BIBLE READING: ACTS 6
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. 9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
The church in Jerusalem and grown quite a bit but had developed some issues. There were certain things in the church, especially ministering to some of the widows, that was not getting accomplished. They had some people complaining about it, so the disciples felt the need to appoint some men to do some of the visiting and serving so that the disciples could give themselves to prayer and to ministering the word of God. It is sometimes a difficult thing, as a pastor, when you have many people that all have different opinions of what they think the pastor should be doing all throughout the day. Often, they don’t see all the things that must be done, but they notice the one or two things that they feel has not been done. Regardless, they felt the need to address the issue.
These men that they appointed are the models for what we would call deacons. They were there to visit, serve, minister and to do much of the time-consuming ministering for many in the church. That way, those who’s calling it was to preach the Word, would have time to study and to pray. Stephen was one of those men, and what a man he was. Apparently, one of the responsibilities for the men that the church had appointed was to handle those who wished to argue or debate about certain things. Notice what the Bible says about Stephen:
* “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.”
Isn’t that interesting? It doesn’t say that they were not able to resist his “logic”. It does not say that they were not able to resist his “fluency”. What they could not seem to overcome was his wisdom and his spirit. I will tell you this, wisdom is not something that Stephen could produce or come up with himself. Wisdom is not something that Stephen could educate himself enough to get. Wisdom only comes from the Lord. That only comes from spending time with God, and spending time in God’s word. Spending time in God’s Word gives you the wisdom, spending time with God gives you the right spirit. Stephen had both. I encourage you, why not get both today.
* Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.