Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. And all... saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. The two occasions of the mention of Stephen have already apprised us of an exceptional spirituality marking his character, and it cannot but be that the exceptional splendor and luminousness of his countenance here spoken of are more or less connected with that fact. The hour of martyrdom is drawing on apace for Stephen, and he is already raised to that little company which numbered in it - Moses in one of the most critical portions of his history (Exodus 34:29, 30; 2 Corinthians 3:7), and Jesus himself (Matthew 17:2; Luke 9:29) on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is being given to Stephen to ripen into an "angel of God" even on earth. The fact of the distinct record of Stephen's appearance now justifies our paying even some additional attention to what in itself would naturally have attracted our interested inquiry. The interest gathers round this central inquiry - Why was such special and such peculiar kind of distinction vouchsafed to Stephen? "His face was as it had been the face of an angel." I. A HIGHLY SPIRITUAL FORCE OF CHARACTER MARKED HIM AS AT LEAST FIT OBJECT OF THIS LUSTER. It is not open to us to say that this was the cause in any sense, but much less the one cause, of the luster with which the countenance of Stephen shone. But we must remark on it as showing the presence of one essential condition. In a biography almost as brief (omitting his defense) as that of Enoch, three things are reiterated, intimating to us the highly developed spirituality of Stephen. 1. He was "full of faith." Every true disciple of Jesus Christ must, no doubt, be "rooted in" faith. He must "know whom he believes." But to be "full of faith" probably signifies something beyond this. A man may truly have faith, and if he have it he will live and "walk" by it, yet may be the very man who will need to have full allowance made for him as respects the distinction of faith and sight. Not just so the man who is "full of faith." For him faith has come to be such an "evidence of things not seen," and such an embodied "substance of things hoped for," that his "conversation is in heaven" already, and his countenance more really fitted to shine with celestial radiance. In fact, we may rest assured there is a great difference between even a very genuine possession of faith and a being "full of faith." The former is true of very many who are exceedingly far removed from the latter. That faith which scripturally and apostolically postulates the distinction of sight has in its fullness the power to efface the very distinction itself has made, and throws two worlds into one. We do not at all doubt it was so now with Stephen, who for the fulness of faith now lived and thought, spoke and worked, "as seeing him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27); and that was in itself the earnest of a radiant countenance. 2. He was "full of the Holy Ghost." It must be allowed on all hands that this fact justifies us much more in an affirmation of the presence now of something in the nature of a predisposing qualification. In the modern Church the work and the fruit of the Spirit is grievously underrated. Hence its weakness, hence its want of enterprise, hence its comparative deadness. We have ample Scripture warrant for distinguishing degrees in the Spirit's operation; nor can we forget how, while to others according to measure the gifts of the Spirit are vouchsafed, of One it is said, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure" to him (John 3:34). How intensely full was St. John of the Spirit, when as he rather puts it, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day" (Revelation 1:10)! What the countenance of St. John then was we know not, nor was there one to see it and tell us; but we are in no ignorance of what his rapt state of mind was, and to what the Spirit exalted him. It is not, therefore, the unwarranted thing to think that the Spirit's force in the nature of the man in whom he largely dwells should betoken itself in physical manifestation. The legitimate conclusion would rather lead us to a conviction that restraint is self-imposed on the Spirit, in order that his blessed manifestation should neither overpower the individual in whom he largely may dwell, nor supersede moral attraction and moral evidence for all who stand by. How humiliating, how unspeakably mournful, to think how seldom it appears true of any in these ages that they are "full of the Holy Ghost," or that in their case the Spirit needs to shade off any of his effulgence! 3. He abounded in zeal. The zeal of Jesus and his truth, of Jesus and "this life" that came through him, went far "to eat him up" (John 2:17). Though Stephen was not an apostle, and though he was and had only just been formally elected and appointed a deacon, yet he did the works of an apostle, and, if we may judge from appearances, did much more than the more part of them. He was first to be chosen deacon (ver. 5), a circumstance which marks probably not his high spiritual character alone, but also his repute for practical diligence. It is then distinctly testified of him (ver. 8) that he "did great wonders and miracles among the people." Nor this alone. He stood to his position, did not refuse to maintain by disputation the truth he had spoken, and did so hold his own that, unscrupulous though his opponents were, "they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." This was to be a thorough believer and a thorough-going champion. Argument will often fire the passions and light up the countenance; and holy argument will fire noble passions and will make a luster dawn upon the face. Yet still it is God's sovereign act to select his "chosen vessel," and his surpassing mercy that fits any one to be such. II. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF A HIGHLY CRITICAL OCCASION NOW LAY WITH STEPHEN. 1. From our modern point of view, interest in watching him now would have been possibly not a little increased by the thought that we were watching the first layman on his trial. Though the thing would not have been so worded then, yet we may readily imagine a quickened gaze on the part at least of all the apostles, and probably of many others, it was gradually dawning upon the Jewish nation and the world that a prophet, a priest, an apostle, was what he did; and Peter begins to be impressed with what leads him soon to say, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but... he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him." Neither Peter nor any of his fellow-apostles was an hereditary or trained priest, but they were all conscious that they were "called to be apostles." The vast circle of the true Christian preachers and prophets begins further still to enlarge when Peter and the apostles fall behind a while, and Stephen, just now a plain man and only most recently titled deacon, fills up the whole foreground, in an episode of almost unsurpassed interest in the whole of the Acts of the Apostles. Since, then, Stephen was not "called apostle," the luster which now lighted up his countenance was in part his Master's gracious and bountiful substitute. God does not forget the special needs of special occasions, and if, as is probably the case, Stephen was not aware of his own appearance, there cannot be a doubt that it secured for him, from the first word of his opening defense, a special attention. The occasion was one of special responsibility, therefore, for Stephen, inasmuch as he is employed to bring into uncommon prominence, in one aspect of it, the dawning comprehensiveness of Christianity. 2. The number of those present, the very various description of them that they were led on to the attack by a very confederacy of infuriated synagogues, the determined and excited tactics resorted to of false witnesses, wresting words and statements of Stephen out of their connection, - all these contributed to give (1) a violence to the occasion, that asked for something unusual to hold it for some moments at least in check. It was an occasion to which the interrogatory fits, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?" And it meant mercy to the maddened in heart, far more than respite to Stephen. Against themselves they shall hear, and if needs be that they may hear, they shall also first see. If thereafter they will still refuse, it is more than ever their own deed that proffered mercy turns into judgment. So upon the madness and fury of Saul's persecuting journey to Damascus gracious check was placed by the directest Divine interference. And in this case that interval of calmed time was sanctified to the saving of Saul, and of many others through him. Even beyond what we very clearly read, it may be that there were peculiarities in the occasion, and in the excited audience that Stephen had now to address, which should explain this peculiarly gracious - we had almost said graceful - and considerate interposition of the supernatural. For certainly (2) the event proved that the occasion was, in point of fact, one of the most supreme sort. Most remarkable and most fatal was the chill taken by "the people." It had looked as though Jerusalem would not have been in vain "begun with in the" preaching of the gospel. It had looked as though that "great company of priests" who became "obedient to the faith" decided the tide of victory and made the day one ever notable and glorious. But the prospect terribly clouds over, and fair hopes are dashed to the ground. This the event proves. But the foreseeing eye, the foreknowing great mind, heeded not the event, yet treats that oncoming decisive struggle as though there were still hope, and gives it every help, if haply Jerusalem may be still snatched from its self-chosen destruction. It is so constantly, that God, though he foreknows, still lengthens out the opportunity and the offer of grace and help. Behind the fact lies, doubtless, one of the great mysteries, as yet unapprehended, nay, untouched, by the apprehension of man. Certain it is that foreknowledge with us would peremptorily strip off from us alike impartial conduct and courage, whether for what awaited ourselves or for what awaited others. We should never keep a steady hand or hold on a steady way. But is Jerusalem in the very act of sealing her fate - still to the last the hand, the voice, the features of Divine pity and love, continue or redouble their appeal. III. THE SEALING OF HIS FAITHFUL TESTIMONY WITH HIS LIFE-BLOOD WAS NOW IMMINENT FOR STEPHEN. And this is like the grace and free liberality of the Master. Has Stephen's career been very short? - yet he has run bravely the race, he has fought well the fight. And even before the crown above, and before the glorious witness there, he shall have a telling and to-be-remembered witness here also, on the very scene of his conflict, and in the very eyes of those whom he sought to save, but who sought to destroy him. Either we do often call that a miracle which needs not the name, or we very often fail to call that a miracle which begs the name; for tender analogies to the thing wrought now for Stephen have been even frequent since and up to the present. When the end comes very near for the faithful, how mellowed his feeling and how calmed his temper and how serene his countenance! When the last hour approaches, how often does physical pain resign her hitherto implacable tyranny, and mental aberration subside into a resumption of childlike instead of childish disposition and docility of thought and feeling! When the last moments arrive for those who have "struggled long with sins and doubts and fears," but who nevertheless have been faithful both to work and to love, how often does the actual countenance speak of the peace that reigns undisturbed within, and sights are seen and songs are heard which nothing but the callousness of the infidel can possibly deny or throw doubt upon! This very thing was going to be so for Stephen, while he is being stoned. But it is anticipated by - shall we say - a brief half-hour. For his last argument he shall have more light within than ever before - the logic of very light; and in his last gazing and impassioned looks turned on the gainsaying people his face shall reflect the light of God. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. |
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