St. Stephen Acts 6:8-7:2, 51-60 (2021)

St. Stephen: First Martyr For Christ

Acts 6:8-7:2, 51-60

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 7:57-60 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.

Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord…  The season of Advent has past; the time to prepare our hearts to celebrate the Savior’s birth has come and gone.  That celebration took place Christmas Eve and yesterday.  Unlike the world which has played Christmas songs to death since October and now has stopped altogether, it is proper in the Church to listen to those Christmas songs now, throughout this season of Christmas which started on Christmas Eve, and all the way through the Epiphany season.  Now is when we celebrate the Word becoming flesh and His being revealed to the nations.

And, of course, there are two Christmas songs which mention this day St. Stephen’s Day, on the calendar.  One is “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which we recall that “on the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.”  The other is “Good King Wenceslas,” who “looked out on the Feast of Stephen.”

Today in the Church year calendar is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr of the Church, the first person to die on account of his faith in Jesus Christ after the Church was born.  But why, when we just celebrated Christmas yesterday, would we spend a day being depressed over someone of the Church who was killed?

Even if you have observed St. Stephen’s Day over the years, it is still a little bit jarring to hear readings like those appointed for today.  In a season normally associated with merriment and good cheer, in the midst of our specially decorated churches, it seems strange at first that this 2nd day of Christmas, the season marking Christ’s birth, should be devoted to meditating on a martyr’s death.  The message of the angels was, “Peace on earth, good will toward men.”  There doesn’t seem to be either peace or good will in Stephen’s bloody murder. 

Our Lord Jesus has indeed brought peace between God and man, for God and man have been brought together again quite literally in Jesus.  That is why He is the only Way for you to be reconciled to God; He alone bridges and rejoins heaven and earth in Himself.  But Christ was delivered and born of woman in order that He might be delivered into the hands of sinful men.  He shared in our flesh and blood precisely so that He might suffer in the flesh and shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins; that is God’s good will toward men.

Already in the manger, the swaddling cloths our Lord is wrapped in point us to the burial cloths in which He will be entombed, and that He is the One destined to be despised and rejected by men.  The wisdom of the church’s calendar reminds us today that those who follow and cling to this Jesus can expect the possibility of similar despising and rejection in this world.  Our Lord said in Luke 12:51, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division.”  Peace with God means being enemies with the world.  The righteousness of Christ given as a free gift will always be at odds with the righteousness that man tries to achieve for himself through his own goodness and spirituality. 

We see this division, this enmity, very clearly as Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin.  Stephen spoke the truth to them, the truth of how they resisted the Holy Spirit who called them to repentance to turn from their works to Christ’s that they might be saved.  Earlier at Pentecost, those who heard Peter’s preaching were “cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).  They were brought to repentance and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

 Now, these members of the Sanhedrin were also cut to the heart by Stephen’s preaching.  But a different Greek word is used here showing that their stony hearts were not pierced.  For it says they gnashed their teeth at him, gritting their teeth and growling like beasts, which is what their sin had reduced them to.  One cannot help but think about our Lord’s words regarding those who reject Him in unbelief: for them “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 22:13) 

Stephen also testified to the truth of what he saw in that moment: the heavens were opened and Jesus was standing at God’s right hand.  The Sanhedrin – the same council that had condemned our Lord – when they heard Stephen say this, stopped their ears, literally putting their hands on the sides of their heads.  And then all together they rushed at him, cast him out of the city, and stoned him to death. 

There are several things we should learn from this.  For starters, we must confess that we also don’t like it when our sin is laid before our eyes and we are called to turn from it.  None of us has ever said, “Gee, I can’t WAIT for someone to point out my sins!”  Our old Adam is a one-man Sanhedrin, who tries to silence those who call us to repentance, either by verbally stoning them and attacking them or just by covering our ears and ignoring the truth.  God grant that when you are confronted with His Word of truth and cut to the heart, you will be pierced and given repentance. 

Most clearly, though, we learn from Stephen’s martyrdom how this fallen world, with the powers that uphold its false spiritualities, is a Sanhedrin to Christ’s church.  The world does not want to hear the words of God and wants to silence the voice of those who confess the Christian faith and the saving name of Jesus.  Whether it is in matters of the teaching on creation or sexuality and marriage or, above all, in matters of salvation by grace alone through faith in Christ alone, the world stops its ears to the truth; it mocks and marginalizes the faithful, and where possible, it tries to cast them out and cancel them as hateful blasphemers of the cultural dogma and underminers of society.  Christianity just doesn’t fit the current narrative.

Now, we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that we have been persecuted in any way approaching that of the early church, though that is certainly a different story for Christians today in the Middle East and other places.  But many of you have been given to glimpse and to experience not just disagreement but the utter disdain the world has for you and your beliefs and your Lord Jesus who said, “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). 

So let us take to heart the words of 1 Peter 4:12-14, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”   

Stephen was blessed by God in this way; as we heard in Acts 7, he rejoiced even in the face of his mortal enemies.  Scripture records that his face was like the face of an angel.  What does that mean?  Where are the angels’ faces turned?  Jesus said that they always see the face of His Father in heaven.  The angels reflect His glory.  It was that way with Stephen.  His face reflected the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  We become like that which we fix our eyes on.  Amazingly, Stephen was like Jesus here; he asked for forgiveness for his enemies, and then commended his spirit into God’s hands.  We have the sure promise of Scripture, “When [Jesus] is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  

Stephen spoke as one who was baptized.  He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he saw the heavens opened, as they were at Jesus’ baptism.  The heavens are opened for all who are baptized into Christ; the heavens are opened for you who are born of water and the Spirit.  And in these opened heavens, what does Stephen see but Jesus standing at God’s right hand.  Ordinarily, we use the language of the Creed, that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the position of ruling and reigning.  But here He is standing.  Remember, Stephen is on trial here.  This is a courtroom scene.   Though he is condemned to death by the Sanhedrin, there is One who is standing in his defense, One who intercedes and speaks on His behalf before the court of the Most High, and One who will deliver Stephen from the judgment of ungodly men. 

And it is the same for you.  Jesus stood in for you as your substitute, suffering crucifixion and death for you; and now He stands up for you as your Intercessor and Advocate and Defender.  St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  

Sin and Satan and the world may condemn and attack you, but you have a mighty Defender and Advocate before the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.  He Himself was cut to the heart for you; He was pierced with a spear, and the blood and water that flowed cleanses you and protects you.  The hymn may say, “Stand up, stand up for Jesus,” and Stephen certainly did that.  But what finally counts in the end is that Jesus stands up for you, the incarnate and risen Lord, who has human feet and legs to stand with, your blood Brother; the Almighty Son of God stands for you. 

And if I may carry this one step further, standing is also a sign of honor and respect.  It is appropriate and respectful to stand when greeting someone.  Jesus here honors Stephen; He stands as if to receive Stephen out of this world and unto Himself.  The psalmist prays, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Ps 116:15).  So it is for you.   Jesus honors you; He stands for you, as a Gentleman for His elect Lady, His holy Church. 

This, dear fellow redeemed, is where we find our strength to confess the faith boldly as Stephen did, whether it affects our social standing or our economic standing or our very lives.  We confess Jesus before men in the sure confidence that He will rise to His feet and confess us before His Father in heaven. 

Though it may not appear so, Stephen was granted a blessed end.  Though it was not painless, it was blessed, for he fell asleep in Christ, looking to Him who is the Victor over death.  God grant that whether our end is violent or peaceful, that we may die as Stephen did, with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the “author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2).  

Jesus is your Brother in the flesh.  He stood up for Stephen, and He stands up for you.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.