A Man Full Of God's Grace & Power

And we are going to finish Acts chapter 6 today. We did first service, so I know we will second service, so bear with us on this. We're at verse 8 in Acts chapter 6. We're talking about Stephen. We've been talking about the, in verse 8 it says that he was a man full of God's grace and power. And we spent several weeks on that, on that particular idea. And so if you've missed that, I encourage you to pick up on the tapes from this study.

We're looking at verse 8 here in Acts 6, follow along as I read if you would. Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the spirit by whom he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God. And so they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law, and they seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified that this fellow never stopped speaking against this holy place and against the law. But we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs of Moses, the customs that Moses handed down to us.

And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

So there's, you know, there's, although some good things are presented there, you can kind of sense the slant and sense the intent of, well, it happens every millennium, and you're going to hear that more and more as we come closer to the year 2000. You will hear people say, well, yeah, every millennial changed. In 1900, it was the same thing. 1800, the same thing.

Everybody's saying, Jesus is coming again. It's no different. And this presents some areas, you know, where the good, or it presents the idea that I believe real strongly is one reason why this is the time that we're looking for. I'm not saying Jesus is coming in 2000. I don't think he's going to wait that long, but the one difference that we have now that we didn't have in 1900 or 1800 is we have Israel back together as a nation, and that's

key in prophecy. This article presents, in the middle here, what's called the millennial views. If you've been with us for any length of time, we've talked about that when we were in the book of Revelation and Daniel. We talked about millennialism, and millennialism is just the view, the idea of God's reigning in the person of his son, and Jesus reigning here upon the earth for a thousand years.

And there are basically, in Christianity, three views of millennialism. There is premillennialism, which I hold to and teach, and when I teach, you'll hear all of my views expressed from a premillennial standpoint, that Jesus is coming back literally and bodily, physically, to this earth at a given point in time, and we'll set up a literal, visible, bodily kingdom upon this earth that will be for a literal thousand-year period. In the premillennial view, there's also the belief that just prior to this millennial kingdom being established, there will be a seven-year outpouring of God's wrath, which the Bible describes as a time of Jacob's trouble, a time of great tribulation.

There's been none like it since the beginning of the earth, nor will there be any like it after this time. It's the outpouring of God's wrath on a disbelieving world, and I believe the Bible shows that it is God dealing again specifically with the nation of Israel, with his chosen people. I believe that because the Bible is very explicit, very descriptive in the fact that Jesus came to suffer God's wrath so that those who would believe in his name would not have to face that wrath for sin, and since the tribulation period is the outpouring of God's wrath, that this precludes the necessity of the church being here during that seven-year tribulation period. So a pre-tribulational, premillennial view of millennialism holds to what's called the

There's postmillennialism, which has the view that the church is now in control, has the authority to move and take over the kingdoms of the earth for Jesus' sake. And so it will do that eventually, and the earth will be prepared for then the return of the Lord at the end of this particular period of time, at the end of this millennial kingdom, the end of this millennial reign. And then there's amillennialism, which is a belief that there is no literal thousand-year

angels that were in the heavenly realm that fell from grace, became demons, and through the execution of this one criminal, a demonic spirit is used to stir up all kinds of trouble and haunt this particular prosecutor that prosecuted him. Interesting. Why now? Why the emphasis on that now? Another movie coming out, which I have seen the trailers too, and it talks about these

comets that are headed towards Earth, and some of them hit, and they cause tidal waves

that are going to go up and land on it and plant this nuclear device and blow it up. Interesting. Again, that's taken somewhat from the book of Revelation, but a little bit of a twist on it with some of the judgments that are coming up on the Earth. Interesting. Why now? Why are these things happening now? I believe it's because we're at the point of the Lord's return, and they're coming with

intensity. Why all of a sudden are we inoculating all of our troops for anthrax? Safety precaution. We know that Saddam Hussein is manufacturing anthrax and other biological chemicals. But normally we just inoculate the troops that are going into that area, you know, Desert Storm and all that stuff. We just inoculate the troops from over there, but now we're inoculating the entire armed

forces and the reserves. They're being inoculated at government expense for anthrax. Why? Is there a threat of anthrax here? I don't know, but I heard the other day that shortwave radio was interrupted with a message that they had, and I had not heard it from any other source, so this is hearsay, so just take it for what it's worth, that they had raided the campus at Ohio State University

because Iraqi students reportedly were culturing biological weapons, culturing anthrax and

And how is that affecting your life? What are you doing as a result? If you believe that Jesus is coming soon, what effect is that having on your life? Is it just a, oh, that's a great idea, yeah, thank you, I'm going about my life just as on a daily basis, and I really don't care one way or the other. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a preacher from a previous era, has spoken in one of his sermons

called Awake, Awake, quote, behold how many professing Christians there are that are asleep in this sense, they are inactive. Others are dying in the streets by the hundreds. Men are sinking into the flames of eternal wrath, but they fold their arms, they pity the poor, perishing sinner, but they do nothing to show that their pity is real. They go to their places of worship, they occupy their well-cushioned easy pew, and I laughed when I shared this this morning for a service, because at least we don't have cushioned ones here, enduring it for the sake of God's grace.

They wish the minister to feed them every Sabbath, but there is never a child taught in the Sunday school by them, there's never a tract distributed at the poor man's house,

If you have the want to, you will see God work mightily. So with this new year approaching, new opportunities, new evidences that the Lord's coming is soon, new evidences for a change in life as we know it if He doesn't come soon, and the question this morning is, do you have the want to, do you have the want to, to let God work mightily through you? Stephen, we're told here in chapter 6, verse 8, was a man full of God's grace and power. He has the want to.

He wants to do what God wants him to do, where God wants him to do it, and he wants to do it as unto the Lord, and let God do His mighty work through him. Stephen has the want to. Do you and I have it this morning? That's what we're going to look at as we go through this section. First as you look at this verse, verse 8, as we begin, how does it strike you, I mean,

how do you see Stephen doing the things that he's doing? Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. How do you see that happening? Do you see, do you see Stephen maybe with kind of a booming voice, and maybe he crawls up on the platform there in Solomon's colonnade, at Solomon's porch there, and he says, a prayer today is at 9 and 12 and 3, and if you want to see God move in some healing, powerful

signs, and I'm just here in Ark City. If you see it that way, let me break that bubble, let me pop that balloon, because I don't think that that's the way it happened, I don't think Stephen walked around with a glassy eyed stare and just raised his hand and people dropped over and were healed. You see, just like everything else we've studied in the text here, I think it all happened naturally. Back in verse 7 we saw last week that the word of God spread and the number of disciples

could bet money on they would never come to Christ, they'd never listen to the gospel presentation because they're just stubborn, obstinate, hard nuts to crack, and they were cracked naturally. As people just loved the Lord and let Him love one another through them, God's word spread naturally, the disciples grew naturally, they didn't have bike-a-thons or pack-a-pews

commissioned him to that service and that's what he was doing. He wasn't holding miraculous services or healing services, he was simply serving as unto the Lord in the area in which God had called him to do and God blessed him as a result. God poured his spirit out upon him and worked through him, opened up opportunities for him simply while he was serving and worked through Stephen that way.

If you go to your right you go through Romans and 1st and 2nd Corinthians and then you'll come to the prison epistles of which Colossians is the last one, go to Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3 and look with me beginning at verse 12 if you will. This is the Apostle Paul writing which becomes interesting here in a minute. Verse 12 he says, therefore as God's what? Chosen people, God chose, God raised us up as believers just like he raised Stephen up as a believer.

Had Stephen raised up, it was God's working that raised him up to serve the Grecian widows there. As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves, put on it says, let this be your countenance, let this be the expression of your personality, let this cover you, when people see you and hear you let this be what they see and hear, that's what it means to clothe yourself. With compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience, bear with each

do it all in the name of the Lord, what does that mean? It means as if Jesus were doing it, you're doing it as his representative so you're doing it as if Jesus were doing it, do it whatever comes out of your mouth, whatever activity you are doing, do it all it says in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him, that means anything, anything, anytime, anywhere, not just in here but anything

bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord, that's where Satan sticks his finger in, that's the spiritual warfare, brothers and sisters, yeah, it's out there too but it's in your own home, Satan sticks his little finger in and waggles it at your kids and your kids go, oh, mom, dad, nuts, you know, sticks it in and waggles it at dads and dads get frustrated with their kids, without stopping to think, without having time to pray, Satan's in the midst of that, see the armor's not just for the out there, it's for the in here,

he wrote that, what do you suppose gave him the idea to do that, oh the Holy Spirit, I know it's Spirit inspired, God inspired him to do it, but sometimes, see, and I don't mean to, I'm not demeaning or belittling the supernatural, I believe in that, but sometimes I think that because we think of supernatural as so much apart from us that it surely can't be God working in me at all, ever, because I'm not, you know, I'm just me, but I see

as we move down that way, that Paul probably saw this in Stephen, he probably saw this life that was so committed to the Lord, to just serve tables, and do it as unto the Lord, and God poured out his blessing and power through this guy, and it amazed Paul, and even with Paul seeing Stephen stoned, it just wouldn't leave him, and once he came to Christ, once he, the scales were dropped on the Damascus road and he realized who the Lord was, I think the Holy Spirit then brought back to his understanding these impressions of what Christianity is all about, and it so impressed Paul that he wrote it twice, in two different places, to two different letters, to two different churches, so that we'd get the picture that

whatever we do, that we're to do it heartily, as unto the Lord, in Jesus' name, as if, I was going to get that sooner or later, I knew you were watching that, as if indeed it were the Lord doing that, God has called you and I to serve in whatever position and whatever

as a result. And I believe that's how God wants us to live in our daily function, and it's a struggle. He's given us his armor, he's given us his word, he's given us his Holy Spirit to be able to accomplish it. Just like Spurgeon said, we're equipped, we've just got to have the want to. Now what were Stephen's, back to Acts 6, what were Stephen's miraculous signs? He did great wonders, it says, and miraculous signs among the people.

What do you suppose those were? Well, I don't know, it doesn't say. It just says he did great wonders and miraculous signs. But I don't think we'd be doing damage to the text or to our thoughts if we look back in our text at what's happened previously. In chapter 5, when Peter and John first came to the temple area, and the lame man was healed, and then we see several results of that, that others are being healed, and God's Spirit is moving

in a mighty way among the crowd, that there were probably similar things happening miraculously that were happening as we have seen back in these last few chapters, as were happening through the apostles. But again, I believe that it's just in the course of Stephen's regular normal service, and God gives him opportunity to pray. How many of you have been going about your daily routine, and God, you know, you just, maybe you stop for a drink of water, and you just happen to meet somebody at the drinking fountain. How are you doing?

Oh, I'm not too well, I've got a sick headache. What do you do? Any of you just take time, and just don't, you know, just gently reach your hand out and say, Lord, I'll lift this person up, and I ask right now, you just touch them, take away the headache, take away the pain. You ever done that? You just stop to do that? See, we get so busy on our schedules, at the drinking fountain for just a second, because

I've got to run over here and get this done, and then run over there and get that done, and we're so busy on our schedules that other people are more frequently just in the way, and we want to avoid them. I feel that way often, and I have to really work on avoidance, because it's real easy for me. I've got things I've got to do, and I've got to get done. I've just got to avoid, you know, and not be open to God's moving hand.

But how many times in this last week did you have an opportunity, just in the course of your normal daily routines and activities, that you could have, and maybe did pray for people, maybe took the time to just stop, let your life intersect with theirs, and realize that maybe for the moment God brought that to pass, so that you could do that, so you could just give them a glimpse of His glory, just say something as if it were from the

just come, you know, loaf of bread for you, and an egg for you, and here's one for you. He probably actually said, so how are you? And they probably actually said, not too good. I've got an achy foot, or I've got a child I'm worried about. And Stephen probably just stopped and prayed, and they probably were healed, or their kid probably was found, or whatever. God poured out His power upon him so that many wonders and miraculous signs

attitudes are wrong if we want to seek God just for His power. I think we're wrong. There are many who want to seek God for His power. God's spirit has fallen, and we want to duplicate whatever happened so His spirit will fall again. Maybe it was an evening service at the church, and the lights were down, and we just had a couple of guitars playing real

faith, the Bible says, to pray, so I gotta have faith, so maybe I gotta learn how to pray in such a way that I call down this, you know, and so we work at manipulating God. We try and twist His arm. Maybe if I pray a certain thing, Lord, maybe if I, our Father who art in heaven, may I pray through the Lord's prayer. No, I won't. May I pray through the Apostles' Creed. No, I won't. And it's like we're trying to get God's power. We're

trying to twist His arm and make Him give us His power, and I don't see that. I don't see that in Scripture. I don't see that in power services. You know, let's go for power evangelism and power of the most. We're going to seek that kind. I don't see that in the Word. I see people seeking the Lord with all their heart and just being obedient to what God has called them to do, serving like Stephen as if he were serving the Lord and representing

the Lord, and God's power comes naturally. See, we're not, don't seek God for His power.

His power through him without him even seeking it, and God opens opportunities for him without him even seeking it, and I want my life to be that way, and I want that for you. I want us to just be so serving the Lord that it's just evident without us having to say a word. There's a song that's out, What would my life say to you if I said nothing at all? What am I communicating to you if I don't speak a word? So you've got to let me to the Lord

demonstrated that before I ever talked to Him about Jesus. I saw Jesus in Him, and I didn't right at the beginning put my finger on that, that it was Jesus. There's just something about Him that was different, and we worked at a Safeway store together. I was part of the stock crew, and he was in the deli. One night late, he was putting away all the stuff in the deli, dropped a pot of chili on the floor, just dropped a pan, and chili went

everywhere, and all the guys and me on the work crew, on our stock crew, we didn't talk but in superlatives, four-letter superlatives, and when that pan hit the floor, that guy didn't say one of those. As a matter of fact, he started kind of humming, and then I could tell he was singing a song, and I came over by the deli, and he was singing a praise song, and that so intrigued me, and he hadn't said a word to me yet about the Lord, but that drew me to ask him later on break, how could you do that? And he told me, opportunity, because he was doing what he was doing as unto the Lord, and it was evident God's power

and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. Synagogue of the Freedmen, it's amazing how anywhere, even today, if you're not a member of our group, you ain't right, something's wrong with you. If you're not a member of our club, boy, you don't have the right club. If you're not a member of our church, well, it's just not the right church, you're going to hell, in a handbasket, because you're not a member of our group.

And that's the way that the Synagogue of the Freedmen was. They were a group of Jews,

but they just saw themselves as a little more now, because they were part of the Freedmen. They were freed men. And so, because they were in these different areas, they evidently had their lifestyles were similar, so they related in lifestyle, and their name, they called themselves the Freedmen. So there was a Freedmen Synagogue, evidently in Asia, and a Freedmen Synagogue in Alexandria, and a Freedmen Synagogue in Cilicia, and a Freedmen Synagogue in various places in Cyrene, and evidently members of those synagogues were here, and they were watching everything that was going on with the Church, and they were seeing this stuff happen with Stephen specifically, because he's the one they end up confronting,

and they are obviously unsettled by what's going on. They're unsettled by this mass defection of priests here in verse 7 that we read about. There were about 8,000 priests ministering there in the Temple in Jerusalem, and a goodly number of them, so evidently several thousand of them, came over to faith in Jesus Christ, and this was upsetting to all the religious leaders around, and probably specifically to these Freedmen, and so they have been watching what's been going on with the Church activity. They're watching and seeing Stephen doing just his job, but God evidently blessing through him in these mighty ways, providing him opportunities to share, and so they come to confront him. Now, as

it happens in God's Word, whenever God repeats himself or lists things, it's for us to understand and think about why he lists those. Why didn't he just say, and there were Jews from the synagogue of the Freedmen that were there, that were debating with, why did they list from Cyrene, and from Cilicia, and from Alexandria, and from Asia? Well, let's speculate a little. First, it says from Cyrene. Now, Cyrene is one of the large areas, as a matter of fact,

I think it's the capital or the chief city in Libya in North Africa, and that's just south of Israel, and a little bit south of Egypt on the northern part of Africa. Now, it seems to me that in the Gospel somewhere, I heard something about some guy from Cyrene. I think his name was Simon. I think it says that he carried the cross of Jesus, actually carried his crossbar probably to Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified. You ever wonder

what happened to him? Well, since he was from Cyrene and he was there, he was probably Jewish or a Jewish proselyte. Very possibly could have been from the Freedmen synagogue. Would have been here, because this is right after the Feast of Pentecost, and either was a believer now and a part of the church, which really would have irritated his friends from there, or was there and still, as a result of what he had to do with Jesus by helping carry his cross, was fascinated by what was going on and was really searching. I think we'll see

Simon in heaven. It's a good possibility Simon's there from Cyrene, who would then probably take the word back there and maybe even plant a church right here. And then there's Alexandria. Alexandria was the capital of Egypt at that time and was second only to Rome in the Roman Empire. So it would have been a magnificent city, a city of much affluence. Again, probably very wealthy people there from Egypt, as I mentioned, Alexandria

Israel and over here is Turkey. Well, Asia Minor was this part of Turkey today and it would have been down in this corner adjoining Syria, where Syria is today. A major city in Cilicia is a city called Tarsus, or it was back then, and we know that Paul was from Tarsus. And so a good possibility that Paul was there from the Freedman Synagogue, there debating Stephen before ever the stoning came to pass. Again, a reason why I think

when Paul wrote these things in Ephesians and Colossians, it was from experience, from seeing it alive and active in the life of a Christian. And then Asia. We have Asia listed. Asia was a Roman province in the western part of Asia Minor towards the other side of what is now Turkey. Major city in Asia at that time was the city of Ephesus, and it's a city that Paul went through on one of his missionary

it could be God? Wow. Think that from now on. Okay. That's the, that's how the Holy Spirit works. That's how the Holy Spirit speaks. Do you think that it would have been God if Paul thought, oh, there's these guys that were in the Friedman synagogue that I knew, you know, that are in Ephesus. I think I'll swing through Ephesus and see about talking to them. Is that any less God? No. That's how God works. Oh, gee, that happens to me.

Duh. God works with you. God wants to do this through you. Just the same as he's done through Paul. So there's all these guys from the Friedman synagogue. How do they act? How do they come against Stephen? Well, real quickly, let me show you four things that they do, because this is how the world responds. This is how you will find opposition. When the enemy is at work against you seeking to oppose your stand for the Lord, this is, these are

four things that will happen regularly. The first thing it tells us is that they argued. These men, verse nine, began to argue with Stephen. They raised their voices at him. Why? Well, because, verse 10, they couldn't stand up against his wisdom and the spirit by whom he spoke. Whenever a person, in the world, if I'm in the world, whenever I feel threatened by someone or accused by someone, how do I respond? I'm in the world and in

the flesh. I'll argue with them. Why'd you wear those shoes outside? You knew it was going to be muddy. Well, I didn't have anything else to wear. What did you expect me to wear? It's all I had. You raise your voice and argue. See, somehow we think that's for effect, that they'll understand us better if we yell at them. Well, you're late to work this morning.

Oh, you should have seen the traffic out there. You couldn't get through. The traffic was a mess. What do you mean late? I couldn't get here any earlier. That's how the world responds whenever it's confronted. It argues. It raises its voice and argues. Stephen didn't do that. Stephen responded gently with gentleness. All the things that Paul listed in Colossians,

that's how Stephen responded. And these guys couldn't stand it. They couldn't debate him out of it, so they argued. May that not be so with us, brothers and sisters. May we be known as gentle and kind and loving and forgiving and long-suffering. That's what we're to put on. That's what we just read in Colossians. All those things we're to put on, not argumentative.

The second thing they did, verse 11, is they slandered him. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God. They slandered him. If you can't win an argument, then just slander somebody. Just go to somebody else and say, hey, look at this guy. We've heard him. You pressure of your friendship because you're my friend, man. Stand with me against this guy. There's

just something wrong with him. You go around and you slander somebody to somebody else. It says they pressured others. They either pressured him because of their position, because they were freedmen and they probably talked to the priests. We'll see that later. People in high positions who would have influence where this is concerned. They pressured him by their friendships and their position. They probably paid a view. That always works. The

world will argue. The world will slander others to gain favor for itself. Then the slandering goes a little bit further. Let me read verse 12 and then I'll tell you what that is. They stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and they brought him before the Sanhedrin. They argued against him and that didn't work. They slandered him. In the midst of their slandering, they gossiped a mob together. They gossiped

a mob together. You run to someone who will favor your position and you slander that person to them. Well, this is what they did and this is what they said. Then you run to others and you get a group together. You go up and you've got your herd. You've got your group. You've got a mob together. That's the way the world responds. That's what they did to Jesus. That's what they did to Paul. That's what they're doing to Stephen. That's how

the world responds to you and me. Again, may it not be so. If we have ought against one another, may it be between one another that we can then come together and forgive each

Verse 13, they produced false witnesses who testified, this fellow never stopped speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses had it down to us. Half-truth. Half-truth. They haven't heard Stephen's side yet. How often do you make a judgment based

on half the story? How often do you take a side with someone else before ever talking to the other side, before ever finding out the other person's view on a particular situation?

quickly. Excuse me, Farmer Brown, would you please just answer the question yes or no? When the police officer arrived at the scene of the accident, did you say to the officer, I'm okay? Well, said the farmer, I was driving down the road with my Cal Betsy in the back of my truck. Once again, the attorney jumped in. Farmer Brown, please, did you or did you not say to the police officer that arrived on the scene of the accident, I'm

okay? Well, said the farmer, I was driving down the road with my Cal Betsy in the back of my truck when, your honor, said the now exasperated attorney to the judge, could you please order Farmer Brown to answer my question? The judge, feeling pity on the poor old farmer, looked at the attorney and said, I think we need to let Farmer Brown answer the question in his own way. Go ahead, Mr. Brown. Well, said the farmer, I was driving down the road

with my Cal Betsy in the back of my truck when this man swerved into my side of the road and knocked me and Betsy Clean off the interstate. When the police officer stopped at the scene of the accident, he noticed old Betsy was hurting pretty bad, so he took his gun out and shot her in the head. Then he came over to me and asked me, sir, are you feeling okay? So I said, I'm okay. We always have to hear the other side of the story,

but the world will seek to sway with only half the story, and that's what they did against Stephen. He speaks against his holy place, says Jesus is going to tear it down. Stephen had probably been, they probably heard Stephen teaching what he'd heard about Jesus teaching in the Olivet Discourse, that this temple soon is going to not be standing anymore, not one stone upon another. Oh, he's come to change the customs, speaks against the law, says Jesus is going to change our customs and practices that have been handed down to us by Moses. Probably been teaching that Jesus has rent the veil. Now we have access into

the throne room of God. We can come to God face to face based on the shed blood of Jesus. We don't have to sacrifice anymore. Half truths. Now it's interesting to me that that's the last thing quoted here in Acts 6.14 before it tells us of Stephen's response, was that he even, he's even, we've even heard him say that he's going to change the customs Moses handed down to us. Now, how did Moses receive the laws of God? How did he receive the ordinances

and the customs that the children of Israel were to do? He received them up on Mount Sinai. And when he was up there, he was in the presence of God. And when he was in the presence of God, the glory of God was so magnified around him that when Moses would come down off the mountain, he glowed. The glory of God. Now they've just accused Stephen of violating the ordinances and laws and customs handed down to us by Moses. And what's the very next

verse say? And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently on Stephen and they saw that his face glowed like the face of an angel. He's speaking against the things of Moses. Here's Stephen there just radiating. Stephen didn't do anything. He just loved

can come directly from those who are accusing and arguing and slandering and gossiping a mob together and speaking atrocious. Or opposition can come in the form of disease or illness or accident, accidental injury, accident that happens. It's an opposition. But in every opposition, there is always opportunity. And for the rest of chapter 7, you're going to see the opportunity that God gave to Stephen to speak to the rulers of Israel, to the ruling