Acts Chapter 7 Verses 51 - 53

• Something happens here between verses 50 and 51 that entirely sets Stephen off! It could be that the High Priest gave an equally voluminous dissertation disputing Stephen’s thematic sermon…a rejecting and argumentative response to the truth shared by Stephen and if that’s the case, we do not have the record of that response.  Why?  Because rejection of truth, simply put, is like shouting in the wind!
• Not even worth recording…how many times have you wished what you said could be taken back? Have you ever said something that honored God, honored your family, honored your wife, honored your husband (if you say yes to both of those last statements then please see me after class, HA), encouraged your children…all of those things, how many times have you wished you could take those things back?  Interesting, right? 
• A whisper of truth lasts…a hint of kindness and love…echos for all of eternity…but the loudest shout of foolishness…you wish it wasn’t ever recorded. Well Luke perhaps spared us…because something happens here and Stephen turns tables over in the temple again…
• You stiff-necked (Sklerotrachelos!) …what that means is that you won’t turn your head to see what’s obvious!  It’s like, “Man watch out, there’s a car coming!”  “I don’t believe….BOOM!”  It’s right there but your hardness and stubbornness of heart won’t allow you to even turn to see…Folks, stubbornness and hardness of heart and rigidity and bull-headed tenacity against the truth is absolute bondage…it controls you…stiffens your neck so you cannot even turn to see the obvious…I love what Matt Wallenburg said Tuesday night as we were ministering at UTurn for Christ…, “You don’t even know you’re in bondage until you’ve been set free…” 
• And you who are even now becoming more stiff-necked because the Holy Spirit is whispering into your spirit right now, “That’s you, bro…” you may say, “Well that’s every Christian! Close-minded and single-minded and inflexible and rigid…”  Not all of us!  Not us who have studied our Bibles and know the will of God, the character of God and the very character of truth because we know the word!  A Christian that knows the word of God will listen to whatever, discuss whatever, field any question even if we have no answer…
• Here’s the thing…do you think I have not turned my head completely around in my life looking for truth!? Looking for answers and for navigational guidance to what this all is and what I am?  I think it shocks folks to sit down with me or with Chin or with Sam or with some of y’all and we don’t get all worked up over what they believe when they’re god is man or money or themselves or whatever…bro I understand…I’ll listen…I want to listen and hear and turn my neck to the left and to the right to understand where you’re at…but then I want to have the opportunity to ask you to examine as well…stiff-necked Christians are out there but perhaps they just need to be a little more confident in why they believe what they believe…
• Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God…and trust, like bed-rock-unshakable trust in God…trust is simply faith that grows up to rest…another quote from Uturn this past Tuesday…and so Stephen says, “I’m not tearing down your tradition and heritage and foundation…I’m showing you the scene, through the lens of your own reasoning…your own scriptures…and yet you won’t honestly examine the reality of your own surroundings…” You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!!!
• They were physically followers of God but not in their hearts and in their minds…God was allowed to lead their outward appearance towards man but God was not allowed to lead their inward appearance towards God…These things…being hard or impossible to turn, even when the truth is clear and present…being untouchable at the heart level…to the point where you hear and you hear and you hear and you hear and yet there is no fruit, no lasting effect…these things are truly characterized in this conclusion…you are resisting the Holy Spirit.

Acts Chapter 7 Verse 54

• What did this look like? I mean, these men we so enraged by Stephen that they growled at him!  Why were they so angry?  Because Stephen hit the mark with his sermon, his explanation and their hearts were throat punched…but here’s the thing, when you get worked up, unsettled, moved like these men because of what has been said or done, what’s in your heart is revealed.  They were cut to the heart, and what was in there was shown…they gnashed their teeth…
• Seven times in the New Testament gnashing of teeth is mentioned as a description of And it’s interesting, it’s always Jesus who said these things…why?  Because He alone is qualified to inform man about eternity…but notice, their hearts are cut, their contents revealed…and hell comes out.  Even the Psalmist wrote (in Psalm 37:12), “The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.”  Wickedness revealed in these religious leaders…
• What do you see when someone hits a nerve in you? Does your flesh boil but your spirit, your soul desires peace, desires patience and to glorify God so much more than your emotion-filled self-centered heart-scream that you control yourself?  Do you in that moment know in wisdom that going off at them will do nothing but complicate and make things so much worse?  Is that you?  Good!  You know what that is?  Heaven in your heart…God is your comfort and strong tower…the wise run to Him and are safe…
• But are you the other way? Doing things just to hurt her…or just to get to her…?  Saying things you ought not to say because you can’t control your tongue in the moment?  Losing self control and regretting it over and over again…your heart is being revealed…gnashing of teeth is happening…have you accepted the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit?  Then why is hell still the head of your heart, brother?  Sister?  Hell comes out of these men…

Acts Chapter 7 Verses 55 - 56 

• These religious leaders see hell…this lover of God sees heaven…it’s amazing what you see, the difference of your sight when you belong to the Lord…and notice, full of the Holy Spirit, He sees Jesus standing…and to the left of Jesus, the Father. The Trinity revealed for the millionth time in the Bible…Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.  Ephesians 1, Colossians 3…He is seated…because the work is done…but here, He stands for Stephen.  I love that…
• How many times in my heart I have said, “God, I stand for you…” and yet God is such a good good Father…His response, “Matt, I stand for you.” The work of salvation is complete and yet the work of relationship, the closeness we have to the Lord because of the cross…active, engaged…strong…Stephen is in trouble on earth and yet the Lord stands to comfort Him and help Him in heaven…

Acts Chapter 7 Verses 57 – 58

• Paul would later write in Romans 2: 28-29, For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. No doubt he remembers the words of Stephen…

Acts Chapter 7 Verses 59 – 60

• Stephen commands his spirit to Jesus as Jesus commends Stephen’s spirit to the Father. It is through the Son that we get to the Father.  And as he knelt, he called out, “Forgive them!”  His heart is cut…and heaven is revealed.  Jesus said the same thing on the cross…Paul would later say the same thing in 2 Timothy…forgiveness, love…these are the heart and soul of righteousness and the very theme of all of heaven and eternity.