Acts 6:8-15 – Holy Spirit Leadership
The Living Word With Chuck Davis
Acts 6:8-15 – Holy Spirit Leadership
Welcome to "The Living Word" with Chuck Davis. Act 6, 8 to 15, Holy Spirit Leadership. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then people of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Sicily and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit by which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God, and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, "The man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us." Gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. We've just come off the selection of leaders who are going to step up so that the apostles aren't doing everything. The process was to find people who had good reputation full of the spirit and wisdom to appoint to the duty. And the group comes with their selected representatives, the apostles lay hands on them, and they're going to be used by God in significant ways. But now we see one of them highlighted, Steven. I love the fact that he's doing great wonders and signs among the people. You see, you could very easily interpret the message of Acts chapter 6 is that the preaching and the prayer were the primary ministries and everything else was secondary to that, like serving the table. But no, Steven is doing all of it. He's full of grace and power. He's operating in his kingdom authority. We're told in this text that as he spoke against that brought opposition, they couldn't withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. I think this is interesting. Paul will say to the church in Corinth, "I didn't come to you just with words of wisdom. I came with you the demonstration of power in the spirit." There is this combination that we operate in wisdom, best practices of this world, but also with Holy Spirit empowerment. And so we see there's Luke is going to start taking us through a shifting narrative. Steven's going to become a key figure in these next couple of chapters. And it's going to be his speaking gift, which is interesting. The thing that God had called him to do and had gifted him to do, it says here, when he's before them, they couldn't withstand and that they sense the favor of God, gazing him all that counsel saw that his face was like the face of an angel. It's only time that this phrase occurs in the scripture to have a face like the face of an angel is to reflect the glory of God. The accusers are going to come against him in a more powerful way, but Luke is setting us up. There's a manifestation of God's presence that's going to come both in demonstration of sign and wonder, but in how we suffer. The soul what of this collective movement from the beginning of the chapter is that we want leaders that are full of the Holy Spirit. The minute the church starts selecting leaders who look good, but don't have the inner character and who aren't operating the spirit, we're in serious trouble. Early church points that the advancement, the multiplication of believers, which is to the glory of Jesus is a result of godly, spirit-filled, empowered leadership. The now what is to, no matter who we are, be guardians of this. Those of us who have official position to make sure that we are discerning well, listening to the Holy Spirit, who our leaders would be. And then as the gospel of the kingdom gets delegated out to more and more people, we will have greater influence in this world. So are we come back to you, whatever our position is in this world, we want to be filled with your Holy Spirit so that we would lead in the Stephen way and where you've given us opportunity to influence the selection of leaders. We pray that we would do this with great wisdom and in the spirit in the same way that Stephen did his ministry. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.