Evidence of Faith

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

EVIDENCE OF FAITH

Acts 7:1-8

7:1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"

2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'  

4 "So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: 'Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,' God said, 'and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.'   8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

NIV

This question by the high priest led to a very long answer by Stephen, in fact, this whole chapter is his answer, which does not end well for him. It would be too much to deal with the entirety of his answer all at once, so we will look at different aspects of what Stephen said as we go. First, we notice that Stephen was very respectful, calling them brothers and fathers. Stephen said the glory of God appeared to our father Abraham. Letting them know that Abraham was his father as well as theirs, which made them brothers. What is interesting is that Stephen indicated that God appeared to Abraham before his father, Terah, took the family from Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran. However, according to the record Moses wrote in Genesis, it was when they were in Haran that God told Abram to leave his family and go to the land, which He would show him. Do we have a conflict of the record? We think not, as Moses included the move in the record of genealogy that came to the narrative about Abram. Then Moses started the story of how God called him to leave and go where He would lead him. This is what Stephen was referring to, and the fact that Abraham never processed any of the lands is not the issue, but that Abraham believed in God, and as everyone knows God accounted Abraham’s faith as righteousness. He did that which God told him and followed where God lead him. Abraham believed what God said about his descendants although he had not even one child, let alone a son, to carry on his lineage. Believing without any evidence at all takes true faith this was still early in Abraham’s walk with God, a God he most likely did not know while living in Ur. It is interesting that Stephen said it was the glory of God that appeared to Abraham. This would give us the impression this was how Abraham came to such faith. He saw the glory of God. It is interesting that later in the narrative when Stephen is being stoned, that he looked up and saw the glory of God. Here we see a parallel, in a sense, between Abraham and Stephen. Both men followed and believed God rather than listening to the reason of men. Stephen reminded them or at least revealed to them that he too was learned in the history of their people and that through Abraham, just as God said, he fathered Isaac who was the father of Jacob who became Israel and fathered the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes of Israel. Faith does not need evidence, otherwise, it is not faith. We believe even if we have no evidence, however, the fact is, some of us have had evidence of the mighty righteous right hand of God, his glory, shown to us. On the day of my public confession of faith, as I knelt at the altar of Stone Church in Palos Heights, Illinois, I felt the righteous right hand of God reach into me wrapping his hand around my heart, and his words spoken into my spirit, “I have you now”. Although I felt I was sweating beyond normal, feeling wringing wet, after I experienced this glory of God, I stood up as dry as a bone. Abraham saw miracles, and Stephen did many wonders and miraculous signs both seeing evidence because of their faith. Could this be our story as well? God rewards our faith and many times it is with evidence.