Soup Kitchen: First Non-preaching Ministry
1In time, the number of believers [1] in Jerusalem started growing again. Greek-speaking believers who had moved to the Jewish homeland [2] said their needy widows weren’t getting a fair share of the free food, compared to what the local Hebrew-speaking widows were getting. 2The Twelve called a meeting of the entire group. They said, “The 12 of us need to spend our time teaching you what Jesus taught us. We shouldn’t spend our time serving food, which is work other people could do. 3So here’s what we’re asking, friends. We want you to pick seven men. They should be well-respected, wise, and full of God’s Spirit. We’ll give them the job of running this ministry program for the needy. 4This way, we can spend more time praying and more time teaching you what Jesus taught us.”5The group agreed this was a great idea. They picked Stephen, a man of faith and full of the Holy Spirit. They also chose Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a convert [3] from Antioch. 6The group presented these men to the apostles, who put their hands [4] on the men and prayed for them. 7God’s message continued to spread. A lot more people in Jerusalem joined the group—this included many Jewish priests.
Stephen under Arrest
8Stephen, a gracious and strong-minded man, began performing incredible miracles among the people. 9One day, Stephen got into an argument with some Jews from the Freed Slaves Synagogue, [5] as people came to call it. The men who started this argument came from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the Roman province of Asia. [6] 10All of those men together, however, couldn’t get the better of Stephen. He pulled his words from a bank of wisdom and from God’s Spirit.11So the Jews convinced some other men to testify against Stephen. The men said, “We heard him slander Moses and God, like nobody’s business. He said forbidden things about them.” 12Cheerleaders for a riot, these men stoked the crowd into a frenzy—this included common folks along with elders and scholars known as scribes. The crowd grabbed Stephen and took him to the Jewish Council. [7] 13Called up to testify, the witnesses told their rehearsed lies. “This man won’t stop saying terrible things about this sacred Temple and the Law. 14We heard him say that Jesus the Nazarene [8] will tear down the Temple and change all of the customs Moses passed down to us from God.”
15During the testimony, council members watched Stephen intently. His expression looked angelic. [9]
