The Wonders of God

"The Wonders of God" - Daniel 4:2-3 The fierce (animal-like, cruel) man had destroyed Israel, now he sees the wonders of God.

(2) "I am pleased to make known the signs and miracles that the Highest God has done for me." How justly God had humbled him, and how graciously He had afterwards restored him. His signs, and how mighty His (marvels) wonders! His kingdom was not like God's; it is God's everlasting kingdom (eternal, perpetual, lasting forever, it will have no end, no beginning and no end). The lordship of that God of Daniel endures (continues to exist) from generation to generation.

I. (Acts 6:8) Wisdom

A. To the Spirit with whom he spoke.

1. Here we speak of a deacon, whom I present to you today, Stephen.

2. A man who was passionate about heaven and took a great interest in the work, he helped lead the church in Jerusalem.

3. A young man filled with the Holy Spirit. Glory to God!

4. He expressed his beliefs in an extraordinary, magnificent way and with the passion of love for Christ and with the filling of the Spirit.

5. He defended his faith and exalted the Lord.

6. Such devotion had no measure, no care, but it was exposed that his passion, as recent as the persecution of the Nazarene, the Messiah, was still there, he must know that so much passion would lead him to an astonishing death. (Admirable, marvelous, extraordinary), he who then dies like the Master, would give the splendid passion for God.

7. He shed his blood; he became a martyr defender of Christ.

8. He was a man of miracles like the disciples.

9. Opposition to Stephen's powerful ministry arose from the synagogue.

10. Stephen, a deacon.

11. He was mighty, employed by God to perform miracles and preach the word.

12. They were places where Jews gathered on the "Sabbath" to be instructed in the law.

13. The freedmen, Jews of Cyrene, city in Africa and Alexandria, as well as from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia began to argue with Stephen.

14. They were slaves of the Romans who had been freed.

15. They had a synagogue in Jerusalem.

16. Whatever the reality, the truth is that the proclamation of the gospel came to them, by Stephen, full of power and passion.

17. This was God's wonder upon them.

18. Communities of Jews from all these places who had in or near Jerusalem.

19. (10-14) (10) They could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

20. The glory of God was upon him.

21. The zealous Jews failed to refute Stephen in their discussions with him.

22. The words he spoke and the power with which he said them were irresistible (impossible to refuse or avoid).

23. Desperate to silence him, they bribed false witnesses to accuse Stephen of blasphemy against Moses and God.

24. He soon found himself before the Sanhedrin (supreme court of Jewish law), accused of speaking "against" the temple and "against" the law.

25. He was falsely quoted as saying that Jesus would destroy the temple and change the whole system that Moses had bequeathed to Israel. (inheritance).

26. (15) The Sanhedrin heard the charges, but when they looked at Stephen they saw not the face of a demon, as they claimed, but the "face of an angel."

27. They saw "the mysterious beauty of" a life totally surrendered to the Lord, determined to proclaim the Truth and more "interested" in what God thinks" than in what men say.

28. Just like Daniel, with Nebuchadnezzar.

29. So, God can bless; use the one who is able to love Him as He is.

30. "They saw something of the glory of Christ reflected in the radiant face of 'His' 'consecrated' 'follower.'

31. What your face can be like today, because it speaks how you are or what you are.

32. You think: Am I the consecrated follower?

33. Then at the end, Stephen launches a caustic (burning, aggressive) attack on Israel's leaders, accusing them of resisting the Holy Spirit, murdering the Righteous, and not keeping God's law.

34. Stephen must have known that his life was at stake.

35. Many times, we change what has been said; To come out well, all he had to do was to make a contemporaneous speech (accommodating a person to the taste or desire of others) appeasing.

36. But he would rather die than betray his "sacred mission."

37. Let us be able to admire his courage!

38. How courageous we must be to see "the wonders of God."

39. (7:55) Filled with the Holy Spirit, he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God, the Son of Man at the right hand of the (Father), of God. Amen.