The Faith of Stephen

8Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. 10They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. 11Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council, 13and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. 14For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” 15All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

Because God has power, he pays no regard to human ability when he calls someone to a task. What he does examine is whether that person has a sound character and a heart made ready to obey. The goals and plans God has set are weighty, but what counts most of all is the attitude of the one who joins him in that work. No strategy matters more than the person, for depending on their character and judgment the work may have to begin all over again: will they obey to the end like Moses, or turn back to the world halfway like Demas? Therefore we need people of sound character and good disposition. Every five years we elect a president and entrust the nation to them. A president’s competence, and how deeply they love the people, can change the nation’s future. A leader with sound judgment, outstanding wisdom, and ability can change an organization for the better. But if the leader is negative about everything, foolish, and without discernment, the organization will slide into decline of its own accord.

Of the seven deacons the disciples appointed, Stephen was a man well prepared, one who fulfilled the calling God gave him with remarkable wisdom. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and understood the word deeply, which is how he knew clearly what God wanted of him. Jesus called twelve men to be his disciples and revealed to them the mysteries of heaven, and through them he made it possible for the Kingdom of God to spread. Sadly, there was also the matter of Judas Iscariot, whose place went to Matthias. Yet the Spirit came upon the disciples in great power, and they took hold of a faith entirely unlike anything they had known before. That is how the gospel reached Jerusalem and then the whole world. We too need this assurance and this sense of calling. If we have truly received the Spirit, we must live by faith and by the assurance that we have been born again. Only then can the church be transformed by the word, and beyond that, lead many souls to God.

All twelve disciples died as martyrs. Their deaths show that the work of the Holy Spirit gives a strength able to overcome the world for the sake of Jesus Christ. When the disciples Jesus had called were changed, those who followed them were changed too; when the disciples were filled, their followers overflowed with the same fullness; and that abundant grace is coming upon us even now.

When the disciples became too busy preaching the gospel to look after the affairs of the church, seven workers full of the Holy Spirit were chosen from among the laypeople and appointed as deacons. The deacons were entrusted with the church’s organization, finances, and ministries, so the disciples could now give their whole attention to preaching the word. Once Stephen and six other faithful members had been appointed deacons, the number of disciples grew still larger, and even a company of the priests who offered sacrifices became obedient to the word of Jesus Christ. That is how wholeheartedly the deacons served. And it tells us this: the growth of the Kingdom of God, its spiritual growth, depends in the end on the kind of faith with which the church gives itself to his work.

The Korean church today has become a vast organization, but the word it preaches has been distorted. It does not know the Lord’s will and works by its own ideas, with the result that the mighty work of the Holy Spirit is not taking place. When the church lives only for itself, God will surely put it through the fire. The believers of the early church were content with their own salvation and would not commit themselves to his work. God scattered them abroad, for he needed to use the word they knew. He made them suffer persecution, and in their fear of it they fled in every direction. And so the gospel was carried to the whole world.

God’s work is focused on one thing alone: the saving of souls. He called his people, and he blesses them, so that through those he has saved he may save still more. According to God’s plan, the apostle Paul set out on a mission to the nations of the world, and through the devotion of those who served in it, a great many Gentiles were saved. The church in Jerusalem grew into a church for the whole world because of God’s plan in choosing and using a man named Paul. God calls Paul his chosen vessel for the salvation of the Gentiles, and from this we learn that when God chooses someone, he has already planned where he will use them before he calls them. Yet if those he has chosen will not devote themselves to him, God will set his plan back a little and look for someone else. That is why the church’s obedience is needed.

The early church divided its work into the saving of souls, care for the poor, administration, and finances. Whatever task fell to Stephen, he served in it with his whole life. What kind of man, then, was Stephen? He strove to resemble Jesus in his life, his thoughts, and his will, and he did his utmost to live as Jesus taught. Though a layman, he had a faith that fully grasped the truth and a character people could trust. Through the fullness of the Holy Spirit he possessed mature faith and power, and as a man of God of that stature he was an instrument fit for God’s use.

Acts 6:8

8Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

By faith Stephen performed the wonders and signs that Jesus had performed. He healed the sick, and by driving back Satan through the word and with authority, he rescued many people from spiritual death. He carried spiritual authority, which is why he was full of the Holy Spirit. He preached the gospel soundly, true to the word of truth, and the church loved and respected him for it. Though he bore every mark of a saint, he served with humility, a faithful and born-again worker, chosen by God, who laid down his life.

Acts 6:9-10

9But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines”, and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. 10They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

The work of the Holy Spirit that had begun in Jerusalem now broke out in city after city, and people were shaken. The message of one who understood the word and had been clothed with the fullness of the Spirit was the Spirit’s own work, something that those whose faith was merely theoretical, and those who kept the law, could never understand. That is what stirred up the conflict.

Those who followed pagan religions, those who worshiped idols, and those whose faith was built on the law gathered in one place to attack Stephen. But no one could stand against him, for what he said about Jesus Christ and the work of God was true, and he told it just as it was. It went so far that, in Acts 7:1, the high priest turned and asked Stephen whether these things were so.

Just as the apostle Paul resolved to preach nothing except Jesus Christ, Stephen too preached nothing but Jesus Christ. When someone who has grasped the truth argues with someone who repeats what they have been taught, the one who speaks the truth cannot be defeated. With deep and wide insight into Jesus, Stephen set spiritual truth and historical fact before those who were persecuting Christ. We too need this knowledge of the gospel. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, proclaim the word boldly, and earn the trust of those who hear us.

The leaders of the early church, filled with the word, were also leaders in society, God’s workers who stirred the hearts of the people and brought salvation to their nation. Regrettably, churches today are growing in numbers but declining in spirit. The church ought to be raised to a higher stature by the fullness of the Holy Spirit, yet the greed of its leaders and the lusts of its members are hiding the glory of Jesus Christ. The church today has not been born again, so it looks much like the world; and because it is so spiritually immature, it falls at even the slightest attack of Satan. Even if we cannot keep pace with Jesus Christ, we must never drag his glory down into the world.

Stephen obeyed even to the point of death in order to reveal the glory of God. He knew that the high priest would set up false witnesses and take his life to keep him from preaching the truth; yet because he was not afraid to preach the word, he was stoned and died a martyr. The high priest could find no way to stop Stephen except by bringing in false witnesses. So, as false witnesses had been set up to put Jesus to death, the high priest had Stephen killed as well, to silence the truth.

Even today we now and then see people who have been grievously wronged: framed as murderers by false witnesses, sentenced to death, and only later released as innocent. Every one of them bears a face twisted and full of rage. Stephen, too, now faced a desperate situation, about to be put to death on the word of false witnesses; he could not escape with his life unless he abandoned the truth.

As they listened to the false witnesses the high priest had set up, everyone would have been watching closely to hear how Stephen would defend himself. But contrary to their expectations, his face did not twist, and he did not rage. Standing in the court, even before the false witnesses, Stephen preached the word with the face of an angel, a face only someone who has met Christ can have. He knew why he must forgive, and he knew why Jesus Christ had come in the likeness of sinful flesh. So he did not grow angry, nor did he try to escape the situation. The reason was the one Jesus gave God in his final moments: they did not know what they were doing. Whatever Stephen might say now, their eyes and ears were covered, and they would not change. Knowing this, Stephen began his sermon quietly and with an earnest heart. With strength and with sincerity, he began to proclaim Jesus.

The face of an angel is hardly something anyone can put on. To stand bold on the edge of death, before the very people who mean to kill you, is possible only for someone whose hope is set on heaven. Stephen could wear an angel’s face even as he was dying because he longed for the Kingdom of God more than for this world. His body was still bound to the world and could not escape the slanders of others; but his soul was already beholding God and rejoicing, and that is how he would have been able to overcome so fearful a moment.

Because he was full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen could see the Lord standing at the throne. He told them plainly what he saw, the heavens opened and the Lord standing at the right hand of God; but they shut their eyes, stopped their ears, and hurled stones at him.

For anyone to forgive another’s sin in the face of death would be hard unless they had put off greed and lust on the cross with Jesus Christ. It cannot be done without understanding the agony Jesus bore in carrying the cross for them, and without the faith that dies to the world with him. No one whose hope is in this world could ever show the love it takes to forgive people who rush at them with clenched teeth while they are preaching the truth for their attackers’ salvation.

But Stephen was a spiritual man. He loved people and fully understood the work of salvation, and that is what made it possible. However great one’s faith, it is no easy thing to give one’s life willingly for a Kingdom of God that cannot be seen. And to sacrifice oneself in order to save the souls of others, not one’s own, and to clothe them with the glory of God would be harder still.

The people of the world want those who have strength and ability. They exalt and honor those who hold power and authority, and they allow such people to rule over them. But as time goes on, the powerful will turn a hard face toward the people who raised them up, treat them with contempt, and exploit them to gain still more. Spiritual people are different: the more of God’s grace they receive, the more they honor others, sharing what they have so that others may have more grace.

When our souls experience God’s holiness and fullness and behold his throne, our faces will shine like the face of an angel. Moses’ face shone in the same way, so brightly that the people could not bear to look at him. Without exalting ourselves, and without anyone else exalting us, the light of glory that God gives makes our faces shine. This is the light of glory we must give off by faith. Then, like Stephen, we will meet our final moment with wisdom, and God will surely welcome us gladly. A life lived as Stephen lived, looking forward to that final moment when Jesus waits with open arms, is a blessed life.

Acts 6:10

10They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

Stephen’s face could become the face of an angel because the Holy Spirit was working mightily in him. The Spirit gave him a joy the world could never match and a heart full of thanksgiving, and that is why he could wear an angel’s face. Rather than being afraid as he watched the people stoning him, Stephen would have been thinking of Jesus, who forgave those souls even as he was nailed to the cross. The same Spirit who had helped Jesus pray for their sins to be forgiven was now helping Stephen’s faith, and so he would have been able to forgive them and, beyond that, to love their souls.

Stephen saw the people holding stones, ready to kill him. He saw the evil in their hearts; but because this moment was the last one given to him, he began to pray for their souls. Jesus made Stephen able to embrace the love of the cross. That love comforted his faithful heart and enabled him to forgive the ignorant sin of those who held the stones.

They claimed to see and hear, but where the truth was concerned they were blind with their eyes open, deaf to everything but the voice of the world. However much Stephen explained the Kingdom of God, they would not listen; however fully he proclaimed the truth of Jesus Christ, they did not understand, which is why they did not turn back. Yet because he had compassion on them, Stephen could give up his own life of his own accord and forgive those who slandered him, persecuted him, and threw stones at him.

We too must have compassion on those who persecute us because they do not know the truth. To forgive them as Jesus and Stephen did, we need to grow into vessels of truth, able to bear the calling God has given us. However much we quarrel with people who do not know the word of Jesus Christ, the gap between us will never close. Therefore we need a heart that prays for their souls, entrusts them to the Lord, and forgives.

What kind of faith do you have? If you stood where Stephen stood, could you proclaim the truth with confidence? These days we see politicians declare with conviction that they will not accept homosexuality, and then apologize the very next day. They apologize because saying what the world does not want to hear might cost them what they are after.

But even if the world withholds its approval, when the place where we stand is not the place of truth, we must rise up boldly as Stephen did. If fear of people leaves us standing among those who kill Stephen, we will have no excuse when we meet God, and we will be struck by the stones of his judgment.

Colossians 2:6-7

6As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.

The apostle Paul urged the church in Colossae that, since they had received the same faith as the apostles, they should walk in Jesus alone, put down their roots on the rock, and live by the truth they had learned from him. He was encouraging them to stand firm in Christ, to drive back every deception, and to live a life in keeping with Christ’s will.

It was Stephen’s sacrifice that made it possible for Paul to become such a man, one who could show compassion to others and hold them close. Stephen’s faith shaped the apostle Paul, and Paul went on to preach a gospel that changed the world. In the same way, we must preach the truth and carry more souls in our hearts and love them.

Even if the world hinders and persecutes you, I hope you will proclaim the truth as Stephen did and be counted among those God remembers. One day, when you reach heaven, the Lord who stands at the right hand of the throne will welcome you, just as he welcomed Stephen with joy. May you look forward to that day and proclaim the gospel boldly.

Like Stephen, you know the word of truth. You must proclaim it, then, with a heart that has compassion on souls. When you proclaim the truth boldly, you will be able to show the world a face that shines like an angel’s, like the face of Stephen. A face filled in this way is not something a person can have simply by wanting it. When we love God, he shapes the faces of his people into faces of goodness.

You are servants charged with the word of God. You hold the word Jesus Christ handed down to his disciples, and you are children of God receiving the full grace of the Holy Spirit. Though we may never be stoned to death as Stephen was, we must always live by faith with the resolve of those ready to die. Then the Spirit will pour out on you in full measure the grace and love he gave to Stephen.

May you always give your utmost to live by the word. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.