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When you read the seventh chapter of the book of Acts you are reading the final sermon of a tremendous preacher of the early Church named Stephen. Stephen was not one of the original disciples but was a young man who had received the Holy Ghost in the Early Church revival immediately following the Day of Pentecost and who had zealously answered the call of God. His first mention is in chapter 6 when he was appointed as one of seven men to minister to Grecian widows that were complaining. This was not a prestigious position by anyone's standards and consisted mainly of visiting and handing out food allowances to elderly widows. From the fact that Stephen is mentioned first in the list of seven men chosen for this task, most Bible scholars think that Stephen was the head of this ministry, however illustrious that it might have been.

Acts chapter 6 and 7 happened about a year after the Day of Pentecost, and the Early Church had fallen into a sort of rut before Stephen's ministry exploded. The Early Church of Acts made two temporary mistakes in their first year of existence that caused this momentary lack of fire. The first was that they sold all of their personal belongings and gave it all to the church, effectively becoming a sort of "commune." While their intentions were honorable, this was not the perfect will of God because the church was never meant to be a closed community, but rather an open one actively reaching into and effecting the lives around it. The second mistake was because of some of the leader's prejudice, they were only really trying to actively reach out to other Jewish people and thus were not really preaching the Gospel to the whole world as Jesus had commanded. Their lack of outreach, had a two-fold effect: there was very little persecution and also very little growth, so inward divisions began to pop up. In fact, the reason that the church leaders had to appoint Stephen and six other men to a special ministry in the first place was because of murmuring that some people in the church were being treated unfairly. These factors, combined with the fact that persecution from the Jewish leaders had lightened considerably, caused the Early Church to fall into a sort of lull of revival.

Let me pause here and say that we as the Apostolic Church in Medina Valley, must not fall into the same trap. As we grow and develop close relationships with other people in the church, we must not grow stagnant in reaching out to other people around us. There is a tendency to try to win only people that are like you. That is some only try to win people that are of similar religious background, race, culture, personality, economic status, or language. They are "Jews" only reaching out to "Jews." But let me tell you that the church that God wants us to be will be made of EVERY race, culture, personality, economic class and religious backgrounds. God cares less with what they have and what they wear and the color of their skin, and more about whether or not they are hungry for a relationship with Him and for truth in their life! Your pastor is a "white person" by race, but this is not a "white church!" If you want to color code it, then this is a "red" church because God has purchased all of us with "His own blood!" By the same token, God has blessed us and we must grow in Him, but this church does not exist solely to feed ourselves. The reason that churches tend to become exclusive and less open is because it brings less persecution. A normal church is not very easy to poke fun at. But a normal church is not the kind of church that Jesus had in mind when He died. If we ever get to the place where it's only about "our group" or "our kind of people" then we will have effectively stopped revival just as it had stopped for the Early Apostolic Church!

God's antidote to the Early Church's lull in revival was to use Stephen. He was Jewish but yet did not mind reaching out to other races. The scriptures say that he was "full of faith and power" and did great miracles among the people. At this time of the Church history, he was the only one who was really stepping out in faith beyond the church doors. While some were content to just "be normal" and allow the Jewish leaders to continue to live in hypocrisy, Stephen was not and confronted the leaders directly. His preaching was so effective and anointed that the Jewish leaders brought the faculty of an entire Bible college against him and the scriptures say that "they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake." Stephen's preaching stirred up persecution against the Church. In fact, when they couldn't refute his teaching and preaching, the Jewish leaders hired false witnesses against him and brought him to trial, much as they had Jesus. They accused him of hating Moses and trying to destroy the temple and the Jewish customs and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo as Stephen sat in the judgment seat listening. Every major Jewish leader was present. There was a large crowd of every influential leader in Jerusalem present. And as the crowd heard false accusation after false accusation against Stephen, to their astonishment when they glanced over at him, they did not see anger or rage, but instead a Godly glow and visible anointing settled over him. The scriptures say that his "face shown like an angel." And with those words the sixth chapter of Acts ends.

It is the seventh chapter of Acts in which the High Priest, ruling judge over the trial, made his first and fatal mistake. After all the witnesses had blabbed their accusations, the High Priest turned to Stephen who was immersed in the glory of God and asked him "are these things so?" In other words, "you are now permitted to speak!" To paraphrase the seventh chapter of Acts, Stephen stood up smiled, and said "I'm glad you asked" and then proceeded to preach one of the most profound and direct sermons ever preached. Stephen started at the story of Abraham and God's founding of the Jewish people as a chosen nation and continued through the time of Moses in great detail before ending at King Solomon's reign. As he preached, Stephen pointed out that the Jewish people had always rejected God's plan and killed the prophets. He pointed out their unbelief in the wilderness under Moses and their idolatry under the Judges and the Kings. He ended with Solomon, that great ruler who turned from God and then after pointing out that their history which they were counting on to make them holy pointed out that their fathers had always rejected the work of God, Stephen finished with a flourish by bringing the Jewish leaders into the picture:

The scriptures say that when Stephen spoke these words, that the Jewish leaders were "cut to the heart" and rather than repent in light of the truth that they had heard, they became angry. At this moment, God gave Stephen a vision of heaven, and Stephen told the leaders that "I see Jesus standing on the right hand of God." To the Hebrews, "the right hand" was a metaphor or expression that denoted complete power. We know that he did not see two people in heaven, because verse 59 of the chapter tells us that he "called upon God, saying Lord Jesus...". To say that he saw Jesus "standing on the right hand of God" was to say that Jesus Christ was the power of God standing visible before all men. The Jewish people understood what he meant, because when he uttered that saying, they screamed with a loud voice, covered their ears, and ran to him and began to stone him which was the punishment for "blasphemy" or saying that a man was God. As the stones fell upon this great preacher, the last words out of his mouth were "Lord lay not this sin to their charge" and then He died.

The result of the death of Stephen were very prominent. A bold anointing came upon another of the widow ministers and he went to the hated "half-breed" Samaritans and began to preach to them seeing great revival. The persecution against the church increased causing the people to scatter and reach out to more people. One young Pharisee who was there holding the coats of those who stoned Stephen and who had heard his message was so provoked by the words of truth that he began to actively devote his life to persecuting the Early Church. His name was Saul and it would be on one such persecution trip that Jesus would call down from heaven to him and immediately the questions in Saul's mind that had been there from the day that he heard Stephen say that he saw Jesus Christ in the heavens in the full power of God was voiced when Paul said "who are thou Lord?" When the answer came back "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest," and that revelation of Jesus Christ was coupled with Repentance, water baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost, God changed Saul into Paul, the greatest missionary and spark of revival that had ever lived! The Early Church went from a lull to a massive revival and outpouring of the Holy Ghost simply as a result of one simple sermon and martyr of Stephen.

The point of my sermon tonight is to ask you "what then was the prevailing theme of Stephen's sermon?" "What about it summed up the message that he was preaching not only to the Jewish leaders but to the Early Church as well?" I believe that his subject can be summed up in the verses that we read as our text tonight and even in one statement about Moses and the children of Israel: "the church in the wilderness." This is the only time in scripture that Moses and the children of Israel are referred to as a "church." That Stephen chose this as his topic for his final and greatest sermon shows us that God allowed the events of Exodus and Numbers to be recorded to show us how the true Apostolic Church should NOT be. It was the children of Israel under the leadership of Moses who refused to enter into the promised land and face new giants and were instead content to live as a closed community wandering around in the desert, just living and dying. By refusing to inhabit the promised land, the children of Israel had essentially chosen to throw in all of their belongings and just exist together without moving on with faith in God. Therefore they were a perfect representation of the direction that the Apostolic Church was going in the time of Stephen. He was saying that the Apostolic Church was becoming a "church in the wilderness." It was also a perfect type of the Jewish leaders who had heard the great teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the prophecy of "a prophet like unto Moses." And yet they had rejected Him and His kingdom because of their unbelief and refusal to enter into the promised place of the Holy Ghost. The Jewish leaders were a "church in the wilderness." Stephen's words, inspired by the Holy Ghost, were then a perfect representation of the time in which he lived. And they sparked a revival that took the Early Apostolic Church away from being the "church in the wilderness" to being the "church of the promised place!"

I am here today to tell you that as a church, we only have two options and two directions in which we can head. We can either be a "church in the wilderness" after the model of Moses and the unbelieving children of Israel, or we can be a "church in the promised place" like the Original Church of the Apostles. As the individuals that make up this church, we are either heading in one direction or another. There is middle ground. We are working either toward being a "church in the wilderness" or not being a "church in the wilderness." The world would just as soon desire us to be as a church in the wilderness, but there is something that got a hold of Stephen that is also consuming me, that says "I do not want to be a "church in the wilderness" and die short of the promises that God has for us! I will do all I can to avoid such a fate! I'd rather die than sell out to be normal and ineffective. I'd rather give my very life rather than settle for a religious state of existence where nothing ever changes and we simply live our lives out in an ordinary way. God give us the spirit of Stephen: "even if I'm to be over the widows, I'm going to allow the Holy Ghost to minister through me." "As long as I'm apart of this church, I refuse to allow it to head in the direction of the Church in the Wilderness!"

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Let me point out to you some of the characteristics of the children of Israel and Moses in their unbelief. These are the characteristics of a church in the wilderness.

They would rather worship the golden calf rather than the true God - The story is found in Exodus 32 when Moses was upon the mountain meeting with God. He was gone for 40 days and the people began to grow restless. They took the earrings and jewelry that God had caused the Egyptians to give them and they talked Aaron to melt them down and form them into a golden calf to worship. This story is amazing because it gives us great insight into normal human nature. Jehovah God had just delivered them from Egypt with many mighty plagues and miracles. These people had just seen the Red Sea parted and the entire Egyptian army drown. They had literally followed a visible manifestation of God's Spirit through the wilderness and to Mount Sinai, where they had see the glory of God descend upon the mountain and the entire earth shake and lightening all around as God met with Moses. They had seen miracle after miracle and had God do great things for them and yet in a matter of days, not even two full months, they had suddenly grown tired with serving God and decided to create their own religion.

They took the jewelry that God had intended to be formed into the vessels of the tabernacle and they created their own God. They watched the metals melt and watched as Aaron formed the calf. What would cause a people to reject a living, loving, and all-powerful God to worship a god who cannot see or hear or answer prayer? Because a god who cannot see, or hear, or respond, also does not make any demands! The golden calf was the god of no demands!

Can I tell you that most people today are not going to literally bow down to a golden statue of a cow, but yet many still serve the golden calf over the true God!? Because many choose today to serve the created god of no demands! It is a man-made thing. It has no power to change lives, but you can live your life however you want and there will be nothing required of you at first. And so it is, even today, people take the precious areas of their life that God intended to be formed into a beautiful tabernacle for Him to dwell and they selfishly form their own god of self which they think allows them to live as they want to! And they bristle against any suggestion that they need God or need a church, or need to change anything in their life. They are serving the god of no demands. They are worshipping the golden calf. They'll do whatever they want to, no matter what the Word of God, Holy Ghost, or the preacher says. It doesn't matter how many miracles that God does for them or what great services that they witness, they are not going to change some things in their life because they will follow their flesh. That's serving the god of no demands!

But let this preacher of the one, true, living God remind you of something. A god who makes no demands is not alive or able to respond to you. A god of no demands is just a figment of your imagination and is really not a god at all. Crying out to him when your child is sick, or when you need forgiveness will do not good. The gods of this world make require little but they offer nothing! They cannot save you! They cannot help you! All they do is serve to help you get through a fruitless and pointless life!

But I refuse to serve the god of no demands! I choose to serve a loving, and real God who loved me enough to die for me! I'll willingly sacrifice my opinions and flesh in order to have a real relationship with a God that I can feel and that can hear and answer my prayers! There is no demand of scripture that is too hard or too tough to cause me to turn away from Him! For if I ever turn away from Him, I am lost! And you can't serve two masters. You either have it your way, or His way! There is only one God of the universe and His Word does not change. You either submit to His lifestyle and will and doctrine, or you choose to worship an idol that cannot hear or think! The church in the wilderness worships such a god that doesn't really require faithfulness in prayer or church attendance. It really doesn't require anything to really change. They can just live like they have always lived and pat themselves on the back and fool themselves into thinking that they are alright, but you are not alright serving such a god, because it will not be before that god that you are judged! I'll choose to serve the one, true, living God!

They refused to move forward in faith into the promised land - They followed God out of Egypt and through the wilderness to a point. But ultimately the church in the wilderness refused to fight for all that God had promised them. In their minds, if God wanted them to have it, then He should just give it to them. But God responds to hunger and desire! If you do not want victory in a certain area of your life, then He will not burden you with it! When they saw the giants in the land, they compared them with their own ineptness rather than the strengths of God. The real problem was that they were trusting in themselves rather than God.

After God delivers you out of your Egypt of sin, and you are baptized through the Red Sea with your past washed away, and immersed in the cloud of the Spirit, you must move forward! Don't stay at your relationship level and say "well, I've received the Holy Ghost and are baptized, therefore I can just live like this forever and everything will be alright." Actually, God has much more for you! God has anointings and gifts and strengths and victories that He plans to give you. But He is waiting for you to step out in faith toward those promised places! You can either respond like the church in the wilderness did and look at your own inabilities and focus on them until fear grips your heart and causes you to not step out on God's promises, or you can realize "greater is he that is in me, than he that is in the world" and realize that God is no respector of persons and that what He has done for others, He will do for you, if you are willing to submit to His Word like the others did and step out in faith!

Did you know that every time you obey a commandment of scripture that it is faith in God for a promise!? Every commandment of God about our lives is a conditional promise for blessing. If you do your part in faith, God will bless you. By the same token, every time you choose to ignore a commandment of scripture, that is rebellion and doubt in God which brings a cursing. We put too much stock in ourselves. If God has said it, then it really doesn't matter our opinion or our weakness! If we will step out in faith towards Him, He will do it! But which church will you be like? The church in the wilderness would rather die than have to enter into the promised land of God. Stephen would rather die than NOT enter into the promised land of God. I'll choose the Apostolic example towards the Word of God: "even if I may not understand what kind of blessing I will receive, God will not fail me and I will obey whatever He says!"

Their hearts turned back towards Egypt - The scriptures says that God was feeding them with bread from heaven called manna every day. That there was always water available even when in the driest part of the desert. He had promised to take them to a land that would be "flowing with milk and honey" or blessings and that they would have vineyards that they did not plant and live in houses that they did not have to build nor pay for! Yet, the scriptures say that the church in the wilderness turned in their hearts and desires toward Egypt. Strangely they did not remember the slavery and the beatings and the hard labor, but remembered only the pleasures of Egypt. They only focused on the good memories and the onions and steaks and garlic. It angered God that He sent a plague that would have destroyed all of them if not for the intervention of Moses on their behalf.

Let me tell you about human nature and time. Both tend to soften the memories of the bad things in the past. Scientists say that after childbirth there is a chemical released in the brain of a new mother that causes the memory of the sharp pain to lessen in their minds so that they will be willing to have another child. As time goes by, the less memory of the excruciating pain that they went through exists. It is the same way in the Spirit. I've seen people delivered of so much, and after they are delivered and set free, they began to grow fond of that lifestyle in their hearts. They talk about how much fun that they were having, and time and human nature tends to cause them to forget the hangovers and the shattered dreams and lives and relationships of their former lifestyle and only focus on pleasure that lasts for a season. And I have seen people follow the example of the church in the wilderness and long for their old days, until they form a desire and return to their old lifestyles and walk out on God and are destroyed! They don't remember the slavery of their old lifestyle or the pain until they have immersed themselves right back into it!

You need to remember and remind yourself often of the pain and the pit that you were in before God found you. I've heard funeral messages and wondered if the preacher was talking about the same person in the casket. And that's the way that time and distance causes some of us to view our sinful past. You can get so full and used to the blessings and spirit of God that you forget what it was like to be without those things! But you need to remind yourselves everyday of the pit that He brought you out of! Remember how painful and lonely that sin was, and what a joy the Holy Ghost was to receive the first time! And then remember that if you are going through a dry time, then that is good proof that you are heading toward a promised place, because the road to the promised blessings of God always leads through a wilderness so that God can see if you are really ready to trust Him completely or not!

They murmured and questioned the call and God-given position of Moses - One of the characteristics of those who have chosen to enter into a place of unbelief in God is that they will invariable be offended at the Godly leadership that is over them. Moses was not perfect and no human leader will ever be, but He was God-called and God-anointed to be the pastor of that church in the wilderness. The sad thing was that Moses allowed his unbelieving church to cause him to get angry and rebel against the Word of God one time and God would not allow him to enter into the promised place either.

You need to pray for your leadership and your pastor, not criticize him. He is held to a higher standard than you and often endures the chastening of God for your actions. And He carries this burden as well as the burden of direction of the people while expected to be sociable and nice! People who have never pastored do not understand the tremendous spiritual load or responsibility that comes with it. I was raised in ministry and in a pastor's home all of my life and I will tell you that it was quite a shock to me when I actually became a pastor and answered the call of God on my life. First of all, I am called to be a pastor, or I would not be in this line of work, because I have seen way too many negatives of ministry from being a "pk." (preacher's kid) But I have learned that there is a tremendous difference between being in the pastor's home and being the pastor. I am much, much less critical of other pastors now!

The church in the wilderness questioned Moses' call of God when he made a decision that was unpopular. When God punished the people because of their unbelief, they blamed Moses for it. When he couldn't adequately explain some of the decisions that he felt directed by God to make, the people began to murmur and complain, and God responded by causing the ground to open up and swallow the complainers! Such is the case in the church today: those who allow themselves to become bitter or complainers at ministry usually end up being swallowed up by their worldly desires and issues. You need a pastor and you need to teach your family to respect him. Before my dad became a preacher himself, I cannot recall my parents EVER speaking one word against what our pastor preached or had done in our home in front of my brother and me. Oh, there were issues there and their pastor was definitely human, but my parents realized that God cares more about your attitude toward the decision that authority makes than the decision itself!

Since I am preaching about respecting myself and other ministers, maybe the words of another preacher would be better. I quote the Rev. Stan Gleason in a message I heard several years ago. In talking about loving and following your pastor he asked:

What more could Moses have accomplished for God if he:

1. would have had more faithful followers?

2. didn't have to deal with unbelief?

3. would have hard the majority of the men behind him?

4. wouldn't have had to continually defend his call?

5. wouldn't have had to ask God to make another copy of the Ten Commandments?

6. wouldn't have had saints who longed for Egypt?

7. wouldn't have had to counsel the people's problems?

8. wouldn't have had to make brazen serpents or purify water for sins?

9. wouldn't have had to go before God to beg for mercy for the people?

10. wouldn't have had to listen to complaining?

11. wouldn't have had to come down from the mountain of God to deal with little "brush fires" of disobedience?

12. hadn't of had to go on two forty day fasts?

13. wouldn't of had to deal with criticism from the ministry under him?

The lesson of the church in the wilderness is quite sobering isn't it?

They whined about how hard it was living for God - This is our last characteristic of the church of the wilderness. The children of Israel whined about how hard everything was that God was asking them to do. They had the attitude that living for Him was laborous. On the other hand, the disciples in the Apostolic Church rejoiced in persecution. When they were beat, they shouted that they were "counted worthy" to be treated as Christ was treated! The difference between the two was their focus: the church in the wilderness was focused on what they wanted to do but couldn't, ie.. themselves; the Apostolic Church was focused on Jesus Christ! They were focused on a better place that they were going! If your point of living is to experience nothing but happiness on this earth, then you will be disappointed. But if you are like the Early Church and look for a better city whose "builder and maker is God," then you can rejoice in tribulation and persecution and valleys, because this world is just a temporary wandering place! This world is a wilderness, but are you focused on the wilderness or the one taking you to a better place?!

What does your mouth say about your walk with God? How do people hear you respond to the things of God? Is it whining and complaining, or rejoicing and excitement? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. People can easily decide which church you are by the tone of your speech! It is hard to live for God easy, but it's easy to live for God hard! Your level of commitment and focus determine whether or not you are drunk on the wine of the Holy Ghost, or the wHine of the flesh!

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I close with this. What kind of church that we become depends upon what church you take after. Will we be like the church in the wilderness, or will we get the fire of Stephen and be like the Apostolic Church that God wants us to be!? The contrast is even more different when you realize the results: One refused to enter into the promised land and the other not only entered in but brought it to others! One added people daily and the other lost people daily. One was based upon faith and the other unbelief. One died right with God and sold out to His Kingdom, and the other died in the wilderness of self. I refuse to reap the reward of the children of Israel's example. I refuse to be a "church in the wilderness."

Notice that the devil was not mentioned one time in Stephen's sermon. The devil is not the one who causes a church to be one way or the other. In fact, he has little power within the church itself. Ultimately what decides the identity of the church is whether or not we sell out to flesh or sell out to Jesus. Our other text easily outlined the characteristics of the Apostolic Church:

1. They gladly received the Word.

2. They continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine.

3. They continued in fellowship with the ministry.

4. They continued in fellowship with one another.

5. They continued praying.

6. They had a reverence for the things of God.

7. They were in unity as to their purpose.

8. They refused to let money and work be their god.

9. They continued daily in church attendance.

10. They continued praising God with passion.

11. They walked uprightly before their fellow man.

The result was that they saw the most phenomenal revival and outpouring of the Holy Ghost that the world had ever seen! I will not be a "Church in the Wilderness" so I must be like the Apostolic Church!