Live Free with Josh Howerton - Unshakable Faith: // Acts 6 & 7

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Join us as we look at the life of Stephen, a man full of grace and strength, chosen to serve in the early church during a time of rapid growth. Despite facing fierce opposition, Stephen stood firm in his faith, pointing others to Jesus with unwavering courage. In a moving moment, he looked to heaven and saw Jesus standing in honor, affirming his faithfulness. Stephen's story reminds us that God’s peace can anchor us even in the hardest times. Let’s live today with that same courage, letting God’s love shine through us.   For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. My name is Bro, and I hope you had a great weekend. We are walking through some of the highlights of the book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible.

And we kick off our week today talking about an amazing guy named Stephen. Stephen was one of the guys who was chosen to be in charge of the benevolence ministry of the church. You might remember how the explosive growth of the church, the leaders felt like they were like spinning plates like that guy in the circus. And they say, man, there are so many needs in this exciting new community. community. And although we care about everything and everybody, we just can't have our hand and everything. We have to focus on what he has called us to do. So led by the spirit, they wisely began to delegate. And Stephen was one of the guys selected to do the important work of caring for widows and distributing food and meeting the needs of the people. And this is how

Acts chapter six describes him. It says, now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power performed great wonders and signs among the people. I mean, God was using this extraordinary guy in lots of extraordinary ways. God's love and power flowed through him, and he pointed people to the source of it all, Jesus. I mean, Stephen was highly effective and highly respected and deeply, deeply loved. However, not everyone was a fan. As he began to talk about Jesus,

there was big-time pushback from the unbelieving religion, religious leaders. So, they do what they did to Jesus. They get some people to lie about him. They accuse him of blasphemy. They stir up a riot. They arrest him. They drag him before the ruling council called the Sanhedron. They produce false witnesses and they post phony charges against him. That sound familiar? And as they accuse and berate him, just like they did with Jesus. It says this in verse 15. All who were sitting in the Sanhedron looked intently at Stephen. and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Like Moses in the Old Testament after he had been with God,

Stephen's face was illuminated as he was about to bring God's word, God's truth, to the people of Israel. Let me read again that description about him back in verse 8. Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. So full of grace and power, because of the people, because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in his life, he begins to address the charges against him.

Not by defending himself at all, but by giving this history lesson of God's loving pursuit of the people all the way back to Abraham. He talks about God's promises, he talks about God's faithfulness, and their constant resistance and rebellion. I'd really urge you to read those 53 verses for yourself in Chapter 7. It is masterful and it is spirit-led.

And these teachers of the law, they knew all these stories, but they could not see themselves in the stories. And so Stephen cranks up the heat. You know, the only people that Jesus was ever harsh with were the phony religious leaders, those who exploited and used other people, people who were supposed to be known as close to God, but were actually full of pride and using God only to get rich and powerful. Jesus even calls them snakes, calls them hypocrites, calls them whitewashed tombs full of dead. men's bones and on and on he goes with the religious leaders. So Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, kind of does what Jesus did. And he says this in verse 51. You stubborn people, you are heathen and heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did? And so do you. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute.

They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one, the Messiah, whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, even though you received it from the hands of angels. And it says, they were all in awe of Stephen's words. They could now see clearly that God's hand was upon Him. So in humility, they fell to their knees, repented of their sin, and surrendered their lives to the love and leadership of Jesus. Man, I wish it said that. Because guess what? Forgiveness and freedom and eternal life. would have been theirs too. Here's what it really says in verse 54, after Stephen says those things. The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusations, and they shook their fist at him

in rage. They were furious. But Stephen, he's at peace. They are so mad they can't see straight. And Stephen now is staring straight into the eyes of his Lord and Savior Jesus. Check this out. Verse 55. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gay, steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And he told them, look, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. Now in other places in the Bible, it describes Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father. But in this moment, he's standing. Not exactly sure why, but maybe this is like a standing ovation, where Stephen experiences the applause of heaven.

And Jesus is motioning to him, well done, Stephen. Come on home. Verse 57, it says, then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. You ever done that? Maybe like as a little kid, when you don't want to hear something, you grabbed your ears, you went, ah, so you couldn't hear anything? That's them. That's them. These supposedly godly, mature leaders. It says they rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. Put a pen and that. We'll learn more about Saul in a bit.

And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He fell to his knees shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin. And with that, he died. I mean, this is so much like the execution of Jesus, except the death penalty was carrying. carried out with stones and not a cross. And like Jesus, he surrenders his spirit to God and asks God to not hold them accountable for what they are doing. I mean, this is pretty amazing.

I don't know, but maybe Stephen had the words of Jesus stuck in his heart. Those words from the famous sermon on the Mount where Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of, of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because

great is your reward in heaven. And that's what Stephen experiences. Yeah, the people who stoned him the death, they were full of themselves and furious. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and peace. Let's live that contrast today.

Like Stephen, let's move to our day today with the grace and power that only comes from Jesus. Some might shake their at you, but most will want what we've got and want to know the one who gave it to us. We'll pick up here tomorrow. Man, I hope you have a great day today. Thanks for tuning in today.

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