Face of An Angel

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

FACE OF AN ANGEL

Acts 6:11-15

11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God." 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

NIV

Here again, jealously along with thinking more highly of themselves brought about scheming and lies to cause trouble for Stephen, which ultimately caused his being stoned to death. However, before that happened, Stephen gave a great message to them which we will get to later. Just because Stephen was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and because he was full of grace and God’s power and did great wonders and miraculous signs, they could not allow such power of God displayed in a man who was not among their ranks, who was not one of the schooled professional religious leaders. False witnesses are not uncommon among those who have an agenda of self-preservation. And once again, nothing is new under the sun and in this type of false testimonies have continued today among those who have personal agendas to protect themselves and keep the power over the people, as those of the Sanhedrin were doing. However, no matter what men said about Stephen, he did not waver in his faith and the Spirit was overflowing through him to the point that his face reflected the glory of God as they observed that his face was that like an angel. As Paul would say later, Stephen was transformed into the likeness of Christ with ever-increasing glory. This should be our story, not that we should be called before the leadership of the church and have them lie about how great our faith is and that we are so full of the Spirit they want us removed from their presence. Instead, we should reflect the likeness of Christ in ever-increasing glory and that we should be so filled with the Spirit that we would display his power through signs and wonders. How can the Spirit only do those things back thousands of years and then become dormant? Is not the Spirit God, and we know that God does not change? Would that not mean the Spirit is willing to do all that he did in the life of Stephen in the same way in our lives? What is the difference than if God does not change? It must be that we have changed somehow. Is there a difference in the measure of faith that God gives? Did Stephen have more faith than we do? How can that be if God does not show favoritism, which would mean he has given us the same measure of faith he gave Stephen. Then it has to do with the difference between how Stephen responded and how we respond. How can Stephen be more filled with the Spirit than we are? So then it has to be that Stephen responded fully and was used mightily by God to do many wonders and miraculous signs and if we are not seeing that in our lives, then we must not be giving the Spirit full access, or in other words, we might be quenching the Spirit. Surely there should be some evidence of the working of the Spirit, the power of God within us and it might be seen in our face.