We're on a Mission from God

In one paragraph

The pastor returned to Acts 6 after the Christmas break, walking through the introduction of the first appointed servants in the early church and the beginning of Stephen's story. The recurring pattern he has traced through Acts is still running: God moves, his word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and the witness goes forward anyway. The sermon ended with Stephen before the high...

Read together

1. Acts 5:12-42 identified as the last passage preached before this sermon, showing the pattern of God moving with power, opposition arising, and the witness advancing
2. Acts 6:1-15 the main passage for this sermon, covering the introduction of the seven and Stephen's arrest
3. Acts 1:8 quoted as Jesus prophesying that the disciples would be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts

Talk about it

1. Pastor Nathan described a repeating pattern in Acts where God moves with power, his word interprets what is happening, opposition arises, and the witness still goes forward. Where have you seen that pattern play out in your own experience, either personally or in a church you have been part of?
2. When the Greek-speaking believers were grumbling about their widows being overlooked, the apostles are described as considering the merits of the murmuring rather than dismissing it. What does it look like in practice to take a complaint seriously rather than just defend the way things have always been done?
3. The apostles told the congregation to choose seven men who were well respected and full of the Spirit and wisdom, and then trusted the Spirit to work through those people. Where do you find it hardest to trust that God can work through others rather than keeping control yourself?
4. Pastor Nathan pointed out that the seven men chosen all had Greek names, meaning the Hebrew-speaking majority effectively handed responsibility to the group that had been complaining. What does that kind of trust cost a community, and what might it produce?
5. Stephen is described as a man full of faith, the Holy Spirit, grace, and power, and yet his faithfulness led directly to his death and to the scattering of the church that then spread the gospel further. How do you hold together the idea that being faithful does not protect you from hard outcomes, while also believing that God's mission will not be stopped?