The Inheritance of Persecution
Two weeks ago, Michael walked us through the first half of this chapter. The story is that Stephen was ordained as a deacon in Acts 6, as we saw back on Palm Sunday. He then becomes a target in the Greek synagogue for his Christian teaching. Greek-speaking Jews who reject Jesus plot against him and bring forward false witnesses and present him to the council in Jerusalem, the same council that had accused Jesus and pressured Pontius Pilate to crucify him not long ago. When Stephen is asked by the council, “Are these things so?” he starts into the longest speech in the book of Acts.
Stephen’s sermon is the culmination of Acts chapters 3–7 and “brings to a climax the story of the conflict between the Christian mission and the temple authorities, a conflict that first appeared in 4:1–3” (Peterson 244). The point of Stephen’s sermon is the repeated rejection of God’s will by God’s people; he cashes it all in (verses 51–53) with their rejection of the Messiah.
We could outline the speech in several ways. One would be by prominent person: * vv. 2–8 Abraham * vv. 9–19 Joseph: blessing comes through the rejected brother * vv. 17–34 Moses: many times rejected by the people, and tells of a greater prophet to come * vv. 35–50 Israel’s unbelief and rebellion
Another way to see it would be that verses 2–8 give us God’s promises to his people, while the rest of the chapter is about the fulfillment of those promises, and the people’s repeated failure to respond appropriately. (And Israel’s continued disobedience to God shows us our own, Romans 3:19–20.)
Another way of summarizing the speech is from a rhetorical perspective. Verses 2–34 tell the story that setup Stephen’s argument in verses 35–50, followed by his emotional appeal (or accusation) in verses 51–53, as we’ll see.
Stephen is reminding the people that they have had worship issues, and still do. First, their ancestors were prone to turn aside from God and “made a calf in those days and . . . were rejoicing in the works of their hands” (v. 41). And second, they cling to the temple as God’s dwelling place, and as a sure sign of his favor on them, but “the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands” (v. 48). They have made the temple their idol.
Who Is Stephen?
But before diving into verses 51–60, let’s talk about Stephen. He only appears in Acts 6–7, but he is a very important figure in Acts and the history of the church.
He is a Greek-speaker and one of the “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” (Acts 6:3) chosen to see that the Greek-speaking widows not be neglected in the distribution of food. As a Greek-speaker, he would have been a member of a Greek-speaking synagogue, and that’s where he gets into hot water. Greek-speaking Jews from what was called “the synagogue of the Freedmen” (Acts 6:9) first clash with Stephen and bring him to the Jerusalem council (Acts 6:12).
Stephen appears to be a remarkable man. He is portrayed only in righteous ways in this short narrative. He was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (6:5), “full of grace and power” (6:8). He even did wonders and miraculous signs among the people (6:8), and those who opposed his theology “could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking” (6:10). He was a fulfillment of Jesus’s promise in Luke 21:15: “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.” He bore the intangible mark of having been with God. Acts 6:15 says, as he stood before the council, “his face was like the face of an angel.” A question we can ask, and something to pray for, is: Do we have the spirit of Stephen today? Are there Stephens among us at Cities Church? We could use more Stephens. Many more. People full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Full of grace and power. Whose opponents cannot withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which we speak. Who bear the intangible mark of having been with God.
So, as we look at verses 51–60, let’s walk, in three stages, through this tragic, and powerful, episode of the first one dying for the gospel: 1) his appeal, 2) the persecution, and 3) his vision and final words.
1) Stephen’s Appeal (vv. 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.”
Stephen applies to his generation the accusations of the prophets against Israel’s unbelief. He calls them “stiff-necked,” as the Old Testament did their forefathers (Ex. 32:9; 33:3, 5; 34:9; 2 Chron. 30:8), and “uncircumcised in heart and ears” (Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; 6:10; 9:26; Ezek. 44:7). Externally, they may have the physical sign of the covenant, but internally they are just like the unbelieving nations, spiritually dead and resistant to God. Stephen now says directly to them what he’s been narrating the long history of Israel to make plain: “As your fathers did, so do you” (verse 51).
And now, in particular, they are not simply rejecting God’s prophets, but God’s Messiah, the “Righteous One,” the promised and long-awaited king. So Stephen flings “the charge of blasphemy, persistent opposition to God and his ways, back on themselves” (Bruce 153). He has been accused of setting himself against Moses, but it is actually his accusers who are opposed to Moses — they rejected the great prophet of whom he foretold.
The Law Delivered by Angels?
They fall into the heritage of those “who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” Why this reference to angels? What does it mean that angels delivered the law?
This is one of three New Testament texts (along with Acts 7:38) that talk about the angels bringing the law to Moses, and I think this is the one that sheds the most light on what this means. Verse 38, talking about Moses, references “the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.” Moses didn’t originate the law; he received it.
The significance of the angels delivering the law is that it is from God, not from man or Moses or Israel; the law came from heaven, through angels, from God; and tragically, even though Israel acknowledged the divine origin, they did not keep it.
(Hebrews 2:2, “the message declared by angels proved to be reliable,” puts the angelic role in the giving of the old covenant in context with the new covenant, as does Galatians 3:19. The law coming through angels means that there is a possible better messenger to come, with a better covenant. God sent his first covenant through angels. But now God has delivered a new covenant himself through the person of his own Son.)
2) The Persecution (vv. 54, 57–58)
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. . . . 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.
Jesus foretold that his followers would be persecuted just as he was. John 15:18–21:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”
A question often asked here is, Was this mob violence against Stephen, or was it somewhat legally executed? It seems that it began as legal procedure; there are witnesses brought forward, and Stephen is brought before the council. He is given a chance to speak for himself. But it seems to have disintegrated into mob violence when Stephen accuses them of the worst unbelief, rejecting their own Messiah, and then claims to see Jesus as God’s right hand, the very thing Jesus claimed for himself before they charged him with blasphemy and crucified him. It is no surprise that the ones who killed Jesus must also now kill Stephen.
It is remarkable to contrast Stephen with is accusers: * false accusations vs. the face of an angel * infuriated, gnashing teeth, and stopping their ears vs. filled with the Spirit, calm, and clear vision of Christ * they cry out in a great voice against him; he cries out in a great voice for them * they stone him vs. he prays for their forgiveness
As we’ll see next week, stoning Stephen triggers a broader persecution against the church, but it also becomes the catalyst for the fulfillment of Jesus’s promise of Acts 1:8: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” * Acts 8:1, 4: “And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria . . . . Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” And so: “The people went as missionaries more than as refugees” (Everett Harrison). * Acts 11:19: “Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word . . .”
Stephen’s stoning becomes the hinge that swings the setting from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and beyond, but it’s Stephen’s theology that lays the foundation for the worldwide mission. As a Greek-speaker, Stephen has a key role to play in liberating Christianity from the temple; his fellow deacon Philip soon witnesses to Samaritans and an Ethiopian. The theology that gets Stephen killed, and Christians persecuted, is the same theology that paves the way for the expansion of the church to the Gentiles. They now can be scattered. They no longer need the temple.
So, as we saw in Acts 4 and Acts 5, God is at work in the persecution of his people. Suffering is an “essential ingredient of effective evangelism and ministry” (Fernando 265). It would prove true in early church history. As the second- and third-century church father Tertullian (160–225) would say: “Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to the dust. . . . The more you mow us down the more we grow, the seed is the blood of Christians.”
Enter Saul
Here in verse 58, of course, is the first mention of Saul, already an authority figure against the church if cloaks are laid at his feet (perhaps he is even a member of the council, Acts 26:10). “You have heard of my former life in Judaism,” he would write one day, “how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” (Galatians 1:13–14).
Stephen was so gifted, so bright, so much promise. Surely, the early church must have asked, Who now will take his place? Who would have thought that the very one overseeing the stoning would be the one who would take up Stephen’s theology and lead the charge as the apostle to the nations?
3) His Vision and Final Words (vv. 55–56, 59–60)
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.” . . . 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And 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.
This is the climax and conclusion of Stephen’s speech, in verse 56, when he sees, and states, that the crucified and risen Jesus stands “in a position of authority at the right hand of God” (Bruce 158). It is very clear that Stephen is challenging the judgment of the council against Jesus.
And Jesus at God’s right hand means the temple, their idol, has been eclipsed as the access point to God — precisely as Jesus foretold and Stephen has been charged with advocating, though misunderstood.
It is significant that in such horrible circumstances — being stoned to death — we hear of the comfort God provides his saint in the moment of attack. “God comes with a special revelation of himself to comfort the faithful in their time of deep crisis” (Fernando 260). God gives Stephen a glimpse into heaven to steady his soul.
One way to think of the comfort is in terms of being conformed to Jesus, which we see so clearly in Stephen as he dies. Might this be what comes to mind for this Saul (who mentions Stephen in Acts 22:20) when one day he would write about Jesus in Philippians 3:10, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
If we have any example in the Bible of “becoming like him in his death,” it is Stephen. Both Jesus and Stephen were accused of crimes against the temple. Both had false witnesses brought against them. Jesus’s own testimony before this same council had been that he would appear at God’s right hand (Matt. 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 22:69). Now Stephen sees the vision and confirms it. Both were taken out of the city to be executed.
Jesus “calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’” (Luke 23:46); And “as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’” (Acts 7:59). But here’s an important distinction: Jesus appealed to his Father, and Stephen now appeals to Jesus. Jesus committed his spirit to his Father; Stephen gives himself to Jesus.
And so it is with Stephen’s final prayer. Just as Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), Stephen “falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’” (Acts 7:60).
As pointed as Stephen’s words were in vv. 51–53, the spirit of Stephen surprises us again as he prays for his persecutors. Not only does he call his opponents to repent, but also asks for their forgiveness. He is tough and tender. Full of power and grace. The Old Testament prophet Zechariah, who was unjustly stoned to death, had prayed for God’s vengeance (2 Chron. 24:22). But here in this unjust execution, Stephen has a heart so satisfied in Jesus that he rises above mere justice. He asks for mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. He echoes the astounding grace of Christ on the cross for his enemies.
Now we see what is the spirit of Stephen we mentioned earlier? It’s actually the spirit of Jesus. And the most comforting truth here is not that when the inheritance of persecution comes to us, we can be like Jesus, but that we can put ourselves in Jesus’s hands. Not only is he our example, but our advocate. He has our back.
When Jesus Stands
There is this important detail here, easy to miss, in Stephen’s vision of Jesus. Psalm 110, the most often referenced psalm in the New Testament, depicted God himself saying to his Messiah, “Sit at my right hand,” and so over and over again, after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension into heaven, we hear that he is seated at God’s right hand. Seated. Sitting.
But then here’s this vision of Stephen’s in Acts 7, and Jesus is said to be standing at the right hand of God. And in case we missed it once, he says it twice: * Verse 55: Stephen “gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” * Verse 56: Stephen says, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”
Why is Jesus standing? Perhaps he stands as judge, as Isaiah 3:13 speaks about God standing to judge the peoples. Stephen does appeal to Jesus as judge, not to hold this sin against them. But I suspect that better than the distant reference to Isaiah is something closer by, in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus had said in Luke 12:4–7,
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
So note the context of persecution, especially here as the church’s first martyr is about to die. Then Luke 12:8 (through verse 12):
“I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.””
It seems to me that Jesus is standing at the right hand of God in fulfillment of Luke 12:8. Stephen has acknowledged Jesus before men, and now Jesus stands to acknowledge Stephen before the angels of God, and before the Father himself.
Jesus says, in effect, by standing: “I got your back. Not only as judge of those who attack you, but also as your advocate before my Father in heaven.”
Even when it seems he is standing alone, he is not. Like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:16–17: “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.”
And there’s one final way in which Stephen’s death is like Jesus’s: the unexpectedly peaceful description for so brutal a death: “he fell asleep” (ekoimethe). Very similar to the way Jesus expiring, or breathing his last (exepneusen) is captured in Luke.
He Will Provide in That Hour
Let’s close with this. As the people of Jesus, we are, with the Stephen, the heirs of his persecution. When the horrible and glorious inheritance of persecution comes down to us, how will we stand? Have you thought, Where will my mind go when they pick up stones? When they lead me on the beach with machete in hand? When the gun is pointed at my forehead, and he says to renounce Jesus or die?
We do well to ready ourselves for this. There is no guarantee that our faith in Christ is safe from this. We should ask ourselves,
“Could I endure suffering for Christ in the hour of persecution—or even in the hour of ‘ordinary’ death? The answer is, no, I couldn’t, not in myself. But we will not be left to ourselves. There will be extraordinary grace for the extraordinary trial of death. The Spirit of glory and of God will rest upon us.” (John Piper)
God himself will provide for you to get you through it. And Jesus, who otherwise sits at his right hand, will rise to his feet as your advocate to acknowledge you before the angels of God, and say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”
We do not pursue imprisonment, or martyrdom. We do not promise something as misguided and crass as seventy virgins. But as a church locally and worldwide, we do acknowledge Jesus before men, and some of us they will kill. And this we promise as the inheritance of persecution: the joy of knowing Jesus through sharing his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and hearing from the mouth of the most important person in the universe, standing at the Father’s right hand, “Well done, enter the joy.”