James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 7:59 - 7:59

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James Nisbet Commentary - Acts 7:59 - 7:59


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A LAST PRAYER

‘And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’

Act_7:59

The early martyrs were affectionately revered by the members of the early Christian Church because of their sincere and lasting devotion to the cause of their glorified Lord. Hence, among others, the anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, which occurred in the thirty-fourth year of the Christian era, was duly and meetly observed. Some have spoken of him not only as the first of Christian martyrs, but as the greatest of all Christian martyrs.

I. His character.—He was a man of good repute. This is evident from the office he sustained in the Apostolic Church. He was elected to be a deacon in it; and, according to the Fathers, he held the primacy over the other deacons. He was also a man of strong faith. It is Divinely said that He was ‘full of faith.’ This kept the eye of his soul fixed on Jesus, fitted him for earth, and matured him for heaven. He was likewise a man of deep piety. Luke affirms that he was ‘full of the Holy Ghost.’ Full of light and love because full of Deity, his peace flowed like a river. He was a man of great courage. The advocacy of the truth as it is in Jesus exposed him to fierce persecution, but he stood up nobly for it. And when he exclaimed with rapture, ‘Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God,’ they stopped their ears, and with one accord fell upon him, and cast him out of the city, stoned him.

II. His martyrdom.—The tragic punishment they inflicted upon him was one legally denounced against notorious criminals. This was the punishment of a blasphemer, and to this awful kind of death St. Stephen yielded himself. Yet how fiendish the conduct of the men who accomplished it! But this death, albeit inhuman and diabolical, was met with prayer. No better proof could be given of the power and goodness of the religion of Jesus Christ. Death, though it came to Stephen in this merciless way, was but a sleep. This beautiful representation is indicative of rest and peace. Stephen had done his work, had accomplished his warfare. ‘Absent from the body,’ he was ‘present with the Lord.’

Illustration

‘If you are faithful witnesses, you cannot hope to escape the stones. That is the last resource of the enemy. If he cannot refute you, he has a much shorter method—he will stone you. That is a short and easy way of getting rid of awkward truths—stone the man who preaches them. That is what has been done thousands of times since St. Stephen’s day. There are many ways of pelting people without resort to the actual brickbats. Words spoken and written sometimes hit harder than stones. Take care how you shrink back when you begin to feel the stones. After all, you will not have so bad a time as Stephen. Hard words break no bones, though they may break hearts sometimes, and in this way test us nearly as severely. But Christianity has wrought a wonderful change since St. Stephen’s day. It is not so easy, in England at any rate, to stone people for their faith; but still, if you mean to be faithful to Christ, you will come in for a twentieth-century edition of the stones.