1At that time a lot of people believed in Jesus and started to follow him. Some of them talked in the Greek language and the others talked in the Jewish language, called Hebrew. The Christians that talked Greek complained about the Christians that talked Hebrew. They said that the people that looked after the widows didn’t give enough food or money to the widows that talked Greek.
2So the 12 close followers of Jesus called all the others to a meeting. They said, “We 12 men have been giving out the money and food, but now that job is too big for us. We haven’t got the time to do that job and then teach people God’s word properly. That’s not right.
3So, friends, you pick 7 of your own men to do that job. They can give the widows money and food. You have to pick men that other people say are good men. They have to be men that God’s Holy Spirit controls properly, and they have to be men that always think properly. We will make those men bosses of that work. They will give money and food to the widows.
4And we will keep on praying and teaching God’s word.”
5All the Christians agreed with those 12 men. So they picked a man called Stephen. He was a man that God’s Holy Spirit controlled properly. And they picked some other men called Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas. (Nicolas came from a town called Antioch. He was not born a Jew but he turned to God and started to follow the Jewish ceremonies, and after that he believed in Jesus.)
6They brought those 7 men to the 12 close followers of Jesus, and those 12 men prayed for God to help those 7 men, and they put their hands on their heads to show that they were giving those 7 men that job.
7At that time the Christians kept telling God’s word to more people, and a lot more people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus. A lot of the men that looked after the Jewish ceremonies also believed in Jesus.
8God helped Stephen to be good to everybody, and he gave Stephen the power to do great things to show people that God was great.
9But some Jewish men started arguing with him. Those men came from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They belonged to a Jewish meeting house that they called the Meeting House of the Free Men.
10But God’s Holy Spirit helped Stephen to think properly, and gave him the right words to say. His words were so strong that those men couldn’t win any argument.
11So they talked to some other men in secret and paid them money to tell lies about Stephen. Then those other men said, “We heard Stephen say really bad things about Moses, and about God.”
12They told these lies to the older Jewish leaders, and to their law teachers, and to a lot of other people. Then all those leaders got upset, and they went out and grabbed Stephen and they brought him to the Jewish council, for them to judge him.
13Those men from the Meeting House of the Free Men got those liars to stand up and say, “Stephen keeps on talking against this place, God’s special place. And he keeps on talking against our Jewish law.
14You know, we heard him say that Jesus from Nazareth will smash this place down. He says that Jesus will change the way we live and stop us doing the things that Moses told us to do.”
15All the men in the Jewish council looked carefully at Stephen and they saw that his face was shining, just like the face of one of God’s angel messengers.
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