Good evening, brothers. How quickly these weekends seem to pass as we come to study God’s Word.
I remind my own heart, and I remind you, of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable: total reliance on God’s Holy Spirit. No matter whether we come before the Lord privately, by ourselves, in our studies in our closets, or whether we come corporately together, we need to know that God alone is the One who reveals God.
Academics, no matter how thorough they are, will give you the human side of this precious Book, but they will not give you the revelation of the Lord. Only the Spirit of God can unveil Christ to our hearts.
The only time in the Bible that it says Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit was when He said, “Because Thou hast revealed it to babes.” He rejoiced that God had revealed it to babes.
And so, if we come as babes—we cannot work that up; He works that in us—but if we would come helplessly dependent, we rejoice His heart, and He ministers to us.
I want to share a verse from Isaiah 41. It is verse 17:
The afflicted and the needy are seeking water,
But there is none,
And their tongue is parched with thirst;
I, the Lord, will answer them Myself;
As the God of Israel, I will not forsake them.
God has promised Himself—and, of course, He is the only One who can do it—that He will take care of any thirst in our heart. So let us trust the Lord to create a thirst and to work in us that attitude of childlikeness that receives from Him. Then let us hear from the Lord.
Our Father, how glad we are again for this great privilege of waiting before You and trusting Your Holy Spirit to put the light, in a fresh and living way, upon our Lord Jesus.
Lord, we want to stand under an open heaven. We want to behold our exalted Savior. And so we ask You, Lord, to grace us and show us that vision of our Savior. We know when we see Him, we are changed. We become like Him.
And so we ask for that transforming look this evening. We ask that You would detach us completely from all that would distract us, all that would carry our minds away to other things, even good things. And we pray for Your grace to give us attention to Your heart.
Thank You that You are going to be with us tonight. Minister to us. Show us the Lord. We claim it in His matchless name. Amen.
I will ask you, please, to open again to that text we have been looking at: Acts 7. I would like to read again, please, verses 55 through 60.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him with one impulse.
And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
And they went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
We come now, brothers, to our third look into the wonderful life of this servant of the Lord. I tried to show you in the first session the chief contribution Stephen makes in the history of redemption. I believe it is that he was the first one to discover, by God’s revelation, who he was in Christ and where his life was: in the heavenly places.
He was a Christian, and his life was in heaven in the Lord Jesus, identified with Him. He was the first to have that dawning union with Christ. He saw the Christian and he saw the church in union with the Lord.
Then this morning, in our second lesson, as we looked at that speech he gave before the Sanhedrin, I tried to show you how he expanded on that vision and tried to lay it before them. He not only saw who he was and where he was, but he saw the church. He saw the church invisible, spiritual, and as a universal priesthood.
God had given him that vision. For hatred of that vision, they killed him. For love of that vision, he willingly died—a martyr for our Lord Jesus Christ.
They saw him as he stood before them. The Bible says he had the face of an angel. I am not sure all that means. I do not know whether it is literal or a figure of speech.
I think there is a little irony in it because they claimed he was against Moses. You know, in Exodus 32, Moses’ face shone like an angel. I do not think it was an “in-your-face” thing that God was doing, but I think it is amazing that Stephen had that same experience. Or else it was simply a figure of speech.
In Exodus, Jacob said to Esau, “Your face is like the face of God.” Perhaps that, too, was a figure of speech, showing how calm he was. Here they are accusing Stephen, and he has this composure and this peace. Perhaps it was something like that. But anyway, he left the testimony. We will see more about that testimony tomorrow.
Now I would like to unfold this vision a little more. I suggested in our introductory lesson that the vision Stephen had enabled him to live a victorious Christian life and to die a victorious Christian death.
I also suggested that everyone who shares the vision Stephen had has everything they need to live a victorious Christian life and to die a victorious Christian death. There is everything in that vision—unqualifiedly enough—to live victoriously, to live triumphantly, to die victoriously, and to die triumphantly.
Tomorrow morning, Lord willing, we will look together at what it means to die triumphantly. But tonight, God helping us, Stephen had the vision. Once again, the facts are so suggestive: filled with the Holy Spirit, standing under an open heaven, beholding a glorified Savior, identifying with Him, and then being transformed by that revelation.
God allowed Stephen to have that so he could have that life, so we could see it, and so we could have that life. Let us look together at what it means to have this victorious Christian life.
We need the vision that Stephen had—nothing more, nothing added to it. Not the vision plus my training; not the vision plus my gifts; not the vision plus my spiritual disciplines; not the vision plus anything. Just the vision alone is what I need to have a life like he had.
The vision is the key. Before I place the key in your hand, I would like to describe the triumphant life. If I have his vision, this is what my life will look like. Let me describe the life, and then you can answer in your heart: Is that me? Is he describing my life? Is that the kind of life I have?
Then we will go back. If not, you need Stephen’s vision. If not, I need Stephen’s vision.
The first thing I have mentioned before, but I want to home in on it now, is this: if you have Stephen’s vision, then you are going to have the fullness—the completeness—that Stephen experienced.
Because of his vision, he could say, “I have no lack. I shall not want.” Now, I know I mentioned these verses in an earlier connection, but I am going to ask you to glance at them again: Acts 6:3 and 5, and also Acts 7:55.
He was full of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 6:3, he was full of wisdom. In Acts 6:5, he was full of faith. In Acts 6:8, he was full of grace. And in Acts 6:8, he was full of power. No other Christian in the New Testament is described in terms like that: so full.
Later, Paul picked up that idea and changed the word a little. He talked about completeness—same idea. In Colossians 2:10, “In Him you have been made complete.” In Colossians 4:12, “That you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”
Not some of the will of God, not most of the will of God, but perfect and complete in all the will of God. How I love that phrase.
You know, we talk so much about the abundant Christian life, about fullness, about completeness. Do we really, brothers, do we really know what that is? Is that just theology—“I am complete in Christ”—or do we really experience that? Is that our moment-by-moment experience?
Paul prayed that we would be filled with all the fullness of God. Is that too much to believe? Is that too much to expect? You can be filled with the fullness of God.
That fullness is not only abundant; it is redundant. By that, I mean it is not describing a life just filled to the brim. The way God uses the word fullness, it is a life filled to the brim and flowing over on all sides at all times.
Do you have that kind of life—filled to the brim, flowing over on all sides at all times?
I used to picture God’s fullness as if it were an ocean of grace, and God allowed me to take my dipper called faith. I could dip into that ocean and experience fullness. Well, then fullness is measured by my dipper.
I will tell you, that is not the fullness He is talking about—how big my faith is. It is not even how much I experience Christ if I live to be one hundred. That still does not describe His fullness, no matter how much I enter in.
The measure of fullness is in the Lord Himself. He is the measure of fullness and the life that God has for us. It pleased the Father to put all the fullness in the Son, and to the church all fullness flows from our exalted Head. It is from Christ Himself.
Now, from the record, Stephen experienced that fullness. He had a vision. He stood under the open heavens, and he saw Christ exalted. Suddenly, he was full.
All the blessings and bounties, all the goodness of God, the benefits, the refreshings, the gifts, the transformations—everything flowed from above. All he did was see Jesus.
He was full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith, full of grace, full of power, and full of wisdom. That fullness was a byproduct. It was a consequence of his gazing on the Lord Jesus.
Not now and then, not once in a while, but he constantly had that fullness—that copious supply flowing out from Christ, meeting every need, satisfying every sorrow, soothing every anxiety, quickening his spirit when it was drooping, and gladdening his heart when he was fainting. I am suggesting that is a victorious life.
I wonder if, in honesty, we can say, “Yes, that is how I live all the time. I have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I am full of faith, wisdom, power, and grace. I am complete in Him.”
You see, if these things are not real, we are just playing a game. If we think that is a dream, a utopia, merely pious words, exaggeration, or superlative language, then we have missed it. These things, my brothers, are real.
As John said, “Of His fullness we all received.” This is the life that is possible for us.
I hear so many Christians, and they seem to be saying the same thing: “What is missing? There has got to be more. I feel such a lack. I feel such an emptiness. There is something that I am not seeing. What is it? What am I missing?”
I am suggesting they have not had the vision that Stephen had, because nothing is missing if you have that vision.
Full of wisdom—we say, “Lord, give me a little wisdom.” I do not want a little wisdom. I want to be full of wisdom. You should not want a little wisdom; you should want to be full of wisdom.
We say, “Lord, I know my faith is weak. My faith is feeble. Give me a little faith.” Full of faith. Full—to the top and overflowing on all sides at all times.
“Lord, please give me a little grace in this situation.” Little grace? Full of grace. Full of faith. Full of power. Stephen knew that life. He knew the fullness of the Lord.
How do you suppose Stephen ran around looking for those things that filled his life? Do we read in the Bible that Stephen was running after the Holy Spirit as a goal, seeking a special blessing, a special anointing, a special gift, or some ecstatic experience? That is not what I read.
I read that he stood under the open heavens and saw the Lord, and he was full. He did not run after fullness. He did not run after the Holy Spirit as a goal.
I do not think he had to have a special season of prayer and fasting to ask for special wisdom to know how to deal with the Hellenistic widows who were discontented. He was full of wisdom. He was not chasing after faith. He saw Christ and was full of faith.
He was not grace-centered. Grace is a wonderful thing. I love the grace of God. I love the new covenant. But grace is not Jesus. It is not the Lord. It is not a substitute for Him.
If I look to Christ, I am full of grace. If I look to grace, I am empty.
Remember the story in Ruth? Naomi and Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion, were in Bethlehem—the house of bread, the house of fullness. Then a famine came, and they said, “What are we going to do? A famine is here.”
They decided to leave the house of bread. For what? To find fullness. They left fullness to find fullness. Did they find fullness?
For ten years they were away from the fellowship of God’s people: five hundred and twenty weeks without meeting with God’s people, thirty times they did not go up for the annual feast. For ten years they lived in an environment of defeat and failure.
They left three graves in Moab. When Naomi came back, her testimony in Ruth 1:21 was, “I went out full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.”
Ten years before, if you had asked her, “Why are you leaving?” she would have said, “I am leaving because I am empty.” But after ten years, she said, “I went out full, and God brought me back empty.”
Brothers, our fullness is in Christ. If you leave fullness to find fullness, you will only find emptiness. If I leave fullness to find fullness, I will only find emptiness. May God burn that into our spirit.
We read in Acts 6:8 that Stephen was performing signs and wonders among the people. I do not think he was seeking after signs and wonders. He was just looking to the Lord, and he was full of power.
I know it sounds spiritual and humble to say, “I am going to seek after fullness. I want fullness in my life.” It sounds spiritual and humble, but it might only be unbelief.
If you look to Christ, you will have that. That is a byproduct; it is a consequence of looking off to Him. If you stand under the open heavens and by faith see an exalted Savior, the first characteristic is fullness.
Let me give another characteristic. If you see what Stephen saw, if I see what Stephen saw, then Christ will be wonderfully manifest in my life.
If you read the record of Stephen, has it not struck you that he looks an awful lot like Jesus in what is going on in his life? Sometimes we use the expression conformed to the image of Christ, made like Christ. These expressions can be misunderstood, and we need to understand what God is saying there.
Increasingly, as you go through this story, you see how parallel Stephen’s experience was to the Lord Jesus. Was Stephen following the example of Christ?
First of all, Stephen was like Christ in his suffering, in his passion. There are many illustrations of this.
For example, the charges against him were exactly the same. In Acts 6:13-14, compared with Matthew 26:59-61, the same lies were told about the Lord Jesus: “He is against the temple. He is against Moses. He is against God. He blasphemed.”
I think the fact that Jesus did not try to defend Himself is like Stephen. Stephen did not try to defend himself.
“[He] uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.”
—1 Peter 2:23
It is a miracle of God when you can keep your mouth shut while people are twisting what you say or what you believe. Stephen was like Christ.
Consider also John 19:17. When they were to crucify Christ, they dragged Him outside of the city. Hebrews 13:12-13 says He was crucified outside the camp.
The same thing happened to Stephen in Acts 7:58: “When they had driven him out of the city.” Stephen was conformed to Jesus in his suffering. The charges were the same, both had the spirit of nonresistance, and both were dragged outside the city.
I will say more about this tomorrow, God willing, but even in the redemptive nature of the death, many came to Christ. Even that is very similar.
He was like the Lord, too, in the childlike faith and humble way in which he surrendered.
Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.”
—Luke 23:46
Listen to Stephen in Acts 7:59:
They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord Jesus and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
There is a technical difference between what Jesus said and what Stephen said, but practically it is the same childlike faith. Jesus was actually laying His life down. According to Ecclesiastes 8:8, no man can do that. You cannot decide, “I think I will die. I will just hand over my spirit.”
That is what the Lord Jesus did. Nobody took it from Him. He laid it down by Himself. Stephen was committing his departing spirit unto the Lord, but it is the same idea.
I do not think it is an accident that we read the account of both deaths. They both died with a loud voice.
Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit.”
—Luke 23:46
Falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice.
—Acts 7:60
That is the voice of triumph. Their lives did not just ebb away. There was no dying whisper. You did not have to come close to this dying person to hear what his final words were. He shouted out at the end, like the Lord Jesus.
There are many, many parallels. You say, “Stephen looks like Jesus.” Not only in his passion, but there was a moral likeness.
Everyone calls attention to this. In Luke 23:34, Jesus on the cross said:
“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
In Acts 7:60, Stephen, falling on his knees, cried out with a loud voice:
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
Having said this, he fell asleep. Have you considered that amazing miracle? Do you think Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, had a bitter struggle in his heart to forgive those who were stoning him?
Do you think he reasoned like this? “Now, I am a Christian. I am a believer. I belong to the Lord, and I am supposed to turn the other cheek. I want to obey God. He said, ‘Forgive your enemies. Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.’”
“It is going to be a bad testimony if I have a vindictive spirit. It is going to be a struggle, but I have to forgive them because I am a Christian. So here goes—grunt, agonize.” Do you think that is how he did it?
Forgiveness was not natural to Stephen any more than it is natural to you or to me. There had to be a supernatural naturalness. There had to be a miracle for that.
That act of love and forgiveness is not the point. It is the illustration of the point. The point is fruit—supernatural fruit.
He looked to Christ, and this amazing fruit came from his life—something far beyond his nature. There is no human way that it is possible, when someone is throwing stones in your face, to say, “I forgive you,” and really mean it.
It is not possible to do that. Forgiveness illustrates that all fruit—all kindness, generosity, human sympathy, compassion, mercy—anything like that has to come from God.
I cannot work up a forgiving heart. I cannot work up a generous spirit. I cannot work up a loving heart. I cannot work up thankfulness if I am unthankful. I cannot work up selflessness. That has to come from God. If it does not come from the Lord, then it is not real.
How do you explain that illustration, which illustrates fruit? How do you explain fruit like that? How do you explain that forgiveness? There is not a drop of vindictiveness, not a drop of animosity, no imprecation in his heart. He just said, “Lord, forgive them.” That is an amazing thing.
As I said earlier, when we say we are conformed to Christ and made into His image, we need to understand what that means. Some people have the idea that God changed Stephen from being unforgiving to being forgiving.
That is not what happened. That is not what happened at all. There was not a change in Stephen like that. Stephen was not doing the Christian thing.
Do you know why Stephen looks so much like Jesus in his passion? Do you know why Stephen looks so much like Jesus in his moral likeness? He looks so much like Jesus because it was Jesus.
It was not Stephen looking like Jesus; it was Jesus looking like Jesus. Jesus was living in his heart.
This was not Stephen glancing down at his wrist and seeing a band—“WWJD: What Would Jesus Do?”—and then trying to figure out how to respond to people throwing stones in his face and hitting him over the head with big boulders. That is not what it was at all.
The reason he looks like Jesus is because it was Jesus living again. This was the manifestation of Christ. This is the fruit.
He saw the Lord, and because of that vision, the Lord not only made him full and complete in every way, flowing over on all sides at all times, but the Lord was now free to live His life in him and through him.
I think you brothers have heard this a million times through the years, and you know it well, but hear it again: there is only one Person who has ever lived a victorious Christian life. His name is Jesus.
There is only one Person who can ever live it again, and His name is Jesus. This idea that you can live it or I can live it is not in the Bible. We cannot live it. He is the only One who can live it.
When Christ lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years, He lived in the body God had prepared for Him through the Virgin Mary—His incarnate body.
The only difference now is that He lives again. It is the same Jesus who walked on the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He is alive again.
But now He has a new body. It is the same Jesus. It is the same life. It is Him living again—not in the incarnate body, but now in His mystical body. He lives in you, and He lives in me, but it is the same Jesus.
It is the same principle: God manifest in the flesh. If there is ever anything that happens in your life that can be explained in a natural way, then you have not understood this vision. The only explanation for the Christian life is God manifest in the flesh.
Praise God if someone has to look at you and say, “What makes you tick? How can you respond like that? How can you, like Stephen, take what they are throwing at you and have that loving-hearted response?”
The answer is: you cannot, but He can. That is the victorious Christian life. Eternal life is the life of the Eternal One living in you—the life of the Eternal One living in me.
I wonder if we can answer before the Lord: Do you have a passion for Christ to live in you and to manifest Himself through you, so that this moral likeness may be seen—so that Christ can be Christ and do His thing through you?
If you do not have that passion, and God does not burn that into your heart, Romans 8:28-29 will become a stumbling block to you. Romans 8:28-29 will become a stumbling block to me.
Romans 8:28-29 says:
We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to