The Church of the Resurrection of Peace

12/02/08

The Acts of the Apostles-Week 9

Chapter 6

Verses 8-10

1.      verse 8…”Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power…” this is the first mention of someone other than the Apostles that was full of God and named specifically. “…did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.” This is also the first mention of a specific person doing any of the power ministry works (signs and wonders) other than the Apostles. FOOD FOR THOUGHT: As happens in all works, churches, etc, everything will get too big for the original starters of the work to do everything. There will be others that will come in that will be fully capable to carry on and expand the work even with some new ideas and focus. The hard part is for the starters to release some of this authority (Power?). Resurrection of Peace will face this one day and perhaps sooner than we think. Will we be able to “let go” and allow the Stephens that God sends us do what they were sent to do?

2.      verse 9…”Opposition arose…from the members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen”. NOTE: It seems that when one, literally one, is willing to step out boldly for God there are 100 that will defy the effort, even kinsmen. All of these men were former slaves and all were Grecian Jews as was Stephen. It is possible that some of these Greeks were country men of Stephens and of course they were fellow “God fearers” or Jewish converts. “These men began to argue with Stephen…” We are not told what the argument was about specifically but possibly was an echo of the problem that Peter and the Apostles had with the Sanhedrin. Due to the disparity of the Freedmen, it is possible that Paul (then Saul) was a part of the argument. Paul was around Jerusalem in that he was there for the stoning of Stephen as we will see later (7:58).

3.      verse 10…”But they (the Freedmen)could not stand up against his (Stephen’s) wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke” It sounds as if the Freedmen had little to say in the “argument with Stephen. It is very hard to have an argument when only one is speaking. We see here the use of the human side of Stephen using the wisdom that he had been given, but also allowing the Holy Spirit to speak as well.   FOOD FOR THOUGHT: This power and wisdom that Stephen had and spoke with, has it been lost to the Biblical days and the early church because the early church in its infancy needed this extra strength and power? What power do we have now, if any? If this power is still ours to use, then we are without excuse in sharing the Gospel anywhere and everywhere, to anyone and everyone, and anytime, day or night.