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I am in the third week of a series I am doing called “The Power of One Life.”  When a life is lived in faithfulness to God, it can have an eternal impact on a generation, not only changing the lives of people here and now but beyond the grave.  Almost all, if not all of us, can point to people who brought us to faith in Christ, people who eternally changed our lives.  And many of us know that there are people who can point to us and say that we have done the same for them.  There is not much that compares with knowing that God has used you to affect someone’s life eternally.  This summer, I’ll be preaching through the lives of Biblical characters who may not be the most well-known names, but who made that sort of impact on their generation.  We looked at Ananias and Caleb so far, and this morning we will look at a young man named Stephen in the Book of Acts.  Stephen’s story stretches from Acts 6 to the beginning of 8, but I want to focus primarily on the first 8 verses of Acts this morning.

Let’s read Acts 6:1-8:

Acts 6:1-8  In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.  ² So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  ³ Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them  ⁴ and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."  ⁵ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.  ⁶ They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.  ⁷ So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.  ⁸ Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.