Miracles Through the Early Church 4 - Stephen

Review:

· More than the apostles – signs follow believers

· Jesus said that THESE signs will follow believers, not just apostles.

· Since the early church were also believers, God did miracles through them too!

Jesus MULTIPLIED His MIRACLES through His Early CHURCH

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was not limited to Jesus

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was not limited to the 12 apostles

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was not limited to the 72 disciples

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was not limited to the 120 believers in the Upper Room

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was also given to the first deacons of the Early Church!

· in Luke 4 – the early church was just as anointed as Jesus

· Jesus gave all believers, starting with the early church, the legal power of attorney to use His NAME - in His NAME!

Luke 4:18–19 NLT

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

Stephen performed amazing miracles and signs (Acts 6:8)

· Some of the first deacons would go on to perform miracles themselves!

Acts 6:8 NLT

8 Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.

Stephen had miraculous BOLDNESS to confront his accusers

Acts 6:15 NLT

15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.

Stephen had a Miraculous MESSAGE from God

· For most of Acts chapter 7, Stephen miraculously recollects the entire history of the Jewish race to confront his accusers of their error and rebuke them of their stubborn rebellion towards God.

Acts 7:51–53 NLT

51 “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! 52 Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53 You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”

· We need that kind of boldness today!

· The end time church does not have Godly MANIFESTATION because we do not have Godly CONFRONTATION

Stephen saw the Miraculous Messiah!

Acts 7:54–56 NLT

54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”

· Stephen was a man possessed by GOD!

If you want to SEE Jesus, you must SPEAK Jesus!

- To your generation - to your accusers, to your haters, to your government, to your family, to your neighbors, and to the strangers

Stephen prayed with Miraculous LOVE

57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him

58 and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

· Even though his miraculous testimony cost him his life, Stephen’s short life was mightily used of God and recorded the Holy Bible for all future generations!

Stephen Became the Church’s first Miraculous MARTYR

Acts 7:60 NLT

60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.

· Do you still want to be used of God?

· Jesus told His disciples to FOLLOW Him - all the way to the CROSS!

· Before the Day of Pentecost, Jesus told His followers that the Holy Spirit baptism would give them POWER to be WITNESSES to Him - both to His life, His miracles and His death, for the Greek word for WITNESS means MARTYR. (Acts 1:8)

The Blood of the Miraculous Martyrs watered the seed of a new generation of believers - even apostles!

Acts 8:1 NLT

1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.

As Stephen died, a miraculous seed of convictions was placed in the hard heart of the worst of Pharisees, whose name was Saul of Tarsus. But God would use this pivotal moment in the early church’s miraculous history to perform one of the greatest miracles of modern history, that is to radically convert this religious hater into one of the greatest apostles of love, who would later become known as the great Apostle Paul, who would carry Stephen’s memory to evangelize not only the Middle East, but also parts of Europe, and would also write 2/3 of what we now know as the New Testament of God’s miraculous Holy Bible.