Stephen’s death was not in vain nor was the persecution that followed, for thanks to those awful circumstances, the Gospel was carried far beyond the confines of Jerusalem, in fulfillment of Jesus’ mandate to take it to the whole world. These believers fled Jerusalem in the face of this persecution, though the apostles remained there to shepherd the many Jewish-Christians who did not feel the need to leave. Most scholars believe their anger was directed primarily at the Hellenistic or Greek-speaking Jewish-Christians at this time. It rocked their world, and being faced with their own irrelevance in the face of what Jesus Christ brought to the world, these men killed Stephen and began a campaign of persecution against the church. It is likely that the religious establishment martyred Stephen, not so much for what he said, but for the implication of what he said.
Sometimes it takes a lot of faith to see the hand of God at work in a bad situation! Joseph had that kind of faith, which is why he was able to to make that astonishing proclamation, which is arguably the most poignant and powerful verse in the Old Testament. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. This verse reminds us of an Old Testament verse: Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. The martyrdom of Stephen brought their mission into focus the hard way. It took followers of Christ some time to see their work as Christ saw it. In the time that followed the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church learned about its faith, saw the power of God made manifest in their midst, was emboldened by the Holy Spirit and each other, learned what the purpose of Christian fellowship was all about, and discovered that the there were different levels of leadership within the Body of Christ.
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In a sense, we might consider the period from Pentecost to the death of Stephen a kind of “transitional period,” where the early church learned how to walk. The church had the respect of the city, and with the exception of some of the religious elite, nobody in Jerusalem seemed to have a problem with this new faith.īut the Gospel of Jesus Christ, like a force of nature, must always be moving proclaimed by His followers to new listeners all the time.
This new faith experienced by so many Jews was closely linked to Judaism, so much so that to the casual observer it might very well have been a mere sect of Judaism. Up until the persecution of Stephen, it seemed as though the Christians of Jerusalem were more or less content to remain there. He was not just a God to the Jews He is the God of all people, everywhere, but it was up to His people to bring that good news to those who had never heard it. It was always God’s intention that His Gospel should be preached to the whole world.
If we have learned anything about God, it’s that God’s idea of “security” isn’t always the same as ours, and He is nothing if not unpredictable sometimes. Sometimes, God has to act through surprisingly harsh circumstances in order to “force” His saints to “get with His program.” It’s human nature to desire security and sometimes predictability. “The Blood of Martyrs is the Seed of the Church”
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