Understanding Stephen

The story of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, is remarkable. The New Testament devotes two whole chapters to describing his amazing attributes as well as giving us an account of his final words and experience on this earth. He is amazing because of how close in character he is to Christ.  We find him described in Acts 6 and 7. Stephen is chosen to “serve tables” for the Hellenistic Jewish widows in the Jerusalem Church. Whether hands were laid on him for his work as a deacon or for some other office in the early church is not made explicit. It is contestable whether Stephen had the office of deacon but because of a strong practical component to his role, attending to Christians’ physical needs, I will treat him as a deacon here. He was also renowned for his spiritually powerful ministry:

Acts 6:3 (NASB) …full of the Spirit and of wisdom…

Acts 6:5 (NASB) b) …a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit…

He was popular among the local Christians

Acts 6:3 (NASB) …of good reputation…

Acts 6:5 (NASB) 5 a) The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen…

This Stephen was chosen to serve the needs of the Hellenistic Jews, a group of Jewish Christians who had at some stage migrated back to Jerusalem from Greek-speaking and Greek-influenced cultures in places like North Africa and Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). The Hellenistic Jewish Christians complained that their widows were being overlooked while the native Hebrew widows were not (implied by the passage) :

Acts 6:1 (NASB) being overlooked in the daily serving of food

so the apostles asked the Christians there in Jerusalem to choose seven men for this task of caring for the needs of these particular widows

Acts 6:2-3 (NASB) summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

Seven men, whether deacons or otherwise, were chosen by the congregation on very solid and good grounds

Acts 6:5-6 (NASB) 5 The statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. 6 And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

Stephen is also described as

Acts 6:8 (NASB) full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

Like the apostles, Stephen performed supernatural wonders and signs. BUT… the drama begins :

Acts 6:9-11 (NASB) 9 But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

Why this disturbance to what we could only describe as “good”? We see the answer in Acts 7:51-53. But first, let’s see what the troublemakers did :

Acts 6:11-12 (NASB) 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council.

What was “the Council”? It was the Sanhedrin, the same Council that tried Jesus before His death. It was comprised of a gathering of the highest Jewish leadership. Even members of that Council described Stephen’s face as “the face of an angel”

Acts 6:12-15 (NASB) 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council. 13 They put forward false witnesses who said, “This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us.” 15 And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.

Stephen now had to present himself to the Council. He goes on in Acts 7 to highlight those aspects of Israel’s history that showed the continual rejection of the truth presented to the Israelites through various prophets, from Moses on, over centuries. They kept rejecting the truth and going their own way. This is the history of Israel as related by Stephen to the Council.

Now, when we get to verses 51-53, don’t read this as Stephen being reduced to a name-calling nasty. He is anything but! Stephen points to their non-recognition problem of having truth continually presented to them, yet their continual, repeated rejection of it :

Acts 7:35-43 (NASB) 35 “This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN.’ 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you. 39 Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40 SAYING TO AARON, ‘MAKE FOR US GODS WHO WILL GO BEFORE US; FOR THIS MOSES WHO LED US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT—WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM.’ 41 At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘IT WAS NOT TO ME THAT YOU OFFERED VICTIMS AND SACRIFICES FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, WAS IT, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 43 YOU ALSO TOOK ALONG THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH AND THE STAR OF THE GOD ROMPHA, THE IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP. I ALSO WILL REMOVE YOU BEYOND BABYLON.’

And here is the critical point, the question of whether Stephen succumbed to name-calling at the end of his recounting of Israel’s history:

Acts 7:51-53 (NASB) 51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

How could name-calling or an accusatory, judgement-filled spirit in Stephen POSSIBLY be the conclusion? Stephen, in the present context, confronted the Jews now attacking him as committing exactly the same rejection as their forebears: non-recognition of truth and of God’s representatives sent to them, preferring to kill the prophets rather than listen to them with an open heart to God’s calling of them back to Himself. How could someone we just read Scripture describe as:

• full of the Spirit
• full of wisdom
• with the face of an angel
• serving tables to those in need
• continually preaching the word
• performing great wonders and signs

now suddenly be considered nasty and reverting to name-calling? It’s unthinkable! It’s illogical! He is using the terminology of God Himself:

Exodus 32:9-10 (NKJV) 9 And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! 10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

Exodus 33:5-6 (NKJV) 5 For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ” 6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

How could Stephen possibly be filled with the Holy Spirit, see the vision of heaven opened up and of  the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and prayed the prayer he did for his listeners if he had just stooped to cheap name-calling or to making derogatory remarks, either in content, tone or both? Stephen would by now have felt the rising anger well before they took up stones to kill him so what he said, he spoke in courage and for their benefit :

Acts 7:54-56 (NASB) 54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently 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 up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

And finally, the culmination of his speech testimony to the Council – Stephen’s magnificent prayer for his attackers after they had driven him out of the city and began stoning him :

Acts 7:57-60 (NASB) 57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. 58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.

Just as Christ had prayed for those torturing Him to death on the cross, so Stephen prayed for those now stoning him to death. Just as Jesus had chided the Jews for not believing in Him in many places in the gospels, especially in His parable of the tenants in Matthew 21:33-46, so did Stephen chide the Jews now not wanting to hear his message. The crowd became filled with rage in response to Stephen’s recounting of Jewish history as told in the OT, and his applying it to their response to him now. Stephen knew Whom he belonged to and Whom he was serving but these people would not listen to Stephen, just as they did not listen to God through His prophets in the past. In understanding Stephen, we cannot read his words in verses 51- 53 of Acts 7 in a way that disregards the context or flow of his argument. Stephen was a beautiful martyr. His story here is magnificent. Please don’t miss it and reduce it to pettiness. Pettiness does not exist in Stephen’s thought.