Acts 06 Round Two: Chosen For The Right Moment

What if the problem holding your community back isn’t a lack of passion, but a lack of structure? We open Acts 6 and trace how the early church moved from friction to flourishing by pairing spiritual focus with practical wisdom. A complaint from Greek-speaking believers about overlooked widows forced a brave response: protect prayer and teaching, and raise trusted leaders to serve people well. The result wasn’t just smoother logistics; the gospel advanced, and even priests believed. Administration, it turns out, can be an act of love.

We also follow Stephen, chosen to serve tables and soon recognized for grace, power, and a voice opponents couldn’t silence. When debate turned to slander, Stephen stood with a face like an angel—radiant, steady, and ready. His story reframes calling: humble service often becomes the doorway to courageous witness. Instead of treating structure and Spirit as rivals, this chapter shows how they work together. Clear lanes allow gifts to thrive. Character-based leadership restores fairness. And when God places you in a hard spot, he supplies what the moment demands.

If you lead, this conversation offers a blueprint for delegation that preserves your core calling without neglecting people. If you serve, it offers dignity and vision for everyday faithfulness that can ripple far beyond your role. And if you feel pressed by conflict, Stephen’s courage will help you see your challenge as a holy assignment. Listen now, share it with a friend who’s building something that’s growing fast, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Your thoughts matter—what part of Acts 6 speaks to your season?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Episode Setup
• 0:51 Community Updates And Listener CTA
• 1:41 Acts Overview And Big Theme
• 3:06 Growing Pains And Need For Structure
• 4:02 Reading Acts 6:1–7
• 6:04 Stephen Opposed And Accused
• 7:34 Chosen For The Moment
• 8:29 Prayer, Encouragement, And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 6. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be Chosen for the Right Moment. Chosen for the Right Moment. What we're going to see today is as the church is continuing to grow, I heard someone say one time, it's the anointing and purposes of God that bring people, but it's administration that keeps people. And so it's one of those things that as God blesses a local congregation as it begins to grow, then it is our job to then administrate properly so that the people of God can be cared for. And that's what we're going to see today. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure that you are like, sharing, and subscribing to these videos on the YouTubes. Leave us some comments for what's going on in your life and what God is doing in your life. If you're looking at the podcast or listening to the podcast, make sure you're leaving us a five-star review. And I would love to hear from you what's going on. Because I'm going to tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. And I will be honest with you, I am purposely not talking about a lot of stuff, not because I don't want to get into it, but because I don't want every one of these podcasts and videos to be 50 minutes long, right? So I am purposely leaving some Easter eggs for you out there because there's so many good things to study. This chapter is no different. So I want to hear from you as you dive in, as more questions are coming up in your mind. I want to know how you're engaging with God's word. Because I'm going to tell you something. The more we dig, the more we find. And that's what we're going to find today. Well, let me catch you up with what's going on. Acts is written by the doctor-turned investigative journalist Luke, the guy who gave us, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the gospel of Luke. And now the same guy he wrote to the first time, Theopolis, he's writing to again, and he's saying, Man, this is awesome. And he's chronicling the first 30, 35 years of the church. And the overall theme of the gospel of our Acts is that if you were voted most likely to succeed, if you've had everything going for you all your life, I've got good news for you. God can still use you. But God most often uses the least likely to succeed. God most often uses the ones that you would have never expected, the ordinary, the normals. And if God can use normal, ordinary fishermen and a used up Pharisee to change the world, what can he do through you and me if we go all out? We allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and move forward with the kingdom of God. And that's exactly what happened. The Holy Spirit filled all of the church in Acts chapter 2. And the church was born. And it began to grow as they begin to use the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit used the gifts through them out into the place. And they began to experience persecution, but they continued to go after the things of God. And they get kept telling him, We're going to kill you if you don't. And they kept doing the things of God. And now what is happening is we find in Acts 6 that as the believers are multiplying rapidly, it's hard to administrate all those people. And so the apostles are finding out that they can't do the work of ministry of learning God's word and then teaching God's word and then going and taking care of all the administrative stuff. They just can't do both. And so what they do is they they go and they tell the people, we need to be about learning God's word, learning the Old Testament, so then we can find where the promises of Jesus and then teaching it. We need to do that. But you are also important. So what we need to do is we need to raise up ministry leaders. Nowadays we call them deacons, overseers, elders, ministry leaders who can help us administrate all the needs because the kingdom of God is important in every area. And so we're going to use gifted people to do that. And so that's what we see as the church is starting to slowly develop into what God needs it to be. So if you have your Bibles open with me, to Acts chapter 6 at the New Living Translation, let's read God's word together. It says this, verse 1. But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food distribution. Now, real quick, there was kind of this, not necessarily racism, but definitely some prejudice against those who were Hellenized, the Greek speakers, and then the more considered to be the purest, the Hebrew speakers. And the Greek speakers felt like that the Hebrew ones felt a little bit more elite. And so they felt like they were getting what was left over instead of what was due to them. And this was something already going in the wider culture. And what they were concerned with is they thought it had found its way into the church of God as well. So here we go, verse two. So the twelve called a meeting with all the believers, and they said, We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running the food program. So, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then the apostles can spend our time in prayer and in teaching the word. Everyone liked this idea, so they chose the following: Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Proctorus, Nicanor, Tymon, Parmenus, and Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert to the Jewish faith. These seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them and laid their hands on them. So God's message continued to spread, and the number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and the many of the Jewish priests were converted too. Then Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed many amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the synagogue of the freed slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were the Jews of Sarin, Alexandria, and Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them, though, could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, We heard him blaspheme Moses and even God. This roused the people and the elders and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the High Council. The lying witnesses said, This man is always speaking against the holy temple and against the law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses that was handed down to us. And at this point, everyone looked in the High Council and they stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel's. What an amazing moment. So as we see here, the church has entered into a place where they've just outgrown the system that they were dealing with. And the apostles were like, Look, our number one goal is to teach you the ways of God. But we can't do that and do these other things. They're important, but we can't do both. So we want you to point out some leaders, and we're going to raise them up to do this. Little did they know that in raising up Stephen, that they actually had raised him up, they had chosen him for the right moment. Because then God needed someone to stand up and to do these great works, and Stephen was the right man for the job. And when they turned and they looked at Stephen, that his face became as bright as an angel's. Can I be honest with you? I have no idea what that means. But it sounds pretty cool. And what I know about this is that whenever you are chosen for the right season, God will give you the tools you need to do what He's called you to do. You have been given everything you need to do everything that God has called you to do. So whatever God sees you to, he will also see you through if you'll stay faithful to him. And I don't know what maybe you're going through right now. Maybe you took a step of faith and it seems like it's led you into trouble. That's what Stephen did. He took a step of faith and said, Yes, I will go here, I will do that. But it looks like it's got him in a whole bunch of trouble. But maybe, just maybe, that you're not in trouble, but maybe you're right where you need to be to be the right witness for God that He needs. So maybe God's got you right where He wants you. Let's pray together today. God, thank you so much for your goodness, for your mercy, for your kindness. Thank you that you are with us and you're for us. Thank you, God, that while we never would celebrate a difficult moment, we celebrate that we never go through them alone. That you're always with us, you're always moving through us. And because of that, we trust you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget that Acts 1, verse 8, Jesus says, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer is that you will experience the power of the Holy Spirit and you will be a witness in your world for Jesus today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 7.