Wednesday, May
17, 2017
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they
shook their fists at him in rage. But
Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory
of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens
opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!” Then they put their hands over their ears and
began shouting. They rushed at him and
dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid
them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
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. Acts 7:54-60(NLT)
In
yesterday’s devotion we left Stephen at the mercy of the Sanhedrin; it’s not
hard to figure-out there wasn’t much mercy to be found that day. The religious elders were white-hot with
anger against Stephen for telling the truth about how prophets sent from God
were never listened to, and always beaten and put to death. Stephen added the final straw; God sent His
Son, Jesus, and they pinned him, naked, and spread-eagle to a cross on the town
garbage dump. That was too much for the
proud Pharisees, and Scripture records they pelted him with stones until his
body was lifeless.
It’s not
much of a Hollywood movie ending is it? Let’s
face it; The Hallmark Channel would not use the seventh chapter of Acts for a
sequel to The Easter Bunny Meets
Abbot and Costello. There’s
little to work with for a feel-good
ending to the story of Stephen’s life!
He stands for truth and gets clobbered with no support from Heaven’s
angels – I mean…where are Roma Downey and Della Reese[ii]
when you need them?
Now, if you
were listening closely, I said there is little
to work with for a happy ending. The
part of the account of the stoning of Stephen that gives us hope, and gives
meaning to Stephen’s life and ministry, even though he is literally discarded on
the garbage pile outside the gates of Jerusalem, is almost a throwaway line Luke
included at the end:
His accusers
took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 7:58b(NLT)
History
tells us the young man was nothing much to look at, small of stature,
weak-eyed, bowlegged, and troubled with some kind of medical ailment that kept
him in chronic pain. We can also read that
he was a brilliant scholar, had the best training in Scripture and Jewish
law. He was a natural leader and, without
doubt, a rather single-minded powerful debater who didn’t mind getting in your
face to prove a point.
This young
Saul had a name change that followed a heart change on the road to Damascus. Saul met Jesus, was knocked to his knees, and
the man who thought he saw everything clearly, got up from the encounter with God
physically-blind as the proverbial bat, but seeing more clearly how wrong he’d
been to persecute God’s people, including Stephen. We call it repentance; and we know this man
as Paul the Apostle.
It seems
Stephen’s life was not discarded on that day after all – look what his
faithfulness to the testimony of the Word of God, even at the cost of being
stoned to death, has meant for all of us.
For You Today
The question
to contemplate today is rather simple; would
it be worth giving your life to turn the world upside-down for Christ?
Short
answer from my perspective: In a
heartbeat!
NOTES
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