Discipleship | A People for His Name

Honor God by Being Filled with the Spirit!

June 1, 2011

Tonight, I had the privilege of preaching at my church, Mount Calvary Baptist, in Greenville, SC. I preached from Acts 6-7.

This passage reveals at least four ways that we are to honor God by being filled with the Holy Spirit:

The record of his initial selection to his ministry shows emphasis on Stephen’s being filled with the Spirit (6:3, 5). His being first on the list of exemplary men among the multitude of disciples shows that he was a man whose life openly honored God (good reputation; full of faith, wisdom, and power). He thus first exemplifies the truth that God wants us to honor Him by being filled with the Spirit in our daily living.

Stephen honored God in his subsequent ministry because he was filled with the Spirit (implicit in the miraculous ministry that he had [6:8] and explicit in the irresistible ministry that he had [6:10]). His irresistible ministry through the Spirit was a fulfillment of promised help from Jesus (Luke 21:15; Mark 13:9).

Like Stephen, second, God wants us to honor Him by being filled with the Holy Spirit in our ministering for Him. The gospel is to come to people through us not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance (1 Thess. 1:5).

Because of his faithful ministry for God, Stephen faced persecution by unrighteous authorities (6:11-8:1). He honored God in how he faced such persecution.

Stephen faced his persecutors by confronting them with a lengthy message (7:2-53) that showed that he had allowed God’s words to dwell richly in him. The Spirit guided him as he defended the faith, using the truths that he had no doubt stored up in his heart over the years.

Stephen bore abundant testimony to God and Christ by speaking of God more than 30 times. Through a lengthy recounting of Israelite history, he challenged these people about their always resisting the Holy Spirit, even as their fathers had (7:51). His doing so implies his being filled with the Spirit.

He then bore testimony to the chief way in which they had resisted the Spirit: they martyred the Just One of whom the prophets had spoken (7:52). They were persecuting Stephen for his testimony to Jesus about what He would do to the temple and the Law; Stephen turned the tables on them by showing how God does not dwell in temples made with hands and that they therefore had a misplaced focus on the physical structure (7:48-50) and how they had not kept the Law themselves (7:53).

His testimony climaxed with testimony to Christ as the One standing on the right hand of God. Luke’s record emphasizes that truth through two successive statements (7:55-56).

Stephen’s Spirit-filled identification and glorification of Jesus as the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God was another fulfillment of Jesus’ promise (Mark 13:11). His use of both Daniel 7 (passage from the OT that is the most used by the NT writers) and Psalm 110 (passage from the OT that is the most quoted by the NT writers) shows strong emphasis on Jesus as the Judge at the right hand of God (cf. “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man” [John 5:27]).

In the midst of gross injustice, Stephen bore Spirit-filled Christlike testimony to Jesus as the Judge at the right hand of God. Powerless to resist their perversion of justice, Stephen entrusted himself to the One who is ready to Judge the living and the dead.

From his Christlike example, we see, third, that God want believers who, for their faith, face persecution to honor Him by bearing Spirit-filled, Christlike testimony to Jesus as the supreme judicial Authority at the right hand of God.

Because he honored God in defending the faith in the midst of official persecution, Stephen was martyred (7:57-8:1). From his example, we learn fourth that God wants believers who face martyrdom to honor Him by Spirit-filled Christlike prayer.

Jesus had prayed, “Father into Thy hands I commend My Spirit” (Luke 23:46). He thereby entrusted Himself to the One who judges righteously (1 Pet. 2:23). Stephen’s first prayer (7:59) displayed his entrusting himself to the One whom He believed judges righteously, Jesus as the God-exalted Son of Man.

Stephen’ second prayer honored God by displaying his Christlike desire and request that his persecutors would not have their sin laid on them (7:60). Jesus had prayed for His persecutors, “Father forgive them” (Luke 23:34). Stephen prayed to Jesus, the Son of Man, who, even when He was on the earth did supernatural works to prove to people that He had authority on earth to forgive sins (Luke 5:24-25). Having been given all authority in heaven and earth, He now is the Son of Man at the right hand of God who forgives people’s sins.

Stephen’s unnatural prayer—he did not pray for vengeance—revealed the control that the Spirit exerted in his life so that he was what Jesus wants us all to be: people who “pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]” (Matt. 5:44).

His prayer displays the heart of God who does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked and does not want anyone to perish; in fact, He is a God who delights in mercy!

Through the account of Stephen’s life and martyrdom, God wants us to learn to honor Him by being filled with the Spirit 1) in our daily lives, 2) in our ministering for Him, and 3) in our facing persecution (and perhaps even martyrdom for some) for the faith by bearing Spirit-filled Christlike testimony and praying Spirit-filled Christlike prayers.

Let us all honor God by being filled with the Holy Spirit!

In Discipleship

Prayer Testimony

May 30, 2011

In high school, I suffered at the hands of a few people who persecuted me although I had never done anything wrong to them. In study hall one day, one of these thugs came up behind me and punched me in the back very hard.

I hated him for years after that incident. I remember my wanting to take a baseball bat and smash his head in because of how he had unjustly injured me.

After I was saved, God changed me so that instead of wanting revenge, I prayed for his salvation. Through His Spirit’s work in my life, He made me one who prayed for my persecutors the way Jesus taught: “Pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44).

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). Praise God for His marvelous grace!

Has God made you a new creature in Christ? If He has, there will be real changes in your life.

Have you experienced such changes? If not, I urge you to turn to Christ while there is yet time.

In Prayer

"Burnt Alive"

May 28, 2011

As Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons went to sleep in their station wagon on January 22, 1999, they surely had no idea what was soon to happen to them:

. . . [Dara] Singh and his mob approached [them] at around 12:20 a.m. . . ., running [in] from the fields, armed with lathis [sticks] and trishuls (tridents – three-pronged spears). . . . [A]s they approached [the station wagon], they began screaming.
Singh struck first, wielding an axe at the tyres, deflating them. The others broke windows and prevented the Staines from escaping. Graham was beaten mercilessly and his boys were not spared either. All three were pierced with trishuls. Singh then put straw under the vehicle and torched it. In seconds, the vehicle was on fire. Graham held his two boys close to him. Anyone who knew him would say that the one name on his lips would be—Christ Jesus.
The killers stood there and watched the three roast alive as the fire consumed the vehicle.

—Burnt Alive: The Staines and the God They Loved, 35

As the news of the martyrdom of this great man and his two sons spread around the world, speedy and widespread criticism abounded for this horrific display of inhuman wickedness. The authorities dealt with the perpetrators, punishing them for murdering these helpless people.

Graham Staines and his sons suffered martyrdom for the sake of their faith. Let us allow the memory of their martyrdom to motivate us to be true to Him even as they were.

In Quotes

Guitar Music for "Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart"

May 27, 2011

Melody and chords for Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart in my format for guitar.

In Guitar Music

The Only Inspired Record of the Final Words of a Christian Martyr

May 26, 2011

The final verses of Acts 7 provide us with the only inspired record of the final words of a Christian martyr. The uniqueness of this revelation is interesting because Scripture informs us that other believers were also martyred (James [Acts 12:2]; Peter [John 21:18-19]), but God for some reason did not choose to give us any information about their final words.

Luke records the two prayers that Stephen prayed before he died:

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep (7:59-60).

Both prayers address someone as Lord. Both prayers parallel prayers by Jesus on the Cross (Luke 23:34, 46).

The first prayer was to Jesus as Lord and concerned Stephen himself. The second prayer concerned Stephen’s persecutors.

When I wrote my dissertation, I argued that Stephen prayed both prayers to Jesus. I was challenged by a committee member who held that Stephen prayed his second prayer not to Jesus, but to the Father.

Whom do you think that he prayed to (Jesus or the Father) and why do you think that way?

In Dissertation, Interpretation, Prayer

Quotes from Church Fathers & "The Apostle's Creed"

May 25, 2011

In the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, we read of apostolic proclamation of Christ as the God-appointed Judge:

But after ten days from the ascension, which from the first Lord’s day is the fiftieth day, do ye keep a great festival: for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we were filled with His energy, and we ‘spake with new tongues, as that Spirit did suggest to us;’ and we preached both to Jews and Gentiles, that He is the Christ of God, who is ‘determined by Him to be the Judge of quick and dead.’

—The Anti-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Vol. VII, 448; emphasis added

In the Apostle’s Creed, we read concerning people who desired to be baptized:

Although the received text of the Apostle’s Creed occurs first in the eight century, the contents are essentially an expansion of the positive form (the Old Roman Symbol) of the questions asked candidates for baptism at Rome at the end of the second century. The baptizer asked the one to be baptized, ‘Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?’ After the confession, ‘I believe,’ there was the first immersion. Then the baptizer asked, ‘Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, [and was buried,] and rose from the dead and ascended in the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?’

—Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Ed., Vol. 1 A-K, 90; emphasis added

These historical records show that Apostolic and post-Apostolic ministry continued to include proclamation of God’s appointment of Christ as Judge and belief in that truth. We need to include the same points in our evangelism today. This is especially true because people have taught in our day that we should just tell people of the love of God for them and not speak to them of judgment.

In Evangelism, Quotes

Guitar Music for "Jesus, I Am Resting"

May 23, 2011

Here are the melody and the chords for Jesus, I Am Resting in the key of G.

In Guitar Music

Pray and Act

May 21, 2011

King David fled from Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, conspired against him to overthrow his rule (2 Sam. 15:13-30). Learning that Ahitophel, David’s counselor (15:12), was among the conspirators, David prayed, “O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (15:31).

After this, Hushai, a key friend of David (15:37), came to him (15:32). David instructed him that if he were to remain with him, he would burden him (15:33). If, however, he would return to serve Absalom, he would serve for David to “defeat the counsel of Ahithophel” (15:34).

Hushai returned to Jerusalem (15:37) and served under Absalom (16:16-19). At this time, Ahitophel was continually giving Absalom exceedingly wise counsel (16:23).

At a key moment, however, Absalom consulted both Ahitophel and Hushai (17:1-14). Although Ahitophel again gave Absalom wise counsel (17:1-4), Hushai persuaded Absalom and all the men of Israel to reject that counsel (17:5-14). David’s prayer was thus answered through the actions of the agent whom he sent.

The juxtaposition of David’s prayer for the defeating of Ahithophel’s counsel (15:31) and his acting to dispatch Hushai to be his agent to bring about that defeat (15:32-37) appears to illustrate how God sometimes answers our prayers. Although we are not explicitly told that such was the case, it is entirely possible that God directed David’s mind so that he employed Hushai as his agent (cf. Prov. 21:1).

David both prayed and took appropriate action concerning the matter of his prayer. His action ultimately resulted in his prayer being answered. Has not God given us this account in part to promote at least our considering doing likewise with appropriate actions in appropriate circumstances?

In Prayer

Bible Reading Update 5.19.11

May 19, 2011

I began this year with the intention of reading through the entire Bible in Greek this year. I hope also to finish reading again through the KJV this year.

Here is the progress (chapters read/total chapters) that God has allowed me to make so far!


Section	Greek	English
OT	412/920	196/920
NT	1/269	269/269
Bible	413/1189	465/1189

As God directs, I would strongly encourage any of you who know Greek to consider reading extensively in the Septaguint. Having read nearly half of it this year, I can attest to the tremendous value of such immersion in biblical Greek.

My hope is that when I read the NT in Greek later this year, Lord willing, the growing familiarity with biblical Greek that I am developing from my reading the LXX will provide me with numerous valuable insights into the Greek NT. I have experienced that many times in the past, and I look forward to what God will give me this year through such study!

In Bible reading

"The Key to Victory Over the Devil"

May 17, 2011

. . . [I]f you and I are to wrestle triumphantly against the devil and all his powers, the first essential is assurance of salvation. There is no hope for us in this conflict unless we know God’s power and God’s might. But if we are uncertain about our relationship to Him we cannot stand and withstand in the fight. In other words the key to victory over the devil is assurance of salvation, certainly concerning our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. That is but another way of saying, ‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.’ You cannot give a testimony if you do not know your position. It is only one who is certain who can give a testimony, and who can act as a witness. The saints’ testimony in the Book of Revelation is that the blood was on them, that they belonged to Christ; they possessed assurance of salvation.
By assurance you are made ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’

—D. M. Lloyd Jones, The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 20, 62

Are you certain that you are saved?

In Quotes

Archives For Discipleship

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