Paul – The Pillar and Ground of Truth

Stephen Kuntzman | March 16, 2025 | 6:30 PM

Text: Acts 7:44-8:3

(44) Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. (45) Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; (46) Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. (47) But Solomon built him an house. (48) Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, (49) Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? (50) Hath not my hand made all these things? (51) Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. (52) Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: (53) Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. (54) When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. (55) But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, (56) And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (57) Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, (58) And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. (59) And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (60) And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (8:1) And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. (2) And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. (3) As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.

Where the Glory Dwells

God’s greatest desire from the Creation, throughout time and even tonight is to have fellowship with you.

It is for this reason Jehovah told Moses, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.”

God’s desire was to dwell with His people, so He commanded Moses to build a tabernacle—a mobile dwelling place.
This was a shadow of something greater. It was a temporary structure representing a permanent truth.
God’s plan for man was that He could be with them, but just as in the Garden of Eden, a certain design was followed with no deviation.
- You have to do it God’s way. This idea of “me and Jesus, we got our own thing going” is false.
- Jesus has His own pattern going on and you must press into it, or you will never be in true fellowship with Him:
  - Luke 16:15-16, “…Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”
  - Everyone who presses, enters, into the Kingdom of God is born again of water and Spirit.
  - No other way to enter but according to pattern.
  - Press into the kingdom of God!

Jehovah explained this New Birth to Ezekiel, – “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”[1]

God’s presence would no longer dwell in a temple made with hands—He would dwell in the hearts of His people!

Jesus explained how this was going to happen to Nicodemus, “(3)…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (4) Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? (5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (8) The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”[2]

All that Stephen was preaching in his defense to the Jewish religious leaders of his day was simply confirming the fulfillment of millennia of divine prophetic to dwell in his people:

“Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands”

As prophetically necessary as the tabernacle of witness was,

as exceeding magnifical as Solomon’s Temple stood,

as hopeful as Zerubbabel’s Temple in drawing people back to national worship,

and as audacious as Herod’s Temple tried to be,

they were not where our Lord ultimately desired to dwell.

He wants to dwell in you.

Isaiah 6:1-4, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”

Isaiah saw that God’s true temple was not an earthly structure.
Yes, the realm of His glory would fill the earth, but that is because the presence of God filled the temple, and the whole earth was to be filled with His glory.
How? 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
You carry God’s glory.
You are a Glory-Carrier filled with the smoke of God’s glory and filling the whole earth with the weight of God’s presence, power, and authority.

John 7:38-39 – “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”

This living water represents the Holy Spirit, bringing life wherever it flows.
Ezekiel’s vision of the waters that flowed out from under the threshold of the sanctuary teach us the levels of the anointing of God.
It is one Spirit, but many depths with a process of maturing that you will go through as a Glory-Carrier.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
- One degree of glory – anointing – to another.
The trees in Ezekiel’s vision represent God’s people, bearing fruit by the Spirit’s living waters.

Revelation 21:3, “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

The goal of redemption was not just salvation, but union with God—to become His habitation.
In a world where people seek their own glory, we carry the glory of God. We are Glory-Bearers, His habitation:
- (19) Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; (20) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; (21) In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: (22) In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.[3]

Where the Glory Dwells

And there stands Saul, watching with approval the stoning of Stephen.

He heard Stephen’s defense, and how that God’s desire throughout time was to dwell among His people.

Yes, on that day, Saul could resist the argument of Stephen, but was the Holy Spirit in Stephen that Paul couldn’t resist.

It was the Glory Stephen carried that shown out of him with His last words pleading for Divine clemency on his persecutors that pricked the heart of Saul.

When you truly meet as bonafide glory-carrier, Spirit let, Holy Ghost driven man or woman, you will be changed.

We know it changed Paul, because he refers back to the words of Stephen when he is also making his argument for Christ on Mars’ Hill:

Acts 17:22-28, “(22) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. (23) For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. (24) God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; (25) Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (26) And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (27) That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (28) For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

It was the Christ in Stephen that Paul couldn’t resist and to whom he eventually surrendered to and received into his earthen vessel.

Stephen’s body was dead, but the river of life in him began when he received the Spirit of Christ into his temple, then it flowed into Saul…now Paul, and from Paul to us today.

That same Jesus Christ is here tonight to dwell with you.

You are the glory-carrier of God…His vessel, and out of your belly flows a tributary of living water filling the while earth with the Gory of God.

Where the Glory Dwells

[1] Ezekiel 36:26-27

[2] John 3:3-8

[3] Ephesians 2:13-22

It seems to me that Paul caught a glimpse of God’s love in the moment that he is first introduced to us in Acts 7 because here we are told that he watched the coats of the men who stoned Stephen and the implication is that he had to have heard that man of faith as “he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Much like Jesus before him, Stephen took a moment of horror and turned it into an eternal memorial of love and testimony. Stephen was so full of the Holy Ghost (Spirit of Christ) that he could only offer love in the face of hatred and violence. Perhaps this was the goad that Jesus referred to when He met Saul on the Road to Damascus. It’s possible that Saul was constantly reminded of that manifestation of God’s love and had to battle with his conscience over his part in that just man’s death.

Paul’s first experience with God’s love was that a man could, under terrible circumstances, love everyone – even his tormentors. This is only possible when one possesses that agape that Paul wrote of in 1 Corinthians 13. Agape is defined as “brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence, and charity.” It is the ability to hold affection for others regardless of how they treat you and it is certainly modeled best by Christ and those who possess His Spirit.

Having been involved in the persecution of the early Church and then being forgiven and placed in a position of leadership and caretaking of those he formally threatened and slaughtered must have been a humbling and awesome experience in the life of Paul. It is no wonder that he could write, “Who shall separate us from the love [agape] of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love [agape]of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul had experienced the unconditional love of God and he was never the same.

I’m sure that Paul went through the gamut of emotions and questions, like, “how could He love me,” or “why does He love me so much,” or “what is so different about this man Stephen?” Yet, God took this mass of boiling humanity and turned him into the Apostle to the Gentiles and along the way he not only experienced the love of God, but he practiced it as well.

Paul’s revelation of God’s love was that it could only be received by the Holy Ghost. It is no wonder that he exhorted the Ephesians to “walk in love” because he knew the awesome power of love. Stephen was full of God’s love because he was a man full of the Holy Ghost and it was that fullness that Paul encouraged when he admonished the Ephesians to be “filled with the Spirit.” This was Paul’s revelation and it remains true – especially in our day. We need more “Stephens”, who have a fullness of the Holy Ghost, and more “Pauls,” who recognize that fullness as the love of God.

*First written on May 28, 2004*