Pivot-Point
I LOVE meeting new friends.
As you are about to hear in this PODCAST, we have the privilege of meeting yet-another. A standout individual. A stellar human being. Though given his humility, I am sure that he would not be comfortable with my characterization.
His name is Stephanos. Significantly, a Greek name. (As we learned last week, a not-so-trivial factoid.)
A man affectionately known to us as Stephen.
A name that means “crown.” In Stephen’s case, a well-deserved crown that he is no doubt wearing in Heaven as we speak.
A man who stood as—and at—pivot-point of history.
There haven’t been many of those throughout human history. But the event about which you will hear certainly rises to that level of an event after which our world, let alone our lives, would never be the same again.
Lets… meet… Stephen…
8 Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia.10 None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
11 So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.”12 This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.
13 The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses.14 We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s. (Acts 6:8-15)
They lied that Stephen blasphemed Moses, yet his face shone like Moses’. Stephen, this man of unimpeachable character and utmost integrity, did nothing to deserve any of this. He simply, sacrificially, served God and His people.
Yet, everything in his life went wrong.
Revealing that God’s blessings are not measured by an easy life. Rather, it is measured by His presence and His peace, not matter what may come through our lives.
That’s the lesson of Stephen.