To better understand this blog read my earlier blog “Temple Gate Beautiful” as it may give you a continuity to what’s written below, We live in the end times of earth with so many calamities coming against humanity and many plagues and lot of uncertain times ahead of us, most of these are written in the Bible of end times.
'When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ' Revelation 20:7-8
So, when you corelate this to what’s happening, so how are we to prepare for this phase of “battles / persecution” that may come against us. What is persecution? It means “hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs; oppression”. When you look around you can relate to this, it’s inside the church and outside the church.
We can learn a lot from early church of apostles and from a godly man “Stephen” who was the first martyr person in early church, many of what he went thru is still relevant in current times.
As we read Acts 1-5, the early church grew in number daily, they continued to worship the Lord, there was healing and temple courts were filled with People praising God for these miracles and they lacked nothing and there was no needy person among them Acts 4:34
Divide and rule
As the apostles grew day by day by the works of Holy Spirit, the enemy Satan found new means to stop the growth of the early ministry, those days widows were taken good care as they did not have any support, Satan used that as a reason to find a division of church between “Hellenistic Jews” vs “Hebraic Jews” , we read on this Acts 6:1-4
To oversimplify, Hebrews tended to regard Hellenists as unspiritual compromisers with Greek culture, and Hellenists regarded Hebrews as holier-than-thou traditionalists. There was already a natural suspicion between the two groups, and Satan tried to take advantage of that standing suspicion.
It’s important to remember that though the titles Hebrews and Hellenists are used, these were Christians, followers of Jesus. They were all from a Jewish background, but they had all embraced Jesus as their Messiah.
The early church took its responsibility to help support widows seriously because they often had no other support; but they also expected these widows to serve the church faithfully
Apostles approached this by laying a qualification to identify seven men “choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom “ in today’s view they may be called as deacon’s
'Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. ' Acts 6:3-5
So, they identified 7 members “They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.”
It pleased the whole multitude when there was division at church, God confirmed the wisdom of the apostles through agreement among the people. The apostles were led by Lord, not by their will or popular opinion.
We read after this work, the word of God grew in numbers all were in faith. 'So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. ' Acts 6:7
Personal attacks / defamation
After the “Divide and rule” strategy not working, he tried Personal attacks and defamation on Stephen, he wanted to single out the strongest person from Seven to do a personal attack which will bring a jolt to the entire ministry.
Characters of Stephen
'Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 'Acts 6:8-10
The reason Satan choose Stephen was because he had many righteous characters
Man of full of grace and power of God – “a man full of God’s grace and power”
Performed wonders – “performed great wonders”
He performed miracles among the people - “signs among the people. Opposition arose,”
He had the spirit of wisdom - “they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke”
The enemy wants to defeat the key warrior Stephen who is leading this with all the righteous characters, so he did the following
'Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” ' Acts 6:11-14
Satan filled the opposition with with Jealousy to discredit the works of apostles they had tried earlier to convict the apostles with different reason, but God’s hand was with him to lead them out
Now he uses his personal attack by mobilizing people secretly “'Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” “
False witness “They produced false witnesses, who testified”
He was branded to be a “Blasphemous” “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God”, Blaspheme means “writing or speaking about God in a way that shows a lack of respect”
With these personal attacks they took him to Sanhedrin “They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin “ – Sanhedrin ~ think of this to be like a court where a person is trialed for Blaspheme.
Holy Spirit helped him defend in front of Sanhedrin
When he Sat there in Sanhedrin people saw his face like an angel, God was with Stephen as he was put thru the opposition.
'All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.' Acts 6:15
He was an ordinary person but with the Holy Spirit he gave a defence to the entire law scholars on their terms (if you read Acts 7, it will be a summary of Old Testament summed up in one chapter)
He started with how God appeared to Abraham, his promise to him and how God led the people of Israel from the slavery and how God was faithful. Despite this, people failed to recognise God’s work and turned against him.
He explained how God was with Jacob and was with Joseph to give him wisdom to gain confidence with Pharaoh King of Egypt and how Pharaoh made him rule the entire Egypt
He explained how Egypt become more treacherous and oppressed by Mosses. how God lead Israel again, once again how they turned away forgetting their God who lead them out of Egypt and made idols for themselves to worship.
He was able to detail all the ancestor’s ways of how they turned away from God despite God giving them many chances to follow them. He used that to relate them, and He rebuked the Sanhedrin as “Stiff necked people” V7:51 and condemned them for their action on betraying Jesus as well, as it was done by their ancestors
'“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ' Acts 7:51
He not only defended his position but also condemned them for their actions to resist the holy spirit.
Persecution of Stephen
Hearing the defence, they were furious and gashing their teeth they dragged him to be stoned.
'When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 'Acts 7:54
So, when you step back and mediate this, there is a question if the Holy Spirit who has helped defend these people why Holy Spirit allowed Stephen to be stoned to death?
There are many things to learn from his death
Enemy cannot stand the truth when he is exposed that’s the reason, they were gashing their teeth and furious as Stephen once again exposed their hypocrisy
While he was being stoned, he was praising Jesus in the times of his difficult time and not cursing Jesus for allowing this to happen, this is a true reflection of God’s holy spirit leading him in difficult times.
'While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ' Acts 7:59
The entire apostles were growing day by day only in Jerusalem, whereas Jesus promise of great commission to “go and make disciples of all nations”, Jesus realized it was the right time for them to get out of Jerusalem to spread out.
'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ' Matthew 28:19
After this incident all Christian’s were percussed so they fled from Jerusalem to other places to spread the word of God
'And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 'Acts 8:1
God identified “Saul” as a witness for this Persecution “Saul approved of their killing him “
Later God transformed “Saul” to Apostle “Paul”, God uses the persecution witness to write 13 letters of New Testament Bible, which we read today, that’s the beauty of God’s plan on why he allowed Stephen to be stoned that day.
Summary
We live in a new age of social media and hi-tech world the strategy used by Satan is the same, divide / conquer / use personal attacks / discredit the work of God and defame the person who is righteous and Godly so that he is made look powerless, he will use the latest tech to aid the persecution
Walk with the guidance of the holy spirit to guide you as we learn from Stephen, he will guide you every step of way, no matter how big your opposition can be he will break them to pieces.
Surrender to God’s will, many times we may not expect the works to go according to our way, but God will have better plans than what we can imagine. If he allows you to be persecuted, you will be a seed to grow bigger for the work of God.
Don’t be intimidated by the work of Satan, continue to do what God calls you to do and seek God’s help to lead a successful Christian life.
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