something deep within our bones that the moment of death for all Christians and followers of Jesus, although it may be painful, although there may be questions, and although it may be surrounded by fear, it is momentary. But the weight of glory is eternal. You see, these men, they could face this temporary moment of death because they were convinced of an eternal weight of glory. It's interesting as you look at this picture, the peace that is present even in the most difficult of circumstances. You don't see any of these men standing to their feet and trying to run off. You don't see any of these men cursing their accusers. But instead, there's this deep sense of supernatural peace that even though they know that they're about to lose their lives, what they know even more than that, is all that's about to happen is they are going to be sent into the presence of Jesus Christ. Stephen, in our story today, he is not introduced to us as one of the most famous apostles. He's not one of the initial twelve. He did not know Jesus personally, most likely. He's not the most famous leader in the early church. He is an ordinary man who stepped up and was chosen as one of the seven men to serve at the food line to make sure that the Grecian widows were taken care of. And yet he was described as a man that was full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. And yet, when Stephen stands before the council, when these false accusations are thrown at him, when the rage in the room rises up against him, when the stones begin to fly, he does not fix his eyes on the situation or the circumstances. Instead, he fixes his eyes on Jesus Christ. He looks up, he sees the glory of God, and he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Not sitting there or standing there pretending that death isn't frightening, not acting like suffering doesn't hurt, not denying the fact that there is pain and persecution, but he sees something greater, he sees someone greater. See, the courage of Stephen and the courage of these 21 martyrs, they force us as followers of Jesus Christ to ask some questions. Questions like, are we living right now for a temporary moment, or are we living for an eternal weight of glory? You remember Romans 8, right? We just spent four weeks in Romans 8. There's a verse in Romans 8 that I spent some time on that I think we're actually gonna see that verse lived out in this story, meaning we're gonna see flesh on the faith. Romans 8, 18. Remember this passage. It says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. What's Paul doing in that moment? He's not just encouraging believers out there, but he's encouraging his own heart because we know that Paul went through a great amount of suffering, and he's encouraging himself as well as followers in that day and followers today, not to focus simply on our present suffering, whatever it may be, because there is an eternal weight of glory that awaits those who are in Christ. The word consider, as we looked at a few weeks ago, means do the math. He's saying, when you do the math of the suffering that we experience in this present life, no matter what it may be, it doesn't mean that it's not painful. It doesn't mean that we pretend like it doesn't cause fear or anxiety, and it's not that. It's not living this stoic life, but instead it's recognizing that the weight of glory is so much greater. And we're gonna see that truth lived out today in real life. We're gonna see what it means to suffer well and actually also to die well. You see, we live in a part of the world in the Western world where we actually don't do a very good job preparing people for suffering. We don't do a very good job talking about death. In fact, secular sociologists would say that the Western world is actually the worst at this, that other cultures are actually really good at preparing their people for suffering and preparing their people to die. Now, here's what's interesting. Those same secular sociologists, although they admit that the Western world is not good at this, when they study the myriad of world religions, guess what? They say that Christianity has the best system for understanding suffering and death. And so we as Christians and followers of Jesus, not that we're looking for suffering or asking for suffering, but the way that we suffer in relationship to the Bible, the way that we die in relationship to the Bible is actually far superior to most world religions and thought. And so this morning we're gonna look at how do we suffer well? How do we make sure that we keep an eternal perspective in mind? Last week we were introduced to a problem in the early church. The church was growing, but all of the needs were not being met. There were actually widows who were not receiving the care that they needed. And so the apostles stepped into the situation, and seven men, one of those men being Stephen, were appointed as people who were gonna be stepping into this problem with the food line. And we find out very early on that not only was Stephen taking care of this problem with widows, but he also was full of grace and power. We're gonna see Stephen express a faith in this story that's really hard to grasp, but I want you to see something. The Bible is really clear. Luke wants us to see, not just at the beginning of this passage, but he wants us to see all throughout this passage that the reason why Stephen is able to stand up to his own suffering and ultimately his own death is not by his own might, not by his own power, not by his own strength, but because he is filled with the Holy Spirit, which begs a question for us. It begs a question for us as followers of Jesus when we think about our lives and the sum of our lives, Monday through Sunday, how much of our lives are we spending pursuing God in such a way that he fills us up? You see, when you get to the end of that first section that we read, after all of the religious leaders have voiced their complaints against Stephen, we find out that Stephen, he was reflecting the glory of God back to them. This is similar to what happened to Moses as he went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and forty nights. What happened? He came down, and the Bible says that his face shone like an angel. Meaning he was in the presence of God, so much so that when he came down off the mountain, the presence of God, the glow of the glory of God was reflected onto all of those whom he looked at. This is what's happening with Stephen. In the midst of these false accusations, in the midst of his own threat of death, Stephen is having this powerful moment where he is reflecting the glory of God. And so this is the setup. Stephen is standing in front of his accusers. And after his accusers make their claims about what he is preaching and what he is saying, they ask for Stephen's response. And this is the longest sermon in the book of Acts. If you've not read it, it would be valuable to read. But let me give you a summary in the next five to ten minutes of what Stephen is doing, what exactly he is trying to communicate to those who are accusing him. Number one, Stephen is being accused of undermining the law. The law was given by Moses when he came down off Mount Sinai. And so what the religious leaders are doing is they're accusing Stephen of blaspheming Moses and his law. That's number one. Number two, Stephen is also being accused of undermining the place of worship, the temple, basically demeaning the purpose of the temple and gathering there. Now, that's not at all what Stephen is doing, but they've trumped up these charges in order to get him to be arrested, and ultimately at some point, with Rome's consent, they're gonna kill him. Now, when you just read this in Acts chapter 7, verses 1 through 50, when you just read this at first glance, it looks like Stephen is just rambling on about 1100 years of Jewish history. But what he's actually doing is he's crafting an extensive defense against these accusations by showing how he's not removing the value of the law. He's not removing the value of the temple. That's not at all what he's doing, but instead, he's pointing to the temple and he's pointing to the Mosaic law as signposts that are pointing to someone greater. And so he begins by arguing that the temple is not needed to meet with God. He points to Abraham. Abraham did not meet with God in a temple, and he does this over and over by pointing at other Old Testament figures who met with God. Moses met God for the first time in a burning bush. And so this logic, he it leads Stephen to quote Isaiah 66, which says, God does not dwell in a, God does not dwell in a house made by human hands. In other words, the temple is not the only place where God meets with his people. It's not that it didn't serve a purpose, but God's presence is not limited to a place. Now, at this point, Stephen's accusers would not be satisfied with his answer. Because what about the law? If the temple was not needed, then there would be no place for sacrifices to take place in order to please God. You can't meet with God without obeying the law, which Israel showed repeatedly over and over throughout the last 1100 years, they were unable to keep God's law. They broke the law at every turn, and so therefore, sacrifice was needed in place of their sin. And so this is where Stephen turns his attention. Now, his aim in no way, shape, or form is to undermine the law or to eliminate the importance of it. Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, Jesus came to fulfill the law. He's showing that in 1,100 years, Israel's disobedience to the law is seen over and over. They didn't obey Moses, they didn't obey Aaron and prophets like Amos. They came along and they proclaimed that Israel would not obey the law moving forward. But the law is not the problem. And that's eventually what he is saying. The law is a good thing. The law shows us the heart and the character of God. It's not the law that is the problem, it's obeying the law that's the problem. And Stephen is saying, hey, you can't obey the law, and here's 1100 years of proof that you can't do it. This is the problem. It's not that the law is not important or that the temple is not important. Both the law and the temple were meant to be signposts pointing to a greater problem and a greater solution that we cannot on our own meet God's standards, but that the only one who can meet God's standards is God Himself. We need help. Now, Stephen is also doing something extra here. He's not only talking about the law and how Israel has 1100 years of breaking it, and he's not just talking about the temple and how the temple was the place where sacrifices were made in order to satisfy the law, but he's actually saying, hey, God has sent you messenger over and over again. Look at the history of the prophets. Look at all of the ways that God has tried to speak to you, and you've stuck your fingers in your ears like a six-year-old who doesn't want to obey. So Stephen, he's doing something extra here. He's saying, look at all of the messengers that God has sent, and still there's this historical pattern of even when God sends someone to deliver you, you end up rejecting them. You shoot the messenger, so to speak. Moses, Joseph, David, the prophets, the ones who came to save and deliver, you have rejected. Now, by the time we get to verse 51, you guys still with me? Okay, by the time we get to verse 51, Stephen has brought all of these themes together. And this is the pinnacle of his argument. He's saying, God does not need the temple. Humans can't obey the law, and the people that God has sent, you've rejected. And so we get to verse 51 and listen to what Stephen says again. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. 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 and did not keep it. Now, if Stephen would have just stopped in verse 50, he probably would have saved his own life.

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Right?

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His life likely would have been spared, but in beginning in verse 51, this is the crux of the entire sermon. Because he looks at his accusers and he says, Hey, you are just like the ones who've come before you. You're just like the 1100 years of leaders who have led Israel as poor shepherds. Your hearts are hard. Your hearts are uncircumcised, meaning you may have done the external act of circumcision on your parts, but your hearts have not been circumcised at all. You don't hear. You don't listen. You don't see. You have the law, you have the temple, but it has not worked to change your heart. This is why religion on its own does not work. Like checking off a bunch of external religious rules, a checklist, that does not bring you closer to God. In fact, what often happens, if that's the basis of your faith, it just makes you self-righteous. It just makes you look with your nose down on everyone else who's not doing what you think that they should do in order to be close to God. Stephen says, and here's what's worse. God sent you a final messenger. He sent you himself. He sent you the righteous one, and you killed him. You killed the one who was sent to make you righteous. Very, very rarely is Jesus called the righteous one. Did you know that? Only a couple times in all of Scripture. Why here? I think Tim Keller is right when he says that Stephen has just given this very long speech pointing to the fact that the law is good, that the law is not the problem, that the problem is the inability to keep the law. And so here we have this title for Jesus, a title that was predicted by Isaiah in Isaiah 53. One who would come and fulfill all the requirements of the law on behalf of the people. You see, to be righteous means that you have The law that you have fulfilled it perfectly. And there's only two ways to fulfill the law. You either must obey it perfectly, or you have to pay the penalty for breaking it. We go up to Boulder a lot to go hiking. And if you've been up to Boulder like me hundreds of times, then there's a high likelihood that you've been caught on a camera speeding or going through a red light. Let's just say I've gotten multiple letters in the mail from Boulder that typically include three pictures. One of me driving through a red light that I thought was gonna stay yellow longer. Two, a picture of my license plate. Number three, where I was in the intersection when the light turned red. And they have a way of sending you photo evidence where you look at it and you go, I might as well not even appear in court. Guilty. And so in each of those circumstances, I'm breaking the law. My only real choice in that moment is to pay the fine. Now, luckily, when you pay the fine, you're not given points and you're no longer under the demand of the law. And this is what Stephen is saying to his accusers. The law can only, if it's the only way that it can be taken away the demand of it, is by being obeyed perfectly, or you have to pay the penalty of breaking it. This was the purpose of the temple. The temple was the place where sacrifices were brought for thousands of years, thousands plus years, and each sacrifice was a reminder that the law had been broken and there must be payment for sin. But the messengers, mostly throughout the Old Testament, pointed forward to a time when a righteous one would come. One who would fulfill or complete or perfectly satisfy the requirement of the law. One who would bear the weight of our law-breaking. You see, this is what makes Jesus so unique. He lived perfectly. He loved God with all that he had, and he loved his neighbor without reservation. He loved God and he loved everyone around him perfectly. And what did he receive? He received suffering, and he received rejection, and he was mocked, and he was crucified. But when he was crucified, he being the righteous one, capital R and Capital O, the only pure perfect human to ever live, he died as the righteous one. Guess what? So that we might be made righteous. 2 Corinthians 5 21 in the ESV says it this way For our sake, Jesus, no, excuse me, for our sake, God made him, being Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I love the way the message puts it. Talking about how we are made righteous, it says this, how you ask? In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong so that we could be put right with God. See, this is the gospel. This is what Stephen is trying to help his accusers see. Jesus was rejected and suffered in order that our sins for breaking the law would be paid off. We're caught on camera. License plate, facial recognition, the whole deal. Every single one of us in this room is guilty. But Jesus, the righteous one, makes us righteous by fulfilling the law. I talked to my mentor, our brother E almost on a weekly basis. And lately when I talked to him, he he's just talking almost constantly about do you realize you're the righteousness of Christ? I'm like, yeah, I read it. I know it. And he's like, no, no, no. Do you really believe that because the righteous one, because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died in your place, and paid the penalty of sin, that now you are literally the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? You see, because Jesus Christ was the final sacrifice needed, he in a real sense now becomes the temple. That's why Jesus said of himself the week that he died, tear this temple down. He's with his disciples. You remember this in the book of Luke? He points to the temple and he says, Tear this thing down and I'll raise it up in three days. He wasn't talking about the physical temple, he was talking about himself as the temple, the very means by which we are connected back to God. This is the gospel, if you've never heard it in plain language. The gospel is we cannot obey God. We need a sacrifice because God is perfect and God is holy and God is just. And instead of God requiring us to meet his perfect standard, he sent Jesus Christ to be the standard in our place. That is the gospel. And by putting your faith in him as the righteous one, you are given Jesus' righteousness. I am given Jesus' righteousness. Look at verse 54. Now, when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he, being Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. 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. 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, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So what is Stephen doing? This is like a final Hail Mary. He's calling his accusers to repent, to acknowledge their need for Jesus, the law keeper, the perfect sacrifice. And their response was they were enraged and they ground their teeth. Your version of the Bible, if it's not the EFSV, it might say they gnashed their teeth. They were cut to the heart, but being cut to the heart did not lead to repentance. We saw that earlier in Acts that there were some who heard the message of Jesus Christ, the preaching of Peter, and they were cut to the heart, meaning they recognized their need for a savior, and so they repented and they put their faith in God. Here, this is a very different response. This is a cruel and vicious response. This is the way of the gospel, by the way. It is representative of all people. Some will respond to the conviction that they are sinners in need of grace. Some will respond from that conviction in humility and call out to God to save them. Others will respond to that conviction, not in humility, but hostility. There are two responses that are prevalent: either humility or hostility. You see, humility comes from a heart that agrees with God. A heart that knows that without God's intervention, a person cannot please God. A heart that says, I need a righteous one outside of myself to make me righteous. But hostility comes from a different kind of heart. A heart that says, if there is a God, maybe I can please him. I can live good enough. I'm better than that person. It's a choice to be self-righteous. This is why the Bible says over and over again, God gives grace to the humble but opposes the proud. How do you respond to the need of Jesus in your life for him to be your righteous one? Is your response, is it humility or is it hostility? The humble will see God. And so, Stephen, as he's about to be killed, we're told again by Luke he's full of the Holy Spirit. And I love that Luke includes this again and he indicates that this is not by Stephen's own strength, because we wonder what we would do if we were Stephen in this moment. We wonder if our faith would hold up to the test. Here's what you can be sure of that God, in his grace and his mercy, will complete the work that he has started in you. And so he will give you in every situation and circumstance what you need. He's giving Stephen in this circumstance exactly what he needs, and he's full of the Holy Spirit. Means there's no place for anything else to be filled. He's completely filled with God. I want to go back to Romans 18. Romans 18, we looked at that at the beginning of this sermon. And I made the comment that what Stephen also shows us is how to approach suffering and even how to approach death. And so let me read Romans 18, 818 again, and we're gonna look at where we see this in the passage. Paul writes, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Let's start here. Suffering from a Christian perspective is temporary compared to the weight of glory that is coming. Where do we see that in this passage? Well, Stephen, he's full of the Holy Spirit, and God allows him in this moment to see something that he would not have seen without God. He is able to look inside of the throne room of God. In this moment, he's given access to see into the most holy place. Which this would be incredible. I mean, imagine what an honor it would be to walk into the oval office, or imagine what an honor it would be to walk into a throne room of an earthly king. That's something that you would prepare for, that's something you would take pictures of, that's something you would take in. And now what Stephen is being given access to is not just the throne room of an earthly king. He's being invited into the throne room of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And what he sees is Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Now, throughout this series, we've talked about how when Jesus left earth, he told his disciples, it's better for me to go, because if I go, the Holy Spirit will come. So we're seeing the evidence of that. We're seeing the evidence that in this moment where Stephen is facing this incredible suffering and about to experience his own death, the Spirit of God that Jesus said would fill Stephen is filling him, and what is it allowing him to do? It's allowing him to be a witness of Jesus Christ. Well, what's Jesus Christ doing? Well, throughout scripture, we're told that Jesus Christ, when he left earth, he ascended, and now he is sitting at the right hand of the Father. But here, when Stephen sees into the throne room, he sees not that Jesus is sitting, but that Jesus is standing. You see, in the throne room of God, it doesn't just serve as a throne room or a place where God is worshiped. The throne room of God, from a scriptural perspective, also connotes this idea of a courtroom. Remember that the Bible says we have two advocates. Remember? We did a sermon, we did a whole sermon on this, two advocates. We have an advocate in the Holy Spirit that witnesses or testifies to the reality that Jesus Christ is who he said he was, but we also have an advocate in heaven. Well, what is Jesus doing standing in the throne room before God? He's advocating or witnessing on Stephen's behalf in the courtroom of heaven. So as Stephen is witnessing to the reality of Jesus Christ, guess what? Jesus is standing, witnessing to the reality that Stephen, although he's about to face this suffering, soon he will be in his presence. And so on earth, things look very bleak for Stephen. He's being tried in a human courtroom, found guilty. He's about to be stoned to death. People are standing and hurling insults at him and charges against him, right? This is a great amount of suffering, but in the courtroom of heaven, something very different is happening. Jesus is standing and he is acknowledging Stephen before God, the Father. He's speaking on his behalf. And Jesus said this would happen not just for Stephen, but Jesus said this will happen for all humankind. Matthew 10, 32 and 33, Jesus' words are these So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. And so Stephen was convinced of this reality that this temporary suffering, as difficult that it was, was momentary and fleeting compared to the reward, to the words that he would hear from Jesus Christ, well done, good and faithful servant. You see, the key to handling suffering and death for a Christian is the glory of being accepted and knowing that. Knowing that the moment that we die, we will be in the presence of Jesus Christ. He shows us, Stephen shows us that valuing our earthly life in any way, shape, or form that causes us to lose sight of the eternity that awaits us is to actually not fix our eyes on Jesus, but to fix our eyes and to fill ourselves with the world. See, Stephen, he did the math. He knew the weight of his suffering and even the weight of his own death was nothing compared to the glory of God's eternal presence. Stephen had made up his mind long before the first stone was thrown. Look at verse 60. And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold the sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. See, this is the heart of Stephen in this moment. He's so fixated on the glory to come that the only thing that he can think about not is that he's about to lose his life because he knows that in dying he's gaining his life. But what is he concerned about? He's concerned about this mob of people who will be separated from God without a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so what does he do? He echoes the prayer of Jesus Christ on the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And so even to his death, Stephen has eternity in mind. Now, Luke is writing this account from an eyewitness. And we don't know exactly who the eyewitness was, but I would guess that the eyewitness to this story, meaning the one who was able to tell Luke what to write about this sermon and this entire scene, my guess is it's the person that we meet in verse 58. 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. Saul, who we will talk about in the next couple weeks, the same Saul who encounters Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, Saul on his way to kill Christians in Damascus. Jesus knocks him off his donkey, shows him a vision, and then Saul becomes the Apostle Paul, actually the author of the book of Romans and Romans 8 that we've been studying, becomes the most transformative figure in all of the Bible outside of Jesus Christ. He wrote much of the New Testament. This Saul was in attendance. And we see that as Saul was in attendance, as we turn the page to Acts chapter 8, verse 1, it says this, and Saul approved of his execution. So Saul didn't get his hands dirty personally, he didn't throw any of the rocks, but he approved of the execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Samaria and Judea, except the apostles. So this is a turning point in the entire book of Acts, because up until this point, you have 10,000 plus believers in Jesus Christ who are gathering together, they're praying together, they're taking the Lord's Supper together, but they don't really want to go out of Jerusalem. Right? They just kind of want to stay together, but it's this moment, Stephen's death, that becomes the catalyst for the spread and the growth of the church, beginning in Judea and Samaria, but eventually to the ends of the earth. Tertullian in 197 A.D., you probably heard this quote: the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. You see what those ISIS members did that day by lining up those 21 martyrs and taking their lives? That became, their blood became the seed of faith among so many across the world. We don't see it as much here in the United States, but there are literally thousands of people across the world who are directly killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. And what happens in those moments is that it becomes the fuel and it becomes the energy to ignite the Holy Spirit in believers to stand up. It becomes a catalyst for the growth of the church. And so I want to leave us with a few questions this morning as we consider what do we take away from this story and Stephen? I think the first question, and the one that's introduced early on in the passage, is this Are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Here's what I don't mean. I don't mean, do we have the Holy Spirit? If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, Ephesians tells us that you've been given the Holy Spirit as a deposit for what is to come. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to every single day invite the Holy Spirit to control your entire life. Stephen was able to stand up in the face of suffering and persecution because he gave the Holy Spirit full control over his life. There weren't aspects where he was filled with the world, and there weren't aspects of his life where he was filled with him. The Bible says he was full of the Holy Spirit, meaning he had given the Spirit full access to his life to control him. Does the Spirit have that kind of control of your life? Does he have full access to be the driver? Second is do we do we love Jesus more than we love our own lives? Do we love Jesus Christ more than we love our own lives? Do we love his kingdom more than we love our own kingdom? You see, Stephen, he had an eternal mindset in mind. He was willing to trust God in this moment. God could have stopped his execution and he chose not to. But what God has done through this story is people are still talking about this thousands of years later. This story is still giving people the power and the grace through the Holy Spirit to live as witnesses of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, this morning, would we desire to be full to the fullness of your Holy Spirit, to be your witnesses where you've called us? Would we trust that even in the midst of our suffering and even in the midst of things that we can't understand or explain, that somehow you're gonna work those things for your kingdom to come on earth? We thank you for the example of Stephen. We thank you for the example of these 21 martyrs who show us what it means to not live with our eyes fixed on earth or the temporary, but to live with our eyes fixed on the eternal weight of glory for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's in your name. Amen. This morning is a bittersweet morning because we have an opportunity to send out some beloved members of.