Stephen: Model Witness in Life & Death

INTRO: Although martyr to us means someone being killed for their faith (verb) or the one who is killed for their faith (noun), the English word “martyr” comes from the Greek term for “witness” (μάρτυς, martys). So the intent of the meaning that has been passed down to us is the idea of someone testifying to Christ to the point of dying as a faithful witness. In life and in death, we are his witnesses.

Now the reason we are discussing this is because we’ve come to the end of Acts 7, where Luke describes the climactic words of Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin, and then gives us their reaction, which leads to Stephen’s stoning.

So as we study closely today vv. 51-60, let’s keep in mind what the Holy Spirit-inspired text can teach us. And what the Holy Spirit inspires is not separate from what Stephen teaches or what Luke intends for his audience. Rather, what we are to learn comes to us through them and their purposes.

Stephen wants his audience to experience conviction of sin to repent and respond to the gospel—that God offers perfect and permanent restoration to himself through Jesus.

Luke wants what Stephen wants, plus some. Luke wants us to see Stephen as a model witness in life and death.

Acts 7:51–53 ESV

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Wait…

Who’s Really on Trial? (vv. 51-53)

Although all of this began with Stephen being questioned before the Sanhedrin about his teaching, his speech has now turned the tables and shone a light on the guilt of his audience.

Here at this climax, Stephen switches from regular references in first person plural (“our”) to speaking of his audience in the second person plural (“you”). Why? Because God, by the power of his Holy Spirit, has transformed Stephen by grace through faith. Stephen no longer stands in the line of rejectors and idolaters, but has responded to God’s ultimate messenger, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Stephen is in the right to rehearse this history (of God’s people through the times of Abraham and Joseph and Moses) and then quote the prophets to demonstrate that his hearers are following in the hard-hearted footsteps of those who came before them.

Calling them a stiff-necked people is a real stinger, and not just because it carries the meaning of being hard-headed, stubborn. Stephen’s audience would have been knowledgeable in the details of the history he had reviewed, and there in the section of Exodus (Ex. 32:9, 33:5) where they commit idolatry with the golden calf, both God and Moses are scathing in their reproach of the people, calling them stiff-necked (like an obstinate ox or mule that refuses to be directed in the right way that he should go).

So too they should know that the covenant of circumcision was meant to extend beyond merely an outward physical sign, but was supposed to be true of their hearts. In the very context where Moses himself is retelling this story of the golden calf and that he had to return to get two new tablets of stone, he says to the people,

Deuteronomy 10:12–16 ESV

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

Stephen adds the concept of their ears as well, because they refuse to listen, continuing to resist the Holy Spirit. It was common understanding that it was the Spirit of God who inspired the prophets as God’s messengers. They continue in the footsteps of their rebellious fathers, who, by rejecting and persecuting the prophets, were resisting the message from God himself.

The IVP Background commentary says that “Jewish tradition had heightened Israel’s responsibility for the death of the prophets,” so Stephen acknowledges the validity of that understanding as well. (Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 7:52.)

And these prophets that they persecuted and killed were in fact pointing forward to the coming Righteous One, who is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, whom they betrayed and murdered. It is utter betrayal because he is the promised Messiah, the ultimate God-sent deliverer, and it is murder because he was not only innocent of wrongdoing but in fact vindicated in being exactly who he claimed to be.

Before he closes this indictment, Stephen has referred to them as stiff-necked, uncircumcised in hearts and ears, resisting the Spirit, persecuting and killing the prophets, betrayers and murderers of the Messiah, all while being the very people to whom the law was given, but of course they did not keep the law. (Anyone who would break God’s perfect law at any point is guilty of all of it. Jam 2:10) Although there is no direct reference to angelic involvement in the giving of the law in the OT, Stephen here agrees with Paul (Gal 3:19) and the author of Hebrews (Heb 2:2) that angels were somehow tied to mediating the law as it was given.

The bottom line of all of this: In spite of having the law and the temple and the prophets and the promises, you are an idolatrous people who have rejected God’s Messiah.

But it doesn’t have to end here. Jesus has fulfilled the purpose of the law and the temple, and Jesus continues fulfilling the prophets and the promises. However, this audience doesn’t allow Stephen to get any further.

Before we move on from these verses, there are at least two things that we should note by way of application.

1. Conviction of sin (recognizing personal responsibility for sin) is an essential component of the gospel and for right response to the gospel.

The gospel exposes our sin not to harm us but to heal us. Stephen is not lashing out; this is wounding with surgical precision.

You shouldn’t feel bad about lovingly confronting people with their sin. In fact, it’s essential, it’s necessary. The gospel necessarily offends us before it can heal us. “I know you think you’re fine, but you’re spiritually sick and dying. Your sin is killing you. If you don’t repent and turn to God, you have no one to blame but yourself.”

2. We are all on trial before the perfect justice of God. When confronted in our sin, we can either be insulted or convicted.

Which one displays a Spirit-enabled sensitivity to God? Which one pleases God?

As we continue, we see that Stephen’s audience literally proves his point about their hard-heartedness. Rather than being convicted, they are insulted and enraged. Not only do they treat Stephen as a blasphemer, but they behave like an angry mob and stone him to death.

Acts 7:54–60 ESV

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 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.” 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. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 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.

These perpetrators of Stephen’s death are completely out of control, but Stephen is perfectly calm and composed. How can this be? Well, here’s a question to ask ourselves in this section:

Who’s Right With God & Safe From Ultimate Harm? (vv. 54-60)

In the Spirit, Stephen experiences the comfort and assurance of God in the hardest of moments.

But first, the members of the Sanhedrin are enraged (a word that describes violent emotional response as pictured by their hearts being sawed in half), and gnashing their teeth also pictures their fury. This is not a mild frustration or anger. They are losing control. The writing is on the wall.

But in the midst of their mounting irrational rage that is about to unleash itself on Stephen, God grants Stephen a vision of heaven. This vision is to Stephen comfort and assurance—that God’s glory is on full display and remains untarnished, that the risen and ascended Jesus is standing in his rightful place at the right hand of God.

Stephen then declares what he sees because to his audience this vision is the final proof of all that he has been proclaiming. The Son of Man is Jesus, who stands vindicated at the right hand of God. Not only this, but the Judge stands to declare his verdict: Stephen is innocent (right with God), and these perpetrators are guilty of precisely what Stephen has said.

As their reaction reaches a frantic pitch in vv. 57-58, they stone Stephen. The Romans really didn’t like their subject nations exercising capital punishment (Jn 18:31), especially not without their permission. And even though the Mosaic law (Lev 24:16) prescribed stoning as the punishment for blasphemy, Luke portrays this as irrational & twisted. They scream and cover their ears and rush at him… all with a single mind, to kill Stephen.

In their violent reaction to Stephen, one has to ask, “Who is right with God at this moment?”

These religious leaders who should exercise such a responsibility of formal execution with utmost care, here are portrayed as a violent mob. They literally throw him out of the city and begin stoning him.

I confess, the idea of putting someone else to death is difficult to stomach, which undoubtedly it should be. Killing a man by stoning would have taken a great deal of effort, even with many hands. So they take off their cloaks, to not be impeded by the extra heat, weight, encumbrance, etc.

And here is mention of a young Pharisee named Saul who was present (at whose feet they laid their outer garments), giving approval to their action (8:1). Now this is truth-telling. Can you imagine Paul relating his involvement to Luke… with pauses and with tears? And not only his involvement with Stephen’s death, but his fervent and ferocious persecution of the saints until his own dramatic conversion.

This is not sensationalism or embellishment, it is telling the truth to emphasize the dramatic effect of our hard hearts toward God and even our guilt for rebellion and persecution of his messengers.

Here is also an echo of hope. Not only would Christ later make Saul his own, but Paul could also tell Luke the story with tears of joy at God’s forgiveness and Stephen’s testimony—the death of a saint who modeled Christ’s trust in God … and his love and forgiveness toward the perpetrators.

As the stoning continued, Stephen called out to his Savior standing on high, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” In the same way, the Lord himself had cried out from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Lk 23:46)

His second prayer also mirrors that of his Lord from the cross. Stephen goes to his knees, either because he can no longer stand under all the blows, or as a deliberate posture of prayer. He cries out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” That is the same posture of forgiveness from Christ himself, who had said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)

Can there be any doubt that the Spirit of God in Stephen strengthened him to be a model of the character of the Lord Jesus? Can there be any doubt that the Holy Spirit gave Stephen peace and calm and assurance that he was right with God by faith in Jesus? In fact, as Stephen dies, the author uses the Christian way of describing death as if to be falling asleep. This is going in peace because of being right with God and being ushered into the presence of God.

Can there be any doubt that Luke puts forward Stephen as an example for us to follow, a model witness in life and death?

Conclusion & Application:

Will Our Life & Death Testify to Christ?

Like Moses (and the prophets), Like Jesus… and Like Jesus, Like Stephen

Whether or not Stephen knew he would be put to death, he certainly knew there was that possibility. And without a doubt, the author, Luke, intentionally portrays Jesus in the line of prophets who spoke God’s truth and were rejected as his messengers.

(So too) Like Jesus, Stephen is martyred for loving others enough to tell them the truth.

For us then I have two concluding applications: In our suffering, we must see with our hearts that Christ is standing at the right hand of Majesty, confident in his mediation and confident in his Lordship. To our dying breath, we trust that our Lord is awaiting us with open arms. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And to our dying breath, we must view God’s enemies with the forgiving and compassionate heart of Jesus.

Proclaim Christ with the conviction of a saved sinner who has compassion on lost sinners. Proclaim Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Proclaim Christ from the pages of God’s word. Proclaim Christ to the praise of God’s glorious grace.

Suffer with confident assurance in God.

In life and in death, suffer with confident assurance in God through Jesus Christ and the Spirit he has given you.

The grace God is giving you to trust in and rely on him in your present suffering is probably a MUCH greater testimony to those around you than you realize. Fellow believers around you are thankful and inspired by the work of the Spirit in you, and we are reminded of the sacrifice of Jesus and the promises of Jesus to bring all things to completion and perfection.

In the Spirit, we must learn to look beyond the suffering to the joy of what God is accomplishing.

Hebrews 12:1–3 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

And (7a)

Hebrews 12:7 ESV

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

“He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.” (Heb. 12:10b)

The suffering you are enduring with a heart that trusts in God is a sweet and pleasing aroma to Him. The suffering you are enduring, if you will abide in Jesus, is making you into his likeness. And the suffering you are enduring in dependence upon the Lord is literally ministering to those around you. (I can promise you that it blesses and encourages my own faith, and causes me to pray for you and to praise God for his grace.)

PRAY

COMMUNION

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.