One could say Stephen was overqualified for his position as he served widows day in and day out, but God’s plan wasn’t for Stephen to serve tables for the rest of his life. By the same token, Stephen didn’t beg off the responsibility or point out that the task was beneath him. It reveals his servant’s heart more than any words he could have spoken, and it is a testament to the character of those who made up the early church.
Imagine going up to one of the pompous peacocks masquerading
as clergymen who siphon the glory rightly due God unto themselves, reveling in
the praise of men and asking them to do something they might consider beneath
their station. The tongue-lashing you would get would likely give you
flashbacks to the one your mom gave you when she discovered you’d eaten a
Costco-sized jar of Nutella in one sitting. How dare you ask someone of their
station to sacrifice the time they set aside for golfing to serve food to
widows. I mean, if one of them inherited a nice investment portfolio from her
late husband, they could, perhaps, pencil her in, but just run-of-the-mill
widows?
For the Apostles, it was a time issue, and they needed to
prioritize preaching the word. It wasn’t that they thought the task was beneath
them; they just realized their time would be better spent focusing on prayer
and the ministering of the word. It’s not a sin to delegate, but it is a heart
issue when the reason for delegating a certain task to others is because you
deem it beneath you or your station. Whether it’s mopping the bathroom floor,
feeding widows, or preaching the gospel, they all fall under the umbrella of obedience
and are rewarded in like fashion. Obedience gives value to the action; the
action does not assume value on its own. It matters not how grand a thing you
do if God didn’t tell you to do it. However, even the smallest of things is
seen and recorded by God if He commanded you to do it, and you obeyed.
Those who were plotting the demise of Christ’s followers knew
that targeting Peter, John, or any of the others who’d garnered name
recognition and were seen as those through whom God did miracles was out of the
question. As yet, the people were on their side, and going after them would
incur more blowback than they were ready to endure, so they hatched a scheme to
go after a lesser-known individual, fabricate a crime so heinous that it may
sway the populace, and make an example of them.
What they had not yet realized is that the power of the Holy
Spirit and the working of miracles was not reserved exclusively for the twelve.
God doesn’t work based on a caste system, and He does not imbue with power only
those who are deemed to be in leadership but all who hunger for His presence
and purpose to live lives worthy of the name of Jesus.
Acts 6:8-15, And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great
wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose from what is called the
Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and
Asia), disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and
the Spirit by which he spoke. Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have
heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. And they stirred up
the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him,
and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said,
‘This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and
the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy
this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.’ And all who sat
in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an
angel.”
If you’re expecting the devil or his minions to play fair,
you’ve got another thing coming. There are no lengths to which the devil will
not go, no depths to which he will not sink in order to upend, hurt, damage, or
destroy the people of God.
Knowing full well that Stephen was innocent, those who would
see him come to harm set up false witnesses to accuse him of blasphemy. Keep in
mind it wasn’t the Roman soldiers or Pontius Pilate that was after Stephen’s
head; it was those of the Synagogue of Freedmen who’d debated him and were not
able to resist his wisdom. If you can’t nullify the message, you seek to
destroy the messenger, hoping the message dies with him.
I have no counterargument to your declared position, so I’m
going to plot and scheme against you personally, get others to join in, accuse
you of things you never did, and hopefully, everyone’s blood will be boiling by
then, and they’ll do something to you they’ll live to regret, and which will be
a stain on their conscience until the day they die. But hey, eggs and omelets
and whatnot. At least we’ll be rid of the instigator, the person who says
things we can’t refute, and in such a way that it draws others to his cause.
There have always been instigators and useful idiots who get
steered into doing their bidding. Rather than acknowledge the inferiority of
their argument or receive Jesus as Lord, they chose door number two, inducing
men to say things Stephen never did and finding false witnesses to corroborate
their stories. And you thought the old Soviets came up with the notion of
showing them the man, and they would show you the crime. The old religious
order had one-upped them two thousand years prior when they concluded that
since there was no crime, they’d fabricate one out of whole cloth.
Do you think the servants of darkness today would hesitate
for one second to accuse you of things you never did and even find false
witnesses to corroborate their claims?
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
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