Acts 6v8 – 7v60

Acts 6v8 – 7v60

Stephen, the First Christian Martyr.

You remember the story so far... There were problems over the provision for needy people in the Church. A new Spirit-led, sensible, submissive structure was created, with seven spirit-filled, sensible submissive men in charge.  The story now focuses on one of these men, Stephen... 

He was full of the Holy Spirit, moving in the supernatural, and seriously engaged in the mission of Jesus.  He  is performing signs and wonders “among the people”  – that is beyond the security of the Church's gatherings, in the wider world... They could see God at work thought this man.  He was among his own people: a Grecian Jew reaching out mainly among Greek-speaking Jews. It was from these “outsider” Jews, people who had lived in Africa and Turkey, rather than in Israel, that the trouble began.  They could see god at work.  They  could hear that Stephen's arguments made sense, they could relate to him as a person because he was one of them.  But they couldn’t admit to themselves that they were wrong.  So they begin a smear campaign that will eventually lead to Stephen's dead – not an execution but a lynching, and act of mob violence that made Stephen the first Christian Martyr.

Winsome witness...
Now, do you know what the word “martyr” means?  I mean originally.  We are used to it meaning someone who is killed for their faith, but originally the Greek word, simply means “Witness””.  So when Jesus says in Acts 1. 8 “You shall be my witnesses” the Greek word is  μάρτυρες.  It's a strange fact of history, that Stephen's death was such an inspiration to the earliest Christians, that it in fact skewed their understanding of “witness” away from the positive strengths of his life, to focus on the opposition that caused his death.  It became desirable to go out looking for that opposition –  rather than simply having the courage to accept it when it comes along!  Some Christians get such a strong vision of the “Sweet bye-and-bye” that we forget to serve Jesus in the sweet here and now.  Stephen didn't go out  looking for trouble.  As we shall see, he was totally unafraid of it when it happened.  But it was they who rejected him, not he who rejected them.

Too often, in different, little ways, we make the mistake today of looking for trouble: being aggressive, disapproving, accusing, in the way we reach out to our world, instead of being grace-provider, gracious, winsome, positive, affirming in the way we conduct ourselves.
Like Stephen, we need to be among people doing the signs and wonders.  (v. 8) These are the same words as in 5. 12!, which we looked at a few weeks ago. After that talk, someone said, “I thought we would be actually going and doing it”, and they were right.  I need to say this again: let's learn to pray for the sick, in the power of the Spirit out there. 
Like Stephen, we need to speak the language of ordinary people. 
Like Stephen, we need to be able to address the intellectual issues of the day with wisdom. Dr Laura Keynes is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin; while doing her PhD at Oxford she was an agnostic (she didn't know what to believe) but through studying Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, and other books on both sides of the debate, she reconnected with the Christian faith. Don't underestimate the value of a properly reasoned argument, or the damage done by stupidity. Keynes discovered “a germ of intolerance and contempt for people of faith” in the New Atheism helped draw her towards Christianity. Let's make we don't treat those who don't have faith with intolerance and contempt .

We need the power of the Spirit; we need the signs and wonders; we need the cultural bridge-building; we need to present a good case for faith.  People will reject us and our faith. Let's make sure we don't make it easy for them to do so. We don't want to get in the way. 

Working with the Word
But sometimes, people will reject what we are saying...  They did with Stephen, dragged him before the Council, accused him (quite falsely) of blaspheming and saying Jesus would destroy the temple and “change our customs”.  (How institutional people hate change!)    When Stephen stands up to answer these accusations, it seems, superficially, as though he is courting martyrdom. He certainly isn't pleading to be let off: there's no compromise about what is really important. But he does mount a vigorous case in his defence. Let's look a bit more closely at the main themes of the speech. 

Firstly, what he says is absolutely Biblical.  He draws, with real genius, upon the history of god's people.  He demonstrates that he knows that history inside out.  Far from ignoring the charges against him, Stephen's defence is dealing carefully with them. 

1. Accused of Rebellion against God's law he is able to show that the history of God's people is the history of a rebellious people, marked by the dishonesty and violence of Joseph's brothers, the way Moses, and the later prophets, were rejected the people, and the taste Israel had, going back to the time of Moses himself, for idols and false gods. Stephen is showing that, instead of accusing him, of rebelling against the traditions of Israel, they should accept that Israel itself has a tradition of rebellion against God himself.
2. Accused of speaking against the temple,  he shows that  God's people have had a tent and a temple – only God is too big to live in either! He quotes Isaiah 66. 1-2 to prove his point.

So, Stephen is not inviting martyrdom, he is defending himself, arguing vigorously that it is his accusers who are in the wrong, standing in an ugly tradition of rebellion and murder.  They should have and could have allowed themselves to be persuaded by his arguments.  Indeed, I suspect that some of them were on the verge of being persuaded but simply dug their heels in.  What followed wasn't a court verdict delivered after careful consideration: it was the reaction of an angry mob.

Luke uses this speech to show the extent of Israel's rejection of Jesus; and to explain the Church’s move towards sharing the good news with the Nations. Stephen is being Biblical; so is Luke.  The cost of that will be life for Stephen; it will be disruption and dispersion for the Church; the consequence of it will be further growth and progress, reaching Samaritans, Romans in Caesarea, and the conversion of a man who would take the Gospel half way round the world. If we want to see our particular sacrifices bearing fruit, making a difference in our world, we need to build on the Bible.

Suffering and the Spirit.
This story of martyrdom – witness and sacrifice, is laced with Holy Spirit moments:from the great wonders and signs  he did (v. 8) to the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke (v. 9); from the moment when he was so close to God that his face was like the face of an angel (v.15, like Moses in Ex 34. 19ff) right through to that vision of heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (chapter 7 v 55-56) the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in Stephen's life. 

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the King, the Spirit of the Kingdom. Contrary to some teaching, there is not a direct linkage between having the spirit and having an easy life: in fact, it's the opposite.  The Spirit brings us into the Kingdom: he equips us to do the work of the Kingdom among the people; he transfigures us when we are in our tough times; he gives us a vision of glory, reminds us of the "Coming victory of the Kingdom", so we can remain strong in our toughest times. If we're struggling, facing opposition, we need to welcome the Holy Spirit to work in us in greater power!


The story of Stephen calls us to risky living, to dangerous discipleship. And that was supremely the way of  Jesus himself. 


World War 1 Chaplain J A Studdart Kennedy wrote a poem called HE WAS A GAMBLER TOO

And, sitting down, they watched Him there,
The soldiers did;
There, while they played with dice,
He made His Sacrifice,
And died upon the Cross to rid
God's world of sin.
He was a gambler too, my Christ,
He took His life and threw
It for a world redeemed.
And ere His agony was done,
Before the weltering sun went down,
Crowning that day with its crimson crown,
He knew that He had won .

Risky living was the way of  Esther.  She was a Jewish girl who became queen of Persia.  Queen Esther was called to save God's people from destruction. To do so she had to enter the king's throne room, without his permission and ask his favour. And to that could have resulted in instant execution.  Esther, understandably, wobbled a bit.  But then she said “I'll do it, and if I perish, I perish.”   God calls us to a dangerous discipleship. Not that we go out looking for trouble: But we need to be the kind of Christians who are prepared to take the risks.  I'm here for a purpose – for such a time as this.  I'll live for Jesus. And if I perish, I perish.

© Gilmour Lilly September  2013