I don’t always drink beer, but when I am being tortured, …
Therefore, brothers, choose from among you seven men with a good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom … .
[T]hey chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit … .
Stephen, full of grace and power … .
[T]hose who rose up and disputed with Stephen] could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
Gazing at him, all who sat in the council was that Stephen’s face was like the face of an angel.
…
[T]hey were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
He said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” …
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Acts 6:3-15; 7:54-57
~
Stephen’s Qualities:
- Good reputation
- Full of the Spirit – stated four times
- Full of grace
- Full of power
- Full of wisdom
- Effective Advocate
- Face like an angel
- Saw into the spiritual realm
- Trusted
- Practiced intercession and forgiveness
This is a man with focus.
A Good Reputation – with the community. He is not isolated or aloof. He is not grating, judgmental, offensive or abrasive. He is not annoying, odd, or holier than thou. He is well regarded.
This is his first quality. Without a good reputation, spirituality, even if genuine, lacks influence.
Full of the Spirit – A prerequisite for being chosen among the seven. Repeatedly attributed to Stephen in this short passage. And the characteristic that makes all the difference. All of the others flow from this. From Him who filled Stephen.
Full of Grace – not judgment. Jesus came not to judge the world but to forgive. Stephen’s final act is to pray for his slayers’ forgiveness. Stephen’s own forgiveness of them is implicit.
Forgiveness is not to approve or condone evil. It is not to accept it. It is to approve and accept wrong doers – all of us – in spite of evil. This is the Gospel. This we are to extend to others as it has been extended to us. Stephen mastered this.
Full of Power – A result of being full of the Spirit. There is no other source or explanation. This power is super – natural, indomitable. Not defined or limited to one’s own power, strength or wisdom, or even what can be joined with others. Power from on high.
Full of Wisdom – Another result of being full of the Spirit. God gives wisdom to all without finding fault. Wisdom from above is vastly different in kind and character from wisdom from below. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. But He shares His thoughts with us. We have the mind of Christ.
Effective Advocate – Stephen gives a brilliant, cogent argument, rooted in scripture and shared understanding. There was no rebuttal. Adversaries had to resort to inciting false witnesses, i.e., liars. Even then, they could not refute or withstand Stephen, and had to result to violence and murder. Verbal and physical assault and battery is the result of running out of arguments.
Face Like an Angel – What is this? What does an angel’s face look like? Radiant? Glowing with light so intense that one cannot look on it? Serene? Confidence without hubris? Free from stridency, stress, worry, anxiety? Physician Luke seems to expect his readers would know what this looked like.
Saw into the Spiritual Realm – Stephen saw into the heavens. He understood the greater reality is the reality we cannot see or touch, at least not yet. Stephen saw out from this mortal, temporal world, into the unseen one. He saw that the circumstance of his day – persecution, culture war, supremacy by his accusers – was at most transitory and fleeting. Stephen saw the ultimate victory, and that it was present in real time even as he was being stoned to death. Because he saw the Victor, in the place of His Victory.
Trusted – Reminiscent of Jesus’ words on the cross, Stephen ultimately trusts himself to the Lord Jesus. One wonders if Stephen was present and heard the Lord Jesus’ words on the cross that day. Or had he heard them repeated by those who were there, and was so moved by them, he adopted them as his own penultimate statement.
May I entrust my spirit to Jesus on that day. But I need not wait until then. Every day, I entrust my spirit to Him.
Practiced Intercession and Forgiveness – After entrusting his spirit to the Lord Jesus, Stephen is still interceding. Stephen’s last words were not for himself, they were for others. Others, who by the way, were impelling him with excruciating pain, unto death, even as he was praying for them.
Stephen could be this other-focused only because he was so completely Jesus focused. We have no record of Stephen’s life. But Jesus said he who has been forgiven much loves much, and to forgive as we have been forgiven. One wonders if this fount of forgiveness and grace from Stephen comes from awareness of the forgiveness and grace that he himself has received. So complete is that absolution we need no record of it, to dwell on it, to call it to memory. Indeed, that is the part of the great gift of forgiveness, that He remembers our sin no more. Nor should we. Only the sweetness of deliverance remains. Relief beyond relief that falls into such immense gratitude and worship that the work of grace and forgiveness, and He who ministers it, eclipses beyond all memory or relevance that which has been forgiven.
Even as Stephen is in the very midst of suffering as the victim of this heinous and brutal crime, he prays for his tormentors to receive that which Stephen has received, unmerited freedom from condemnation.
“Interesting” does not begin to describe this man. His choice of beer is not exactly his most remarkable characteristic. Words fail to describe this stunning model, a mortal like all of us, of what is possible as a follower of Christ, and full of His Spirit.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
~~~