The Martyrdom of Stephen

I got a letter a few weeks back saying that my name had been selected for jury duty. I had to fill out an online form to see if I'd be called in to attend court. Thankfully, I wasn't because I had a heap of stuff I wanted to get done. And every other time I've been into court to support other people, it's always been such a negative experience. It all drags up all the worst in humanity.

So I was quite pleased not to have to do that. But our passage that we're gonna be looking at this morning is pretty much a court scene. We're gonna look at how Stephen is dragged before the religious court and how he's executed. And rather than read it all, I'm just gonna go through the passage verse by verse and just unpack it and apply it to our lives as we go along. And if you wanna follow along, we're in Acts 6 and 7.

This sermon is a part of a series on the book of Acts about the growth of the gospel. This morning, we're going to look at how God grows the gospel through the martyrdom of Stephen. What happens to Stephen might seem like a huge tragedy, but God uses it to grow the gospel, and Stephen becomes one of the heroes of the faith. We're gonna look at four scenes: Stephen's appointment, Stephen's ministry, Stephen's speech, and Stephen's death. So let's start with Stephen's appointment.

Back in chapter two of Acts, Luke paints this amazing picture of the perfect church. But the last thing that Satan wants is a unified, loving community of people proclaiming the gospel of Jesus and displaying the love of God. And so in chapters three and four, Satan tries to stop the growth of the gospel by persecution, but he fails and the gospel continues to grow. Next in chapter five, Satan tries to stop the growth of the gospel by corrupting some of the members of the church, Ananias and Sapphira, but again, the church continues to grow. Well, this time, Satan tries to stop the growth of the gospel by distracting the apostles.

Luke says in chapter six, verse one: "A complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution." These widows were most likely ladies who were too old to work and had no family to support them, and so the church provided for their daily needs, the food and water that they needed each day. It's basically the first social welfare system. It's one of the things that made the church stand out from the society around them who didn't really care about widows at all. But what's sad is that some of these widows were missing out.

They were missing out because they were Hellenists, or Jews from a more Greek culture, rather than Jews who were from a more Hebrew culture. There's no place in the church, though, to treat one group as more important or more deserving than another. The Bible says: "You are all one in Christ Jesus." We all deserve the same care and support. But the real issue was that this situation was distracting the apostles from the mission of the church.

Listen to what they say in verse two: "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." It's not that waiting on tables is a bad thing, it's a good thing, but Jesus had called these guys to preach God's word. They didn't want to get distracted from the mission that Jesus had given them. The apostles suggest in verses three and four: "Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Good leaders don't get distracted from the mission, and good leaders come up with good solutions. The church likes this suggestion, and we see the birth of the deacons. Verse five: "And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Procurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them."

So there's a few things to notice in those verses. Firstly, it was the whole church that was pleased with the apostles' suggestion and chose these guys. Decisions about the church are made by the church. Secondly, all these guys have Greek names rather than Hebrew names. That might just be a coincidence, but it seems like they chose Hellenist guys to fix this problem.

Thirdly, notice that Stephen is singled out. He was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Not that the other guys weren't men of faith in the spirit, but there was something special about Stephen, something that made him stand out. Fourthly, they aren't actually called deacons, but the word diakonia is used three times in this passage. Firstly, in the daily service, so that word service, daily distribution, that's diakonia, and secondly, in serving tables, and thirdly, in the ministry of the word.

So preaching the word and serving food are both ministry. They're both ways to serve God in the church. And finally, notice that the apostles prayed and laid their hands on them. With the laying on of the hands, the apostles were appointing these men to serve in an official capacity in the church. And Stephen was one of these guys appointed as a deacon in the church.

Satan tried to distract the apostles from the mission of the church, but again he fails, and the church grows. Verse seven: "And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith." Where the word of God increased, where the apostles kept preaching, the number of disciples also increases. Even a bunch of priests come to believe in Jesus. God uses the proclamation of the gospel to grow the church.

As they preach the word more, more people come to the faith. So before we move on to the next scene, I wanna ask you a question this morning. How does Satan distract you from God's calling in your life? There are a lot of good things in this life, and the danger is that those good things can distract us from the things that God wants us to be investing our time, and our energy, and our resources. TikTok and Reels and television and YouTube, they're not necessarily bad, but how much do they distract us from prayer and reading the Bible and fellowshipping with other Christians and investing in relationships with the unsaved?

How much are we distracted by building up our own little empires instead of building God's kingdom? How much are we distracted by doing good things for others that make us feel good, and we neglect to tell people about Jesus, and the fact that only through faith in Him can they be saved? Jesus tells a parable about people who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. If Satan can't make you give up your faith, he will distract you from living it out. Satan wants to distract you from what really matters.

He wants your life to be unfruitful. My prayer is that as God's people, we will be laser focused on the mission of the church to proclaim Jesus and to make disciples. It's not that we can't do all these other things, but that's the thing that matters the most. That's the thing that has eternal consequences. We wanna be about building His kingdom, not just enjoying our own.

So let's now take a look at Stephen's ministry. Firstly, the most important part of ministry is not what you do, but who you are. So let's start with Stephen's character. The apostles tell the church they should find men of good repute, full of spirit and of wisdom. Stephen was a man of good repute.

People could testify to his godly character. They saw evidence in his life of both the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. In fact, as we saw earlier, Stephen was singled out as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And then in verse eight, Luke says about Stephen that he was full of grace and power. Stephen was a gracious guy.

He showed the same grace towards other people that God had showed him in Jesus. But he was also a guy filled with God's power. Firstly, verse eight says: "He was doing great wonders and signs among the people." God worked miracles through Stephen. But Luke also mentions the power of Stephen's preaching or speaking.

In verse 10, Luke says: "But Stephen's opponents could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking." Stephen was a man full of good repute. He was wise. He was faith filled. He was gracious.

He was powerful in word and deed, and all those things marked him out as someone full of the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, how would people describe your character? Would they say that you were someone full of the Holy Spirit? Would they comment on your godly wisdom? Would they mention the power of your words and your deeds?

Are you considered a person of good repute? Would people testify to your godly character? You see, God uses godly people to grow the church. But despite Stephen's godly character, we see vehement opposition to him. Verse nine:

"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." This synagogue likely existed for ex-slaves and for foreigners. It was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, and it was frequented by people from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia. It's possible that Stephen went there because, like many of them, he was from a Hellenistic background. Maybe this was his synagogue.

But whatever he was saying, they didn't like it. They disputed or argued with Stephen. But it seems like they'd lost the argument because Stephen was wiser, because Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. But rather than giving up, they get nasty. Verses 11 to 14 say: "They secretly instigate men to accuse him of blasphemy.

They stir up the people and the religious leaders, and they get him arrested. They set up false witnesses who accused Stephen of speaking against the temple and the law of Moses." In many ways, they treat Stephen exactly like they treated Jesus. If we are faithfully proclaiming Jesus Christ, we can expect opposition as well. But before we move on, I wanna take a moment to reflect on Stephen's preaching.

Because there's a good chance that there was something in the accusations that they were leveling against Stephen. It's possible Stephen had quoted what Jesus said in John 2: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up." Maybe Stephen had said that God was present with His people, not in the temple, but in the person of Jesus. It's possible that Stephen had been telling people that Jesus is the fulfilment of the law, that we are saved not by obedience to the law, but through faith in Jesus. And if Stephen was teaching that stuff, it's not surprising that the Jews accuse him of speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God, of speaking words against this holy place and the law.

When we speak about Jesus, people will often oppose us as well. Paul actually says: "The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Satan keeps people from understanding the truth about Jesus, and what people don't understand, they scoff at or they attack. Stephen's ministry drew opposition, and so will ours. So let's get back to Stephen's story.

Stephen has been seized and brought before the council. Basically, he's been dragged into court. And chapter seven starts, and the high priest said: "Are these things so?" Basically, he says to Stephen, are these allegations true? Did you really speak against the temple and the law?

Did you really blaspheme against Moses and God? It's interesting the order they put that in. Did you really blaspheme against Moses? As if that's worse than blaspheme against God. And Stephen responds with a really long speech, 52 verses, over 1,200 words.

Some scholars have suggested that Stephen just rambles on, telling everyone what they already knew. But I think Stephen's potted history of Israel is actually answering their specific allegations. So let's focus on how what Stephen says answers the accusation that he spoke against the temple and the law. So Stephen's first point is that the temple in Jerusalem isn't the real temple, the real true temple. For the Jews, the temple was the place where God dwelt amongst His people.

God tells Moses: "You shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all of your tribes to put His name and make His habitation there." That place was Jerusalem, and it's in the temple that God put His name and made His habitation. God's people identified the temple with God's presence, and that is what Stephen challenges. Firstly, he says: "God was present with Abraham in Mesopotamia." He says in verse two: "Brothers and fathers, hear me.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in the temple? No, when he was in Mesopotamia." God was present with Abraham even in a pagan land, and again in Haran, and again in Canaan. God's presence isn't contingent on the temple. Secondly, he says: "God was present with Joseph in Egypt.

Verse nine: "And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him." Again, God is present with His people even in a foreign land. Thirdly, God was present with Moses in the wilderness. In verse 30, he says: "Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush." The angel is none other than God Himself.

God meets Moses not in a temple in Jerusalem, but in a burning bush in the wilderness. In fact, God says to Moses in verse 33: "Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." The holy place isn't just the holy of holies in the temple, it was wherever God was, wherever God met with His people. Finally, Stephen reminds them that David wanted to build a dwelling place for the Lord, but it was actually his son Solomon who built the temple. And listen to what Stephen says in verse 48: "Yet the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says.

Heaven is my home, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?" Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1, but he could have just as easily quoted Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple, where Solomon prays: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built?"

Stephen answers the accusation that he had profaned the temple by reminding them that the temple couldn't contain God. In fact, God is most fully present in Jesus. Jesus says about Himself: "Something greater than the temple is here." In Jesus, God is present in a way that He had never been before. To paraphrase Paul's phrase from Colossians 2, the temple is a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

The temple was pointing forward to a time when God would dwell amongst His people in person. Stephen wanted them to see that they were worshipping the temple instead of worshipping God. How much do you get distracted from worshipping God by other things? We worship creation instead of the Creator. We revere the Bible instead of the one who speaks through the Bible.

We love the church, but we don't love Jesus. We love being saved, but we don't wanna follow the Saviour. How much do you prefer shadows, all the religious stuff, instead of the substance, instead of Jesus Christ Himself? But Stephen also deals with the accusation that he'd spoken against the law of Moses. Stephen clearly has a high regard for Moses.

Half his speech is about Moses, verses 17 to 43. He says: "Moses was beautiful in God's sight." He mentions the time Moses killed an Egyptian for beating an Israelite, and he says: "He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand." And when he tries to settle an argument between two Israelites, one of them said: "Who made you a ruler and judge over us?" It's not Stephen who had rejected Moses, it was God's people who had rejected Moses.

Stephen says: "God sent Moses as both ruler and redeemer. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.' This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us."

But listen to what he says in verse 39: "Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt." God's people rejected Moses time and time again. And Stephen says: "Those accusing him were worse than their forefathers." Verses 51 to 53:

"He says: '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.'" It was their forefathers who killed the prophets who announced the coming of the righteous one, who announced the coming of Jesus.

But what's worse is that they betrayed and killed the righteous one. They betrayed and killed Jesus, God's own Son. Moses foretold that God would raise up a prophet like him to whom they should listen. But instead of listening to Jesus, they killed Him. They received the law of Moses.

Wait for this guy. Wait for the one who would fulfil all the law. And when he arrived, they killed Him. True obedience isn't obedience to the law. It's obedience to Jesus.

It's to put your faith in Jesus. It's to submit yourself to Jesus. When Stephen calls them stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, and that they always resist the Holy Spirit, he means that they stubbornly refuse to humble themselves before Jesus. It's not Stephen who had spoken against the temple and the law; it's his accusers who had failed to recognise that Jesus was the fulfilment of the temple and the law. They had failed to see Jesus as God's presence amongst His people.

They had failed to obey Moses in listening to Jesus. You see, it doesn't matter what you get right if you fail to get Jesus. You can do all the right things, but if Jesus isn't the one who dies for your sins, you've got nothing. You see, the temple points to Jesus. The law points to Jesus.

Moses points to Jesus. The prophets all point to Jesus. If you haven't got Jesus today, you haven't got anything. Stephen doesn't pull any punches. Luke says in verse 54: "Now when they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him."

And verse 58: "Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him." The final scene is Stephen's death. Despite the brutality of being stoned to death by an enraged mob, Luke speaks of it in a really peaceful way. He says in verse 60 that Stephen just fell asleep. But I want you to notice three things in this final scene.

Firstly, how Stephen glorifies God. Stephen's last words are all about Jesus or to Jesus. Verse 55: "But Stephen, 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.'" It's unusual that Jesus is standing rather than sitting at God's right hand.

Every other reference, Jesus is sitting at God's right hand. Some commentators suggest that Jesus has gotten up off His throne to welcome Stephen home. It's like He's showing some keenness. Come on in, Stephen. Or others speak of Jesus getting up to speak in Stephen's defence before His Father.

But whatever the reason, Stephen wants everyone to know that Jesus has been glorified to God's right hand, to the position of authority, to the place of greatest honour. For the religious leaders, that's blasphemy. And Luke says in verse 59: "As they were stoning Stephen, he called out: 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'" And just before he dies, he cries out with a loud voice: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Now as we approach Good Friday, you know, Jesus says those very same words on the cross, but with one difference.

Jesus says them to His heavenly Father, but Stephen says them to Jesus Christ Himself. Stephen sees Jesus, and he asks Jesus to receive his spirit and to forgive their sins. I hope that when my time comes, that I'll be looking to Jesus and looking for Him to take me home. I wonder if at my death, I will glorify Jesus. I wonder if I'll be so grace-filled and gospel-centred that in the end, my prayer will be for others to know Jesus, to find forgiveness in Him.

What about you? Will you end your life looking to Jesus with the name of Jesus on your lips? Stephen's ministry seems all too short, but it doesn't shine any less bright for that. Whether long or short, the question we must ask ourselves is: Did I bring glory to Jesus? Stephen glorified Jesus with his very last breath.

Secondly, Stephen's death introduces Saul. Verse 58: "The witnesses to Stephen's death laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul." Saul, who later became Paul, was there witnessing Stephen's death. He most likely was in that courtroom.

He heard everything Stephen said. And maybe at the time, he hated Stephen as much as everyone else did. But Stephen's death never left him. Near the end of his life, Paul says: "When the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him." We don't know how much Stephen's death impacted Saul, but Paul goes on to give his life to proclaiming Jesus, just like Stephen did.

In fact, he says: "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Like Stephen, he was looking forward to seeing Jesus standing at God's right hand and welcoming him home and saying: "Well done, good and faithful servant." Like Stephen and Paul, may we too live and die to Jesus. Finally, Stephen's death facilitates the growth of the gospel. After witnessing Stephen's death, Saul starts persecuting the church, and Luke writes in 8:4: "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word."

You know, in chapter one, Jesus tells the apostles: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth," and it's the death of Stephen that drives the church out of Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. You see, we don't know how long Stephen's ministry lasts before he dies, but it wasn't very long. And it can feel like a failure. You think: What's God doing here? But what seems a tragedy, God turns into a triumph.

Instead of Satan distracting the apostles from their mission, the church appoints Stephen, and the gospel continues to grow. The tragedy is that there aren't more godly people like Stephen, who boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. The tragedy is that there aren't more men and women who are willing to give their lives for the growth of the gospel. My prayer for us this morning is that the Spirit would inspire us to be someone like Stephen. That you would be laser focused on the mission to make disciples.

That you would be known for your godly character, that you would make Jesus the centre of everything, that you would glorify Jesus even with your last breath, that your life would facilitate the growth of the gospel. Maybe in only a small way, but that you will be living your life so that others might know about Jesus and come to know the good news that they can be forgiven in Him. May the Holy Spirit do that in each one of us. Let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for this amazing story of this man, Stephen.

Lord, how he just seems to pop up out of nowhere and he gets appointed as a deacon, and very shortly after that, he's stoned to death for his testimony about Jesus. And Lord, we can wonder why. Why would you allow such a gifted, godly man to have his life cut short so quickly? But Lord, you use that to continue to build your church, to grow your kingdom, to bring glory to your name. And Lord, we pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we might become people full of grace and full of faith and full of wisdom.

That Lord, we might be people of good repute, people of godly character. Lord, may you use us to tell other people about Jesus and how you are present through Him. Lord, may we tell other people that it's not about the law, but it's about our faith in Jesus that saves us. Lord, may we point people to Jesus in every moment that we get. Lord, help us see the opportunities to do that.

Help us take those opportunities, trusting that whatever happens, you are at work and you will use our words to encourage people, to bring people into the kingdom, even if we don't get to see it ourselves. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be faithful in living out our love for Jesus Christ in our daily lives. Lord, bless us, equip us, and use us, we pray, for your glory and honour in the name of Jesus. Amen.