Stephen, An Early Interpreter of Christianity
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study: Acts 6: 7 – 10; Acts 7: 54 – 60
Background: Acts 6:1 – 7: Acts 7
Devotional: Luke 23: 32 – 43
Lesson 10 August 8, 2026
Key Verse
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and [a]signs among the people
Acts 6:8
INTRODUCTION
There was a time when any bearer of ‘bad news’ to the king would be in mortal danger of summary execution. The principal character in our Study brought good news to his hearers and suffered a similar fate.
Do you like to bear bad news at any time to anyone? Let’s assume that you have learned the truth and you see those you love around you or even though you might not love stampeding over a cliff, would you tell them the truth?
Or would you feel that you should not take the chance that they will turn on you and tell you that you are stupid and foolish and that your truth is not the real truth?
As young people, when you are going through life, you will be faced with many choices and it will be difficult for you to convey to those young people around you that what they are doing will lead to their damage and maybe complete destruction.
Mind you, sometimes the truth is a very painful thing. The scriptures warn us that it is so painful that people will suppress the truth in unrighteousness and ignore the fact that things will eventually catch up on them.
So you have to learn to be guided by the spirit and so be able to discern those that, will listen to you despite their pain as opposed to those that do not care, and will prefer to go their own way and make their own choices no matter how debilitating those are for them.
But you too, you face choices of your own.
Remember that God loves you and He wants you to understand that His Son the Lord Jesus Christ knows your agony and your lostness, and He has a plan for you personally that will one day remove all of that and despair, and the veil over your eyes from you completely.
In the meantime He will help you to deal with all the problems of life for God intends to take you to a blessed place in the future.
To use a line from a famous movie, He is your only hope.
The questions our Lesson Study poses for us given our knowledge that any bearer of “bad news” might face, are often questions that we like to avoid.
We therefore invite you to think about the first important question which is whether we have the will to share the gospel with others that don’t know Jesus Christ.
This Study Lesson will form the foundation of your study and knowledge of the plan of God and the work and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ your Savior and Redeemer.
This Study Lesson will show you that there have been many people who from the creation of man understood who God was, His love, and God’s determination to save those that come to Him in repentance.
In fact, we hope that this Lesson Study will teach you that God has called many to Him despite their failures and their weaknesses and frailties.
God the Father understands you. His Son has come and lived among you and He knows everything that you feel and everything that you are.
He is right now sitting at the right hand of the Father and is your mediator and He intercedes for you for He intends to save you and bring you to glory.
So you can trust him for He intends to save you.
So we have to ask ourselves the question, What do we need?
Do we need knowledge?
Do we need a reminder of what our task in the world is?
Do we need the will to share what we know?
Do we need guilt feelings of great magnitude because many of us fail to share the Gospel?
Or are you not so sure about which god you do believe in?
Or are you inclined to believe that boldness in your Christian walk is not of primary importance and so you are therefore more interested in your own reputation rather than your reputation of the Gospel?
You might of course have some difficulty in being bold enough to speak the truth to those you face and you need to ask God for boldness just like the apostles and the early believers showed boldness in spreading the Gospel.
It might even be disheartening if your interpretation of love is such that you do not want to offend the people by what you are telling them, and so you are not willing to mirror the kind of ministry that Jesus had.
You might even think that unlike the main person in our Study, Stephen, you do not want to come off as unloving so that you would not want to speak to people the way Stephen did because if you do you do not think you can still be loving.
You know that you should love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you and so you know that you should be bold but you must be “loving” (your definition of loving of course) in sharing the Gospel.
But what does that mean for you?
In considering these things note that there is a discernible difference between Stephen and the rest of the population. The difference is seen in his face. We are told his face was like the face of an angel.
So when you go out in the world, will the world see any difference between you and the rest of the population?
What does your face look like?
Of course, there are related questions in this Scripture passage about the structure of the church, about the qualifications of those who are called to serve, and the attitude of the “chosen servants” whom we in the church today call “deacons” or “deaconesses”.
However how are they to be “chosen”, who should “choose” them, and how are they to think of themselves, and how they are they to behave?
I suspect that if we go into those issues we will feel a little embarrassed about how the Holy Spirit is thinking about us.
Without a doubt these are difficult questions to face up to, but we have to do that if we are serious about our professed love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and or obedience to the will of God the Father.
We hope therefore this Study Lesson will lead you to think about yourself and your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, and make whatever adjustments are necessary as called for by the Holy Spirit.
Let us therefore to assist us in our understanding of what is going on let us examine the Context what was happening in the nation of Israel and in the culture of that time.
The Messiah had come and as predicted by the prophets (read again in Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53) had been rejected by the nation, its people and its rulers.
The Messiah had been rejected and crucified (an extremely satanically devised form of torture) suffered a rather painful death, after he tearfully ascended the Mount of Olives and berated the nation for what they had done, declaring that they would enter a time of extreme pain and suffering and would not be relieved from it until they are prepared to repent and to say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. They would have to go through the time of Jacob’s trouble as outlined clearly in the book of Daniel, the book of Zechariah and other prophets.
We say sadly that all of the predicted events are playing out right in front of our eyes today and we are sad. We therefore can only as instructed pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Soon after the Feast of Pentecost and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, (read for yourself the prophecies of Joel the prophet in his book), the book of Acts introduces several new characters outside the ‘twelve’ to the narrative and prominent among them is a brilliant, young, expositor of Christianity named Stephen.
Some Bible students even say about Stephen that he was Paul before the Apostle Paul came.
He is first mentioned in Acts 6 and his name is first in a list of seven men appointed to urgently oversee a food distribution program to widows in the early church. The administration of this program spawned a problem that threatened the unity of the fledging church. Apparently, the church had quickly outgrown its administrative capabilities and as a result, some problems arose which enabled a form of division and disunity to appear among the people.We note that these were essentially growing pains.
Normally when a number of people in any organization increases and especially if different kinds of people are involved it is inevitable that complaints will arise. One writer comments:
“In this case Hellenist Jews who were not originally from Palestine, complained about the Hebrews Jews who were natives of Palestine. The dispute between the two factions foreshadowed the larger differences between Jews and Gentiles that the apostles will have to mediate later in the book of Acts”.
Does this sound familiar when we look at the current problems in the church?
Do we see people who are striving for leadership and position trying to use Gospel teachings to exercise authority over others and to create divisions and bring in the sin of partiality?
The writer continues:
“In this case, the apostles make sure that the Hellenist widows are taken care of, thereby resolving the dispute. They recognize the importance of the issue while at the same time recognizing that taking charge of the day to day administration of a solution would be for them, a distraction from their calling both to pray and to communicate “” the word which is the gospel.
The apostles don’t even take charge of appointing people to the task; they asked the whole community to appoint seven men to “ serve tables”. Micromanagers they are not”.
All we can say at this stage therefore is that we wish that the church would learn from the Scriptures what the Holy Spirit wants. We wish that there is less weaponization of our presumed concept of authority.
We wish that we would learn that the way of Scripture is the only way, the only source of how we should act, painful though that might be for our personal interests.
At this point, the church was still Jewish but not homogeneous. It was made up of two groups, ‘native Jews’ and ‘Hellenistic Jews’. Native Jews were those born in Palestine and who spoke Aramaic, a language similar to that spoken in the Old Testament. Hellenistic Jews were born outside Palestine, largely in the countries around the Mediterranean and they spoke Greek, plus the language of the country of their residence. The differences in the community were not just limited to language but there were also cultural.
It is easy to understand why differences would develop and one writer describes the tension between Hebrews and Hellenists as follows, and let us give you some additional details about what was happening and why:
“For the most part, Hebrews tended to regard Hellenists as unspiritual compromisers with Greek culture, and Hellenists regarded Hebrews as holier- than- thou traditionalists. There was already a natural suspicion between the two groups, and Satan tried to take advantage of that standing suspicion”.
These slanted perceptions ( let us examine ourselves now) would not be destroyed by their conversion to Christianity, and would only feed suspicion between the two groups.
These differences form the backdrop to a complaint that the native widows were being favored over the Hellenistic widows in the church’s daily food distribution program for widows. There were many poor people in the church
The issue eventually came to the attention of the apostles, undoubtedly to have them personally take charge, as they could be relied on to be impartial. The apostles acted decisively. First, they recognized that the issue was serious, but also that it should not distract them from their more important task, which was the ministry of the Word and prayer. They asked the church to select seven men that met strict spiritual criteria and have them administer the program. The plan met the approval of the entire church.
Note, the seven were to be men. The leaders within the church are to be men. This does not imply a lack of spiritual equality among men and women. God used women throughout church history.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is [a]neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28
The first criteria was the seven had to be men of honest report. They must have a good reputation. They should be men whose integrity and reputation were blameless, not only among the church but also in the eyes of the unbelieving world (1 Tim. 3:7).
The other was they were to be ‘full of the Holy Spirit’. It should be evident from their lives that the men put themselves under the control of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit means being controlled by the Spirit.
As well they were to be full of wisdom. God’s servants must be wise; bearing in mind that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. They are able to apply biblical teaching and principles to practical situations in the Church. Therefore they must be well taught in the Word.
Stephen emerges from this context. He is described as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Within two chapters he moves from an administrator of a food program to a great defender of the faith, an apologist and ultimately a martyr for the cause of Christ.
Let us study the text with an eye to the spiritual markers attached to Stephen and that effective service for God is not necessarily tied to length of service.
THE TEXT
7. The word of God kept spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Good emerged on all sides. The selected leaders were ‘ordained’, the church was better organized, the members had renewed love for each other and because the apostles had more time the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.
… a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. Interestingly Luke adds that many of the priests believed.
The priests saw the community at work first hand, their manner of life, love and care for each other, heard the gospel repeatedly, maybe more than most of the regular citizens of Jerusalem, since much of the community’s activities happened in the Temple precincts.
They saw the organized care of widows, which was a sharp contrast to the way the Pharisees treated widows (Mark 12:38-40); they knew the Scriptures well and more easily connected the dots concerning Jesus Christ their Messiah and the Holy Spirit did His work in their hearts.
Note the immediate result of the healing of dissension in the church.
First, the word of God increased, that is, it was more widely proclaimed.
Second, the effect of the spreading of the word of God was that the truth reached more people and had a great impact on the minds of the people.
The disciples multiplied because men and women were drawn to the truth. They recognized that what they had heard was real, honest and genuine.
Third, many of those men who were employed in performing full-time religious rituals, offering sacrifices, began to be obedient to the truth, for they knew that the sacrifices were pointing to Jesus Christ.
… the faith … This term may have several distinct connotations:
1. Its Old Testament background means “faithfulness” or “trustworthiness”; therefore, it is used of our faithing the faithfulness of God or our trusting in the trustworthiness of God (see Special Topic at 6:5)
2. Our accepting or receiving God’s free offer of forgiveness in Christ
3. Faithful, godly living
4. The collective sense of the Christian faith or the doctrinal truth about Jesus (cf. Rom. 1:5; Gal. 1:23; and Jude 3 & 20).
In several passages, such as II Thess. 3:2, it is difficult to know which sense Paul had in mind.
8. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and [an]signs among the people.
This and the following verses focus on Stephen, one of the seven that was selected by the church to administer the food distribution program. None could have foreseen at the time that two from the group would soon become very prominent;
Stephen as an irresistible apologist for the faith and the first Christian martyr and Phillip as an evangelist, taking the Gospel beyond Jerusalem and Judea into Samaria and beyond.
… full of grace and power … Here Stephen takes the spotlight and added to what we previously knew about him, he was both full of the Spirit and wisdom (vs.3) and was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (vs.5); we read he was full of grace and power and did wonders and miracles.
… Full of grace … refers to the blessing of God on his life and ministry.
This term “power” relates to the next phrase, “performing great signs and wonders”.
…and power. The power which was obvious and proven in his working of miracles.
…was performing great wonders and signs .. This possibly occurred
before his choice as one of the Seven.
Stephen’s gospel message was continually corroborated by his person (i.e., full of grace) and power (i.e., signs and wonders).
… wonders. … this is one of the words commonly used in the New Testament to denote miracles and speaks to the response of witnesses.
Stephen’s ability to perform “signs and wonders” is very significant, as this is usually only said of the apostles. Up to this point, only the apostles were said to have worked signs and wonders.
The distinguishing marks [a]of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by [b]signs, wonders, and [c]miracles. 2 Corinthians 12:12
His ministry to Hellenistic widows we assume gave him a platform and contact with many Hellenistic Jews and much greater exposure and the opportunity to function in a way that was similar to the twelve apostles.
As we know his preaching resulted not only in his death, but in the scattering of the church abroad, and the gospel as well (Acts 8:1).
It also impacted and involved a Hellenistic Jew named Saul, who was to become God’s instrument to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles(Acts 8:1; 9:1).
9. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and [ao]Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.
The first opposition to Jesus had come from the Pharisees who opposed the Lord to His death but were silenced to some degree, by His resurrection.
The Sanhedrin took up the battle against the apostles but appear to have backed off somewhat, heeding the advice of Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-40) and the apostles’ resolute determination.
But no sooner than the threat from the old enemies was receding, that Satan stirred up a new source of opposition to the gospel and this came from the Hellenistic Jews.
They were those Jews born outside of Israel and who migrated to Israel but who still had a separate language and culture, derived from their exile and were first mentioned in Acts 2.
They were some of the ones at Pentecost that heard the apostles speak of the mighty deeds of God in their own native tongues. It is also likely that there would be enough foreign Jews residing at Jerusalem from each of those places to maintain the worship of a synagogue (10 males; and it is certain that there was a number of synagogues at Jerusalem.
It is from one of these synagogues, Synagogue of the Libertines (Freedmen) that a group arose to fiercely oppose Stephen. There is speculation that many of them were former slaves that had been set free by the Romans or released by their former owners. Particularly they are identified as Cyrenians (North Africa),
Synagogue –
1. A building or place of meeting for worship and religious instruction in the Jewish faith.
2. A congregation of Jews for the purpose of worship or religious study.
Alexandrians (Alexandria in Egypt). It was founded by Alexander the Great,
B.C.332 and was peopled by colonies of Greeks and Jews.
Cilicia. This was a province of Asia Minor, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of this province was Tarsus, the native place of Paul, (Acts 9:11.)
It appears that since the soon to be introduced apostle Paul was from this place, and belonged doubtless to this synagogue, it is probable that he was one who was engaged in this dispute with Stephen, (Acts 7:58).
… argued with Stephen. … we are not told the source of the differences these Hellenist had with Steven, but the charges which will be brought against him later (vs. 14) suggest questions of Jesus’ Messiahship, the place of the Mosaic Covenant, the relevance of the Temple, The New Covenant were at the heart of the arguments.
This discussion goes on to this day!
…argued… The word does not denote angry disputing, but is commonly used to mean fair and impartial inquiry and was probable the tone of early discussions.
The tone seems to have changed quickly as they could not answer Steven’s arguments, wisdom and persuasion.
This is not surprising given what we have been told about Stephen so far. We can assume His arguments were rooted in Scripture and his manner and bearing reflected his Savior, Jesus Christ.
10. But they were unable to [k]cope with his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.
We read that Stephen was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. vs.6
The Holy Spirit does not operate in a vacuum, he was obviously well versed in the Scriptures; Faith has an object .
…the wisdom... his knowledge of the Scriptures. theJews regarded wisdom to be an intimate knowledge of their sacred writings and opinions.
Note that the evidence of sincerity, honesty, and zeal in a public speaker, will often go farther to convince his hearers than the most cogent argument delivered in a cold and indifferent manner.
If we assume Saul was one of those who debated Stephen, we can see that not even the brilliant young Saul who told us that he had far exceeded his fellows, could deal with this unusually gifted defender of the faith; such is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Stephen was probably the first great apologist of the faith.
We may note the church is still relatively young at this time. Stephen was not an apostle taught by the Savior. Still his knowledge of Scripture and Christian doctrine was such few could debate him on the Scriptures.
He must have been a diligent student of the Word and so set an example for us!
… Spirit by whom he was speaking … He spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit as Jesus had promised!
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
We will get a further sense of Stephen’s grasp and command of the Scriptures in the following section.
Acts 7: 54 – 60
Chapter 7 focuses on Stephen, one of the men selected to oversee the widows food distribution program in Chapter 6. He had a nascent ministry that ended all to soon but was to be revived and expanded by the Apostles and Paul in particular!
As we look at this section, let us remember that God has sovereignly chosen to allow governments to exist. Governments exist to maintain justice and serve people.
We must recognize however that there are no Christian governments and certainly no governments existing today or in the past, has even come close to following the standards laid down by God. Chicanery, wheeler-dealing, ego building, power lust, abuse of power and all kinds of other sins are typical features of governments.
We have seen the sad spectacle where governments, political groups and individuals have killed people, both pagans and others, supposedly to advance the kingdom of God. But God the Holy Spirit has not asked any nation or army to advance His cause by force.
At the same time, it must be said that Christians are never told to seek death and suffering and to become martyrs, but they must be willing to die for loyalty to the name of Christ. Suffering and death should occur when it is the only alternative to disobedience or denial of Jesus Christ.
We will also see how Christians who die for their faith behave. They will seek to be a blessing to their persecutors and will pray for them.
Note also the reward that those who die for Jesus’ sake receive, they see His face and receive a welcome from Him.
Stephen did not directly defend himself against the charges and denying them up front, but instead recounted the history of Israel in such a way, emphasizing several things, so that the truth about Jesus was proclaimed in an easily understandable way. It was in fact a defence of Christianity.
He recounted God’s promise to Abraham and His faithfulness to Israel through Joseph and was quite clear that Israel rejected even Moses at his first coming, God then calling him and making him ruler and deliverer, despite that first rejection.
He pointed out that Moses then had to deal with an obstinate and rebellious Israel and they repeatedly rejected him.
All through the time that they had the Tabernacle and the Temple, they turned to idol worship and often rejected God and His messengers. Clearly then God could not be confined to a Temple.
Then he levelled the charge against them that the Scriptures had applied to their fathers.
51-53. Their fathers had been rebellious and wilful in rejecting God and His truths and they also were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, that is, spiritually bad, just as their fathers had been.
Stiff-necked meant they were proud and stubborn, with no intention of bowing the neck to God. Their physical foreskin might have been removed, but there was no exposure of their heart to the grace of God.
They had not followed the great men of faith described in Scripture, men such as Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, but were behaving as the godless and idolatrous men of the past, who had always opposed the plan of God.
Their fathers had slain the prophets of God and they now had slain the Messiah of God. One writer puts it this way:“The essential message is, “as Israel was, so are you now; you have become the betrayers and murderers”.
54. The leaders of Israel were convicted in their hearts, but instead of submitting themselves to the Spirit, they were enraged. They could not stand the truth and so they grinded their teeth in anger.
Note their anger was really against God, but was now directed at the person in front of them brining them the truth. Sadly truth invariably offends.
Note that Jesus had often described the behaviour of those in Hell as weeping and gnashing their teeth. Now these people revealed where they belonged. The gnashing of teeth started, with the weeping to come later.
55-56. Note the difference of behaviour in the man of God. He was full of the Spirit and so he fastened his eyes and his expectation on Heaven and not on Hell.
The issue was Jesus and therefore we are told Stephen saw Jesus in His glory standing at the right hand of the Father. One writer comment:
“It is difficult to describe exactly what Stephen saw; going beyond the plain description of the text is purely speculative.”
It is significant that Jesus is standing here, as opposed to the more common description of Him as sitting (Matthew 26:64, Colossians 3:1) at the right hand of the Father.
Jesus stands in solidarity with Stephen at this moment of crisis; He does not unpassionately react to the problems of His people. Jesus stands to give a “standing ovation” to Stephen, whose fate makes him unique among believers, – the first of all martyrs among the followers of Jesus.”
57. The rebellious and stubborn ran at Stephen, the word used is the same as describing the mad rush of swine in the sea described in Mark 5:13.
Before this they cried as if they were getting their spirits up to fight. They then stopped their ears, for they could not bear to hear any more truth. This was an out-of-control mob, an extreme personal reaction by educated and powerful men.
58. They were so enraged and out of control that they forgot the demands of Roman law and executed Stephen according to Jewish law. This was extreme. They forgot what the Romans could do to them for this type of action.
We are now introduced to Paul, who stood there as a kind of supervisor to these illegal and unjust actions. He had voted against Stephen in the Council and consented to his death; he kept the clothing of those that did the stoning. He too was guilty of murder.
59-60. Stephen trusted God. This trust never wavered. He believed and was persuaded that Jesus would take care of him in life and as well as in death.
His last words must have made a great impression on God, for God answered his prayer, saving Paul and through his ministry brought life to millions.
The death of this first martyr brought the mighty apostle to the Gentiles and it is clear from the writings of Paul that he never forgot this scene.
CONCLUSION
Let us summarize Stephen’s teachings as he correctly interprets Christianity.
If you are out of sync with him you do not have authentic Christianity.
The only solution is to repent and to place yourself under the gracious and merciful hand of the living God.
To answer to the charge against him is that Moses himself has said that things are going to be changed. And how is this going to be done?
God will raise up a prophet who like himself would speak to the people and give them a whole new set of directions from God. That prophet would be called the Messiah.
Messiah had come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Messiah would be the one who had made all things and made the material from which the temple was made. It was He who had made men and who had put the building of the temple together.
God has arranged it in such a way that God would be worshipped not in a building made with hands but as Isaiah said.
The temple would not always be an adequate place to worship God.
Note that this teaching applies to the place of the church buildings that we all seem to worship. Never forget that the temple is “you”. It is not the elaborate edifice that man has constructed.
You should be aware that if you admire and revere the building you have created you are actually identifying yourself with the godless and idolatrous forces that had opposed men of faith throughout the history of Israel. That is paganism. You are the temple and you are to treat the temple of God appropriately and offer spiritual sacrifices for you are the temple.
Then Stephen made it clear that Abraham was a man of lifelong faith, and he therefore changed the pattern of his life in obedience to God leaving his own country and even his father’s house and going into a land he had never seen before. Though he had no child he believed that God would give him descendants and God would honor that promise.
The same principle applied to Joseph the Patriarch. He was a man of integrity and truth who believed God and God took him through deep waters and dark places but eventually exalted and honoured him and fulfilled His word to him in everything He had promised.
Similarly, Moses who had been guilty of the sin of murder had been called by God and charged with leading the people of Israel. Moses had been a failure for the first 40 years of his life even though he had learned the wisdom of the Egyptians. He thought that human knowledge and resources could solve all the problems of himself and his people and he fell on his face for that. It was only when Moses gave himself over to the leading of the Holy Spirit and act by faith that he succeeded in his magnificent task.
Moses had been given “living oracles”, not the rigid religious customs and traditions of the prophets that the people of Israel had then created for themselves and were then following.
Recognize therefore that there is more to the law than Stephen’s accusers had recognized.the people of Israel had been unable to keep the law because they continually turned away from the Lord. They did not seem to understand that the law of Moses as the Apostle Paul later taught, was a “ Guardian”, a “tutor” to lead them to the Messiah, to the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same principles apply to you as applied to Abraham, Joseph, and Moses.
You must learn from their examples. This is what Stephen is teaching us today.
So, Stephen has taught you the Gospel.
The apostle Paul and the other apostles have elaborated this teaching, expanded it, given you all the details you need to know, so that you cannot think that you will please God by ignoring or openly defying apostolic doctrine.
We pray that this Study Lesson will teach you the important principles from Scripture that you need to know.
This event brought the first phase of the church’s expansion to an end. Now the Apostles were pushed out into Judea and into the uttermost parts of the earth.
The forgiving attitude of Stephen was the same as the attitude of Jesus on the Cross. This attitude is one that is required from us today.
Note the tender description of Stephen’s end. He is said to have “fallen asleep”.
Note also that Stephen was not a superman but was simply a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Those filled with the Spirit will be used mightily by God.
It is noteworthy that when we want to know what it is like to be filled with the Spirit, this is what it is like. We are therefore shown by Scripture that much of what goes by the name of the ‘filling of the spirit’ is simply untrue.
Those filled with the Spirit will behave as Jesus did. No deviation.
We can ask if the Gospel could have outlived the Apostles. When we look at the existence of men like Stephen and the other deacons and at the new converts like Paul, Timothy and others, we must answer a resounding yes.
The men and women of God will always appear as God directs. We can see them by their beliefs, their life and their fruits.
The Spirit makes us loving. He directs and guides us to be bold and to spread the Good News of the salvation which is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember we are the Temple of God. We must without doubt keep the words of Psalm 27:4 riveted in our hearts. It reads:
“One things have I asked of the lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to enquire in his temple”.
Jesus will make Himself known to all generations, and all generations will behave as Jesus behaved, with no dilution.
We do not know why God chose to cut off such a gifted and faithful servant at such a tender age.
But we know that in these sad experiences, God is working to produce the greater good.
Stephen would be proud that his behaviour had such an impact on Paul, softening his heart and troubling him, so that the Holy Spirit would as He had wished, bring Paul to a quick change of life and direction.
God used strange methods to break people out of their routine and to get the message of the Gospel out to the world. When we look around us, we see that He is doing much of the same.
What more can He say!
Be faithful to God, and follow His truth always.