Year 1, Day 239: Acts 6

Unity Among Disunity

The choosing of the 7 is a neat passage.  The reason it is neat is because it demonstrates the true unity of the church.  Some people (Hellenists = Greek Jews) come with a problem.  The apostles gather, they understand the problem, and they establish a course of action. 

It is interesting to note that if we can tell nationality according to name origin – and that is usually a pretty reliable means in ancient history – then the apostles appointed six Hellenists to the task.  Furthermore, one of the appointed ones was still a proselyte and not a full-fledged Jew!

What this tells us is that the church wasn’t concerned with affirmative action, equal representation, or proper grooming for a job.  The apostles heard the need and appointed the people who were mostly likely equipped by God to handle the task.  It isn’t about politics or old-boy’s-networks or pre-meeting parking lot meetings.  It is about getting the job done.

Results of Doing the Work of God

What is the result of appointing those who God equipped and trusting those appointed to do the job that God has asked them to do?  Read Acts 6:7.  The Word of God spread.  The numbers of the disciples grew.  Even temple priests were being converted into the faith! 

Imagine what it must be like for people to actually come and worship God because truth is being proclaimed.  Imagine how different this is to coming because they are getting their way in their building to which they have always gone and with people who are just like them!  Sometimes I find it ironic how easy the worship of God should be and how we as human beings put so much in its way.

Stephen

In the next story we have Stephen, who is never called an apostle, doing signs and wonders.  I throw this up because as I mentioned a day or so ago there are people that like to argue away miracles by saying the “age of the apostles” is over.  Stephen was not an “apostle.”  Technically, I suppose he is an apostle because the word apostle means “one who is sent to accomplish the agenda of the sender.”  But he is never called an apostle in the text. 

Therefore, if Stephen was not officially an “apostle” and yet God was doing signs and wonders through him then it clearly isn’t the title that gave him the power.  If it wasn’t the title, then it must have been the Holy Spirit through which he received his power.  And if it was the Holy Spirit, then who in their right mind would argue that signs and wonders do not happen today?  Who in their right mind would think that the Holy Spirit – or God Himself – has lost power?  As if He could be neutered of His power!  No, Stephen does signs and wonders to bring glory to God’s name – a process that continues to this day where God sees fit.  It isn’t the title but the Spirit; the same Spirit lives and acts within us as well.

Finishing up Acts 6

Okay, I now have to confess that I was really ticked off to have to stop before going into Acts 7.  I was all geared up for a “How cool is God’s witness through Stephen’s words?!?” blog entry today … only to remember all too late that I will have to wait for tomorrow to accomplish that task.  Oh well.  Just know that it’s coming down the pipeline!

So let’s return back to Acts 6, which is the topic of the day.  Notice that the people with whom Stephen debates could not stand in the presence of his teaching.  Why could they not stand?  Simply put, they could not stand because the power of the Holy Spirit was upon him.  This (and Peter and John’s story earlier in Acts) is the beginning of the literal fulfillment of Jesus’ promise when He tells the disciples that they should not fear when they will be dragged before trials because the Holy Spirit will give them the words to speak. 

Stephen isn’t resting on his own power and his own logic here.  Stephen is engrossed in the Holy Spirit and nothing can stop him!  Of course, before you get too excited here remember that he dies in the next chapter.  So before you think this is too cool – as I do – remember that people who receive this much of the Holy Spirit often end up dead or at least humiliated at the hands of other people.

But that brings me back to the point I have been mourning in the last several blog posts.  Stephen is ready to die for the truth.  Stephen is ready to go to trial for the truth.  Stephen can’t help but speak out the truth.  Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit!  How much of that do I see today?

How often do I not speak out the truth because I am afraid of how people will look at me, how it might affect my job standing – and I’m even a pastor, and how it might affect things like my health insurance and the health of my wife.  We have a lot of things that we trade for in our compromise of the truth, don’t we? Jesus died so we could be set free.  Stephen died because he was set free.

Unlike Stephen, we often trade in our freedom for bondage because the price is just too high from our worldly perspective.

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