Notes:
STEPHEN: FULL OF FAITH AND POWER
Part One
Acts 6:8-15
Intro: What does a person “full of the Spirit” look like? By God’s grace, can I be such a person? My aim is to show you from Acts 6-9 that we have the same privileges and responsibilities as the believers we read about. We are indwelled and empowered by the same Holy Spirit. We should expect the same kind of impact in the world.
STEPHEN’S POWER FROM GOD:
- Signs and wonders (6:8)
Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Luke has already introduced Stephen. As one of the Seven (deacons?), he was “full of the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3). He himself is then described as “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (6:5), and now he is re-introduced as a man “full of faith and power.”
So far, only Jesus (2:22) and the apostles (2:43; 5:12) have performed signs and wonders. Now for the first time others are said to perform them. That’s significant, because Stephen is a regular guy, a normal Christian, a member of the church.
The Bible is a record of the supernatural workings of God from first to last…
The majority of the explicit signs and wonders in Acts are healings (Peter: 2 paralyzed men, Acts 3, Acts 9, his shadow healed, Acts 5; Paul: paralyzed man, Acts 14, fever/dysentery, Acts 28, handkerchiefs/aprons healed, Acts 19)
Should we expect more “Stephens” today? What would that look like?
I suggest that if the Holy Spirit is still following the biblical pattern, then normal believers will be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will be full of faith and power.
And we will do signs and wonders – mainly praying for healing and seeing the Lord love people by making them well and saving their souls.
Despite all Stephen’s outstanding qualities, his ministry provoked fierce antagonism.
The synagogue of the Freedmen opposed his work for the Lord and what he taught. Remember, the primary function of synagugues was for Jewish men to meet to talk about God and study Scripture.
- Wisdom to defend the faith (6:10)
Acts 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
Even though the local church appointed Stephen, as one of the Seven, to minister daily to the widows, he still was an active evangelist. He spoke the gospel and argued that Jesus was the Messiah. The synagogue men opposed his witness about Jesus.
The lesson here is that normal Christians actively share their faith and defend God’s truth.
Jude 3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
illus: Can you answer the pressing questions? Is there really a God? Did He create the world in 6 days? What about billions of years of evolution? What is faith? Is Jesus God? Why should I trust the Bible? What happens after we die? Do all religions lead to heaven if you’re sincere? Why should I believe in hell?
These men began to argue with Stephen, but they underestimated their opponent. They had not considered the caliber of the man they were opposing. “They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”
This is a direct fulfillment of a prophecy the Lord Jesus made in Luke’s Gospel…
Luke 21:12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake.
Luke 21:13 But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.
Luke 21:14 Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
Luke 21:15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
Stephen defeats all of them; no one has an answer for him. He has conquered their minds.
But God has not chosen through this witness to also conquer his opponents’ wills. They do not repent and believe.
Instead, Stephen’s opponents resort to subterfuge, to underhanded methods. They start a smear campaign against him. When arguments fail, the losers often begin to sling mud.
- Patience in the face of slander (6:11-15)
Acts 6:11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
Acts 6:12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
When Stephen’s opponents could not get the better of him, they convinced some to publicly testify that they had heard him blaspheming against Moses and God.
The opposition degenerated from theology to slander to violence. The same order of events has often been repeated.
At first there is serious theological debate. When this fails, people start a personal campaign of lies. Finally, they resort to legal action to rid themselves of their adversary by force.
This is the third out of four times in Acts when the Lord’s followers stood before this Jewish court; the others were Peter and John (4:15), Peter and the apostles (5:27), and Paul (22:30).
Acts 6:13-14 They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
This was an extremely serious double accusation. Nothing was more sacred to the Jews, and nothing more precious, than their temple and their law.
The temple was the “holy place,” the sanctuary of God’s presence, and the law was “holy scripture,” the revelation of God’s mind and will.
Did Stephen really teach that Jesus would get rid of the temple and do away with the law? Would Stephen’s Jesus rob Israel of her two most treasured possessions? Would Stephen’s Jesus even oppose the God who gave them?
It is safe to say that Jesus was accused of doing both in the mock trials before He was crucified. It is also safe to say that Stephen faithfully echoed Jesus’ teaching.
So, what did Jesus say about the temple and the law?
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
John 2:20-21 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
His resurrection body would be alive after the 3rd day and His spiritual body, the church, would become God’s temple.
Jesus dared to raise Himself above God’s temple.
Matt 12:6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.
Although in the past the people gathered at the temple to meet God, in the future the meeting place with God would be Christ Jesus.
What about the law of Moses? Jesus said that he would fulfill it. When the religious leaders misrepresented and misinterpreted God’s law, Jesus contradicted them and swept away all their traditions. But He never disrespected the law itself.
Matt 5:17 Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Matt 5:18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
His resolve to lay down His life for sinners would fulfill all priesthood and sacrifice.
What Jesus taught, then, was that the temple and the law would be superseded. He did not mean that they were not gifts from heaven in the first place. But God would fulfill them in Him, the Messiah.
Jesus was the replacement of the temple and the fulfilment of the law.
To reject the testimony of Stephen was ultimately to reject Jesus. That is what his trial was all about. The violent rejection of Stephen represented a rejection of Jesus the Messiah. Ultimately it was not Stephen but the Sanhedrin on trial that day.
Acts 6:15 And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
Stephen transfixes those who would be his judges. It’s as though they cannot take their eyes off him. All 71 of them!
It is surely significant that the Council, gazing at their prisoner, should see his face shining like an angel’s, because that’s exactly what happened to Moses’ face when he came down from Mount Sinai with the law.
The description of a person whose face is shining like an angel’s refers to someone who is close to God, reflecting some of His glory after being in His presence.
Was it not God’s deliberate purpose to give the same radiant face to Stephen when he was accused of opposing the law as he had given to Moses when he received the law?
In this way God was showing that both Moses’ ministry of the law and Stephen’s interpretation of the law had His stamp of approval.
What about Stephen’s patience as he was being slandered?
Proverbs 19:11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression.
“It is the glory of God to overlook an offense…”
Application:
“I want to walk in the power of signs and wonders to pray for others benefit (especially healing).”
“I want to walk in the power of defending the faith, being the kind of student who can answer the pressing questions.”
“I want to walk in the power of patient endurance while being slandered and maligned to show the glory of God at work in me.”
Transcript:
For the next four weeks, I'm going to be telling some Bible stories, teaching through them of some key figures in the book of acts, calling these transforming encounters. That's exactly what they are. My name is Trevor Davis. I'm GCC's pastor, and I can't wait to teach this truth to the second service. It was very well received in the first.
We had substantial prayer lines at the end of. As we adjourned our first service today, because it is the third Sunday of the month, and that's typically when we. One of the things we do is we come for prayer more so than ever on the third Sunday of the month. And so I'm hoping that you'll take advantage of this ministry we're going to have that you can be interacted with and be prayed for. In fact, I want to challenge all the middle school students and high school students come for prayer today.
I know that you want to be treated like adults, and I think you ought to be. And what adult believers do is they come for prayer and they trust God, and they say, I need something from the Lord. So I want to encourage you guys to do that. I want to read my text today, acts, chapter six, verses eight through 15, and then tell you what we're going to be doing. So here we go, verses eight and following.
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what's called the synagogue of the freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
They also set up false witnesses who said, this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. All who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel. Let's bow together for prayer. Father, we think it's important to read the scriptures aloud on the Lord's day when the church is gathered.
And we think it even more important to teach them in their proper context and to ask the church to apply these truths to our lives, making us more like Jesus. Shaking us out of our slumber and seeking your face, seeking to be transformed. And, Lord, as we start this series where we see men changed by Jesus, Lord, we long to be like those Mendez. So give us this grace. Give us ears to hear, hearts to believe.
And we plead with you, Lord, that the enemy will not steal the seed planted from this word. In Jesus name. Amen. I'm glad to teach over the next several weeks, acts chapter six and seven, about Stephen. Acts chapter eight, about Philip.
And acts chapter nine about Saul of Tarsus, who becomes the apostle Paul. But today, Stephen is full of faith and power. I want to ask you a couple of questions. The first question is, what does a person full of the spirit look like?
And a follow up question. By God's grace, can I be such a person? I want you to think that about yourself. Because my aim is to show you from acts chapter six through nine, that all of us, as believers in Jesus, have the same privileges and responsibilities as the believers in the Bible that we read about.
You see, we are indwelled by, and we are empowered by the exact same holy spirit that these men were. And if that's the case, we should expect the same kind of impact on our world that they had on theirs. So I'm going to challenge you in these next couple of weeks about Stephen. That when you read about him, you need to see who you can be in Christ. I want to talk to you about Stephen's power from goddesse.
And as I've been studying this for the last two or three weeks, some on a cruise ship in the eastern Caribbean, no less, sitting on a balcony, looking at the deep blue sea, going, God, what do you want me to say to the church from your word? And as I examined Stephen, I found in my own study six categories of power from God that he walked in. I'm going to give you three of those today, the other three next Sunday. Is that fair? Does that sound like a good plan?
And I'm going to say about the power of God that Stephen walked in, that God expects us to walk in that same power. So, Stephen's power from God, number one of three today. Signs and wonders. I would have liked for this verse to come at the end of the text so that I could build up more drama leading up to it. But the Holy Spirit saw fit to just lead off with it.
And it's in verse eight. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. It is my aim to get all of us to get rid of the idea that when we read our bibles and we see God use men and women in extraordinary ways, that we stop thinking that those were special people living in special days and God's holding them up for us as if they're in some Bible museum, and we go, wow, that must have been nice for them. But it isn't true for us. I want to convince you that what God does in their life he expects and wants to do in yours.
Now, by the time we get to verse eight, Luke's already introduced Stephen to us. He's one of the seven. And the question is, one of the seven what? Well, the Bible doesn't answer it. They're just known as the seven.
And of those seven names that we're introduced to in the first part of acts, chapter six that I've skipped already, we're going to come to Stephen and Philip. And of those seven, Stephen gets half of chapter six and all of chapter seven in acts. And God wants you to know about him and then it ends in his violent death. And then we get to chapter eight, the very next chapter, and God takes a moment and he takes a certain number of scriptures and he introduces to us about Philip. And these guys were two of the seven.
The seven what? Well, it's been debated. Are they the first seven deacons in the Bible? You know, churches usually have deacons, usually men or women, and they make decisions or whatever. Those aren't biblical deacons.
But what about these seven men? Did the servant work that deacons did? In fact, they were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. They were regular people. And a need arose in the church because the church was growing so fast, they were having trouble keeping up with the growth and taking care of everybody.
So the apostles, the Bible teachers, stopped what they were doing, identified these seven men, went to them and said, hey guys, we really need your help because if we have to keep doing this very important work, it will take us away from studying the scriptures and praying and being spiritually empowered to feed the sheep. Because what we're having to do is we're having to stop our regular ministry and go and take food every day to the growing number of widows in our church. Women without family and whose husbands have died. They cannot take care of themselves. God really loves them.
We cannot neglect it. But we also can't neglect the ministry of word and prayer. We need some men. And they go, stop what you're. Say no more.
Stop what you're doing. Pastors, we'll be glad to show the love of God and make sure the widows have what they need to live every day so that you can make sure you feed the sheep. Those were the seven. And this is Stephen. This is our guy.
And in verse three of chapter six, he's full of the spirit and wisdom. In verse five of chapter six, he's full of faith in the Holy Spirit. Here in verse eight, he's full of faith and power. And I want you to know that so far in the gospels and acts up to acts, chapter six, to this point, only Jesus and the apostles are said to do signs and wonders, which is working miracles and praying for supernatural power and God hearing those prayers. Only Jesus in chapter two, verse 22.
Only the apostles in chapter four, verse chapter two, verse 43, and chapter five, verse twelve. They're the only ones who've done signs and wonders in the New Testament up to this point. And now my brothers and my sisters, for the first time, others are said to walk in God's power and perform wonders and signs in his name. And the reason that's significant, and it's what I want you to take home with you today is this. Stephen's a regular guy.
He's a normal christian. He didn't attend Bible college and seminary. He hadn't been ordained by the church to be some amazing spiritual leader that we all look up to. He's just a run of the mill, regular, godly church member.
But because he's full of God's spirit, he walks in power.
And I want you to know that your Bible is a record of the supernatural power of God from first to last. In fact, there is no more supernatural verse in your Bible than the very first one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You'll not see a feat better than that supernaturally in anywhere else. It just, the Bible gets its zenith on the first verse.
And all the way through we see the amazing hand of God and what the Lord Jesus does in the supernatural realm. And I began to say, well, what in the world are signs and wonders? So I went looking. I went looking in the gospels, I went looking in acts. And I have taken all that study and put them in one little parentheses here in my notes.
And I want to just kind of give you the inventory. You want to hear it? Convince me you want to hear it? Okay. All right, listen.
Start with Peter. Peter, the apostle. He heals two paralyzed men, one in acts, chapter three and one in acts, chapter nine. Two men who cannot walk. And he prays for them and he heals them and they begin to walk.
Then we have this fantastic verse about him in acts chapter five, that even his shadow began to heal people because of the power of God that he walked in. And if that's not enough, you get to the apostle Paul in the book of acts, and he heals another paralyzed man. That's three in acts chapter 14. Let me just stop right there and say, sometimes I get to the weekend and I don't have stories and illustrations for my sermon, but I, I've learned not to force it and just wait on God. And yesterday, if you don't know, my wife and I, we have three sons, and they're all grown now, basically.
And our oldest son is 24, and he's on the football staff at a small christian college outside Jackson, Mississippi. And he's probably homesick. We really miss him. And so they were having a home game, and the game kicks off at 06:00 p.m. which means it's going to be over, like at 930.
And we're driving back three and a half hours, and I got in bed really late. But hey, I was going to be ready to preach, but we wanted to see our son. So we planned our day and we're like, hey, the game kicks off at six. If we leave at one, we can get there at four. And this amazing southern cooking buffet restaurant opens at 04:00 p.m.
and everybody says, look, you got to go try it. And I'm talking about food saltier than the great Salt lake and more sugar than candy land and all the stuff your grandmama made, right? You know what I mean? And buffet, like, just stacks of plates. You can just keep going, testify.
Do you like these? This place is called mama Hamels. Have you ever eaten there? In the first service, we had some people who did. Hallelujah, right?
I mean, we thank God for good things on earth. So we go there. Parking lots packed before 04:00 this must be the place. We see this big crowd of people, and they must be coming either from a wedding or a funeral because they are dressed in their Sunday best. And the line's out the door.
And we're like, man, we may not have left ourselves enough time to do this because we still have 30 minutes to drive. Why is this line out the door? We get there and we see why. It's this elderly gentleman and his elderly wife. They're great grandparents.
They have to be. And they're dressed in their best suit and best dress that they have, and they're the frailest people that I have ever personally seen in my life. And I'm a police chaplain I go on scenes all the time, and I see some. I see people at their weakest. I have never seen anything like this.
She was holding on to him, holding him up, and he was. You're going to think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. These are the steps he was taking, like an inch at a time, and he could barely stand up. It took them five minutes to get through the door threshold, and everybody's holding the door open for them, but you can't speed them up.
They needed wheelchairs, but they were determined to get something to eat and be with their party. Now, this place is big. It's got two levels. There's floor seating where the buffet is, and then upstairs for everybody else to sit when there's overflow. There was not a single table open on the floor.
And these folks get in and the owners of the establishments prop them over the wall and they're looking at the buffet and they're pointing, and somebody's fixing their plates for them. They're pointing at what they want. I got my plate. Took a long time to go through the line. I go upstairs where the only seating is Angie, and I eat, and it's a buffet, so you have to go twice.
Amen. Right? So I go back down the stairs. This old man is 25 minutes later. He still slumped over the wall because there's nowhere for him to sit and there's no way they can get up the stairs.
And I looked at his face and he looked at me, and here's what his face said. If only I could walk like all of you.
I pray for that man. I didn't. I didn't have the courage to go up and ask him. I didn't. Everybody was looking at him, so I didn't want to bring more attention to him.
But I just prayed, God, I know he's older, and I know nobody's thinking it, but, lord, you're still powerful. Now. You can make his legs work again. Do y'all believe that God could do that? Because one thing I know about that man, he thinks about it all the time.
Paul healed another paralyzed man in acts chapter 14. And now you're thinking, oh, I know what signs and wonders are. That's when God does the doozies, right? That's when he does miracles for the big ones. But if you just keep looking in acts 14, I mean, in acts chapter 28, God heals somebody's fever.
And believe it or not, that's the second fever that is healed in your Bible. The first one was the Lord Jesus healing the fever of Peter's mother in law. Can we agree that being paralyzed in your legs and having 102 degree fever are different categories? One's more severe. But if you have a fever, you know what you're thinking.
Man, I really wish this fever would break. Yes. And I want you to know that God has more compassion than the sweetest, most empathetic person you've ever met. And when he sees the suffering of people, he enters into it and he feels it. And that's why when you see signs and wonders in the New Testament, what you see are healings.
He also healed a man in acts chapter 28 of dysentery. That's a inside problem with your body. And then we also have this fantastic statement in acts 19 that handkerchiefs and aprons that touch the apostle Paul were taken back to the sick and laid on them to heal them. When I put it all together, the theme I see about signs and wonders in the Bible is most of them are healings, showing the compassion of Goddess and his power and his evangelistic zeal that when he heals people, others go, well, maybe. Maybe God's real and maybe I need to know him.
This is what Stephen walked in so that when he prayed for people and laid his hands on them when they were sick, they recovered because of the mercy and kindness of God flowing through a spirit filled regular Christian.
And what the picture I want to paint for you is that if you believe in Jesus and belong to him, he can do the same thing through you. And in our church, we see this. It used to be from time to time. Now it's way more regular. We lay our hands on people and pray for them when they're sick and we see them recover, because God hasn't lost his mercy.
Amen. And he hasn't lost his love for the suffering, the power of God in Stephen. So the question I have in my notes is, should we expect more Stephen's today? And what would that look like? And I think the answer is yes, and I think it would look like you.
I want to suggest to you that if the Holy Spirit is still following the biblical pattern, and why wouldn't he be then normal believers? We'll be full of the spirit and full of wisdom, we'll be full of faith and full of power, and God will use us the way he used Stephen. My friend Jack one time said, I didn't know the Lord wanted friends. I thought he wanted students.
And what I see God doing through the friends of Jesus are the works of Jesus. It's not just studying to show yourself approved. It's trusting in God and living out of this vibrant christian life that God gave you when he saved you. The power of God. Going through his friends, we'll do signs and wonders, mainly praying for healing and seeing the Lord love people when he makes them well and he saves their souls.
Now, Stephen had an amazing ministry this way. So he's being known as the guy that will show you the love of God and pray for you. Probably be healed. And wouldn't you know it, not everybody celebrated that. Despite all of Stephen's outstanding qualities, his ministry still provoked a fierce antagonism.
The synagogue guys opposed his work for the Lord, and they stood in the way of what he taught. I want to remind you that the primary function of synagogues in the Bible was for jewish men to meet together to talk about God and study scripture. And so when Stephen shows up to the synagogue, he's a friend of Jesus, he talks about God. He says, let's look at the scriptures. They're about the Lord.
And when he makes his arguments, no one can refute him. He stands alone. He has command of his fastball. He's striking them out. He is prepared.
And it brings us to our second category of power that Stephen walked in not just signs and wonders, but he also had wisdom to defend the faith.
This is in verse ten, when he reasoned together with the men of the synagogue. The verse says they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Even though the local church had appointed Stephen to be a guy who ministered behind the scenes, helping the widows, he still was an active evangelist. That means he spoke the gospel. And he argued that Jesus was the Christ, the messiah.
And the synagogue Menta opposed his witness about Jesus. And what's the lesson here for normal christians? The lesson is that normal, regular, everyday christians actively share their faith and defend God's truth.
Jesus had two half brothers, same mom, different dads. Remember this? And Jesus father is the God, is God the father. But he had an early father named Joseph. And Joseph and Mary had other children, and two of them were named James and Jude.
And you can read their letters inspired by the Holy Spirit in your Bible. The letter that James wrote, the book that James wrote, and then the letter that Jude wrote. And Jude only has. Jude's a short letter. It only has one chapter.
So you don't say Jude chapter one, verse three, you just say Jude three. It's the third verse in the third verse of Jude. Here's what we read, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation. I wanted to write to you about what it means to be saved, but I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Contend.
I want you to wrestle and fight for the truth. I want you to stand in the way of error and show everybody what the Bible really says. Contend for it. Contend for the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints.
In fact, Peter says, always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you about the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. So I want to ask you a question. Can you relate to Stephen's ministry here? Can you answer the pressing questions the culture has about truth?
Let me just give you some examples of those questions. Is there really a goddess? Do you have an answer for that? Did he create the world in six days? And if so, how long were those days?
Do you know the answer? What about billions of years of evolution? That's taught in our culture and nobody bats an eye, nobody raises a hand and says, you know, you're just supposing that it's a theory and no one's proven it. What about I. Billions of years of evolution?
Let me attempt to just give you a quick answer about that, pastor. Why is it that scientists can dig in the earth and they can get fossils and rocks and things? They can do what they say are scientific experiments and testing on them, and at the end of their testing, they go, see, they're millions of years old, so the Bible can't be true, and God couldn't have created the world in six days, or those days can't be 24 hours periods because of the rocks and the fossil record. It says, we've been here for a very long time. Do you have an answer for that?
There are so many right answers. Let me just give you an easy one. Do you believe that God created Adam and Eve? Couldn't hear you. First man and first woman.
And the Bible says that he breathed into them the breath of life and they became nepheshkaya, living creatures. So God makes Adam's body. Yes. And he breathes into it, animates it. Adam becomes alive.
Then Adam, he puts him to sleep, takes part of his rib, makes Eve, breathes into her body. The breath of life, animates her. She's alive? Yes. After they've been alive for five minutes, how old did they look?
None of you would say, oh, they all look like brand new infant babies, because in your mind, you already jumped to when God creates the world, he can create one that's mature, he can create one with characteristics that are older. No problem for goddesse. You know, one of the most amazing things in modern history that helps us archaeologically prove the truth of the scriptures. It was when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980.
Are you old enough to remember this? I was in kindergarten. Amen. I remember we watched it on tv that day. And five year old kindergartner said, however old I was, you know what they learned from Mount St.
Helens? They looked at the ground a few weeks later and they said, we know that thing blew up last month. Why does everything around it look like it's been here thousands and thousands of years? And that's when we could say to the unbelieving world, you mean God can cause some atmospheric changes in an instant and make things look like they've been there for a long time? Who knew?
What about billions of years of evolution? Here's some more questions. What is faith? Is Jesus God? My favorite one.
Why should I trust the Bible? Have you even looked into the manuscript evidence to see that the holy scriptures stand alone as a writing from antiquity with copies and copies of manuscripts and manuscripts, evidence that God has preserved it? Do all religions lead to heaven? If you're sincere, what happens after we die? Why should I believe in hell?
Can you answer these questions? I have good news for you. You live in the modern age and you probably have something in your pocket with a search engine on it. And you can put those questions in and find the answers from biblical scholars who know how to defend the truth and have it at your disposal in 5 seconds. I remind you that Stephen lived in the ancient world and he had trained his mind and studied, and he walked with the Lord and he did all of that.
And he didn't have the resources you have, but he had the same holy spirit that you do, so that he could defend the truth. And the verse says they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they underestimated their opponent. They did not consider the caliber of the man they were opposing. And when it says they weren't able to resist his wisdom, can I tell you he was fulfilling a prophecy of the Lord Jesus that our Lord had spoken in Luke's first work in the Bible, the Gospel of Luke.
I have to share this with you before I move on to my last point. Luke 20 112 15. Jesus says, this is going to happen. And when we get to acts chapter six, it's fulfilled in Stephen, our lord says, but before all these things, they'll lay their hands on you and persecute you. You're going to see they did that to Stephen in chapter seven, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons.
You'll be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore, Jesus says, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you'll answer for. I'll give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. They won't be able to contradict or resist you.
And that's exactly what acts chapter six says Stephen did. He defeats all of them. No one has an answer for him. He's conquered their minds. But God chooses in that moment not to conquer their wills.
They do not repent and they do not believe. Instead, Stephen's opponents resort to subterfuge. They resort to underhanded methods. They start a smear campaign against him. You see, friends, when arguments fail, the losers often begin to sling mud.
And I want to remind you that insults are not arguments. And the reason I say that is I've been watching the behavior of christians online.
Insults aren't arguments. You see, here's the third category of power that Stephen walked in the final one today, and it's a doozy. It's remarkable. It's patience in the face of slander. I'm going to summarize most of this.
What I was going to tell you. When they can't defeat Stephen's arguments, they lie about him, they mistreat him, misrepresent him and abuse him publicly. They seek to humiliate him. And most of us in the same situation would feel the urge to defend ourselves, to fight back, to say, that's not what I said. That's not what I meant, that's not how I said it.
They are not representing me correctly. And you can look through the end of acts chapter six, and you can look through all 60 something verses in acts chapter seven. And you'll not see Stephen, by the way, acts, chapter seven, longest sermon, longest speech in all the book of acts. Stephen's talking. And in all those words, not one time did he defend his own honor or correct a misrepresentation about him.
He just spoke about Jesus. Now, here's what they do. Patience in the face of slander, verse eleven and twelve. Then they secretly induce men to say, we've heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and goddess. And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes.
And they came upon him and seized him and brought him to the council. And then in verses 13 and 14, they also set up false witnesses who said, this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us. If that sounds familiar to you at all, it's because these are the same false charges they leveled against Jesus. In the false trials on the night before they crucified him.
And they say, that guy, Stephen, he's spoken against our two most treasured possessions, the temple, God's holy sanctuary, where God's presence dwells. And the law of Moses, God's word to us, where we know what God's will is. This Stephen, this guy, is seeking to destroy all of it. He blasphemes against them. What we know Stephen did was he just said the same thing Jesus said.
Because, remember, he's Jesus friend. He's not just Jesus's student. He represents his lord. And they say the same thing against him that they said against his lord. Do you remember what Jesus said about the temple?
Because it's hard to get a public lie across without the skin of the truth. In John, chapter two, Jesus says, destroy this temple, and I'll raise it again in three days. Do you remember this? They said, wait a minute. It's taken us 46 years to build this place.
You're going to rebuild it in three days. And then the verse says, no, the temple that he spoke about was his. Do you remember his body? He says, I'm the temple of God. Kill this body and watch what I do with it three days later.
And that's good news, right? Do we still serve a risen savior? Is the resurrection true? So, in fact, Jesus didn't speak against the temple. He said, actually, I'm the temple.
He's going to say in Matthew, one greater than the temple stands among you. But he never said, I'm going to tear it down. He said, I'm going to do something different with it. What did jesus say about the law? Did he say, you know, that stuff Moses taught us, it's outdated.
We don't need it anymore. Did Jesus come to abolish the law of God? And the answer is no. What did he say about the law? In his most famous sermon, the sermon on the mount in Matthew, chapter five?
He says, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. I came to fulfill them. So Jesus is not going to tear the temple down, and he's not going to get rid of the things Moses said. He's going to supersede them. And he's going to say, hey, look, you no longer need a priest to stand between you and God and deal with your sins.
I'm now your high priest. I'll do it for you. And you no longer need to bring animals to sacrifice for your sins. For God. I'm going to be your passover lamb.
I fulfill all of it.
Stephen just says what Jesus said, and we'll see next Sunday that they murder him for it.
The last verse I can't leave out before I close, it's verse 15. All who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him, by the way, that was 71 men saw his face as the face of an angel. Now, I don't know what an angel's face looks like, but I think I married one that worked in the first service.
Let me tell you what it means. That his face shone like his face was as the face of an angel. It means it. You see, angels serve in the presence of God. And in the presence of God, God's glory just kind of wears off on them, and so they shine and magnify his brilliance, too.
This only happened two other times in the Bible. I want to tell you about the first time it happened. It was when Moses went up on Mount Sinai with God for 40 days. And the glory of God is shining around Moses. He's in God's presence.
And Moses comes down the mountain with two things in his hand. What were they? You've seen the movie. Charlton Heston was in it, right? Ten commandments.
Right. The law of Moses. The law of God. When Moses has been in God's presence and he comes down the mountain holding the word of God, they said, moses, you gotta put a veil over your face. You're glowing and we can't look at you.
You've been in a different presence than we're used to. So Moses comes down with a law and he has God all over him. And when Stephen speaks about Moses and the law of God, and he connects it to Jesus, he has God all over him. And his face is like those angel faces, those transfigured faces, those Moses and Jesus faces. So God says, in the same way that I approved of Moses, I also approve of Stephen.
And even that didn't keep the hands of unbelieving men from killing this man. But pastor you said his last part of his power was that he had patience in the face of slander and that he didn't defend himself. What about that? Let me give you one proverb that answers that question. Proverbs 1911.
The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger and his glory is to overlook a transgression. Stephen is mistreated and he chooses the glory of God. In fact, when they're killing him next week, he's going to say, Lord, don't hold this sin against them.
That is God's power available to every believer. So that no matter what you're going through, when you find yourself mistreated, forgotten, overlooked, passed by, you have the discretion to do what the NIV says. It's the glory of God to overlook an offense and entrust your vindication to the God who made you. Now I'm going to put three things on the screen as I close, because I'm going to ask you to come for prayer for one, two or all three of these things in order to apply this to your life today.
I think you ought to give God just a little more time, five or ten more minutes before you leave church today and say, God, what would you have for me? You can come to our prayer teams after we adjourn saying one, two or all three of these things. Number one, I want to walk in the power of signs and wonders so that I can pray for others benefit, especially for their healing. That's how you would apply point number one. Number two, I want to walk in the power of defending the faith, being the kind of student who can answer the pressing questions of the culture.
That's how you would apply point number two. And lastly, I want to walk in the power of patient endurance while being slandered and maligned to show the glory of God at work in me. We're going to pray for all these things and more. I think God says that at least one of those you need to submit yourself to today and say, and say, would you pray for me? This is a weakness for me and God wants it to be a strength.
Let's bow for prayer. Father, take the preaching of your word, God, would you give our church grace to linger a little bit, to humble themselves and say, I need prayer? Would you empower our prayer teams to be sensitive to your spirit?
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