Stephen, the First Martyr

Introduction

Revd. Mark Fletcher tells the story of Stephen the first martyr, a fearless witness in the early church whose life answers intolerance and violence with truth and love. Chosen for servant leadership, Stephen dies as he lived — and his witness plants the seed that would transform Saul into the Apostle Paul, carrying the gospel to the very heart of the Roman Empire.

They say that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. And the spectre of intolerance and violence, fed by half-truths and lies, is on the rise once more in our world. And we need, more than ever, to learn once again the way of Jesus. And this remarkable, if somewhat uncomfortable, story is a story about intolerance and violence — and a response to it rooted in truth and love.

But our journey through the Acts of the Apostles begins with some rather lovely insights into the day-to-day life of the early church. And I always find these fascinating. And so, did you see where it began? The gospel continues to spread, and more and more people are becoming part of the church. And then in verse 7 it says, “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of the priests became obedient to the faith.” It’s really interesting, isn’t it, that early Christianity is growing in influence, and even many amongst the religious leaders are becoming Christians. And I don’t think that it’s coincidence that that goes alongside the other thing that’s happening in this story, which is a little glimpse of how the early church cares for the poor and the vulnerable. Did you see that there’s this really important ministry of caring, particularly for the elderly, of providing food? And it’s growing, and it’s really good. But clearly the church leadership is getting overstretched, and people are starting to grumble that it’s not being done right. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience in church. I’m sure that I never have.

But it is actually quite an unfortunate grumble, because it is rooted in the sort of ethnic distinctions that the gospel of Jesus Christ is intended to overcome. So, verse 1: the Hellenistic Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So you see, there is this kind of complaint about some preference being shown to one ethnic group over another. Now, I’m fairly confident that it wasn’t actually true, and yet these perceptions matter a lot. And the apostles clearly take it very seriously. But they also say, “Listen, we can’t spend all of our time doing this. We can’t spend all of our time waiting on tables. There has to be this kind of priority given to prayer and the ministry of the word of God.” And I can’t help but think that’s quite a significant observation at this point by Luke. Because churches can be doing very good things, and yet can slightly lose their way, because they emphasise good things over the most important things. And so the apostles come up with a proposal to hold those two things in balance. And what they say is, why not appoint seven young leaders, some of the best amongst you, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, to oversee this really important kind of compassion? And they do it because they recognise that they need to put in place new forms of ministry. They commit to that, and they resource that. And these seven come to be known as diakonos, which is a Greek word for servant, or deacon in English. And they were really significant in the early church. And I don’t know if you know, but the church to this day continues to appoint people to the diakonos, to be deacons. And everybody who is ordained in the Church of England is ordained first as a deacon, first as a servant, and then later as an elder, or a presbyter. And so this is the story of — well, not those deacons in general, but of one particular of those deacons. And he is a remarkable young man. His name is Stephen, and he is full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. He’s also an amazing teacher of the faith, as we will discover. He knows his Bible really well. But I just want to note that he is clearly one of the brightest and the best of the young men in the early church. And he is given the role of serving, of literally waiting on tables and caring for the most vulnerable. The most gifted leaders must be servants first. Is that not a profound Christian principle?

So he’s a faithful servant leader. He is also a fearless witness to Jesus. And he one day gets into a conversation with — well, I suspect — the sort of people that most of us would probably try and avoid. So there is this group. We don’t really understand exactly who they are, but they’re reactionary. They’re made up of Jews from the diaspora. And they seem to be furious about what they see as their culture being threatened. They get into an argument with Stephen. He rebuts their arguments. And they sort of can’t win the argument intellectually. And so what they start to do, well, is frankly dreadful. They start to stir up the crowd and cause a terrible reaction amongst the people. Verse 12: they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law, and they seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. It’s a really awful situation, isn’t it? There is no real reason for his arrest. It’s just prejudice and intolerance and anger. And then it goes from bad to worse. Verse 13: they produce false witnesses who testified, “This fellow never stopped speaking against this holy place, the temple, and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” Beware of the danger of small groups of people. Beware of the danger of small groups of dishonourable people with an agenda. People for whom, when the truth isn’t convenient, will twist it. And I don’t know if you saw, the interesting thing in those accusations is that there is a sort of germ of truth in all of them. Did you see that? And perhaps the most dangerous things are not outright lies, but half-truths, because they kind of have this air of having the possibility of being right. You know, Albert Einstein once said, “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” We have to take this seriously. Honesty matters now more than ever. And because there is a grain of truth in something does not mean that the lies are acceptable.

What happens next? Well, Stephen, remarkable young man that he is, gives an incredible defence of his position and of the early church. And in fact, it’s all recorded. Luke records the whole thing. It’s in Acts chapter 7. We don’t have time to look at it, but I’d really encourage you: go away, read it. It’s a remarkable thing. But despite his compelling defence, he is condemned. And he is taken out of the city to be stoned. It is a travesty of justice, a tragedy, a triumph of prejudice and violence. And yet, as the scriptures so often remind us, God can use even the worst of things to bring about his purposes. Because, you know, the most significant thing about Stephen and his death is that there is a man who witnesses it, and his life is ultimately transformed by that. So if you were to jump forward to chapter 7, verse 58, it says this: “They dragged him” — Stephen — “out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.”

You see who that is? Did you catch that? That is Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul — probably the most significant witness to Jesus in the ancient world, writer of those beautiful and profound epistles that make up so much of the New Testament, and one of the most influential human beings in all of history. Paul is witness to the murder of Stephen, and eventually it will change his life. And it seems that what struck Paul was the manner of Stephen’s death. So, verse 60 of chapter 7: Stephen knelt down and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and, “Do not hold this sin against them.” Can you almost hear the words of Jesus in that sentence? Because there is in Stephen this kind of consistency between his words and his actions, his life and his death, in all of who he is. He proclaims a message of the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus. Stephen doesn’t just say things. He lives them out, to the very end of his life, even facing the most awful death. It strikes me that if you are ever not sure who to believe, look at the character of the people who say it.

And Paul sees, for the first time, the difference. And this plants the seed — the seed of who he will become. Because Paul is not convinced simply by the truth of Stephen’s words, but by who Stephen is: that he is able to face even the worst kind of death with the face of an angel. With peace. With trust. And even with compassion and love for his enemies.

And so Stephen becomes the first martyr. He is fearless in truth, Christlike in love, compassionate even for his enemies. And I don’t know if you know, but the Christian martyrs will become a defining part of the early church. A myriad of early Christians were killed for their faith. The early church was persecuted throughout the first four centuries of its existence. Most famously, Emperor Nero, who would throw the Christians to the lions. But far from eradicating it, as he was trying to do — as the great African theologian Tertullian wrote, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Violence and hatred never win in the end.

And so this is the story of the fearless witness of the early church, combined with a capacity to respond to hatred with love. And that is the story of the early church. And that is transformative. Stephen is a model of compassionate truthfulness. His integrity — the way that he lives — is as important as his words. And that has to be true of us too. I’m struck that the context of this is also who the church was: its willingness to care for the most vulnerable, its commitment to truth even when it’s costly, its refusal to deal in lies, its love for those it disagreed with — even its enemies. These things go hand in hand with the words that we say and the good news that we proclaim. And I’m struck too that, this side of heaven, we will never fully know the outcome of our actions. We’ll never know who is touched by our lives, who is watching who we are. But this is the story of the early church. This story had the biggest effect on just one person. But that one person would become the Apostle Paul. And he would carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to the very heart of the Roman Empire. So this is the story of Stephen — the wonderful young man who becomes the first Christian martyr. And, as if from the grave, he says to us: be faithful in your love and your wisdom. Be faithful in your witness. Love even in the face of hatred. Speak the truth no matter the cost. And be who you are called to be in Jesus Christ — even when you think no one is watching. And remember that God is able to use even the worst of things, and the worst of times. Because nothing can stand in the way of the purposes of God. Amen.