Stephen's Death

Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew who was active in the early church, respected for his Spirit and wisdom. He performed many amazing miracles and signs among the people. The Pharisees and religious leaders who were alarmed at the rate the church was growing decided to have Stephen killed. After falsely accusing him of speaking against the temple and Moses’ law, they stoned him to death.

The Bible says God’s ways are mysterious. His thoughts are not our thoughts; His ways are not our ways. We will never know why Stephen, a very powerful witness and a fearless spokesman for the church had to die a terrible death at the height of his ministry. But we can try to understand what some of the immediate consequences of Stephen’s death were.

1.    St Paul’s conversion – Acts 9:1-30

Saul was a young Pharisee who was a witness to Stephen’s murder and agreed completely with the killing. There was a great wave of persecution following Stephen’s death and Saul played an active roll in identifying the disciples and throwing them into prison, even killing them. Expanding his anti-Christian activities he went with official sanction as far as Damascus to find and capture those who believed in Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem for trial. It was during his journey to Damascus that he had a personal encounter with the Lord who told him he was chosen as an apostle to carry His message to Jews, Gentiles, and kings. No person, apart from Jesus Christ Himself, shaped the history of Christianity like St Paul had done. He undertook three missionary journeys across the Roman empire preaching the word of God and witnessing, planting churches, encouraging believers; he worked hard to convince Jews that Gentiles were acceptable to God; he spent even more time convincing the Gentiles that they were acceptable to God. The many letters he wrote to churches and individuals – on theology, Christian lifestyle, fellowship, worship, encouragement, etc - became part of the Bible.  He suffered great persecution for the truth and eventually died a martyr.

2.    Philip’s evangelistic tour – Acts 8:4-40

Philip was one of the seven Greek-speaking disciples chosen for their spirit and wisdom and the respect they commanded among the believers, to supervise the food distribution in the early church. He had worked in close association with Stephen. Following the intense persecution of the church that erupted after Stephen’s death, most believers fled Jerusalem escaping to different parts of the empire where they preached to the local Jews and gentiles and established churches. Philip went directly to Samaria and started preaching to the people there, a people whom Jews never liked. This was in obedience to the Lord’s commandment “You shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.  The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip at a time when he was having a successful ministry preaching to great crowds in Samaria. (See Acts 8:5-8)  But again he obediently left that ministry to travel on a lonely desert road where he met a high-ranking Ethiopian official. His effectiveness in sharing the gospel with this man placed a Christian in a significant position in a distant country. Because Philip went where God sent him Africa was opened up to the Good News.

                                                                                                  

3.    St. Peter’s missionary tour - Acts 9:32 – 11:18

Stephen’s death helped Peter overcome ancient Jewish prejudices against the gentiles. He had travelled to the crossroads town of Lydda where he healed a cripple called Aeneas. The believers in the old port city of Joppa sent for him after a wonderful woman died. Peter went and brought her back to life. When he was in Joppa Peter had a strange vision that leads him to take the gospel to Cornelius, a gentile in Caesarea.

Peter had already broken an age-old Jewish taboo when he decided to go and stay with Simon, a tanner of hides, and through this vision, he realized that he must overcome the prejudice he had held against mixing with non-Jews. Before the vision, he wouldn’t have believed it was possible for a Roman army officer to be accepted by God.  “I see very clearly that God shows no favouritism…. Jesus is the Lord of all” he declared, confessing “everyone who believes in Jesus Christ will have their sins forgiven through His name”. He and the other Jews watched in amazement the miracle of the Holy Spirit falling upon Gentiles who heard him preach and proceeded to baptize them. Acting upon his newfound belief, he agreed to stay with them for several days. Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that Gentiles had received the word of God. The foundation was laid for world-wide evangelism.

4.    Founding of the church in Antioch (Syria) – Acts 11:19ff

The believers were scattered by the persecution that started following Stephen’s cold-blooded murder. Some of them went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch in Syria. They told the Good News in these places, but only to Jews. Some of these believers were men from Cyprus and Cyrene. When these men came to Antioch, they began speaking to the gentiles. They told them the Good News about the Lord Jesus.  The Lord was helping these men, and a large number of people believed and decided to follow the Lord. When the church in Jerusalem heard about this, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. He went and saw how God had blessed the believers there and how the Holy Spirit was working among the Gentiles too. He encouraged them. Many more people became followers of the Lord. Then Barnabas went to the city of Tarsus to look for Paul, found him and brought him to Antioch. They stayed there a whole year. Every time the church came together, Barnabas and Paul met with them and taught many people. It was in Antioch that the followers of the Lord Jesus were called "Christians" for the first time.

5.     Conclusion

Christ had warned His followers that living for Him would lead to trouble.  See Luke 21:12-19. This is still true. When we boldly live out our faith, the light of our lives will expose the sinfulness of others. Our words of truth will pierce their souls. Some will be convicted and yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, but others will become angry and hardened. Jesus said “They will do all these because of me for they have rejected the One who sent me” (John 15:21). We shouldn’t be surprised or abandon our faith when we are persecuted. To trust God fully means to trust him even when we don't understand why events occur as they do.

We live in a fallen world where good behavior is not always rewarded and bad behavior not always punished. Therefore, innocent people sometimes suffer. If God took suffering away whenever we asked, we would follow him for comfort and convenience, not out of love and devotion. Regardless of the reasons for our suffering, Jesus has the power to help us deal with it.

You are a work in progress. You are being perfected by suffering for the tasks God planned for you from all eternity. You are working on your advanced degree in the specialty God thinks you are best suited for. Stand fast in faith, then, and learn obedience from what you are going through. We don’t know why God allowed Apostle James to be killed, but at the same time rescued Peter from the grasp of Herod in a miraculous way. Like the four stories above prove, it is God’s will that will eventually triumph. Psalm 34:19  admits "Many are the afflictions of the righteous’’, but comforts us ‘’but the Lord delivers him out of them all". Romans  8:28  And we know that for those who love God, that is, for those who are called according to his purpose, all things are working together for good.

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