Stephen’s Victorious Death

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 29 May 2016

We continue to look at this incredible account at the end of Acts 7, as we are studying the first Christian martyr to be killed for his testimony concerning Christ. His name is Stephen and we met him in Acts 6. He was one of the men chosen to provide ministry in the church. He was a man of good reputation, full of wisdom and faith and of the Holy Spirit. And he was a great, courageous preacher who ended up being the first martyr.

Stephen was brought before the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin. He had been preaching in Hellenistic synagogues, occupied by non-Israel Jews who had a number of synagogues in Jerusalem. So Stephen not only cared for the widows as we saw in Acts 6, but also went to the synagogue of the freed men, which had some Jews from Cyrenia, Alexandria and from Cilicia in Asia, where he proclaimed the gospel.

And in that synagogue, men argued with Stephen. They were, according to Acts 6:10, “unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen was speaking.” So, because they couldn’t win the argument, they attacked the man. In verse 11 they accused him of blasphemy against Moses and against God. And in verse 13, they accused him of blasphemy against the temple and against the law.

He is now in front of the Supreme Court and the high priest asks him in Acts 7:1, “Are these things so?” Well, the answer from Stephen started from Acts 7:2-53. First, he shows that he is not a blasphemer of God but a true believer in God. He is also not a blasphemer of Moses, but accepts that what God gave Moses was a divine revelation. He is not a blasphemer of the law of God; he regards the law as the law of God. Nor is he a blasphemer of the temple. So, he defends himself against these four accusations.

However at the same time, he turns the tables on the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, and all the other Jewish people who were gathered there. And he says, in reality, along with your forefathers, you all have blasphemed God. You, along with your forefathers have blasphemed Moses. You, along with your forefathers have blasphemed the law of God in your disregard and disobedience. You are blasphemers of this temple because, as Jesus declared in Matthew 21:13, you have turned it into a den of robbers.

So Stephen ends his sermon in verse 51-53, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 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, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels, and did not keep it.”

Let us now look at verse 54-60, “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ 60 Then 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.”

Saul was in support of putting Stephen to death. And on that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. And the result was that they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and lamented loudly over him.

The real victims here are the murderers who killed Stephen who sealed their own destiny. Stephen in reality was the victor. It is just the reverse of what it appears. Stephen had just gave his defense, a really profound sermon. And at the end, he comes to Jesus, who is the Messiah, and all of Israel show that they are the blasphemers of God, Moses, the law and of the temple.

The world is in fury, doing its worst which only brings out the very best in the man of God. Stephen confronted them boldly with a direct attack from the Word using the sword of the Spirit, and he stabbed it deep into their souls. And they killed him for it, but God honored him for it.

Look at the contrasts. They were full of anger but Stephen was full of the Spirit. That we can see in verse 54 and the first part of verse 55, “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven.” When he began his sermon, Stephen agreed with them as they believed the Old Testament Scripture. They listened with agreement as he affirmed his belief in the true God and in Moses, and in the law, and even the temple.

He started reciting their history, but as the emphasis of his argument became clearer, their interest turned to fury. They accused him of blasphemy but he turned it around and accused them instead, and they were literally outraged. The arrows of God’s truth, by the power of God’s Spirit through the boldness of this Jewish preacher, brought an absolute outrage.

Hell does not produce remorse; it produces anger. That is why it’s forever, because they just keep on sinning. Their fury against God never abates. Hell is full of people in a furious rage, furious because they are there, furious because of the influences that they followed, furious because of the decisions they made, furious at the one that consigned them there. If you will not hear the gospel, even judgment can’t overrule such anger.

In Revelation, let us look at the great tribulation when the judgments of God come on the earth, judgments under the seals, under the trumpets and the bowls. let us look to Revelation 9:20-21 for example, where it says, “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by those plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons and the idols; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

Revelation 16:8-11, “And the fourth angel poured out his bowl (of judgment), on the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. 9 Men were scorched with fierce heat; they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. 10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast,” the antichrist, “and his kingdom became darkened; they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.”

Stephen had indicted them as blasphemers and activated their fury. They are damned by their continuous rejection. They have hardened their hearts against the truth. They have rejected the testimony, the gospel preaching of the apostles. They have rejected the messages and the ministry and the miracles of Peter and Stephen. And their rejection is so deep that the only response they have to another indictment is absolute anger.

This was not a sudden outburst, there was a growing tension that gradually rose higher and higher as Stephen spoke. These dignitaries had never faced such a prisoner. He spoke like a judge, not a prisoner. He was more like an accuser than the accused. His conscience had led him to where he regarded no price too great to pay for his convictions. Stephen no longer faced an orderly council, but a mob whose minds were irrational with hate, and whose emotions were bent on murder.

They were not willing, for anyone, to expose and reveal the depth of their sin. This is a satanic reaction. Herod killed John the Baptist because John pointed to his sin and rebuked him for it. The Pharisees crucified Jesus Christ because He denounced and exposed their hypocrisy. The Jews reacted in the same manner toward the apostles. And Stephen is the first of a multitude who, in their unflinching exposure of sins, died at the hands of the sinners they exposed.

Stephen was continually filled with the Spirit. During the martyrdom of any Christian, throughout the history of the church, there was none who died with rage and anger, who called down fury on the heads of their persecutors. Every story of martyrdom always depicts a lovely calm, supernatural peace and a divine strength.

But there is even more. 1 Peter 4:14 says, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” Something happens in that hour of martyrdom where there is a double portion of the Holy Spirit. Not only is the Holy Spirit living in every believer all the time, but there is a special grace and glory that comes on the martyr who is under severe threat of life.

In Luke 12:11-12 Jesus said, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how, or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” It’s really like there is a triple portion of the Holy Spirit. One, to possess the Holy spirit; two, to have a blessing from the Holy Spirit who gives grace and glory; and three, to even be given instruction at that hour as to what you are to say.

Notice there are other contrasts. They are marked by spiritual blindness, versus Stephen with his spiritual sight. Stephen saw in verse 55-56, “the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, 56 ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Versus the Jews in verse 57, “who cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed together at him.”

Incredibly, Stephen saw the glory of God. He saw what Adam and Eve saw in the garden when they walked and talked with God. He saw what Isaiah saw in the vision of chapter 6 the Lord lifted high up on the throne. He saw what the apostle Paul saw in 2 Corinthians 12:2 when he was caught up in the third heaven. He saw what Moses saw when he was taken up to the Mount and the glory of God was revealed to him.

He saw what Peter, James, and John saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. But not just the glory of God. He saw Jesus standing there at the right hand of God. God manifested Himself in light. Stephen saw the light, and standing at the right hand of the light, he saw Jesus. As Mark 16:19 says, “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”

But, there is something unusual. The references to the Lord in the gospels, and even in the book of Hebrews have Him sitting in His glorified state at the right hand of God, the place of honor and power and majesty. But here the ascended Christ is seen standing. Do you know why? Because He cares for His suffering servants. He gets up to welcome Stephen, one of His own, into heaven.

In the crisis moment, God opened to him such joy that the present suffering wasn’t even worthy to be compared. So, the dying saint begins to sense heaven, and then he sees the glory of God, and then the Son of Man, Jesus, standing at the right hand of God welcoming him. So Stephen says in verse 56, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Those words were familiar to the Sanhedrin because Jesus Christ had said that very same thing. Mark 14:62, “the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” That was the final blasphemy from Jesus according to them. And for that, they murdered Him.

Here is living testimony of Stephen that the Son of Man was where He claimed He was going. To for the Jews, this is the most blatant blasphemy. And, unless they are willing to admit that they were wrong about Jesus, they have to kill Stephen. Stephen had spiritual sight but they are completely blind. Jesus even called them blind leaders of the blind.

They didn’t want to know God’s truth. They were hard-hearted and stiff-necked, as he said to them back in verse 51. They were blind willfully, and now they were blind judicially. That’s why in Romans 11:8, it says of them what it says in Isaiah 6, that seeing they couldn’t see, hearing they couldn’t hear. They wouldn’t repent and so they couldn’t be saved.

There’s a third set of contrasts: the contrast between death and life. They were killing him but for Stephen it was only the entrance into glorious life. Verse 58-59, “When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’”

Even in their rage, they wanted to follow the law required in Leviticus 24 that anyone who was stoned be stoned outside the city. Leviticus 24 provided that stoning was the appropriate sentence for blasphemy. But the truth was that they had no right to kill anybody. The Romans only had the right to do it. But they set that aside. They would have had to have had probably two or three witnesses.

Deuteronomy 17:7 says the hand of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death. And afterward, the hand of the people. Well the first stones didn’t kill Stephen, and the stone by the second witness didn’t kill him. Because, verse 59 says, “they went on stoning Stephen.”

In verse 58, they laid aside their robes so they could be more accurate with the stones and throw them down harder. They laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. It is far better to depart and be with Christ. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! Essentially, that’s what Christ said on the cross in Luke 23:46, “Into Your hands I commend My spirit.”

There’s one final contrast between hate and love. The hate, obviously, we see it all the way through their stoning him. But in the middle of all this hate, we see the beauty of love. Verse 60, “Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ Having said this, he fell asleep.”

That is really the ultimate moment in Stephen’s testimony. While kneeling He pulls himself up to pray. He prays for forgiveness for them. This too is like our Lord, who said on the cross in Luke 23:34, “forgive them for they know not what they do.” This is a rare prayer. What love, what sweet grace of God. Let us pray.