"Stephen: Full Of Faith, Grace And Power"

Are we as Christians not performing signs and wonders among the people today because those things were only for the early church? Where do we get that? Show me chapter and verse!

No, people. We’re not doing those things because we’re not full of grace and power, because we’re too full of the world and the cares of this life to have our attention and energies focused on the next.

That’s the real difference between the early church and the church today. The secret isn’t in going back to meeting from house to house and having things in common and having lay leaders instead of professional pastors and all the other things that are being tried in the attempt to recapture and rekindle that amazing growth that was going on then.

The secret isn’t really a secret at all! They were filled with awe, they were praising God, they were constantly grateful to God for saving them, they were praying, they were heavenly minded and looking eagerly for the return of Jesus, and it showed in every area of their lives! And out of their midst came seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, chosen to serve the whole, and at least one of them was performing miracles, and preached such a great sermon that God decided to record it in the Bible for us.

Now I confess to you openly that by these standards I fail miserably, as do the vast majority of us in Christ’s body today. But I’m called to preach the word of God, and being faithful to that charge I am constrained to point to this man, Stephen, and say that there was nothing available to him that is not available to each and every one of God’s people who would surrender to Him to the degree that Stephen apparently did.

I do not say this to shame, but to provoke. May the Lord help us each to take this to heart and let Him speak to us from it however He may choose.

Point 2. He was Prepared.

I mean that in a couple of ways.

As we’ve already discussed, he was certainly a praying man as attested to by the things Luke said about him and his public ministry. So we can, by the same information, conclude that he was spiritually prepared for the duties for which he was chosen, he was prepared in his readiness to be used by the Lord in powerful ways, and he was prepared to respond in a Godly way to the opposition that came to him.

He was full of grace and power. I don’t believe Luke was only referring to power to perform signs and wonders, but also the power to live a Godly testimony. That takes power, you know. The spiritually weak cannot successfully do it. But the one who goes out each day prepared by prayer and the feeding on God’s word, will go in His strength. He will go in power, prepared to respond and react to life and to people in a Godly way.

Stephen was falsely accused, physically abused, yet he did not defend himself or get angry (6:15) but defended the faith.

How would most of us respond if suddenly there were people from one of the largest churches in town, going to Starbuck’s or Wal~Mart and loudly proclaiming that we had been openly blaspheming the name of the Lord and denying the claims of Christ?