Acts 6
(img via Wellcome gallery)
(1) 7 Servers Nominated
As the disciples kept growing in number, a complaint arose: The Greek Jews were saying that their widows were being overlooked during the daily meal distributions when compared to the Hebrews’ widows. So the 12 called for a meeting with the giant crowd of disciples. They said,
“It wouldn’t make sense for us to stop teaching God’s concepts in order to serve tables. So, friends, choose 7 of your men who have good reputations, are full of the Spirit, and are wise—and we’ll put them in charge of this task. That way, we can keep devoting ourselves to praying and serving God’s word.”
Everyone approved of that plan, so they chose people full of faith and full of the Different Spirit: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas (a convert from Antioch). The people brought these men to the apostles, and they prayed for them and put their hands on them.
(7) Christianity Spreads through Jerusalem
God’s concepts kept on spreading, and the number of disciples kept rapidly increasing in Jerusalem—there were even a lot of priests who started operating in alignment with the faith!
(8) Stephen Falsely Accused
Being well-favored and full of power, Stephen performed noteworthy marvels and miracles among the people. But there were some people from the “Synagogue of the Free” who rose up and argued with him. Some of those people were Cyrenians, Alexandrians, people from Cilicia, and people from Asia. But none of them could compete with the wisdom and Spirit that embodied Stephen’s speech. So they got a bunch of people to say,
“We heard Stephen saying bad things about God that aren’t true!”
That stirred up the people, elders, and Bible scholars so much that they dragged Stephen away to the supreme court. Then the opposing group planted false witnesses who said,
“Stephen won’t stop saying bad things about this sacred place and God’s law. We heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses passed down to us.”
While everyone in the hearing looked at him, his face looked the same as an angel’s.
