Stephen

Acts 6:5,8,10 (NLT)

Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit)………Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.

My only brother is named Stephen so when I first learned about Stephen in Acts, I was partial to the story because of love for my brother.

All we know about Stephen is found in Acts chapters 6 and 7.  Acts 6 describes his character and Acts 7 describes his testimony and death.  We learned as children in Sunday School classes that Stephen is the first Christian to be murdered (martyred) for his faith.

These three verses from Acts 6 describe the character of Stephen

·  A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit

·  A man full of God’s grace and power

·  A man who spoke with wisdom and the Spirit   

Stephen, in my view, is like Joseph or Ruth or Daniel where the Bible does not say anything negative about him.  He must have had flaws like any other human, but they are not recorded.  Stephen was an exceptional man having all these spiritual qualities.  He was so exceptional that he was given special powers by God to perform miracles.  Essentially, Stephen was given the same powers as were the disciples.   

Like Jesus, Stephen died an innocent man.  The Jews, with one of their leaders being led by Saul, bribed others to testify falsely about Stephen committing blasphemy so that they could execute him.  In Acts 7 Stephen didn’t really defend himself; he presented a sermon about the history of his faith via a survey of the Old Testament.  The apostle Paul must have heard Stephen’s sermon when Paul was still Saul.  Stephen’s words and actions most certainly must have positively affected Paul during his ministry and during his own persecution. 

Stephen was not the only biblical example of stoning.  The prophet Zechariah was stoned to death (II Chron 24:20-22).  Paul was stoned almost to death (Acts 14:19-20).  Jews sought to stone Jesus, but He escaped (John 10:22-39).  Like Jesus, as he was dying, Stephen asked the Lord to forgive those who were killing him (Acts 7:59-60).

Stephen serves as a role model for Christians today, not only for his character qualities described in these Acts 6 verses, but also the courageous and respectful manner he showed in Acts 7 in depending and explaining his faith.  What qualities about Stephen inspire you to ask the Lord for His help to develop and improve in you today?