The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter six, verses eight through 15.

Tony Clark: Luke, the author, doesn't record for us the content of the debate, but from the rest of the chapter and into chapter seven, the debate centered around the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It also centered around why the law of Moses and the temple rituals could not save a person.

I brought all of this out because I want you to see where the attack came from against Stephen. Again, against Stephen, it was religious people. The attack came from religious people, people from potentially three synagogues. The attacks I have gotten over the years have come from other Christians and pastors, not from atheists, agnostics, or unbelievers. No, other Christians. Nasty attitudes, ready to dispute with me on every little issue, and the same thing will happen to you, too.

The debates you will encounter will come from other believers, from other churches. Oh sure, you will have some from atheists, but the nasty debates, like we see in this verse here, will come from religious people. Were they able to dispute with Stephen? Look at verse 10: "And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke." They were unable to defeat Stephen in a fair debate. Their human reasoning was no match for Stephen's divine wisdom that verse five said that he had.

I want to encourage you to read and to pray and study this book here, and no one will be able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which you will speak. Why? Because your wisdom will not come from human logic or human wisdom, but from God and His Word. Because they were unable to defeat Stephen in a debate, look at what they did. Look at verses 11 and 12. It says, "Then they secretly induced men to say, 'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.' And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council."

Unable to defeat Stephen's divine wisdom, they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." The Greek word for secretly induce is *hypoballō*, and it means to suggest or to prompt with an evil motive. These religious people from these three synagogues recruited and coached along false witnesses to accuse Stephen. And this was the same tactic they used against Jesus, according to Matthew chapter 26 and verses 59 to 61. These false witnesses accused Stephen of speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God.

They were so zealous for the law—I want you to notice this—that they put Moses before God. A little detail that most people miss. This is a dangerous place to be in when you're putting your will and your way and your denomination before God. Many people will argue you down to defend their denominational beliefs. You show them scripture after scripture, but their way and denomination will be placed before God, like we see here. When you are in this condition, you will go to great lengths to keep your way of life, even if you have to secretly induce people to argue with you.

To us, this doesn't mean a thing, but to blaspheme God was a very serious crime punishable by death, according to Leviticus 24 and verse 16. These accusers were saying that Stephen blaspheming Moses meant that he was saying that the law of Moses could not save a person, and this was a serious crime. You tell a person that Mary and rosary beads and praying to saints cannot save you, and they will accuse you of blasphemy. You tell a person that Allah is not the same God of the Bible and going to Mecca and praying five times facing the east will not save you.

You tell people that knocking on doors and pushing the Watchtower and Awake magazine or the Book of Mormon would not save you, and they will accuse you of blasphemy. You tell people that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his teachings cannot save you, and they will accuse you of blasphemy. These are just a few of the religious people who will attack you for making a stand for Jesus Christ like Stephen was doing here.

We see in verse 12 that they were able to stir up the people with these false charges with the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him to the council. I have to bring this out: the Greek word for seize is *synarpazō*, and it's an amazing word. It means to drag away or to seize with violence. This same Greek word was used in Luke chapter eight and verse 29 referring to a man seized by an evil spirit. It's also used in Acts 19 and verse 29 referring to Paul's friends; they were seized by an angry mob of people.

Look at what else happened in verses 13 and 14. It says, "They also put up false witnesses who said, 'This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.'" In these verses, we see these false witnesses repeated their charges that stirred up the people to the Sanhedrin, saying that this man does not stop speaking blasphemous words against this holy place, referring to the temple, and the law, referring to the law of Moses.

They continued their lies in verse 14: "For we have heard him say that this Jesus..." You can hear the derision in their voice. This phrase shows their contempt and hatred for Jesus—this Jesus. They continued on with, "He will destroy this holy place," which is a reference to what Jesus said in John chapter two in verses 19 to 21 when He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," but He was talking about the temple of His body. Their claims of Stephen trying to change the customs of Moses is a reference to Stephen and the other apostles teaching that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the rituals.

But how did he react? Look at verse 15: "And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel." As Stephen is on trial for his life, being accused of blasphemy against Moses, his law, and against the temple and God Himself, instead of being angry for being lied upon like we would have been, the angry council looked steadfastly at him and saw his face as the face of an angel. How could Stephen have such peace, such tranquility, at a time when almost 100 people were falsely accusing him?

We say almost 100 people because you had 70 that were part of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, you had the accusers there, you had the false witnesses, you had the chief priest and elders—almost 100 people hurling false accusations against Stephen. How was he able to maintain such a tranquility, such a peace in the midst of such a chaotic situation? It's an amazing thing because this terminology of his face being as the face of an angel is because he was a man of prayer. This same terminology is used one other time in connection with Moses in Exodus 34.

First John 1:5 says God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. So when we spend time in prayer with God, who is light, some of that light rubs off on us, and we too will have an angel face like Stephen and like Moses. How much time do you spend in prayer? How much time do you spend with God? I can tell you you don't spend much. The average American watches seven to eight hours of TV a day. And that's not counting the time spent on social media. You're not spending time in prayer when you're caught up in those things.

You can't have an angel face if you don't spend time in His presence. Some of you ought to see the countenance you have on your face. It's from not being in the presence of God. You don't spend time with Him. You spend time watching filth on TV for hours on top of hours. You spend time watching filth on your phone. And then you come here, and you lift up what you think are holy hands to the Lord, but they're filthy because you've been watching filth all week long.

Some of you are at the point now where you cannot even lift up holy hands anymore because of the filth that's upon them, because of spending all week long basking in the filth of this world. No wonder you don't have a face of an angel. No wonder you don't have an angel face because you don't spend time in His presence. You don't spend time with the One who can give you the angel face. It's God Himself. And because you're not a person of prayer, you're a person of the TV, you're a person of the world, you're a person of your phone, that's why you have the countenance you have.

You don't have the face of an angel. This is why someone says one thing to you, you're blowing up, you blow your stack, and you say, "I'm going to give them a piece of my mind." You're not a person of prayer. You don't have the peace that Stephen has. God is called the God of all peace. He gives us a peace, a tranquility, a quietness of soul that you don't have. Someone looks at you sideways and you're ready to take their head off. You come in, we mention one thing about the house rules here, and you freak out and storm out the door.

It's because you don't have the face of God, you don't have the face of an angel, you don't spend time in His presence. Everywhere you go, there's rules and regulations and stipulations and things. You come to the church, and you want to do what you want to do and get mad when you can't. I can't stress enough how we need to spend time in His presence. I can't stress it enough. This is why you don't have the presence of God in your life; you don't sense Him because you don't spend time with Him.

Once we spend this time with Him, we will have the face of an angel. If you want to know if you have the face of an angel, just ask your family. They'll tell you. "No, he definitely doesn't have a face of an angel." But you go around, you bark around the house, you chop heads off. You don't serve your wife, you don't love her as Christ loves the church. And you're blowing up, ladies, you're blowing up like some volcano, and everybody's tiptoeing around you as not to stir up the lava.

You blow your top because it's a certain time of the month. You blow your top because you've reached that certain time in life, and your hormones are going crazy. You better have those hormones bow before the throne of God. It's in the presence of God that God causes those hormones to be at peace. I don't care, you can still bring your fans and do your thing, but you better calm it down, I tell you that. It's in God's presence that that happens.

Let me conclude with this: angel face. How much time do you spend in God's presence and prayer? This is where we get the wisdom from, like Stephen had, to defeat his accusers. It's in His presence where the Spirit of God comes upon us to speak for God, like Stephen did. As I mentioned before, if you want to know if you have an angel face, just ask those closest to you. They'll tell you. And when you ask those closest to you, before you get the question out, you know the answer.

You know it. It's spending time in His presence. I mentioned this several times on Wednesday nights to our precious people who come on Wednesday nights. You cannot have the face of an angel, you cannot spend time in God's presence by watching every *Housewives* of whatever city, by watching *Power*, by watching *Scandal*, by watching *Game of Thrones* and all this other mess that's out there, *The Walking Dead*. How can believers who call themselves people of God spend time watching zombies and folks and people dead walking?

How can we do that? And we watch movies with all kind of nudity and things in it, and we call ourselves people of God. How can we do that? We call ourselves children of the King, a God who is holy. And we come here, and we try to praise God with dirty, filthy hands. If God lives in us, which He does for those of you who are believers, don't you know He's looking through our eyes at what we're looking at? What are we placing before the eyes of the Lord?

What are we exposing? The Bible says God's eyes are too pure, He can't look upon wickedness. What are we setting before the eyes of the Lord? Because He's looking through our eyes. This is why Jesus said the lamp of the body is the eye. What we allow in the eye gate takes a look into the soul of our lives. What are we doing? What are we placing before Him? And we sit and we laugh at stupid, silly sitcom things and stupid stuff that blaspheme God and all kind of filth.

Then we're like, "I'm a child of God." Children of God don't do that; they don't do things like that. I was right along with you, and God had to get a hold of my life. He said, "What are you doing, watching that kind of filth?" He said, "I have a work for you, but I can't use you with a filthy mind and a filthy heart. I can't use you like that." And God had to get a hold of my life and had to change me and strip that stuff from me. And now I look back and say, "What was I doing?"

I was addicted to TV in the evening. Watched every sports program, every game, every man movie. I was addicted to TV. And then to top it off, then I was addicted to social media. I was addicted. My family tried to tell me. I said, "Get out of here. The only thing I'm doing is this." Family's talking, family is talking, and I'm doing this and not paying attention. And I say, "Hey, look at this picture here." And then they'd be like, "What's up with you? We're talking about this, you're talking about some stupid picture on social media."

"You're addicted, Dad. Get out of here." "I'm not addicted." And God had to take that mess away. Take it away. And God said, "If you will remove that stuff out of your life, if you remove it and spend that time you once spent all evening, if you spend that time with Me, I will use you in a way that you never dreamed of."