Stephen - Acts 6

Because of the courage and perspective of Gamaliel, the apostles were set free from the murderous intentions of the Jewish high council. With their freedom, the apostles continued “daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach of Jesus Christ.” Let’s also remember that those who had been converted to the gospel had gathered together in a spirit of common living. And let’s also remember that we are currently counting about 10,000 converts, even though surely not all of them moved into the new settlement. With only 12 men in charge of not only preaching the gospel to the whole world, but also taking care of the physical needs of those in the settlement, it was an overwhelming task. It came to a head with “a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.”

The Grecians were “Greek-speaking Jewish-Christians,” and the Hebrews were “Palestinian Jewish-Christians.” The IM explains, “As the Church grew rapidly, the Apostles were no longer able to care for the needs of all the members.” To their credit, the apostles examined the complaints against them and took them seriously, instead of becoming defensive or mean like so many others would have. The apostles recognized that the Grecians were correct in their assessment and proposed that the people “look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” This isn’t how we call our leaders today in that we don’t choose them specifically, but we are asked for a sustaining vote, so by the law of common consent this is a similar situation.
The calling that these men receive is not specified, but in the church today, this would be the role of the Bishop. The IM defines the role of Bishop saying, “The bishop has a divine mandate to seek out and care for the poor. He directs the welfare work in the ward. His goal is to help members help themselves and become self-reliant… Bishops are blessed with the gift of discernment to understand how best to help those in need. Each individual circumstance is different and requires inspiration. Guided by the Spirit and the basic welfare principles…, the bishop determines whom to assist, how much to give, and how long to assist.” 
The men who were chosen were “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 Anitoch.” These men were set apart and administered in their task. I’m really glad that we covered this part because I’ve always wondered “who’s Stephen and how did he get involved enough to become a martyr.” It makes sense now, he was a bishop and bore a powerful testimony of the Savior and was “full of faith and power, (and) did great wonders and miracles among the people.” And just like what happened when Jesus performed miracles and taught powerfully of the truth, Stephen garnered opposition.
Interestingly, those who had a problem with Stephen weren’t the usual suspects like the chief priests or the Sanhedrin, who had apparently taken to heart Gamaliel’s advice and cooled off for a minute. These new opponents consisted of the congregations of several different synagogues, such as “the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia.” The IM gives some background saying, “Those who opposed Stephen were from one of more synagogues where Jews from foreign lands worshipped. Libertines were former slaves who had gained their freedom. Cyrenians were Jews from Northern Africa, Alexandrians were Jews from the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and Cilicia was a Roman province of Asia Minor.”
Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt here for a second and consider the political consequences of these groups embracing Christianity. Just like the Palestinian Jews, these other groups aren’t going to be interested in getting on the Roman’s radar, and might be afraid that if this new group of “Christians” turns out to be inflammatory against Rome, then they could be given reason to become slaves again or barred from ever returning to Jerusalem again, or might not be allowed to leave and go home. There are definitely political reasons why these “outside” groups would not have been interested in embracing the followers of the man who was just executed by Rome for treason.
While those political angles do make sense, Luke makes it clear that those are not the underlying reasons for Stephen’s rejection by these people. The people against Stephen start making a scene and “the stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and come upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses.” They accused Stephen of blasphemy “for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.” This sounds just like what happened to Jesus and Peter and John, religious leadership gets mad because someone is trying to change something and probably points out the hypocrisy and greed of those accusers.
The IM says, “From the accusations made against Stephen and his defense, it appears that his opponents were angered by his teachings that the coming of Jesus Christ had redefined basic Jewish concepts regarding the land of Israel, the law of Moses, and the temple of Jerusalem. Stephen’s opponents ‘suborned men’, meaning that they persuaded men to commit perjury.”
His accusers work themselves up into a frenzy, and finally look over at Stephen “and all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.” This has happened before, to Alma and Amulek, Nephi and Lehi, Moses, and Jesus. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “Stephen was transfigured before them, visible witness thus being given that God was with him.” The IM continues, “By opposing Stephen and his testimony, the Jewish leaders were also opposing God, who had given an obvious sign showing His approval of Stephen. In the life of Stephen we see a reenactment of parts of the life of Moses, notably his transfiguration and rejection as one of God’s authorized servants. Stephen’s experience also echoes the transfiguration of the Savior, further underscoring Stephen’s charge that opposition to Moses and opposition to Jesus Christ were historic patters in Israel’s resistance to God.”
I had not considered before that transfiguration could be a sign to testify of God’s acceptance and confidence. Like with the Nephite prophets mentioned above, the sign of transfiguration was given while they were experiencing attempted murder, but for this to happen before hand, it’s almost like it’s that much worse, the people are that much more hardened because even after seeing God’s undisputable presence, they still wanted to kill the messenger.