We began our reading of Scripture this morning in Acts chapter 6 at verse 8. Well, in the first seven verses of Acts 6, the Scripture records for us the selection of the first deacons. These deacons were selected to address a very specific problem that had arisen in the church, a problem regarding care for the vulnerable. But along with their care for the needy, the deacons also undertook a somewhat more expansive ministry as well. We see something of that more expansive ministry in the passage that is before us this morning. Our passage centers on this man, Stephen. And as we find in verse 5 of Acts chapter 6, a little bit before where we began reading this morning, we have seen that this Stephen was the first of the men to be chosen as a deacon. And if you look at how Stephen was described in verse 5, verse 5 says that Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Stephen was a godly man. a man indwelt by the Holy Spirit, a man who already had been so used by God that he stood out as one who should become a deacon. And God continued to use Stephen after he became a deacon. We see that in our passage this morning. And in Stephen's service, the ministry that he undertook, We see some things that are instructive for us as well, things that we must consider as we too seek to be used by God in His work in this world. Just as we see here with Stephen, even still today, through their spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ and enjoy the favor of God. Now from the outset, one thing is undeniably clear, and that is that Stephen's witness is a Spirit-filled witness. You look with me at verses 8 through 10 of the passage. Beginning in verse 8, we read this. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." Now we noticed just a minute ago Our very first introduction to Stephen had told us that he was a spiritual man. As verse 5 had put it, Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. Now, all Christians, all who have been brought to faith in Christ, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But Stephen was particularly gifted, and he was powerfully indwelt by the Spirit who fills all Christians. And through that indwelling of the Spirit, Stephen was doing remarkable, supernatural things. In verse 8, it seems that Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, as you recall, Luke is making a very subtle and yet a very powerful point. Back up in verse 5, we had read that Stephen was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Well, how is Stephen described in verse 8? Verse 8 says that Stephen was full of faith and power. Luke has substituted power for the Holy Ghost in his description of Stephen. You see the point? When Stephen acted, when he undertook his ministry, He did so in the power of the Holy Ghost. When he acted, when he taught, when he extended the visible love of Christ to others, it was with the electrified power of God the Holy Spirit. The third person of the triune God was acting through Stephen. And in this power of the Holy Spirit, according to verse 8, Stephen was performing miracles. Verse 8 refers to great wonders and miracles. Now we're not told exactly what those miracles were, but they were doing what all of the miracles in Scripture did. They were serving as manifest testimony that the message Stephen proclaimed was the message of the living God. The Holy Spirit was speaking His Word through Stephen, and He was performing miracles through Stephen. And the undeniable presence of the miracles was serving as proof that what Stephen said was the very message of God Himself. The Spirit whom people could see acting through the miracles was just as present in Stephen's speaking as in his acting. That's what the miracles were doing. They were serving as authentication of the message that Stephen was proclaiming. You see that connection even in our passage this morning. Verse 9, we read that Stephen faced some opposition from what's called, in verse 9, the synagogue of the Libertines. And what the synagogue was, essentially, was a synagogue or a Jewish congregation, you could say, a Jewish congregation of people who had been slaves, who had been slaves in places all over the world, who had been set free for various reasons and then had returned to Jerusalem as free men and women. They were the libertines, the free ones, the ones who had been liberated. Verse 9 refers to the members of this synagogue as Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia. To put it simply, these were all pretty far-flung regions within a part of the world at this time. So this synagogue was made up of Jews who had been enslaved in various parts of the world. They'd been set free. They'd returned to Jerusalem, now they were worshiping at this synagogue. And along with worshiping together, many of them evidently were opposing Stephen's teaching. But their opposition was useless. They were failing in their resistance to Stephen's proclamation of the gospel. Why was that? Why were they failing in their opposition? It's because they were powerless to oppose the Holy Spirit who was speaking through Stephen. That's what verse 10 tells us. Referring to these opponents of Stephen, verse 10 tells us, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. These free men, they didn't like what Stephen said. They may well have been offended by what Stephen said. And they did everything that they could to argue against it, to show that Stephen was wrong, to disprove him, to discredit the gospel that he preached. But they couldn't. All the lies that they could muster couldn't overcome the truth of the Spirit who filled Stephen and who spoke through Stephen. And the miracles that Stephen performed, the Holy Ghost was suspending the ordinary laws of reality. Miracles were happening. And with that same unstoppable power, that same all-powerful Spirit was speaking through the proclamation of his servant Stephen. With the actions of his hands, and with the words of his mouth, Stephen was acting in the irresistible power of God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who filled him, who dwelt within him, and who acted through him. Back in Acts 1, verse 8, Jesus had promised that when he poured out his Holy Spirit on the church, the church would receive power. And that promise was having real teeth in Stephen's ministry, in his words, in his miracles. Jesus' promise was receiving fresh and repeated fulfillment. That Spirit-empowered ministry, in turn, was battering down the gates of hell. Men and women were being drawn into the church. Lives were being exposed. Lives were being changed. The glory of Christ was being seen. Even in the face of all opposition. What we see here is a spirit-filled witness. And that has something important to say to you this morning. Something that you must hear and that you must, something with which you must deal. And we have a host of excuses for why we don't serve as Jesus' witness. Why we don't share the gospel with others. We have a host of excuses for why we don't show the love of Jesus to others. We have a host of excuses for why we're so reticent. Actually, why we're so scared to share Jesus with others and to do something as simple as invite them to church. We have a whole raft of excuses, but all of them, as fancy as they might be, they all boil down to this. We don't serve as Jesus' witnesses because we don't think that we're capable. We don't think we're up to the task. We can't do it. And what we see here with Stephen reminds us that that excuse is both profoundly true and filled with unbelief. Our excuse is true. We're not capable. We're not capable to serve as Jesus' witnesses. I'm not capable. You're not capable. None of us are able to speak the words of life in such a perfect way that others will believe them. But the Holy Spirit is capable. He is able. And He'll help you. He'll speak through you. The Holy Spirit is able to breathe on a heart that's dead and cold and make that heart alive for the first time. The Holy Spirit is able to take men and women who are open, determined, hate-filled enemies of the gospel. The Spirit's able to change them. The Spirit's able to wash them in the blood, make them new creations. The Holy Spirit can do it. He's doing it in the midst of Stephen's ministry in our passage this morning. He's doing it with such irresistible power that not even the enemies of the gospel in the synagogue or the libertines could stop or stifle Stephen's witness. And that Holy Spirit being God He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He can do it still. If we're to be witnesses, if we're to see the gospel be powerful through us, there are several things that we need to do. But most fundamentally, we must be relentless in prayer that God would give us His Holy Spirit in fuller measure, that the Spirit will be active through us, making the gospel powerful through us, changing hearts through that gospel. Brothers and sisters, we are powerless. And the Holy Spirit is all-powerful. If we remain powerless in our witness, if we remain unwilling in our witness, it's only because we haven't sought the Holy Spirit, His presence, His power. If you are not praying for the Holy Spirit to bring revival, to work through you to bring revival, to work through you as an individual, to work through you as a congregation. If you're not praying for the Spirit to bring revival through you, you may as well shut the doors, take down the sign. Because without the power of the indwelling Spirit, we are nothing. That goes for any church. No matter how grand it's building, how vast its role, how bulging its bank accounts, For our witness to be a true, powerful, gospel witness, it must be a Spirit-filled witness. And that's something for which we must be praying every day. We must be begging God that, like Stephen, ours would be a Spirit-filled witness. And then we have to go out and undertake that witness. But that doesn't mean that our witness will be easy. You're pressing forward in the passage. We see that through their spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ. You look with me at verses 11 through 14. In verse 10, we just read about the inability of Stephen's opponents to resist the spiritual power of his message. Then in verse 11, we read this. 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 seetheth 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." Stephen was engaged in a powerful ministry. Through that ministry, men and women were being changed. God was being glorified. and faced with their inability to stop or to thwart that ministry in any way, Stephen's enemies get people to tell lies about him, to tell lies about his message, to distort the things that he has been teaching. And based upon those lies and distortions, Stephen's opponents have him arrested, they have him brought before the Sanhedrin, brought before that body that was charging that Stephen had uttered blasphemous words against the Old Testament religious system. Does that sound familiar? You hear in verses 11 through 14, we read of the persecution that Stephen faced. The lies, the perversions of truth that were being used to lock up A man whose words his enemies couldn't contradict, they couldn't overcome. And in that description, we see that Stephen is being treated precisely as Jesus was treated by his enemies. Lies are told, true words that were spoken are distorted. Based upon all of that, an arrest is made. And a man unjustly arrested finds himself before the Sanhedrin. It had happened to Jesus. It was happening again to Stephen. Now immediately after this, in chapter 7 of Acts, you see precisely what it is that Stephen was saying. You see that the charges brought against him weren't really true. But for the time being, we simply need to notice the point that Luke is making plain for us. Stephen, this indwelt servant of God, is being treated just as Jesus was treated. Repeatedly. Jesus had made his disciples a very ominous promise. He had told them that just as the world hated him, It would hate them. Just as the world persecuted him, so it would persecute them. And we're seeing the fulfillment of that promise in the afflictions of Stephen. So many in Stephen's day hated Jesus. The Sanhedrin hated Jesus. They hated Jesus when he lived among them. And when Stephen proclaimed Jesus, they hated him too. And they hated him most fundamentally not because of anything that he had done or anything that he had not done. They hated Stephen because they hated the Jesus who covered him. Now in that there's a very hard thing with which we must come to terms. A truth with which we must wrestle on a daily basis. If we're Christians, if we've been made new by the work of the Spirit in our hearts, then we want to show Jesus to others. In spite of all of our uncertainty, all of our fear, we want to show Jesus to others. We want to display Jesus. We want to display Him in what we say. We want to display Him in what we do. There's a great appeal in that. showing to others the Redeemer who has saved us. But we have to be realistic. We have to be honest about what our Savior has told us. If we are Jesus' witnesses, part of displaying Christ to others will involve others seeing in us the same sufferings, the same afflictions, the same oppositions that we're seeing in Jesus. Jesus wasn't lying. He wasn't exaggerating. He also wasn't just speaking to his disciples. The world that hated him will hate his people. It will hate us if we live as his people. That's the reality of belonging to Jesus. That's the reality of serving as his witnesses. You can't avoid it. You can't come up with faithful ways to mitigate it. The world hates Jesus. If you belong to Jesus, the world will hate you. If the world looks on you and sees something of Jesus, it will hate it. Now the form that the world's opposition will take will vary from time to time, vary from place to place, but it always will be there. if you consider our own culture. Living out the trappings of a Christian life. Attending worship every week. Seeking after holiness in your life. Seeking to encourage holiness in others as well. Speaking openly about Jesus. Being loving and kind rather than critical. Seeking the good of others rather than the good of yourself. turning the other cheek, dining with those whom the world despises rather than those whom the world adores. All of the outward visible trappings of a Christian life. Not long ago, in our culture, these things made you an upstanding member of society. Marked you out as a good person. Today, these things place you on the margins. Increasingly, they'll bring open hostility. They'll bring opposition, even in Grand Rapids. And that opposition is only heightened when men and women intentionally live as witnesses to Jesus Christ. If we're to live as his witnesses, we must live as his witnesses. And if we're to do so, we will face opposition just as Jesus faced opposition. Now this is starting to sound like not exactly the most enticing call to live as witnesses, but this is what the Scriptures lay before us. The Scriptures never call us to be witnesses by telling us that it will be easy or that it will make us popular and wealthy and powerful and influential. The Scriptures never call us to live as witnesses because it won't involve that much of a sacrifice anyway. The Scriptures never lie to us. They never deceive us by saying that being Jesus' witness will be easy. Quite the contrary, the Scriptures openly recognize the suffering, the opposition, that being Jesus' witnesses will bring, and they then assure us that that suffering is worth it. That the hardship melts away in the light of the glory that awaits those who belong to Jesus. In Philippians 3, Paul talks about his willingness to share in the sufferings of Christ. because he knew that on the far side of those sufferings awaits the resurrection life. In Romans 8, Paul tells us that all of our sufferings, as grievous as they are, they're not even worthy to be compared with the almost crushing weight of the glory that lies in store for those who belong to Jesus. The Bible never tells you that being a witness for Jesus will be easy. It tells you that the agony of being a witness for Jesus will be worth it. Brothers and sisters, if we wait for a time or we wait for a situation, or we wait for a conversation in which it will be easy and just natural to be a witness for Jesus, you will never open your mouth. But if you wait for a time when the awkwardness and the difficulty of being a witness for Jesus is worth it, You'll leave this building proclaiming the gospel and you'll never stop. We must be his witnesses. The Spirit will be with you. His power will be working through you. And even in the opposition that you face, you will be displaying the Jesus who has washed you in his own blood. Even the mockery and the rejection of this world will serve as testimony that you belong to Jesus, that the Jesus whom this world hates and whom this world resists, He's in you. Through their Spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ. But there's one final and perhaps more naturally uplifting thing that our passage has for us this morning. And that is that through their spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ and enjoy the favor of God. Look at verse 15. You know, Stephen's been dragged before the Sanhedrin. False charges have been levied against him. And then we read in verse 15, And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." And we've seen already the Sanhedrin, they are firmly set against Stephen. When he appears before them, ostensibly for a trial, we already know that the outcome pretty much is set. You know, these men are opposed to Christ, so they're opposed to this man who preaches Christ. And yet, according to verse 15, when they looked upon Stephen, when they looked on this man whom they despised, his face was as the face of an angel. Now what that means is that Stephen's face glowed. There was a supernatural radiance about Stephen's face that made it look more like the face of an angel than the face of a man. Now Stephen isn't the first man in the Bible to have this sort of a glowing countenance. In places like Exodus 34, specifically in verses 34 and 35, We're told that Moses would enter into the tent of meeting. And there, he would meet with God himself. Moses would be in the immediate presence of God. When he emerged from that tent, the scriptures tell us that his face would shine. It would shine with an otherworldly brilliance. For Moses, this was the lingering reflection of the glory of the God in whose presence he had been. You know, something like a glow-in-the-dark object that continues to glow even after the light source has been taken away. In the same way, Moses' face continued to shine even after he had left the immediate presence of God. And Stephen's similar. Stephen also shines with the glory of God. But Stephen isn't just reflecting that glory. Stephen hasn't gone into the tent of meeting and emerged bearing something of the residual light of the glory of God. Stephen isn't reflecting anything. The light of the glory of God is shining out of him. The God who had been in the tent of Moses is now in Stephen. And the glory whose afterglow had made Moses' face glimmer is now filling this man who sits before the Sanhedrin. And that glory shines with such a brilliance that not even their blind eyes can miss it. God is with Stephen. Even when he sits all alone before this hostile council, Stephen isn't alone. Because God is with him, God is in him, God is filling him and shining through him. And it's no coincidence that this presence of God with Stephen is most palpably visible as Stephen sits, the oppressed witness to Christ, before the Sanhedrin. God is pleased with his people. when they bear witness to Jesus. And His glorious presence within them swells. When, in the teeth of the world's opposition, God's people set themselves forth as His, Jesus' presence in them becomes radiant. And they look like angels more than they look like men. Now we don't know if Stephen's testimony had any effect on any of the members of the Sanhedrin. We don't know if any of them were converted by the message that Stephen goes on to declare in chapter 7. But that's beside the point. Stephen is Jesus's witness. And whether his testimony is accepted or rejected, he's bearing that testimony in obedience to Christ. And in that witness bearing, Stephen positively and literally glows with the favor of God. So much so that even those who eventually will kill him, they still can't deny that this man looks like an angel. God's favor, God's presence in Stephen is shining through Stephen. Through their spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ and enjoy the favor of God. In Psalm 90, the psalmist cries out, begging God that he would let the beauty of the Lord be upon his people. That God would let his own radiant, God-pleasing glory reside upon and in his people. That, the answer to that prayer, is what we see in our passage this morning. The beauty of the Lord. The beauty that belongs to God. The beauty that pleases God. That beauty is emanating from this arrested, solitary, oppressed man. A man contemptuous in the world's eyes, and yet beautiful with the shining beauty of God. I'm sure that none of us would think of ourselves as vain people. But think about how much time, how much energy, how many resources we all devote to looking beautiful to others. We choose certain clothes to wear, We comb our hair, we brush our teeth, perhaps we exercise, wear makeup. We do all sorts of things so that we can be presentable to others. We do all sorts of things, go to all lengths, so that we can be in some measure presentable, beautiful in the eyes of others. But brothers and sisters, when we bear witness to Jesus, when you bear witness to Jesus, You are beautiful. Beautiful in the eyes of God. You might even be, as Stephen was, set in the midst of a group of people who are utterly determined to contradict you, to oppose you, to bring you down, and yet God looks upon you and He sees in you His very own luminous glory. When you bear witness to Jesus, You enjoy the favor of God. And you're resplendent in His sight. The blood, the righteousness of God the Son covers you. The power of God the Spirit works through you. It makes you beautiful in the eyes of the God who sees all things. God loves His people. There's nothing that can separate them from that love. And yet when they live as His witnesses, they are as radiant as stars in the sky. They are as angels set in the midst of men. Beautiful because the God of infinite beauty is filling them and working through them. We think of witness bearing as a burden, as a responsibility, as a sacrifice. But it's a privilege. What a privilege to be a witness, to be a beautiful, shining witness to Jesus. To have hateful men look upon you and see the face of an angel. Through their Spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ and they enjoy the favor of God. Brothers and sisters, I've said it already. We must live as Jesus' witnesses. We must tell others about Him. We must tell others about who Jesus is and what He's done. What He's done for us. We must show others the love that we have found in Jesus. We must be his witnesses. And not just sometime in the hypothetical future. Not just in that perfect moment that's just right. No, now. Today. Tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. We must be Jesus' witnesses. And not by being sanctimonious, but by being loving, and by speaking His name and His gospel. That life, the life of a witness, it isn't easy. It doesn't come naturally. And this world does everything it can to discourage it. But God the Holy Spirit gives Himself to us, to fill us, to enliven our witness. And God blesses it. He blesses it with His Spirit. He blesses it even with His own beauty. And all of that is just the slightest foretaste of the blessings that will be to those who have shared in Christ's sufferings when they come to share fully in His resurrection. Through their Spirit-filled witness, God's people display Christ and enjoy the favor of God. Being a witness isn't an easy task, but it's a glorious task. And it must be our task. May God give us His Spirit and may He show through us His glory. That even you and I may be as angels among men. Amen. Let's pray.