How we praise Thee, because Thou art today seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting until Thine enemies be made Thy footstool. How we praise Thee that today we are seated with Thee in the heavenlies, where Thou hast brought us. And for this, we worship Thee today.
Lord, we pray that at this very moment Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us. Thou wilt speak to us. Thou wilt reveal Thy mind to us. Thou wilt so deliver us out of ourselves and enlarge Thyself in us, that we may understand Thee, that we may cooperate with Thee, that we may worship in spirit and in truth.
So, Lord, we do commit this time and ourselves into Thy hands, trusting Thee to do Thy work. It is all for Thine own sake and for Thy glory. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been studying together in recent days something in the Book of Acts. So tonight, we would like to continue on a little further. Will you please turn to Acts Chapter 6? We will begin with verse 8.
And Stephen, full of grace and power, wrought great wonders and signs among the people.
But there arose certain of them that were of the synagogue called the synagogue of the Libertines, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.
And they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake.
Then they suborned men, who 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 seized him, and brought him into the council,
And set up false witnesses, who said, This man ceaseth not to speak 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 unto us.
And all that sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Acts Chapter 7, verse 54:
Now 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 Spirit, 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.
But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord;
And they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, 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.
Probably you have noticed that, as the life of our Lord Jesus on earth is roughly thirty-three and a half years, so in the Book of Acts you find that the period covered is roughly thirty years too.
In the Gospels, we find what the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach in His body of incarnation. So in the Book of Acts, we find how the risen Lord continues to do and to speak in that corporate body which He has taken upon Himself, beginning on the Day of Pentecost.
The Gospels tell us what our Lord Jesus did in His own person for thirty-some years, and the Book of Acts tells us what our Lord Jesus continued to do and to speak in His corporate body, which is the church. It is the same Lord who is speaking and who is doing. But in the Gospels, it is in His personal body; in the Book of Acts, it is in His corporate body.
When you think of a body, you think of life. Because if there is no life there, then there is no body. It is a corpse, but not a real body. So when we think of a body, it brings to us the thought of life.
And when you think of life, life is something that grows. You know, in the Gospels you find our Lord Jesus: when He was born, He was born a babe in a manger. Then you find He grew up, because there was life in that being. He grew up. He waxed strong, not only physically but mentally. He continued to grow until He reached the age of thirty, matured, and then He began His ministry for over three years.
Now, if we use this analogy and try to apply it to this corporate body that we find in the Book of Acts, you will find the same principle working there. Because this body of Christ, this church of God, grows according to the principle of life.
Therefore, on the Day of Pentecost, you find the church is born. The body of Christ begins its existence on earth, and then the body begins to grow and grow and grow. And so, when you come to the end of the Book of Acts, you find it has grown a great deal.
According to the principle of the growth of life, you may divide the Book of Acts into three stages. Of course, if you want to divide the Book of Acts according to the spread of the gospel—that is, fulfilling the commission that God has given to the church—then you find that from Chapter 1 to Chapter 7 it is witnessing in Jerusalem; from Chapter 8 to Chapter 12, it is in all Judea and Samaria; and from Chapter 13 to Chapter 28, it is unto the uttermost part of the earth.
That is one way of dividing the Book of Acts. But there is another way of dividing it: according to the growth of the body of Christ, the vessel through which the risen Lord is speaking and doing.
I would say that from Chapter 1 to Chapter 5 it is babyhood. From Chapter 6 to Chapter 15 it is adolescence. And from Chapter 16 to Chapter 28 it is adulthood, or reaching maturity.
You know, when you open the Book of Acts and read the first five chapters, what impression does it give to you? Now, we are talking about impression. Of course, impression is something intangible, and yet it is very real.
Here you find that on the Day of Pentecost, one hundred and twenty people were baptized in one Spirit into one body. Immediately, on that first day, you find three thousand being added. All those who believed in the Lord persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
You find how God was with them. Miracles were done. Many more were being added. In spite of the rapid growth of the body, the whole condition was very harmonious, because all those who were together were of one heart and of one soul. They loved one another. They were completely delivered from self-possession. Nobody said, “This belongs to me,” but they held everything in common according to each one’s need.
Did they have problems? Not many problems. In Chapter 5, you find a little problem: Ananias and Sapphira. But immediately you find God took care of that problem.
So, in a sense, during the first five chapters what you see is such natural, spontaneous growth. They were under the constant care of the heavenly Father. The presence of the Holy Spirit was so real in their midst, and the blessing of the Lord was certainly upon them. They lived their days happily and joyfully, enjoying the Lord and enjoying one another, and there was almost no problem.
Is this not like babyhood? When we are babies, we are taken care of in all things. These are carefree days. These are happy days. Everything is provided, and there is no problem. If there is any problem, our parents take care of it.
So, if we may say that during the stage of babyhood we just enjoy and rejoice in the goodness of our parents, you find the first five chapters of the Book of Acts are like that. The church, the body of Christ, the vessel of God, when it is first born, goes through a period of such blessedness and such care by the heavenly Father.
But then, when you come to Chapter 6 and on to Chapter 15, you know that when a person begins to outgrow babyhood and enters the adolescent period, that is a most difficult period.
Here you find conflict begins to come in. Here you find struggles—struggles and problems. The adolescent period is an unsettled period. Everything seems to be in turmoil. Nothing is settled.
It is the most unstable period. We call it the growing pains of life. As a person begins to grow, you find there is some pain there. Sometimes you do not know what it is. You just feel there is something there, and yet you cannot explain it. You are dissatisfied with everything. You are trying new ideas all the time.
You enter into all kinds of failure and defeat, and yet you are full of wonder and full of amazement. It is a time of puzzlement, and yet through all this your life goes ahead.
When I read Chapter 6 to Chapter 15 of the Book of Acts, my impression is that the body of Christ is going through an adolescent period. You find problems. Many problems come into the church. You find lots of adjustments have to be made, lots of new discoveries have to be made, and because of that a lot of concepts, certain things, have to be shattered.
They have to come out of the old and enter into entirely new realms. There is pain all along. But thank God, when you go through that period, you come out, and you find you have grown. Now that is Chapter 6 to Chapter 15.
Then from Chapter 16 to Chapter 28, you find that the church is growing and spreading. It is not only in Jerusalem, all Judea, and Samaria, but it has gone to all Asia and even to Europe—to the end of the earth. You find God’s purpose being carried out further and further and further.
The reason why I feel that this might be precious is because there is something I feel God wants us to see as to the development and growth of the body of Christ. The church is the corporate body of Christ. It is an organism, not an organization.
Because it is an organism, because it is life, therefore you find there will be such growth as life goes on. And this you find in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.
The church was first formed on the Day of Pentecost. Up to the time of Stephen’s martyrdom, the Roman Empire, as well as Jewish society, looked upon this Way, this life, these followers of Jesus, as just another sect of Judaism.
You know, at that time the name Christianity did not exist. We talk about Christianity today, but the name Christianity did not exist at that time—not even the name Christian. Now we call ourselves Christians, but at that time even the word Christian was not yet used, because the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
So people looked upon those who followed the Lord Jesus, and they did not know how to identify them. Here were over ten thousand people in Jerusalem who believed in the Lord Jesus, followed the Lord, spoke of the Lord Jesus, and lived a different way of life altogether.
People looked at them and said, “Who are they?” They did not understand. Sometimes they called them followers of Jesus, and that was true. At other times they said they were people of the Way, because their way of life was different from other people’s way of life. But they did not know who they were.
As a matter of fact, at that time they all looked upon these people, this body of Christ, as just another sect in Judaism. The Roman Empire did not persecute this group of people at that time because they had a policy of permitting the religions of all those peoples whom they ruled.
So they considered these people as part of Judaism. As they would protect the Jews and Judaism, so they would protect this group of people. The Jewish people were also confused, because they found here were a people who were Jews, but who were so different from other Jews. They did not know what to do with them.
You know, in Judaism there are different sects. For instance, the Pharisees were a sect. The Sadducees were a sect. And then they discovered another sect called the Essenes. At that time they considered these followers of Jesus as another sect.
So for the time being, you find they were not persecuted, even though they were opposed. There was no general persecution. They only wanted to bring this group into conformity with Judaism. They were not thinking of wiping it out as if it were something altogether different.
Dear brothers and sisters, Christianity, if I may use this word for convenience, is not a sect of Judaism. Christianity is something totally different. What the Lord has dropped into this earth is something entirely different from anything that has ever been on this earth.
To consider Christianity as part of Judaism, as if it were Judeo-Christianity, is foreign to God. Christ has come to this earth to give new life, and with this new life He is bringing into being something completely new and different from anything that has ever existed.
The new wine has come. And if you try to put the new wine into old wineskins, you will not only damage the old wineskins and break them, but the new wine will also be spilled.
You do not put new wine into old wineskins. Why? Because the new wine is full of expansion. The fermenting process is still going on, but the old wineskin has lost its elasticity. It is fixed; it cannot be extended anymore.
So when you put new wine into an old wineskin, it bursts the old wineskin and makes it completely useless. At the same time, the new wine leaks out and is spilled. So the Lord said, “You do not put new wine into old wineskins. You have to put new wine into new wineskins,” because the new wineskin is elastic. It can expand as the new wine expands. It is not fixed; therefore, it can contain the new wine.
Our Lord Jesus coming to this earth is bringing to this world new wine. In that sense, the people were right: there was something new. But after you recognize the new wine, how can you try to put it into old wineskins? How can you make it a part of Judaism? How can you make it another sect of Judaism? That is impossible.
But remember, historically speaking, before the martyrdom of Stephen, everybody considered Christianity an offshoot of Judaism—probably even the early disciples. Why? Because those early disciples were mainly Jews, and being Jews, somehow they were confined in their mentality.
Probably the early Christians also considered themselves part of Judaism. That is the reason why you find they still went to the temple at the time of prayer, even though at the same time they had their breaking of bread. In other words, there was not yet that clear testimony that this was something completely new and had nothing to do with Judaism.
This new wine needs a new wineskin. But how was this brought about? You find this was brought about first in Stephen. Stephen was that vessel, that person, through whom God was able to make the first break.
That is the reason why Stephen is so significant in the growth of the church, the body of Christ. Stephen, if we understand him correctly, is the forerunner of Paul, the apostle.
As a matter of fact, you find Paul begins his life with Christ at the martyrdom of Stephen. If you continue on to study, you find Paul’s vision, or Paul’s concept, of the church—the body of Christ—is that it is actually a continuation of Christ. So Stephen is the forerunner of the apostle. He is a pioneer of the heavenly way.
Stephen was one of the seven chosen by the church in Jerusalem to serve the tables. You remember the story. Because the disciples multiplied at that time, there were widows with a Hellenistic background who were being overlooked in their daily care.
As we mentioned last time, in the church in Jerusalem all the believers were Jews. There were perhaps a few proselytes, but very few. You find the church in Jerusalem was composed mainly of Jews. But there were two different kinds of Jews.
One kind was the Hebrew Jews—those Jews who were born and reared in Palestine. They were stricter in keeping the law of Moses, and they were narrower in their mentality.
But there were Hellenistic Jews, Jews of the Dispersion. They were born and reared in Gentile cities, and they were under the influence of Greek culture. These people were broader in their mentality, and they were not as strict in keeping the law as the Hebrew Jews.
So in the early days you find the church in Jerusalem was composed of Hellenistic Jews and Hebrew Jews. Because the apostles were all Hebrew Jews, somehow they neglected the widows of the Hellenistic Jews. There was a problem there.
To solve that problem, the apostles suggested that they select seven men full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, of good report, to serve the tables. When the church in Jerusalem began to choose these seven people, Stephen was the first chosen.
Stephen was full of wisdom and of the Holy Spirit. He served the tables well—so well that he was able not only to serve the tables, but he was able to minister the Word of God.
If we are faithful in little things, we will be given more. Here you find Stephen: he was not only one of the seven deacons serving tables, but he evidently was one used by God in the ministry of the Word, especially toward the Hellenistic Jews.
He was a man full of grace and power. Everything that is written concerning Stephen, you find the word full there. He was not a person who knew just a little bit. He was a person who was in the fullness of Christ.
He was full of wisdom, full of grace, full of the Holy Spirit, and full of power. Everything connected with Stephen is fullness. It is very significant.
Why was he so full? Probably there was one reason: he was not in any way fettered or bound by tradition. You know, as a Hebrew Jew, one is more prone to be bound by the traditions of the fathers. But as a Hellenistic Jew, he was freer in this respect.
Not being bound by the traditions of the fathers, he was open and freer in his spirit to receive more fully of Christ. He was a man knowing the fullness of Christ and ministering primarily to the Hellenistic Jews who resided in Jerusalem.
Because of that, the synagogues of the Hellenistic Jews rose up to persecute him. You find the persecution did not come from the Jewish synagogues as a whole, but from these Hellenistic synagogues—the synagogues established for Jews from Africa, from Asia, from Cilicia, and from these various places.
They rose up and began to persecute Stephen. They brought him to the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court. Their accusation was that he was speaking words against the holy place and the law.
You find they accused him of the same thing they had accused our Lord Jesus. They accused the Lord Jesus as One who said He would destroy the temple and in three days raise it up. They did not understand that the Lord was speaking of His own body. But they said He had declared that the temple would be destroyed.
Here you find they accused Stephen of saying that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs which Moses had delivered. Dear brothers and sisters, what do you find here? You find a man full of Christ, full of the new wine, and he came into direct conflict with the old wineskins.
The Jewish people wanted to see this new wine contained in the old wineskins. If the new wine refused to be contained in the old wineskin, then they had to take it aside—contain it, or else destroy it.
At this juncture, you find a very serious crisis: whether God was able to keep His life pure on earth, or whether there would be compromise; whether the body of Christ would be a new wineskin to contain the new wine, or whether the body of life would degenerate into an organization, an institution, a tradition of men.
That is really the issue here. To put it in another way: whether Christianity should be Judaized, or whether Christianity would be free according to God’s pattern.
What is Judaism? What are the features of Judaism? Four features, or characteristics, of Judaism are fulfilled here:
These four items compose Judaism.
What is Judaism? Judaism is a code of law, is it not? The Ten Commandments, plus all the statutes, ordinances, and precepts. This code of law was given by God. It was not invented by man. It has a divine origin. It was given to Moses by the hand of angels. It came from God.
But, brothers and sisters, why was the law given in the first place? When you read Romans, you find the law was given for the knowledge of sin. As you read the Book of Galatians, you find that by the law we know what sin is.
People do not know themselves. They think they can do good. They think they have something good in them. They think they can please God. They think that they have merit. Because people do not know themselves, God gave the law to man to give man a knowledge of sin.
If there is no law, we do not know what sin is. It does not mean there is no sin, but there is no knowledge of it. Sin was still there. I mean, from the day of Adam until Moses, sin was already there, but people did not have the knowledge of sin until the law came.
The law says, “Thou shalt not covet.” Then when you covet, you are greedy; you sin. You know you have sinned. The law is given for the knowledge of sin. The law is given to shut us up unto Christ.
By the law, we know that we have not done what we should. By the law, we know we have failed. By the law, we are brought to our extremity, and thus we are shut up unto Christ. The law leads us to Christ. This is the purpose of the law.
But instead of learning the real purpose of the law, the children of Israel said, “All that God has said we will do. We will do that. Sure, we will do that.” They tried to be justified by law, and because of that they all came under condemnation by the very law that they desired to keep.
Judaism is built upon a code of law. There is no law under heaven nobler, higher, or of more divine origin than the law of Moses. The law is of God, and yet they are content with the law. That is Judaism.
Brothers and sisters, is it not true that from the very beginning of the church up to the present, people have tried to make Christianity a kind of religion like Judaism? They try to reduce the Bible to a system of theology. People try to put out a book of doctrine or a book of discipline. Everything is reduced to rules and regulations.
With good intentions, they try to simplify everything. They try to make everything so clear, just like the Ten Commandments. But brothers and sisters, when you reduce the Word of God to a system of theology, when you try to reduce Christianity to a creed of faith or a book of discipline with rules and regulations, you Judaize Christianity.
You put people under the bondage of law. We are not under the law, but we are not without law. Do you have a law? It is the law of the Spirit of life.
God has not given us, in Christianity, in Christ, in the church, a system reduced to rules and regulations. No. He has given to us the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of life in the church is the Lord. It is the Lord.
So you find it is not legislation; it is organism. That is the new wine. They considered Stephen as speaking against the law. Why? Because they kept the law in the physical, material thing—the letter. But Stephen saw the law’s real purpose: leading us to Christ. They could not accept that.
Judaism has a system of priesthood—the Levitical priesthood. Because of the failure of the children of Israel, God’s intention in the beginning was altered. In Exodus Chapter 19, God said:
I have borne you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests.
What does it mean to be a kingdom of priests? It means that every Israelite was to be a priest serving God. But while Moses was receiving the law on Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were worshiping the golden calf.
Because of their failure, they disqualified themselves. So out of the twelve tribes, God had to select one tribe—Levi—to be priests. And of that tribe, only one family was able to serve as priests: the family of Aaron.
The Jewish system, Judaism, is a system in which the people cannot serve God. The people are not able to serve God, and they are not allowed to serve God. Service to God is limited to a tribe, to a family. That is Judaism.
Brothers and sisters, is it not true that throughout the centuries, from the beginning of the history of Christianity even to our time, people have tried to Judaize Christianity? Instead of seeing that all believers are priests, they try to limit service to God to a certain class.
Only those of that class can serve. So the rest of the people are laity who know nothing. They cannot serve God, even if they want to. Spiritual service is monopolized by a special class.
This probably is the meaning of the Nicolaitans in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3. In history, we do not find such a thing called Nicolaitans, so we have to go into the meaning of the word. Nico means conquer; laity means the people. It means conquering the laity.
In other words, a special class of people monopolizes all the spiritual services and leaves the laity as the audience. That is Judaized Christianity.
Peter says that as we come to Christ, we are living stones. We are being built up into a spiritual house. We are not only a spiritual house being built up, but at the same time we are the holy priesthood that serves in the house.
Every believer is a priest. Revelation Chapter 1 says that He has washed us from our sins and has made us a kingdom of priests. Brothers and sisters, why are we saved? We are saved to serve God as priests.
We do not need any intermediary class between us and God. There is between God and man one Mediator, even Jesus Christ our Lord, but there is no mediator between us and the Lord. The universal priesthood of believers—that is the new wine.
But how often people try to put the new wine into old wineskins. You have the life of a priest, and yet you are not allowed to serve because you have not been trained and ordained. That is putting the new wine into the old wineskin. It will break.
Number three: a place of worship. To Judaism, the temple is most important. Yes, the temple site was chosen by God. The pattern of the temple was revealed by God. The temple was built as a house of God, for God to dwell by His Spirit. The temple was everything to the Jewish people.
When the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, Judaism was almost finished. Even up to the present, because there is no temple, there can be no sacrifice. No sacrifice—and if there is no sacrifice, then there is no remission of sin.
So far as Judaism is concerned, there is no redemption; there is no salvation. I have attended the funeral of a Jewish friend, and as I attended the funeral and listened to what the rabbi said, you went away with a feeling of sadness. There was no hope.
There is no temple, no sacrifice. So what can you do? The only thing the rabbis try to comfort people with is, “Well, maybe your merits will go before you and speak good for you.” That is all.
But the place of worship is very important in Judaism. You have to go to Jerusalem. You have to go to the temple. Then you can worship God; otherwise, you cannot.
You remember when our Lord Jesus met the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well. The religious feeling of that Samaritan woman was stirred up by the Lord. So the woman asked the Lord, “You Jews say that we ought to worship in Jerusalem, but we Samaritans say that we worship in this mountain. Now who is right? Should we go to Jerusalem, or should we go to Mount Gerizim?”
You remember what our Lord Jesus said: “Woman, the hour cometh. It is not a matter of Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. The Father is seeking true worshipers, those who worship Him in spirit and truth.”
How people today still put so much emphasis on a building. “This is the holy place where God is worshiped, and nowhere else.” It even borders on superstition.
During the wartime, in the beginning of the Pacific War, I was in Singapore. Of course, bombings were there every day. Bombs fell here and there and everywhere.
One day, early in the morning, a brother in the Lord ran to my house. I could see the agony in his heart. He ran to me and said, “Brother, come. Do you hear? A bomb has fallen right through the roof of an assembly.”
He said, “If God did not protect His church, then where is our protection?” He was lost. Brothers and sisters, how we have that Judaizing concept in our minds.
We think that God is worshiped in a place. The Father is seeking worship in spirit and truth. The place is secondary. If the Lord is here, even if it is a garage, thank God for that. If the Lord is not there, even if it is a cathedral, what is that? Just another building.
But dear brothers and sisters, do not all these things tell us that people try to Judaize Christianity? It is such a natural thing. When we say we go to church, we mean that we go to a building, a place. You can see how far we have moved away.
They accused Stephen of blaspheming, because they saw only the physical. But Stephen saw the reality.
Finally, Judaism is a set of earthly promises. You know, in Judaism God promised Abraham and his seed a land. The Lord said that if they kept His word, their cattle would not cast their young, their fields would prosper, and they would have many children.
You find that all the promises to the people of Israel had an earthly aspect. They are still looking for these promises, waiting for these promises. When the Messiah should come, then Israel would become the head of the nations and not the tail.
That was one reason why they rejected Christ. They tried to observe Christ, and they found that He did not make Israel the head of the nations. Therefore, He could not be the Messiah.
Judaism is a set of earthly promises. Dear brothers and sisters, how people today try to make Christianity also a set of earthly promises. Have you heard that teaching of prosperity?
“You love the Lord. You do this and do that. Then you will prosper. God promises you prosperity. If you want a Cadillac, you get one.”
Brothers and sisters, what is Christianity? God does not promise earthly blessings, but God does promise us that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
That is Ephesians 1:3. Now people today are looking for earthly blessings. You do not find it. Yes, God does bless us physically. He is sovereign; that is true. But that is not Christianity.
God can bless us, but that is not Christianity. Christianity is that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. What are we looking for?
If we are looking for earthly blessings, we reduce Christianity into Judaism. If we are looking forward that we may apprehend more of the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, this is Christianity.
Brothers and sisters, here you find a conflict between Stephen and the council and the city. They wanted to reduce Christianity to a part of Judaism—Moses, the law, the temple, and so forth.
But Stephen, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, traced the history of Israel from Abraham down. And when Stephen traced the history, he saw the history of Israel in the light of God.
In other words, when Stephen related the history of Israel, he saw that whatever God was doing was leading to Christ. And when Christ had come, then the shadows had passed away.
In other words, he saw the real meaning of the history of Israel. Stephen stands for one who sees that which is spiritual, that which is heavenly, that which is eternal and real.
It is that heavenly man who is Stephen. What a contrast—that vision, with the concept of the council and the Jewish people at that time. It is a conflict between heaven and earth.
Stephen was a pioneer of the heavenly way. He refused to see Christianity as a part of Judaism. He thought that Christianity, or the church, is a new wineskin for the new wine. It is something completely different. It is spiritual in nature, heavenly in nature. It is not earthly. It is not physical.
Because of that, Stephen must die. But when he was stoned, he looked up and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, “Behold, I see the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.”
Brothers and sisters, if the Head is in heaven, then the body is heavenly. If the Head is at the right hand of God, then the body has all the power and authority of the Head.
Here you find Stephen exhibiting a spirit similar to the spirit of Christ. When Christ was on the cross, He said:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Here you find the same spirit in Stephen. When he was stoned, he said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”
The blood of Stephen was like a seed sown in the heart of Saul. Later on, you find Saul took up Stephen’s testimony.
Thank God, the body grew. It went through circumstances and conflict, but out of that you find God was able to keep this body pure from the contamination of Judaism.
That marked the beginning of the separation between Christianity and Judaism. As you go on in the Book of Acts, you find the separation becomes clearer and clearer. Finally, you find the clear new wineskin with the new wine.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to go back to the Word of God. In the light of the Word of God, see the conflict we are in today. It is a conflict between heaven and earth. It is a conflict between the new wine and the old wineskin.
You can never contain the new wine in the old wineskin. It has to find a new wineskin. And the church, according to the Scripture, is the new wineskin. It is entirely different from any organization. It is an organism—living, elastic, and expanding with the life of Christ.
Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee that through Thy Word Thou dost reveal to us Thy mind. We thank Thee for giving us a new life, and it is Thy will that it should be contained in the new wineskin, never in old wineskins.
O Lord, we do pray that we may not be foolish, trying to put the new wine into old wineskins. Lord, may we offer to be a new wineskin, that Thy life may be preserved and Thy life may grow.
So, Lord, we pray that Thou wilt use these simple words to help us to see that Thy life may not in any way be inhibited, but that Thy life may be preserved and be useful. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.