Acts 6

5-6 The seven men chosen here all have Greek names; therefore, we can conclude that they were all Greek-speaking Jews. The first one mentioned here, Stephen, is the subject of verses 8-15 and all of Acts Chapter 7. The second, Philip, appears at length in Acts Chapter 8. Nothing is known about the other five.

Notice that all the disciples—that is, all the church members—first chose the seven men. Then, after that, the apostles laid hands on them and commissioned them for their work. To commission people by the laying on of hands was a Jewish custom (Numbers 27:22-23). The custom soon became common among Christians. Some Christians believe that for a person to obtain the full blessing of the Holy Spirit it is necessary to have a pastor or elder lay hands on him (see Acts 8:17; 9:17; 19:6). However, that does not seem to be the case in this passage, because these seven men were full of the Spirit before anyone laid hands on them (verse 3).

7 A growing church is a living church. A non-growing church is a dead church. That first church was certainly alive! Even many of the Jewish priests believed in Christ and came and joined the church.

8-10 Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (verse 5). For this reason, he was also full of God’s grace and power (verse 8). Anyone who is filled with faith and with the Spirit inwardly will manifest God’s grace and power outwardly.

There were many Jewish synagogues in Jerusalem. One of them was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen. The Jews of that synagogue began to oppose Stephen. But they couldn’t stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by which he spoke (verse 10); therefore, they began to accuse him falsely behind his back.

11 They secretly persuaded some men to bear false witness against Stephen. Perhaps they paid these men some money for doing this. Their false accusation was this: that Stephen had blasphemed against Moses (that is, against the Jewish law which Moses received from God) and against God. This same accusation of blas-phemy had earlier been brought against Jesus Himself (Mark 14:61-64).

12-14 The Jews seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. Then they called the false witnesses. These witnesses falsely accused Stephen of speaking against the holy place (the Jewish temple in Jerusalem) and against the law (verse 13). Jesus had spoken about the destruction of the “temple” of His body (John 2:19-21), and Stephen had evidently repeated Jesus’ words. But just as Jesus’ own words had been twisted by false witnesses, so Stephen’s words were twisted by these false witnesses in the same way.³⁹ In Jesus’ case, the witnesses had accused Jesus of saying: “I will destroy this man-made temple” (see Mark 14:57-58). Here these false witnesses accuse Stephen of using these same words.

Jesus had once said about Himself: “… one greater than the temple is here” (Matthew 12:6). Stephen well understood Jesus’ meaning: Now that the Messiah had come, the Jewish temple and all the Jewish sacrifices and ceremonial traditions were no longer necessary (see Hebrews 7:18-19; 8:7,13 and comments). Stephen no doubt had said this to the Jews, and this is what had made them so angry with him.