May 3, 2026

Acts 6

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Heard about a little mission church. As most mission church’s do, they start out with < 100 people, this particular one had 120. Anyway, the crazy thing about this lil’ mission church was it had like 12 pastor’s! Now that seems like a lot, if you consider we have around 120 on a typical Sunday and we have just one. That meant there were plenty of workers to do the work. But, the craziest thing happened to this little church. One of them, Pastor Peter, stood up one day and with the crowd he preached the sermon that was so incredible, so guided by the HS that that church, went from 120 folks that day to 3,120 that day! Suddenly, they realized they had some problems. Because not only were they teaching and preaching and praying but they had also taken over providing food for every single hungry person they could find. In those days, if you couldn’t work, an older woman for example with no spouse, there was not much of a social safety net, so they came to the church to get food. Then, all of a sudden, a complaint came. The complaint was the original believers, the Jewish Christians, were being treated differently than the Gentile Christians. They looked around and realized they split themselves too thin. So the disciples they say, “it’s not right that we are giving up the work that we are doing so that we can serve tables.” It’s not that they think they are self-righteous or above the work, no, these are the guys that had walked with Jesus every single day. If there was an issue, a question or a conflict, they went and asked the disciples about it. So they found a hand full of people, a half dozen people, to help with the work of serving tables, to make sure the distribution of food was fair and there would be no more complaints that some were being treated unfairly.

Amazingly, we didn’t ever hear how that went, what we do hear is one of these folks is Stephen, who was chosen to serve. Suddenly he is speaking incredible words. Our reading jumps over what he said, and it’s quite beautiful. He walks the people who are challenging him, through the OT, and they are offended by his words. Amazingly, they run a mock trial so similar to the trial Jesus was put on. It’s striking in similarity. They say he doesn’t care about the law, he doesn’t care about the temple, they say that he believes in One who could knock this place down and rebuild it in just a few days.

Suddenly, Stephen says that he sees what Jesus Himself said people would see when He was on trial. He sees Jesus, at the right hand of God Almighty. They can bear it no more. They rush him out of town because they are so offended that they grab rocks to murder this man. Stephen, who just raised his hand in a volunteer recruitment meeting to be someone who would give food, finds himself in a place to give this grand witness and soon enough will be a martyr for the faith. They kill Stephen. Incredibly, as you heard, he is bold in witness, he is also humble in forgiveness. He asks Jesus to take his spirit and asks Jesus that the people who are doing this awful thing that they would receive mercy.

Now there are a handful of things about this reading from the book of Acts and they are important. We see that the church has always struggled with multicultural ministry. One of the first complaints that comes from within the church, that there’s an “us” and “them” and they are not handling it very well. Also near the end of the reading there’s a man there named Saul, who you and I know as the apostle Paul. We see here on this day, people picking up the coats of those who throwing rocks to kill this poor man, and laying them at the feet of Saul. And Saul approved. He wasn’t just there, he was happy to approve of it. So that you and I can see how a life can radically change. One who encounters Jesus, who once was dead, but now lives forevermore.

A couple other things that don’t jump off the page but are worthy of talking about.  One thing I want you to see in Stephen, is an example of a person who was gifted for one kind of ministry and found himself in a different place. You see, one thing we often do, and it can be very beneficial, in the past generation we have done a lot of wondering about ourselves. We have done a lot of asking, “what kind of things am I gifted at? what kinds of things am I good at? What kind of spiritual gifts have I been given?” Sometimes churches do inventories to answer these questions and encourage volunteers to find a place to use their gifts and it’s a wonderful thing, but I also want you to know that though that might be a wonderful thing most of the time, but there other times when God calls us not to wonder who we are but to remember whose we are! Stephen, you remember, raised his hand and was chosen by the disciples as one who would do a great job delivering food to hungry people. That’s what he was chosen for. But soon enough, Stephen is called upon to give a bold witness for the faith. He wasn’t chosen to be a new apostle, he was not chosen to be the missionary for the entire world. He was chosen to serve tables.

You sort of wonder what Stephen remembered what Jesus had said about the parable of a man who had fallen among robbers and beaten and left nearly dead, unfortunately, a couple guys walked by him. A third stopped and Jesus asked which one was a neighbor to him? The answer is clear, it’s the one who showed him mercy. Jesus did not correct him, no no no the first one was very busy and couldn’t pick up another volunteer opportunity. The second person wasn’t given the spiritual gift of hospitality or acts of mercy. Ya see, those are good questions on most days. On most days we can ask what are the gifts God has given me? and how I can best serve the church? but there are other times we need to remember clearly whose we are. We are like Stephen was, a chosen person who has been given mercy by God, who has been gifted the HS in our baptism when we were linked to the One who’s death and resurrection that promises us the same, that, when we die, we also will be raised to new life. And have that moment matter more than what am I about?… and what I am good at? Instead, what God has placed in front of me.

I simply remind you that our obsession with what we are good at, sometimes causes us to miss opportunities God places right in front of us.

I also want to remind you of something incredible that happens at the end of our reading. Again, to see how radically altered the lives of God’s people are. You see them in the gospel, the disciples are kinda silly in what they say. Thomas says something kinda dumb, Philip says something kinda dumb. But then the Spirit is poured out on God’s people on Pentecost Day and you see amazing moments this one. Stephen gets less than two chapters of the bible. We are introduced to him five verses into one chapter and he’s dead before the end of the next chapter, but in between, his life and his faith shows him as one that the pastor’s think that guy can do work, but then he gives an incredible witness. One thing about Stephen is he is bold, in his witness, his defense of the faith, his witness to Christ, he is bold in speaking to the people. But I always want you to see how incredibly humble he is and forgiving he is when the attack is against himself.

Good Friday service is still in our minds, but imagine how difficult it would be that as Jesus was crucified and the people who had beaten Him, mocked Him, spit on Him, now killing Him and how difficult it would be, as Jesus looks down at them and says, “Father forgiven them, they don’t even know what they are doing.”  Jesus says to His disciples, “You will do even greater things than Me.” It’s like this, Stephen, gifted with the HS, a forgiven sinner, one who had been shown mercy now desires to show mercy, he’s a regular person, like you and me. In addition to echoing Jesus prayer to His father, now Stephen prays to Jesus, “Jesus receive my spirit.” He also looks at the people doing all these vile things after giving a bold defense, he now offers humility and forgiveness, “do not hold this against them, they don’t even know what they are doing.”

May you and I, gifted with the same Spirit, having received the same mercy, offering ourselves as living sacrifices for the work of Jesus in His church. May you and I be so bold in our courageous confession of Jesus and the faith and also as humble and forgiving too. Amen