November 23, 2025 • 19 mins
What would you say if you knew your next words might be your last? We walk through Acts 7 with Stephen, a servant chosen for tables who becomes a witness before tribunals. Starting with Abraham and moving through Joseph, Moses, the tabernacle, and the temple, we trace how God keeps His promises even when His people resist Him. The story builds to a sharp turn—Stephen’s Spirit-filled rebuke of stubborn hearts—and then lifts our eyes with him to a breathtaking vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Along the way, we unpack why Stephen tells Israel’s history: not to score points, but to show a faithful God pursuing a forgetful people. We explore the tension between sacred spaces and the presence that makes them holy, the danger of rituals without obedience, and the hope that shines through rejection and exile. Stephen’s final words echo Christ’s mercy—Lord, do not hold this sin against them—while his final vision reframes our fears: the Son of Man stands with authority and compassion.
This conversation is for anyone facing quieter but real tests of courage—family pushback, workplace pressure, friendships strained by conviction. We offer practical encouragement for knowing the story, staying open to the Holy Spirit, and speaking truth without surrendering grace. Stephen’s death looks like loss, yet it seeds a future where the gospel reaches Saul, cities, and the world. If you need courage, clarity, and a fresh vision of Christ’s nearness, this chapter will meet you right where you live.
If this helped you see Scripture with new clarity, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What truth do you need courage to speak today?
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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well, hello, everybody, andwelcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with yourhost, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter 7.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be the first
Christian Martyr.
I want to ask you a question aswe get ready to get started.
If you knew you were about todie, what would your last words
be?
Have you ever really thoughtabout that?
I I kind of hope you haven'tbecause it's kind of a dark
thought.
But at the same time, thinkabout it.
(00:41):
If you knew the chances wereyour let your next words were
going to be your last, whatwould you say?
Well, we're going to get intothat in just a moment.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothis video on YouTube.
Make sure if you are watching orlistening to this as a podcast,
leave us a five-star review.
And I would love for you to goto the Bible breakdown
discussion on Facebook and letus know what that would be.
(01:05):
If you were to have onestatement right before you died,
I don't I don't know.
You can romanticize it howeveryou want to or whatever, about
to jump out of an airplane.
But if you knew you were aboutto die, what would your last
statement be?
And I just want to hear aboutit.
And if you don't do the Facebookthing, I'd love to know in the
comments of the YouTube videowhat would be your last words.
And that's what we're gettinginto.
We're about to talk about thefinal words of an amazing man of
(01:28):
God.
But before that, let me catchyou up with what's going on.
The Bible said in Acts chapterone, Jesus, just before he goes
back to the Father, he said,Don't worry, stay here in
Jerusalem, but you're going toreceive the power of the Holy
Spirit, and then you're going tobe my witnesses throughout the
known world.
And that's what the book of Actsis all about.
The doctor-turned investigativejournalist, Luke, who wrote the
(01:51):
Gospel of Luke, is writing againto this guy named Theopolis, and
he is chronicling the first 30,35 years of this brand new
church.
And what's amazing is, is in theGospel of Luke, he was acting as
a spectator.
But in the book of Acts, he isactually a participant in what
God is doing.
And so Acts chapter 1, Jesussays, just wait right here,
(02:14):
something amazing is about tohappen.
Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descendsupon the church and fills all of
them and then fills them full ofpower and starts giving them and
empowering them with the abilityto do the work of ministry.
And so they begin to speak inother languages because there's
a whole lot of different peoplein Jerusalem.
Then he the Holy Spirit fillsPeter with boldness and he
(02:36):
preaches to 3,000 people andthey give their life to Christ.
And then just continually, thesemiracles are happening so that
it would provide opportunitiesto share the gospel.
And the church is growing andgrowing and growing.
But something else is growingtoo, and that is opposition.
The religious leaders, theJewish leaders, they're
beginning to get more and morefrustrated with these apostles
(02:58):
and these different ones who arespreading the gospel.
The tensions are rising, they'rerising, even to the point that
in the last chapter, theapostles got flogged.
That's 39 lashes and told tostop talking about this Jesus.
But instead of going away andsaying, okay, guys, this we got
to stop this, instead of that,they worshiped and they said,
(03:21):
Thank you, Lord, for counting usworthy of carrying not only the
gospel but the suffering thatgoes with it.
Well, obviously, this is leadingto a bad place because these
Jewish leaders are willing to goas far as it takes to stop these
people from doing this.
And so in the last chapter, werealize the church has just
grown beyond what the apostlescan take care of by themselves.
(03:43):
And so they say, look, our jobis to know God's word and to
teach it to all of you.
We can't do that and alsoadministrate the church.
You are important, but so isGod's word.
So help us find out.
Like put forward seven differentpeople that are wise, that are
able, and are full of the powerof the Holy Spirit that we can
(04:05):
entrust for the administrationof the church so that we can
continue to do the work ofministry God has called us to
do.
And so they did.
And one of the seven people wasa guy named Stephen that the
Bible said was full of the HolySpirit, full of wisdom.
And they tried to catch Stephendoing some of these things, but
they couldn't.
He was, I mean, they couldn'tfind him doing anything bad.
(04:27):
And so they started lying on himand took him before the high
priest.
Well, I don't know, but maybeStephen saw the writing on the
wall.
He realizes this is probably notgoing to end good.
And so, what are you going to dowhen you know that the next
words might be your last?
Well, we're going to read thisin its entirety because what
(04:47):
Stephen is going to do is he isgoing to tell the Israelites all
the way from the beginning, allthe way back from the time of
Abraham, he is going to sharewith them the story of the
Bible, partly just to let themknow that he's not just some,
you know, somebody who doesn'tknow what's going on.
He's going to say, look, I knowthe teachings of our ancestors.
I know how God has been at workthrough our people, but I also
(05:11):
know that it is all led toJesus.
So in honor of Stephen, thefirst Christian martyr, spoiler
alert, what's about to happen?
We're going to read what he hasto say in full and then just
celebrate what God does at theend.
Are you ready?
I want you to get your Bibleswith me to Acts chapter 7, the
New Living Translation, andlet's just enjoy the testimony
(05:32):
of Stephen together.
Here we go.
Verse 1.
Then the high priest said toStephen, Are these accusations
true?
Remember, yesterday they wereaccusing him of all these bad
things that he didn't do.
This was Stephen's reply.
Brothers and fathers, listen tome.
Our glorious God appeared to ourancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia
(05:53):
before he settled in Haran.
God told him, Leave your nativeland, your relatives, and come
into the land that I will showyou.
So Abraham left the land of theChaldeans and lived in Haran
until his father died.
Then God brought him here to theland where we now live.
But God gave him no inheritancehere, not even one square foot
(06:15):
of land.
God did promise, however, thateventually the whole land would
belong to Abraham and hisdescendants, even though he had
no children yet.
God also told him that hisdescendants would live in a
foreign land, where they wouldbe oppressed as slaves for four
hundred years.
But I will punish the nationthat enslaves them, God said,
and in the end they will comeout and will worship me in this
(06:39):
place.
God also gave Abraham thecovenant of circumcision at that
time.
So when Abraham became thefather of Isaac, he circumcised
him on the eighth day.
And the practice was continuedwhen Isaac became the father of
Jacob, and when Jacob became thefather of the twelve patriarchs
of the Israelite nation.
These patriarchs were jealous oftheir brother Jess Joseph, and
(07:01):
they sold him as a slave inEgypt.
But God was with him and rescuedhim from all his troubles.
And God gave him favor beforePharaoh, king of Egypt.
God also gave Pharaoh unusualwisdom, so that Pharaoh
appointed him governor over allEgypt and put him in charge of
the palace.
But a famine came upon Egypt andCanaan.
(07:23):
There was great misery, and ourancestors ran out of food.
Jacob heard that there was stillno grain in Egypt, so he sent
his sons, our ancestors, to buyfood.
The second time they went,Joseph revealed his identity to
his brothers, and they wereintroduced to Pharaoh.
Then Joseph sent for his father,Joe Jacob, I'm sorry, tongue
(07:45):
tied, and all his relatives tocome to Egypt, seventy-five
persons and all.
So Jas Jokob, Jacob, why is thatthe hardest word?
Jacob went to Egypt.
He died there, as did ourancestors.
Their bodies were taken toShechem and buried in the tomb
Abraham had brought to a certainfor a certain price from Hamor's
(08:08):
son Shechem.
As time drew near when God wouldfulfill his promise to Abraham,
the number of our people inEgypt greatly increased.
But then a new king came up onthe throne of Egypt who knew
nothing about Joseph.
By the way, that was likelybecause it was a civil war about
that time in Egypt, and adifferent dynasty came to power.
(08:28):
Just throwing that out there.
Verse 19, this king exploitedour people and oppressed them,
forcing our parents to abandontheir newborn babies so they
would die.
At this time, Moses was born abeautiful child in God's eyes.
His parents cared for him athome for three months.
When they had to abandon him,Pharaoh's daughter adopted him
(08:48):
and raised him as her own son.
Moses was taught all the wisdomof the Egyptians, and he was
powerful in both speech andaction.
One day, when Moses was fortyyears old, he decided to visit
his relatives, the people ofIsrael.
He saw an Egyptian mistreatingthe Israelite.
So Moses came to the man'sdefense and avenged him, killing
(09:10):
the Egyptian.
Moses assumed his fellowIsraelites would realize that
God had sent him to rescue them,but they didn't.
The next day he visited themagain and saw two men of Israel
fighting.
He tried to be a peacemaker.
Men, he said, you are brothers.
Why are you fighting each other?
But the man in the wrong pushedMoses aside.
Who made you a ruler and judgeover us?
(09:31):
he asked.
Are you going to kill me as youkilled that Egyptian yesterday?
When Moses heard that, he fledthe country and lived as a
foreigner in the land of Midian.
There his two sons were born.
Forty years later, in the desertnear Mount Sinai, an angel
appeared to Moses in the flameof a burning bush.
When Moses saw it, he was amazedat the sight.
(09:52):
As he went to take a closerlook, the voice of the Lord
called out to him, I am the Godof your ancestors, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses shook with terror and didnot dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, Takeoff your sandals, for you are
standing on holy ground.
I have certainly seen theoppression of my people in
(10:12):
Egypt, and I have heard theirgroans and have come down to
rescue them.
So now go, for I am sending youback to Egypt.
So God sent back the same manthis people had previously
rejected when they demanded, whomade you a ruler and judge over
us?
Through the angel who hadappeared to him in the burning
bush, God sent Moses to be theirruler and savior.
(10:34):
And by means of many wonders andmiraculous signs, he led them
out of Egypt, through the RedSea, and through the wilderness
for forty years.
Moses himself told the people ofIsrael, God will raise up for
you a prophet like me from amongyour own people.
Moses was with our ancestors,the assembly of God's people in
the wilderness.
(10:55):
And when the angels spoke to himat Mount Sinai, and there Moses
received life-giving words topass on to us.
But our ancestors refused tolisten to Moses.
They rejected him and wanted toreturn to Egypt.
They told Aaron, Make us godswho can lead us, but we don't
know what happened to this guynamed Moses, who brought us out
(11:16):
of Egypt.
So they made an idol shaped likea calf, and they sacrificed it
to it and celebrated over thisthing they had made.
Then God turned away from themand abandoned them to serve the
stars of heavens as their gods.
In the book of the prophets itis written, Was it me?
You were bringing sacrifices andofferings for those forty years
in the wilderness, Israel?
(11:36):
No.
You carried your pagan gods, theshrine of Molech, the star of
your God Raphon, and the imagesyou made to worship them.
So I will send you into exile asfar away as Babylon.
Pause.
Now some of you may not realizethat, but even during the entire
wilderness wanderings, theycontinued to struggle to serve
these other gods, these pagannation gods, they probably got
(12:00):
out of the land of Egypt.
And so all throughout that time,they were still struggling with
their faithfulness to God.
All right, verse 44.
Our ancestors carried thetabernacle with them through the
wilderness.
It was constructed according tothe plan of God that he has
shown to Moses.
Years later, when Joshua led ourancestors in battle against the
nations that God drove out ofthe land, the tabernacle was
(12:22):
taken with them into their newterritory, and it stayed there
until the time of King David.
David found favor in God withGod and asked for the privilege
of building him a permanenttemple for God, for the God of
Jacob.
But it was Solomon who actuallybuilt it.
However, the Most High doesn'tlive in temples made by human
hands.
As the prophet says, Heaven ismy throne and the earth is my
(12:44):
footstool.
Could you build me a temple asgood as that?
asked the Lord.
Could you build me such aresting place?
Didn't my hands make both heavenand earth?
Now pause.
Now what Stephen has been doingup until now is he is letting
them know he is aware of theteachings of the people.
He's also letting them know thatthere has been a process by
(13:06):
which God has been trying toreveal himself to the people.
So at this point, they're allgoing, okay, I got you, I got
you, I got you, but now he'sjust gonna just blow their
minds.
Okay, so here we go.
So so far, we're on the samepage, everything's good.
Then he drops the bomb.
Here we go.
You ready?
Meek and mild Stephen says,verse 31 51, you stubborn
(13:30):
people, you are heathens andyour heart and deaf to the
truth.
You are forever, must youforever resist the Holy Spirit?
That's what your ancestors did,and so do you.
Name one prophet your ancestorsdidn't persecute.
They even killed the ones whopredicted the coming of the
righteous one, the Messiah whomyou betrayed and murdered.
(13:52):
You deliberately disobeyed God'slaw, even though you received it
from the hands of angels.
The Jewish leaders wereinfuriated by Stephen's
accusations, and they shooktheir fists at him in rage, to
which we would say, Yeah.
He just said, You have killedthe prophets, you have ignored
God's law, oh, and by the way,you kill the Son of God.
(14:15):
That's gonna that's gonna ruinyour day at that point.
So, verse 55, but Stephen, fullof the Holy Spirit, gazed
steadily into heaven and saw theglory of God, and he saw Jesus
standing in the place of honorat God's right hand, and he told
them, Look, I see the heavensopened and the Son of Man
(14:37):
standing at the place of honorat God's right hand.
Then they put their hands overtheir ears and began shouting.
They rushed at him and draggedhim out of the city and began to
stone him.
His accusers took off theircoats and laid them at the feet
of this young man named Saul.
Eventually we'll know that asPaul.
(14:59):
As they stoned him, Stephenprayed, Lord, receive my spirit,
and he fell to his knees,shouting, Lord, don't charge
them with this sin.
And with that he died.
Now the I want to say this onething about what Moses about
what Stephen saw, and then we'regonna end our time together.
What happened was the Bible saidthat he that the Lord opened his
(15:20):
eyes to see into the throne roomof God, and he said he saw Jesus
standing in the place of honorbeside the throne.
Now that doesn't mean anythingto us, but what would happen is
is you would have the monarch,the king, who would be seated on
the throne, but then you wouldhave the crown prince who would
stand on the side.
And in Europe they would callhim the black prince.
(15:41):
In other words, that was theprince who had the power and the
authority, because he did thewill of the king who sat on the
throne.
So the authority was yet withthe monarch, but the active
authority was also with theprince who stood at the side of
the throne.
So they were there and in a waythey were equal, because while
(16:02):
the monarch had the authority,the crown prince also had the
active authority to enact thewill of the king.
And so what was happening isthat uh Stephen is looking and
he sees, I see the father on thethrone, but I see the son
standing with equal authorityand the ability to judge the
nations.
(16:23):
And it so enraged these peoplethat they began to stone him
until he died.
And that is the first martyr ofthe young church.
Knowing that he is in thiscontentious place, knowing what
they're willing to do, insteadof denying the Son of God, he
said, Not only is he real, butyou murdered him as well.
(16:44):
And he called them torepentance, called them to
account for what they had done.
So I'm gonna ask you a questionif you were standing before a
hostile crowd and you knew thatone word might mean your death,
what would you say?
I don't I I'd like to think thatI would do what Stephen did, but
we know what Stephen did, andthat is he basically said, You
(17:08):
can do whatever you want, butthe truth's the truth, and that
is that Jesus is the Son of God,and all you fools are the ones
that killed him, but guess what?
He didn't stay dead, he cameback to life.
And here's the thing because hewas full of the Holy Spirit, God
gave him everything he needed todo exactly what he needed to do
when it mattered the most.
(17:29):
And so I want to give you thisencouragement today.
It's very, very, very likelythat today you're not gonna
stand before a riotous crowd,you're not gonna stand before a
mob of people and have to decideif you're going to defend the
Lord or not.
But you may stand in front of aseason of discouragement.
You may stand in front of afamily that doesn't support your
(17:51):
pursuit of God, or co-workers,or friends, schoolmates,
different things in your life,criticism, and they may be
telling you, one wrong move, andyou may see a loss of a
friendship or loss of a job, ormaybe just the loss of an
encouragement.
Can I tell you that God willgive you the boldness to say the
(18:12):
right things?
He's given you everything youneed to do everything he's
called you to do.
And so don't worry about whatyou will say, just stay focused
on being full of the Holy Spiritin your life, and in the right
moment, God will use you to makea difference.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you so much.
Thank you for the ministry ofthis man, Stephen.
(18:33):
God, he was just a normal man,but full of the Holy Spirit.
And that gives me confidence,that gives me encouragement to
realize that when it matters,God, you're gonna give us
boldness too, to say what needsto be said and to trust you.
Because God, you stand at thethrone.
You stand undefeated andsupreme.
And God, if you could open oureyes to see you in heaven right
(18:56):
now, I have a feeling it willfill us with never-ending
courage to do what you've calledus to do.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Acts 1, Jesussaid, You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, and you will be my
witnesses to the ends of theearth.
My prayer is that you'll receivethe power of the Holy Spirit,
and you will be a witness inyour world today.
(19:19):
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter eight.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well, hello, everybody, andwelcome back to the Bible
Breakdown Podcast with yourhost, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter 7.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be the first
Christian Martyr.
I want to ask you a question aswe get ready to get started.
If you knew you were about todie, what would your last words
be?
Have you ever really thoughtabout that?
I I kind of hope you haven'tbecause it's kind of a dark
thought.
But at the same time, thinkabout it.
(00:41):
If you knew the chances wereyour let your next words were
going to be your last, whatwould you say?
Well, we're going to get intothat in just a moment.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothis video on YouTube.
Make sure if you are watching orlistening to this as a podcast,
leave us a five-star review.
And I would love for you to goto the Bible breakdown
discussion on Facebook and letus know what that would be.
(01:05):
If you were to have onestatement right before you died,
I don't I don't know.
You can romanticize it howeveryou want to or whatever, about
to jump out of an airplane.
But if you knew you were aboutto die, what would your last
statement be?
And I just want to hear aboutit.
And if you don't do the Facebookthing, I'd love to know in the
comments of the YouTube videowhat would be your last words.
And that's what we're gettinginto.
We're about to talk about thefinal words of an amazing man of
(01:28):
God.
But before that, let me catchyou up with what's going on.
The Bible said in Acts chapterone, Jesus, just before he goes
back to the Father, he said,Don't worry, stay here in
Jerusalem, but you're going toreceive the power of the Holy
Spirit, and then you're going tobe my witnesses throughout the
known world.
And that's what the book of Actsis all about.
The doctor-turned investigativejournalist, Luke, who wrote the
(01:51):
Gospel of Luke, is writing againto this guy named Theopolis, and
he is chronicling the first 30,35 years of this brand new
church.
And what's amazing is, is in theGospel of Luke, he was acting as
a spectator.
But in the book of Acts, he isactually a participant in what
God is doing.
And so Acts chapter 1, Jesussays, just wait right here,
(02:14):
something amazing is about tohappen.
Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descendsupon the church and fills all of
them and then fills them full ofpower and starts giving them and
empowering them with the abilityto do the work of ministry.
And so they begin to speak inother languages because there's
a whole lot of different peoplein Jerusalem.
Then he the Holy Spirit fillsPeter with boldness and he
(02:36):
preaches to 3,000 people andthey give their life to Christ.
And then just continually, thesemiracles are happening so that
it would provide opportunitiesto share the gospel.
And the church is growing andgrowing and growing.
But something else is growingtoo, and that is opposition.
The religious leaders, theJewish leaders, they're
beginning to get more and morefrustrated with these apostles
(02:58):
and these different ones who arespreading the gospel.
The tensions are rising, they'rerising, even to the point that
in the last chapter, theapostles got flogged.
That's 39 lashes and told tostop talking about this Jesus.
But instead of going away andsaying, okay, guys, this we got
to stop this, instead of that,they worshiped and they said,
(03:21):
Thank you, Lord, for counting usworthy of carrying not only the
gospel but the suffering thatgoes with it.
Well, obviously, this is leadingto a bad place because these
Jewish leaders are willing to goas far as it takes to stop these
people from doing this.
And so in the last chapter, werealize the church has just
grown beyond what the apostlescan take care of by themselves.
(03:43):
And so they say, look, our jobis to know God's word and to
teach it to all of you.
We can't do that and alsoadministrate the church.
You are important, but so isGod's word.
So help us find out.
Like put forward seven differentpeople that are wise, that are
able, and are full of the powerof the Holy Spirit that we can
(04:05):
entrust for the administrationof the church so that we can
continue to do the work ofministry God has called us to
do.
And so they did.
And one of the seven people wasa guy named Stephen that the
Bible said was full of the HolySpirit, full of wisdom.
And they tried to catch Stephendoing some of these things, but
they couldn't.
He was, I mean, they couldn'tfind him doing anything bad.
(04:27):
And so they started lying on himand took him before the high
priest.
Well, I don't know, but maybeStephen saw the writing on the
wall.
He realizes this is probably notgoing to end good.
And so, what are you going to dowhen you know that the next
words might be your last?
Well, we're going to read thisin its entirety because what
(04:47):
Stephen is going to do is he isgoing to tell the Israelites all
the way from the beginning, allthe way back from the time of
Abraham, he is going to sharewith them the story of the
Bible, partly just to let themknow that he's not just some,
you know, somebody who doesn'tknow what's going on.
He's going to say, look, I knowthe teachings of our ancestors.
I know how God has been at workthrough our people, but I also
(05:11):
know that it is all led toJesus.
So in honor of Stephen, thefirst Christian martyr, spoiler
alert, what's about to happen?
We're going to read what he hasto say in full and then just
celebrate what God does at theend.
Are you ready?
I want you to get your Bibleswith me to Acts chapter 7, the
New Living Translation, andlet's just enjoy the testimony
(05:32):
of Stephen together.
Here we go.
Verse 1.
Then the high priest said toStephen, Are these accusations
true?
Remember, yesterday they wereaccusing him of all these bad
things that he didn't do.
This was Stephen's reply.
Brothers and fathers, listen tome.
Our glorious God appeared to ourancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia
(05:53):
before he settled in Haran.
God told him, Leave your nativeland, your relatives, and come
into the land that I will showyou.
So Abraham left the land of theChaldeans and lived in Haran
until his father died.
Then God brought him here to theland where we now live.
But God gave him no inheritancehere, not even one square foot
(06:15):
of land.
God did promise, however, thateventually the whole land would
belong to Abraham and hisdescendants, even though he had
no children yet.
God also told him that hisdescendants would live in a
foreign land, where they wouldbe oppressed as slaves for four
hundred years.
But I will punish the nationthat enslaves them, God said,
and in the end they will comeout and will worship me in this
(06:39):
place.
God also gave Abraham thecovenant of circumcision at that
time.
So when Abraham became thefather of Isaac, he circumcised
him on the eighth day.
And the practice was continuedwhen Isaac became the father of
Jacob, and when Jacob became thefather of the twelve patriarchs
of the Israelite nation.
These patriarchs were jealous oftheir brother Jess Joseph, and
(07:01):
they sold him as a slave inEgypt.
But God was with him and rescuedhim from all his troubles.
And God gave him favor beforePharaoh, king of Egypt.
God also gave Pharaoh unusualwisdom, so that Pharaoh
appointed him governor over allEgypt and put him in charge of
the palace.
But a famine came upon Egypt andCanaan.
(07:23):
There was great misery, and ourancestors ran out of food.
Jacob heard that there was stillno grain in Egypt, so he sent
his sons, our ancestors, to buyfood.
The second time they went,Joseph revealed his identity to
his brothers, and they wereintroduced to Pharaoh.
Then Joseph sent for his father,Joe Jacob, I'm sorry, tongue
(07:45):
tied, and all his relatives tocome to Egypt, seventy-five
persons and all.
So Jas Jokob, Jacob, why is thatthe hardest word?
Jacob went to Egypt.
He died there, as did ourancestors.
Their bodies were taken toShechem and buried in the tomb
Abraham had brought to a certainfor a certain price from Hamor's
(08:08):
son Shechem.
As time drew near when God wouldfulfill his promise to Abraham,
the number of our people inEgypt greatly increased.
But then a new king came up onthe throne of Egypt who knew
nothing about Joseph.
By the way, that was likelybecause it was a civil war about
that time in Egypt, and adifferent dynasty came to power.
(08:28):
Just throwing that out there.
Verse 19, this king exploitedour people and oppressed them,
forcing our parents to abandontheir newborn babies so they
would die.
At this time, Moses was born abeautiful child in God's eyes.
His parents cared for him athome for three months.
When they had to abandon him,Pharaoh's daughter adopted him
(08:48):
and raised him as her own son.
Moses was taught all the wisdomof the Egyptians, and he was
powerful in both speech andaction.
One day, when Moses was fortyyears old, he decided to visit
his relatives, the people ofIsrael.
He saw an Egyptian mistreatingthe Israelite.
So Moses came to the man'sdefense and avenged him, killing
(09:10):
the Egyptian.
Moses assumed his fellowIsraelites would realize that
God had sent him to rescue them,but they didn't.
The next day he visited themagain and saw two men of Israel
fighting.
He tried to be a peacemaker.
Men, he said, you are brothers.
Why are you fighting each other?
But the man in the wrong pushedMoses aside.
Who made you a ruler and judgeover us?
(09:31):
he asked.
Are you going to kill me as youkilled that Egyptian yesterday?
When Moses heard that, he fledthe country and lived as a
foreigner in the land of Midian.
There his two sons were born.
Forty years later, in the desertnear Mount Sinai, an angel
appeared to Moses in the flameof a burning bush.
When Moses saw it, he was amazedat the sight.
(09:52):
As he went to take a closerlook, the voice of the Lord
called out to him, I am the Godof your ancestors, the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses shook with terror and didnot dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, Takeoff your sandals, for you are
standing on holy ground.
I have certainly seen theoppression of my people in
(10:12):
Egypt, and I have heard theirgroans and have come down to
rescue them.
So now go, for I am sending youback to Egypt.
So God sent back the same manthis people had previously
rejected when they demanded, whomade you a ruler and judge over
us?
Through the angel who hadappeared to him in the burning
bush, God sent Moses to be theirruler and savior.
(10:34):
And by means of many wonders andmiraculous signs, he led them
out of Egypt, through the RedSea, and through the wilderness
for forty years.
Moses himself told the people ofIsrael, God will raise up for
you a prophet like me from amongyour own people.
Moses was with our ancestors,the assembly of God's people in
the wilderness.
(10:55):
And when the angels spoke to himat Mount Sinai, and there Moses
received life-giving words topass on to us.
But our ancestors refused tolisten to Moses.
They rejected him and wanted toreturn to Egypt.
They told Aaron, Make us godswho can lead us, but we don't
know what happened to this guynamed Moses, who brought us out
(11:16):
of Egypt.
So they made an idol shaped likea calf, and they sacrificed it
to it and celebrated over thisthing they had made.
Then God turned away from themand abandoned them to serve the
stars of heavens as their gods.
In the book of the prophets itis written, Was it me?
You were bringing sacrifices andofferings for those forty years
in the wilderness, Israel?
(11:36):
No.
You carried your pagan gods, theshrine of Molech, the star of
your God Raphon, and the imagesyou made to worship them.
So I will send you into exile asfar away as Babylon.
Pause.
Now some of you may not realizethat, but even during the entire
wilderness wanderings, theycontinued to struggle to serve
these other gods, these pagannation gods, they probably got
(12:00):
out of the land of Egypt.
And so all throughout that time,they were still struggling with
their faithfulness to God.
All right, verse 44.
Our ancestors carried thetabernacle with them through the
wilderness.
It was constructed according tothe plan of God that he has
shown to Moses.
Years later, when Joshua led ourancestors in battle against the
nations that God drove out ofthe land, the tabernacle was
(12:22):
taken with them into their newterritory, and it stayed there
until the time of King David.
David found favor in God withGod and asked for the privilege
of building him a permanenttemple for God, for the God of
Jacob.
But it was Solomon who actuallybuilt it.
However, the Most High doesn'tlive in temples made by human
hands.
As the prophet says, Heaven ismy throne and the earth is my
(12:44):
footstool.
Could you build me a temple asgood as that?
asked the Lord.
Could you build me such aresting place?
Didn't my hands make both heavenand earth?
Now pause.
Now what Stephen has been doingup until now is he is letting
them know he is aware of theteachings of the people.
He's also letting them know thatthere has been a process by
(13:06):
which God has been trying toreveal himself to the people.
So at this point, they're allgoing, okay, I got you, I got
you, I got you, but now he'sjust gonna just blow their
minds.
Okay, so here we go.
So so far, we're on the samepage, everything's good.
Then he drops the bomb.
Here we go.
You ready?
Meek and mild Stephen says,verse 31 51, you stubborn
(13:30):
people, you are heathens andyour heart and deaf to the
truth.
You are forever, must youforever resist the Holy Spirit?
That's what your ancestors did,and so do you.
Name one prophet your ancestorsdidn't persecute.
They even killed the ones whopredicted the coming of the
righteous one, the Messiah whomyou betrayed and murdered.
(13:52):
You deliberately disobeyed God'slaw, even though you received it
from the hands of angels.
The Jewish leaders wereinfuriated by Stephen's
accusations, and they shooktheir fists at him in rage, to
which we would say, Yeah.
He just said, You have killedthe prophets, you have ignored
God's law, oh, and by the way,you kill the Son of God.
(14:15):
That's gonna that's gonna ruinyour day at that point.
So, verse 55, but Stephen, fullof the Holy Spirit, gazed
steadily into heaven and saw theglory of God, and he saw Jesus
standing in the place of honorat God's right hand, and he told
them, Look, I see the heavensopened and the Son of Man
(14:37):
standing at the place of honorat God's right hand.
Then they put their hands overtheir ears and began shouting.
They rushed at him and draggedhim out of the city and began to
stone him.
His accusers took off theircoats and laid them at the feet
of this young man named Saul.
Eventually we'll know that asPaul.
(14:59):
As they stoned him, Stephenprayed, Lord, receive my spirit,
and he fell to his knees,shouting, Lord, don't charge
them with this sin.
And with that he died.
Now the I want to say this onething about what Moses about
what Stephen saw, and then we'regonna end our time together.
What happened was the Bible saidthat he that the Lord opened his
(15:20):
eyes to see into the throne roomof God, and he said he saw Jesus
standing in the place of honorbeside the throne.
Now that doesn't mean anythingto us, but what would happen is
is you would have the monarch,the king, who would be seated on
the throne, but then you wouldhave the crown prince who would
stand on the side.
And in Europe they would callhim the black prince.
(15:41):
In other words, that was theprince who had the power and the
authority, because he did thewill of the king who sat on the
throne.
So the authority was yet withthe monarch, but the active
authority was also with theprince who stood at the side of
the throne.
So they were there and in a waythey were equal, because while
(16:02):
the monarch had the authority,the crown prince also had the
active authority to enact thewill of the king.
And so what was happening isthat uh Stephen is looking and
he sees, I see the father on thethrone, but I see the son
standing with equal authorityand the ability to judge the
nations.
(16:23):
And it so enraged these peoplethat they began to stone him
until he died.
And that is the first martyr ofthe young church.
Knowing that he is in thiscontentious place, knowing what
they're willing to do, insteadof denying the Son of God, he
said, Not only is he real, butyou murdered him as well.
(16:44):
And he called them torepentance, called them to
account for what they had done.
So I'm gonna ask you a questionif you were standing before a
hostile crowd and you knew thatone word might mean your death,
what would you say?
I don't I I'd like to think thatI would do what Stephen did, but
we know what Stephen did, andthat is he basically said, You
(17:08):
can do whatever you want, butthe truth's the truth, and that
is that Jesus is the Son of God,and all you fools are the ones
that killed him, but guess what?
He didn't stay dead, he cameback to life.
And here's the thing because hewas full of the Holy Spirit, God
gave him everything he needed todo exactly what he needed to do
when it mattered the most.
(17:29):
And so I want to give you thisencouragement today.
It's very, very, very likelythat today you're not gonna
stand before a riotous crowd,you're not gonna stand before a
mob of people and have to decideif you're going to defend the
Lord or not.
But you may stand in front of aseason of discouragement.
You may stand in front of afamily that doesn't support your
(17:51):
pursuit of God, or co-workers,or friends, schoolmates,
different things in your life,criticism, and they may be
telling you, one wrong move, andyou may see a loss of a
friendship or loss of a job, ormaybe just the loss of an
encouragement.
Can I tell you that God willgive you the boldness to say the
(18:12):
right things?
He's given you everything youneed to do everything he's
called you to do.
And so don't worry about whatyou will say, just stay focused
on being full of the Holy Spiritin your life, and in the right
moment, God will use you to makea difference.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you so much.
Thank you for the ministry ofthis man, Stephen.
(18:33):
God, he was just a normal man,but full of the Holy Spirit.
And that gives me confidence,that gives me encouragement to
realize that when it matters,God, you're gonna give us
boldness too, to say what needsto be said and to trust you.
Because God, you stand at thethrone.
You stand undefeated andsupreme.
And God, if you could open oureyes to see you in heaven right
(18:56):
now, I have a feeling it willfill us with never-ending
courage to do what you've calledus to do.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Acts 1, Jesussaid, You will receive power
when the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, and you will be my
witnesses to the ends of theearth.
My prayer is that you'll receivethe power of the Holy Spirit,
and you will be a witness inyour world today.
(19:19):
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter eight.
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