But I, the whole idea of, Acts is full of filling. Did you know that? That word comes up a lot. It even has times where they get filled with rage. Full of the Holy Spirit. That word fill comes up a lot. F-I-L-L. When you think about, and in a moment we'll be looking at Stephen, and we'll hear some characteristics of Stephen, and you'll hear what he's full of. I used to be told by my mom I'm full of bologna or beans. You're full of beans. It was like, that's so cute, Mom. But I have this glove. that I wear with my mitt. This isn't, by the way, this isn't my favorite mitt. My favorite mitt has been stolen. Yes. Pray about that. Hey, you know, God, I pray about everything. I've prayed for a girl to find her glasses and, you know, God does that stuff. Yeah, he cares about that. But so anyway, So I wear this glove because sometimes when I'm catching, I don't know if you knew this, but when you're catching, there's different things when it comes to catching. Some of you are like, get away from the communion table. But there's different names for catches. This is the snow cone, if you ever heard that. But a lot of times I have this on because it's got some extra padding on it because it hurts. And sometimes when I catch the ball, they call this, when you catch it like that, they call it, you Charlie Browned it. Does that make sense, when you ever see Charlie Brown? And I have, I want to catch it, the perfect catch is right in the webbing there, okay? But a lot of times when you're misjudging the ball or whatever and you Charlie Brown it, it is nice to have that padding, because like I said, it hurts. When I was thinking about the whole idea of filling and being full, if you could think about this when it comes to our walk, our Christian walk. Man, I want to walk with God and I want to take him seriously and I want to impact lives. That's why he keeps beating this drum. I want you to be full of the Spirit. Because when you fill a glove up, it's not like you have to go, okay glove, do stuff, move. It moves based on what it is full of. And so if you're sensing in your Christian walk, man, I am not walking with God, or I doubt, or all those different things that are coming, what are you full of? And so that's why he's real basic on these things, where God really makes it simple. We're the ones that make brain surgery out of it. And so I'm asking you to be a person of prayer that says, God, I want to be full of you and not be full of me. I like it to be when people see me, they see you, and it isn't even about me. And then when they're, oh, you're just so great. I'm not that great. He's amazing. and see how God, when God's glorified, when Jesus is exalted, he draws all men to himself, the Bible says. And so when we exalt Christ, that's the thing. So as you think about this, and that's a defensive thing, when I think about, you know, having the glove on, and what I look at it with you guys is, I've got this, if I'm full of the spirit, I love the fact that I also have this padding that I look at as you. that you're there for me, and you've got my back, and I wanna have your back, because most of us are Charlie Browning life. I mean, when we think about it. Life isn't really always playing out perfect in the net. It's a lot of times we're just doing this thing. And so let's pray, let's pray, and then let's ask the Lord to take this message and just run with it for his glory, okay? Father, Our pride wants us to look good. We like looking good. Some of us are more concerned about that than others. But father, we'd like, the only reason we want to look good is so that you look good. We do not want your reputation to be dragged through the mud because of something stupid we have done. And so, Father, we'd ask for your filling today. We'd ask you to just permeate every aspect of life, even to the point where, like even sin, maybe you have a sin that we're managing, that, Father, you would just make that very repulsive to us. Or self-effort, self-effort, our striving, which is constantly losing. that, Lord, You would just fill us. And so the glove called us would be just full of You. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Looking good is today's message, and if you're taking notes, there's a section in your bulletin that you can fill in blanks and also maybe write some other stuff. But let's just start working through this context together. And my first point for today is, if I want to look good, part of that is having good character. And all of these things, everything I'm going to mention, these are God things. This is God's work. Oh yeah, you know what, I need to be a person of good character, and so I'm going to try harder. That sounds good, but you know how that goes usually. And so I'm going to ask you to say, God, I'd like you to do this work. I'd like the good character thing to be a work that you're doing. Just step back and see what he starts to do. Step out, trust him, do the disciplines of prayer and Bible study and whatever he's calling you to, but realize that it is he that's doing that work. So we come to this eighth verse, as Derek has already read this, but let me read this eighth verse again. And Stephen, now let's stop there for a moment. We got introduced to Stephen earlier in the chapter. Remember the Hellenistic widows were being, what's the word they were being like? thank you, neglected. And there's people in the church that were saying, hey, our widows are not being taken care of. And so they heard that and they said, okay, let's deal with this. Let's do what we need to do to make this happen. And so they actually had, kalanistic means Greek-speaking, that they said, we'll pick out seven men that have characteristics of godliness to them, and Stephen was first on the list. Now you think about the thousands, thousands of people that are representing the early church, and he's the first one that comes to mind. He's not an apostle, but he's the first one that comes to their mind. That's pretty cool. and he's the guy that they know. It's not like they go, you know what, let's go to the First Baptist Church of, you know, someplace far away and get a guy. Hopefully he'll send his resume and we can, they've seen his resume. He's living it. He's doing it. And so they go, in this group, we are raising up leaders, and Stephen's one of them. His name means crown. And so it says here, and Stephen, full of grace and power, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. So, and this is one of the few that is not an apostle that's doing great signs and wonders. But he's doing it because he's full of these things, and God is allowing this in this transition period for him to do that. This word full is play race. It's to be filled up. It's, he is a person, as you look at those words there, he is full of grace and power. It is totally permeated his life. He is a person of grace and power. Later, when he preaches to the Sanhedrin, he is someone that believes in the complete sovereignty of God. You look back at verse 5, it talks a little bit more about him. And they chose Stephen, look at this, a man, verse 5 of chapter 6, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. This guy is full of a lot of great stuff. It controls him. You ever been around people that are full of whatever they're full of? And you're like, no, we don't even want to go there. But they're full of rage. You ever met anybody that's full of rage? Full of happiness? Wouldn't it be nice if we were known as people like Stephen that were full of faith? We really believed God. Like when something came up, it wasn't like, I don't know if God can do this. Stephen was a person that was full of faith. He really believed God. I want to be that kind of person. I want to be like David. Remember when David came over the hill? I use this a lot, but this story just gets me every time. He's bringing lunch. He's been a shepherd boy. He's bringing lunch to his brothers. Goliath is screaming at them. One guy, Goliath. He's big. But we've got Saul who's scared. Saul was a pretty good warrior. He's scared. David's brothers are there. The whole Israelite army's there. lunchtime boy is coming over and he sees it and it's, I know I've said this before, but it's like the kid in the store who's watching the brat getting away with stuff and he's waiting for the mom to slap. He's just looking like, he's watching the brat, he's little, he goes, man if I did that I'd get spanked. And he's looking at mom like, are the beatings going to begin? Because they would if I was doing this, you know. It's a no-brainer. To David, it's a no-brainer. He's watching this giant screaming and stuff, and he's like, he almost wants to crack open the Bible. Oh, scroll. Deuteronomy says we can beat these guys. Who is this uncircumcised giant? He ain't nothing. Why? Because David was full of faith. He really believed God. Don't you want to be that kind of person? Amen? I mean, anything that's coming, like some of you with your young person, your child, your adult child, you're like, oh man, it's just been so long. Don't you want to be a person, I just believe God, He's going to do something, because God's amazing. God can do it. God can turn things. I love in the stories how he saves Saul. Saul is at this thing that we're going to be reading about. Saul hated them. And God goes, you know what? I'm going to save him. And guess what? He's going to be a preacher for me. If any of the Jews that were sitting there had heard that, they would go, no way. We hate him. He's the one. Yes. God can do that. God can do that in this town. There's people. I'm praying for them. They'd never get saved. God does that. And you start seeing him just turning hearts. He can do it. It's not hard for him. And so I want to be a person that's full of faith. And this is what Stephen was. This is the kind of person he was. I'd rather be that than, oh yeah, just go through life. So he said to be full of grace. I'm so glad, by the way, that he wasn't just full of faith, he's full of grace. You ever meet the people, let's go and do this, but they got no grace. This man's gracious. He trusted God. The Spirit of God controlled him. He had grace. He could be gracious because he trusted God. But I think that may have been the reason why he was chosen to take care of widows. He was full of grace. He's also full of power. This happens when someone is full of the Spirit. Look at Acts 1.8. We've looked at this context before, but Acts 1.8. but you will receive power, this is how when we, if you want to be powerful, truly powerful, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So if you want true power, you want to be a person that's like, hey, I'd like to have power, you'll find out later in Acts there's guys like Simon who sees and they want what the guy, the apostles had, but they don't want to go the route. They don't want the spirit to be the thing, they want it to be about them. If you want true power, say, God, I want You to fill me with Your Spirit. I want to renounce sin. I want to walk with You. I want to believe You, God. Start praying that. Start seeing what He's going to do. He is powerful. And then He'll get the glory. So, it says he was doing these great wonders and signs among the people, this imperfect tense, he was continually doing these things. And this is what happens to the spirit-filled life. Great things happen. I tell you, every time I give something back to the Lord, he floors me. Every time. I did that wedding, and there's a lot of people that don't know the Lord. I did that wedding, and I'm praying, God, I want this message to honor you. I want it to be about you, and I pray that. I pray that before we come out here. That's Don, my prayer. Tim, when he's leading music, our prayer. That God, it's not about me. It's about you. That's what he wants. Well, you'd think it would seem that no one would mess with such a nice guy, this guy Stephen. Well, we move from good character, we come to good courage. good courage. Look at verse 9. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. Now, synagogues, synagogues were meeting places where the Jewish community, they still do this today, this was a captivity time element that was created, okay? Temple is put aside, it's not, it's temple is still there, but they are forced into a situation where they have to assemble in these ways, and so they assemble in synagogues, and they assemble to read the scriptures and to worship, and it started during the captivity. And some believe there are about 400 or some, just in Jerusalem, you could have a synagogue if you had 10 Jewish men. And what happened was many of them were based on the cultures that they would come from. There would be Jews that would come from different areas and they'd come back to Jerusalem and they would congregate because they have a common language, they have common cultural along that line. And so, this freedmen, to give you an understanding about these things, the freedmen were descendants of Jewish slaves that had been captured by Pompey in 63 B.C. They had been taken to Rome, but later they're granted their freedom, that's where you get freedmen, and they formed a Jewish community there. The Cyrenians and Alexandrians, they're two major cities in northern Africa, Simon of Cyrene, if you remember that name, he helped Jesus with the cross. Alexandria, a major city in Egypt. Both cities had large Jewish populations. And Cilicia in Asia, Roman provinces in Asia Minor. Paul's hometown of Tarsus was located in Cilicia. So if I can give you an idea, if you could imagine, this is, this empty space right here is... This empty space right here is the Mediterranean Sea. and we've got Africa down here, northern Africa, and then we have Asia, Middle East right here, and Asia, and then Europe. So we have communities, Jewish communities, that are dotted in these different areas. They are now in Jerusalem, and some of them have synagogue setups in Jerusalem. They have heard about this Jesus And it looks like Stephen has a heart to present this in those synagogues. So while Peter and the apostles are dealing with the regular Jews, maybe in the temple, maybe in the synagogues in Jerusalem, Jewish-speaking, basically Jews, Stephen's got a heart for ministry outside of that. And so these communities that have all this northern Africa and the southern area here of Asia and Europe, they're congregating there in Jerusalem. He would have the guts to go over and start talking to them. Pretty cool that his heart was that. He didn't go, okay, I'll only do what Peter does. I'm going to step out. And that's what's so cool that I see in the body of Christ when people here go, you know what, you're doing that. I'd like to bring that same message over to this group of people. I have a heart for this. It's so exciting. That's the point. You don't have to do it like me. You don't have to do it like this person or that person. But the message doesn't change, but the methods can change. It's like infinite. whatever, however God wires you. And so we've got a Stephen who is excited about how to use his gifts and his abilities, and so he's stepping up and doing those things. But you see, there's some that aren't happy about it because this group of people rose up and disputed with Stephen. So a good guy doing a lot of great, mighty works, they rose up. And that doesn't mean that they got out of their chairs. it means that they were stirred to action. We've got to do something about this guy. We've got to step up and do something. And so they disputed with him. This isn't a quarrel. It's a formal debate. It's we are going to – Stephen, you're saying these things and we're going to basically dialogue back and forth. We're going to debate you on this one. And most likely doctrine was the subject. and all that Stephen brought to the table about Christ and his fulfillment of Messiah requirements. So Stephen is full of grace, he's full of power, he's full of faith, and he's full of the Holy Spirit. He's done great wonders and signs, and now he's got an opportunity to speak. And in fact, the next chapter is his whole sermon and their ultimate response to his sermon. And we see in him, by the way, one of the longest sermons in the Bible listed. This Stephen is amazing. Just an amazing man. And so he's going to step up in a little bit, but before that, we're seeing that, or we're hearing about in the narrative that he's debating. Look at verse 10. It goes on, it says, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. So a debate arises and you've got maybe representatives from all those different groups, but this man being full of grace and full of faith and full of the Spirit of God, the unregenerate man cannot handle the man that is walking with God and desiring to be used by God. And it is no glory to the man, it's glory to the God that has permeated his life and fulfilled him. And so we have them that basically, here's the translation to this, it's real easy. Stephen won the debate. Their human reason was no match for Stephen's God-given wisdom. And God wants to do this in your life and mine. He had the truth and he had the spirit behind it all. So we see here a man full of grace and full of truth, and it's very Christ-like, even those two words there. Verse 11, then they secretly instigated men who said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. This word secret, instigated, I'm telling you, there's certain phrases that when I hear about them later, I'm going, that came from the Bible. This word is hoopobolo. You'll hear bolo a lot. Parabolo, it's thrown alongside. Bolo is, I like it, it's easy to remember because the word ball is in it. So you throw something alongside, that's a parabolo. Hooperbolo is thrown under. You ever hear, boy, they threw me under the bus. You ever hear that phrase before? Or he threw him under the bus or whatever. It's not a good thing, okay? You don't want to be thrown under a bus, all right? That's what was going on here. This man that's full of the Spirit, full of God, they are secretly instigating, basically to suggest or prompt with an evil motive. And it is ironic that they used the same thing that they used against Jesus. He is speaking blasphemy. And you notice here, even their order. We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. Moses is their guy, okay? God gets, you know, he lays second, but that's what they will constantly lift up Moses, who, by the way, was incredible. Blasphemy against God led to this end. This is what would happen to somebody that was blaspheming God. Leviticus 24, 16. Leviticus 24, 16. It says, whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him, the sojourner as well as the native. When he blasphemes the name shall be put to death. And a little bit later, as we were going to be talking about Stephen and him becoming stoned to death, I'll explain the process, how that goes. It's amazing how the Jewish community would enact justice. And so we'll touch on that when we get to it. But we come to verse 12, and it says, and they stirred up the people. And remember, the people loved the Pharisees, and they were liking the church because some good things were going on with the healthcare and food and different things that have gone on. They're just blessed. But at this point, the leaders of that community, they're stirring up the people. And the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And because the people are zealous for Moses and God, it's easy to have them stirred up. It's interesting, even as we were listening to these friends talk about what happened in Joplin, some of you weren't able to hear about this, but let me explain something that happened to them. I don't know if you've ever heard about Westboro Baptist Church. It's a travesty that they even have that name. But there's this guy named Fred Phelps who is basically a man of hate. And he's the pastor. And the vast majority of people that go to that church are his family. And what he will do is he will, they will picket at military funerals and they will have signs that say, God hates, and so the word begins with F and it's a word against the homosexual community, okay? I don't want to keep saying that word, all right? And it's frustrating because what happens is, and by the way, I've got Baptist roots, okay? And whenever I'm talking to people, right away you say Baptist. To some people, that's the guy's face who comes to mind. And so he will do these things, and while they were in Joplin, there was, Phelps had his group there making life interesting, getting in people's way, and then they had counter-protesters just to try to get across the fact, actually, we're not all like this. And so our group has a heart for ministry, and so they go into one of the shelters, and we've got Christian, we have Roy, and some others that go in the shelter, and they are passing out literature that they had been given that's good literature. But it gets around that they are from Warrington, Westboro, Grace Bible Church, Baptist, the word Bible, and so people mutter things, where is that guy from? And if you're at all passionate about your message, okay, and they're handing out things in the, what's the booklet called? Do You Wonder Why? Okay, now think about that. Do You Wonder Why This Happened? Okay. there's a misunderstanding that the group that we have there is from Westboro Baptist. You see how things can get twisted? And then they have to get escorted out. And then the policeman that is escorting them out says, where are you guys from? Oh, Warrington. Oh, we thought you said Westboro. And they had pitchforks and torches and they were going to take care of it, you know, kill the beast. Is Christian here? No. And so that misunderstanding, but a mob can just be created like that. And so you think, oh, that would never happen. Even in America, it almost happened. Our group almost got hurt. out of a misunderstanding. Well, there are lies being told about these people, and they're going with the things that are very sentimental to these people. They're going with Moses, who is their guy, and God. And you'll hear, they'll even twist some things concerning the temple and what was said there. So we have here a mob that grabs Stephen, they seize him, the word there means to seize with violence, and they bring him to the Sanhedrin, look at verse 13, and they set up false witnesses, sound familiar, who said, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place, talking about the temple, and the law. So, probably some of the same that have been said, the false reports that were in verse 11, they twisted their words. Look at verse 14. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth, I want you to notice they will constantly throw in of Nazareth because nothing good comes from it. Nazareth is something that would be looked at as like there's nothing good about that town. And so we look at it and it's like, it's dear to us because we love Jesus, but to them it would be just horrible what they would think of that. So, for we have heard Him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, the temple, and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And so it's basically, you hear what they're saying? Jesus was going to, He even said this could be destroyed, or He would destroy it. I want you to look. I want you to look at what Jesus actually said. John 2, 18 through 22. Did Jesus ever say he would destroy the temple? Let's look at this, because this is how quickly. But he was speaking about the temple, verse 18. Go back to 18, please. So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing this? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple. So he's saying, if you did this, And in three days I will raise it up." So he's in the business of actually construction. But they put on him, he said he was going to destroy this. He's saying, you destroy it, I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. So he never said that, but his words were twisted and used against him, and it was lies. and they're saying he would change the customs. But Stephen, and we'll see later as the sermon is gonna progress in chapter seven, he had a deep respect, a great respect for Moses and the law, because Jesus fulfills all the traditions. So we have good character and good courage, and lastly, good countenance, good countenance. Look at verse 15, what a great thing to be said about us as people would be against us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel." God put his glory all over Stephen's face. Isn't that what we want? When people see us, they see his glory. And that's what they saw that day. Paul writes this. Look at 2 Corinthians 3, 7-11 with me. 2 Corinthians 3, 7-11. Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory." Remember what happened, what they had to do? It was so overwhelming, the glory of God that's on Moses' face. They actually had to put a veil over his face because it was just like the glory of God. which was being brought to an end, will not, look at, so this Moses thing, which is amazing, and an affirmation of the glory of God in the old covenant, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? So he's saying to you and me, if you are full of the Spirit of God, the glory of God, and it's gonna be greater even. You can say, greater than Moses? Yes, because we have the Holy Spirit of God, for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, which is law, The ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. So that Moses thinks, that was good, but that's nothing. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. And God's saying that to you and me. You know, when Jesus was talking about, remember he's talking about John the Baptist, and he goes, there's none greater than this. But those that basically us, the church, we're even better than that. And it isn't because of us. Sometimes we read that and go, Jesus was saying that John the Baptist was the greatest person. He's saying he's great. But guess what? Even beyond that, a person that is walking with God in this age, full of the Spirit, It's greatness. It's true greatness. And he's saying, I want that for you. He wants that for us in our homes. He wants that in the school. He wants that on the mission trip. He wants that at the camp. He wants that at Walmart. He wants that in all of these things. I really believe it. We're not just here to get through this thing. Like, let's just gut it out. Isn't that cool? They left us here for something special? In our marriages, the glory of God would be seen. I just think it's so nice of God to do that. What a boring life to just, I'm just going to do what everybody else does. Got to mow the lawn. By the way, I got to mow the lawn. God can get glory out of me mowing the lawn. I don't know. He can. Even with the cicada attacking. So we've got a glove for the defensive. I would encourage you to have a glove or gloves. that we would be people that are full of grace like our Savior and full of – if the glove don't fit, you must acquit – full of grace. and truth. And I want to tell you, some of you haven't been listening this morning. I'll be listening. That we have got a weapon, because if you look, we're working through Ephesians, and we're at Ephesians 6 now, on Wednesday nights. And most of the weapons are defensive. breastplates and shields and things along the line. But we have an offensive weapon called the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We don't want to pound people over the head with it, okay? But allow the Spirit of God to do His work offensively through you. And I mean that in a good way. for His glory. Let's make that our prayer, that we would be full of grace and full of truth. And we wouldn't have to wonder about, how is this going to play out? If I'm full of the Spirit, the glove is going to move the way He'd want it to move.