Stephen, the First Martyr

Acts 7:55-60

by Jim Westmoreland

This morning, we celebrate the Fifth Sunday of the Easter Season. Jesus had been crucified. He had risen and for fifty days he continued to reveal Himself to His followers to strengthen their faith and prepare them for His physical departure. This sweet Jesus, this mild-mannered teacher, had somehow offended his own Jewish leaders and teachers, and he had offended and become a threat to the Pax Romanus, the Peace of Rome, that had been imposed by the Caesars from 27 B. C. - 180 A. D.

The modern trend today is to redefine Jesus as just a teacher who made no claims for himself or his teaching and just offered another path of knowing God. I don’t think this increasingly popular belief today accurately relates to the history of the Christian movement, beginning with Jesus. Often, history is re-written and made more accurate by adding information that previous biases had suppressed, like the role of women in our own history or the role of people of color before and during the period of slavery. Sometimes, new biases arise that fuel the revising of what is included in the history books. Sometimes, there are things that are left out or greatly reduced in importance because of modern biases. Internationally, there are persistent attempts by some to say things like the holocaust didn’t really happen.

And so, some persist in saying that Jesus was just a good teacher, kind of a reformer with no agenda within Judaism. But that doesn’t explain the anger and reaction to Jesus. Some were angry and fearful and wanted him to die. Others were intensely loyal and would not confess that Caesar is Lord, when they believed that Jesus, alone was Lord over all. We are reminded of how the disciples saw Jesus from our reading from the gospel of John, chapter 14. In response to Thomas Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And in response to Philip Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. . . . The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

The early disciples believed deeply that Jesus Christ was the one they looked to as their savior from their sins who restored their relationship to God and, as God, he was Lord and master of their lives. Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell, founders of the movement from which our denomination came, and Walter Scott, one of the influential preachers and evangelists, rejected all of the man made statements about faith and Jesus, but they held on to two beliefs that come straight from the Bible. They were the confessions of the earliest believers and the early church, that Jesus is Savior and Lord.

Disciples promoted unity among all believers, regardless of denomination, under the common confession of Jesus as Savior and Lord. When we come to the Table for Communion each week, we continue to give witness to the unity of all followers of Christ as we invite all who confess that Jesus is Savior and Lord to come and share with us in the Lord’s Supper.

It seems that in every generation somewhere in our world there will rise to power those who are threatened by people who are loyal to a higher authority, who are loyal to a higher power. And they often retaliate against the followers of Jesus Christ by seeking them out to persecute and to kill. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines martyr as 1) a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion; 2) a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle.

We are reminded that Martyr missions made their official twentieth-century debut in the Second World War with the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who were giving their lives for their belief in a divine emperor. The act of an intentional martyr mission showed up again in the 1960s, when Viet Cong sympathizers exploded themselves amidst U.S. troops. Their debut in the Islamic world was not until the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war. Facing a far superior Iraqi military, Ayatollah Khomeini rounded up children by the tens of thousands and sent them in "human waves" to overrun the enemy. While Persians accrued losses in the war against Iraq, the role of the martyr in defensive jihad was exalted. First, men with bombs strapped to their bodies and now women and children are being used as martyrs in terrorist acts throughout the world.

Without overlooking or defending the various wars fought in the name of religion, martyrdom, for Christians, has not been a terrorist act. Our Christian history has been shaped forever, not only by the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins, but by the death of Christian martyrs through the years who were faithful and courageous to their Lord, even in the face of death.

In the book of the Acts of the Apostles we read the story of the stoning of Stephen. Stephen’s story begins in Acts, the sixth chapter, as one of the seven chosen to wait tables and assist the apostles in caring for widows of the church. Stephen was described as “a man of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.” He was chosen to take care of a particular need. We don’t hear about him waiting tables anymore. When he gave himself to the work of ministry, he began to see additional needs to which he gave himself. He began to teach Christ in the synagogue, but they objected because they already had their path to God, and they didn’t need Jesus. They accused Stephen of blaspheming God by saying that Jesus was Savior and Lord, and that was grounds to stone him.

Stephen started with a job to care for the widows. It was a helpful ministry for the church as it grew and evolved. He shows us something that is important. It is not only how a person begins that matters, it is how a person develops and grows that counts in the end. How many people are there who are willing to do one job or assist in one situation, but then quit! Stephen might have been faithful serving tables as long as he lived, but with Stephen, as with all great men and women, one thing led to another, and his willingness to serve with simple things lead to an opportunity to perform a more glorious one as an evangelist and debater for the cause of Christ.

Being outspoken, courageous and forceful can be risky, and Stephen eventually ignited a firestorm of hostility that led to his death. What does Stephen teach us about our faith?

1) Faith is trust in the God who is not made of our hands, but is the creator of all. 2) Faith is also a sacrificial faith where we move from self-interest to deep care about others. And 3) Faith is a forgiving faith. As he was dying Stephen chose to forgive those who were stoning him to death.

After a few of the usual Sunday evening hymns, the church’s pastor slowly stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon for the evening, briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening. In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak.

“A father, his son and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast,” he began, “when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized.”

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story.

The aged minister continued. “Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life: To which boy would he throw the other end of the life line? He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian, and he also knew that his son’s friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. As the father yelled out, ‘I love you, son!’ he threw out the life line to his son’s friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells into the black of night. His body was never recovered.”

By this time, the two teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for the next words to come out of the old minister’s mouth. “The father,” he continued, “knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus, and he could not bear the thought of his son’s friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore he sacrificed his son to save the son’s friend.

“How great is the love of God that he should do the same for us! Our heavenly father sacrificed his only begotten Son that we could be saved. I urge you to accept his offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line he is throwing out to you in this service.” With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room.

The pastor again walked slowly to the pulpit and delivered a brief sermon, with an invitation at the end. However, no one responded to the appeal. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man’s side.

“That was a nice story,” politely stated one of them, “but I don’t think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son’s life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian.”

“Well, you’ve got a point there,” the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face. He once again looked up at the boys and said, “It sure isn’t very realistic, is it? But I’m standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up his Son for me. You see, I was that father, and your pastor is my son’s friend!”

Stephen, was the first martyr in the church. Let us remember 1) Faith is trust in the God who is not made of our hands, but is the creator of all. 2) Faith is also a sacrificial faith where we move from self-interest to deeply care about others. And 3) Faith is a forgiving faith.

How is our faith? Amen.

Century Christian Church, April 20, 2008 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland

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