Glory Carriers by Jennifer Eivaz

Author:Jennifer Eivaz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL079000;REL012120
ISBN: 9781493417384
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2019-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chosen to Be an Outstanding Glory Carrier

In the early days of the Church, an unfortunate prejudice surfaced toward the Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists. Their widows were being ignored during the daily food distribution. These widows were fully Jewish, had come to faith in Christ and were part of the Church, but had lived in other Greek countries before coming to Israel.4 They were in the minority and considered inferior, having been steeped too deeply in Greek culture and language.5 When complaints arose by the foreign Jews, the apostles delegated the solution to the disciples.

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. Brothers and sisters, 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 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

Acts 6:2–4

The church then chose the seven, but one of the men, Stephen, seemed to stand out more than the rest.

Stephen was an outstanding glory carrier. He radiated a life filled with the Holy Spirit and performed great signs and wonders among the people. Keep in mind that he was not an apostle or a prophet, but an ordinary man assigned by the church to help feed the widows. The Spirit’s manifestation of signs and wonders through his life and given that he was a Christ follower garnered deathly opposition nonetheless. Envious men from the local synagogues produced false witnesses against Stephen, causing him to be arrested, put on trial, then sentenced to death. While being falsely accused, Stephen’s face supernaturally and marvelously radiated with the glory of God in the presence of the entire Sanhedrin (see Acts 6:15). And then while being stoned to death, we read the stunning account of how Stephen “being full of the Holy Spirit and led by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55 AMP).

Stephen had an undeniably impactful life. He was the first Christian martyr and the catalyst for the persecution that caused the scattering of the Church away from Jerusalem. Some believe this was in fulfillment of Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It is doubtful that the Church would have dispersed unless a significant persecution had been launched against them.6 Stephen, being led by the Spirit, uttered an inspired prayer at the moment of his death. “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep” (7:59–60). Remember, he

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.