Acts 6.2 Further traits of the spirit filled man

The sixth chapter commences by telling us something of the difficulty that cropped up in the early church at Jerusalem, difficulty because of the looking after of the elderly folk and the disparity between what was claimed to be given to the Hebrew older folk as opposed to the Jews who came from the land of Greece, and the net result was the apostles told the people to select several men who could help in the administration of the church finances. One of these men was Stephen, and not only did Stephen excel as an administrator but also as a preacher. So we commence reading from the eighth verse, 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.

Now in the next verses in the seventh chapter there is a report of Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin. We're picking up the concluding remarks which commence at the 51st verse. 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 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. 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.

He knelt 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 I'd be grateful if you'd have your Bibles open at the passage to which I've already made allusion in the sixth and seventh chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and we continue our inquiry into the phenomenal expansion of the Christian Church.

An expansion which commenced directly after the day of Pentecost when the church was inaugurated. An expansion which, considering all the circumstances, really is quite incredible. One of the reasons why we're looking into the Acts of the Apostles is to inquire concerning the spiritual experience of the members of the early church and to relate or compare that experience to our own.

God forbid that we should ever look into his word purely in an academic fashion. We're concerned, yes, with doctrine but not with doctrine alone. We're concerned with experience, with a confirmation of God's word in our hearts.

Concerned not only to say that we are Christians but to give evidence of our Christianity. And this, I say, is one of the reasons why we're inquiring into the Acts of the Apostles and I'm not apologizing for taking such a long time in this particular series of addresses. They minister to my own heart as well, I trust, as they minister to yours.

You remember our motto text which triggered all this series off at the beginning of the year? A text from the prophecy of Daniel, the people who do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And I reckon that Daniel in one sense was anticipating the New Testament church. Certainly they filled out all the expectations of that prophecy.

They knew God, not just of him, they knew him and they did exploits in his service. And to the extent that we know God this morning, to the extent that we're engaged in his labor, in his work today, then we give him our thanks. We're grateful for every blessing that we receive.

But there are some, I reckon, and I include myself amongst, who still long for more, who still long to know that tremendous movement of God upon us as the early church certainly knew a movement of God's Spirit upon them in the early days of the Christian community's development. Now one of the things that stands out paramountly, I reckon, as you read through perhaps hurriedly these first six or seven chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, is the fact that the members of the early church were propelled by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, and propelled by the Spirit through the Holy Ghost himself, who came upon them and enabled them to attend to the great mandate that Jesus Christ gave of going into the world and proclaiming the gospel. And I say that this spirit propulsion is seen classically in the experience of Stephen.

Indeed, we were looking into some aspects of his very short life last week, and I put it to you that he is an illustration of a man who's filled by the Spirit, a man whose life is effective in the service of God, a man who is successful. And therefore, we can well continue our examination into his life and learn lessons from his experience of God. You know, Stephen's life was phenomenal.

I say that in two senses. It was phenomenal because it was phenomenally short. He was only a Christian for a few weeks, and then his name was put down at the top of the list of the church's honored roll of martyrs.

And then it was phenomenal for another reason, phenomenal in its effectiveness. He being dead still speaks, still challenges the hearts of sensitive people to this day. And I say the phenomenal ministry of Stephen is one that deserves an inquiry into it.

And one of the things that is so evident as you read into the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters, where only his name is mentioned in the Word of God, is the fact that this man knew the power of God in his own life. He was full of the Holy Ghost. Four times directly or by implication, the author of the book, Luke himself, brings this point out.

In the third verse of the sixth chapter, the directions are set down from the disciples to the rest of the membership of the Christian church at Jerusalem as to the characteristics required in the men who should give themselves to the task of administering the needs of the members of the church. Look out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, full of the Holy Ghost. And in the fifth verse, there is really reaction of the members to this particular suggestion.

It pleased them, and we're told they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. And eventually when Stephen has developed a preaching ministry and is brought into a confrontation with certain members of the synagogue at Jerusalem, we notice their observation in the tenth verse. These men were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen spoke.

And then going on into the fifty-fifth verse of the seventh chapter, again we find a similar sort of comment, but Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven. You see the point. It's sustained.

You cannot do anything else but accept it from scripture. Here is a man who was filled with the Holy Ghost, a man who was propelled by the power of God into a successful ministry, a man who was a great warrior for Jesus Christ. And I say that within the experience of Stephen, certain characteristics, certain traits can be deduced which indicate, which give evidence of the spirit-filled life.

I'm not saying that these traits are exhaustive. I'm not saying that there are others that you can also deduce from scripture. But there are two or three here that are self-evident, and I want to inquire into them this morning, to stand them up in front of you, and to ask you and to ask myself, do these characteristics, or are these characteristics found within our own lives? And thus you will see the justification for the address of this morning, for the title of the address, Further Traits of the Spirit-Filled Life.

What is one of these characteristics that stands out in the experience of Stephen? Let me say this. The spirit-filled man is heaven-orientated. The spirit-filled man is heaven-orientated.

Let me clear out of the way what I don't mean, so that you can understand what I'm getting at. There is that stupid adage that says, of some people they're so heavenly-minded they're of no earthly use. I want to say this, that a person who is of no earthly use is certainly not heavenly-minded, and they're definitely not spirit-filled.

A man who is par excellence heavenly-minded and spirit-filled is on this earth a very useful character indeed, and this is what is set down in the life of Stephen, set down by Luke for us all to read and to be challenged thereby. A man who had heaven in his mind, and yet the very thoughts of heaven and the glories that were beyond provoked him into doing exploits for Jesus Christ. Stephen, heavenly-minded.

Yes, it stands out in the last verses of the sixth as well as the seventh chapter, but a man who was given to a practical role in life, who moved from serving tables from mere administration to a proclaiming of the gospel, a man who was practical, a man who had purpose and a sense of objectivity in the life that he lived, a man who, I say, was heaven-orientated, a man who anticipated heaven. You remember how as he was giving testimony to his faith in Jesus Christ before the members of the synagogue at Jerusalem, his face became a light, and they recognized this. They saw something of a stamp of heaven upon him, and all that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

The apostle Paul says, as we have borne the mark of the earthly, so we must bear the mark of the heavenly, and this Stephen, I reckon, anticipated. The spiritual man is always heaven-orientated. It was said of Richard Sibbes, the great preacher in the 16th century from the Puritan stock, of this good man, let it be written, heaven was in him before he was in heaven.

Heaven was in him before he was in heaven. A great preacher by the name of Fletcher of Madeley was drawing to the end of his life service here on earth, and one of his parishioners went to see him at the manse, and the parishioner said afterwards, I went to see a man who I thought had got one foot in the grave, and I came away realizing that I'd seen a man who got one foot in heaven, a man who was heaven-oriented. There was something heavenly about Stephen.

Here is heaven embracing Stephen as he gives a testimony to the council, and his very face is changed. I'm told that when you put a light in a marble vase, that makes the vase translucent, and the Old Testament writer says that it is God who lights the candle within the heart of a man, and when God lights that candle, his personality becomes irradiant. It becomes translucent, as was the experience here of Stephen, a man heaven-orientated.

Fletcher of Madeley, to whom I've already made reference, was not British by birth. He was a Swiss, and on one occasion, he was invited to preach to the French congregation in London, and the church was absolutely packed, not only with the few French settlers that there were in London, but with a congregation composed of non-French speaking people, and they were asked why they went to listen to Fletcher when they couldn't understand what he had to say, and their response was this, we go to look at him because for us, it seems as though heaven beams forth from his countenance. There was something about Fletcher of Madeley which seemed to indicate that heaven was about him, and I say that this same aroma, if you like, this same dew of heaven, it was recognized by those who had contact with Stephen, and this is one of the maturity of spirit fullness.

The man who is filled with the spirit is a man who is concerned for heaven, and always has his eye on his ultimate destination. Listen to Samuel Rutherford in his great hymn, I've wrestled on toward heaven, gained storm and wind and tide, now like a weary traveller that leaneth on his guide, amid the shades of evening while sinks life's lingering sand, I hail the glory dawning from Emmanuel's land. I say that Stephen was a man who was heaven-orientated, as the verses that I have read to you suggest from the sixth and the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, but furthermore, the spiritful man, the spirit-filled man, is Jesus-captivated, Jesus-captivated.

It's interesting that in the final words that left the lips of Stephen on four occasions, he refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you go through the speech that he gave to the Sanhedrin before he was done so foully to death, then you'll have to agree with Spurgeon that that speech, that sermon, was taken up with God. It's a safe deduction that Stephen never saw Jesus Christ in his public ministry, and yet Stephen, although he never saw the Lord Jesus Christ, never met the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on earth, nonetheless enjoyed and cultivated a relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm saying that Stephen comes under the category of those people referred to in one of John's epistles who, having not seen Jesus Christ, yet loved him, and the love that Stephen has for Jesus stands out in these three chapters where reference is made to his experience.

Stephen is as one who endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Now, that's a statement that I, again, plucked from the New Testament. On a merely logical plane, it seems to make no sense at all.

Seeing him who is invisible, it is illogical on the human plane, but it's not illogical on the spiritual plane. It is possible, my friend, to know Jesus Christ. It is possible to develop a spiritual perceptiveness whereby you are aware of the Lord Jesus Christ and his will and his purposes for you.

Jesus captivated the heart of Stephen. Jesus captured him, with the net result that Stephen knew quite a lot about Jesus. He had an amazing discernment.

He is the one person in the whole of the New Testament, from the Gospels onwards, who refers to Jesus by the phrase which Jesus so often used to describe himself, the Son of Man, as though Stephen had discerned that Jesus Christ was indeed the representative man who died for people such as himself to secure their salvation. Jesus was known to Stephen. Stephen was able to discern a great deal concerning Jesus, concerning the verities of the Gospel, and in one sense, he was in advance of all the members of the emerging church at Jerusalem.

Incredible, that, isn't it? Remember, you're not referring to a man who has been in Christ for years, but rather a man who has been in Christ only for a few months. Yet, such is his discernment. He recognizes that Jesus was the representative man who died on the cross of Calvary to save him and others who would respond to the Gospel at Jerusalem.

What is more, Stephen was perceptive. Stephen appreciated what the Old Testament prophet said in the name of Jesus Christ when he uttered the words, look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved. Stephen had looked at Jesus.

Stephen was perceptive. To quote Campbell Morgan, Stephen was farsighted. Usually, we employ that term to refer to someone who expects, who anticipates a situation in the future and therefore, in the present, does certain things to prepare for what is to happen in the future.

Now, using this in a slightly different sense, you can say that Stephen was farsighted inasmuch as he was able to penetrate heaven itself and see the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the experience given to him, most definitely, right at the end of his life. 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.

Such was his perception. And yet, I don't believe that his contact with Jesus, the relationship that he enjoyed with Jesus, was only intimate at the end of his life. No, the evidence of Scripture is against this.

It suggests that this relationship that he enjoyed commenced at the moment he was converted, probably under the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost and right to that moment when he was done to death by the Jews who were responsible for murdering him. And even at death, he was taken into the presence of his Lord. So, I put it to you again that this man, who is so spirit-filled, gives evidence of his spirit fullness by being heaven-orientated and by being Jesus-captivated.

He shows that his eye is upon not the seen but the unseen, not upon the material but upon the spiritual, and that's cultivating heavenly-mindedness. And what is more, he's captured by Jesus Christ. He's enraptured with the Savior.

It comes out in his testimony. It comes out in his personality. And a man who is filled with the Spirit is always enraptured by Jesus Christ.

But let me quickly hasten to what I suggest is another trait discernible in the character, in the personality of Stephen. He is compassionately motivated. He is compassionately motivated.

Stephen exemplifies his Savior. And whenever the Holy Spirit in his fullness takes up residence within our hearts, he makes us more like the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one aspect of his ministry.

What was one of the dominant characteristics of Jesus? Compassion, concern for other people. He came unto his own to minister to them, the Son of Man who sought, who came to seek and to save that which was lost. A man moved with compassion.

And the Spirit-filled man likewise must be moved with compassion concerning those with whom he meets up day by day. What caused Stephen to be a wonder at Jerusalem? What caused his name to become almost a legend in the history of the Christian church? Not a legend in the sense that his ministry was untrue, but a legend in the successful fashion in which he acquitted himself of the ministry to which the Lord Jesus had commissioned him. Was it not that Stephen had a compassion for the people at Jerusalem? They were guilty.

Guilty of what? Guilty of doing something that he by the grace of God had not done from that day he listened to Peter on the day of Pentecost. What were the citizens of Jerusalem guilty of? Resisting the Holy Spirit, resisting the Holy Ghost. Look at verse 51 in the seventh chapter.

He spells it out for the Sanhedrin quite plainly. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did. So do you.

To resist the Holy Ghost is a terrible thing. Ultimately if one continues to do this it seals one's destruction. Stephen realizes this.

He realizes the perilous state of the men and women in Jerusalem and particularly the members of the Sanhedrin court. They are resisting what he has accepted. He is filled with the Holy Spirit and they have rejected the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus and through his body on earth that is the church.

So I say that the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ is seen in the life of Stephen and one would expect it to be if this man is indeed filled with the Holy Ghost. Stephen preaches at Jerusalem because he's concerned the zeal that the Lord Jesus Christ's evidence towards ordinary men and women is taken over to some extent by Stephen as he proclaims the glorious gospel. But then the compassion of Stephen is also borne out by the circumstances which attend the last few moments of his life.

Here he is illegally tried by the Sanhedrin. Well perhaps the trial in itself was not illegal. Certainly the outcome of that trial was definitely illegal and in that he resembles the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you remember how again like the Savior he's taken outside of the city and there he is executed not crucified but stoned. A very awful terrible way of losing one's life. Now how does a spirit-filled man cope with that situation? Here I dare to suggest is an experience the like of which no one in this tabernacle has ever been confronted with.

Now how does a man who is possessed by the Spirit of God react when things are as dark and depressing on the human level in his life as they were for Stephen? Does he still retain a compassion? Indeed he does. For once again you find the Holy Spirit making Stephen like the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the final cries of the Lord Jesus from the cross was concerning those who have brought about his death.

Again I say on the human level, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And what do we discover Stephen saying? He takes the same words of the Lord Jesus and he says, Lord lay not this sin to their charge. The story is told of a vicious slave owner who was one day cruelly treating his Christian slave.

And in a sneering fashion as he brought the whip once again down upon the slave's back, he said, what can Jesus do for you now? Masa, said the slave, Jesus can teach me to forgive you. Jesus can teach me to forgive you. And I want to say it was the forgiving attitude of Stephen that was consequential, that resulted in the eventual conversion of Saul.

Saint Augustine said this, had Stephen not prayed, Paul would have never preached. Had Stephen not prayed, Paul would have never preached. So I put it to you that these are three, and I emphasize they are not exhausted by any means, evidences of spirit fullness, of a life that is propelled by God, empowered by God.

A man who gives evidence to spirit fullness is a man who has a heavenly orientation. He's always looking at what lies beyond. He's never concerned only about the material, but about the spiritual.

And it is this moving on towards the heavenly Jerusalem that is always at the forefront of his mind. Stephen recognized he was but a sojourner, but a traveler passing through this world. And that man is spirit filled to a degree who appreciates the same thing.

We're not here forever. Here we have no abiding place. We look for a city whose maker and whose builder is God.

Stephen recognized that his dwelling on this earth was patently impermanent, that he was moving on towards permanency in the life beyond. A spirit filled man is always heaven orientated. Furthermore, the spirit filled man is always Jesus captivated.

The spirit comes to glorify Jesus, to glorify the Savior in his experience. And he becomes, if you will allow the term, obsessed with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in me, says Paul, the hope of glory.

Another indication, you see, of spirit fullness. And the third thing is this, that the man who's heaven orientated, who's Jesus captivated, is compassionately motivated towards other people who need to have the gospel. Motivated in a compassionate fashion, even when he's under duress, because he's filled with the Holy Ghost.

He is the man who knows in fullest measure what the apostle was praying for on behalf of the Philippian church when he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Traits of a spirit filled man. Indications of what it means to live in the spirit.

Closing chapters in the book of Genesis says this of Jacob, that he went down to his grave full of years. How more wonderful for it to be said of you and of me, as it was of Stephen. He went to his grave filled with the Holy Ghost, and his last words were words of committing himself into the care of the Savior.

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. May we all, by the enabling of God's Holy Spirit, show more and more of these traits within our lives. Amen.

Our Father, we do thank you for the opportunity of coming around your word. And in this matter of spirit fullness, we ask that we might all obtain that inheritance which is ours by Christ Jesus. Strip the prejudices from us, if prejudices there be.

And we ask, O Father, that we may make ourselves completely and utterly disposable in your service. So in all the fullness and the power and the demonstration of the Holy Ghost, come into our lives. Keep us perpetually filled with your spirit, and enable us, O God, to leave a memorial on this earth, as did Stephen, a man filled with the Holy Ghost, whose testimony lives on as an inspiration.

For him and for his ilk, we give you our thanks, and pray that amongst that category of people, we may find ourselves by your grace. Now, Lord, those who have to leave at this juncture, we ask that they shall continue to know the blessing of God upon them, the blessing which comes from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And those of us who remain, Lord Jesus, be with us in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the wine, for your name's sake.

Amen.