The Seven Chosen to Serve and Stephen Seized (Acts 6)

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The Seven Chosen to Serve and Stephen Seized (Acts 6)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 9, 2024

Today, I am delivering this sermon a little differently. I am with the youth on their Niagara Falls trip. I am recording the message with the youth group.

Still, we are continuing our way through Acts. I think it is fitting to be with the youth on a day when we talk about Acts 6.

In Acts 6, we see the deacons. “Deacons” means “servants.” The apostles are forming a group of servants to take care of all the needs. That is fitting with the youth group right in front of me. Regardless of age, we must know that the church is not about “me.” It is about the community. That means we are here to serve.

In Acts 6, we see the deacons. “Deacons” means “servants.” The apostles are forming a group of servants to take care of all the needs. That is fitting with the youth group right in front of me. Regardless of age, we must know that the church is not about “me.” It is about the community. That means we are here to serve.

At this point, the early church is growing. They are growing so rapidly that certain problems are coming about in their unity. In Acts 1, Jesus told the disciples to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Jesus told the disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them and they would be His witnesses in the whole known world, starting locally (Acts 1:8). This has been happening, and so now we see the devil trying to divide the church. You remember Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon the church. Then, in Acts 3 and 4, Peter and John heal a man and face persecution for it, but 5000 are saved. Then, in Acts 5, the disciples are persecuted again. So, in Acts 6 some of the needs are not being met.

Let’s look at Acts 6:1-7, and I wish to show you four things: Firstly, the disciples ensure that the felt needs of people are met. Secondly, the disciples will not drop the ministry of the Word of God and prayer. Thirdly, the disciples create expectations that the new leaders are men of noble Christian character. Fourthly, Stephen is seized.

Let’s read Acts 6:1-7:

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

  1. First, notice that the needs of some are not met.
    1. Verse 1 is simple enough. Some came to the disciples complaining that some people were not having their needs met. I noticed that as I looked at this passage, there was a need. There was a social issue. The church was growing. It was likely growing rapidly. It appears that we are now in the mid-30s AD, and we are just a few years after Jesus’ resurrection. In Jerusalem, there are Jews who are Greek speaking called Hellenistic Jews. The rest of the Jews likely spoke Aramaic.
    2. Now, many times, Jewish people would come back to Jerusalem to spend their final years, but then the husband might die, and guess what? The wife is there by herself.
    3. But still, to be a widow in their day was a big deal. They need income. They need food.
    4. A while back, I read something that was enlightening for these verses:
    5. In its charity the church may have followed somewhat the precedents already set in contemporary Judaism, which had a double system of distribution to the needy. The Jews had a weekly dole for resident needy, called the quppah. It was given out every Friday and consisted of enough money for fourteen meals. There was also a daily distribution, known as the tamhuy. It was for nonresidents and transients and consisted of food and drink, which were delivered from house to house where known needy were dwelling. The Christian practice seems to have embraced elements of both Jewish systems. Like the tamhuy it was daily, and like the quppah it was for the resident membership.
    6. But in this case, the Hellenistic Jews were being overlooked. Now, it does appear that this was not intentional. It appears that this could be because of the language barrier or something else. The point is, they were overlooked, and this is a problem. This came to their attention, and they are about to take care of it.
    7. Now, an application: we have felt needs in our community which we must take care of as well.
    8. Yet, we must be careful of enabling people as well. In a minute we will see how the disciples meet these needs. It is interesting, many times I have people asking for money or assistance. There are times when I get calls and it is something that I can help with my discretionary fund, so I meet a small need, but then the very next week I get a request from the same person. So, I might say that I would like to meet with them and recommend some other resources and I will recommend financial counseling and unfortunately, 9 out of 10 times they hang up on me. That is quite telling. The point is that we must always seek God’s Wisdom in meeting people’s needs. In that day and age there were no resources for orphans and widows and Christians were known for serving and helping.
  2. In verses 2-4: the church leaders meet to talk about this need.
    1. There is only a little bit of time in a day and that time goes fast. So, in verse 2 the disciples affirm that they cannot, let me repeat, they cannot, neglect the ministry of the Word for these needs. Yet, these needs are so very important.
    2. Notice that the disciples knew that they had to stick with the proclamation of the Word of God. We cannot dilute this major need in the church.
    3. 2 Timothy 4:1: “preach the Word…”
    4. The disciples want the church to choose 7 men:
    5. These men must have a good reputation.
    6. This means literally that they are witnesses.
    7. Now, know that in 1 Timothy 3 we have similar qualifications for church leaders, elders and deacons.
    8. The leadership must be full of the Holy Spirit.
    9. The leadership must have wisdom.
    10. We need wisdom to know who to help and who not to help.
    11. Verse 4: The disciples will take care of the ministry of praying and teaching and preaching.
  3. In verse 5-7 the disciples ordain 7 men.
    • The men are chosen. We will see from Stephen later in this chapter and he is the first martyr. We see from Phillip in chapter 8. The other men we really don’t know much about beyond church tradition.
    • These men all have Greek names, and it is implied that most if not all may be Greek believers which means that the church chooses Greeks to meet the needs of the Greeks. This is a wise decision. These men will know the needs of their own people and will not have a language barrier.
    • The disciples pray and then they lay hands on them, this is essentially ordination.
    • We also must pray prior to and during church decisions.
    • Verse 7 is a summary. Many times in Acts Luke concludes with a summary.

Now, Stephen is seized.

    1. Acts 6:8–15 (ESV): 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
    2. It is important that we know that in verse 5 above, Stephen is introduced as one full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
    3. Right now, we see that God is taking care of Stephen as he is arrested, and in reality, as we are bold and courageous witnesses, God will take care of us as well.
    4. I have heard testimonies of people being bold witnesses for Christ. Just think about Martin Luther standing up for the Scriptures in the 16th Study the early church and many that were standing up during persecution. I know that I have shared others with you before, people going through persecution, yet standing strong for Jesus. Maybe you have heard of some stories. God takes care of us.
    5. But what about stories of miracles as well? God is still at work in His church. We will experience more miracles as we step out and witness for Christ.
    6. Remember that “signs and wonders” most always go together in Acts.
  2. In verses 9-14 we see the attack against Stephen.
    • First, we see the “who” in verse 9. Some men started arguing against Stephen. We can learn a few things from this.
    • This is the first time of active oppression against the church in Acts.
    • Also, Stephen was probably part of that synagogue. Stephen was being a witness in his sphere of influence. Do we realize that God has placed us in a specific place to be a witness? He has.
    • We do not know for sure whether this was one synagogue or as many as 5 synagogues. We do know that this was likely called the synagogue of the Freedmen because they would be former slaves. These synagogues represent men from these four countries.
    • In verse 10 we see the “why.” Interesting that Stephen was apparently very good at defending the faith. Of course, we should expect that since Stephen was being guided by the Holy Spirit. In fact, verse 10 lists the Spirit and the wisdom as what the people couldn’t cope with.
    • In verses 11-14 we see the “what.” Verse 11 tells us that they are putting forward false witnesses. These people are committing perjury, but in the end, God is at work. Verse 11 says that they “secretly induced” men to say false things. Some translations say something like, “They persuaded…” But that wording is too weak. They “secretly induced” people to lie.
    • Verse 13: they say that he said Jesus will destroy the temple. My translation says “Holy Place” but that is talking about the Temple. We do know that Jesus did say something like that, but He was talking about Himself. Jesus also predicted the destruction of the Temple, but never said He would do it (Matt. 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:5–6).
    • Verse 12 says that these false witnesses stirred up the elders and the scribes. The elders would represent the Sadducees and the Scribes would represent the Pharisees. Both groups have representation on the Sanhedrin.
    • They also say that Jesus will destroy the law of God. This is from verses 11-12 and 13b-14. This is a half-truth. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament.
    • Verse 15 tells us the meekness of Stephen. His face is like that of an angel. John MacArthur says about this:
    • You see what God’s saying? God’s saying both of those were mine. In Exodus 33 and 34 you can read the story yourself of the glory of God on the face of Moses. And as he came down from the mountain with the glory of God what did he have in his arm? The old covenant. And Stephen there has proclaimed the new covenant and God puts on his face the glow of God and what is God saying? I approve of Moses. I approve of Stephen. Don’t you see this is fulfillment.
    • Starting in verse 15 Stephen is on trial, but in reality, God is putting the Sanhedrin on trial.

Close:

I love studying history and specifically Revolutionary War History. Have you heard the phrase the shot heard round the world? Something that I have read about that states:

The phrase is originally from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Concord Hymn” (1837), and referred to the first shot of the American Revolutionary War. According to Emerson’s poem, this pivotal shot occurred at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where the first British soldiers killed in the battles of Lexington and Concord fell.

Historically, no one shot can be definitely cited as the first shot of the battle or the war. Shots were fired earlier at Lexington, where eight Americans were killed and a British soldier was slightly wounded, but accounts of that event are confused and contradictory. The North Bridge skirmish did see the first shots by Americans acting under orders, the first organized volley by Americans, the first British fatalities, and the first British retreat.

Stephen being brought to trial and later martyred is the shot heard around the world. In a few weeks we will continue this narrative from the Word of God, and we will see how this ignites the Christians to spread out into the gentile areas and to spread the Gospel with them.

Do you know Christ?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

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