This weekend we're walking through a passage I've personally found difficult. It's the bold faith and proclamation of the Gospel — but not from an Apostle. It's from Stephen, a man simply "full of grace and power" who ends up on trial for his life.

Stephen is falsely accused. People who don't like what he's saying can't out-argue him, so they do what people often do when they lose an argument with the truth — they lie about him before the High Priest.

So let me ask you: when someone lies about you with malicious intent, how do you respond? Does your face show joy, peace, contentment — does it "shine like an angel"? Or does it show frustration, bewilderment, anger?

That's not a rhetorical question. It's the question this passage forces on us. Most of us won't stand trial for our faith. But all of us have faced the smaller version of Stephen's moment — the mischaracterization, the whisper campaign, the accusation that isn't true but sticks anyway. What comes out of us in that moment says something about what's been put into us long before it.

This Sunday we'll watch how Stephen handled that moment — in the synagogue, and in front of the High Priest. What allowed him to show Christ-like character in the middle of his own destruction?

Before Sunday, I'd encourage you to read ahead — Acts 6:8 , Acts 7:1-60 and Acts 8:1-3. Don't stop where our text ends. Stephen's story doesn't resolve neatly in a single sermon-sized passage, and reading the fuller arc will change how you hear it Sunday.