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UST ACTs Chapter 6

6 During that time, many more people were becoming believers. The Greek-speaking Jews began to complain about the Aramaic-speaking Jews because the widows among them were not receiving their fair share of food every day.

2 So after the twelve Representatives had heard what they were saying, they summoned all the other believers in Jerusalem to meet together. Then they said to them, “We would not be doing the right thing if we stopped telling people the message God told us to share about Jesus in order to distribute food to people! 3 So, fellow believers, carefully choose seven men from among you, men whom you know the Spirit of God directs and who are very wise. Then we will instruct them to do this work. 4 As for us, we will keep on using our time to pray and to proclaim the news about Jesus.”

5 All of the disciples liked their suggestion. So they chose Stephen, a man who strongly believed in God and whom the Holy Spirit controlled completely. They also chose Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, who was from the city of Antioch. Nicolas was a former Gentile who had converted to the Jewish religion. 6 The believers brought these seven men to the Representatives, who prayed for those men. As they prayed, they placed their hands on the men’s heads to show that they approved of them to do that work.

7 More and more people were hearing the news about Jesus. The number of people in Jerusalem who believed in Jesus was increasing greatly. Among them were very many Jewish priests. They put their trust in Jesus as the Messiah and so they began to live in the way he said they should.

8 God was giving Stephen power to do many amazing miracles among the people that showed that the message about Jesus was true. 9 However, some people opposed Stephen. They were Jews who attended a synagogue that had the name Freedmen’s Synagogue. Some other Jews also opposed Stephen. They were from the synagogues that people attended who were from the cities of Cyrene and Alexandria and from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They all began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they were not able to prove that what he said was wrong, because God’s Spirit enabled him to speak very wisely.

11 So they secretly persuaded some men to accuse Stephen falsely. Those men said, “We heard him say bad things about Moses and God.” 12 They also made the other Jewish people angry at Stephen, including the elders and the teachers of the Jewish laws. They came up to Stephen, grabbed him, and took him to the Jewish council. 13 They also brought in some people who told lies about Stephen. They said, “This man keeps saying bad things about this holy temple and about the laws that Moses received from God. 14 What we mean is that we have heard him say that this Jesus from the town of Nazareth will destroy the temple here in Jerusalem and will tell us to obey different customs from the ones that Moses taught our ancestors.”

15 All the people in the council room stared at Stephen and saw that his face resembled the face of an angel.

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