peace . love . joy

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

~ Acts 6: 1-5, 8-15

Here is the prelude to Stephen's speech in chapter 7.

Stephen was probably a Hellenistic Jew, just as Philip possibly was too. A Hellenistic Jew is not a Hebrew Jew. Hellenists are Greek-speaking Jews and come from Asia Minor and North Africa (Alexandria, etc.). They were claimed to have been looked down upon by the Hebrew Jews, but not totally excluded and discriminated against like the Samaritans, who were historically and genetically half-Jews.

Regardless of his heritage and birthplace, Stephen was a man full of faith, faith not in anything and everything; specifically, faith in Jesus being the Christ, and faith in God. He was one filled with the Holy Spirit that empowered him to do, and speak as we shall see later on, wondrous things in God's name and for God.

In chapter 7, which was posted couple of days back, it is evident that Stephen was no dunce. He was very likely very much on par with the elders of the synagogue in terms of Old Testament knowledge. He knew his faith intimately. But this knowledge was coupled with wisdom. I do believe that this wisdom was evident in Stephen's speech later on; he knew what to do with his knowledge, he knew how to present his knowledge, and he knew, comprehended his knowledge in a manner that the sanhedrin, who were supposed to be knowledgable and wise with regards to the Old Testament at least, did not. I do believe that this wisdom was bestowed on him by the Holy Spirit as a gift, a reward from God to Stephen for his faithfulness, a necessity in light of the trial that Stephen will face.

But even men full of God and full of the fruits of being full of God face trouble: the people rose up against and disputed with Stephen.

This group of people, from Asia, Cilicia, Alexandria and Cyrene are Hellenistic Jews. The very group from which Stephen himself probably came. I don't know, but even if you honestly have nothing else in common with the "people back home", or people who come from the same physical location as you did, you still feel a strange belonging to that group. We, Chinese, refer to that group as 乡下人, said with a tinge of sentiment. This is probably a very "Asian" thing, though. But to make the playing field level for all, how would you feel if your family, your neighborhood, turns against you?

It won't be easy, and you might even question yourself. But Stephen, full of the Spirit, full of faith and full of wisdom and knowledge, stood firm in his stand because he knew he was right.

And the people could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking!

They could not stand against, not Stephen, but the wisdom and the Spirit! The Spirit was much too powerful for them. The operations of the Spirit were much too formidable, forceful, compelling for them. You see, it was never about us. But it was, no is always about God: the one for whom we seek to bring glory.

Luke 21:15 says that God will give us words, along with wisdom, that none who are against us will be able to resist, oppose, or refute, prove wrong.
The evidence of God fulfilling this promise is so blantantly present here!
If God leads us to a place, to a situation, to a person(s), He will surely prepare us beforehand. He knows what we lack and what we need. He knows just how much too. We can rest assure on that point.

If God be for us, who can be against us?

~ Romans 8: 31b

So what did the defeated people do?
They sure did not stay defeated, in one sense that is. They did what they knew next best: they used numbers and human authority. They stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, they came down upon him and seized him, they made him stand trial in the Sanhedrin court.

And they accused him of fundamentally three things:
1. blasphemy against God
2. blasphemy against Moses
3. Speaking against the Temple

If you notice, these accusations were in essence what Jesus was accused of few years back.

But one verse draws my attention: (vs. 15) his face was like that of an angel.
Strange isn't it? How can you compare a face to that of an angel, when you have probably not seen an angel before, or not known it was an angel you were looking at?

Some people say that it was a metaphor. That Stephen's face was like that of an angel because he knew what he was doing; he knew he was doing the bidding of the Lord. He knew he was correct in his stand. And so because of such empowerment and affirmation by the Spirit, Stephen's face betrayed his inner emotion: confidence and conviction.

But even so, if you were an elder of the synagogue, if you knew your Old Testament, there were other such people whose face shone, possibly not too different from the way Stephen's face shone. Moses was one such. His face shone when he descended from Mt Sinai, bringing with him the Old Covenant from the Lord God to the people. If the council could just stop and reach back into their minds and see that, they would have postulated Stephen as being like Moses, not against Moses, and that he was bringing the New Covenant from the Lord God to them. But they could not, or perhaps would not, see that.

How good are we with God that we know when exactly we are doing His bidding?

How well do we know God in terms of who He is; His character, His traits?

How well do we understand God's Word that we never engage a moment without His voice in our minds and hearts?

How convinced, how convicted, how confident are we of our faith?

One thing is for certain though, Romans 8:31.