The Rewards of a Servant's Heart (4 of 5): Stephen, the Deacon Who Performed Miracles

Acts 6 talks of the selection of men "full of faith and the Holy Spirit" called upon to do what people might consider very subsurvient work.  Proof, I suppose, that position in God's kingdom is always both privilege and responsibility.

It's ironic, though, that it's by doing the tasks that no one else wants to do that you are truly set apart.  Such was true for Stephen, one of those men selected in Acts 6. 

By most interpretations, Stephen was simply a waitor or go-fer, doing whatever the church leadership required of him--tasks many people even in church might consider beneath them.  But apparently this was purpose fulfilled for Stephen for the Bible says that signs and wonders were accomplished by his hands among the people.

We also glean from Acts 6 that Stephen died a martyr's death, unfortunate, I think for the Body of Christ of that era and this one.  But standing by, holding the coats of Stephen executioners, was an astute young Jew highly-motivated to persecute Christians named Saul.  With his last breath, Stephen asked for forgiveness his executioners, Saul included. 

For his participation in Stephen's execution, Saul deserved to suffer as well.  But Stephen's request for forgiveness was an act of intercession.  And this intercession produced Paul, a.k.a. Saul, whose ministry would lead many in history to refer to him as the Father of the Modern-Day Church.  At one time in his life, Saul lived to make Christians suffer, but after Stephen's intercession, now known as Paul, his missionary trips and writings immortalized him in time and, in the present-day, still define the doctrine on which the Christian church is founded.

How 'bout that for a servant's reward.