When They Can’t Beat You and Can’t Join You, They Do This…

Acts 6:10 – But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Acts 6:11 – Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

Acts 6:10  But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.

Acts 6:11  So in secret they bribed men to lie: “We heard him cursing Moses and God.” (Message Bible)

After Stephen was chosen as a deacon and hands were laid on him together with others, he stood out. Stephen became known for his preaching and fierce defence for the cause of Christ. Stephen was the man to watch if you had any interest in the newly formed Christian faith, that was just beginning to spread.

Jews who had their faith in Judaism always felt superior in knowledge and faith to any other person of another faith (see Romans 2:17-29). They sought to prove everyone else wrong except themselves. That is why engaging Stephen became attractive. If they could out argue Stephen and silence him, they would have stopped Christianity on its tracks.

Jews were slaves because Rome had occupied their territory and imposed its rules on them. However, some jews like Apostle Paul, were free men (see Romans 22:27-29). They had been freed from slavery and were treated as equivalents of Romans. Freed Jews were not at the same level with the rest of the Jews. They were in their own superior class. The free Jews were very proud.

A Jew even without freedom was already too proud of his faith. Now a Jew who had a reason to be proud because of his freedom from Roman slavery was proud of himself and his faith in ways that couldn’t be controlled or contained.

Acts 6:9 – 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 —who began to argue with Stephen.

Acts 6:9  But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down.

When Jews from the Synagogue of the freedmen went to engage Stephen on matters of faith, it was a great risk. They risked the reputation of Judaism as a religion and their own reputation as freedmen. A lot was a stake. They underestimated Stephen. They were sure they would out argue him and silence him.

Acts 6:10 – But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Acts 6:10  But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.(Message Bible)

Jews who were freedmen approached Stephen using superior human wisdom. They were intellectuals. They were philosophers. They were professors. They were the best that could be had. They were cream de la cream. But Stephen was not operating on their natural level, he was operating on the supernatural level. They were using human power, Stephen was empowered by God. They could not match the wisdom that the Holy spirit gave Stephen.

The Holy Spirit will enable us to do much more than training in the best seminaries would ever do. The Holy Spirit will make us much more useful than any academic preparation would ever do. The Holy Spirit will make us effective more than guided readings of religious books under guidance of teachers with misleading agenda. The Holy Spirit is a greater value than years of experience in evangelism, teaching and preaching. Academic work has its place, no doubt, and we must pursue education, but we must be conscious that without the Holy spirit it is all null and void.

When the Jewish leaders who were also freemen discovered they cant beat Stephen, what did they do? There is an English saying, that, if you can’t beat them you join them. Would the humiliated embarrassed and bruised ego Jewish freemen concede defeat and join hands with Stephen? When it dawned on them that they cant win the war against Stephen, what did they do?

Acts 6:11  So in secret they bribed men to lie: “We heard him cursing Moses and God.”

Acts 6:12  That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council

Acts 6:13  They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: “This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God’s Law.

Acts 6:14  We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us.”

Acts 6:15  As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn’t take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!

They decided to scheme for the downfall of Stephen. All who scheme for the failure of others are first failures. Scheming against anyone is acknowledging that he or she is better than you. As you are planning how to bring anyone down, how to tarnish their name, how to hurt them and teach them a lesson, you are in that plan confessing that you cant beat them and out of shame of failure you cant join them.

They decided to go to superiors and lie about Stephen. When you lie to superiors about anyone, you are a failure. A major symptom of being a failure is lying to superiors about someone. The superiors who trust you, encourage you and believe you without verification are as hopeless as you are. The Sanhedrin or the High council was made of hopeless people who couldn’t suspect that this was hatred against Stephen.

They got violent and grabbed Stephen and took him to the Superiors. When they can’t beat you and they can’t join you, they may take action that will harm you. They may get physical. They may make good their threat. They may move from threat to action. A clear sign of desperation as they wallow in shameful defeat. They grabbed Stephen and took him to the Sanhedrin.

When they can’t beat you and they can’t join you, they will seek to harm you. The good news is that God came to his rescue and they stared at Stephen helplessly during his defence at the Sanhedrin. God will help you and your opponents will be desperate and hopeless always, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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