Day 42 - Acts 6-7

Chapter 6 records the selection of the first deacons of the church (or at least the men who performed the function of a deacon). The situation that led to this appointment of these men was that there was a physical need that the apostles thought it better to be handled by a separate group rather than themselves. This was not because they thought it was too little of a thing to occupy their time, it's just that their primary role was a spiritual one. The wise delegation of this matter to qualified men resulted in the fruitful ministry of the apostles (vs7).

Chapter 7 is the record of Stephen's speech to the council. It is his response to the accusations leveled against him in the last verses of chapter 6 (vs11-14). In those verses, Stephen was charged with speaking blasphemous words against God, Moses and the Temple. In recounting a brief summarization of the history of Israel, Stephen demonstrates that he believes wholeheartedly in the God the OT and that he holds Moses in the highest regard. He then moves to issue of the Temple. The religious leaders had elevated the Temple to an unnecessarily high position, so Stephen quotes from Isaiah (ch66) to demonstrate that the dwelling of God transcends the mere location of the Temple. He then levels his accusation against the religious leaders by telling them that they are just as hardhearted as the Jews of old who persecuted and even killed the prophets because they have done the same thing to the Lord Jesus Christ (vs51-53). The ironic thing is that Stephen himself was about to be added to the number of those who have been martyred for the sake of the truth! What is amazing to me about the murder of Stephen is his response, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (vs60).