Serve Emboldened

Introduction

Option 2—This Is the Best!

Gather

• Flashlight with batteries.

• Flashlight without batteries.

Steps

1 . Organize the students into two groups. Give one group the working flashlight and the other group the flashlight without batteries.

2. Each group comes up with three arguments why their flashlight is the best in its present condition.

3. Each group presents their arguments.

4. Discuss the exercise. Pay attention to any students who think the flashlight without batteries is best just because it is the flashlight in their possession.

ASK: Which arguments did you find most persuasive?

ASK: Which flashlight do you think is best? Why?

ASK: Why might a person argue that the powerless flashlight is best? Because the person owns it and won't admit someone else owns something better.

5. Transition to the Bible lesson.

The arguments that the powerless flashlight is better than the working flashlight are all ridiculous. The Sanhedrin made similar arguments about the lifeless law and temple being better than the spiritual life that comes through faith in Christ. They resisted the Holy Spirit by rejecting salvation through Christ. Stephen addressed their stupid resistance. The Spirit enlightened Stephen to the truth and emboldened him to defend it to the death. The Spirit has the similar enlightening and emboldening ministries in our lives as believers.

The Spirit Empowers Believers

Stephen was one of the seven men chosen to settle the prejudicial conflict over the distribution of food to needy widows. He had a good reputation and was filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 6:8 KJV 1900

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Stephen performed great signs and wonders among the people by the power of the Spirit. The signs and wonders probably included healing people and casting out demons. The miracles authenticated Stephen's preaching, proving the gospel is true.

ASK: Why doesn't God use signs and wonders today? The Spirit works through the sharing of God's completed Word to convict people of the authenticity of the message and their need to trust in Jesus.

The Spirit will empower us to understand Scripture, face trials peacefully, and share our faith courageously. The rest of Stephen's story shows the Spirit at work in his life in those ways. We will find that though we can't heal others and cast out demons, the Spirit's power is still exciting and impactful for us.

The Spirit Enlightens Believers

After the birth of the church, many Jews still followed the Old Testament law and maintained the primacy of the temple. They rejected Jesus and Christianity and anticipated a different messiah. They felt threatened by strong Christians like Stephen. They worried he would upset the religious power they enjoyed under Rome's political rule.

A. With Wisdom

A particular group of Jews called the Libertines (Freedmen) grew irritated by Stephen's ministry. The Libertines were probably former slaves or children of former slaves of the Roman Empire. They came from North Africa and Asia Minor.

The Libertines worried Stephen's influence could attract the Romans, leading to stricter Roman oversight and a loss of Jewish religious freedom. The Libertines tried to silence Stephen. They found, however, that Holy Spirit was working mightily through Stephen.

Acts 6:9–10 KJV 1900

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.

The Greek word for resist, sounds like the English medical term "antihistamine. " An antihistamine fights your bodies allergic reactions and keeps you from sneezing and from getting itchy eyes and a runny nose. The word "antihistamine" didn't come from the Greek word for " resist, " but the word helps us understand what the Libertines meant when they said they couldn't resist Stephen's wise teaching. No matter what the Libertines' tried, Stephen's teaching constantly ticked them off, like an allergen causing an ongoing allergic reaction.

ASK: When have you had an allergic reaction you couldn't stop? How did it make you feel?

The Holy Spirit enlightened Stephen, giving him wisdom the Libertines couldn't prove false. Stephen's wise words centered around Jesus, the gospel, and the church.

Acts 6:1–14 KJV 1900

And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. 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. 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.

The Libertines secretly paid people to bring false witness against Stephen. They then stirred up the people so that they seized Stephen and took him to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The false witnesses claimed Stephen blasphemed the temple and the law by teaching that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs Moses delivered to them through the law. Both the temple and the law of Moses were essential parts of Judaism. The Sanhedrin took the witnesses' testimonies seriously, but they didn't respond immediately. They were instead temporarily distracted by Stephen's appearance.

Acts 6:15 KJV 1900

And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

ASK: What expression would be on your face if you were falsely accused?

Stephen's face showed no signs of anxiety, worry, or anger. Instead, he looked calm, pleasant, and content. He looked positively angelic because of the Spirit's presence in him. The members of the Sanhedrin were mesmerized by his face. They couldn't resist looking at him.

The Spirit Enlightens Believers

Introduction

Steps

1 Before class, write the following words on note cards, one word per card: happy, sad, angry, shocked, scared, and bored.

2. Distribute note cards to volunteers.

3. Read the following situations. After each situation have one volunteer show his or her assigned expression. Have the class vote with a thumbs up or thumbs down whether the reaction matched the situation.

Your grandparents sent you $200 in your birthday card.

Your little cousin is explaining the plot of his favorite cartoon, again.

Your best friend is coming over.

Someone stole your bike.

You thought you heard footsteps upstairs, but no one else in your family is home.

You learned your pet is very sick.

4.Transition to the Bible lesson.

it's odd when a person's facial expression and body language don't match the situation at hand. Today we'll see how a mismatched expression in a man facing death made a lot of people angry. We will also learn that the Holy Spirit's presence in the man made all the difference. The Holy Spirit can make a big difference for us too.

With truth

Acts 7:1 KJV 1900

Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

The high priest wanted to hear Stephen's response to the charges against him. Stephen took advantage of the opportunity, giving an eloquent speech with three distinct purposes. He wanted to communicate that God directs history, that the law of Moses failed to make people righteous, and that the temple is no longer part of God's program on earth. His three points would demonstrate that the Jews needed to put their faith in Jesus to be saved from their sins.

1. God directs History

Acts 7:2–8 KJV 1900

And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

ASK: How did Abraham's life show God directed history? God selected Abraham, showed him the Promised Land, promised him a child, and predicted his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land for 400 years before being delivered.

The Jews all came from Abraham and considered him their father.

Abraham believed and obeyed God, and God kept His promises to Abraham. That became clear as Stephen continued laying out the Jews' history.

Acts 7:9–16 KJV 1900

And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

ASK: How did the life of Joseph, Abraham's great grandson, show God directs history? God protected Joseph from his brothers, caused him to rise to leadership in Egypt, used him to spare his family from a worldwide famine, and brought his family to Egypt to live and grow into a nation. Perhaps more than any other Old Testament account, the story of Joseph conveys God's sovereign hand over Israel as they grew from a small band into a nation. God used the ill intentions of Joseph's brothers to spare their own lives and open the way for the growth of the Israelite nation.

Acts 7:17–22 KJV 1900

But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

ASK: How did Moses' life show God directed history? Moses survived despite Pharaoh's order to kill all baby boys. Moses ended up in Pharaoh's house where he received an education and the training to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

God had great plans for Moses, but they were delayed another forty years. Moses killed an Egyptian who was hurting an Israelite. The matter became known to the rest of the Israelites, who rejected Moses as their leader. Moses fled to Midian, fearing Pharaoh would put him to death if he stayed in Egypt (7:23-29). In Midian, Moses learned to care for sheep and survive in the harsh wilderness.

Acts 7:30–36 KJV 1900

And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

ASK: How does Moses compare to God in this passage? Moses was weak, scared, and hesitant. God is the I AM, the self-existent and eternal One. God spoke with authority and certainty. God brought powerful wonders and signs on Egypt to deliver and protect the Israelites.

Moses reluctantly went back to Egypt, preferring God had sent someone else. Yet God used him to deliver Israel in powerful, unbelievable ways. Even then, Moses understood he was only a part of God's grander plan. There was Someone coming after him that deserved Israel's attention and worship.

Acts 7:37 KJV 1900

This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

ASK: Who is the Prophet like Moses Whom God's People were supposed to hear? Jesus.

God directed history from Abraham to Moses, working out His plan to one day bring the Savior to the world.

2. The law lacked changing power

READ: Acts 7:38—43. ASK: The Sanhedrin believed they were made righteous by the law of Moses. What was Israel's history concerning keeping the law? No one kept it perfectly. Israel rejected God and His law and served false gods instead.

Israel broke God's law as a nation from the time they received it on Mount Sinai until their days in captivity in Babylon. They made a gold calf to worship at the base of Sinai and centuries later worshiped the Babylonian star god called Remphan. The "star" associated with the god Remphan was actually the planet Saturn. The Babylonians worshiped it because of the planet's perceived movement through the sky in comparison to the relatively stationary stars. The practice of worshiping Saturn instead of the God Who created it is both ridiculous and incredibly offensive. The idolatrous worship of Remphan broke the first two of the Ten Commandments in the law of Moses.

Later the apostle Paul quoted a few Old Testament passages that clearly state no one could ever keep the law and become righteous (Rom. 3: 10—20). The law's redeeming value is that it shows us our sinfulness. The Sanhedrin's attempt to be righteousness by the law was futile. The law simply showed them they needed a Savior.

3. The temple was temporary

The Sanhedrin clung to the temple and its demands as outlined in the law of Moses. They considered it sacred and still central to God's program.

Acts 7:44–48 KJV 1900

Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

David asked to build the temple as a house for God. God instead gave

David a promise of a descendant to sit on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:10-13). That descendant is Jesus.

Meanwhile, the tabernacle, the precursor to the temple, eventually was dismantled and put away for the final time in the days of Solomon. Solomon oversaw the building of the temple, but it too wasn't intended to be a permanent fixture. Stephen presents the building of the temple as a piece of God's plan but not as the culmination of it.

ASK: How do we know God no longer recognizes the temple as a place for His People to meet with Him? What happened in the temple when Jesus died on the cross? The veil covering the Holy of Holies ripped in two from the top down

Matthew 27:51 KJV 1900

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

God's program changed with Christ's death. He abandoned the temple because of Christ' once-for-all substitutionary death on the cross.

Acts 7:49–50 KJV 1900

Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?

Stephen quoted Isaiah 66: 1, 2 to make the point that God can't be contained in a single temple. God's presence fills all of creation. The Sanhedrin didn't have a corner on God's presence by controlling the temple. In fact, they didn't have anything to do with God's presence. He didn't dwell in them in the person of the Holy Spirit because they had never trusted in Jesus as their Savior. That fact led Stephen to boldly confront the Sanhedrin. The Spirit helped him speak plainly and pointedly.

The Spirit Emboldens Believers

A. To confront error

Acts 7:51 KJV 1900

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Stephen confronted the Sanhedrin for rejecting the personal indwelling of the Spirit in favor of the lifeless law and temple. Stephen boldly condemned them as l' uncircumcised" in their hearts and ears, meaning they stubbornly refused to hear and accept the gospel, the means of true change and salvation. Their hearts were as lifeless as the abandoned temple.

Acts 7:52–53 KJV 1900

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Like their forefathers, the Sanhedrin tried to stamp out the Just One, the One Who is righteous and the embodiment of God with us. They betrayed and murdered Jesus, a fellow Jew, believing they were righteous and without need of a Savior. Stephen stated otherwise. He told the Sanhedrin they had received the law but had not kept it. They were lost sinners condemned by the law they claimed to love.

Acts 7:54–58 KJV 1900

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 stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

Stephen, obviously filled with the Spirit and rightly related to God through Jesus, infuriated the Sanhedrin. They knew deep down he was right, but they would never admit it. When Stephen saw Jesus standing at the Father's right hand in Heaven, the Sanhedrin cast Stephen out of the city to stone him and silence his witness.

Acts 7:59–60 KJV 1900

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen didn't try to escape or cry for help. He confidently prayed for the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, prayed for his killers, and then died.

ASK: When might you need to confront error? How might those instances compare to what Stephen faced?

B. To communicate truth

Acts 8:1–4 KJV 1900

And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.

Ask: How would you expect the church to respond to Stephen's death?

The Holy Spirit emboldened ordinary believers to risk their lives to spread the gospel to ever-widening ripples a’ways from Jerusalem. Stephen's death made the ripple effect pick up speed. The gospel spread with uncontrollable quickness.