Acts 6:9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
11 So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” 12 This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council.
13 The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses. 14 We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.
I love that last verse - "his face became as bright as an angel's". But as I read this, I also thought of how people can become 'worked up' when they listen to lies. But they asked him if the accusations were true. He then began to tell them 'the story' of Jesus, from the prophecies of the Old Testament right up until he ended with this:
Acts 7:51 “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! 52 Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53 You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
His speech reminds me of Jesus when he addressed the 'religious leaders', who did all the right things outwardly, but their hearts were hard. And as if that wasn't enough, he followed it up with this:
54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 56 And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”
57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58 and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
I can just see them, furious with rage. Instead of listening to the truth of his words, as well as acknowledging that his face took on characteristics that were definitely 'abnormal', they covered their ears and shouted to drown out his words. I thought of us, when we have 'tivo-ed' a football game, and are watching something else and then they start to give recaps of the day's games. We do just that....put our hands over our ears and shout "na na na na na na na"! I would imagine they were shouting obscenities instead. But Stephen followed the example of Jesus, praying just as Jesus did on the cross.
Chapter 8 begins like this:
1 Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
And right after this, a great wave of persecution began, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers fled into Judea and Samaria. And Saul was going everywhere to devastate the church.
Acts 9:1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
But then, something happened. He had an encounter with Jesus.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! 6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
His encounter was quite dramatic. And I'm sure there are a lot of people who say, "If Jesus would encounter me like that, I would believe." But as Jesus said to Thomas “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me”, we have to respond by faith.
In the meantime, God had spoken to Ananias and told him to go to Saul. He had heard about Saul, and was 'arguing' with God because he was afraid. But God told him, "Go and do what I say", and so he did.
Acts 9:17 So Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.
Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
That's what happens when a person truly 'meets Jesus'. Your life just can't be the same. Some conversions are dramatic, like Saul's, and with some, the working out of that salvation is seen over time. But in any case, you are not the same.
I can imagine the leaders, acting like little children. You know that when you tell a child something that they don't want to hear, they do the exact same thing. Sometimes the truth reduces us to children, and we can either accept it like a child and with total faith, or do what the leaders did.
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