Monday, December
26, 2016
As
they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell
to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died. Saul was one of the
witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day,
sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the
apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. (Some
devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning.) But Saul was
going everywhere to destroy the church. He
went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into
prison. But the believers who were
scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went. Philip,
for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the
Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to
hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits
were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were
healed. So there was great joy in that city. Acts 7:59 – 8:8(NLT)
Stephen was chosen with six
other believers in response to the need for more servants in the early church. He was not only serving within the body as
the first selected to be a deacon, Stephen was stoned to death because he was
God’s messenger to his city, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they
responded by shooting the messenger.
That was in Jerusalem, and it
kicked off a persecution frenzy. Saul,
who would later become the Apostle Paul, was throwing people in jail left and
right, most to suffer the same fate as Stephen.
The believers had to scatter in a hurry, running for their lives; that
night it was all heels and elbows
exiting the city of God.
But that persecution started
a revival up the road in Samaria, place of the hated half-Jews. As the believers fled religious persecution in
Jerusalem, they migrated in every direction; some, including Philip, made it
north to Samaria. The people there heard
the Good News of that Jewish rabbi having being born in a stable, raised the
son of a carpenter, crucified for our sins, resurrected on the third day, and
coming again to reign as Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords…and they not
only rejoiced, evil spirits had to retreat, and the lame and paralyzed were
healed.
Did you notice the stark
differences? Great unbelief and violence
in Jerusalem, the city of God; great faith and rejoicing in Samaria, the city
of ungodly pagans. Hmmmmm. What do we make of that?
Particularly, what do we say when
asked to measure our day
against that?
America by many standards has
always been considered “Christian”. But
continuing to characterize North America as a Christian stronghold is becoming more and more
impossible to justify with a straight face.
Secular hedonism, practical atheism and trashing of two thousand years
of Christian dogma (doctrine) in the name of cultural tolerance shows that,
stacked-up against the likes of Stephen’s willingness to do what Jesus did – namely,
forgive those who stoned him – we are anything but Christian.
I have great confidence that
God is sovereign and will move to accomplish his great will for his creation,
and will do so with or without humankind’s cooperation. But I fear for any nation that rejects God’s
ways as culturally, legally and unashamedly as has ours. We are headed down the broad way of
destruction.
Stephen, Peter and all the
disciples told that to their generation.
Noah preached it to his
generation.
The prophets all preached it
to their generations.
The messengers were shot; the
message and warning continue.
For You Today
God still needs more
messengers to this generation…are you in?
NOTES
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