Stephen: The First Martyr of the Christian Church

On March 7, 1981, Chet Bitterman, a missionary to South America, was shot point-blank and killed by terrorists, while he was awaiting surgery in the city of Bogota.

He died in Bogota, the capital city of Colombia. He died at the hands of terrorists after being kidnapped and held captive for 48 days. He left behind a wife and two young children.

When the news broke, shockwaves reverberated throughout the missionary community worldwide. But no shock was as devastating as those felt by his family. A news article described the chain of events as people close to Chet began to find out what had happened:

“In Columbia, South Carolina, Chet’s brother learned of the news as a result of a chance look at a teletype machine. In Huntington Beac, California, Wycliffe’s U.S. director was awakened by a long-distance telephone call…In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Chet’s parents got the word from a local newspaper reporter. And in Bogota, Colombia, the early-morning stillness was jarred for Chet’s wife when a nearby shopkeeper banged on the gate yelling a message that couldn’t wait: ‘They’ve found Chet’s body in a bus.’” [Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Iryan Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions, pp415-17]

Chet Bitterman committed his life and his family to the task of reaching unreached people groups with the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He and others with him dreamed of many decades of fruitful ministry in Latin America, watching God powerfully work through them to see many come to faith in Him. Instead of that scenario, Chet died in a prison, alone and sick. He was 28 years old.

Is this abnormal? Did Chet Bitterman make a mistake? Was it foolish for him to go? These are the questions we ask when we hear stories like this. This sermon is about Stephen, but it’s also about God’s larger purposes in persecution. Our Lord told us that opposition would come because of our association with Him. And so this sermon is about those larger purposes that God has in persecution.

And my prayer this morning is that as we read and study this text, we will understand more about God’s purposes for us in persecution.

#1: When we witness faithfully, God often rewards us with opposition

Our study this morning takes us the first martyr of the Christian church. A martyr is someone who is killed by unbelievers because of their faith as a Christian. Jesus of course was the true first martyr. But now that Jesus has risen and ascended into heaven, and now that He has taken His place at the right hand of God to reign over all things, and now that He has sent His Spirit to empower His church to witness and make disciples and plant churches and continue the work He began in His name, now the privilege of being the first disciple to give his life in the service of Christ goes to this man named Stephen.

Stephen was also a deacon.But here Stephen emerges as a deacon who is also a powerful preacher. And He bears witness to the reality of Christ’s resurrection at the cost of his own life.

So look with me at verse 8 and notice with me Stephen’s faithful witness: “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.” Full of grace and power - the good hand of God was upon Him to bless His ministry. There is every reason to believe that Stephen was leading many people to faith in Christ. If he wasn’t, why the opposition?

Notice with me now the opposition in verse 9: “Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.”

What we have here is a good old-fashioned debate. And so we see that the first opposition Stephen faced was simply this: “We disagree with you. Dialogue with us. Tell us why you believe this Jesus is risen and is the Messiah.” But the debate quickly becomes more heated and angry - not because Stephen is being disrespectful. But because they don’t like his answers. Why don’t they like his answers? Because his answers are irrefutable. His logic is unassailable. The power with which He speaks is convincing.

But here’s what I want you to see: Stephen did all the right things. Stephen was being faithful to the calling and gifting of God on his life. And what is his reward? He’s argued with, here, but later he’ll be arrested, falsely accused, and wrongfully executed by stoning.

What gives? Stephen was faithful. Why did the Lord not spare him this? Did God not send Stephen to do this? Why did this happen?

If you believe the prosperity gospel, that false teaching that destroys souls, then you think God will reward you with health and money and long life.

But anyone who believes that is in for a rude awakening when reality shatters that delusion.

Chet Bitterman would be the first to tell us that today.

He worked hard to learn the language of the Colombians. He went through additional training to become proficient. He made slow progress learning the language and as a result he was often deeply discouraged. But he persevered, and became proficient.

Chet Bitterman was awaiting surgery for his gallbladder when he was attacked. Terrorists broke down the door at 6:30am. With machine guns and revolvers they ordered all missionaries into the living area and put them face down on the floor, tied up and gagged. There were 12 adults, and five children. For an hour they lay there. 16 of them were dead an hour later. The rest escaped. Chet Bitterman got the worst end of the deal. But we’ll come back to him.

Here’s the point, again: When we witness faithfully, God often rewards us with opposition.

Think about this: God never promises to spare us from suffering if we do the right thing. Right?

Christian parents raise what they thought were Christian kids, only for them to walk away from Christ. Christian husbands and wives seek to be faithful husbands and wives, and yet their marriages still crumble and end in divorce. Christian men and women who love the Lord and have served him faithfully are tragically killed, sometimes in the prime of life. This is a risk whether you’re a missionary or not.

So what can we count on God doing for us in the time of opposition? We desperately need to know this, church, so please listen closely, because this will apply to you even if you aren’t being persecuted.

What can we rely upon God to do for us if He doesn’t promise to spare us the suffering? Two things:

What can we count on God to do?

God will be with you in your persecution/suffering

God will equip and strengthen you in your persecution/suffering

How does he do that for Stephen?

#2: When we are opposed, God often infuses our witness with supernatural success

When we are opposed, God often infuses our witness with supernatural success.

When Chet Bitterman was opposed, God infused his witness with supernatural success. From January 19 to March 7, 1981, Chet Bitterman while he was in prison built friendships and relationships with his jailers. We know this from letters he wrote. He played chess with them, he argued with them good-naturedly, and he even said that he had come in some says to respect them.

When Stephen was opposed, God infused his witness with supernatural success.

We see that in just one short verse, verse 10. They were disputing with Stephen about his message: “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.”

Stephen was preaching with such power and logic and biblical force that he put down all their objections. His argumentation was superior. He built such a clear and convincing case that he silenced them. Stephen was too much for them. And these were smart guys - scholars. Stephen was not a scholar.

Where did his ability come from? It came from the Lord. In fact, right here we see two promises Jesus made come to life.

For one thing, Jesus promised the help of His Spirit when we’re brought before our opposers.

Luke 12:12 ESV

for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

He also promised wisdom when we’re brought before our opposers.

Luke 21:15 ESV

for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

These promises Jesus made are made to us. Jesus is reassuring us. “My dear child, I will not call you to go to into high-pressure, dangerous situations without giving you power to overcome anxiety and opposition. When the moment of opposition arises, I will be with, you just as I was with Moses before Pharoah, and I will give you the words you need to answer those who confront us.”

Now we often feel more like Moses than Stephen, right? Moses was called by God to confront the king of Egypt and demand that he bring his people out. How could he possibly stand before someone like him and make those demands? “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue” (Ex. 4:10) ESV).

Well, the Lord’s reply to Moses is his promise to us: “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you shall speak” (Ex. 4:11-12 ESV).

While Chet Bitterman was in prison, a couple of things are happening. The first thing that the rest of the world is acting to get him released.

The problem though was that his kidnappers are terrorists. And they want ransom money. Missions agencies aren’t going to do that, of course.

So as Wycliff and the US State Department and government of Colombia are negotiating with the kidnappers and the missions agency, another offer was made: you don’t have to pay us ransom money, they said, but Wycliff Bible Translators must remove all personnel from Colombia and cease all operations effective immediately.

The leaders couldn’t comply with that option either. And Chet Bitterman was, unfortunately, one of those casualties to that policy.

But do you know how Chet Bitterman spent his time in prison, unaware of how feverisly people were working to get him released? He’s in there talking with his kidnappers, getting to know them, playing games with them, and even from one of his letters we know he had come in some way to respect them. God granted him success in that prison. And on the basis of that, Chet Bitterman shared the gospel with them.

What seeds were planted by that brave and godly man that later resulted in those men being saved, only heaven knows. But the principle from Acts 6:10 held true: God infused his witness with a supernatural success.

When we witness faithfully, God often rewards our witness with opposition. When we are opposed, God often infuses our witness with supernatural success.

So, church, let’s make this ours. Can we do that? Let’s take the principle and turn it into a promise: When in the future we find ourselves inevitably on the other end of opposition, God will infuse our witness with supernatural success.

I am grateful for that promise, to know that it won’t depend on me having the right presence of mind or the right words or the best arguments. It doesn’t depend on me! And it won’t depend on you! God’s got it. When we are opposed, God infuses our witness with supernatural success.

What we see next, is that when we succeed, our success pushes persecutors toward sinister means.

#3: When we succeed, our success pushes persecutors toward sinister means

What do I mean by pushing our persecutors toward sinister means?

Look with me in your Bibles at verses 10-11: “But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then” — as a result, because they failed with words and argument and persuasion — “then they secretly instigated men who said, ‘We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God’” (Acts 6:10-11 ESV). Do you see? What began in verse 9 with opposition now escalates to deception. You’ve heard of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”? This is that tactic’s more sinister brother: “If you can’t beat them, bruise them.” [Merida, Exalting Jesus in Acts, loc. cit]

Persecution does tend to escalate.

Think back with me to the Holocaust. Six million Jews rounded up and herded into concentration camps, made to do slave labor, subject to more indignities than we can imagine, and then murdered. We sometimes ask, “How could the Nazis have done that? How could the non-Jewish Germans have allowed that?”

I’ll tell you how - long before the violence ever started, the Nazis has started a campaign of marginalizing the Jews. Mocking them. Discrediting them. Pushing them to the edges of society.

Then that esclated from marginalizing to dehumanizing them. They destroyed their homes and businesses, humiliated them on the street. Spreading rumors about them. Blaming the way WWI ended on them.

Now notice this: By doing this the Nazis managed to shift public opinion on the Jews to the point where putting them in camps and killing them seemed not only rational, but right and just.

So with that in mind, go back with me to Acts 6:11. And this “if you can’t beat ‘em, bruise ‘em” mentality led Stephen’s persecutors to lower themselves. From opposition to deception.

And the deception continues. Not only do Stephen’s opponents hire men to spread lies about Stephen. They also, by doing that, by means of their false slander, managed to stir up a few groups of people. What were those groups of people? Look in your Bibles with me at verse 12: “And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council.”

And these guys, verse 13 says, they seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, and the deception continues. They “set up” false witnesses - did you see that in verse 13? They sought them out and told them what to say. It was all set up. This is perjury, right? But it served their purposes if they wanted to undermine the church.

And what is this false testimony they’re hired to make? Verse 13: “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place” - that’s the temple and it’s almost synonymous with God - “never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law” - that’s almost synonymous with Moses - “for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

“We’ve been hearing him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” And that’s a really serious charge. Blasphemy means to blatantly and grievously deny and dishonor God. We Christians hear the word “blasphemy” today and even if we don’t know exactly what it means, we do have an idea of what it is, and at the very least, we know how serious it is. It was the same with Jews. You gotta hand it to them - if they were going to slander and tell lies about Stephen, they told the right lie if what they wanted to kindle outrage and resentment among the ordinary people.

And church, if we are in this for the long haul, let’s just go ahead and admit and accept it: we are going to be misunderstood.

We are going to be misrepresented. People are going to say we believe things we don’t really believe.

No, it’s not far. I’m a communicator. I pride myself on being able to say things clearly and say them well. I like being understood. This is hard for me.

But you know what helped me this week as I was researching the commentaries on this passage? It’s a quote from the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. I hope it’ll help you too:

“We ought on this account raise no high complaint against such unfair accusations. The devil knows no other way than to lie and pervert and interpret in the worst fashion what has been said well and properly. This we must look for and must wait until God comes and proves whether they have spoken truth or whether they have lied. In the meanwhile we must content ourselves that, together with beloved Stephen, we have the testimony of our conscience that we are not trying to blaspheme or teach people wrongly and mislead them.” [Quoted in Lenski, Acts, p256]

Of course, Stephen did nothing of the sort. But you realize that doesn’t matter, right? A couple of sound bites from Stephen’s sermons ringing in their memory was all that they needed. Stephen didn’t blaspheme God in his preaching, but he did say some things that could have been interpreted that way if you weren’t really listening. And that way, his opponents could associate Stephen’s preaching with blasphemy, turn the masses of people against him, and he was finished. It was actually a brilliant tactic.

The same thing happened to our brother, Chet Bitterman. Latin America was a very dangerous place to be a missionary in the 1970s and 1980s. The leftist governments who had taken over — they accused the Christians of siding with the right wingers. The right wingers accused them of siding with the leftists. And terrorist attacks ad guerilla warfare were their means of trying to scare them away.

Of course, neither was entirely true, but that doesn’t matter. We all know that more today in 2022 than ever before that for many people truth simply does not matter. If you can say something enough times, with enough volume, in the right ways and places, and if you can’t get others to say it, you can get people to believe it, even if only by wearing people down. That’s what Chet Bitterman and countless others walked into. In military language, he knew what he was signing up for.

When we succeed, our success pushes our persecutors toward more sinister means.

And lastly — and this is a fitting end because it reminds us that it’s not up to us — when our opponents pursue sinister means, God will faithfully vindicate us and His gospel.

#4: When our opponents pursue sinister means, God will faithfully vindicate us and His gospel

Verse 15 ends with the story of Stephen’s trial with an intriguing detail that Luke just sort of passes over, but I think the Lord would have us linger there a moment. “And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

First of all, is this real? Did this really happen? I think we have to say yes, it did really happen. Because we believe the truth of God’s word. And because Luke who is writing this gives us no indication that is to be understood as anything other than straight historical retelling of the facts.

Well, if it really happened, what does it mean? There’s really one person in the Bible that this happens to. It happened to Moses. Coming down from the mountain, just having received the Ten Commandments, Moses has seen God in a way that to this point no human being on earth has ever seen. And the Bible says that when Moses came down from the mountain, His face shone like the sun.

What’s God doing here , lighting up Stephen’s face in front of his accusers? We call it vindication. Vindication - something that happens or something someone says that proves beyond a doubt that our God is real and that the gospel we preach is the only doorway to peace and forgiveness everyone needs. That’s vindication.

Vindication will one day come for all of us who are in Christ. But it doesn’t always come in this life.

Chet Bitterman wasn’t vindicated in this life. In fact, it seemed to be the opposite. Can I read for you what Chert’s father said about his death? In an article titled “He Gave His Son To God”, this is what he said:

We fully expected Chet to lead his captors to the Lord…We expected God to release Chet, perhaps in some miraculous way, so the capture of missionaries would become less attractive to revolutionary-type people…God is still God. We know that, but how can we make the media people recognize it? We anticipated telling the news reporters when Chet was released, ‘See what God has done?’ But how is He going to do something now in a way that’ll make sense to the world?…We’ve almost concluded there’s very little, if anything, we can do to explain Chet’s death to oiur unsaved friends and the media people, because the answer is to be found at the spiritual level.” [An article from In Other Words, quoted in Tucker p417]

Chet wasn’t completely without vindication. In Colombia, more than 200 men volunteered to take his place and continue the work he had begun. The memorial service was filled with so many people who were touched by Chet’s life and death. Even the president gave his parents a call.

But there was no message from heaven; the clouds didn’t part allowing God to announce to the world that Chet’s message was true; no one in the non-Christian community could really say that his death meant something, that he hadn’t died in vain.

Church, we don’t always get the happy ending we thought we deserved or were so sure God would orchestrate. There may not be an end to your struggle and pain this side of heaven. But friends, that does not mean that trusting in Jesus and living for Him was in vain. He never promised us happiness in exchange for our loyalty. He doesn’t owe us anything.

But you know what we do get, something - someone we can never lose? God. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us now, today and every day. And while we’re not promised our vindication here or our happy ending here, when Jesus returns He will bring everything hidden to light.

Conclusion and call for response

What you’re struggling with today might not be opposition and it’s probably not persecution. Maybe you’re dealing with things like grief, shame, addictions, fear, compulsive behavior, crushing depression. Maybe there is some sin habit that you hate and that you want to give up, you’ve prayed about it but you keep crawling back to is and you think God is done with you - he feels distant. Maybe you’re witnessing the slow steady deterioration of your own body or of someone you love.

Oh friends, how these things weigh you down!

And your enemy Satan would love for you think that you are all alone. “You better not tell anyone about this. You just don’t know how they would respond. Besides, it’s none of their business.”

And so we suffer in silence, in secrecy, and in those places, what happens is that shame and guilt and condemnation and despair flourish. And they reinforce it. Satan uses those thing to isolate you and reinforce the behavior. When what really needs to happen is for the light to shine in.

If you need help with something, if your life is out of control, if things are falling apart, will you commit to get help this week?

Just get the process started. Pick up the phone, ask your mature Christian friend to meet you for coffee, call a therapist or a counselor, come talk to me or Shawn. Bite the bullet, pick up the phone and make the call or send the text or type the email. And then, pray, trust God with the outcome. take a deep breath, and pour your heart out. “Whoevre conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Prov. 28:13 ESV). Chances are, the person you’re telling it to has been there themselves. Oh church, you would be amazed at how healing that is! Don’t you long for that?

God often rewards our faithful living with hardship. When we suffer hardship, God often infuses us with spiritual success and strength. When we have success, the enemy fights harder and stoops lower.

But don’t be afraid. He who is within you is greater than anyone around you. And know that God will one day vindicate you, redeem you, deliver you. Wait upon the Lord. He is faithful.

Maybe as our worship team leads us in our final time of worship, you’d like to come up here and pray with me or alone here in front of the stage. If you’re not comfortable with that, we understand. Sit down in your seat and talk to God right where you are. He will be found by you if you seek him. Maybe you’d like to follow Jesus this morning by joining our church. If that’s you, come down here at the end of the service. Maybe you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Savior. He died for your sins in your place that you might be forgiven and have eternal life, simply by believing in Him.