But he, being 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 said “Look!, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,”. (57) Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; (58) and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. (59) And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (60) Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke as a history of the early church – a precious and accurate history of the explosive spread of Christianity which really began on Pentecost Sunday when the Holy Spirit changed everything – forever.
The reading today is the story of Stephen who was appointed by the apostles for administrative work in that early church. The apostles needed to teach and not “serve tables” and they chose seven men, “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” for these tasks. Stephen was one of the seven men.
The Jewish elders and council had been disturbed, to put it mildly, for some time when people were unable to resist the gospel. Their snares fell on Stephen, who was arrested and brought before the council on charges of blasphemy. When questioned, Stephen began his response with a history of the Jewish nation beginning with Abraham. As Stephen used the Old Testament to show that all of scripture pointed to Jesus Christ as Messiah, he abruptly switched from a history lesson to accusing the council of being “stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!” He went on to tell them they had not kept the law and were the murderers of Jesus Christ, the Just One. The response of the elders – we are told in verse 54 – was these educated and respected leaders of Israel gnashed their teeth. Just like wild animals, they gnashed their teeth in rage and frustration. We are being told that the entire council is totally out of control – gnashing of teeth is a phrase used biblically to indicate the damned. There is an enormous contrast being drawn between the council and Stephen: the elders – the statesmen, the judges, the witnesses of Israel – who proceeded to rush at Stephen as one mob without thought and conscience are contrasted with Stephen; who was full of the Spirit . And beloved of Christ.
It’s a very powerful message of good and evil. And the real victim here is not Stephen, but those who murdered him. The council had willfully and totally rejected Jesus Christ. At some point grace runs its course and indeed runs out and God gives people over. The Jewish elders didn’t so much hate Stephen as they hated Jesus and the trial of Stephen brought it to a point where they had one choice: to either kill Stephen or believe him, which for them was no choice any more at all. Satan is real.
This is really a tragic story of terrible loss and warning to us of the reality of evil. But a wonderful side-story to Luke’s account is we are told that ” the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” This young man, clearly supervising the murder of Stephen, was later known as the apostle Paul who was called as an apostle by God. I read a wonderful quote when researching today’s lesson: from Stephen came Paul – from Paul came the world.