Stephen is the first great Christian apologist that we see in the Bible, and as such his style of addressing the Jews is much different then Peter’s. Peter was much more evangelistic in his approach, and his sermons focused more on presenting the Gospel and the need of the hearers to convert and be saved. Stephen will take a more aggressive approach and speak in defense of Jesus and the faith.

As we saw last week the church is growing fast, and now we have Deacons elected to help the Apostles administer the body. One of these first Deacons, though that title will not be used until much later, is Stephen. Peter is falling away as far as the account in Acts is concerned, and soon the account will focus on Paul, and the bridge between the two is this account of Stephen.

In this week’s study we will see the young church face a serious problem that potentially could cause a division that would greatly weaken the foundations of the church. We will look at how they solve it, and what its implications are for us today.

Before we move in to this week section, it would be good to ask ourselves a question and that is “What is the purpose of the church?” Is the purpose of the church to grow big buildings and big budgets? Obviously it is not, but if we ask that a different way the answer might not be so obvious. Is the purpose of the church to help the needy? Is the purpose of the church to be a political action committee? Is the purpose of the church to grow disciples?

Last week we when we left the new Christians they had just seen their leaders chastised by the Jewish Supreme Court and were singing and praising God for it. They asked God for courage to carry on doing what they were for Him, and they had no intention of following the orders of the court to stop preaching. The New Testament church at this point is strong, unified and pure. This is especially hammered home by verse Acts 4:32.