Fritha Dinwiddie 12/9/25 Fritha Dinwiddie 12/9/25

STEPHEN: THE MAN, THE MARTYR

#777 STEPHEN: THE MAN, THE MARTYR

Scripture Acts 6:9 – 7:59, NIV Orig. 3/2/1980

Rewr. 10/28/1987

Passage: 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin

7 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” 2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’[a] 4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[b] 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

11 “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money. 17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[c] 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die. 20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[d] For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. 23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’ 27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[e] 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. 30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’[f] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[g] 35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. 37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’[h] 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’[i] 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’[j] beyond Babylon.

44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[k] 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?’[l]

51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

The Stoning of Stephen

54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Purpose: An in-depth look at a major passage from Acts with a specific purpose of isolating a man, his message, and martyrdom.

Keywords: Bible Study Word of God Christ as Saviour

Surrender Commitment Truth

Timeline/Series: Acts

Introduction

We are aware that the Jewish people have paid a particularly high price over the centuries to maintain their national entity. The Bible gives permanent record to some of these exceedingly unpleasant experiences. Any competent history of Palestine will tell the rest of the story.

Just since the time of Christ, we know of the grim four-year war between Jews and Romans about 70A.D. Half-century later, the Bar Kokhba revolt with a 3 year independence. There were battles with the Persians in the 7th Century, and with the Muslims, soon after. (614, 638) In the 10th/11th Centuries the Crusaders entered the Holy Land in an effort to restore the land of Christ to the followers of Christ. Christians, Jews, and Muslims were dying by the thousands in these confrontations. Time hardly permits discussion of more current expulsions that reveal persecutions from Spain to Russia, and even of death camps in Germany and Poland. The word “ghetto” comes from a district in Venice where Jews were forced to live under stringent privation.

Christians have also suffered, but for different reasons. Over the centuries, the single most constant threat against believers was their attachment to Christ. They have been imprisoned, scourged, impaled upon crosses. They have been denied right to property, redress of grievances, for no other reason than their faith in Christ.

The history of Christendom over the first three centuries was written in the blood of the martyrs. In Rome you can still visit the Colosseum where so many died, and walk through the catacombs where they hid from their tormentors. Leonard Griffith wrote, “Every dictatorship of the past nineteen centuries, including totalitarian regimes in part of the world today, has singled out the church as the number one enemy to be crushed and exterminated.”

No doubt, it started with Christ himself, but Stephen was the first human fodder that fed these flames of extermination. Thus, we review, “Stephen: the Man, the Martyr.”

I. The Man. 6:8, “Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.” Back up briefly to the prior verse. The word increasing. Disciples multiplying. Suddenly, there is confrontation. See v9. May be weeks/months between v7 and v8 [chapter 6].

Stephen was a natural leader, made moreso by his allegiance to Christ. 6:8 indicates he was chosen deacon (?) not in the text 6:1 service 6:2 serve. That he was a man “full of faith, Holy Ghost.” He, with six others chosen for tasks, not for honor; singled out to serve not to be served. As Amos Wells says (B32p267) “when the deacons had more to do than pass the contribution box on Sunday.” The ministry to be sustained was the benevolent care of those without support, mainly older women without children.

Not only was he a natural leader, he was a man of charity. Actually, 6:5 pisteos is different from 6:8 charitos, “grace.” The word is “unmerited favor.” He was given to helping those who couldn’t repay favors. How many people have we helped who can never return the favor? The danger of the deacon-business is in coming to think this is their bailiwick. He wanted to help, and he wanted no plaudits or praise. He added to his monumental duties, the care of the Hellenist Jewish so that the apostles were free to preach.

After chapter 7, mentioned only three times: 8:2 his burial; 11:19 persecution; 22:20 Paul’s testimony.

II. The Man and His Message. 7:1, “The High Priest asked him, ‘Are these charges true?’ To this he replied, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen to me.’” Fifty-nine verses go on to declare what he believed. He does not directly answer the High Priest. False witnesses were claiming that he was preaching Christ would destroy the temple: The charge brought against Jesus; Mark 14:57f, “I will destroy temple.” Perhaps they heard him quote Jesus and interpreted Him loosely. We do that.

He answers with a discourse on history. There was the call of God to Abram 2-7. Without either Temple or Law, off the sacred soil of Palestine. The true Israel not bound to a scheme or a place. Then he reminds them of Patriarch and of covenant 8-12. Calling attention to the covenant with Abraham he noted that they had then moved against one of their own (Joseph), but God’s sovereignty dispelled faithfulness. With this he turns to Joseph, 13-19. Their history is of God’s providence. It is a history cheapened by their outrageous rejection of deliverers whom God had sent (Redeemer/Messiah). Breach of covenant resulted all of their struggles to survive, even in Egypt, and through to Assyria/Babylon. There is disparity in numbers. Genesis 46:26 (66), 27 (70 + Jacob/Joseph/2 sons), Exodus 1:5 (70), Acts 7:14 (75).

Next comes a lengthy treatment of Moses. A deliverer chosen, rejected, (40y). In Midian, chosen, returned, Exodus, rejected in wilderness, become idolaters. V40, “Make us gods to go before.” V37, Reminding them of Messianic promise “prophet like unto me.” Above from Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. Then, Stephen delivers a stunning blow of the inadequacy of the temple, vv.44-50. Jews believed SHEKINAH glory there. They worshipped place rather than the God of the place. He delivers a scathing denouncement: “resist the Holy Ghost” (v51), “persecuted prophets, . . . murdered Jesus” (v52); he is persistent in their guilt, but distressed over their unbelief.

III. The Martyrdom of the Man but not the Message. V58, “They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.” He has moved deliberately through discourse. An eternal truth about abode of God: V48, “The Most High does not live in houses made by men.” I Kings 8:27, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built?” Jeremiah 23:23, “I am a God at hand, saith the Lord.” Perhaps, between 50 and 51 hecklers.

Sensing the mood, he perhaps knows his time is short. This crowd won’t be back next week. Their history is one of resistance. The Law has not failed, they have failed to do it justice. V53, You have “received the law . . . and have not kept it.” Next, the Holy Spirit gives Stephen a vision of the heavenly court, and Jesus. Not seated as if at rest, [but] “standing” at God’s hand suggesting intercession. Deuteronomy 13:6f was their proof text. Convinced he enticed them from Jehovah, they took final action. Perhaps even to Golgotha. Without consent of Roman officials. To what purpose did he die? 8:1, “And Saul was consenting unto his death.”

Conclusion

Is there anybody in your life that you just can not forget? Parent, family member, teacher, whose influence remains? Has there been a thing done in the name of Jesus that just does not pass beyond recall? Stephen’s death was that and more to Saul of Tarsus. Stephen: the Man, the Martyr.

LINKS/REFERENCES

Griffith: https://www.yorkminsterpark.com/blog/rev-dr-a-leonard-griffith-1920-2019/