“Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.”
- Acts 6:8
In chapter six of Acts, we get an interesting turning point for the early church. First, the last few chapters we have seen tensions building between the success of the Apostles preaching the Word of Jesus against the religious authorities in Jerusalem. Secondly, we get to see a lot of the internal workings of the early church, and chapter six is no exception.
The church began having an issue with fairly distributing and meeting the needs of all the widows. The Greek widows were not receiving the same amount as the Jewish widows. At the time, the Apostles were the only ones managing all the different ministries of the church. They were the ones preaching, praying, managing finances, serving the needy, and more. So the issue was not only unfair ethnic bias, but also over worked Apostles (keep in mind they were getting thousands of people turning to Christ, and only 12 men to manage it all). Take a look at any mega church’s staff page and you will well over 12 people on there, and that’s even with all the better systems we have today.
Point being, the Apostles were limited in the work they did, their solution to do this was to assign people to the tasks of serving the needy and to do so fairly. They choose 7 men, Stephen included, who would over see this ministry. Among these 7 men were both Jews and Greeks. While we only get their names, their names tend to be good indicators of their ethnicity. The divided the labor, and brought in a team that fairly represented the people they were serving.
In the midst of all this is Stephen.
A Man FULL of God’s Grace:
Until this point, we have never heard of Stephen. He wasn’t in the running to be a 12th Apostle to replace Judas. He may have been in the larger circle of followers of Jesus, or he may have turned to Christ on Pentecost or some other time. Regardless, we do know he met the following criteria to step into this responsibility:
1. Well Respected
2. Full of the Spirit
3. Full of Wisdom
And that’s it. No need to know how to manage money or people. Simply to be an outstanding man of God who is fully reliant on the Spirit and to the best they can makes wise decisions. Fairly small and impractical compared to our modern job descriptions and desired qualifications, but even in this shows a lot about the character Stephen had. What draws by eyes so much is how the text describes him as a man FULL of God’s grace and power.
What does it mean to be FULL of grace and power? I wish I knew, or have a living person today to point to as proof and describe them to you, and I know I’m far from full. Sometimes it’s a challenge to be a sip of God’s grace and power, and yet, Stephen was full of it! I get told I’m full of a lot of things, but grace and power from God is not one of them.
Yet, it should be something we aspire to be.
How I see it, to be full of grace is to have been thoroughly transformed in mind, body, soul, and spirit. Not like some New Age alignment or something a hippie would say, but that the Holy Spirit is so alive in you that your thoughts, actions, and words echo Christ. One of the greatest challenges for all of us though is to know how to get there. Because to an extent, its not necessarily our work to do, but it is God’s work being done in us.
Putting it more simply, God is the only one who can transform us by grace. BUT God does so in partnering with us. No body can be transformed by doing the right things and hitting all the check boxes of what makes a “good” Christian. Who are we in our humanity to try to determine that. But what we do have to do is to daily make ourselves surrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit. Grace transforms us to be echoes of Christ.
Power, in my mind, is a bit different then grace, which is why it is distinguished here for Stephen. If being full of grace is allowing the Spirit to guide and transform our thoughts, actions, and words; then being full of power is drawing our strength and endurance from God to be firm in our transformation.
As we have seen, the apostles have been in conflict with religious authorities and under suspicion by Rome for their growing movement. These same conflicts and more would be a consistent challenge for the early church, and thus they need power. To be full of power allows one to be steadfast in grace and truth in the face of anything that might come their way. Next week, we’ll see just how full of grace and power Stephen is as he is put on trial for the many signs and wonders he performs.
Final Blessing:
As this devotional closes, I know it’s a hefty call to be FULL of grace and power from the Holy Spirit, but it must be something we partner with God in becoming. So, I encourage you to take 10 minutes, listen to the following song, By the Grace of God, and follow the words closely, centering yourself in the midst of God’s grace like a pool of water to float on. After, just take a few minutes to pray. Surrender yourself to God’s desire to work and transform you
May we all continually try to be an echo of Christ and His loving sacrifice.
May the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breath, and every heartbeat of your journey!
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