Stephen, the First Martyr: Courage, Vision, Martyrdom

Active sermon listener:

BRING, READ, THINK, PRAY (BRTP)

When a man or a woman die willingly for their convictions, the world stops and looks.

When a person puts himself or herself in harm’s way, knowingly, when it is within their power to avoid harm, when they do so not because they were compelled by external forces to do so but rather because they were constrained by conscience, people pause and take notice.

This is what has happened in Ukraine the last few days.

But what I didn’t expect was the response of Ukrainian people. Not only have they surprised people by the fight they’re giving Russia militarily. They’ve surprised and inspired me by the fight ordinary Ukrainians are giving. They’re taking up weapons and defending their homes and neighborhoods. Essentially every male Ukrainian citizen age 18-65 has been drafted into a makeshift military.

And I don’t hear them complaining. I hear them, saying, “Well, this isn’t what I prefer to do, I’m not a soldier or a professional killer, but I love my country, and I will stay and fight for my country.”

And it helps of course that president Zelensky has set the example. Because not only has he asked every man between age 18 and 65 trying to cross the border, to go back into the country they’re fleeing, to leave their wives and children, and fight. He is also doing it himself. When the most powerful nation on earth offers to evacuate him, when he is promised safety in a free country for him and his family, he says no. “The fight is here.”

When a man or a woman die willingly for their convictions, the world stops and looks.

After all, most of the western world sees suffering and death as the thing to avoid at all costs. And so, when people take risks that place them in harm’s way, when individuals enter situations where they’re almost certain death will be the outcome, and they didn’t have to, no one’s forcing them to, the world looks at it with a mixture of confusion and admiration.

This morning we’re looking at the final chapter in the short life of Stephen the deacon. Stephen the deacon, who became Stephen the preacher and defender of the faith, is about to become Stephen the martyr. In his death he provides us with a model of what it looks like to die as a Christian, because you’re a Christian. He becomes inspiration for countless believers who later were called by God to go through the same thing. And Stephen encourages us, because whether God calls us to be martyrs in the future or not, we all will face death. How does a Christian face death?

#1: Stephen’s Courage

What is courage?

We think courage is the absence of fear, but it’s not. We think that to be courageous you must face the challenge or the threat or the risk head-on, with no fear, no reservations, no hesitations. In reality, that’s half-true. Courage does require us to face the challenge head-on. But it never says that we don’t do so afraid.

I’ve been moved to tears by the pastors and missionaries staying to minister to their people and help the hurt. I’m inspired by churches opening their doors and turning their sanctuaries, like this one, into bomb shelters. I’m inspired by Christians at the border, giving medical care and food to refugees. I’m encouraged when I see Christian leaders calling for Ukrainian Christians to pray Psalm 31. You know some of those guys do feel afraid. Their decision to stay impacts their families. And yet, knowing the risk, fearing the worst, they stay and face the threat, they look the risk head-on, and despite their apprehension, they persevere.

So this is what courage is:

Courage is the willingness to face a challenge, risk or threat head-on, despite being afraid. Courage is the willingness to face a challenge, risk or threat head-on, despite being afraid.

So, if this is what courage is, does Stephen have courage?

Well, let’s look at the text. I think he does have courage, and we see it in his words. Look with me at verse 51: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.”

Courageous words:

“stiff-necked” = you’re as stubborn as a mule!

Those are courageous words, especially when we understand what Stephen meant by them. But first, let’s remember who he was talking to. He’s been addressing the Sanhedrin. He needs courage. His words will have a cost. This is the highest court in Israel. There is no higher court of appeal. These men are high priests, Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes — these are the most powerful men in Jerusalem, the most powerful men in Israel. These are men who pride themselves on knowing the law of Moses, obeying the law of Moses, revering the temple, loving the land God had given them.

So when he says “you stiff-necked people”, he’s saying “you really don’t love and obey the law of Moses or revere the temple or love the land. You’re stiff-necked. You’re stubborn.” He evokes imagery from the OT. Many times in the OT the phrase “stiff-necked” was given to Israel. They refused to honor God or trust Him. They stubbornly chose their own ways rather than His. The word is taken from the world of cattle: a mule who wouldn’t respond to the yoke. So when he says “you stiff-necked” people, he’s saying, just like ancient Israel, you are as stubborn as a mule.

Courageous words:

“uncircumcised heart/ears” = you think you belong to God, but you really don’t!”

But there’s another set of courageous words here in the text. He goes on after saying “you stiff-necked people”, he calls them “you uncircumcised in heart and ears.” The act of circumcision was intended by God to identify them as His own people. Circumcision said, “I belong to God, maker of heaven and earth. He has entered into covenant relationship with me, and I am his.”

But just like the law and the land and the temple, circumcision had lost that meaning. It was believed that being circumcised itself meant that you were in right relationship with God. But circumcision is like baptism; baptism doesn’t do anything for you; it doesn’t save you or cleanse you of your sins. It is a picture of the cleansing that has already taken place within our lives. Baptism is a picture that we belong to God through Christ. It’s an outward sign pointing to an inward reality. Circumcision was the same way, but they turned it from an outward sign pointing to an inward reality and made it the reality itself. And when Stephen says “uncircumcised in heart and ears”, he’s saying that inward reality is not there.

So both of those phrases — “stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears” — those were Stephen’s way of saying, to these very powerful men, that you think you belong to God, but you really don’t. You do the same thing your fathers did. They persecuted the prophets. They killed those prophets who announced the Messiah’s coming. And now you’ve become a traitor and a murderer of the Messiah Himself. How are you any different?

Notice what he says in verse 51 at the end of it: “You always resist the Holy Spirit.” And then look at verse 53: “you who received the law as delivered by angels, and did not keep it.”

I think these are courageous words.

Preachers have a history of courage. I want to be like them. I want to have the courage of the great revival preacher George Whitfield. Three evenings in a row, Whitfield preached to a church in New England and he very pointedly said to his hearers: you must be born again. There were unregenerate, unsaved in that congregation. Like these men in Acts 7, they were deceived into thinking all was well with them and God and when it was not.

Of course the church leadership didn’t like it. They came to him and said, “Mr. Whitfield, why do you keep preaching, ‘You must be born again’?” This is what he said: He looked at them and said, “Because you — you — must be born again.” [Hughes, Acts: The Church Afire, PTW, p106]

In reality, Stephen says what he says in love. They were deceived. They were in danger of hell. The main way Stephen knew this is that they resisted the Holy Spirit. They resisted the Holy Spirit because they resisted the prophets.

How do we resist the Holy Spirit today? Primarily when we resist His word, when we resist the Scriptures. The modern day equivalent of the prophet is the preacher. If a preacher is preaching the Bible to you faithfully and accurately and clearly, to resist that is to resist God, not because the preacher is “God’s man”, but because the Bible is God’s word.

I don’t want to resist the Holy Spirit. I don’t want to resist God’s word. Oh, how much regret I have for the ways in which I do that. I see the effects at home with my children and my wife. I see the effects here, with you all. Oh, how we need to be holy! Oh, how you need to be holy! Pray for each other and pray for me. This is our greatest need.

Neither do you. Here’s why: We never leave the preaching of the Word as the same person we were when we came in. When I study a text and preach it, I never do so without being changed slightly. If I believe it in my heart and seek to obey it with my life, I’m changed into the image of Christ. If I resist it and disobey it, I’m changed by that too. Every time you hear the word of God you are being changed for better or for worse.

One way you can not resist the Holy Spirit in preaching is by being an active sermon listener. Bring your Bible, read along with me, think as we go, pray as we go. Place yourself before the word of God with open palms to receive what He has to give you. Otherwise we end up like the Jewish leaders in Acts 7: we hear the word of God, saying we believe it really is His word, and yet we don’t keep it.

That’s Stephen courage. Notice with me next, Stephen’s vision.

#2: Stephen’s Vision

But notice with me how the Lord meets Stephen in this moment. First in v. 55 we’re told Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit. That means Stephen is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as every single believer in Christ is, and that He is allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and influence him, as every single believer can.

And being filled by the Spirit, God gives Stephen a vision. Notice this with me because it’s fascinating; actually it’s extremely encouraging too. Notice what Stephen sees in verse 55: “But he, full of the HJoly Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God” — meaning His blinding brilliance and beauty, the outward shining of His holiness — “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus — and what is He doing? — “standing at the right hand of God.”

Jesus at the right hand of God (v. 56)

123 references

Out of these, the vast majority = “sitting at the right hand of God”

Only here: “standing at the right hand of God”

There are 123 references, roughly, to Jesus at the right hand of God. That’s the position Jesus took up after His resurrection and ascension. He now sits and reigns over all things at the right hand of the Father, the right hand being the primary position of power. So what?

Well, here he’s described as standing at the right hand of God, not sitting. Why? That was my question. Why here, in this one instance, as Stephen is about to be put to death for Christ, why here only is Christ described as standing at God’s right hand, rather than sitting? Here’s what I found this week as I studied:

Word Pictures in the New Testament (Acts 7:55)

Full of the Holy Spirit, gazing steadfastly into heaven, he saw God’s glory and Jesus “standing” as if he had risen to cheer the brave Stephen.

Another author said this:

“Christ came with arms open to welcome the first martyr home.” [Hughes p107]

And another:

“He is standing as advocate to plead Stephen’s cause before God and to welcome him into God’s presence.” [Marshall, Acts, TNTC p158]

God is honoring Stephen’s sacrifice by pulling back the curtain of heaven, so to speak, and revealing Jesus as the One who stands ready to welcome Stephen home, to say “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your Master” (Matt. 25:212). In the midst of all the satanic opposition, facing imminent death at the hands of an angry mob, Stephen lifts his eyes and is rewarded with a vision of His Savior, now resurrected and glorified, standing to greet him, to cheer him, to welcome him home. It’s a reminder that all of us will face death one day, but we don’t face it like others.

Can all of us expect this kind of experience at our death, though? For ordinary believers like us? I mean, didn’t Stephen receive this vision precisely because he was not like? Didn’t Stephen possess more worth with God because of how He served God so faithfully? Wasn’t God simply honoring Stephen’s unusual courage and faithfulness?

Church, let me tell you something: there is not a single person in the Bible who ever received anything from God who didn’t receive it by sheer, undeserved grace. The men and women in the Bible were not perfect. They weren’t different from us. Take Elijah — a man of great faith, great courage, right? Elijah was a great man with great courage (Elijah had his moments, by the way; read 1 Kings 18). and great courage and faith; and yet in the book of James, the apostle James says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah was fallen too. What Elijah and Abraham and Moses and Joshua and David and Stephen — the very same relationship with God they enjoyed is open to us too, because we worship the same God, who never changes.

So, I think Stephen accomplished and experienced all of this simply by God’s grace — His free, undeserved favor and love — and that levels the playing field.

I don’t know that every believer experiences the exact same circumstances at death as Stephen did, but I do think God meets the believer in a special way at death. No, I can’t give you a specific Bible verse; but it is consistent with the character of God, is it not? Doesn’t he already give us grace to face our trials? Is death not a trial? And if God has already gone to such extreme lengths to defeat death, to remove its sting, why would He not give us special grace and strength to face it well?

“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I will never, no never, no never forsake!”

Jesus is risen, victorious over death, and we share in His victory by faith in Him; the risen Jesus stands to welcome Stephen, and I believe He will meet us in our hour of death too and welcome us home.

That’s Stephen’s vision. Notice with me next Stephen’s martyrdom.

#3: Stephen’s Martyrdom

The most interesting thing about Stephen’s martyrdom, his death, recorded in verses 57-60, is how different Stephen is from his attackers. Look with me at verse 57: “But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of city and stoned him” (Acts 7:57-58a ESV).

We’ve already seen the mob enraged at Stephen; we’ve read that they were grinding their teeth at him. When Stephen turned the tables on them at the end of his sermon — when he said “as your fathers did, so do you” — they were infuriated. But it seems to be Stephen’s vision — seeing Jesus standing at God’s right hand in heaven — that seems to have been the last straw for them.

It was bad enough that he was saying that they were repeating ancient Israel’s mistakes. It was bad enough that he said they were demonstrating by their behavior that they didn’t belong to God. But then for Stephen to claim that Jesus, the One they’ve rejected, the One that in fact all this fighting is about, to say that He is standing in heaven cheering Stephen on, that’s just too much for them. To borrow a favorite phrase from us millennials, “they can’t even with Stephen right now.”

They lose all self-control and are completely driven by emotion, by unchecked anger. They’ve had enough, and so they drag Stephen out of town. They take off their outer garments so they can un-encumber themselves and carry out the execution more easily. And then they stone Stephen.

But even as Stephen is dying, he is different from those around him. He’s not angry or afraid. Stephen seems to be in awe of the vision of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God — almost distracted from what’s happening to him.

See it for yourself in verses 59-60:

Acts 7:59–60 ESV

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.

Do those words sound familiar? Jesus said both of them, as He was put to death. Stephen said “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Jesus said:

Luke 23:46 ESV

Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Stephen, as he died, said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”. Jesus said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We talk a lot about living like Jesus. We don’t talk a lot about dying like Him. Stephen both lived and died like the Savior.

That’s important, because death reveals who we really are. Death strips away all the masks and disguises. Death literally strips us naked. We can’t take anything with us when we go, including the ways we hide ourselves from others and God. This means that how a person dies says a lot about whether they lived for themselves or for Jesus.

The French philosopher died with these words on his lips: “I am abandoned by God and man! I give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!” This is the same man who 20 years earlier said this: “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.” [Hughes, p102]

But, friends, consider how so many Christians have died with courage, with confidence and even with joy! Adoniram Judson, the great American missionary to Burma (now known as Myanmar) said as he suffered tremendously, “I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school, I feel so strong in Christ.” Jonathan Edwards died of complications from a smallpox vaccine. This is what he said: “Where is Jesus, my never-failing friend?” My favorite is John Wesley’s last words: [ibid.]

“The best of all is, God is with us. The best of all is, God is with us. The best of all is, God is with us. Farewell!”

-John Wesley

You see, church, having a relationship with means we can face death differently. Because of the gospel, we can stare death in the face and say, with Job:

Job 19:25–27 ESV

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

This Stephen’s courage, Stephen’s vision, and Stephen’s martyrdom.

Conclusion and call for response

So let me wrap this up by addressing two groups of people.

Let me address those of you who have put your faith in Christ for salvation. I don’t know what you’re facing this morning or what you’ve been through this week or what you’ll face this week coming up. But I do know this: Jesus wants to show you that he is for you. He wants you to know that no matter how poorly you compare to people like Stephen, He loves you and is for you right where you are. He will call you to higher things, but He is the good shepherd who comes to His sheep right here and now and gently, slowly, at a pace perfectly suited to you in your uniqueness, He will bring you to where He wants you to be. “That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake, I will never, no never, no never forsake.”

not put your trust in Christ. Because if you have not trusted in Jesus for your salvation, if you have not and are not resting your faith and trust in Him to make you right with God by atoning for your sins, then unfortunately nothing that I have said this morning applies to you. It can, but until you put your trust in Christ it doesn’t. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6 ESV). The Bible teaches that if you have not trusted in Christ, there is no forgiveness of sins. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36 ESV).

The good news is that Jesus also says this: Matt 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Our sins condemn us before God. Apart from Christ, we will spend eternity in hell, away from the presence of God. But God is not content to leave us to that fate. He wants a relationship with us, here and in eternity. And in His Son Jesus, He has provided a means of escape.

Jesus stood in our place, He endured the punishment that was ours, so that all who trust in Him are made right with the Father. We can’t do this on our own. We can’t make ourselves right with God. We cannot meet His standards on our own. So God arranged things so that we don’t have to try. He has arranged things so that the one thing we can do — believe in Him, trust Him — is the only thing He requires. Trust in Jesus today. say to him “I I am tired of trying to do things my way; I’m tired of trying to measure up to your standard. I lay all my efforts down and simply believe your promise. What promise is that? “All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”