Stephen

Stephen is found only seven times and only in the book of Acts.
Who is Stephen?
The complainants were the Grecians, or Hellenists, against the Hebrews--the Jews that were scattered in Greece, and other parts, who ordinarily spoke the Greek tongue, and read the Old Testament in the Greek version, and not the original Hebrew, many of whom being at Jerusalem at the feast embraced the faith of the Messiah, and were added to the Messianic church, and so continued there. These complained against the Hebrews, the native Jews that used the original Hebrew of the Old Testament. Some of each of these became Messianic Believers, and, it seems, their joint-embracing of the faith of Y’Shua did not prevail, as it ought to have done, to extinguish the little jealousies they had one of another before their conversion.
6:5 Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost
He was an extraordinary man, and excelled in every thing that was good; his name signifies a crown.
Murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews ...
Both classes of these "Jews" were Messianic Believers, but there was a language barrier. The Jews of Palestine spoke Aramaic, and those of the Diaspora spoke Greek; many of the latter were living in Jerusalem at that time but were natives of the provinces. "In the Jewish world as a whole there was some tension, and this survived between the two groups," even after they became Messianic Believers.
As this and the following names are all Greek, it is likely they were all of the "Grecian" class, which would effectually restore mutual confidence.
It seems seven Hellenists, as their names show.
And Nicholas a proselyte - To whom the proselytes would the more readily apply.
The qualifications that he had as a man of faith and full of the Holy Spirit were not his alone but belonged to the entire group nominated by the multitude.
6:8 Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
No record of specific signs has come down to us; but the fact of their designation here as "great" proves them to have been miracles of the first magnitude. Stephen was a man of the most noble character and of the mightiest ability.
7: 59 he was the first that suffered Messianic martyrdom for the Messiah. At length, he sealed it with his blood. Was he called for such a time as this? Was this to be his one great mission in life?
Stephen was bred a scholar, and they thought it their honor to meddle with their match. Stephen, who was only a deacon in the Messianic church, and a very sharp young man, of bright parts, and better qualified to deal with wrangling disputants than the apostles themselves, was appointed to this service. Some historians say that Stephen had been bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, and that Saul and the rest of them set upon him as a deserter, and with a particular fury made him their mark.
It is probable that they disputed with Stephen because he was zealous to argue with them and convince them, and this was the service to which G-d had called him.
Don’t you ever feel ‘called’ to dispute a Scriptural point?
He pleaded the cause of Messianic against those that opposed it, and argued against it (Acts 6:9, 10); he served the interests of religion as a disputant, in the high places of the field, while others were serving them as vinedressers and husbandmen.
When they could not answer his arguments as a disputant, they prosecuted him as a criminal, and suborned witnesses against him, to swear blasphemy upon him.
He therefore becomes their enemy, because he told them the truth, and proved it to be so.
How many times have you been persecuted for telling the truth?
Notice though he spoke up for truth and doing the Father’s bidding – they latterly killed him for it. So the bottom line is we are to do as we are told and leave the results in G-d’s hands, even if it may not be favorable, for we can not see the big picture of His purpose.