Stephen's sermon in Acts 7 demonstrates his profound knowledge of Scripture and his filling with the Holy Spirit, serving as a powerful defense against false accusations. He masterfully recounts Israel's history from Abraham to Christ, highlighting their repeated resistance to God's messengers and laws, thereby exposing the hypocrisy of his accusers. Stephen's unwavering faith and angelic countenance in the face of martyrdom, as he prayed for his persecutors, profoundly impacted Saul, the future Apostle Paul. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of familiarizing oneself with God's Word and being filled with the Holy Spirit as essential for Christian victory and faithfulness.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 1.95 → restored 3.94
We're here with the message. We're going to turn it over to you today. I'm actually turning our Bibles to Acts chapter six. On the real part of Acts chapter six, I'm in part of chapter seven. Chapter six and verse eight. and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which was called the Synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenus, and the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, disputing with Stephen."
They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
All that sat in the council looked steadfastly on him. That is Seaman. saw his face and had been the face of an angel. Chapter fifty one, or verse fifty one, rather, of the next chapter. Verse fifty one. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? they have slain them which showed the fall of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and the murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God. And Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see heaven, the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and scoffed their ears and ran upon him, with one accord, and cast him out to the city, and stoned him.
The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, may not this sin to their charge when he had said this, he fell asleep. This is our thirty-eight message on Acts, and although we've been slow, going to the preceding chapters, we're going to go more rapidly from now on.
Now, this morning, and tonight, we'll be speaking on chapter seven, the story of Stephen. Our most remarkable and amazing category, you could almost say he is the Joseph of the New Testament. There were things about Joseph that shone out so beautifully. You cannot find anything in the life of Joseph that was really sin. That does not mean to say he was sinless, but he lived such a remarkable life. And here you have Stephen, very little is said about Stephen, outside these two chapters. Stephen was a wonderful character, and as I was studying him this week, I somehow fell in love with Stephen.
A wonderful character. There are seven great sermons in Acts, and the first one was preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost. Then again, Peter preaches one at the gate in chapter three, you remember, relative to the lame man that was healed. He preached that sermon at the temple gate. Then in chapter ten, you have Stephen's sermon, or, yes, it was Peter's sermon, rather, in the House of Cornelians. So you have three sermons by Peter. the one on the day of Pentecost, and the one at the temple gate, and the one in Cornelius' house.
Then you have three great sermons by the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul's great sermon at Antioch in chapter thirteen, also his great sermon in Jerusalem in chapter twenty-two, and then his third great sermon before King Agrippa, in chapter twenty six and so you have three remarkable sermons by Peter three remarkable sermons by Paul but one amazing sermon by Stephen just the one and it's a remarkable sermon this sermon by Stephen and we're going to spend this morning and tonight going into this amazing story of this amazing man Now, Stephen was not an apostle.
Stephen was, as we call today, or speak of, a deacon. Now, that seems amazing. And yet his remarkable message in the seventh chapter seems to outshine some of the other sermons preached by the apostles. And so we want to speak on Stephen. And what a great man he was, and I think the two things that are outstanding in Stephen's life were they. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was very familiar. He was a student of the Old Testament Scripture, and we'll see that this morning and also tonight.
These are two very important things in the life of every Christian. First, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and second, familiarity with the Word of God. And I might say that the first or the second might bring about the first, and the first could bring about the second. In other words, if you study the Word of God, if you pour over these pages, the possibility is you'll know something of the filling of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, if you're filled with the Spirit of God, you're going to know a lot about the Bible because the Spirit of God is the author of the Bible.
He used men to give us the scriptures, and so the one dovetails into the other. These two things grow together, or should go together, in the life of every child of God. And Christian, I fully believe, The reason so many Christians today are dull in their testimony, and they see very few of their prayers answered, and they're becoming worldly, is because they're just not studying the Scripture. The newspaper gets preference priority over the Word of God, and I cannot conceive of a Christian, a born-again Christian, not reading his Bible.
Now if your stomach is empty and you're hungry, it prays for food and you don't miss a meal. To feed your body or satisfy the hunger of your body. But does your soul not ever hunger for the Word of God? Does your soul not thirst for the things of God and the Word of God? Well, just as food, literal food, is for your body, so the Word of God is for your soul. And the Bible says, as newborn days, and remember he was talking about adults then, and some who have been saved a long time.
Three times over you have days referred to in your Bible. Once in Hebrews, where it has to do with a system, Paul is bringable for them the reason they haven't grown and their babes is simply because they're associated with a system that God can't recognize and thus they're babes. Then in Corinthians he refers to them as babes and here is worldliness. But over in Peter he speaks of them as newborn babes meaning simply this. They have the same appetite now that they had when they were first saved.
They may be saved ten years, twelve, fifteen, twenty years, but they still have that appetite, that hunger, that thirst for the Word of God. And if you do, Christian, and it's the only answer for the child of God to be victorious and triumphant in these closing days. There's so much around us to try and destroy our faith. There's so much around us and so many things to do to drain off all the spare time we might have to study the Word of God. And Christians today are weak and wadly and anemic, driven about with every wind of doctrine simply because they're not studying the Word of the Living God.
So we have Stephen, this amazing character, the very fact of this remarkable sermon we'll get into, proved that he knew the Word of God, he knew the Old Testament and his fingertips. And he had to be from the complaining faction that brought about the establishment of deacons in chapter six, because there was a complaint by the Grecian Jews against the Palestinian Jews because the women and the children were being neglected because people were so taken up with the Word of God. And of course, it's a wonderful thing to be taken up with the Word of God, spiritual things, but don't forget the body needs to be taken care of too.
But Stephen was one of the six Grecian Jews, not the Palestinian Jews. He was selected... And all these things you'll find concerning Stephen, if you were to study these two chapters that we've been reading before. First of all, he was a man full of faith. He was full of grace. He was full of power. He was full of wisdom. He was full of courage. He was full of love. He was full of the Scripture. And this is the secret for all the other things. And so here is Stephen, and he opens his sermon in chapter two with the glory of God, and he ends the chapter, the end of chapter seven, by seeing the glory of God.
He opened his eyes, and he saw the son of man stand on the right hand of the cross. A wonderful way to begin your life and end it, isn't it? He began his public life here writing about the glory of God. It so gripped his heart. It so dominated his whole person. His spirit, his soul, his body. He lived for Christ. And then at the end he saw the glory of God, and he entered into the glory of God. And what is his defense? And that was where his defense began, in the beginning of chapter seven, his defense before the Sanhedrin.
And he refers to how the glory of God and the glory of glory had been revealed unto him. Here he finds him so full, so saturated with Scripture as he faced his accuser. What was the accusation against Stephen by the Sanhedrin, his accusers? They brought false witnesses. And these false witnesses, of course, they just told a bunch of lies. And these leaders of the Jewish nation, they suborn them, or they hired these men to tell a bunch of lies.
They said Stephen was a blasphemer. They said Stephen had no use for the temple. Stephen did not believe in Moses. He did not believe in the law, and he preached Jesus of Nazareth. All these accusations were brought against Stephen, all of which were a bunch of lies. And then Stephen goes on in this quiet way, yet in this powerful way, to show how wrong they were in their accusations. You'll notice in verse ten of chapter six how these accusers were stopped in their tracks.
They could not resist the wisdom by which Stephen speaks. And you have the false accusations that were brought against them. Then you have the apprehension of Stephen in chapter six and verse twelve. They caught him. These men came and they laid hold upon Stephen. They didn't have to run after him and catch him, apprehend him as though he were a criminal fleeing from crime. He hadn't committed any crime. And he just needed it. He yielded himself to their hand.
like the Lord Jesus, who delivered his glory into captivity and his strength into the hands of the earth. And the Lord Jesus stood meet before his accusers. As a seat before his shearer, he opened not his mouth. And here they lay hold of Stephen, and they bring him before the council. You notice... the appearance of Stephen. My what a remarkable character you have in chapter seven. And when the time comes for him to speak, by this time they said his face was on the face of an angel.
After the brutality of apprehension, the roughness with which they handled it, the lies they thought about, all this crime that they said he was guilty of. Stephen, they looked upon Stephen and his face was at the face of an angel. That should have stopped him in their tracks. After the way we handled him, after we brought these accusations against them, they knew there were a bunch of lies. Yet they looked at Stephen, and Stephen's face was as the face of an angel.
We may have time tonight to say more about that countenance. And so we have Stephen's answer in chapter seven of the charges that were laid against them. And he gives a history. He summarizes the history of Israel, and it begins with Abraham. And he comes right up to the time and present to the fact that Christ had ascended into heaven. And he covers that area in one chapter. I heard of a preacher in this town because some of his congregation were complaining that he wasn't preaching in the Bible.
He said, all right, you're going to ask for it, you're going to get it. I'm going to give you the Bible. and he covered the whole Old Testament in four sermons. I don't know what he said, but he couldn't have said very much. Nevertheless, here you have Stephen, and he would, all the history of Israel, gone into a capsule, and you'll find it in chapter seven. And so he begins with the call of Abraham, as you have in chapter verse three. Then he tells or tells about the selling of Joseph and how Joseph became governor over all of Egypt.
He speaks about the place, the judgment that fell upon the land of Egypt. Then he speaks of the birth of Moses. And how Moses, now we never would know what the age of Moses was. When Pharaoh's daughter found him in the little ark in the river among the bullrushes, and had it not been for Stephen, he was three months old. Moses was three months old, and he tells you right here, how about Moses, in verse twenty and all. He was three months old when Pharaoh's daughter took up Moses.
and took him into the palace. And Moses was educated by Pharaoh's daughter. Moses' life is given to us in three sections. Three forty years. Now you've got the first forty years in verse twenty-three. You've got the second forty years in verse thirty. You've got the third forty years in verse thirty-six. And here is Stephen. and he's giving up a hundred twenty years of Moses' life, and he divides them up into three quarters. The first forty years Moses was in the palace of Pharaoh, being trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
The second forty years he was in the back side of the desert, taking care of a few sheep. quite humiliating to come from the palace down to a place out in the desert looking after a few sheep. Someone has said that Moses learned all the wisdom of the world in the first forty years, and the second forty years he learned that he knew nothing. And he had to unlearn what he had learned the first forty years that he might learn the ways of God in the second. And then the remarkable experience of the burning bush.
In the first forty years it was trepidation. The second forty years it was testing and time. The third forty years when he led the children of Israel through the wilderness, this was experience. Of what an experience it was in Moses' kids. In verses twenty-nine and thirty-three you have the story... of the burning bush. And it came at the end of the second forty years. What an experience it was. Moses turned aside to see this great sight.
A bush burning in the desert, and yet it was not consumed. Isn't that an amazing thing? And this is the first time that God... really revealed himself to Abraham, to Moses. I think it's ten times you find God revealing himself to Abraham. But here you find God for the first time revealing himself unto Moses, and it was at the burning bush. Isn't that a remarkable statement you read there? The bush burned, and it was not consumed.
The verse undoubtedly speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to say there was nothing in Jesus Christ for God's wrath to consume until Jesus Christ became your substitute and mine and took our sins upon them. Then there was God's wrath to send you. Just as I put it, it was unaffected by the flame. So Jesus Christ went through this life, but certainly in a half year, and sin at the same time. Sin could not consume Jesus Christ, because he was without sin.
The flame of God could not consume Jesus Christ. He was without sin. But when on that cross, he became sin for us, he that knew no sin, thing is when the fame of divine wrath fell upon Jesus Christ. Felt by Jesus Christ, because it was our sin that God's judgment was being poured out upon. I trust if you're not a Christian, you'll see that. And if you don't see that, the same wrath that fed upon the Lord Jesus Christ that was poured out upon the Son of God for three dark hours on Calvary, from the sixth to the ninth hour, when he cried out of the darkness, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Jesus Christ suffered for three hours under the righteous wrath of a holy God. to deliver you from an eternity of suffering. And if you don't see and accept those three dark hours of a suffering sin, because your sins will fall, that flame that fed upon him will feed upon him forever and there. It's just that sin. The flame speaks of God's holiness. And God speaks out of that burning wood.
And here is God's grace. The flame is his justice. He must punish sin. His word was his grace. He speaks unto Moses. And you'll notice that twice he said to Moses. Moses Moses. You know, he calls various people twice in the Bible, calls them twice. He said, first of all, to Abraham, Abraham, to Abraham. And when God says a thing twice, he means her emphasis.
Abraham, Abraham. Then when he comes to Moses, Moses, Moses. Then he said to Samuel, Samuel, Samuel. Then he come to the New Testament. Simon, Simon. Then Martha, Martha. And when he comes to Saul's wish, he sing, next Sunday, Lord, when he comes. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou be? Then Jerusalem to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, O thou that destroys the prophets, and telleth them that are sent unto you, how often would I gather thee, and gather as a hen gathereth from food under her wing, that he would not.
Yes, did you ever heard him speak to you? John, John, Mary, Mary, Lester, Lester, yes, I did, speaking to me with emphasis by his word and by his spirit he speaks the way of the arkham is to call these individuals twice double emphasis and is calling to you this morning if you're not saved he says Moses Moses was threw thy shoes from off thy feet.
To the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Calibri is holy ground, for that burning bush speaks of Calibri. Calibri is holy ground, but thank God Calibri is gracious ground. Holy ground, for there the holy one, the Lord Jesus. became sin for that. On a holy righteous God punished sin. It's holy ground. But thank God that holy ground becomes gracious ground because that's the oldest place God will save you.
If I do, you have to walk. It's gracious ground. God said, Moses, remove your shoes from off of you. That's what they had to do in the Old Testament. The shoes speak of your standing. You have those standing in the presence of God as a sinner. The Old Testament remove your shoes from off your feet. But in the New Testament it's grace. And when the prodigal came home, the Father said, put shoes on his shoes. Put shoes on his shoes. Under law.
The Old Testament, take your shoes off. You have no standing before God under law. Under grace, you may have a standing. As Moses had to take his shoes off, but probably had his shoes put on. In the Old Testament under the law, God says stand afar off. In grace in the New Testament, He says, go on out. Go on out. Quite a different. With Shani eye and its fiery mount, gave us the law. God says, put the fence around and put to the mount.
Don't let anyone not even of peace approach it. If they do, they'll be stricken dead. Under the law, you stay your distance afar off. But under grace at Mount Calvary you may draw nigh. And Christ has come unto me. All ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Friend, will you come nigh this morning? Will you draw near? And like Moses, see this great sight. And it says, Moses turned aside to see this great sight. That was his responsibility.
There's the bush burned, but not conceived. Moses bit of brush in the sides and went on his way, but he turned the sides. I've got to see the difference. I've got to understand its meaning. And as he approached it, he heard the voice speaking out in the bush, and this is the voice of God. Moses, Moses, remove your shoes from off your feet, and the place whereon you stand is holy ground. And the ground around Calvary is holy ground where the Son of God was put to shame for you and for me.
And Moses turned aside to see this. Great, sir. Can you think of anything greater than this? He turned aside from loved ones and from friends. He turned aside from business. He turned aside from pleasure. He turned aside from life's pursuit to see this great sight. Moses could have said, I've got other things to see about. I've got a flock of sheep. I have a wife and two children. I just don't have the time. Ah, but he turned aside to see this great sight.
And friend, the gospel is being preached. It's up to you to turn aside and see it and hear it. He saw and he heard. And that's what you can see this morning. And that's what you can see. For the eye of faith you see. the Lord Jesus, dying on the cross for you. And you hear him say, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all men unto thee. He won't expel now. No, he'll draw you. This is not Sinai. This is Calvary. Calvary draws you.
Love attracts you. And this morning the Lord Jesus will draw you if you're permitted. he'll draw you unto himself. How wonderful that you can turn aside on Sunday mornings. And it's becoming increasingly difficult for men and women to turn aside on Sunday mornings. Oh, yes, they make their plans. There's a grocery store not far from me, and as a rule during the wintertime, It's quite busy. Saturday's about one of their busiest days. But yesterday, they didn't have hardly anybody in there.
They had more clerks than customers. Where'd they all go? Down to the beach. They plan and they take off Friday night and early Saturday morning. Where'd they go? And they come back Saturday. They're not going to turn aside week after week. They'll do that. They're not going to turn aside to hear the gospel. They're not going to turn aside and hear about the sufferings of the Son of God. They're here, God's salvation. They're not to lose. Oh, no, it's not important. But here is Moses and he turned aside to see and to hear this great suffering.
Have you heard the word from the talk? Have you received a Savior as your daddy owned? You know there's a verse over in the Psalm referring to the very same incident. That is, the good will of him that dwelt in the bush. Now isn't that a strange statement? Speaking of God dwelling in that burning bush in the desert, then the bush burned and was not considered. Have you received the good will? The good tidings of him that dwelt. in the bush. And the bush was not consumed. That's an amazing thing because it's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a type of Christ that tells us. You know, he says here after he goes this far and talks about the wilderness and how God fed this nation through the wilderness. and he comes to the point where his message concludes and then he drives home his message in verses thirty nine and forty on here is Stephen his face has been like the face of an angel he manifests his brilliance his knowledge of the scripture as he goes over the whole history of that nation beginning with Abraham until Christ.
And as he's brought them along, because they accused them of not believing in Moses, oh how beautifully he presents Moses, knocking the foundation out from under their accusation that he didn't believe in Moses. One, he likely told them more about Moses than a lot of the news. He was just exposing their accusation how wrong these false witnesses were, and he speaks of those. They said he had no respect for the temple, and how Stephen brings in the tabernacle and the temple where in God's reference.
And Stephen exposes every one of their accusations in this remarkable sermon. There they sat, listening to every argument swept from. Oh yes, but then Stephen ceased to, and his eyes flashed when he applied his nest to what did he say? He said, you men are a bunch of stiff-necked, uncircumcised men. You're a bunch of rebels. You rejected Jesus Christ.
You rejected the prophet. And you rejected the law. You defiled the temple. You rejected Jesus Christ. And then he thrusts home the sword. You have been the betrayer and the murder of the man, Christ Jesus. Every message has its application. And that's my application this morning. After Stephen got through presenting the facts and knocking away the arguments, and then he tries at home, you're no better than your father.
Your father did not keep the law. Your fathers did not obey the law. Your fathers defiled the temple. Your fathers would not listen to the prophets They condemned and slew the prophets. And one came, the prophets spake of the Lord Jesus. You put them to death. And he put it right on the line. They said that he, Stephen, was talking against Moses. Stephen's rebuttal was that he loved Moses. He had great respect for Moses.
And he quoted what Moses said about himself. A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, unto your brethren, like unto me, says Moses. And him shall you hear, hear Moses. Every soul that will not hear that prophet Moses shall be destroyed from among the people. And grew with the one Moses was speaking of, Christ. How profit shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your brethren, like unto me. Him shall be he.
For they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't listen. I wonder if that's going to be true of you this morning. The result of that sermon was that his accuser, the Sanhedrin, they were mad. First word for fifty-four, they gnashed upon Stephen with their teeth. Can you imagine that Argus' body, those dignified men in their white robes, the sad heathen, taking off their robes and taking up stones and throwing them at a man, and they have had to confess his faces at the face of the dead.
What is the hardness of the human heart care for the face of an angel? They smashed the face of an angel. They broke it with stone, but they didn't break Stephen Park. But today you can tell men and women what they are. In spite of what they're supposed to know about the fight, they really don't have any love for Jesus Christ. they don't want it. And you'll see the manliness of Stephen. First the madness of his accuser. The manliness of Stephen.
He was unperturbed with all their anger. Then they murdered him. But the master received him. Lord Jesus received my spirit. Tonight we'll go into that a little more fully. Why did the Lord Jesus stand up when thirteen other times in the New Testament he seems sitting? Why did he stand up on this occasion? The Lord Jesus stood up because he saw one of his own being brutally beaten. And there!
He stood up to his seed. this love disciple, his love follower of Stephen. He was becoming his first martyr, Stephen was the first martyr of the church age. You know, the Apostle Paul didn't forget that sight. Undoubtedly, this was the beginning of Paul's conversion. They laid down the clove of Stephen, and also their own clothes. When they took off those robes and rolled up their sleeves and threw these watch at Stephen, they laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man who was observing and assenting to all this, his name was Saul.
And Saul never forgot. And we have his conversion in the next chapter. He saw an innocent man praying for his enemy. For a demon said, Lord Jesus, lay not this sin to their charge. How much he was like his master who on the cross says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And what harbors have affected the apostle when he heard this? Whose own heart was full of bitterness toward the early Christians. Paul saw that same Savior a few years later on the Damascus Road.
Could he ever forget that face of a man, the face of an angel, who quietly went to his death, praying for his enemies, and asking his Lord to deceive him, to take him home, that touched the hard heart of the Apostle Paul, and the last words is dead, Stephen fell asleep. It doesn't say he died. Wherever you find death in the New Testament, referring to Christians, if he fell asleep, the cause we're going to be awakened on the resurrection.
The word death has been repristened by the word of God. then that sleep in Jesus shall awaken on the resurrection morning so you find Stephen's death and the effect it had on the Apostle who soon saw that same one and lived for him to the rest of his life Stephen looked up steadfastly and saw the son of God the son of man stand on the right hand of the throne of God. Paul a few years later was caught up in the paradise and heard and saw unspeakably.
John in Revelation born one, the heavens open, and John was taken through the heavens. Stephen, he was corrupted. Paul was caught up. John was cornered and went through the open heavens and saw the throne and the one seated on that throne and the rainbow around the throne. He saw many precious things. That's what's in store for the Christian today. Only those who are born again are going to have that sight. I wondered if Christ would have come this morning.
If you say I'm ready, if you say I'm going home to be with the Lord, or do you say I don't know, I'm not that sure, you better get sure. If you're not sure, if you have any doubt, you better do a little searching. For there will be no time to make excuses by rectifying matters one minute after the Lord has come. that only those who sleep in Jesus, only those who are born again are going to be caught up beneath the sins of the earth. My last question to you this morning is, what will you do, Jesus?
What will your answer be? May it be yours, you say, I'll accept it. As my seed, I'll accept it right now. Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, bring into thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy word, may it please thee to own it and honor it by saving some precious soul and identifying thy beloved people. We ask it in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen. Sing a verse to the closing verse of Luke.
Only trust him, only trust him, only trust him now. From every soul by sin or flesh, there's mercy with the Lord that he will surely give you rest by trusting in his work. Only trust him, only trust him, only trust him now. He will save you. He will. He will save you now. So we stand. Allelu, my dear, my dear, The second
verse will be the last, and if someone has accepted Christ, you want to publicly confess it.