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Seven Deacons were Appointed
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2
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(Acts
6:3)
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
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3
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After the Holy Spirit
came on Pentecost Day, miracles began to happen in Jerusalem. The Apostles
and the people in the church received the Holy Spirit and they became brave
so they started to evangelize.
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4
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Through their
evangelism more and more people in the Jerusalem church started to believe
Jesus. The Apostles did the work of teaching the words of God to the people
who believed God.
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5
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Aside from teaching
the words of God, the Apostles also shared food. They also gave food to the
poor people in the church. They tried their best to share the food equally.
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6
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The more people got
to believe in Jesus, the more time the Apostles had to share food. Because of
that, they were no longer able to share the food equally.
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7
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However, because of
that complains started to grow among the people. "Why do they give more
food to people using Hebrew but why don't they give enough food to us poor
widows who use Greek?" The people using Greek were complaining that it
wasn't fair.
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8
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The 12 Apostles
gathered the people and said: "We are doing the work of teaching the
words of God and sharing the food together so we are becoming careless of the
ministry of teaching the words of God. This isn't right."
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9
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"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 and will give back our
attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
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10
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The people thought
that the idea of the Apostles was good. Then, they chose the most
acknowledged seven men. The name of those seven men were Stephen, Philip,
Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas.
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11
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The people brought
the seven men to the Apostles. The Apostles laid their hands on their heads
and prayed. Those seven men became the first deacons.
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12
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The chosen deacons
did the work of sharing the food to the people equally as much as possible. The
problem in the Jerusalem church was solved.
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13
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The Apostles were
able to pay their full attention back to the ministry of teaching the words
of God since the seven deacons were appointed. As a result, the words of God
spread out widely and more and more people gathered to Jerusalem.
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14
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Amazingly, even the
people who served as priests among the Jews believed in Jesus. Everybody felt
that the words of God had amazing power.
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15
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Where ever people
gather several problems can arise. The Jerusalem church was the first early
church to believe Jesus but even in that Jerusalem church, they complained
because of sharing food.
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16
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But the Apostles
appointed seven deacons and worked together to do the ministry. Through that,
they solved the problems and bore good fruit. God gives us good results when
we become one and work together.
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17
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Like
the Apostles we should try not to be greedy when we do something. Pray to
have a big heart which can cooperate and work together with our friends. God
is glad when we value others and work together and through that God makes us
bear lots of good fruit.
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