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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
And Saul approved of their killing him.
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Acts 8:1-3
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Jesus had died and then was miraculously raised back to life, just as He said He would. He made many appearances over the forty day period before He ascended and just before He went up to the heavens, He said this to His disciples:
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Phase 1 of Jesus’ Gospel-spreading playbook was for the apostles to begin their ministry In Jerusalem after they received the Holy Spirit in ten days at Pentecost.
Phase 2 would then be an expansion of the Gospel to Judea and Samaria before an all out sharing across the world to the ends of the earth in the third and final phase.
Not exactly a cessation of Christianity that the Jewish religious leaders believed would happen after they arranged Jesus’ murder.
Indeed, Jesus was not anywhere near eliminated and not only did He come back to life but He rallied and inspired His disciples to carry on His work, striving to develop even more followers. This was the tasking at the heart of the Great Commission.
Now you would have thought the members of the Sanhedrin and others involved in Jewish religious leadership would have learned their lesson. But as we fast forward to the sixth and seventh chapters of Acts and the first verses in chapter 8, we see that they once again failed to accomplish what they hopes to do, the final parallel that we see between Jesus and Stephen, one of the seven men who were elected by the people to assist the apostles in caring for the needs of others.
When Jesus was killed, His disciples were first struck by fear, thinking that they might be executed next. But Jesus appears to His faithful followers and turns their discouragement into hope. The disciples saw the act of resurrection happen first-hand and I’m sure it emboldened them to be more confident in sharing the message of salvation with other.
Indeed, after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostles wasted little time teaching in Jesus’ name, miraculously healing the sick, and driving out demons from the possessed. As I wrote about in an earlier message, it was like Jesus Redux and I’m sure He couldn’t have been more pleased with the work of His followers who were bringing thousands to baptism and eternal life through placing their faith in Him.
The scriptures tell us that the Jewish religious authorities became increasingly jealous over the following the apostles’ were gaining and so they targeted Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin council after fabricating charges against Him. As Stephen, his face looking as if he was an angel, rebuked the council before proclaiming he could see Jesus in heaven at God’s right hand, they decided to drag him out of the city and stone him to death. I’m sure their thought process was to breed fear in the rest of those following Jesus so they would give up the ministry work in the spirit of self preservation.
But those who placed their faith in Jesus didn’t give up the cause of Christ. Rather, they just fled Jerusalem and “were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria”. I’m sure the Sanhedrin members suddenly remembered these words from Gamaliel, a Pharisee who had tried to provide wise counsel:
“Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:35-39
At the time, the Sanhedrin had listened. They flogged the apostles and released them. But soon after, we found them unable to check themselves. Their primary play was to cancel their opposition through arranged executions and they stayed true to form as they came to a decision on Stephen’s fate.
But just as we saw with Jesus, God had a greater plan, certainly greater than any group of men who made feeble wicked attempt to stop it. The Sanhedrin had chosen to fight against God, not just once, but twice and each time, they were defeated soundly.
They thought by killing Jesus, the Gospel would go away with Him. It didn’t.
They thought if they stoned Stephen to death and initiated widespread persecution of Christians, the movement would go away. It didn’t. Instead, it dispersed and scattered into Judea and Samaria.
Parallels between Jesus and Stephen are obvious. Both died for the cause of the Gospel and both found new life after death because of God’s plan for redemption by way of His resurrection power.
Thanks be to God for the gift of everlasting life through His Son Jesus, the only One by which we are saved.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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