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Introduction
What difference can you make?
Do you ever ask yourself that?
For me, I often find myself overwhelmed and paralyzed by the amount of need that I see.
Just looking at our community, we have children who wake up and go to bed every day without being hugged, without feeling loved, and without believing they matter.
We have teenagers and college students who live as though their decisions have no repercussions, and some of them this very day are contemplating whether or not they will take their own lives.
We have moms trying to meet everyone else’s standard of what a good mother is and who feel so lonely that they don’t believe anyone would ever notice they’re gone until supper wasn’t served on time.
We have dads who struggle with providing and delayed adolescence and a society that seems to resent them altogether.
People are hungry, and people are addicted.
People are lonely, and people are deceived.
And, I look and think, “I’m supposed to do something.
I’m supposed to help all of these things.
I’m supposed to have answers and energy and organization that makes a difference.”
But, too often, I find myself so disoriented by the sheer volume of needs that I’m left paralyzed and unsure of which direction I should go.
Maybe you can identify with me.
And, if you’re like me, I think the reason that we often feel as though we are paralyzed by the sheer number of needs and tasks at hand is that we are trained to think in leaps and not steps.
We’re trained to think it terms of immediate, noticeable impact.
There’s even a part of us that wants to be the one that makes the greatest difference, and so we think of these huge leaps that would be necessary for something like that to take place.
But, here’s what I’ve realized: God has joined me together with an unstoppable force — his church.
And so, imagine what would happen if each one of us just took one step.
Imagine what it would be like if each one of us just stepped up to the plate and took one step toward faithfulness and toward addressing the brokenness and the need everywhere.
For some, you’d focus on children and others teenager and others moms and others dads and grandparents and singles and addicts and the depressed.
And, if each one of us took one step, we’d all end up taking 300 to 350 steps!
So often, we stand around waiting on someone to get it started, waiting on someone to get the ball rolling, but what if it was your one step that God used to catalyze hundreds of other people to do the same.
This morning, we’re going to read about a time in which God did just that.
We’re going to read about a time in which God took the first deacon in the church and made him the first martyr of the church.
God’s Word
Read ;
The First Deacons
6:3 “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.”
I understand the first part of chapter 6 to show us the prototype for the first deacons.
A controversy had broken out among this fledgling new church, even as God was doing incredible and miraculous things among them.
There were two primary groups that were represented: the Hellenist Jews and the Hebraic Jews.
The Hellenist Jews were those who spoke Greek and were more integrated into the Greek culture, whereas the Hebraic Jews were those who spoke Hebrew and were more conservative in the Judaism.
So, there’s a controversy that breaks out among them where those Hellenist Jews saw their widows as being neglected while the Hebraic widows were cared for.
Apparently, there was some validity to the claim, and the apostles instruct the church to raise up from among them seven men that can serve and meet the needs of these widows.
This allowed the needs to be met and at the same time it kept the apostles free to remain focused on the great work of praying and preaching the word.
A Man Full of God
V. 8 - “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders among the people.”
Though the apostles give the church the freedom to raise up the men as they see fit, they give three initial qualifications of that must be present in the men chosen.
1) They must be men of good repute, 2)full of the Spirit, and 3) full of wisdom.
The first man that is listed is a man about whom we have far greater details than we do about the other six.
It was a man named Stephen, the deacon that we have the most information about in the New Testament.
It’s from Stephen that we can gain great insight into what it means to be a deacon and serve in the capacity of a deacon and in fact to honor Christ as a member of God’s church.
What stands out immediately above all else when we look at Stephen is that Stephen is a man who is full.
Four different times, we are told that Stephen is full.
In verse 3, we see that Stephen is ‘full of the Spirit and of wisdom.’
In verse 5, it says that he is ‘full of faith and the Holy Spirit.’
Verse 8 says that he is ‘full of grace and power,’ and verse 55 says again that he is ‘full of the Holy Spirit.’
That is, what stood out to the church about Stephen was not his career success or his social standing or his long history in the church.
What stood out about Stephen was not that he was financially endowed or a brilliant philosopher.
What stood out to his fellow church members about Stephen, what qualified him to serve as a deacon in the church was that Stephen was a man who was ‘full’ of God.
Three different times it is stated that Stephen is ‘full of the Spirit.’
That is, Stephen didn’t operate by the force of his personality or by manipulating politics in the background.
He didn’t find his power in his position or in the esteem of his friends.
Stephen operated by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
And, because Stephen was ‘full of the Spirit’, the fruit of the Spirit described the ways that Stephen treated others and loved them.
Because Stephen was so full of God, he was also full of wisdom and full of faith and full of grace and power.
It was apparent to his church that Stephen would joyfully and faithfully care for the widows.
It was apparent to his church that Stephen would have the wisdom to handle situations as they arose.
It was apparent that Stephen would propel the church forward in the power of God to do all that God had called for them to do.
What stands out immediately above all else when we look at Stephen is that Stephen is a man who is full.
Four different times, we are told that Stephen is full.
In verse 3, we see that Stephen is ‘full of the Spirit and of wisdom.’
In verse 5, it says that he is ‘full of faith and the Holy Spirit.’
Verse 8 says that he is ‘full of grace and power,’ and verse 55 says again that he is ‘full of the Holy Spirit.’
That is, what stood out to the church about Stephen was not his career success or his social standing or his long history in the church.
What stood out about Stephen was not that he was financially endowed or a brilliant philosopher.
What stood out to his fellow church members about Stephen, what qualified him to serve as a deacon in the church was that Stephen was a man who was ‘full’ of God.
Three different times it is stated that Stephen is ‘full of the Spirit.’
That is, Stephen didn’t operate by the force of his personality or by manipulating politics in the background.
He didn’t find his power in his position or in the esteem of his friends.
Stephen operated by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
And, because Stephen was ‘full of the Spirit’, the fruit of the Spirit described the ways that Stephen treated others and loved them.
Because Stephen was so full of God, he was also full of wisdom and full of faith and full of grace and power.
It was apparent to his church that Stephen would joyfully and faithfully care for the widows.
It was apparent to his church that Stephen would have the wisdom to handle situations as they arose.
It was apparent that Stephen would propel the church forward in the power of God to do all that God had called for them to do.
Jim Elliot was a man who was full of God.
He was martyred as a missionary to Ecuador where he was working to share the gospel with a tribe that had never heard it before.
After his death, with many calling him a hero and being astounded at his death, his wife Elizabeth wrote this about him: “Jim’s aim was to know God.
His course: obedience—the only course that could lead to fulfillment of his aim.
His end was what some would call an extraordinary death, although in facing death he had quietly pointed out that many have died because of obedience to God.
He and the other men with whom he died were hailed as heroes and martyrs.
I do not approve, nor would they have approved.
Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him, after all, so great?
Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first?
Furthermore, to live for God is to die daily, as the apostle Paul put it.
It is to lose everything that we may gain Christ.
It is in thus laying down our lives that we can find Him.”
The Couch or the Cross?
end was what some would call an extraordinary death, although in facing death he had quietly pointed out that many have died because of obedience to God.
He and the other men with whom he died were hailed as heroes and martyrs.
I do not approve, nor would they have approved.
Is the distinction between living for Christ and dying for Him, after all, so great?
Is not the second the logical conclusion of the first?
Furthermore, to live for God is to die daily, as the apostle Paul put it.
It is to lose everything that we may gain Christ.
It is in thus laying down our lives that we can find Him.
Jim’s aim was to know God.
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