Stephen, Part 1.

Stephen

Acts 6 -7

In these next two blogs, I want to write about Stephen. He is not someone we often think about, but he was a major figure in the early days of the church. The general uprising and persecution of Christians in Acts 8, is called “the persecution that arose about Stephen.” Acts 11:19 - He was the first Christian martyr!

I really want to focus on his defense to the Jewish leaders in Acts 7, but first we must deal with the man.

It is generally agreed that Acts 6 records the institution of the deaconate, that these 7 men were the first deacons. Their initial work was to oversee the food distribution to the widows, so that the Apostles could “give themselves to prayer and preaching.” (Acts 6:3-4)

And note this food distribution was to the Christian widows, not the general public.

In churches that have both Elders and Deacons, the spheres of labor, based on Acts 6, are generally that the Elders handle the spiritual side of things, and the Deacons handle the practical side of things, and that is biblically correct; but I want to bring out that these first Deacons had spiritual ministries as well.

We only have information regarding two of them, Philip and Stephen.

First Philip: he is Philip the Evangelist, the same Philip of Acts 6.

“And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.” (Acts 21:8)

Here are some things Philip did:

First, he goes to Samaria, it seems on his own initiative, and what does he do? He preaches.

“Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” (Acts 8:4-5)

Then the Holy Spirit sent him to witness to the Ethiopian Eunuch! I think we can say that the Holy Spirit was pleased both with the fact that he preached at Samaria, and the content of what he preached at Samaria, and so therefore, he gives him more to do.

“And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” (Acts 8:26)

Then, after he had been used by the Holy Spirit to save the Eunuch, he was sent to Azotus, and the surrounding cities … “But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” (Acts 8:40)

These events started Philip on the road as an Evangelist (no pun intended); someone who goes around preaching in various places, so that by the time Acts 21 occurs, which would have been several years after the events of Acts 8, he has the nickname “Philip the Evangelist.”

The point is that not only was he a Deacon, he was also a preacher, an evangelist, and a strong, bold, public, verbal witness for Jesus Christ, at that.

Next, Stephen, on whom we want to focus: he too was preaching in public, and doing “great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8) and preaching and “disputing” (Acts 6:9), in public venues. The wonders and miracles are not for our day today, but certainly preaching is, and his preaching such that the proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism) from the synagogues of the Libertines (“Liberated Ones” – people who had become free Roman Citizens), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of the Cilicians, and of the Asians”, hearing him, disputed with him; they argued with him.

Jerusalem, even then, was a big city, maybe 100,000 people. There would have been many synagogues, and I would say these people who disputed with Stephen were from separate synagogues, each synagogue organized around ethnic identity, much like we have in our larger urban areas, for instance, an Italian speaking church, or a church consisting primarily of immigrants from a particular country; we all feel most comfortable with people who are like us, who speak our language, eat our food, and have a common history with us; it is human, it is not sinful.

So there were individuals from at least five different synagogues involved in disputing with Stephen, probably occurring over many days, and not all together, but in the public market areas, and maybe in their synagogues too, much like we see with Paul in Athens.

“Therefore he (Paul) disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him.” (Acts 17:17) 

Paul might well have remembered what Stephen had done is Jerusalem, prior to being killed, and so Paul started doing the same; remember Stephen was doing this before Paul was even saved, so there is a good chance that Paul followed Stephen’s method.

Stephen was a street preacher, preaching boldly and confrontationally enough, i.e. “not pulling his punches”, that people got mad! If your preaching does not stir people up, maybe you are “tickling their ears”, saying what they want to hear, to keep the peace, to not make waves; Jesus was certainly not an ear tickler, and it appears neither was Stephen.

The one point they brought up when they accused Stephen of blasphemy, was that he, Stephen, had said, that Jesus had said he would destroy “this place”, referring to the Temple, and that Jesus would “change the customs which Moses delivered to us”, the ceremonial law of the priesthood and sacrifices, and so he was “speaking against the law”. (Acts 6:13-14)

Jesus had said “destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it”, but he was speaking about his body. (John 2:21)

But Jesus also told the Jews that the real Temple was going to be destroyed, not once, but twice: Luke 19:44 and Luke 21:6.

Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament sacrificial system; once he had died, to put away sin, once by the sacrifice of himself, the Old Testament system’s work was done; it could be destroyed, and there would be no problem.

Stephen was probably saying things like, “Jesus has fulfilled the Mosaic Sacrificial System. Their work is done. He has changed everything. The Temple will be destroyed, Jesus told us so.”

Martin Luther said that if we did not confront the issues of our day, we were just playing around. Not the social issues, but the theological issues. Stephen addressed those issues, and people got upset. The Old Testament system was done, Jesus had fulfilled it; Stephen was publicly preaching that, and people got upset.

The clear presentation of what the Bible says will generally get people mad; it certainly will get Satan mad, and he then stirs up the unsaved.

Note, we don’t try to stir up confrontation, but neither should we soften what the Bible says, to avoid confrontation.

We are messengers, and so we are to be faithful to speak the message God has put into the Book. We don’t add to it, we don’t take away from it; we tell it like it is.