And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: (6) Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. (7) And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Reader! behold here again, what a lovely representation is made of the Church! As in the preceding verses we stood to admire the Lord's Apostles in the department of their office, let us pause a moment now to contemplate the beautiful order of the people. The saying of the Apostles, we are told, pleased the whole multitude. And if we call to mind, how God the Holy Ghost all along, from the day of Pentecost, had been calling Christ's redeemed ones from the darkness of nature to the light of grace; we shall find, that the Church was indeed a multitude little short of ten thousand: (see Act_1:15; Act_2:41; Act_4:4; Act_5:14), and yet all were pleased with the Apostles' proposal. What a delightful view it affords of the Church of Jesus! And, though it is not said, yet we may reasonably conclude, such was the love of the whole Church to the persons and labors of the Apostles, that while they were giving themselves to prayer, as well as the ministry of the word, the people were not unfrequently at prayer for them. Paul, in his days, was so sensible of the blessedness of being borne by the arms of the Church, in the prayers of the people before the mercy-seat, that he desired the brethren to pray for him, and his fellow labourers, 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1; Hebrews 13:18. And it must be in all ages of the Church a blessed thing, and more especially in times like the present, when the people lodge much prayer, and daily add to the stock before the Great Head of his Church, that the labors of his poor servants be commissioned and owned by the Lord. It hath been said, and I see no ground to doubt the truth of it, that many a minister of Christ, hath found the blessed effects of his peoples' prayers, in the grace and abilities he hath at certain seasons received from the Lord. Certain it is, that if a Church is looking for blessings from the Lord, in the ministry of his word; it would be well to be looking at the same time, that the Lord would bless the messenger which brings them; that both minister and people may be blessed of the Lord, and send up their thanksgivings together.
The seven men here chosen by the Church, if we may judge by their names, were all taken from the Jews of Greece, for there is not one Hebrew name among them. And it may serve to shew, how much the whole body of the people were earnest, that the murmuring which arose from that quarter should have a full redress, since those who were appointed to this part of government, were all taken from their own people. Reader do not fail to observe, how the stratagems of Satan were defeated by his own weapons, since the very plan he devised to separate believers, became the means of uniting them more closely together, in forming a body of holy men, and full of the Holy Ghost, to listen to the sorrows and enquire into the wants of the Lord's family, that they might be softened and relieved.
I do not think it necessary to detain the Reader, with dwelling on the names and characters of the seven men here chosen. Indeed, excepting the first of them, Stephen, (and of him I shall have occasion to speak somewhat particularly, in the close of this and the following chapter), the Holy Ghost hath recorded no more than their names. So that, where the Lord is silent, it should seem to be our wisdom to be silent, also. But I beg the Reader to notice, the method the church was pleased to adopt, for their being ordained to their office, in setting them before the Apostles, and after prayer, the Apostles laying their hands on them. And let it not be overlooked, that when the Apostles directed the Church to look out seven men from among them, they were supposed to be brethren; that is, persons regenerated by the Holy Ghost; holy brethren, as they are elsewhere called partakers of the heavenly calling, Hebrews 3:1. In those days, none would have been chosen into the humblest office of the ministry, who was not himself a partaker of grace, and savingly called by the Holy Ghost. For how should a dead sinner minister in the life-giving word and doctrine? Neither can any man have a feeling affection for the Church of Christ's body, as a body, who hath never himself by regeneration, tasted that the Lord is gracious, 1 Peter 2:1-5. These men, therefore, were themselves brethren, and by regeneration, made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, 2 Peter 1:4. And yet we see, that while without this work of God the Spirit upon their souls, they would not have been qualified for the office the Apostles had directed; they were not permitted to enter upon it without prayer, and the laying on of the Apostles' hands. See Numbers 27:18
What a short, but blessed account, this passage closeth with; of the increase of the word; the multiplying the number of true believers; and what is more extraordinary, the great company of the Jewish priests, (for there were no other in those days in Jerusalem), which joined the faithful. But what cannot the Lord the Spirit accomplish? There is a provision in the covenant which never fails, Psalms 110:3; John 17:2; John 17:2. Reader! it is by the virtue and efficacy of this covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; faithful ministers of the Lord Jesus, as well as the Apostles in those early ages of the Church, labor in the word and doctrine; and like the great father of the faithful, against hope believe in hope, Romans 4:18.