A Man Full of Grace and Power

19th June, 2011

Written By Rev Law Hui Seng
Posted By Teresa Han

Acts 6: 8-15

Main Idea: Be a man full of grace and power

Objective: To challenge the congregation to be full of grace and power for Christ.

A. Introduction

- Every time I preach from the book of Acts, I am so excited because what happened in the early church history with the apostles and disciples were so real and so powerful. What happened then set the agenda and mission for the church of Christ today. It sets the model for us how Christ’s church should behave in the world today.

- And I always believe in one conviction, that is, what happened then, can also happen today in the Church where Jesus is the head. It can also happen in the Methodist churches. It may not be an exact repetition in terms of the incidents that happened. I strongly believe that the ways and means that God worked through the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus) in those days will also work today. Do you say Amen with me?

- The reason is very simple. If the Holy Spirit who worked in the early church history does not work today in His similar empowerment, how can Christ’s disciples like you and me, and any disciple of Christ out there in the world save the lost and make disciples of all nations in this age of increasing work of the devil and the increasing evil hearts of human beings.

- When you see top politicians in the middle east countries like Libya, Syria, and Yemen can be so evil in ordering of killing of civilians in protests; you see how these top politicians are so power hungry; you see civilians fight against civilians; you see how lots of politicians are so immoral in their relationships; you see the increasing percentage of people and even Christians who are practicing homosexual and how they fight to legalize it; you see the jihad bombing by extremists and terrorists; when you see the free practice of sex among teenagers and adults, Christians and non-Christians, you cannot help but believe if there is no empowerment of the Holy Spirit on the Christians and disciples of Jesus in our days, you cannot fight the powerful devil and the powerful sins at work in our society and in the world.

- No wonder, the bible describes a disciple of Jesus like Stephen, as a man full of God’s grace and power in Acts 6: 8. Let us see what was happening to him. Like I strongly preached in my earlier sermons and very much today, the Holy Spirit who worked in the early disciples of Jesus also work in us, as disciples of Jesus today.

- This is how significant today’s passage is to us. I pray that at the end of the day, we are ready to work towards being a man full of God’s grace and power.

B. Explanation on how Stephen became a man full of God’s grace and power

- I am very excited to tell you how an early disciple like Stephen was full of God’s grace and power. You will not know how if you do not refer to the context in chapter 6 verses 5 to 7 which told us how Stephen (a man full of faith and of Holy Spirit) and other 6 disciples who were presented to the apostles and they were prayed and laid hands on them. These 7 were chosen because the apostles could not cope with distribution of food to the needy Grecian Jewish widows. They overlooked their needs as a result of lack of manpower to minister to their needs.

- The early apostles believed that their main ministry should be the preaching of God’s word and so they set 2 criteria of full of Spirit and wisdom to choose the 7 disciples.

- You find that in verses 3 and 5, these 7 disciples were described as full of the Spirit and wisdom; and full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And now in the passage today, it says especially about Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power.

- I strongly believe that according to the context, the power that Stephen received was from the Holy Spirit mentioned in verses 3 and 5; and it has to do with the apostles’ prayer and laying of hands in verse 6. Therefore, all of us who are so called Methodists, being empowered by the Holy Spirit must take prayers and laying of hands seriously. Especially laying of hands is not commonly practiced in the Methodist churches in Sarawak and may be here in Sabah, we know, how much power we miss.

- Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying by simply laying of hands by anybody, the empowerment will come. I believe when pastors and church leaders take time to pray and lay hands (together), God empowers brothers and sisters to make disciples of all nations, to do our powerful ministry.

- Next, what is this whole idea of fullness? Full of God’s grace and power. Notice the grace and power are from God, not from the devil. So, it is definitely used to build up a person or the body of Christ. It is full because God has given the 100% empowerment for the purpose of serving the body of Christ or anybody out there, for the purpose of mission, for the purposes of whatever ministry that leads to salvation of the lost.

- Bishop Hwa Yung said, “When you are filled by the Holy Spirit, it is just like a cup that is full of water or it overflows. It is just like a sunken ship, the inside of the whole ship is full of water and the outside of the ship is also full of water. The ship is filled by water all over its body, inside and outside. So, it is the same when a disciple of Jesus is full of the Spirit”

- So, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for ministry has to be full of God’s power, only then, you can do the job. It has to be full of power to do the job, it cannot be half full of power. It cannot be alang-alang, not an absolute empowerment. Look at the early disciple like Stephen, how he was full of power given by the Holy Spirit to serve.

- In verses 9 and 10, the author said, Stephen performed great wonders and miraculous signs. Great learned Jewish religious persons from all over the places argued with Stephen and confronted him with the divinity of Christ, I believe. They could not defeat Stephen in their argument as it says; they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. Such was the amazing results of empowerment by the Holy Spirit for Stephen.

- They even resorted to dirty tactic of conspiracy and accusing Stephen of blasphemy against Moses and God, the unpardonable sin in verse 11; in verse 12, we see that they even stirred up the people, the elders and the teachers of the law to arrest Stephen and brought him to the Jewish authority, the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses to accuse Stephen of attacking the law and amending the law of Moses so that Stephen could be found guilty in verses 13 and 14.

- In the midst of the conspiracy and false accusations, and with all the tension and hostile atmosphere, even the Sanhedrin saw Stephen’s face was like the angel in verse 15. You cannot explain Stephen’s calmness, wisdom and courage in the midst of the conflict, unless you believe he was 100% full of the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

- Next, what is this grace in this context? It is a very general term in this context. Stephen was not only full of power but he was full of grace. I love this word grace so much so that I even name my daughter grace. It is also in my prayer most of the times. It really means/represents all the blessings you can imagine or you cannot imagine that God desires to bestow on the world, all the more, on His children or disciples who need it to do mission to save the lost! It is all freely given to those who need it to do God’s will on earth. You name it, what do you need in mission? Courage, wisdom, faith, forgiveness, material resources, strength and power in overcoming enemies, overcoming fear of death, etc, full grace of God will provide all that.

C. Relationships the passage with the church and your personal life

- Do you see the relevancy of Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, with Agape Methodist Church and your own personal life?

- Does the Methodist church in Sabah; the Agape Methodist Church brothers and sisters, disciples of Jesus here today believe strongly we must produce disciples who are full of God’s grace and power?

- If this kind of faith is not in the church and inside each one of us, no wonder you do not experience the reality of the almighty God.

- On the other hand, if you do not believe there is such a thing as you can be full of God’s grace and power, then, I may be giving you wrong teaching and according to the book James 3: 1, I will be judged more severely.

- I make sure it is a correct teaching, only then, I dare to challenge and inspire you and tell it has everything to do with your life.

- One sister who ministered with me on Friday shared a testimony with me in the process of home to a non-Christian family. She is truly a disciple of Jesus who is full of God’s grace and power. She is also an associate lay leader of a Methodist church. She testified that there was one time as she ministered to a new born baby who always cried non-stop after 12 at night and, as she prayed for the mother, the Holy Spirit told her that the mother had watched lots of violent and ghost movies before she delivered the baby. Upon her confession and prayers to bind the work of the devil, the baby was healed from crying! If she was not full of the Spirit she could not defeat the attack of the devil on the baby and the mother.

- You need to be full of God’s grace and power.

D. Applications and Responses

- Now, you must also not think that to be full of God’s grace and power is a matter of prayers and laying of hands by pastor and church leaders.

- You need to work towards being full of God’s grace and power.

- We as children of God are all entitled to be full of God’s grace and power. But how come not all of us have it. One of the simplest and most natural reasons is a lot of us do not even believe in the possibility of it and so, we do not work towards it.

- You know the purposes of God’s grace and power for you. It is not for your main-main, for fun; to show that you are powerful; to glorify yourself. Remember what spiritual gifts God bestowed upon you, it is very much for the purpose of building up the body of Christ which in turn empowers us to make disciples of all nations. It must always lead to the lost (people who are heading for hell) being saved and becoming disciples of Jesus.

- After you know the divine purpose of being full of God’s grace and power, the next step is you need to honestly tell God you believe in it and work towards it. In other words, as part of your response to the sermon today, you need to tell God, “I desire to be full of God’s grace and power.”

- In your preparation towards, one very important Christian character that Jesus expects you to develop is your willingness to make sacrifice for His kingdom’s sake.

- I agree with the German theologian, Bonhoeffer, who died of martyrdom, who wrote the famous book, the Cost of Disciple, that lots of Christians are going for cheap grace only, in his article “Costly Grace”. We have blown our understanding of God’s grace to such an understanding that grace of God has become so unconditional, so cheap, that it becomes grace without price, grace without cost. A lot of Christians have forgotten or neglected the great truth that Jesus had suffered so much for our sin. It takes Christ’s great suffering on the cross in order for Him to bless us with His grace of forgiveness.

- Therefore, you see Christians who can afford to sin again and again have believed in so called cheap grace and continue to live in sin. Bonhoeffer said, “Grace without the cross, grace without discipleship, grace without Jesus Christ.”

- Brothers and sisters, if we are to be full of God’s grace, we need to keep to costly grace. On the one hand, it is free grace of Jesus for us, but the channel for us to be full of God’s grace is sacrifice.

- This sacrifice on our part is not a condition to deserve grace; not a merit for grace; not use it to exchange for grace; not it to earn grace.

- This willing sacrifice on our part is model after Jesus self-sacrifice on the cross, whereby we are willing to submit our lives to Jesus to do the right thing (teachings as commanded by Jesus); we willingly give up all our wrongs, sins, trespasses, bad habits, etc. You need to give up your selfishness, greed, self-centeredness, hatred, lusts, etc, to Jesus, not in exchange for grace (full), but, make yourself or you get ready to become a channel for God’s grace to flow to you.

- As I let go of my complaints of my wife of not submissive and overlook her mistakes and I try to do as much housework for my wife as she requested, I experience more of God’s grace both in my life and my wife! It is simply amazing. May I elaborate and I pray that you will experience it also. I do not mean I do not have problems with my wife anymore. As I learn not to condemn her for mistakes of nurturing our children, we now have found solid answers of how to educate our children. We are now united in one heart to educate them. This is God’s grace for us. You can imagine the frustrations and anxiety we experienced when disagree on how to educate our children.

- When I do not complain that my wife is not submissive, my must have felt the space and freedom to be herself. She appreciates more for the freedom I give her and observes her own boundaries in spending. We experience God’s grace more in the sense of greater closeness and unity as family.

- As I give up my worries for Pujut Primary School Girls’ Brigade 100 girls (opposite Grace Methodist Church, Miri) who need manpower to help, I just entrusted it to Jesus, God raised 4 Pujut Primary School teachers to step forward to do the job.

- So, you see as you give up your control, your sins, you submit your life to Jesus, He will fill you with His grace. What more to say the power you need to do ministry.

- Can you pay the price of sacrifice, humble yourself at the feet of Jesus, then, you become a channel of God’s grace and power?

E. Conclusion

- If not, as you want to be in control of your life, as you use your life to sin against yourself, others and God, rather than you become a channel of God’s grace and power, you block it altogether.

- I pray that, right now, you realize what go wrong with your life. You repent and be full of God’s grace and power like the disciple, Stephen.

F. Questions for discussion

1. Discuss how you prepare yourself to become a channel of God’s grace and power.

2. Share (if there is) how you experience God’s grace and power. You may not be full of God’s grace and power but you did experience His grace and power. It is a very good start and I pray that you will eventually experience fullness of God’s grace and power.