Christmas coming...a year nearing its close...sermon post #13 - Acts 6:8-15


Back in Maine!  A few more weeks and I will see my first interim completed when I pass on this baton to the next pastor of Machias Valley Baptist Church.  My heart is full of joy to be speaking with him on a regular basis about the potential ministry opportunities in DownEast Maine.  My heart is also full of joy because we have seen God's hand at work bringing these two parties together to serve together with the gospel message to Machias and beyond.  God is good and I look forward to the next assignment He has for me.

I am busy clearing out the office that has served me well over these 18 months.  It has been a great place to study God's word and work on my online masters classes.  I have been thankful for the space to meet with others, especially local pastors of this area.  I wonder what the next one will look like?  I have had the privilege of working through some more books of the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, at this desk.  The gospel of Luke has been added to Matthew and Mark and so John is in my sights for a Sunday morning preaching series in the future.

I am so thankful to go through the book of Acts again.  Last Sunday introduced us to the bridge, the transition man, between the Apostle Peter taking center stage in the first part of Acts to the Apostle Paul taking over in the second half.  Stephen becomes the one who makes Acts 1:8 come alive.  He focuses on the "from away" Jews who are in Jerusalem and some of them are saved and will be saved and carry the gospel back to their homelands.  Stephen also pays the ultimate price for confessing "Jesus is Lord!"  Our pattern works again that when persecution comes upon the church, greater proclamation is suppose to follow.  

This message sets us up for the sermon given in chapter 7.  Stephen is treated in the similar way that Christ was in His suffering and finds himself standing before the same Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus to death.  False witnesses are brought forth to pin on Stephen that he was speaking against God, Moses, the law and the temple.  A Jew "from away" takes the stage and where Jesus was silent, Stephen will speak.  Jesus' silence before the council was to fulfill prophesied salvation requirements so the Stephen could speak openly as a saved man full of the Holy Spirit and pursuing the mission of the church.  What will this man say?

Pastor Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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