Saint Stephen, the First Martyr and Chief of the Deacons
He was the first martyr of Christianity and also the first of the deacons. Since his name is Greek, he was probably a Hellenist (that is, not Greek by birth but Greek in language and culture), or a Greek-speaking Jew. When the Hellenist Christians in Jerusalem complained that their widows were being neglected (Acts 6:1), seven men, including Stephen, were chosen to take charge of the daily service and distribute the offerings to poor Christians (Acts 6:2-6). These seven men are known as the first deacons of the Christian Church. The Bible describes Stephen as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5), who did great wonders and signs (Acts 6:8) and proclaimed the message with wisdom (Acts 6:10). When some of these Hellenist Jews could neither answer Stephen nor resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke, they made up false charges against him: they secretly paid men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God,” and that he had spoken against the Law and the Temple. These charges were brought before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:9-14).
The Book of Acts has preserved a summary of Stephen’s glorious defence (Acts 7:1-53). First he showed that he gave all glory to God (Acts 7:2), and that he honoured Moses (Acts 7:20-43), the Law (Acts 7:38 and 53) and the Temple (Acts 7:47). Second, he showed that Moses did not have the final word, nor was the Temple final either: Moses had followed earlier revelations and had himself promised the coming of a prophet after him, the Christ (Acts 7:37); likewise the Temple had come after the Tent of Meeting, and it was not the final dwelling of God, the Lord of the whole universe (Acts 7:48-50). Third, Stephen rebuked the Jews for their repeated resistance to God throughout their history: they had resisted Joseph at their very beginning (Acts 7:9), Moses when they were becoming a nation (Acts 7:39-42), and the prophets once they were settled in Canaan (verse 52). Finally he poured out on them the harshest rebuke, because they had rejected Christ himself and killed him (Acts 7:52).
The council refused to listen to Stephen any further. He said that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:54-56). Then they dragged him out of the city, perhaps through the gate known today as “Stephen’s Gate”, and stoned him. As they were stoning him he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and then he asked the Lord to forgive them the sin of stoning him. Saul, who later became Paul, the great apostle of Jesus Christ, approved of his death (Acts 8:1) and guarded the garments of those who stoned him (Acts 7:58). Stephen’s glorious witness was surely one of the greatest means of grace preparing Saul to accept Christ (Acts 22:20). After Stephen’s death, the Christians suffered severe persecution and were scattered from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1).
