Acts 6:1ff
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.
To this he replied: “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Jesus Is With You Every Step of the Way
Stephen is an interesting character in Scripture. We really don’t hear much about him. As suddenly as he appears on the pages of Scripture, he’s gone. But what we learn from him lasts quite a bit longer.
When Martin Luther wrote his commentary on these verses, he said, “You have pictured here in this story the entire Gospel – faith, love, cross, death, and life.” I think that would be a fitting way to process what we just heard.
Faith
Luke tells us that when there was an issue in Jerusalem of widows being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, seven men were chosen to make sure that never happened again. They were supposed to be men who were “full of the Spirit and wisdom.” So, before we hear his name, we know that Stephen was full of the Spirit and wisdom. And then, when he’s introduced two verses later, Luke doubles down; he calls Stephen, “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”
This is the first time in the Bible that Stephen’s name is mentioned. About the only thing we can guess about his past is that he was Greek, because his name is Greek, not Jewish.
So, how does a Grecian come to be full of the Holy Spirit and faith? The same way anyone does. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard in the word about Christ.”
We’ve talked about this in the past – seeing is not always believing, but believing always comes from hearing. Stephen heard the Word. Whether it was from Jesus’ mouth or the disciples’ preaching, it doesn’t matter. The Holy Spirit worked in his heart when that Word was spoken, and Stephen believed.
He didn’t look to Jesus to be an earthly king, a lucky charm, or a sage on a stage. He saw Jesus as he rightly was – our Savior from sin and our reason for the hope of heaven. That faith made an impression on Stephen. It wasn’t just an intellectual knowledge that he tucked away into a tidy little compartment in his mind only to be taken out when it was convenient. That faith guided his whole life, and, as Luther would observe, it inspired him to love.
Love
There was a distinct lack of love being shown in Jerusalem. There’s nothing to suggest that it was anything malicious, but people with needs were being overlooked nonetheless. It seems like it was a cultural thing. The believers from Greece were being overlooked by the believers from Israel. So, there were the locals who all knew each other and took care of each other but who often lost sight of the newcomers, the outsiders, the people who didn’t necessarily fit in.
That’s where Stephen, and the six other men mentioned in Acts 6, step in. They were eager to serve. They weren’t Apostles. By their Greek-sounding names, they were probably outsiders themselves. But there was still a way for them to make a difference. They could “wait on tables,” as the Apostles called it, which makes it sound bad, but It wasn’t demeaning work. It was necessary and it was an expression of their love and compassion for fellow believers.
That’s why the qualifications for these men were faith and wisdom. The Apostles could have pooled their resources and hired out the care of their widows, but this wasn’t just about putting food in mouths. It was about showing Christ-like love. It was about putting others’ needs ahead of their own. It was a matter of equipping believers for acts of service.
Stephen’s faith enabled that kind of love. But it also put a cross on his shoulders.
Cross
Jesus once told his disciples, “You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me,” and again he said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”
That’s exactly how it played out in Stephen’s life. He was a good guy! He helped out old ladies. He was a good citizen in the community, but opposition arose against him anyway. It wasn’t popular to be a Christian back then. Many people saw it as being rebellious, anti-patriotic. Imagine living in Alberta and campaigning against gas and beef and why not hockey while you’re at it? That’s about how popular Christians were in this heavily Jewish community.
But what really irked people about Stephen was that he was unafraid to talk about Jesus, and you can’t talk about Jesus without talking about sin. Jesus is our Savior from sin. We’ve done things that deserve punishment. We’ve disobeyed God’s Commandments. We haven’t lived up to God’s expectations or standards. And that’s a problem, but the people didn’t want to listen.
You’ve been there, haven’t you? Someone calls you out for something you’ve done wrong and your gut reaction is to deny it and then secretly hate that person. It’s embedded in our human nature to be defensive. Our first instinct is not to admit and ask forgiveness; it’s to accuse and attack, even when the person opposite us is trying to help us.
That’s what happened to Stephen. The Jews didn’t want to hear it. What Stephen had been saying was 100% true. They were stubborn. They resisted the Holy Spirit. They didn’t listen to God’s law. In fact, they persecuted the people who proclaimed God’s Word to them, and even killed the promised Savior.
They didn’t want to hear it, so like 5-year-olds, they covered their ears and yelled at the top of their voices, and then rushed at Stephen to stone him. The cross of opposition was quickly turning to death.
Death
Luke records for us that the Jews dragged Stephen out of the city to stone him. They killed him in one of the most violent ways possible. They threw rocks at him until he died.
But even in that moment, Stephen showed how rooted he was in his faith. His last two statements are almost word for word what Jesus said from the cross. He bore these men no ill will. He didn’t hate them. He calmly entrusted his soul to Jesus’ care and prayed that God would forgive them.
Stephen got what Jesus promised. He became the first Christian martyr – the first person to die specifically because he believed in Jesus. To Christians Stephen is a hero, someone to look up to. I look at him and in each of the four categories we’ve talked about so far, I have to admit how far I fall short.
I have faith, but that’s God’s gift to me. He sent someone to preach his Word to me, e.g. my parents, my pastors. I can’t claim any credit for that. Where my cooperation with the faith God gives me is where the wheels start to come off. Unlike Stephen, my faith doesn’t always show itself in love. To my shame I overlook the needy and lose sight of those I am able to serve. I’m far from angelic all the time in the way that I treat people and I’m rarely as bold as Stephen was. And while I can make that admission now in a prepared statement that I’ve worked on all week long, if you were to accuse me of those things, I’m sure I’d act like the Jews did, ready to cover my ears and yell at the top of my voice rather than listen to another second of how I fall short.
Stephen was a pretty good believer, someone you could really look up to. But it’s not his actions that give me any hope for myself. I don’t think I have the strength of will to just become a better person, and even if I did, it wouldn’t change a single thing about my past. No, it’s not Stephen’s actions that give us hope. It’s what he says, even as he’s dying: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
Do those words sound familiar? Jesus said something very similar as he was dying on the cross. “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” With one of his last breaths, Jesus prayed for your forgiveness. With his last breath, Jesus earned your forgiveness.
Jesus was so selfless that he was willing to be convicted of crimes he didn’t commit and take on himself a punishment that you deserve in order to forgive your stubbornness and defensiveness. Jesus was so committed to you that he boldly walked to Calvary to forgive your fear and lack of courage. Jesus loved you so much that he was willing to die on a cross for you, to forgive your lack of love.
Jesus died so that God would not hold your sin against you, and so that you can have the same confidence that Stephen had.
Life
Does it strike you as odd that the theme for our worship this morning is The Good Shepherd Guards His Messengers and yet we’re reading a passage in which one of God’s messengers gets murdered? Some shepherd that is who stands idly by while his sheep get slaughtered. But that’s not exactly the scene here, is it?
In his final moments, God showed Stephen a glimpse of heaven with Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He’s not sitting back, sipping on a cocktail with his feet up on a recliner unconcerned about what’s going on in the world. He’s standing; he’s ready to act. And though he didn’t step in to prevent Stephen’s death, he did answer Stephen’s prayer: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
That’s what shepherds do. They lead their sheep to green pastures beside quiet waters. This is the ultimate promise that our Good Shepherd makes to you. Your life could feel like it’s completely out of control. You may feel like the world is against you, but Jesus is standing at the right hand of God even now. He’s not distant or disinterested in what’s happening in your life. He’s watching over you and taking care of you, and even if your life should come to a tragic end, he’ll be there ready to take you home to heaven.
That’s why after a horrible death, the last words of our text are so gentle: “When he said this, he fell asleep.” Death is only temporary. Because of Jesus we have the promise of life after death. Even after we die, we’ll wake up in our heavenly home with Jesus sitting bedside, smiling to see us and ready to show us the paradise he has prepared because he loves you.
While our lives may not unfold the same way Stephen’s did, all Christians follow the same path and we have the same promise that’s portrayed here. Jesus is with you every step of the way, from faith to love to cross to death to life. That’s your confidence in Jesus, our Good Shepherd. May we be like Stephen, i.e. full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Amen.