What Are You Living For? Lessons from Stephen

Stephen’s story asks what a person is really living for, because sooner or later purpose becomes visible. The road trip picture of “are we there yet?” shows how life can shrink down to the next exit, the next bill, the next schedule, the next thing to survive. Acts lifts the eyes back up and says heaven is home, and the life on earth is meant to point someone else to Jesus.

Luke shows Stephen as a man “full” of grace, power, faith, and the Holy Spirit. Stephen is not introduced as a celebrity or an apostle, but as an ordinary servant who fed widows and served tables. The Holy Spirit takes that ordinary faithfulness and fills it with heaven. Opposition rises, and when Stephen’s opponents cannot stand against the wisdom the Spirit gives him, they attack his character instead.

Stephen’s face becomes the first picture of a Spirit-filled life. The Sanhedrin thinks it is defending Moses, but the one standing in front of them actually looks like Moses, because his face shines from being with God. People see Jesus in Stephen before Stephen says a word. A life centered on comfort reflects frustration when life gets hard, a life centered on success reflects ambition, and a life centered on fear reflects anxiety, but a life centered on Jesus reflects peace, grace, and love.

Acts 7 shows Stephen answering the charges not by defending himself, but by telling Israel’s story. God reaches, and people resist. Joseph is rejected, Moses is rejected, the prophets are rejected, and finally God’s Son is rejected. Stephen calls the leaders “stiff-necked people,” because knowledge is not their problem. Surrender is.

The Holy Spirit then changes where Stephen looks. The crowd rages, teeth grind, stones are coming, but Stephen looks up and sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Suffering does not create his priorities. Suffering reveals where his heart has been all along.

The Holy Spirit finally changes what comes out when Stephen is crushed. Stephen prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Stephen does not just speak about Jesus. Stephen reflects Jesus. Saul stands there approving, and Stephen never gets to see Saul become Paul, but God is already writing the next chapter. Faithfulness belongs to the servant, and the results belong to God.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Purpose becomes visible over time [41:32] Stephen’s life shows that purpose is not finally proven by what a person says in a church lobby. Purpose shows itself in attention, anxiety, conversation, and sacrifice. The center of the heart eventually leaks out into ordinary life, especially when nobody is trying to look spiritual. [41:32]
• 2. Ordinary faithfulness can shine [50:15] Stephen begins as someone serving tables and caring for widows, not as someone chasing a platform. The Spirit fills ordinary obedience until it carries the weight of heaven. God’s work is not waiting for a dramatic stage, because surrender in small places can make a face shine with Jesus. [50:15]
• 3. Pressure reveals the heart’s center [01:02:00] Stephen’s suffering does not suddenly make him look toward heaven. The stones only reveal where his eyes had already been fixed. Pressure has a way of squeezing out what has been stored inside, whether fear, anger, control, or the peace of Christ. [62:00]
• 4. Faithfulness plants unseen seeds [01:07:39] Stephen dies without seeing Saul become Paul. That hidden detail keeps the story from looking like defeat. Faithfulness may leave fruit in places a person never gets to measure, and God may write the next chapter through someone standing far closer to the darkness than anyone expected.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [38:48] - Returning From Vacation
• [40:53] - What Is Life Really For?
• [45:20] - Stephen and Growing Opposition
• [47:52] - Three Spirit-Filled Changes
• [48:37] - Acts 6: Stephen Before the Council
• [50:15] - Full of Grace, Power, and Spirit
• [53:28] - What People See in a Life
• [54:51] - Stephen’s History Lesson
• [57:07] - “You Stiff-Necked People”
• [60:49] - Stephen Looks Toward Heaven
• [64:36] - Stephen Reflects Jesus Under Stones
• [67:17] - Saul, Seeds, and Unseen Fruit
• [71:35] - Jesus at the Center
• [75:15] - Communion and the Mission Field

Bible Reading

Acts 6:8-15
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. [48:37]

Acts 7:51-60
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed 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 stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then 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 as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. [57:07]

Exodus 34:29-30
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Luke 23:34
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Observation questions

1. In Acts 6:8-15, what words are used to describe Stephen, and what kinds of opposition rise against him? [50:15]
2. What details in Acts 6 show that Stephen’s opponents could not answer him fairly and had to turn to false charges instead? [51:32]
3. In Acts 7:51-60, what does Stephen see while the council is enraged, and what two prayers come out of his mouth as he is being stoned? [01:05:10]
4. What repeated pattern does Stephen trace through Israel’s history when he talks about Joseph, Moses, the prophets, and finally Jesus? [56:00]

Interpretation questions

1. Stephen is introduced as someone serving widows and tables before he is shown speaking boldly in public. What does that suggest about the way God often prepares a person for visible faithfulness? [50:47]
2. Stephen’s face is described in a way that echoes Moses in Exodus 34. Why does that matter in a scene where the council thinks it is defending Moses? [52:41]
3. Stephen says the leaders “always resist the Holy Spirit.” If knowledge was not their main problem, what does this passage suggest their deeper problem was? How can a person know a great deal about God and still resist him? [58:42]
4. Stephen looks up and sees Jesus standing at God’s right hand while the stones are coming. What does that reveal about where Stephen’s heart had already been fixed before this moment of suffering? [01:02:03]

Application questions

1. Life can shrink down to the next bill, the next schedule, the next problem, or the next thing to survive. What has been capturing most of this season of life, and what does that reveal about what is sitting closest to the center of the heart? [41:32]
2. Stephen’s faithfulness began in ordinary service. Where might ordinary obedience be needed right now—in the home, at work, in church, or with a neighbor—even if it feels small and unnoticed? [50:57]
3. What usually comes out when pressure rises: frustration, ambition, anxiety, self-protection, or something else? What might that reveal about what the heart has been leaning on most? [54:10]
4. The Holy Spirit often nudges quietly rather than loudly. Has there been a recent nudge to forgive, speak, serve, give, confess, or reach out to someone that has been resisted? What would surrender look like in that specific situation? [59:30]
5. Stephen did not suddenly look to heaven because he was suffering; the suffering revealed where he had been looking all along. What practical habits help keep the eyes fixed on Jesus before hardship hits? [01:02:14]
6. The people around a believer may forget many words, but they often remember how that believer walked through pain. Who may be watching closely right now, and what picture of Jesus is being given to them by the way suffering is handled? [01:09:01]
7. Stephen never got to see Saul become Paul. Where is there a temptation to give up because no visible fruit is showing yet? What would it look like to leave the results with God and remain faithful anyway? [01:07:39]