For general nonlinear autonomous systems, a Lyapunov characterization for the possibility of semi-global asymptotic stabilizability by means of a time-varying sampled-data feedback is established. We exploit this result in order to derive a Lie algebraic sufficient condition for sampled-data feedback semi-global stabilizability of affine in the control nonlinear systems with non-zero drift terms. The corresponding proposition constitutes an extension of the "Artstein-Sontag" theorem on feedback stabilization.