How to Choose a Good Man

How to Choose a Good Man!

Acts 6

Scripture: Acts 6

Memory Verse: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” John 15:16a

Lesson Focus: God chooses people to do His work that will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Activities and Crafts: Coloring Picture; Word Search

Craft for 1st – 2nd Graders: “Being Filled Puppet”

Give each of the kids a paper sack.
Tell them to decorate their sack and make it look like themselves.
Tell them that when they put their hand in the puppet they are filling up their puppet and making it work.
Tell them that is what God does with the Holy Spirit. He fill us up and help us be like Jesus.

Review: Before you start the lesson, let’s do a review to help the kids become comfortable with the Bible and with finding the book of Acts in the Bible.

Tell the kids to close their Bibles.
Tell them to open their Bibles to the Book of Matthew (the first book in the New Testament.)
Show them how much of the Bible is the Old Testament. (before Jesus)
Once they get to the book of Matthew; ask the kids what are the first 4 books of the New Testament. (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.)
Have them turn through these books. As they turn tell them that these are the Gospels and they tell us about the life of Jesus.
Tell them to turn to the book of Acts. Tell them that this is the first book after the Gospels and the life of Jesus. Ask them, where is Jesus now? (He is in heaven.) Tell them that the book of Acts is the “acts” of the disciples that followed Jesus and the “acts” of the first church. When we study the book of Acts we are seeing what God wants the church to do and how he wants us to live. We are to do what they do in the book of Acts.

Introduction: I Choose You Game:

Play a game of follow the leader. Make a big deal about choosing the right person to be the “leader.” Play several rounds of the game.

Ask the kids, “How did you feel not being chosen to be the leader?

Today, we are going to talk about some a man that was chosen by God. We will see that God chose a man that could be used by Him.

Lesson:

Acts:6:1: The Problem

√ What is the condition of the Church?

It was growing very quickly
Some complained that the widows were not being taken care of.

√ Do you think that the evil one liked the fact that they church was growing and that people were coming to know Jesus?

The devil cannot keep us from coming to know God and believing in Jesus as our Savior. But he can try to put problems in our way and to keep us from growing close to God. Through the centuries the “church” has fought about silly things and these silly things have caused great harm. Here in Acts many people were coming to know Jesus; people from many different countries and regions. So the Greek-speaking Jewish widows thought that they were being left out and that the Aramaic-speaking Jewish widows were getting taken care of.

Acts 6:2-4 The Solution

√ What were the disciples struggling with? (having enough time – to teach the Word and serve the people.)

The disciples rightly understood that they could not do all things for all people. They could not feed the people, counsel the people, pray with the people and study and preach the word. We will see very soon in the Bible that God gives us all gifts that we are to use in the Body of Christ. No one person can do everything. If they try they will fail! The disciples knew that they were called to pray and to preach and teach. They needed to find others to help them in other matters so that they could concentrate on the thing that God had told them to do!

√ What was their solution?

(choose 7 men to oversee the business)

√ What “business” did they do for the people of the church?

√ What “qualities” where these men suppose to have?

Good reputation
Full of the Holy Spirit
Full of wisdom

√ Where the disciples just being lazy? What were they going to do?

Prayer
Ministry of the Word

Acts:6:5-6: The Choice

*They chose 7 men

1. Stephen 2. Philip 3. Prochorus 4. Nicanor 5. Timon

6. Parmenas and 7. Nicolas

These men that God helped them choose through the Spirit all have Greek names. They chose Greek “Hellenistic Jews”. God is expanding His Church by brining in people of other races and nations. This is God’s plan.

√ Out of all of these men, which was the only one that was singled out and his good qualities were mentioned? (Stephen)

√ What qualities of Stephen’s were mentioned?

a man full of the Holy Spirit
a man full of faith

√ Do you think that it is unusual for someone to be filled with the Spirit?

Many people who study the Bible say that this should be the “normal” for any Christian. In other words it should be normal for us to be “filled” with the Spirit of God.

Illustration: Filling of an empty cup;(We have used this illustration before, but we need to use it again to help the kids visualize the Spirit and His filling in our lives.)

Supplies needed: Empty paper cup with holes in it; Pitcher of water and something for the water to drain in to.

Show the kids an empty cup and say this cup represents our lives before accepting Jesus as our Savior. We look fine on the outside but on the inside we are empty.
Say, “When we believe in the Jesus, that I am a sinner and that I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, the Bible tells us that we are saved. At that moment the Holy Spirit comes into our lives.” Pour water into the cup and tell the kids that this water represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us up in our soul. He fills the inside of us that can only be filled by God. Jesus told us before He went back to Heaven that the Holy Spirit would be our guide and would help us know right from wrong. In other words, we cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit.
Ask the kids, but what is happening? (the water is seeping out.) Tell the kids that we do not “leak” the Holy Spirit but because of our sin we don’t let Him fill us up as He wants to. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” That means that we stop Him and do not let Him fill us up. We stop Him by doing things are own way, not growing in Jesus and the Word of God.
When we ask for God’s guidance and help and ask for the Spirit to fill us up He will do it. Pour more water in the cup. Ephesians 5:18b says, “be filled with the Spirit.” And Jesus told us that we would have living water that would overflow in our lives. (John 8:38-39, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, who those believe in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
The Holy Spirit is our “living water” and is to overflow in our lives.
The Holy Spirit overflowed in the life of Stephen. Stephen allowed God’s Spirit to rule in his heart and life. The Holy Spirit overflowed in the way Stephen lived his live by his actions and his devotion to God.
Wouldn’t you like that said of you?

√ What was the point of setting them before the disciples and praying for them and laying hands on them? (They want to make sure that these guys know that they have been prayed for and are being sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands does not transfer power from the disciples to these new guys it in trusts them to follow God and serve others.

The actions of the 1st Church:

√ What was the first church always doing?

Praying (Acts 2:42; 4:31)
Teaching the Word of God (Acts 2:14-40; Acts 3:6; Acts 3:12-4:4; 4:8-12; 4:29; 4:33; 5:42)
Breaking of Bread (Acts 2:42; 2:46)
Serving the needs of others (Acts 4:32-35)

√ What power was the1st church depending on?

The Holy Spirit’s Power; (Acts 2:4l; 3:12; 4:8

God is growing the Church. He is increasing the number of those that believe through these simple fishermen. But these men are not doing this in their own power. They are relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to fill them and to lead them. And now as they grow they need to choose more men to help lead and help serve the people. So they pick these 7 men and there is one in particular that is singled out. Stephen!

Acts 6:7: The Result

√ What was the result of the disciples faithfulness?

The Word of God spread
More disciples were added
Even priests believed

The disciples made more disciples. They entrusted others to help them with furthering the Gospel. God ALWAYS wants us to build into other lives and help them follow Jesus so that they in turn and help others. That is why all your teachers take the time to be with you every week. They know that God wants us to help the next generation (that is you guys) to grown in Jesus so that you can lead the next generation to follow Jesus.

Acts 6:8-15

√ How do they describe Stephen?

Full of faith (They word “faith” in the Greek language here is translated “grace.” The word “grace” means the unlimited riches of God that we receive through Jesus. God’s riches flowed through Stephen in everything He did.

When we realize God’s grace in our lives it should change us. We should be amazed at the riches that we have through Jesus.

Full of power (who’s power?)

√ What did God do through Stephen?

(Miracles)

√Who started arguing with Stephen? (Synagogue of the Freedmen)

√ Who won the argument? (They could not resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen spoke.)

√ What did this group do to get back at Stephen?

They told lies; that Stephen “blasphemed” or spoke against Moses and God.
They stirred up the people (made the people upset)
The people came and seized Stephen and brought him before the religious court.
They set up false witnesses to tell lies about Stephen

√ How did the people on the religious court respond to Stephen?

They stared at him and they thought his face looked like an angel.

Conclusion: What can we apply from this lesson?

The work that God wants to do is done through people that will yield to Him.
The work that God wants to do is done through people that will allow the Holy Spirit to fill them up.
The work that God wants to do is done through the Church working together and using their gifts as God has given.