The Martyrdom of Stephen
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life painting in 1842. Intended to be a didactic, moralizing series of paintings using the landscape as an allegory for religious faith. The need for something to guide you through the various parts of life.
What guides you in life? What guides you through the storm? The Christian’s ultimate hope is not in this life, but the glory that is to come in the next life. God promises to his faithful people an eternal glory that will far outweigh all the trials and struggles of this life.
Every person mentioned in the Bible could have fit into this series, Broken and Blessed, and it would be neat to do every one of them. In doing a series you have to recognize your limitations, determine which fit the focus of the series, but I also always feel the weight to make sure the focus of the series balances the overall teachings of the Bible.
Part of what I felt on this series is, are we only focusing on how Jesus takes care of things in this life? Yes, Jesus healed people, but there were also many people who were not healed by him. What do we make of many of us who long to be healed, physically or spiritually? Today’s passage grounds us in that. We are looking at the first Christian martyr.
Stephen's Character
Stephen is a respected, aspiring young leader in the church. When the elders of the church needed assistance in caring for the widows in the church they chose a few men of good repute and full of the Spirit and wisdom. Stephen was one of the seven men chosen.
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:5).
We are also told he was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Many were coming to believe in Jesus because of him, and that riled up those who were opposed to Jesus. Doing good will bring you into contention with those doing evil. Don’t assume hardship is bc of unfaithfulness!
- Stephen is a bright and bold man, committed to helping others. He responds with clarity, conviction, and compassion. He does everything the right way. He has trained and prepared on his knowledge of the word.
- He is trained in theology and Bible knowledge. He is prepared to give a defence for the faith he has.
- He is full of the Holy Spirit. He is aware of the power of the spirit. In his sermon he calls out his people who opposed him, and opposed Jesus and shows they are just like their fathers who persecuted the prophets who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one (7:52).
- He gives an amazing sermon, faithfully expositing the Old Testament, showing God’s grace and also confronting people on how they opposed God. It is so good the people go from being mad to raging.
- He is surrounded by bitter enemies, no doubt railing and caviling, and muttering their observations to disturb him and distract his mind, yet his defence is wonderfully logical, clear, consecutive, and forceful.
Be prepared to give a defense for the faith that you have (1 Pet 3:15).
“Stephen stood up and defended himself, and the truth as it is in Jesus, with all the skill of a practiced debater, with all the deliberation of one laboriously prepared, and with all the vigour of one whose zeal was like a fire in his bones. To what do we trace this mouth and wisdom, which his enemies could not gainsay? To what, indeed, but to the Holy Spirit?” (Spurgeon)
Stephen's Suffering
All of Stephen’s hard work and preparation falls on deaf ears. The people simply do not want to hear it. They begin with being angry and oppositional, and it only gets worse.
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him (verse 54).
But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him (verses 57 and 58).
And with all that brilliance and boldness, preparation and care, Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. He is stoned to death because of his commitment to Jesus. He loses his life for Jesus, and this is the account of what happened.
Make no mistake, the preaching of God’s word always elicits a response. People will either soften their heart and become more malleable to God’s will or they will harden their heart and become more resistant and settled in their opposition.
When you follow a crucified Messiah, you should not be surprised when you are required to suffer. It is the way of this world. It is the way of becoming more like him.
Being surprised at suffering. How could this happen to me? How could this happen again? How can this continue?
We live in a fallen world. A world that turned away from God. Turn away from the light and it gets dark. Turn away from the source of life and there is death. But God also chose to redeem the world through Jesus. He came, he suffered, and he died that we might be forgiven for our sins, and reconciled to him. The hatred and animosity shown to Stephen, we have all shown to God at some point. We need to be forgiven.
There are times in life that our Lord calls us to walk through the fire.
Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Jesus was crucified. All the disciples gave their lives testifying to who Jesus was.
We want to be like Moses with the seas parting. We want to be like Jesus walking on the water and rebuking the wind. There may be times that happens. Let’s pray for it. But if we have to walk through the wilderness or wear a crown of thorns and have insults hurled at us, let us not forget where our treasure is and where our hope comes from.
Thomas a Kempis said Jesus has many who love his heavenly kingdom but few who bear his cross.
Which will you choose to be?
We will suffer. We will get sick. We will be opposed. We will all die. But if we are in Jesus we believe that, just as he was raised, we too will be raised.
Stephen gives an amazing sermon, and he is stoned to death for it.
- Stephen is the first disciple to be forgotten by Jesus.
- Stephen is the first disciple to be abandoned by Jesus.
- Stephen is the first disciple to be rejected by Jesus.
- Stephen is the first disciple to be punished by Jesus.
He is also the first to be received into glory, to be rewarded for his faithfulness, to leave behind the perishable and put on the imperishable, and to be vindicated by Jesus.
Stephen's Reception into Glory
But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (verses 55 and 56).
That puts all our suffering into perspective.
Stephen is sustained in his time of trial by a vision of Jesus, a vision that should be our vision and that should inspire us when the enemies of life rage against us. A vision that should inspire us when the rocks come and fall upon us.
Not a faith that wilts at suffering. Not a confidence that melts when the heat is turned up.
**God did not take Stephen around the suffering, but straight through the suffering.** Where was God? Right there with him.
He saw the glory of God. The glory of God is the visible manifestation of the greatness, the worthiness, blessedness, holiness, of God. It is a summary attribute of him just like perfection and beauty. It is his splendor, just like when the angels appeared to the shepherds and the glory of the Lord shone around them. It is the greatness of God, which we will never fully comprehend, and can only stand before in awe and worship.
Glorification is the final stage of the order of salvation
“And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Rom 8:30.
The body will be resurrected
Believers will receive resurrected, imperishable bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). These bodies will be free from sin, free from suffering, free from death, and free from weakness. Those blind and broken bodies will work again. Deaf ears will hear. Achy joints will be like a fresh coat of WD40. Those bodies broken with stones will be made whole. Those riddled with cancer will be made perfect.
Complete freedom from sin
All remnants of sin and its effects are fully removed. The believer's mind, heart, and will are perfectly aligned with God’s.
Perfected in holiness and righteousness
Glorification means moral and spiritual perfection. Believers are fully conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). Cosmic dimension in which there will be no more evil, evil doers, death, morning, crying or pain. The former order has passed away
They will delight in God fully, and no longer be hindered by sin or temptation.
Everlasting joy and fellowship with God
Believers will see God face to face (1 John 3:2). Eternal communion with God in the new heavens and new earth.
Stephen also saw “Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). This is truly amazing. Perhaps a small detail, but no doubt a profound detail. What do all the other references to Jesus’s post resurrection sightings refer to him doing? Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:3; Romans 8:34).
Why would he stand and what does it matter? You might be rusty on your manners, but do you know it is reception etiquette. If you are at a table and a new person comes in you are supposed to stand for the person. particularly important in diplomatic, military, or official settings, referring to formal procedures for receiving guests or dignitaries. Traditional way of honoring newcomers.
Standing up sends a signal from across the room that you’re willing and eager to greet and welcome the other person into your here-and-now. It speaks well of you even before you’ve had an opportunity to say your first word because it shows by your actions that you’re a welcoming person.
“Whether it’s a social conversation, a business meeting, or a meal, it sends the message that you’ve noticed the person(s) and they’re worth your effort to rise from your comfortable sitting position to meet and welcome them. When you stand, you literally rise to the occasion of showing respect to them.”
Jesus stands to welcome Stephen into his glory.
Personal. You don't have this in any other religion. Only in the Bible do you have an almighty God who cares for his people.
Jesus did not stop the stones and the evil, but he was aware of it and he came to heal it. He takes notice of his servant, and you better believe his standing to welcome Stephen also implies a standing to bring judgment to those who wronged him.
You can’t have the glory of heaven unless the darkness is removed. If you believe in heaven, then you have to explain why it is better than this world, and then you have to explain what the requirements/cutoff line for heaven is. If evil is removed, why should you be brought in?
The healing of Stephen, the reward for obedience, does not happen in this life. It happens in the life to come. This life will be full of hardship and brokenness.
Christianity sees a finality of death and judgement before God. We see the love and personalness of God that no other religion shows.
We see the finality of death and judgement. Upon dying we will all stand before Jesus and give an account of how we have lived. The time to repent is now. It is not like the hopelessness of Hinduism or Taoism where there is an endless, hopeless cycle of being reincarnated and a wish that at some point to be good enough to achieve a better life. We don't need a better life; we need a perfect one, and only one person has ever achieved that, and he became obedient unto death. Dying that we might be forgiven, and he is the one we will stand before.
This judgment is not like atheism that says our consciousness ceases and there is no judgment or deliverance. It just ceases. If this were the case, why should we ever care about justice or anything else now? Why seek to know anything or seek to improve anything. Atheist philosopher Albert Camu said his atheistic philosophy answers many things, but one thing it cannot answer is why we don’t just kill ourselves. He cannot answer the questions of why life is worth living. He says life is absurd, and that we need to choose to live in defiance of the absurdity of life. No wonder it leads to despair.
This end shows there is order and purpose to life, and while it may seem chaotic now, Jesus will preside in judgment over everything and everyone. And the greatest thing we can do is not to do more stuff, but to be in a right relationship with him. His work leads us to see his greatness, his love, his wisdom, his power and his might, such that the only right response is to love him, worship him, walk with him, serve him.
It is not just upon death that we ought to think of the glories of the coming kingdom of Jesus. Whenever the luster of the world begins to lure our gaze from Christ we ought to remember death will corrode all that the world offers.
When we feel the hardship of life and setbacks from the good things we hope for in this life, we ought remember that the way to eternal glory is only opened through Jesus.
“My brethren and sisters, this doctrine has been to my own soul the only one which has cheered me in times of extremely deep depression of spirit. As I have told you before, so I tell you now—I have known what it is to be brought so low in heart, that no promise of God’s Word gave me a ray of light, nor a single doctrine afforded me a gleam of comfort, and yet, so often as I have come across this text, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,” I have always found a flood of joy bursting into my soul, for I have said, “Well, it is of no consequence what may become of me if my name be cast out as evil, and if I myself am left in darkness; if pains should multiply; if sorrows should increase beyond number, it does not matter— I will not lift up a finger so long as my Lord Jesus is exalted.” I believe that every genuine Christian heart that loves the Saviour feels just that.” Spurgeon
Stephen’s vision of Jesus did not stop the stones, but it strengthened his heart. It did not remove the evil from his presence, but it promised him eternal peace. We are all going to walk through the fire. We are all going to feel our bodies giving out.
The Lord Jesus does not come to us to forbid our suffering, nor to remove our griefs, but he sustains us under them.” Spurgeon.
And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep (verse 60).
“Through the furnace we must go, and the smell of fire must pass upon us, but yet we shall come out of the flaming heat uninjured by the blazing fire. ’Tis ours to suffer and yet to conquer, to die and yet to live, to be buried and yet to rise again. How sweetly is Stephen’s triumph pictured in those last words, ‘He fell asleep.’”
His last words were words of triumph. He was not overcome by evil. He was motivated by good intentions, even for his enemies. If there were hard words said it was to turn them from their wickedness.
There was no bitterness, nor regret. Only faith and forgiveness.
Stephen pleads for the forgiveness of those who are stoning him. He petitions God for mercy. Unthinkable. Unless you know the grace and mercy of God toward your own rebellion.
Famous Christian Martyrs' Last Words
Perpetua
A young mother who at 22 was thrown into the Carthage coliseum, and was gored by a bull. When a gladiator came to put her and her friends out of her misery and she exhorted them to “Stand fast in the faith and love one another,” and then she guided the blade of the gladiator to her throat, moving the entire audience to pity.
William Tyndale
The reformer and Bible translator’s last words, as he was executed by the king, were, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The German pastor and theologian who opposed Nazi Germany said at his execution, “This is the end—for me, the beginning of life.”
Martin Luther
When tried in court for his teachings, Luther famously said, “I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.
What is our only hope in this life? The Heidelberg catechism says,
That I am not my own, 1
but belong with body and soul,
both in life and in death, 2
to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. 3
He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood, 4
and has set me free
from all the power of the devil. 5
He also preserves me in such a way 6
that without the will of my heavenly Father
not a hair can fall from my head; 7
indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation. 8
Therefore, by his Holy Spirit
he also assures me
of eternal life 9
and makes me heartily willing and ready
from now on to live for him. 10
Jesus may heal some of you now. He may heal some of you later. We are all going to go through the fire at some point. But with Jesus, death is not the end but a nap, a brief sleep.
He will abolish all our enemies, death included, but in order for him to abolish those you must align yourself with him. He must be your friend, your Lord, your all in all. Now is the time to ready yourself for that day. Now is the time to turn to him. The day of judgement is fixed. Your time before him is determined. You must not be unprepared for that day. Give your life and self to what matters for eternity.
You don't need a painting, you don’t need a separate vision of God. God has told us in his word what we can expect. We look to that. We trust in him. We turn from waywardness and seek to honor him. He will lead us through the trials.
Discussion Questions
- Does the story of Stephen surprise you that such a faithful follower would be stoned to death? Why or why not?
- What does Stephen see before his death? Why is this comforting?
- How does hope in Jesus give meaning and purpose to our life and to our suffering? Have you surrendered your life to him?
