Sermon Notes
- Big Idea: Stephen's moment invites us to never miss our moment: our moment to serve, our moment to speak and our moment to stand.
Opening
- Life is full of moments, big and small, happy and hard. Some are defining moments that can shape the trajectory of your life and of other people's lives.
- Austin took students to Hume Lake Christian Camps, where there is no cell service, while his wife was nine months pregnant. Their first daughter was born about 36 hours after he got home: a defining moment he almost missed.
- God places moments in our lives every day: moments to learn, to grow, to impact, to influence, to share and to serve.
- Where Acts fits: Luke is the story of Jesus, and Acts is the story of the church. Austin encouraged reading Luke and Acts together as one unified story.
- Stephen: One of the seven chosen to serve in Acts 6. A Hellenist, a Greek-speaking ethnic Jew who became a follower of Jesus. His name means crown.
- Main thesis: "Stephen's moment invites us to never miss our moment." God does not want us to miss our moment to serve, our moment to speak or our moment to stand.
01 · Acts 6:5, 8
1. Moment to Serve
- A team of Spirit-filled Christians: The series has asked what a team of Spirit-filled Christians commits to doing together, because "church, after all, is a team sport."
- Be filled: Acts 6:5 and 6:8 say Stephen was full of faith, the Spirit, grace and power. The word means complete, "containing all that it will hold."
- Austin's overstuffed backpack on the Lost Coast Trail, "bursting at the seams," pictured that kind of fullness.
- We cannot live the Christian life on our own strength. Driving north in his brother's electric car, they reached a charging station with about 2% battery to spare. In the same way we need an external power source, the Holy Spirit.
- Austin asked, "Are you plugged into the Holy Spirit and his power in your life?"
- Seek ways to serve: What stood out to Austin in Acts 6:8 was "the word doing and the word among." Stephen was proactive: he did not wait for opportunities but looked for them.
- Be faithful: Be proactive in seeking ways to love and serve, and be faithful to serve the people in your circle.
- William Carey: The missionary who brought the gospel to India said, "expect great things from God and attempt great things for God."
- Stephen did not set out to make history. He was an ordinary Christian who showed up every day asking how he could love and serve the people around him.
02 · Acts 7:1–2
2. Moment to Speak
- Stephen was accused of doing something wrong when he was actually doing something right. Some people were curious about his faith and some were hostile, but they knew who he was and what he stood for.
- Live in a way that invites curiosity about your faith: Stephen's public life brought the high priest's question: "are these things so?"
- Austin's question for reflection: "do people know who I am? And do people know what I believe?"
- Speak in a way that brings clarity about your faith: On the last morning of the Lost Coast Trail, Austin's brother, a physicist who does not share his faith, asked about raising children and how faith shapes parenting. "His curiosity presented an opportunity for clarity."
- Austin quoted C.S. Lewis: "I believe in Christianity like I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
- Austin hopes he put "a few extra pebbles in his shoe," and now he knows how to pray for his brother.
- Know your audience: Stephen spoke to Jewish listeners, so he walked through the Old Testament and showed how Abraham, Joseph, the temple and Moses all point forward to Jesus. It is the longest recorded sermon in Acts.
- Know your message: Have in your heart a message about your faith and your understanding of Jesus, and be ready to share it.
03 · Acts 7:54–60
3. Moment to Stand
- It is not easy to be a Christian, to stand for biblical values or to share your faith. Stephen was prepared for his moment because he was filled with the Spirit.
- Stand for Jesus because Jesus stands for you: In verses 55 and 56 Stephen saw the glory of God and "Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
- Between his ascension and his return, Jesus is in his "heavenly session": ruling from his throne and interceding for his people.
- Austin noted that Scripture elsewhere describes Jesus as seated at God's right hand, but here Stephen sees him standing. Scripture does not say why, but the picture is clear: as people reject and attack Stephen, Jesus is ready to welcome and defend him.
- "You can stand for Jesus because Jesus stands for you."
- Live for Jesus because Jesus lives for you: Stephen lived for Jesus to his very last moment, knowing that Jesus lives and is ready to welcome us in.
- Forgives his accusers: In verses 59 and 60 Stephen asked the Lord to receive his spirit and not to hold this sin against his accusers. His last words echo Jesus' words on the cross.
- "He fell asleep." For a follower of Jesus, death has lost its sting: we fall asleep in this world and wake to Jesus, alive and ruling, who welcomes us in.
- Saul: A young man named Saul watched Stephen die. He became the Apostle Paul and made Jesus known to the ends of the earth. He wrote in Philippians 1:21 that "to live is Christ and to die is gain."
Closing
- God will give us moments this week to serve, to speak and to stand. Be ready for each one, because to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible, © 2001 by Crossway. Text Edition: 2025. Used by permission. Permissions. Prepared for this small group from the July 19, 2026 sermon; questions and applications are editorial study material.