Acts 6.1 Stephen, a man filled with the spirit

Acts chapter 6. And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom way we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the Apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. The great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.

And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel.

On into the seventh chapter, where one reads of Stephen's defense, which in effect was a proclamation of the gospel, as he addressed the council of the Sanhedrin. Move on, therefore, to the 47th verse of chapter 7, where Stephen is winding up his speech, and where we read of what happened afterwards. 47.

But Solomon built him an house. How be it the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet? 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? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did so do ye.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them, which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 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. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

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. Now you might care and find it helpful to have your Bibles open at the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

For those of you who are visiting the tabernacle today, let me explain that for a number of months now, we've been engaged on a Sunday morning in a series of studies, looking into certain events recorded in this fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, or as someone has described it, the Acts of the Holy Spirit. One would have to be a very insensitive Christian, indeed, to flick through the chapters, the opening chapters of this history book, and not to be inspired, not to be excited, not to feel the quickening of the pulse beat of your heart as you read all that God achieved through a relatively small group of people, men and women who had bound themselves together by the power of the Holy Spirit and constituted the emerging Church of Jesus Christ on this earth. You know, sometimes we get our theology completely wrong concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and we think that his resurrection and his ascension, obviously the last event, the ascension, marked the end of his interest in the affairs of men and women, as though he went back to heaven and said to the church, now get on with it yourselves, you Galileans, you Judean Christians, the task is yours.

I now am back in heaven, I disassociate myself from what you're doing. Now, if that is the clumsy way that you have understood the end of the life of Jesus as he rises back into the presence of his Father, then let the corrective be found in the first verse of the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, when we read this, Luke's dedication, O the former Treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, of all that Jesus began to do and teach. And if you continue reading the opening verses, you come to this conclusion that Jesus Christ is still doing, Jesus Christ is still teaching, because Jesus Christ is alive today, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he is in direct organic relationship with his church, which is the body of Jesus Christ on this earth.

And I say that this is one of the things that stands out paramountly in the opening chapters of this book, the living experience that the early Christians had of their Savior. They were working for him, they were in contact with him, he was the one who was energizing them to perform the task to which he had called them, namely the proclamation of the glorious gospel throughout the then known world. So it's Jesus alive who we face on the pages of the Acts of the Apostles as we look into the experience of these early Christians.

And it's this living Jesus that captures our attention as we particularly look into the sixth chapter of this book. And as we close up on what I will call a window text of this chapter, the tenth verse. I say a window text because occasionally you'll recall it's been my method in studying this particular book to fasten on one text and to suggest that by peering into it you can see a great deal of what there is in that particular chapter.

And I think that verse 10 of chapter 6 warrants the description of a window text. And I want to take you up to this text in a moment or two so that you can peer through it and see how Jesus Christ glorifies himself in the life of one ordinary man who linked himself with the emerging church at Jerusalem. But before we close up on our text and if you'll allow me the expression peer into it, let me set a little bit of context into perspective for you.

Because we discover in the earlier verses of this chapter that the Christian church has continued to grow. That is, since the last time we were studying what is contained in the fifth chapter. There's been an expansion of the church at Jerusalem, references made to it in the seventh verse of chapter 6. And amongst the converts were a number of the priests, rather extraordinary that these men were so convinced of the truths of the message of Jesus Christ that they associated themselves too with the growing community of Christians in the holy city.

Now another problem, or at least I say another, the second problem I suggest that occurs to us in the Acts of the Apostles is discovered in the opening verses of this sixth chapter. And it's all to do with the growing membership of the church. You see, it was a policy in the synagogues throughout Palestine on a Friday to take up a collection amongst the Orthodox Jews for the relief of the poor of that particular locality.

And this practice was wisely adopted by the Christian community at Jerusalem. And you'll remember that they had at this time a common fund. Now thousands of people, remember, have attached themselves to the Christian church.

So that common fund has grown. And the administration of the church has grown considerably. And the net result is that a little problem developed.

There were some of the Grecian community, Jews who came in from the dispersion, living now at Jerusalem, who felt that their elderly people were neglected in the daily handout on the part of the apostles. And so they brought their problem to the attention of the leaders of the church. And the net result was that the disciples, the twelve apostles, suggested to the Christian community that they should all get together and elect seven men.

And the seven men would be responsible for the daily administration of the food and of the of the monies that were necessary for the elderly people. The apostles wisely realized that they could not themselves be cluttered up with so much administration. Like Moses, way back in the days of the Old Testament, who was exercising a pastoral ministry over the Hebrews.

So they too, exercising a similar ministry, needed help in administration. So these seven men were elected. And they were commissioned to this particular work of looking after the older people and distributing the monies and the clothes and no doubt the food that had accumulated amongst the community of Christian people.

And we read that one of the men who came to the fore in this election was called Stephen. Now it's at that point that I want to bring you to verse 10, our window text for this morning. Because it is of Stephen that reference is being made on the part of some Jewish people who do not accept what Stephen is saying.

For Stephen is not only a man given to serving tables, but a man who has developed an astonishing ministry. So listen to what he said of him and the reaction of some Jews to his ministry. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

I want to talk to you about the individual who confronted some Orthodox Jews. Who was this man Stephen? We're going to examine his background a little bit. And then I want to speak to you about the impact that Stephen's ministry, that Stephen's witness had upon these men who were his enemies.

They were not able to resist him. And then I want to speak to you about the inspiration that was conferred upon Stephen. Because we realize that he was divinely helped.

There was a wisdom and a spirit which he had received. And it was this that made its impact upon those who were interrogating him. So let's come to examining the individual who's confronted by a group of Orthodox Jews.

Let's talk about him a moment. But let me again try to put things into better relief for you by telling you that these Jewish people who were speaking to Stephen, who were interrogating him at this particular point, were representatives of a congregation, of a synagogue that existed at Jerusalem. And they had heard what Stephen had to say and they'd engaged him in debate.

So we see this particular scene of Stephen addressing members of a congregation of a synagogue at Jerusalem. And when we look into the astonishing ministry and the astonishing performance of Stephen, particularly as you read it in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, then you begin to realize that he was an outstanding man, an incredible man. But his origins weren't outstanding.

His origins weren't incredible. In fact, you don't read of Stephen before this event. And it would seem, the argument is won from silence, that he was a convert of Peter on the day of Pentecost.

A man who had only been a Christian, therefore, for a relatively short space of time. And yet his growth in grace and in the knowledge of God, well, it seemed to outstrip the rest of the members of the Christian Church at Jerusalem, to the extent that he can engage in debate with the most influential men of one of the most influential synagogues at Jerusalem. And he can come off the winner in the debate.

The ministry of Stephen had called the attention of these members of the synagogue to it, because when he had been preaching, his ministry had been attested by a manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit. We read in the eighth verse that Stephen was full of faith and power and did great wonders and miracles amongst the people. And the net result of his successful ministry was that it excited the interest and indeed the animosity of these Jews from this particular synagogue at Jerusalem.

So they bring Stephen in front of them. And as we watch this man, I say we are watching an ordinary member of the Christian Church made extraordinary, not by any innate powers that he had of wisdom or intelligence, but made extraordinary because he was filled with the Spirit. And when a man is filled with the Spirit, he's in a spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ.

And he can continue on this earth to perform the tasks that Jesus was doing in his own public ministry of three years in duration, to which reference was made from the first and second verses of the Acts of the Apostles. So see Stephen, an ordinary man, filled with the Spirit, in action. And what are you watching? What are you watching? Someone who has known the refining fires of the third person of the Trinity applied to their lives.

Or if I may change my metaphor, you're watching a man who offered himself as a piece of clay and was placed on the divine potter's wheel. You're seeing a man who's been fashioned by the skillful hands of God, who's been made into an image that is acceptable to the Lord, filled with his Spirit, and enabled, therefore, to execute a successful ministry in Jerusalem. You're watching a man, I say, who's enraptured by Jesus Christ.

No evidence exists that Stephen ever saw Jesus physically, but certainly he saw Jesus spiritually. It could be said of Stephen concerning Jesus, him who I have not seen yet I love. And there was a love that existed between Stephen and his Lord to the extent that what natural eyes could not see, the eyes of faith did.

And there is evidence in this story, I say, to underline the fact that Stephen was in a direct relationship with Jesus Christ. Remember the incredible final moments of his life when Stephen looks up and he sees Jesus. He has a glimpse into heaven itself.

I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Stephen did not on the physical level see Jesus, but on the spiritual level he did. And I believe that a man, that a woman, can be in the same spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ today as was Stephen.

And there was something about Stephen as we see him standing before these members of this synagogue at Jerusalem. There was something about him that impressed ordinary members of the church. Impressed them to the extent that when the disciples suggested that seven men should be elected to serve at tables to look after the administration of this growing Christian community, Stephen was selected.

Not in a haphazard fashion, not because he was naturally a gifted administrator. Why was he selected? Verse 5 tells us, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. There was something about this man that caused you to look on him, to realize that he had been as clay in the hands of God.

Do you know that Stephen, the name itself, means crown? And his name, it appears to me, is as an omen. An omen of what Stephen shall be in his life, because he shall be the first crown. The first crown of the martyrs shall present to the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of a life that's been lived and has been given for him.

For you remember, it is Stephen who is at the top of the honored roll of the martyrs, the honored roll of the Christian Church of men and women who have given their all for Jesus Christ. Stephen, the name means crown, and he offers his life, as I say, as a crown, as a tribute to the Lord Jesus Christ. And more than this, as you're watching him engaged in debate with the members of this congregation, notice that you're seeing a link.

A link between what? Well, a link between Jesus Christ and the most outstanding missionary that Christendom has ever had. To what am I referring? Well, I took some time in saying to you, as I set the scene behind this incident, that Stephen is debating with a congregation of influential Jews at Jerusalem. And where these Jews came from is plainly set down in the ninth verse of this chapter.

And you will see that normally men who came from Cilicia were in this congregation. Tell me, where did Saul of Tarsus come from? Was it not Cilicia? And could not the conclusion be drawn from the argument from silence that the apostle Paul, the future apostle Paul, the man from Tarsus, was possibly in this congregation, listening to Stephen, listening to what he had to say. The man who later on is discovered at the end of the seventh chapter, looking after the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death.

I say that Stephen is a link man, the morning star who ushered in the dawn of St. Paul's ministry. So then this is a man who we're looking at, who's engaged in debate, who's relating to this congregation of influential men, the essence, the essential factors of the gospel of Jesus Christ. An ordinary man made extraordinary.

Why? Because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This then is the individual who confronts this group of Jews. But then let's think through the impact that these Jews confessed he made upon them.

Again, I refer to my window text. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. When he spoke to them, he had the same authority as had been displayed in his public ministry around the streets of Jerusalem and particularly in the area of the temple.

And Stephen is later on to demonstrate the prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who promised his disciples that when they were embarrassed for the sake of gospel proclamation by being hauled in front of those who were their opponents and would interrogate them, Jesus said for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain say nor resist. I will give you a mouth. I will give you wisdom.

I'll put the words in your mouth which will silence them. And this I say is a prophecy that was fulfilled in the experience of Stephen. They could not resist what he had to say.

His argument was a logical one. He dipped into the Old Testament scriptures. An unrehearsed sermon was what he brought before the Sanhedrin later on and it was a brilliant sermon as he endeavored to show that the spiritual truths of Christianity were necessary to be apprehended by the Jewish people and they were not to put their faith in any temple building, in any literal temple, but they were rather to see the temple as symbolic of men and women who would confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The spiritual temple being the composition of the lives of God's people throughout this world who confess the name of Jesus. This I say was the thesis in the argument that you read of in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, all put together in a brilliant fashion by this man Stephen in such a way that his opponents are not able to resist what he has to say. They who were frightened of the impact that he was having in Jerusalem with his preaching are now frightened of what he is saying before them.

They cannot argue against the truths of the gospel. The amazing thing about this man Stephen surely is this, that though he is unknown in his origin and though his period in Christ on this earth was restricted just a matter of a few weeks, he had many aspects in common with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sanhedrin tried to silence the Savior but they couldn't.

They tried to silence Stephen. They were both concerned, or the Sanhedrin were concerned about the preaching of both of these two. What is more they were both illegally brought before the Sanhedrin and condemned on the strength of witnesses whose evidence was known to be faulty.

And both the Lord Jesus Christ and Stephen proved the maxim that you cannot silence truth. For when Stephen had been impeached, when he had been done to death, the memory of Stephen continued to live on, emphasizing the point made in the Bible that the blood of the martyrs is indeed the seed of the church. And I reckon that a good case could be made on the human level for the beginnings of the of the conversion experience of the Apostle Paul being rooted in what he learned from Stephen and what he saw in the disposition in the personality of this great man.

So Stephen gives witness to his Lord and Master before this congregation of Jews and later on before the Sanhedrin and the net result, well you know, he's savagely done to death. These people who could not resist his testimony tried to silence his voice, but as they were unable to silence the testimony of Jesus Christ, so they were unable to extinguish the ministry of Stephen. It lives on and still makes an impact.

So here from my verse then is not only the individual confronted, but the impact confessed. Let's move on to the final part of the statement. And you see there the inspiration conferred.

How is it that Stephen can minister in such a fashion? How can he adopt such a lifestyle? Well the author of the Acts of the Apostles makes it quite plain. He is able to do this by the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. He was a man filled by the Holy Spirit.

It was this, as we've noted, that prompted the choice of him as an administrator to relieve the burdens of the Apostles. In the third verse they give their command to the members of the church at Jerusalem. Wherefore brethren look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business.

A man who was full of the Holy Spirit. And I repeat, and I shall continue to repeat it because you're bound to do so from the Acts of the Apostles, that he was filled with the Spirit was an observable thing. They knew that this was a man who in a unique fashion had the imprint of God upon him.

And it was this fact that guaranteed the success of his ministry. These are wonders and miracles that he was able to perform. And note Stephen was not one of the twelve.

There are those who say that miracles in New Testament days were restricted to the twelve. I say they could not be so restricted because here in the eighth verse we read of Stephen, full of faith and power, doing great wonders and miracles among the people. How did he do this? Well he did it because he was in direct line with the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

He was continuing the ministry of Jesus on this earth. This guaranteed the success of his ministry, the fullness of the Spirit. And it was this of course that won the day for him in the debate with the influential Jews in the synagogue and also later on in sense the high priests and the members of the Sanhedrin.

A man who won the day in debate because he was a man who was in tune with God the Holy Spirit. Now I would argue from the Acts of the Apostles that there are a number of evidences of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we err in the 20th century by scrapping over one as opposed to another.

But within the life of Stephen it was observable to those who had to do with him, whether they were members of the church at Jerusalem or his opponents, that this was a man uniquely endowed by the graces of the Holy Spirit. And what makes him stand out so much as being a man who has dedicated his all to Jesus Christ? Well it's his personality. It's not just one extraordinary sign, it's his whole disposition.

I'm not excluding any extraordinary sign, but for Stephen I'm making this general observation that it's his whole disposition. You see when you talk about the fullness of the Spirit then surely the very word itself indicates that when a man is walking in a right relationship with God, when he's in a spiritual organic relationship with Jesus Christ, his whole personality is changed, almost transformed would not be a strong enough term. Now this is precisely what we find with Stephen.

Look at the 15th verse of Acts chapter 6, referring to the council, those who are interrogating him, they look steadfastly on Stephen and what do they see? They see his face as it had been, the face of an angel. Do you know what Solomon says? A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness of his face shall be changed. Let me read that, it's a very, it's a proverb tucked away in the book which isn't terribly well known.

A man's wisdom maketh his face to shine and the boldness of his face shall be changed. Now there was something about the personality, something about the very visage of Stephen that indicated that he was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit. His whole personality was impregnated and this is what we should be looking for today.

This is what we should be expecting God to do with our own lives. This lifestyle should be controlled by the Holy Ghost. You remember Cain bore the mark after his sinning on his forehead.

So I say that the men and women who are in direct line who trace their pedigree back to the days of the Acts of the Apostles should bear in their personality marks of the fullness of God's Spirit. This should be evident in their whole being. Someone has said that the face is the dial plate of the soul.

Think that one through, it's rather lovely. The face is the dial plate of the soul. There's a story told of a beggar who was asking a Christian gentleman for alms, asking him for some money.

He didn't know the name of the Christian and this is how he addressed him, you sir with heaven in your face, you sir with heaven in your face. The man recognized that there was something unusual about this fellow who was passing by as he stopped him to ask aid from him. Hudson Taylor tells of a businessman who gave up a very wealthy concern, a very productive concern on the financial level here in this country to serve God in China.

Hudson Taylor says that this man was was full of blessing and boiling over and said Taylor when I followed him to China a little while later on one of my visits I wasn't surprised to find that the Chinese used to refer to this man as Mr. Glory Face, Mr. Glory Face because the love of Jesus was shed abroad in his heart, in his life. It affected his whole personality. Oh my friends how terribly terribly narrow and sometimes pharisaical we are in our approach to the experimental doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

It changes the personality, it changes the soul and if it does not, if his fullness does not change us to this extent then we have to ask ourselves do we really know the fullness of the Spirit as the members of the early church at Jerusalem knew it and as Stephen in particular experienced it. Listen to the psalmist he says the spirit of a man is the candle of the Lord, the spirit of a man is a candle of the Lord and when God lights that candle within its impact is seen without on the face of the man who's had that experience. I referred at the beginning of my address this morning to what Jesus Christ continued to do through the emerging church at Jerusalem and we have seen particularly what he did in the life of an ordinary man made extraordinary by the power of the Holy Spirit, a man called Stephen.

What God through the power of the Holy Spirit did for Stephen God can continue to do for us today and the impact that this man made, an impact to the extent that he surrendered his life physically for the sake of Jesus Christ is an impact that I reckon that we can make today. Indeed I go so far as to say this and I weigh my words carefully, never has there been a time in the history of the Christian church when it has been so necessary for people to live the Stephen life, to be so filled with the Spirit that their whole personality is aglow and that it incenses those who are the opponents to the gospel. For when a man has an organic spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ he makes an impact, either converts on one side or enemies on the other.

Thus it was in the experience of Stephen by the grace of God. May we evidence the same today in our lives. Father, forgive us for the sin of the mere multiplication of words.

Help us on having studied this passage of Scripture, being challenged by the life of this man to covet the gifts and graces that he had, to offer ourselves without qualification as he did in the service of God. In short, to be fully obedient to thy commands and living lives that are pure and therefore having spirits that can receive the fullness of the Holy Ghost. We pray that our lives may count for thee as Stephen's life made an impact upon others.

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the fellowship and friendship of the Holy Spirit be our experience now and until our Savior calls or comes. Amen.