Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Please open your Bible to Acts 6:8-15 as we see more about this man named Stephen who was described as full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

Stephen is the first Christian martyr.

For clarification, a martyr is a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs.

There are many stories of Christian martyrs, There’s a book even a book written in the 1500 called Foxes Book of Martyrs that tells stories of Christians who were killed for their faith mainly in England and Scotland.

There are modern examples as well.

But as you read them, have you ever wondered how they could go through that.

Because all they had to do was recant.

That’s it.

Just say, “Yah, I was wrong.”

And the turture would stop.

Or, how about this, your talking to someone, and they start asking questions about your faith.

Your not known as the quick on your feet type, so you can’t think about your gifting or something like that.

But suddenly, you have a flood of thoughts and words and confidence as you begin to talk about the message about Jesus?

You think back and think, “Wow, where did that come from?

I didn’t know I could do that.”

Or maybe you have seen that happen to to a friend as they defend the faith and you kind of look at them with that, “Who are you?”

look.

You friend just went into beast mode.

How could they stay faithful as they faced trails in sharing their faith?

Transition: Over these next couple of chapters, we are further introduced to Stephen, one of the people who was chosen to relieve the apostles from a task that would take away from the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.

As we saw in verse 5, Stephen was a man full of faith coming with an empty hand reaching out to take hold of the Saviour who was given to us in our sorry situation and misery.

Stephen, was a man who was full of that certain faith and was ready to head straight on whatever may come his way knowing that God was in complete control.

READ Acts 6:8-15

PRAY

The Holy Spirit Empowers Vs. 8-10

Vs. 8 We were introduced to Stephen in verse 5 as a man who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

A man that had clear evidence of Spirit-filled faith.

And this faith is what we see here in verse 8 and is what will guide what he does and what happens to him in the next following chapters.

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

Stephen wasn’t just given for organization of the distribution to the needs of the widows, but also for speaking.

Full of grace and power shows the Holy Spirit was present and working through Stephen.

great wonders and signs we don’t know to what extent these spiritual gifts were given to other besides the apostles, but we do know one thing, is that these signs and wonders were used to accompany the gospel as a way to confirm the preaching of the Word.

So don’t get stuck on what was done, but what they were used to do.

It was about the preaching of the Word.

What characterizes Stephen is what we see is promised to the disciples from Jesus in Acts 1:8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

And gifted to bring the message about Jesus to the world.

There’s a continuation from what Jesus told the Apostles, to all other christians.

God empowers his people to bring his message to the world and gifts them to do that.

This wasn’t a “power” that was physical or a worldly knowledge or influence, this was the power of the Holy Spirit.

All that is to happen is only by the power of God in his life.

Also notice that Stephen wasn’t just involved in the serving the church, but also active outside of the church in the proclamation of God’s message.

The gospel doesn’t just stay contained.

Not just something that happens on a Sunday morning, God’s people gather to scatter.

The gospel is important for God’s people as we are reminded of who God is, as we are reminded us of the hope we have in Christ, but it’s also the hope of the nations and God’s people get to proclaim that message.

Stephen didn’t say to himself, “Alright, I came to church, helped some widows, I’m good for the week.

Who he was because of Christ, effected the other 6 days of his week.

Vs. 9 But the people got upset about what was happening.

We see people who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen.

These were Jewish people who were at one time slaves or were children of slaves, that had been freed.

These were people from all over the Roman Empire that had found themselves back in Jerusalem.

It was these men who heard what Stephen was saying and didn’t like what they heard.

Our response to God’s Word shows the true state of our hearts.

God’s people seek to obey what God has to say because they have a new heart that changes that desire.

Stephen, proclaiming the message about Jesus that he is the Christ, that he died for his peoples sin, and rose again, wasn’t being received very well.

It’s a reminder for us that as we go out a speak the message about Jesus, that it won’t always be received well.

In fact, most of the time, it won’t be received, some of the time, it will have a hostile response like we see here with Stephen.

because these people in the synagogue of Freedmen…rose up and disputed with Stephen.

Rose up meaning they were probably sitting around listen and watching what Stephen had to say.

You can picture these people just starting to shake their heads and eventually couldn’t take it anymore, so they stand up stare Stephen in the eyes and say, “Your wrong.”

So they disputed meaning they were being very forceful with their difference of opinion, but weren’t necessarily seek a solution.

This wasn’t a conversation, but a yelling at Stephen.

They were mad.

How dare you say what you have to say.

You’re wrong.

That’s not right.

Ever had people like that?

You present God’s Word to them and their response is just anger?

I’ve had my fair share.

It’s a reminder though that they aren’t angry at you, but if you are being faithful to God’s Word, it’s God that they have a problem with.

Vs. 10 This is a big reminder for me.

You don’t need to know a certain amount of knowledge in order to tell someone the message about Jesus.

What you need to know is the Gospel.

Do you need to know all the answers?

No. Will you mess up?

Yes.

But will God use your faithful witness?

absolutely.

Because as Isaiah 55:11 “11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Another reason why we need to be people of God’s Word and use God’s Word in our evangelism and our discipleship.

But, does that mean you should ever stop being a Christ-learner?

Absolutely not.

Because you will never be done, so continue to grow, but don’t think you need to get to some sort of boss level of experience in order to be a faithful witness.

Some of the the most faithful witness I know are those who God has recently called to himself.

In fact, the people who are know who are the most evangelistic are those who God saved later in life.

It’s like they aren’t bogged down with some sort of shame.

So they rise up.

Yelling facts at him.

But they couldn’t argue Stephen.

Why?

They could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit.

I love how the NIV translates this passage: But they could not stand against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Could not withstand These people were no match for Stephen, they actually were no match the Holy Spirit who was working through Steven.

They tried to fight Stephen, but found they were fighting the Holy Spirit.

The character of wisdom that Stephen had was showing in the way he spoke, not just in his management skills.

So how can we explain Stephen’s ability?

See Jesus’ words in Luke 21:15“15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.”

This is such an example for anyone who may find that they are on trail for their faith.

Stephen didn’t have theological training.

He didn’t attend a Bible college or seminary.