Martyrdom of Stephen

Stephen was one of the Seven chosen by the Jerusalem church around AD 33–34 to oversee the daily distribution to widows (Acts 6:1–6), "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." Full of grace and power, he did great wonders and signs among the people. Some from the Synagogue of the Freedmen — Jews of the Diaspora from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and Asia — disputed with him, but could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking (6:10). They then suborned false witnesses who charged him before the Sanhedrin with speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God, against "this holy place and the law," claiming that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses had delivered. As Stephen stood before the council, his face shone like the face of an angel. The high priest asked, "Are these things so?" In reply Stephen gave the longest speech in Acts (chapter 7): a sweeping survey of Israel's history from Abraham through Joseph, Moses, the wilderness, and the building of the Temple, showing at every stage that God is not bound to one land or one building, and that Israel has habitually rejected the messengers God has sent. He climaxed with: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 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" (7:51–52). Enraged, the council gnashed their teeth. Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God — the only place in the New Testament where the risen Christ is described as standing rather than seated, evidently to welcome his first martyr. The crowd rushed at him, dragged him outside the city, and stoned him. The witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and then, kneeling, cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Stephen became the first Christian martyr, and the persecution that broke out scattered the church and carried the gospel beyond Jerusalem (Acts 8:1, 4).