Angel Face

Welcome to Verse by Verse. Thank you so much for joining us as we take a look at the book of Acts. We take things nice and slowly as we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey and I'm the pastoral care and missions pastor here at United City Church in Humboldt, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're going to be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes and let's learn together through the book of Acts. All right, glad those of you that could join us online. We always love to have you with us, those of you who watch us via Pando or any other way on YouTube, and we're excited to be in Acts chapter 6 tonight. We have been walking our way through the book of Acts verse by verse. That's why we call it verse by verse because we like to take it one step at a time. Of course, last week we were talking about how that when the early church continued to grow, some of the widows were getting overlooked. And so that might not seem like a big deal, but it actually was a big deal. And it was such a big deal that it was put in the scripture. It tells me that God cares deeply for those who are a little bit more vulnerable than the others. We traced a pattern through scripture of three groups of people. I already gave you one of them. They are widows. Anybody remember the other two? Orphans and sojourners. Sojourners is another word for immigrants. Okay, so those are three groups of people that the Bible says we need to pay special attention to. They need a little extra level of care. So that was happening in the book of Acts. And so when they try to figure out what do we need to do that the widows are not are not getting what they need, they were having a growth challenge. Guess what, guys? If you're a part of a growing church and you're in the room, so you're a part of a growing church. I'm just going to tell you, I'm a part of a staff at a church that's growing like crazy. That means we constantly have growth

challenges, right? Like growth pains. Like we need some new leaders. Oh, we need a new system, right? Oh, we've got too many people. Oh, we've got to build risers in the room because we don't have enough seats for everybody. Oh, we've got to add an extra service. Oh, wait, but we used to do it this way and we use it. Guess what, guys? We can't just go with like growing churches can't just do it the way we've always done it. That just doesn't work. There are good things about the way we've done things in the past. Some things we continue, right? I mean, we've been caring for widows since the church was born. We're going to keep doing that, but our structures have to change. So Acts chapter 6 was showing a structural change and the structural change was, okay, we got to be sure that the apostles are giving themselves to two things. What were they? Prayer and the ministry of the Word, right? They're like, we can't forsake that. That's not because the widows aren't important because ministering to them is are important too, but there are others who can do that while we need to do the other thing. And so they set apart some men and gave them this job. They didn't call them deacons at the time. We're going to see that name a little bit later, but the way they were set apart, it really gave a sort of like a precursor to deacon ministry. And I told you, deacons in our church, they give special attention to the widows and the widowers in our church. That's part of the problem. We're just trying to follow the biblical model. So we looked at Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 12 last week as the model of ministry and I would love for somebody else to read that because, guys, that is a very important verse of Scripture. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 12, the whole passage, but we don't have time to do all of that, but I'd love for somebody to read that plenty loud for us. Verse 12, please. For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. Go back to verse 11, if you would. And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. There we go. For the equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry. So guys, that is the ministry model that our church follows. You, as a

staff, as a congregation, have chosen to be a part of this church and there are leaders. I happen to be privileged to be one of the leaders here at this church. Our job as the leaders is to equip you to do ministry. Our job as leaders is not just to do all the ministry for you and you come watch the show on Sunday and Wednesday and all that stuff. No, no, no. If we're not equipping you to do ministry, then we're not doing our job. That's what the Scripture teaches and so that's what they were doing right here. That's why we looked at the passage last week, right? Besides the men, okay, let's equip them to do some ministry. They need to help with the widows and make sure that that happens, and that's important. So, tonight, we're gonna look at the story, a very, one of the most famous stories in the Book of Acts. Okay? And it is the story of one of those certain leaders. Okay, if you remember, last week, we read some names, and some of those names that we never heard from again. We don't know what happened with them. I'm sure they probably did a great job. But, this is a name that was. And so, we're starting tonight in Acts chapter six, verses eight through 15, and I suspect that's about as far as we'll get tonight, but we're gonna be with this brother for a few weeks. This is really something, guys. I love this story. So, I'm gonna read, starting in verse eight of Acts chapter six. 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. They could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, "'We've 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. "'We've 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.'" What a story. And guys, we're just barely getting started at night. Wait till he starts talking. I encourage you to read ahead. I don't think we're gonna have time to get to any of that in verses 16 and forward, but Stephen has a lot to say, full of the Holy Spirit. So we see a lot of interesting things here.

Verse eight, Stephen is listed as full of grace and power. If you look at the prior verses that describe the men who were chosen to this ministry with the widows, there were a couple of descriptions of those men. It says they were of good repute. That basically means had a good reputation. And what else does it say? Full of what? Full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, right? Some of yours may have said full of faith, okay? So basically what we see is we can, all those things to describe Peter. I mean, Stephen, sorry. Stephen was full of grace. He was full of power. He was good reputation. He was full of the Holy Spirit, of course, which along with being full of the Holy Spirit, you are full of grace and power and wisdom. So this guy wasn't one of the apostles. And yet what we see here in this verse is he is doing the same things the apostles did. Do you see that? Stephen was doing great wonders and signs among the people. So we're starting to see something that we haven't seen yet. Now it's not just the apostles that can work miracles. It's those who have converted under the apostles' teaching. So that's very important that it's not like the apostles

are some elite group that have all the power. No, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is alive in every believer, every one of us, okay? So it's okay for you to admire some spiritual leader and think, oh, wow, you know what? I love to see how the Holy Spirit uses Pastor John. You know what? I see John Shepherd, our group's pastor, full of the Holy Spirit, and I see God using him. That's a really fine thing to do, is to admire that. But the last thing that we need to do as church members is think that the staff are like some spiritual elite that have some extra dose of something that you can't have. Nope, same Holy Spirit that lives in me lives in you. Same Holy Spirit that lives in Pastor Chris and that God uses and has given him a... Of course, he has a very special anointing to preach the word of God, there's no doubt. But you wanna know why he has that? It's not because God just said, here it is, poof, and just live however you will. Pastor Chris is desiring to live aligned with God. and he puts in work, right? Those sermons don't just drop out of heaven onto his desk. It says, go preach it, son. No, he works and he studies and he hones and he works on his craft. So yes, he has the Holy Spirit, but God, you have the Holy Spirit, too. God can use you in the different roles that he does.

And so that's what we start to see, and that gets exciting for me to see what some people we call like the lay people, right? You know what I mean? Not the church leaders. Now we're just starting to see just average guys out there being used, and so he's doing the miraculous and he's full of the Holy Spirit, and that is the reason. So as it goes on, you can see in verse nine, it says he got the same sort of thing happen to him that happened to all the other guys, right? What happened? When he starts doing miracles and wonders, what happened? Yeah, Satan got mad. And so he just stirred up his crew, right? Oh, we got to stop this. And so then people just start kind of, just kind of bad-mouthing, right? And then they all sort of get together. If you look at it, it says some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, and then of the Cyrenians and Alexandrians and Cilician Asia, they rose up and disputed with Stephen. Okay, so a couple of things that I want us to see here that are very important before we go into who those groups of people were. Number one, anytime God uses you, there is spiritual opposition. This stuff doesn't happen in a vacuum, people. Do you understand?

We live in a world, we live on planet Earth, okay? We're all right here on planet Earth. We got gravity holding us down, and here we are. But guys, heaven overlaps, you understand? There are spiritual forces that are at work in the world today. We don't need to think, oh, the spiritual forces are at work up there. No, no, no, no, no. They work right down here, and they're whispering in your ear, and sometimes they're whispering in my ear, and they're trying to get us off the path, and they're trying to bring opposition. Sometimes the opposition is not people on the outside speaking opposition, like he was experienced. Sometimes it's on the inside, right? I think, I see some heads bowing because, kind of nodding, because I think most of us have experienced some spiritual opposition when we're moving on the track of something that is lined up with God's will, okay? You can even expect increased opposition the more you get lined up with God's will, okay? Because as long as you're just kind of going with the world's flow, he's like, I'm good. Don't need to bother with it. She's just kind of, no, I'm picking on you today. She's just kind of going with the world's flow.

She's not a threat to me. But you know what? When you start lining up with God, guess what, you're a threat. Because you are powerful in the Holy Spirit. And so there's opposition. So that's what's happening. Ephesians 6, 12 is another very important verse. I'm just gonna read it to you. You can mark it down or look it up if you want to. But guys, this is a very orienting verse. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Stephen could easily have looked at this opposition from these earthly people. I mean, these were real people. They were real people on planet Earth that were opposing him and just kind of taking it personal, like it was only just them. Guys, it's spiritual forces working through these people. It's negative spiritual forces, spiritual forces of evil that were working through them. So I think, I don't see it specifically in anything he said yet. However, I think Stephen had enough spiritual understanding to know this is not just about the Cyrenians coming against me, right? This is the kingdom of darkness that's coming against.

So there's always opposition to God's word going forth. But if you keep this perspective that this is a spiritual enemy, and we don't have to take it so personally, and we can be less combative with people, and we just, let's go to war, and let's pray and ask for God's Holy Spirit to move. So a couple of things I don't wanna look at. I'm not gonna go into all of the backgrounds of all these groups. I know maybe that would be really kind of tedious, but we've got the freedmen, you've got the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians, and we could go through all that, but I don't find that to be super helpful for this. Here's what I think is the most helpful piece of information. This was a large group of men from a variety of synagogues and religious backgrounds, okay? You could look all that up if you just really wanna get into it. But one thing that I do want you to see that I think is super interesting that you would miss without some study is this one. Cilicia. So I'd never heard of Cilicia. I don't know anything about that place. But there was a place in that area that's called Tarsus. And I've heard of Tarsus before. Now, some of you guys have read forward in Acts,

and you've heard of Tarsus before, too. What don't you know about Tarsus? Yeah, there's this guy named Saul who's just, he's around the corner. But most scholars believe that when it says here, some of those who belong to the synagogue of Cilicia, very well, that could have included Saul right here in this group, okay? That is directly opposing. Now, don't worry. You're gonna see him. He's just about to show up in the picture, but not tonight. So anyway, there he is, most likely. We can't say for sure. But the most important thing is these are men that were all opposed to God's servant, Stephen. That's a reminder of the environment of the early church. It's easy for us to look at the early church and see, oh, miracles and signs and wonders, and everything's going great, and everybody, you know, lots of new people coming to faith. Guys, they were in a hostile environment. They were in an environment that was everybody in the world was not excited about the growth of the church, okay? And so they, very similar to Jesus, were experiencing religious opposition to the growth of the church, okay? So lots of hostility. They were feeling this threat to their traditions of the ancestors,

which is, of course, what they bring up right here. And they just kind of feel like, you know what? We've always done it this way, and it has to be right because we've always done it this way. And so you can't come in here and kind of bug the system. So what would we say that they have been opposed that Stephen was teaching and doing? Because it says, basically, Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. They came along, and they are opposed to him. Look at verse 10. I think that's super important. But they couldn't withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Yeah, he was showing love and speaking truth that was just irrefutable. But what do you think was bothering them, just based on the context clues of what would have bothered them? He's taking the focus off of them. In whose name do you think he was doing all of these signs and wonders? In the name of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, whom you crucified. I have a feeling he probably said those words very similar to what Peter did. So they don't like that, right? He's making them look bad. And it's almost kind of like a,

well, you're getting more people, and I'm getting more people. I just had this thought. You know, we try to use our holy imaginations in here. And so I can't, this is not just straight from the text, but this just makes sense to me. I think they might have still been upset about the veil of the temple being ripped all the way. Now, I'm not just talking about it because that was pretty. Although it was, I'm sure it was extravagantly beautiful. Guys, that was a picture, that was a physical representation of kind of like the whole thing is kind of starting to crumble on us. Everything about the religious system that we believed, the only way to approach God is through these high priests and all these things. And Jesus just goes, shh, it's finished. The old covenant is done. We're doing something new here, and it's a new covenant in what, he said. He said, it's the new covenant in my blood. The new covenant was in the blood of Jesus. No more blood of animals. That's done. Now you can come into the holy of holies through the blood of Jesus. So maybe they were kind of upset with that. I can only imagine.

We have to remember these are the same people or similar, not the exact same group of people, but these are kind of in the same line of those that Jesus called whitewashed tombs. Remember that? Whitewashed tomb is the idea of, it looked really good on the outside, but inside it's full of what? Death, like dead man's bones. Like it's got no life in it. So Jesus had super harsh words for guys like this. So of course, verse 10, they just couldn't even withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Where did Stephen get all of this wisdom? Yeah, he just got it straight from God, guys, because the God of the universe was living inside of him and empowering him. And so it's the same way that you can receive the empowerment of God in your life to impact your neighbors and to love people that hate you and to pray and to see miraculous things happen. We've talked about why don't we see more miracles today? There's a lot of reasons, but what were some of those that we've said? We're not looking for it. We're not, we're not even, we don't even have the faith to even ask God to do the healing sometimes. What were you going to say? It's unbelief. Yeah, it's unbelief. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

There are eras in history where we see more miracles than others. I'm not saying that that's not the case, but guys, there are still miracles happening today all over the planet earth. There are still signs and wonders happening today. If you want to get in on some of the action of what God can do, then start believing God can do it and asking God to do it right. He certainly is waiting, I think at times, for us to show evidence of faith and of a want to, to see it. So that's why we are here to try to be encouraged. So I love Ephesians chapter five, verse 18. Isn't this funny? We started in Ephesians four, then we went to Ephesians six, now we're going to look at Ephesians five, 18. It's not the first time we've looked at this verse, but I want you to see it again in relation to this, this whole idea of, of the spiritual power within us. Would somebody read Ephesians 5, 18? I do not drink with wine in which there is lottery, but be filled with spirit. Okay. So quite simple. Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit. What's he trying to say here? Uh, number one, what he's trying to say is he's, he's comparing the spirit to wine because it is something that controls you, right? You get drunk with wine and somebody's going to know because you're going to act different. That's what drunk is. Okay. People lose their inhibitions and they, you know, kind of get a little loose and they get on all these sorts of things, but the Holy Spirit in comparison fills you up with power and overpowers you and it's like, wow, she, I never saw her like that. I just thought that was just simple in little Paula over there, just sweet, meek and mild.

But Paula can be filled with the Holy Spirit and do things that she might not think she could do because it's the Holy Spirit doing them. So that's this whole idea. But never forget that the way that is structured in the Greek is be being filled. We talked about this in the beginning of the book of Acts study, so I'm going to bring it up again right here and then we're going to move on. But what that means is when you give your life to Christ and you say, Jesus, I believe in who you are. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. Everything that is what the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. And the Bible calls that being baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Bible also says, so that means the Holy Spirit does not leave after that point. If you were ever truly saved, the Holy Spirit is going nowhere. However, you can choose how much of the power of the Holy Spirit runs through your veins and that is being filled with the Holy Spirit. That is something that you can have as much as you want. Okay. I love that. I love that, guys. Sometimes people go, I wonder why I don't experience the power of God. I think it's because you're not asking God to flow through you in power. Be being filled, that's the tense of the verb there. It means that's an ongoing thing. We don't need to get saved a thousand times. I promise you. You just need to get saved one time. That's all. You know, we've all had people, well, he went and got saved again. No, no. You only get saved one time.

The Holy Spirit doesn't come and go and come and go. That's Old Testament. It's the Holy Spirit coming and going, coming and going. In the New Testament, we are baptized in the Holy Spirit in our salvation and then we get to access how much of the Holy Spirit do we have rolling through our lives. Okay. That's being filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, Dave? Something that changed in my life as a young Christian, I was saved at 18. what was called then, I think it was like fourth and fifth graders, and I sucked. I mean, I didn't know the Bible that well, and I was trying to teach boys. Somehow, during that time, I read Zechariah 4, 5, and 6, which says, Is it not by my, not by power, but by my Spirit? And it just dawned on me, the Holy Spirit was helping me. If they couldn't build the temple apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, how in the world am I going to teach these boys the Bible? And so I began to really say, Holy Spirit, teach me, and it changed the whole way that I taught, and it's been that way ever since. That's right. He wants to empower you. He wants to use you. Equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. Hear me, church. You are a vessel of God. You are an instrument of blessing to the world. Just ask the Holy Spirit. Fill me today to love my neighbor who is driving me crazy. Fill me, Holy Spirit, today, because I don't have the self-control in my flesh that I need to deal with whatever this situation is. Okay? We want to be that. I want us to take a look at sort of what happened here, because they have this plan. Look at verse 11. They secretly instigated a plan. So many of the works of darkness are done in secret. What does this whole thing remind you of, by the way? Kind of reminds you of Jesus, doesn't it? Secret plans. Let's hatch a plan to get him. And we all know what happened. Jesus was accused. Jesus was tried, wrongly convicted, and sent to death. Okay? Let's just keep following what happens. So they were secretly instigating men to do what? False accusations. Right? Let's just say things that aren't true to stir up the people. We know what accusation will stir the people up the most. What was the accusation that they chose? Blasphemous words. Yes, blasphemous words. And he's talking against the temple. It sounds kind of similar. I think Jesus might have been accused of the same exact thing, right? When Jesus said, I'll tear down this temple and bring it back in three days. Of course, he was talking about his body, which they also didn't understand at all. But yeah, it's exactly like this. It's so parallel to the accusations against Jesus Christ. And so they set up these false witnesses. They seized him. They brought him before the council. The whole thing is just line by line, right? Just like Jesus. Just like who else? The apostles. Didn't they have very similar things that had just happened like a chapter ago? Right? Just like this. I have a feeling Stephen wasn't really surprised at all. It's like, well, I think he's just kind of, well, okay, it's my turn. Right? This is what we signed up for. I have this feeling, and again, it doesn't say it specifically in the passage we're seeing tonight. We're going to see a lot more about how Stephen felt a little bit later. But I have a feeling that Stephen just felt honored. Privileged. You remember what it said about the apostles when they went before them? What did it say? Yeah, they just felt that we were counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Jesus. And you can't stop people that feel like that. But I want us to take another look in these last few minutes that we've got here. I want us to look all the way back in Luke chapter 12. Because I was looking at this and I went, oh, that's helpful. I want us to see what Jesus taught his followers all the way back, kind of midway in his ministry about what he taught. what was gonna happen. Luke chapter 12, I'm gonna start in verse eight and read down to about verse 12. I, that's Jesus, I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men,

the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God. But the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. Look at this. Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say. Jesus didn't even say if they bring you. He said when they bring you, like this is how it's gonna play out, friends, okay? They're gonna bring you before the synagogue. They're gonna bring you before these people. Don't worry about it. Remember our Philippians chapter four? We've been over it so many times. Don't worry about anything. Pray about everything. Get the peace of God and just move on with your day, right? It's pretty much the message of Philippians 4, 6, and 7. So Jesus is telling them, don't be anxious about how to defend yourself. You're gonna have the Holy Spirit inside of you that's gonna give you the exact words to say. And God, when we get here next week,

we're gonna look at those words that the Holy Spirit gave Stephen. I'm just gonna tell you, he just laid it right out there on them. He gave them a powerful sermon. So all of this was to be expected. Jesus saw it coming, helped them get ready for it. So let's look at what happens. He says, verse 13, now we're back in Acts. These false witnesses said this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. We've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses delivered to them. First of all, keep in mind, these are false witnesses. It would not have been wrong if Stephen said some of these things, but he didn't say them. They're just pulling up the stuff that they know that was kind of the things that got everybody stirred up. And so for them, they weren't really worried about the truth. They just wanted him stopped. That's all that mattered, false witnesses. The crowds were flocking to the apostles at this time. Remember, thousands of people are coming to faith, guys, and thousands of people in this space is different than thousands of people in Houston. This was not a metropolis of 13, 14 million people. These were smaller communities than that.

Thousands of people is making a big dent in the local community and what is happening here. So it's like all the people are flocking to the apostles and this new message, and the old guard is trying to draw the crowds back. Hey, let's see if we can get some of these people back or let's don't let any more go to them, right? But look what happened. I love this last verse of this particular chapter or this passage. Gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Do you think when they said that, he was over there stressed and frazzled and just trying to figure out what's he gonna do? No, I think he was cool as a cucumber, guys. I think he's like, okay, anything else you want to say? Right, you know, he wasn't getting all ruffled. I know you've probably been accused of something before that you didn't do and you got ruffled. I have for sure done that, right? Like, I'm just like, you did not say that. But you know, he's just calm, just angelic is his face. You know, I think he's just glowing, he's just, okay. You know, you think about people in the Bible that had that kind of a glow about them. Remember anybody in the Bible that had a glow like that? Moses is the one, right? Why did Moses have that glow about him? Yeah, because he spent time with God.

And I'm gonna tell you, I know some people, even in this room, that have a little bit of a glow about their faces. And it's because they're overflowing with the joy of the Lord and overflowing with the Holy Spirit. And that's what Stephen was, his face was just glowing. And so they're just like, I just hear them, you know, giving all these accounts and he hadn't said anything yet. He's about to, but he's got a supernatural peace. I think he had. The same feeling in his heart that his leaders, the apostles, had, rejoicing, counted worthy of suffering dishonor for the name, Susan. I think it's interesting that they didn't just look at him, they looked intently at him. Yes, they did. It's like, whoa, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Yeah, because it's like a stand-up. Like, these are some of the most important people in the society, and we're accusing you of very important things, and he's just like, what are they going to do, kill me? Right? I really think he had that exact attitude. Well, he said it was wrong, but that was going to happen. Yeah, yeah, I mean, the power, one of the powers, a guy that I like a lot likes to say, the power of a worldview is the power to predict. Let me explain what I mean by that. When you have the Christian worldview, you are seeing the world for what it really is. Right? The Christian worldview is not about just some spiritual ideas, it's about reality. Guys, the reality is that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That's just solid truth. Whether you agree to it or not, that's just reality. And when you have the right worldview, you are able to predict what is going to happen, not all the specifics. But guys, we know the end of the story. We may not know, okay, what's going to happen to the United States? Oh, this is going to get all scary. No, we don't need to know all of the specifics, guys. We just know that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that we can just rest in that. So guys, I encourage you before next week to move right on to chapter 7 and read it. I want you to read ahead. I want you to be ready. He has a 53-verse message that he's about to share, and it's full of the Holy Spirit, and it is full of power. And we'll start picking it apart a little bit next week. But I want to do something a little bit different as we close out tonight. And I want to invite you, if you are online and you're watching, if you're with some others, maybe you're incarcerated and you've got some others around you, I want to invite you to grab a friend around you and maybe ask these questions. We're going to take the last five minutes tonight, and I want you to turn to the people at your table, and I want you to just answer one question with each other. This is something we haven't done. I know that. We've usually been everybody sits and listens to me, but we're going to start listening to each other just for a few minutes at the end of our gathering. So this is the question for you tonight. Nice and simple. How can you follow Stephen's example? Okay, so my encouragement to you is to turn to somebody, somebody else, and as many of you as would, share something brief about how you can follow the example of Stephen.

I doubt very many of you are going to come before a religious council. Okay, so I'm not saying it's specific to this. What is it about Stephen's example that you need to follow? All right, you guys turn to each other for just a few minutes, and then we'll wrap up in a prayer in just a few. Thanks again for joining us verse by verse through the book of Acts. I hope that you have learned a lot. More importantly, I hope that you'll apply these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion with the other people around you. Share the things that God is doing in your life. And remember, the Bible is a book about God far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him. Let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content, watch some of our worship services, along with music and the messages, as well as podcasts. We've got a lot of great content, and we would love for you to follow that. Also, if you would like to be in touch with us here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to Prison Ministry at United City Church, We'll read that, we'll pray for you, and somebody will write you back. God bless you, and we'll see you in the Word.