Episode 82 - The Acts Series: Grace and Power (Acts 6)

The early church doesn’t wait long to face a messy problem: people are being overlooked. Reading Acts 6 together, we wrestle with the tension between practical care and spiritual priorities when the Hellenist widows are neglected in the daily distribution. We love how honest this chapter is about church conflict, because it sounds like real community, not a polished story. 

From there, we watch wise church leadership take shape as the apostles call for seven trusted, Spirit-filled men to step into service so prayer and the ministry of the word stay central. That decision isn’t about avoiding people’s needs, it’s about building a healthier system for discipleship, church unity, and care for the vulnerable. We also pause on the surprising detail that the word of God keeps spreading and many priests become obedient to the faith. 

Then Stephen comes into focus: full of grace and power, doing wonders and signs, speaking with wisdom the opposition can’t withstand. When debate fails, accusations begin, and we talk about how the enemy twists a little truth into a convincing lie, plus how that connects to church hurt and division today. We end by looking ahead to Stephen’s upcoming sermon and why knowing the Old Testament matters if we want to understand Jesus and spot spiritual counterfeits. 

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Transcript

Stephen’s Growing Reputation

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Steven is already making a name for himself. I love that he's full of grace and power. And he's doing great wonders and miraculous signs. I wish we had some extra, you know, witness testimonies of witness accounts of this. Yeah, yeah. Would love to hear of one, like if they passed by Steven's shadow and suddenly they're healed.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

I know. So many times I've thought to myself, I really wish I knew more about what the early church looked like, but they taught what they did. You're gonna know one day.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Hello,

Welcome And Passage Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:34

my friends. You are listening to Healing Strongs Around the Word, and I am Cheryl, your host. We're friends sitting around the table who love God's Word and we love digging deep into it. Each episode, you'll hear us reading a Bible passage out loud around the table, and then we start discussing what we're learning from it. Today we are reading from the book of Acts, chapter six, that whole chapter. So join us around the word.

Food Distribution Conflict And Seven Chosen

SPEAKER_00 1:02

All right, we're in Acts chapter six, verse one. 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. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 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. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So we already have our first kind of church infighting. Isn't that it I mean pretty quick, like pretty soon on. I wonder what Hellenists mine says Greek. Greek. Okay or Grecian Jews.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

So they were um Jews, but Greek Jews and Hebrew Jews. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

So their widows are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. I wonder why. Like why why weren't they getting the food?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Like who who would deciding that they didn't get it?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

They felt like they were taking care of their own, not them. Yeah, that's that's interesting. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And Philip, Procorus, and Niconor, and Timon, and Parmanus, and Nicholas, uh proselyte of Antioch. I'm sorry if I butchered the names. No, they're so hard. It's all these names. And I'm wondering if most of those were Greek. I think, yeah, some of these those like the Lion King. Yeah. They don't really necessarily sound Hebrew. Right. These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid hands on them.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

So they're gathering these uh uh they realize, okay, we got all these people, we need to organize this a little better. Right. We got to have some organization here.

unknown 3:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

You were saying Stephen's the first? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

The first one.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

They mentioned his name first. They chose him first. And full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

And you can see it, we'll see later, you know, in another episode when he starts preaching. I mean, how full of faith he really was. Because um, spoiler alert, he is the first martyr.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah. Um, a Christian martyr. Right. 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.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Whoa, the priests. I I think I glossed over that. I did too. Yeah, the priests became obedient to the faith. So we were talking previous episode about Gemalil. Makes you wonder if he did at that point. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

It's a large number. It doesn't say all of them. Not all.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

No, not all. They did bring up that Nicholas was a proselyte of Antioch. So he converted.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

He was a convert to convert to Judaism. I forgot where Antioch is. If that's in Greece or if that's Turkey. I'm not sure. I don't know. Turkey.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

But that was where they say that they were called Christians for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

I didn't know that. Paul tells us that.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Okay. Okay, so keep going on the next

Stephen’s Signs And Rising Opposition

SPEAKER_00 4:38

section. And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called, and of the Cyrenians and Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

Mine says who began to argue with Steven.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

But I wonder what they're arguing about at this point.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Well, we're gonna find out.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Well, in the synagogue of the freedmen, they were known as that because they believed in Messiah. That whole congregation pretty much believed in Yeshua as Messiah. It wasn't, I don't know if there were any that didn't believe in that. Where other synagogues, there were a lot of still people that were just Jewish and didn't know. Okay, I see what you're saying. Yeah. Verse 10. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And true. I mean, I literally wrote that in my liar, lying. Exactly. Well, they said the same thing about Jesus, that he was blasphemy and That's true.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Oh well, because any time they're they're saying Jesus is Messiah, that's going to be blasphemy in the eyes of some of these people. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

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. And they set up false witnesses who said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law. That sounds familiar to they would say that about Jesus. 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.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

I think he's taken that whole the verse about, you know, the temple, about how And he was talking about Jesus was talking about himself. Yes. Right. He was talking about his own body, yes, being destroyed and then raised in three days. The temple would be later, you know, destroyed.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

By the Romans, I think in 70 A.D.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah. I wonder if they were waiting around for three days, wondering if it if it would be miraculously risen. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. He was glowing. He was glowing.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Hopefully, spirit was tangibly on him that could see it. We talked about that in a previous episode about people that you've been around that clearly have been with Jesus. Yeah. A God glow. Yeah, a god glow. Yeah. You're right. Moses did glow. People couldn't look at him, but didn't he have to put like a thing over him?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah. He put a veil over his face because they didn't want to look at the glow. It was too uh yeah, pretty obnoxious. His glory. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Was that his Shekinah glory?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

His presence.

Twisted Truth And Church Hurt

SPEAKER_02 7:50

So You know, I was noticing it's the same old trick of the enemy, nothing's new. Right. Um, it's a little bit of truth twisted. Yes. And turned into a lie.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah. That's a counterfeit. Yeah. Like a hundred dollar bill. Right. To know a fake one from a real one. You have to really know the real one. Right. Because it's just a little different. So what's different?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah. Well, the the devil himself like used scripture was quoting scripture to Jesus and then would twist it or the well, he did it in the garden. Mm-hmm. Right. Did God really say to Eve? Yeah. He doesn't do that. Uh he does it to us today. Yeah. I wonder if a lot of this was just misunderstanding and not communicating properly. To even start some of the noise. But he confuses that though, where you're confusion and lies. Or if something's going on placing doubt. Hey, why are you lies? Yeah. Why aren't you giving that food to um um so-and-so over there? Dissension. Yeah. That all comes from the enemy. He loves to split up believers.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

My goodness, he loves to do that. And families. Yeah. And how many people have you heard of that have church hurt? You know, they had something bad happen at church. It's the people that are fallible. I would say a lot of times we have people that aren't acting in the fruit of the spirit. Yeah. They're acting in their flesh. And that's going to come out and it causes dissension. And it's it's sad. You know, I mean. Well, Ananias and Sapphira. Yeah. It happened in my church back in the day when I was a kid. We our church had a split because the the new pat or the pastor had to step down due to age or illness. And the one faction wanted this person. One faction wanted somebody else. We see this later on in the scriptures. It was happening then. Are you a follower of this person or that? So it's sad that it started so early, but it doesn't surprise me, like you said. Wow. Is there um so Stephen is already making a name for himself? I love that he's full of grace and power. And he's doing great wonders and miraculous signs. I wish we had some extra, you know, witness uh testimonies of eyewitness accounts of this. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I would love to hear of one, like if they passed by Stephen's shadow and suddenly they're healed.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I know so many times I've thought to myself, I really wish I knew more about what the early church looked like, what they taught, what they did. You're gonna know one day.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yeah. Hey Stephen, tell me all about it. Yeah, tell me what you did.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Well, well, the cool thing is we're gonna see what happens to Stephen next in the next episode, because we get to hear Stephen do a sermon that is just

Stephen’s Sermon And Knowing Scripture

SPEAKER_01 10:47

awesome right before his accusers, which is amazing. A complete historical account. Yes. So, and again, they were accusing him of being a um against Moses and bringing a new law, and he says, This is what I believe.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Right. Starts from the beginning, right? All through the Old Testament, brings it up to the time of the Messiah.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

You know, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He gives the sermon of the whole history. This is the same God.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

This is why it's a good, he's a great example of why it's good to know your Old Testament, you know, because it is the Christ fulfills what was talked about. Exactly. Some people might think they just need to focus on the the New Testament and the Gospels and just that alone. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And I'm like, no, the old stories was foreshadowing. Yeah, Moses is a foreshadowing of what Jesus did. Joseph is a foreshadowing of what Jesus did over and over and over.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

You can't have an end if you don't know the beginning. You gotta have both. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

And a lot of these people didn't know anything. Like they they're literally foreigners. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So the Holy Spirit had to have told him what to say. Right. It was literally the Spirit speaking through him, not right, not his what he grew up with.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Right. Wow, I can't wait to see uh his next chapter. I can't say that it's a good for him, but what an amazing witness he is. And it shows the power of the Holy Spirit on him that he could go through what he does and what we see next with such grace and power. Stephen is such a great person to learn about in the Bible. He's actually, well, you're gonna find out next episode what happens with Stephen, but he is just such a man of faith, and it's so good to learn from him and about him. So next week we're gonna see him actually speak in front of a group of people. You get to hear what he says and hear the rest of his story.

Next Week Teaser And Closing Invite

SPEAKER_01 12:57

So I want to thank you so much for joining us for Healing Strong's Around the Word. And if you haven't had a chance, check out healingstrong.org. That is our website. You can see all about our mission, find out about our amazing community groups, and how you can get involved in our community. And if you like our podcast, consider giving us a review, subscribing, liking, telling your friends about it, and even just sending the link to our podcast to others. It's how we get more people around the table and around the word. Until next time, remember faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.