The Face of an Angel – Acts 6:8-15

The Book of Acts is filled with some of the greatest of all God’s servants.

And of course, at the top of the list are Peter and Paul.

As we have already seen, Peter has preached some powerful and theological sermons,

And we shall see that the preaching of Paul turned the whole world up-side down.

But are you aware that the longest sermon in the Book of Acts, was not from either of those men?

Deacon Stephen preached the longest sermon of this book.

In Acts and the Gospels we learn much about the character and personality of PETER,

And throughout the most of the rest of the New Testament, we learn about the person of PAUL.

And from the Biblical record we can see some of the sins and flaws of those two Apostles.

But the Bible doesn’t tell us about any of the flaws of Stephen.

It’s not that he didn’t have sins and weaknesses, but they aren’t described for us.

I have no idea at this point, how many messages that we’ll have from Stephen’s message.

It might be one, or it might be a dozen.

I know for a fact that there is a great deal of important theology that he presents to the Sanhedrin.

But before getting to the message, I think that it’s important to learn a little about the messenger.

Let’s think about his character, his ministry, his attackers and his demeanor.

I confess to taking some scriptural declarations and making some suppositions about them.

But whether or not they are precisely true of Stephen, they are all necessary and applicable to us.

We don’t know much about Stephen’s CHARACTER, but we see a few things.

For example, Stephen was a man FULL OF FAITH.

This was so impressive a characteristic that Luke had to tell us twice.

But what does it mean?

Well, it’s not talking about his doctrine nor the bond that tied him to his Saviour.

It isn’t referring to the fact that he was a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Apparently, Stephen was a man who lived in constant dependence upon the Lord – faith.

I think that this faith was probably evidenced in his continual reliance upon PRAYER.

Through prayer it is possible for someone to link everything that he does to the Lord.

Isn’t there is a constant need for the Lord’s protection?

If you were leaving tonight after the service to drive down to Lawton, Oklahoma

To attend the Missions Conference of the Bethel Baptist Church,

You might pray for the Lord’s protection before you left the driveway.

But don’t you need it as much to drive home as you do to drive to Oklahoma?

But here is a question: “Is it an act of faith – or unbelief — to ask the Lord for protection?”

Some might argue that we pray because we are in doubt.

Is that always the case?

And isn’t there a constant need for direction and wisdom in our daily lives?

We can ask for that direction either in faith or in doubt.

Stephen was probably a man of prayer, but his prayer life gave evidence of genuine faith.

And coupled to that I’m sure that he was a man of THANKSGIVING too.

Not only did he, in faith, ask for the Lord’s blessings, but when they were given he responded in praise.

And have you ever noticed that thanksgiving can be expressed with faith, or without faith?

For example, it is possible to express thanksgiving in such a way that it evidences surprise.

But when Stephen praised God for answered prayer it spoke of faith-filled assurance.

“Thank you, Lord, I knew that you would bless me.”

Stephen was a man full of faith, and so he wasn’t the least bit worried about his life.

He awoke in the morning with confidence of God’s blessing,

And he pillowed his head at night in peace.

He had learned to “cast all his care upon God, because he knew that the Lord cared for him.”

Perhaps as much as anything else in his life, this was what made him a great servant of God.

Do you have that kind of faith?

Secondly, Stephen was a MAN OF POWER.

“And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.”

I think that verse tells us that the power that we are talking about was that of the Holy Spirit.

We have all heard the proverbial question: “What came first the chicken or the egg?”

Of course, when people use the question, they are implying that we don’t know.

But the fact is, there is a Biblical answer: through creation, the chicken came before the egg.

What came first for Stephen: his faith or the power of the Holy Spirit?

I think that there is no doubt but that the Holy Spirit came first.

Firs,t because not even Christians can be what they need to be for God through their own strength.

“With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” but without Him I can do nothing.

Secondly, faith is a part of the fruit of the Spirit.

Isn’t Stephen the poster-child for Galatians 5:22-25?

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

The power of the Holy Spirit enabled this man to walk by faith, not just by sight.

And it also equipped him for the great ministry that he had.

When we come to Stephen’s address before the Sanhedrin, we see more of his character.

We notice his BOLDNESS, which came directly from his faith and God’s power.

Despite the fact that he knew the hatred that these man had toward his Master,

And despite the fact that he knew what power they had against his life,

Still he told them what they needed to hear:

“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”

“The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.”

A person might argue that Stephen was far from being safe, but that wasn’t true.

Even if they dragged his body out of town and stoned him to death he was safe in the arms of Jesus.

“All things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

And something else we see about this man was his FORGIVING NATURE.

“And they stoned Stephen [while he was] 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.”

There was no anger, no revengeful spirit, no defiance, no resistence in Stephen when Saul ordered his execution.

“Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

This may have not been a part of Stephen’s area of responsibility, but it was his life and he was a man of faith.

At the very least he could do was ask the Lord to save the souls of his executioners.

And we know that there was at least one of those men whose sin was not laid to his charge.

The man overseeing Stephen’s death was Saul of Tarsus, whom the Lord graciously and miraculously saved.

Saul’s sins were charged to the account of the Lord Jesus.

Did Stephen die believing that God would save Saul of Tarsus from his sin?

All that I can tell you for sure was that he was a man of faith.

I realize that the record that we have of this man’s life only lasted a few weeks at most,

But the Bible tells us some wonderful things about this man’s character,

And it doesn’t describe a single flaw in his character, or a single sin in his life.

Oh, that we were more like Stephen.

The Bible does tell us just a little about HIS MINISTRY, and ths is very instructive.

Stephen was not a pastor in the church of Jerusalem.

He was not an ordained preacher, licenced pastor, or an Apostle of the Lord.

He was a deacon, a servant of the church.

He probably wasn’t the church janitor, because they didn’t have a building to janit, but in another time and place he might have been.

As I tried to say last Sunday and Wednesday, Stephen was, in a sense, just one of the church members.

He had made himself available to serve the widows and orphans of the congregation, but he wasn’t one of the pastors.

Yet that didn’t change the fact that he had a heart, a brain, two feet and a mouth.

He might have never been asked to put a 3 point sermon together to for the church on Sunday morning, but that didn’t keep him from sharing with people what he knew about the Lord.

“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things?”

I wonder how many of the members of the church were given the ability to work signs and miracles?

Logic and a knowledge of human nature tells us that it wasn’t everyone,

But did these gifts extend beyond the apostles and deacons?

Certainly, it required faith and a nearness to the Lord, things which were not enjoyed by everyone.

But that doesn’t mean that more of the membership didn’t enjoy this power.

Stephen was used of God to help people, both physically through these miracles, and spiritually through his ministry of the gospel.

And that produced the DEMONIC COUNTER-ATTACK.

I have a hard time explaining what is described in verses 9 and 10.

“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.”

Apparently as a result of the wonders and miracles, Stephen was confronted by some of the members of one of the synagogues in Jerusalem.

The word “synagogue” refers to a congregation.

By strict definition, there is a sense in which we are a synagogue of the saints.

But since there is a Jewish overtone to the word, I think that we’ll refrain from calling ourselves a synagogue.

“A church of the Lord Jesus Christ” is a much better title.

I can’t tell you how many synagogues there were in Jerusalem, but there were apparently several.

And they seemed to evolve around ethic and cultural differences.

Those who attended this synagogue were primarily Grecians and foreign born Jews.

The word “Libertines” is not as evil-sounding as it first appears:

In English it refers someone who acts without any moral restraints,

But that is not the Greek meaning; this refers to people who had been set at liberty.

These may have been former Roman slaves or the children of slaves who were given their freedom and who returned to their Jewish homeland.

There were also former residents of Cilicia, the province of Asia and Cyrene.

Some of the other included Jews from Alexandria, Egypt.

Cyrene and Alexandria were famous for their centers of learning.

I wonder if the people of this synagogue thought of themselves as superior to those of other congregations.

One of the people in this group was the persecutor, Saul, who came from Tarsus, Cilicia.

These people, with Saul in the foreground, despite signs and wonders from heaven itself,

Began to quarrel with Stephen about the doctrines and power behind the miracles.

The Lord Jesus was often in the same kind of situation,

And he once confronted his enemies with the question:

“Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?”

The reply was essentially the same here as it was with them.

“The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”

Stephen didn’t make himself out to be God, but he pointed to the Lord Jesus and said that he was.

Verse 10 says, “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.”

They had no reply to the miracles, but they did against the message and the messenger.

But their reply was rebuffed by the logic and scriptures of the saint of God.

When unthinking and superstitious people are confronted with the fallacies of their false faith they don’t have many choices.

They can retreat and return home licking their wounds.

Or they can retaliate with blind and irrational rage.

These people made a counterattack against the truth and its servant with deception, out-right lies, mob-stirring and calling on their big brothers to come fight for them.

They subborned men against him – they hired false witnesses.

They used the same attack that was laid against the Saviour,

They showed some hired guns how to twist Stephen’s words into something that they could use against him.

I believe that the Old Testament shows that the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed again.

I’m sure that Stephen, in the Christ’s name, reiterated Zachariah and other old prophets.

But these false accusers twisted it to mean that Christ Jesus would destroy the temple.

I believe that Old Testament shows that the ceremonial laws of Moses would be brought to an end.

Stephen repeated those predictions.

In the year 70, when Titus lead the Roman army demolishing Jerusalem, the traditions of Moses came to a screeching halt.

But these men stated that Stephen spoke blasphemous words against Moses and against God.

They said that he said that Jesus would change the customs which Moses delivered to them.

I can see some basis to the charges that were laid against Stephen,

And yet at the same time they weren’t exactly what he would have taught.

But that didn’t matter, because half-truths are totally acceptable by the Devil’s crowd.

And then look at them stir up the people.

This was exactly what they did a few months earlier, just before the crucifixion.

Does this indicate a pattern?

Is this the way that things were done in those days?

When the people were stirred up, then their elders had to get stirred up.

Then eventually, the authorities were summoned, and Stephen was publically and forcefully arrested.

All for being a blessing to the people of the city and declaring that it was done in the name of the Lord Jesus.

But look at Stephen’s DEMEANOR.

I suppose that this was really a part of his character, but since it comes at the close of the chapter let’s set it apart.

His face was, as it had been, the face of an angel.

What does the face of an angel look like?

Have you ever seen the face of an angel?

I suppose that sometimes they could look angry as they gaze upon the blasphemous deeds of men.

At times they probably display surprise at the unbelief and the stupidity of man.

But these are obviously, not what Stephen was showing right here.

What did the face of this deacon look like?

Did the radiate the glow of the shekinah glory of God? I doubt it, but I couldn’t say.

I picture it as serene and peaceful.

I visualize it looking towards heaven for direction, approval and strength.

But other than this, I couldn’t say exactly what it was that Luke meant here.

I just hope that some day, when it is really important, that I might have whatever it was that Stephen had.