Daily Bible Reading – Acts 7
Read Acts 7 on your own (I know it is long…)
Here we see a glimpse into one of the early deacons in the church. These early deacons were not just nice people who served behind the scenes. But, they were powerful people of God. Stephen knew the scriptures very well and had courage and a heart to share them with the world.
Background: Remember in Chapter 6 Stephen was falsely accused of speaking blasphemy against Moses and God. So Stephen in this chapter is answering the question: Is this true?
Stephen then does something very interesting in his defense of himself and his testimony. He gives the testimony again. His story tracks God’s peoples story from Abraham to Jesus. Along the way he covers many issues. A few things that stand out as you read Stephen’s account of the history of God’s people
-He sees the story as God-centered
-Whatever humans do is in response to God’s initiative falls short of His greatness.
-He sees all of history pointing to Jesus’ coming to God’s people
-He pulls no punches about rejecting Jesus.
Stephen ends up paying the ultimate price for his bold claims.
Stephen was “full of the Holy Spirit”.
So, what does it mean to be full of the Spirit?
The Bible tells us that when we come to Christ we receive His Holy Spirit. This Spirit does many powerful things in our lives. The Holy Spirit of God always brings us back into God’s presence and into His truth. He takes us out of the darkness and into the light. He also brings us comfort. Jesus refers to him as our advocate/counselor meaning the one who comes alongside us through life. The Holy Spirit also works in our lives to remind us that we have a Father in heaven who loves us. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through the scriptures and the people of God. The Holy Spirit is also changing our character to become more like God’s character. Every believer has this Spirit in them that pulls them in this direction. (see John 14-16, Romans 8, Ephesians 1:13,14, Galatians 5:16-26)
God tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit. But, instead to listen for and to Him and do what He tells us.
In the scriptures when someone is filled with the Spirit you can bet that they are going to have the courage to share the gospel and that someone else is going to be hearing about Jesus. The filling is marked with a renewed God-centeredness in life and this renewed God-centeredness overflowing into the lives of others. Though we all may have the Holy Spirit, we become filled with the Holy Spirit at God’s initiative as we pursue our relationship with Him.
