Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
In the early Christian church, Stephen was a trailblazer, and he held an unyielding confidence in his faith in Christ and his role as a teacher and evangelist. Little is told to us about Stephen’s background in the Bible, but commentators say we can glean some information about him from his name, and thus, his likely beliefs before converting to Christianity. His name implies he was a Hellenistic Jew with ancestry deriving from ancient Greece. Greece, as is commonly known, was a hub of intellectual activity, particularly in rhetoric, philosophy, and the arts. It was also the source of widespread polytheistic beliefs and later, neo-platonism, or the following of the teachings of Plato.
Whether Stephen was previously associated with some religion other than Christianity and had a conversion experience or whether he believed in Christ from an early age, we don’t know. What we do know was that he was the first martyr of the early Christian church and the likely greatest among the seven chosen by the church to provide aid to widows.
“And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). … So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
Here, Stephen is the first man picked for this call, and the only one described as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.” While the others were of the church as well, Luke clearly singled Stephen out — and for good reason. After his arrest for teaching the gospel and after some attempted to frame him for blaspheming and other offenses, Acts says Stephen’s face “became as bright as an angel’s.” The counsel that was to judge the accusations to be true or false, questioned Stephen, who proceeded to summarize the tumultuous trek of the Israelites, falling into disobedience from God time and time again.
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One — the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
As the Jewish leaders’ countenance then soured at these words, Stephens grew all the more heaven-set. It is said that here, Stephen experienced a theophany, or a vision of Jesus and God together, with Jesus at the right hand of the Father. Stephen’s physical demise and his words as he drew his last breath are strikingly similar to that of Christ’s, confirming even more how sold out he was, and how confident he was in the face of a looming death, in the saving power of Christ.
As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
These last words, of course, are easily comparable to Jesus’, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Though the space in the New Testament devoted to Stephen is small, his life’s witness was strong. So much so that in Acts 22:20, we find Stephen’s ultimate characterization.
As The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states, “Stephen more than met the requirements of the office to which he was elected (Acts 6:3); the record characterizes him as ‘a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 6:5), i.e. of an enthusiastic faith and of a deep spirituality, …the record makes it very clear that the importance of Stephen lay in his activity as a preacher, a witness for Christ; it is this activity which has given him the place he holds in history (Acts 22:20).”
In the face of death, Stephen’s confidence in Christ as the God in the flesh and the risen Lord was unfaltering. While the tradition of his likely ancestors was founded on the belief in a series of gods who used humans as mere pawns, Stephen clearly adopted faith in a god, Christ, who first gave of himself for us and supplied in himself the ultimate sacrifice so that we may have eternal life. We can have confidence and take comfort in the fact that Christ is not only the source of grace, hope and salvation in this life, but a better choice than all the rest.
point to ponder
Ask yourself: In what other religion does the deity actually go to bat for us? Which god in the other religions cares enough to lay himself on the line for mere humans? The answer has to be: none of them. All other religions appear like a great rat race: whoever performs the most rites and rituals gets rewarded with “salvation.” Christ, however, boldly proclaimed that he is the only source. One can’t attend church enough; pray in a certain direction enough or do enough good works to enter heaven. One simply has to believe in Him who sacrificed Himself for us. The single greatest difference between Christianity and all the rest is that he loved us first, not the other way around.
prayer
Father, thank you for loving me even before my conception. Thank you for loving me enough to send your only son to die for my sins, and thank you for the confidence and comfort that brings me. Help me to bring a level of peace, love and hope to those around me that others will wonder what is so different about my life. Please walk with me throughout the week, and help me to reach those around me with the good news. In Christ’s name.