Acts 7:54

We have here the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, and there is in this story a lively instance of the outrage and fury of the persecutors (such as we may expect to meet with if we are called out to suffer for Christ), and of the courage and comfort of the persecuted, that are thus called out. Here is hell in its fire and darkness, and heaven in its light and brightness; and these serve as foils to set off each other. It is not here said that the votes of the council were taken upon his case, and that by the majority he was found guilty, and then condemned and ordered to be stoned to death, according to the law, as a blasphemer; but, it is likely, so it was, and that it was not by the violence of the people, without order of the council, that he was put to death; for here is the usual ceremony of regular executions - he was cast out of the city, and the hands of the witnesses were first upon him.

Let us observe here the wonderful discomposure of the spirits of his enemies and persecutors, and the wonderful composure of his spirit.

I. See the strength of corruption in the persecutors of Stephen - malice in perfection, hell itself broken loose, men become incarnate devils, and the serpent's seed spitting their venom.

1. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart (Act 7:54), dieprionto, the same word that is used Heb 11:37, and translated they were sawn asunder. They were put to as much torture in their minds as ever the martyrs were put to in their bodies. They were filled with indignation at the unanswerable arguments that Stephen urged for their conviction, and that they could find nothing to say against them. They were not pricked to the heart with sorrow, as those were Act 2:37, but cut to the heart with rage and fury, as they themselves were, Act 5:33. Stephen rebuked them sharply, as Paul expresses it (Tit 1:13), apotomōs - cuttingly, for they were cut to the heart by the reproof. Note, Rejecters of the gospel and opposers of it are really tormentors to themselves. Enmity to God is a heart-cutting thing; faith and love are heart-healing. When they heard how he that looked like an angel before he began his discourse talked like an angel, like a messenger from heaven, before he concluded it, they were like a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of the Lord, (Isa 51:20), despairing to run down a cause so bravely pleaded, and yet resolved not to yield to it.

2. They gnashed upon him with their teeth. This denotes, (1.) Great malice and rage against him. Job complained of his enemy that he gnashed upon him with his teeth, Job 16:9. The language of this was, Oh that we had of his flesh to eat! Job 31:31. They grinned at him, as dogs at those they are enraged at; and therefore Paul, cautioning against those of the circumcision, says, Beware of dogs, Phi 3:2. Enmity at the saints turns men into brute beasts. (2.) Great vexation within themselves; they fretted to see in him such manifest tokens of a divine power and presence, and it vexed them to the heart. The wicked shall see it and be grieved, he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away, Psa 112:10. Gnashing with the teeth is often used to express the horror and torments of the damned. Those that have the malice of hell cannot but have with it some of the pains of hell.

3. They cried out with a loud voice (Act 7:57), to irritate and excite one another, and to drown the noise of the clamours of their own and one another's consciences; when he said, I see heaven opened, they cried with a loud voice, that he might not be heard to speak. Note, It is very common for a righteous cause, particularly the righteous cause of Christ's religion, to be attempted to be run down by noise and clamour; what is wanting in reason is made up in tumult, and the cry of him that ruleth among fools, while the words of the wise are heard in quiet. They cried with a loud voice, as soldiers when they are going to engage in battle, mustering up all their spirit and vigour for this desperate encounter.

4. They stopped their ears, that they might not hear their own noisiness; or perhaps under pretence that they could not bear to hear his blasphemies. As Caiaphas rent his clothes when Christ said, Hereafter you shall see the Son of man coming in glory (Mat 26:64, Mat 26:65), so here these stopped their ears when Stephen said, I now see the Son of man standing in glory, both pretending that what was spoken was not to be heard with patience. Their stopping their ears was, (1.) A manifest specimen of their wilful obstinacy; they were resolved they would not hear what had a tendency to convince them, which was what the prophets often complained of: they were like the deaf adder, that will not hear the voice of the charmer, Psa 58:4, Psa 58:5. (2.) It was a fatal omen of that judicial hardness to which God would give them up. They stopped their ears, and then God, in a way of righteous judgment, stopped them. This was the work that was now in doing with the unbelieving Jews: Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy; thus was Stephen's character of them answered, You uncircumcised in heart and ears.

5. They ran upon him with one accord - the people and the elders of the people, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and spectators, they all flew upon him, as beasts upon their prey. See how violent they were, and in what haste - they ran upon him, though there was no danger of his outrunning them; and see how unanimous they were in this evil thing - they ran upon him with one accord, one and all, hoping thereby to terrify him, and put him into confusion, envying him his composure and comfort in soul, with which he wonderfully enjoyed himself in the midst of this hurry; they did all they could to ruffle him.

6. They cast him out of the city, and stoned him, as if he were not worthy to live in Jerusalem; nay, not worthy to live in this world, pretending herein to execute the law of Moses (Lev 24:16), He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death, all the congregation shall certainly stone him. And thus they had put Christ to death, when this same court had found him guilty of blasphemy, but that, for his greater ignominy, they were desirous he should be crucified, and God overruled it for the fulfilling of the scripture. The fury with which they managed the execution is intimated in this: they cast him out of the city, as if they could not bear the sight of him; they treated him as an anathema, as the offscouring of all things. The witnesses against him were the leaders in the execution, according to the law (Deu 17:7), The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him, to put him to death, and particularly in the case of blasphemy, Lev 24:14; Deu 13:9. Thus they were to confirm their testimony. Now, the stoning of a man being a laborious piece of work, the witnesses took off their upper garments, that they might not hang in their way, and they laid them down at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul, now a pleased spectator of this tragedy. It is the first time we find mention of his name; we shall know it and love it better when we find it changed to Paul, and him changed from a persecutor into a preacher. This little instance of his agency in Stephen's death he afterwards reflected upon with regret (Act 22:20): I kept the raiment of those that slew him.

II. See the strength of grace in Stephen, and the wonderful instances of God's favour to him, and working in him. As his persecutors were full of Satan, so was he full of the Holy Ghost, fuller than ordinary, anointed with fresh oil for the combat, that, as the day, so might the strength be. Upon this account those are blessed who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, that the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon them, Pe1 4:14. When he was chosen to public service, he was described to be a man full of the Holy Ghost (Act 6:5), and now he is called out to martyrdom he has still the same character. Note, Those that are full of the Holy Ghost are fit for any thing, either to act for Christ or to suffer for him. And those whom God calls out to difficult services for his name he will qualify for those services, and carry comfortably through them, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, that, as their afflictions for Christ abound, their consolation in him may yet more abound, and then none of these things move them. Now here we have a remarkable communion between this blessed martyr and the blessed Jesus in this critical moment. When the followers of Christ are for his sake killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter, does this separate them from the love of Christ? Does he love them the less? Do they love him the less? No, by no means; and so it appears by this narrative, in which we may observe.

1. Christ's gracious manifestation of himself to Stephen, both for his comfort and for his honour, in the midst of his sufferings. When they were cut to the heart, and gnashed upon him with their teeth, ready to eat him up, then he had a view of the glory of Christ sufficient to fill him with joy unspeakable, which was intended not only for his encouragement, but for the support and comfort of all God's suffering servants in all ages.

(1.) He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, Act 7:55. [1.] Thus he looked above the power and fury of his persecutors, and did as it were despise them, and laugh them to scorn, as the daughter of Zion, Isa 37:22. They had their eyes fixed upon him, full of malice and cruelty; but he looked up to heaven, and never minded them, was so taken up with the eternal life now in prospect that he seemed to have no manner of concern for the natural life now at state. Instead of looking about him, to see either which way he was in danger or which way he might make his escape, he looks up to heaven; thence only comes his help, and thitherward his way is still open; though they compass him about on every side, they cannot interrupt his intercourse with heaven. Note, A believing regard to God and the upper world will be of great use to us, to set us above the fear of man; for as far as we are under the influence of that fear we forget the Lord our Maker, Isa 51:13. [2.] Thus he directed his sufferings to the glory of God, to the honour of Christ, and did as it were appeal to heaven concerning them (Lord, for thy sake I suffer this) and express his earnest expectation that Christ should be magnified in his body. Now that he was ready to be offered he looks up stedfastly to heaven, as one willing to offer himself. [3.] Thus he lifted up his soul with his eyes to God in the heavens, in pious ejaculations, calling upon God for wisdom and grace to carry him through this trial in a right manner. God has promised that he will be with his servants whom he calls out to suffer for him; but he will for this be sought unto. He is nigh unto them, but it is in that for which they call upon him. Is any afflicted? Let him pray. [4.] Thus he breathed after the heavenly country, to which he saw the fury of his persecutors would presently send him. It is good for dying saints to look up stedfastly to heaven: "Yonder is the place whither death will carry my better part, and then, O death! where is thy sting?" [5.] Thus he made it to appear that he was full of the Holy Ghost; for, wherever the Spirit of grace dwells, and works, and reigns, he directs the eye of the soul upward. Those that are full of the Holy Ghost will look up stedfastly to heaven, for there their heart is. [6.] Thus he put himself into a posture to receive the following manifestation of the divine glory and grace. If we expect to hear from heaven, we must look up stedfastly to heaven.

(2.) He saw the glory of God (Act 7:55); for he saw, in order to this, the heavens opened, Act 7:56. Some think his eyes were strengthened, and the sight of them so raised above its natural pitch, by a supernatural power, that he saw into the third heavens, though at so vast a distance, as Moses's sight was enlarged to see the whole land of Canaan. Others think it was a representation of the glory of God set before his eyes, as, before, Isaiah and Ezekiel; heaven did as it were come down to him, as Rev 21:2. The heavens were opened, to give him a view of the happiness he was going to, that he might, in prospect of it, go cheerfully through death, so great a death. Would we by faith look up stedfastly, we might see the heavens opened by the mediation of Christ, the veil being rent, and a new and living way laid open for us into the holiest. The heaven is opened for the settling of a correspondence between God and men, that his favours and blessings may come down to us, and our prayers and praises may go up to him. We may also see the glory of God, as far as he has revealed it in his word, and the sight of this will carry us through all the terrors of sufferings and death.

(3.) He saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God (Act 7:55), the Son of man, so it is Act 7:56. Jesus, being the Son of man, having taken our nature with him to heaven, and being there clothed with a body, might be seen with bodily eyes, and so Stephen saw him. When the Old Testament prophets saw the glory of God it was attended with angels. The Shechinah or divine presence in Isaiah's vision was attended with seraphim, in Ezekiel's vision with cherubim, both signifying the angels, the ministers of God's providence. But here no mention is made of the angels, though they surround the throne and the Lamb; instead of them Stephen sees Jesus at the right hand of God, the great Mediator of God's grace, from whom more glory redounds to God than from all the ministration of the holy angels. The glory of God shines brightest in the face of Jesus Christ; for there shines the glory of his grace, which is the most illustrious instance of his glory. God appears more glorious with Jesus standing at his right hand than with millions of angels about him. Now, [1.] Here is a proof of the exaltation of Christ to the Father's right hand; the apostles saw him ascend, but they did not see him sit down, A cloud received him out of their sight. We are told that he sat down on the right hand of God; but was he ever seen there? Yes, Stephen saw him there, and was abundantly satisfied with the sight. He saw Jesus at the right hand of God, denoting both his transcendent dignity and his sovereign dominion, his uncontrollable ability and his universal agency; whatever God's right hand gives to us, or receives from us, or does concerning us, it is by him; for he is his right hand. [2.] He is usually said to sit there; but Stephen sees him standing there, as one more than ordinarily concerned at present for his suffering servant; he stood up as a judge to plead his cause against his persecutors; he is raised up out of his holy habitation (Zac 2:13), comes out of his place to punish, Isa 26:21. He stands ready to receive him and crown him, and in the mean time to give him a prospect of the joy set before him. [3.] This was intended for the encouragement of Stephen. He sees Christ is for him, and then no matter who is against him. When our Lord Jesus was in his agony an angel appeared to him, strengthening him; but Stephen had Christ himself appearing to him. Note, Nothing so comfortable to dying saints, nor so animating to suffering saints, as to see Jesus at the right hand of God; and, blessed be God, by faith we may see him there.

(4.) He told those about him what he saw (Act 7:56): Behold, I see the heavens opened. That which was a cordial to him ought to have been a conviction to them, and a caution to them to take heed of proceeding against one upon whom heaven thus smiled; and therefore what he saw he declared, let them make what use they pleased of it. If some were exasperated by it, others perhaps might be wrought upon to consider this Jesus whom they persecuted, and to believe in him.

2. Stephen's pious addresses to Jesus Christ. The manifestation of God's glory to him did not set him above praying, but rather set him upon it: They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, Act 7:59. Though he called upon God, and by that showed himself to be a true-born Israelite, yet they proceeded to stone him, not considering how dangerous it is to fight against those who have an interest in heaven. Though they stoned him, yet he called upon God; nay, therefore he called upon him. Note, It is the comfort of those who are unjustly hated and persecuted by men that they have a God to go to, a God all-sufficient to call upon. Men stop their ears, as they did here (Act 7:57), but God does not. Stephen was now cast out of the city, but he was not cast out from his God. He was now taking his leave of the world, and therefore calls upon God; for we must do this as long as we live. Note, It is good to die praying; then we need help-strength we never had, to do a work we never did - and how can we fetch in that help and strength but by prayer? Two short prayers Stephen offered up to God in his dying moments, and in them as it were breathed out his soul: -

(1.) Here is a prayer for himself: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Thus Christ had himself resigned his spirit immediately into the hands of the Father. We are here taught to resign ours into the hands of Christ as Mediator, by him to be recommended to the Father. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the Father's right hand, and he thus calls to him: "Blessed Jesus, do that for me now which thou standest there to do for all thine, receive my departing spirit into thy hand." Observe, [1.] The soul is the man, and our great concern, living and dying, must be about our souls. Stephen's body was to be miserably broken and shattered, and overwhelmed with a shower of stones, the earthly house of this tabernacle violently beaten down and abused; but, however it goes with that, "Lord," saith he, "'let my spirit be safe; let it go well with my poor soul." Thus, while we live, our care should be that though the body be starved or stripped the soul may be fed and clothed, though the body lie in pain the soul may dwell at ease; and, when we die, that though the body be thrown by as a despised broken vessel, and a vessel in which there is no pleasure, yet the soul may be presented a vessel of honour, that God may be the strength of the heart and its portion, though the flesh fail. [2.] Our Lord Jesus is God, to whom we are to seek, and in whom we are to confide and comfort ourselves living and dying. Stephen here prays to Christ, and so must we; for it is the will of God that all men should thus honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. It is Christ we are to commit ourselves to, who alone is able to keep what we commit to him against that day; it is necessary that we have an eye to Christ when we come to die, for there is no venturing into another world but under his conduct, no living comforts in dying moments but what are fetched from him. [3.] Christ's receiving our spirits at death is the great thing we are to be careful about, and to comfort ourselves with. We ought to be in care about this while we live, that Christ may receive our spirits when we die; for, if he reject and disown them, whither will they betake themselves? How can they escape being a prey to the roaring lion? To him therefore we must commit them daily, to be ruled and sanctified, and made meet for heaven, and then, and not otherwise, he will receive them. And, if this has been our care while we live, it may be our comfort when we come to die, that we shall be received into everlasting habitations.

(2.) Here is a prayer for his persecutors, Act 7:60.

[1.] The circumstances of this prayer are observable; for it seems to have been offered up with something more of solemnity than the former. First, He knelt down, which was an expression of his humility in prayer. Secondly, He cried with a loud voice, which was an expression of his importunity. But why should he thus show more humility and importunity in this request than in the former? Why, none could doubt of his being in good earnest in his prayers for himself, and therefore there he needed not to use such outward expressions of it; but in his prayer for his enemies, because that is so much against the grain of corrupt nature, it was requisite he should give proofs of his being in earnest.

[2.] The prayer itself: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Herein he followed the example of his dying Master, who prayed thus for his persecutors, Father, forgive them; and set an example to all following sufferers in the cause of Christ thus to pray for those that persecute them. Prayer may preach. This did so to those who stoned Stephen, and he knelt down that they might take notice he was going to pray, and cried with a loud voice that they might take notice of what he said, and might learn, First, That what they did was a sin, a great sin, which, if divine mercy and grace did not prevent, would be laid to their charge, to their everlasting confusion. Secondly, That, notwithstanding their malice and fury against him, he was in charity with them, and was so far from desiring that God would avenge his death upon them that it was his hearty prayer to God that it might not in any degree be laid to their charge. A sad reckoning there would be for it. If they did not repent, it would certainly be laid to their charge; but he, for his part, did not desire the woeful day. Let them take notice of this, and, when their thoughts were cool, surely they would not easily forgive themselves for putting him to death who could so easily forgive them. The blood-thirsty hate the upright, but the just seek his soul, Pro 29:10. Thirdly, That, though the sin was very heinous, yet they must not despair of the pardon of it upon their repentance. If they would lay it to their hearts, God would not lay it to their charge. "Do you think," saith St. Austin, "that Paul heard Stephen pray this prayer? It is likely he did and ridiculed it then (audivit subsannans, sed irrisit - he heard with scorn), but afterwards he had the benefit of it, and fared the better for it."

3. His expiring with this: When he had said this, he fell asleep; or, as he was saying this, the blow came that was mortal. Note, Death is but a sleep to good people; not the sleep of the soul (Stephen had given that up into Christ's hand), but the sleep of the body; it is its rest from all its griefs and toils; it is perfect ease from toil and pain. Stephen died as much in a hurry as ever any man did, and yet, when he died, he fell asleep. He applied himself to his dying work with as much composure of mind as if he had been going to sleep; it was but closing his eyes, and dying. Observe, He fell asleep when he was praying for his persecutors; it is expressed as if he thought he could not die in peace till he had done this. It contributes very much to our dying comfortably to die in charity with all men; we are then found of Christ in peace; let not the sun of life go down upon our wrath. He fell asleep; the vulgar Latin adds, in the Lord, in the embraces of his love. If he thus sleep, he shall do well; he shall awake again in the morning of the resurrection.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act_7:54 to Act_8:1. Effect of the Speech. Death of Stephen

54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart] There is a conjunction in the original which is not expressed in the English. Read, Now when, &c. On the last verb, which is only found here and in Act_7:33, see note there. It expresses the sort of cutting that would be made by a saw, and its effect is always one of irritation, and at last it came to be synonymous with gnashing the teeth for rage, with which expression it is here combined.

and they gnashed on him with their teeth] More literally, gnashed their teeth at him.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_7:54

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart.

The procedure against Stephen

I. The narrative. Full of faith and power, he did great wonders and miracles among the people. He is, therefore, singled out for special attack, not in relation to the reality of his miraculous pretensions, but on what, no doubt, his assailants felt with such a man would be their higher vantage ground, the open field of theological controversy. And herein they were foiled. Chosen as the disputants were most probably for their superior learning and abilities, they would doubtless look upon Stephen with much the same scorn as the armed warrior of Gath regarded the stripling of Bethlehem. But on coming to close hand strife, they found that human learning was a poor match against Divine gifts, and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. This signal defeat compelled a change in their mode of attack. Satan has more than one arrow in his quiver, and whenever he has set upon a man to destroy him, will never be wanting. If reasoning fail, the adversary will try invective; invective silenced, he has recourse to falsehood; falsehood confuted, there are well laid engines of subtlety and fraud and brute force. All these means were successively employed against Stephen. The refuted argument was followed by the charge of blasphemy. The groundless charge of blasphemy had to be propped up by bribed witnesses, as these could only obtain a judicial hearing by the violent dragging of the case before the council; and in the very act of making his defence before this body, Stephen is seized, cast out of the city, and put to death.

II. Its lesson. In reading narratives like this, we are prompted to look for some principles on which to account for the bitterness and violence which usually characterises religious persecution. Men, we know, will get angry sometimes if people differ from them in politics, and will even forget their charities when contending on the most ordinary topics of dispute; but the fury, the gnashing with the teeth, and the showers of stones, are only met with when that which is to be put down is the pure truth of God; when the object of popular hatred can have no end of his own to compass. The fact is a standing, undeniable testimony to the doctrine, that the carnal mind is enmity against God. If the feeling of the natural heart, which supervened upon the fall, had been only the negation of a former love towards God, leaving man to settle down into a Gallio unconcerndness, we should never have heard anything of the blood of martyrs. Men would no more have risen up against an apostle than against a philosopher. But the case we know to be far otherwise. Press upon the consciences of men in any age the obligations of spiritual religion; carry the lamp of Gods condemning truth into the hearts chambers of imagery; disturb that untempered mortar with which men daub over the walls of their refuge of lies, and in an instant you wake up the old feud of our nature; the embers begin to glow again of an ancient but long-slumbering fire; you have touched the man in the very quick of his cherished delusion, and at once he stands up in stout and rebellious front against God. Neither has advancing civilisation done more than restrain the outward expression of this feeling. It may have taught men, when convinced of the utter futility of their own religious principles, that they cannot now have recourse to the rude retributions of a rude age--but it has not dispossessed them of their malignity, or altered the original antagonism of the natural mind to the reception of Bible truth, or the practice of Bible requirements. If I tell a Socinian, that in the sight of God his moralities are no more than so many disguised and garnished sins; if I tell a man of right creed and pious activities, that if he has not something besides this, the publicans and harlots shall go into heaven before him; if I say to the proud, the worldly, the over-reaching, the slander-dealer, the uncharitable, the blasphemer, and the Sabbath-breaker, Ye have not the Spirit of Christ, and therefore can be none of His--yea, if I can so bring home these evidences of an unchanged heart to the individual conscience as that a man shall feel as if I were saying to him, Thou art the man whom, in your present state, the blood of Christ cannot reach; for whom the mansions of heaven can make no room; whose peace is a delusion, and whose hope is but a spiders web--spared though I may be from the gnashing teeth of unbridled rage, yet, while determined to stand out against conviction, the spirit of the persecutor is in that sinners heart, and only to the age, and other accidents of social life, is it owing that men are not found to rush upon a faithful messenger with one accord, and to cast him out of the city, and to stone him. By nature men hate truth as the midnight robber hates the light. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The first Christian martyr

I. The man. The form of his name would indicate that he was a Hellenist; that is, a Jew born among the Gentiles, speaking the Greek language, tits name also signifies a crown.

1. He was versed in the Scriptures. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. Cranmer and Ridley learned the New Testament by heart. They also saw its truths in relation to present duties of life. This was the case of the first Christian martyr. He exposed the false view of the Jews toward the temple and the law. They were cut to the heart, or, literally, they were sawn asunder in their hearts. It was not one staggering blow which did the work. The truth, laden with rebukes, was gradually making its way through their hearts, The personal application completed the work.

2. Stephen was spiritually enlightened. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven. We may not all have the privilege of Stephen to look into heaven in this life, but the Holy Spirit furnishes enlightening power. Spiritual breadth of vision follows. That creates confidence. Moses endured, seeing Him who is invisible; and the angel of God revealed himself unto Paul, saying, Fear not. Here was the basis of Stephens confidence. Facts of the visible world were newly impressed upon him. We see things here from a short range. Hence mystery and perplexity arise. He is sustained by a higher power, and looks with joy to the end.

3. He possessed a forgiving spirit. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. This prayer is without a parallel outside of Biblical history and its influence. Confucius, Isocrates, Seneca, and other Gentile writers hinted at the golden rule in a partial or negative form. But praying for ones enemies has thus far been discovered only in the Bible and in the line of its influence. The Cross first brings it to view.

II. Stephen witnessing to the truth.

1. He witnessed that Gods presence and favour were not limited to any set place. Stephen taught that Gods presence was not limited to a favoured few. This was one link in the chain which drew away Christians from Jewish rites. The disciples loved the temple. Who could blame them? Here Jesus gave some of His choicest revelations. But lingering amid the incense and smoking sacrifices too long they may bind these practices, only belonging to the past, on the new society, and fetter its future course. They were providentially thrust out into new fields, as we may be, by apparent disasters, to secure in the end the best results.

2. Stephen bore witness that Christ had been elevated to glory and power. I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Stephen was the first to bear witness to the fact of seeing Christ after His ascension. Paul and John were granted such visions later (Act_9:3-4; 1Co_9:1; Rev_1:12-17). Perhaps such witnessing was needed to encourage the early Church. It made visible things appear as a positive reality. It also confirmed Stephens teaching. Christ had taught that spiritual worship anywhere was pleasing to the Father. It would follow that a peculiar privilege had been granted to Stephen. Any rabbi might have coveted it. The glory of God had appeared to him as well as Abraham and to Moses. If his face had shone like that of an angel, his words now had a heavenly support.

3. Stephen bore witness that Jesus receives His people after death. He did not formally affirm this fact, but prayed to Jesus to receive his spirit; or, in bold literalness, Take my spirit by the hand. (J. H. Allen.)

The first Christian martyr

We have foregleams of the next life. Witnesses have had glimpses to which they have given testimony.

I. Stephen was a man of affairs. He was no dreaming enthusiast, however intense his spiritual life. He was equal to the demands of new enterprises where originality in planning and fertility of resource were requisite.

II. He, only a deacon, a layman, was full of faith and power.

III. This testimony he gives when he must seal his sincerity with his life. He knew what extremes Jewish hate could reach.

IV. He had given abundant proof of mental soundness and grasp in his resume of Jewish history and Gods dealings.

V. His spiritual elevation and fellowship appear, beautifully and gloriously, in his agreement in words and disposition with his dying master. Such a witness we can trust, however momentous the questions upon which he speaks. Points of Stephens testimony--

1. Heavens glory gladly and easily appreciable by redeemed souls. Infinite the necessary remove of heavens life from earths, but Gods redeemed ones can enter it with delight. However stupendous the transition, it is easy and quick; no narrowed and doubtful reception; the finite easily joins the infinite; the imperfect is neither shamed nor crippled by the perfect; the lowliest estate does not shrink or tremble as the highest glory suddenly bursts upon it. Stephen looked steadfastly.

2. Heaven is heaven because fined with Gods personal presence. Gods glory apart from His presence is inconceivable. The soul is made for God, and reposes only in Him. There its satisfactions are supreme and complete. Is Gods conscious presence welcome here now? If not, how can we meet Him face to face when this life shall open upon the next and His flooding glory appear on every side?

3. Jesus, in His glorified humanity, has the highest place in heavens honour, and welcomes His disciples as they follow Him. We are strongly impressed with Jesus manifold offices for His disciple band when with them in visible leadership. The story is dramatic in vividness and suggestive in teaching. But His personal relations now, His invisible leadership, mean much more every way. The glorified Jesus is the firstfruits of our redeemed humanity--in the fulness of time He will gather to Himself, to a full sharing of His glory, all who are washed in His blood and trained by His grace.

4. Dying saints are strengthened by foregleams, sometimes brilliant sight of heavens inhabitants bliss.

5. The spirit survives the body, its powers expanded and quickened. We reason about continued life, the body laid aside; but hear the proof in the experience of one qualified to speak. Stephen saw Jesus, and to Him committed his soul. We shudder at the thought of going into utter oblivion, life annihilated. From this fear the dying Stephen brings sure release.

6. The saved soul, redeemed by the blood of Christ and quickened by Divine grace, can thoroughly forgive. No test of Christian character is more trustworthy than this. No personal resentments embittered His dying hour. Will our pillow be free from such thorns? They are sharp and fatal to dying peace or eternal safety.

7. Divine Providence utilises all events to the forwarding of its world-embracing plans. A great apostle was needed for the Gentile world. Here that coming apostle had his first special training. As Augustine has said, But for Stephens prayers the Church would not have had its apostle Paul.

8. A significant fact that this detailed account of Stephens martyrdom stands alone. We needed it, that we might have this one vivid illustration of dying grace in a crisis so remarkable.

9. A typical instance of an apparent triumph of hostility to Jesus in His followers turning into overwhelming defeat. We tremble before assaults upon the Word of God, the organised Church and all related institutions; but such assaults, however successful in appearance, are but for the moment. Converts to Christ are, in most cases, born through the travail of some one.

10. Lighter trials may avail themselves of the same supports as came to the dying martyr. (S. Lewis B. Speare.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 7:54-56. When they heard these things — These plain, and undeniable, and alarming truths; they were cut to the heart — Or sawn asunder, the original word being the same that is used chap. Act 5:33. And not permitting him to proceed any further, in a transport of rage, they gnashed on him with their teeth — As if they would have devoured him alive. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost — And therefore no way terrified with the foresight of the evil which appeared to be determined against him; looked up steadfastly into heaven — From whence alone he could expect help or mercy; and saw the glory of God — Prepared for him; and Jesus standing on the right hand of God — Risen up from the throne of his glory, (for he is generally represented as sitting,) to afford help to his distressed servant, and ready to receive him. Doubtless many other martyrs, as Mr. Addison has observed, when called to suffer the last extremities, had extraordinary assistances of a similar kind; otherwise frail mortality could not have endured the torments under which they rejoiced, and sometimes preached Christ, to the conversion of spectators, and, in some instances, of their guards and tormentors.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_7:54. Cut to the heart.—See on Act_7:33. The word describes a keener pang than “pricked “in Act_2:37. Gnashed on him with their teeth.—Lit. snapped their teeth against him, like ferocious animals. The phrase only occurs here. The Sanhedrists “had passed beyond articulate speech into the inarticulate utterances of animal ferocity” (Plumptre).

Act_7:58. They stoned Stephen.—An illegal and tumultuous proceeding, as the Jews at this time had not the power of inflicting capital punishment without the authority of the Romans (Joh_18:31); most probably to be explained, like the murder of James (Act_12:2), by supposing that it took place in an interregnum, perhaps about A.D. 37, after the removal of Pilate, and before the arrival of his successor (Renan, Hausrath).

Act_7:60. The words fell asleep suggest the Christian view of death (Act_13:36; 1Co_15:18, etc.).

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_7:54-60

The Martyrdom of Stephen; or, the First Taste of Blood

I. Stephen’s last look into heaven (Act_7:55).—

1. Where he stood.

(1) In the council chamber. Baur was greatly exercised to understand “how Stephen could have seen the heavens opened in the room in which, doubtless, the sitting of the Sanhedrim was held;” but the eye of faith can see heaven from any spot on earth. Moses beheld it from the land of Egypt (Heb_11:27), Isaiah from the temple (Isa_6:1), Ezekiel from the banks of the Chebar (Eze_1:1), Peter from the house top (Act_10:11), John from Patmos (Rev_4:1).

(2) Confronted by infuriated foes who gnashed upon him with their teeth. No external circumstances can dim faith’s eye, or prevent it from looking within the veil. Varied as were the situations of those just mentioned, all alike gazed on things unseen (Heb_11:1).

2. How he looked.

(1) His internal condition. Filled with the Holy Ghost. As water rises to its level, so does the Holy Spirit of which water is an emblem. As fire and flame ascend to the skies, so does the Holy Spirit, of which these are symbols, ever soar heavenward. The Spirit, which is “God’s breath in man,” habitually “returns to its (place of) birth” (George Herbert). The Holy Ghost, descending from above and entering the human soul, instinctively impels it to look above.

(2) His external manner. With steadfast gaze, like that with which the apostles followed the departing Christ (Act_1:10), he fixed his eyes upon the scene which unfolded itself before his mental vision. There is no need to ask whether he saw the sky through the chamber window. The upward glance was only a symbol of the inward look.

3. What he saw.

(1) The glory of God. The luminous symbol of the divine presence which Abraham beheld in Ur (Act_7:2), Moses upon Sinai (Exo_33:23), and Ezekiel at Chebar (Eze_1:28), which filled first the tabernacle (Exo_40:34), and afterwards the temple (1Ki_8:11), which shone round the shepherds (Luk_2:9), and appeared upon the transfiguration mount (Luk_9:32).

(2) Jesus standing on the right hand of God. As if He had risen to protect or receive His servant, say some, though it is doubtful whether any special significance should be attached to Christ’s attitude. The point of importance is that Stephen, on the eve of martyrdom, enjoyed a vision of the glorified Christ. Saul (Act_9:17), and John (Rev_1:13), had similar visions, though neither of these occurred at death (see “Hints on Act_7:55”).

II. Stephen’s last testimony for Christ (Act_7:56).—

1. Introduced by a note of exclamation. “Behold!” as if he meant to say: “This from a dying man receive as certain,” or to call attention to its supreme importance as his last word of testimony that would fall upon their ears.

2. Continued by a startling declaration.

(1) That he was looking into heaven—“I see the heavens opened,” those heavens out of which Christ affirmed He had come (Joh_3:13; Joh_6:38), and into which His disciples had beheld Him depart (Act_1:11); which heavens, therefore, were a reality, and not merely a fiction of the mind (Joh_14:2), and nearer to them than they had ever imagined.

(2) That in heaven He beheld Jesus—I see “the Son of Man,” referring to Him by this name that there might be no mistake as to whom he meant—the personage they knew so well, who, when He stood where Stephen then stood, had called Himself by this designation (Mat_26:64)—no mistake as to His identity, and none as to His continued existence in a bodily form, and therefore none as to His resurrection.

(3) That the Jesus whom he saw was standing on the right hand of God. Perhaps a circumstance full of comfort for the dying deacon, as if it indicated that Christ had risen from His throne in holy eagerness, either to support and protect, or to receive and welcome His courageous servant (but see above), certainly a statement fitted to alarm those who remembered that Jesus of Nazareth had used similar speech concerning Himself (Mar_14:62), and had even spoken about coming with great power and glory (Mar_13:26), fitted to suggest that the Son of man, whom they had crucified, had already started up, and was on the move to avenge His death.

3. Interrupted by a fierce demonstration.

(1) By an angry shout, crying out, most likely, that he should be silenced and put to death, as the people had before cried out against his Master (Mat_27:23; Joh_19:12), and afterwards against Paul (Act_22:22-23).

(2) By a suggestive action, stopping their ears, as if they could not listen without holy horror to what they regarded as blasphemy. (Compare Zec_7:11.)

4. Followed by a murderous infliction. The assault which ensued was—

(1) Sudden. “They rushed upon him,” under the impulse of blind and unreflecting fury, feeling, perhaps, with regard to the thought that was in their hearts, that “’twere well it were done quickly” (Macbeth, i. 7).

(2) Unanimous—“with one accord”—a striking contrast to the “one accord” of the disciples (ii. 46), a unity of hate and sin rather than of love and grace.

(3) Violent. “They cast him out of the city,” as the inhabitants of Nazareth had once done to Christ (Luk_4:29), “and they stoned him,” as the men of Jerusalem had more than once threatened to do to Christ (Joh_10:31; Joh_11:8).

(4) Illegal. At this time the Jews possessed not the power of inflicting capital punishment. (See “Critical Remarks.”) Yet

(5) Deliberate. “The witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.” This accorded with the Hebrew law, which required the accusers to begin the work of lapidation (Deu_13:10; Deu_17:7). Many who shudder at breaking the letter of the law have no scruples at violating its spirit.

III. Stephen’s last cry for himself (Act_7:59).—Uttered—

1. With perfect calmness of spirit. Recognising that his end was come he quietly prepared to receive the lethal missiles. No cry for mercy from his enemies escaped his lips, no fluster or fear appeared in his countenance, speech, or manner. With absolute composure he resigned himself to die—in this furnishing a bright example to Christians. (Compare the fortitude of Paul, Act_21:13; Act_25:11.)

2. With unfaltering trust in Christ. Addressing Him as Lord Jesus, Stephen intimated in the hearing of his executioners his faith in Christ’s divinity (Lord) and ability to save (Jesus). Such faith has enabled multitudes since Stephen’s day to die in peace. Nothing else will impart the calm which Stephen displayed.

3. With certain hope of felicity. As Christ, following the example of the Psalmist (Psa_31:5), had commended His spirit to the Father’s hand (Luk_23:46), so Stephen now commends his spirit to the hands of Christ. A proper model for the dying Christian. So the dying Huss was often heard to repeat the words: “Into Thy hands. O Lord, I commend my spirit”; and was followed by his fellow-martyr Jerome of Prague (Neander’s Church History, vol. ix., pp. 536, 549, Bohn’s Edition). Since Christ is in glory, the soul that His hands receive must be blessed indeed.

IV. Stephen’s last prayer for his enemies (Act_7:60).—

1. Its manner.

(1) With reverent humility—“he kneeled down.” As Solomon did when invoking Jehovah’s presence to come into the temple (2Ch_6:13); as Daniel when he prayed towards Jerusalem (Dan_6:10); as Christ in Gethsemane (Luk_22:41); as Peter when raising Dorcas (Act_9:40); as Paul at Miletus (Act_20:36) and at Tyre (Act_21:5). Kneeling most suitable when the soul is charged with deep emotion. Stephen “stood when he prayed for himself: he kneeled when he prayed for his enemies” (Trapp).

(2) With fervent supplication—“he cried with a loud voice,” thus marking the intensity of his desire. Although noise in devotion is not always to be mistaken for spiritual ardour (2Ki_18:28), and although feeling may sometimes be too deep for utterance (1Sa_1:13), yet as a rule suppliants, who are in earnest, cry aloud and spare not (Psa_142:1; Mat_20:31).

2. Its burden. That the sin of his executioners and murderers might not be laid to their charge. A prayer modelled after Christ’s on the Cross (Luk_23:34). Such a prayer as had never been offered till Christ set the example (contrast the prayer of Zechariah, 2Ch_24:21), and such a prayer as has no parallel outside the Christian Church, though within such parallels are not wanting. John Huss, the Bohemian Reformer, when the order was given to kindle the flames around him, only uttered these words: “Lord Jesus! I endure with humility this cruel death for Thy sake; and I pray Thee to pardon all my enemies” (Waddington’s Church, History, p. 595).

3. Its effect. What impression Stephen’s prayer produced upon his enemies cannot be told, though, it may be surmised, that one at least never forgot it, and that Augustine’s remark is true, “If Stephen had not prayed the Church would not have possessed Paul.” As to Stephen himself, his devotions calmed his spirit and enabled him to fall asleep. And what a falling asleep it was! “He fell asleep among flints and awoke among jewels” (Besser). The same writer adds: “Stephen means a garland or crown. When his mother named her child so she little thought of an imperishable crown of honour; but Stephen’s spiritual mother, the Holy Church, honours the first bearer of her martyr crown by celebrating his memory on the day after Christmas, according to the motto ‘yesterday was Christ born upon the earth, that to-day Stephen might be born in heaven’ ” (Besser).

“Foremost and nearest to His throne,

By perfect robes of triumph known,

And likest Him in look and tone

The holy Stephen kneels,

With steadfast gaze, as when the sky

Flew open to his fainting eye,

Which, like a fading lamp flash’d high

Seeing what death conceals.”—Keble.

Conclusion.—They who would share with Stephen the glory of wearing that immortal crown must

1. Look by faith into that opened heaven into which he gazed;

2. Contemplate with believing adoration that exalted Christ whom he beheld;

3. Testify by their lives, as he did by his, to the Saviour in whom they trust;

4. Commit themselves to Christ as he did when they come to die; and

5. Fall asleep as he did, breathing forth forgiveness upon all.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_7:56. The opened Heavens.

I. For the glory of God to shine through.

II. For the grace of God to come through.

III. For the spirit of man to pass through.—

1. By the exercise of faith.

2. In the offering up of prayer.

3. At the hour of dissolution.

Act_7:58. Changed Stones.—The stones cast by the world against Christ’s witnesses are changed.

I. Into monuments of shame for the enemies of the truth.

II. Into jewels in the crowns of the glorified martyrs.

III. Into the seed of new life for the Church of Christ.—Gerok.

The young Man named Saul.

I. His early biography.—

1. His birthplace. Tarsus in Cilicia (Act_9:11, Act_21:39, Act_22:3).

2. His parentage. The son of a tent-maker, or worker in hair cloth (Act_18:3). That Paul had a sister is mentioned by Luke (Act_23:16); that he had a brother (2Co_8:16-24) whom he afterwards converted to Christianity (Hausrath) is, to say the least, doubtful.

3. His citizenship. Roman, obtained by birth (Act_16:37; Act_22:28).

4. His education. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Act_22:3; Act_26:4).

5. His religion. A pharisee and the son of a pharisee (Act_22:3; Act_23:6; Act_26:5; Php_3:5; Gal_1:14).

6. His nationality. A Hebrew of the Hebrews (2Co_11:22; Php_3:5); of the tribe of Benjamin (Php_3:5).

II. His first appearance in history.—

1. An accomplice in murder. “The witnesses laid down their clothes at his feet.”

2. A ferocious persecutor. “He laid waste the Church,” etc. (Act_8:3).

3. A commissioned assassin. Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, he asked and obtained letters from the high priest empowering him to hunt them down at Damascus (Act_9:1).

III. His remarkable conversion (see “Homiletical Analysis on Act_9:1-9”).—

1. His journey to Damascus.

2. His sudden arrestment.

3. His vision of the exalted Christ.

4. His complete and instantaneous surrender.

IV. His subsequent career.—

1. As a missionary of the cross. His three journeys, the first with Barnabas (13, 14), the second with Silas (16–18:22), the third with Timothy (Act_18:23 to Act_21:17).

2. As a founder of churches. In Asia Minor and on the shores of Europe.

3. As a writer of epistles. Certainly four—Romans , 1 and 2 Corinthians and Galatians—proceeded from his pen; most likely other eight—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians , 1 and 2 Thessalonians , 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus—possibly also Hebrews.

V. His martyr death.—His career.

1. Opened by assisting at the murder of Stephen, and

2. Closed by himself being slain.

Act_7:59. Stephen’s Three Crowns.

I. The fair crown of grace with which the Lord adorned him in his life and work.

II. The bloody crown of thorns which he wore after his Saviour in suffering and death.

III. The heavenly crown of glory which was reserved in eternity for the faithful martyr.

Stephen’s Prayer for Himself.

I. The doctrines it contained.—

1. The divinity of Christ.

2. The existence of man’s spirit.

3. Future immortality.

4. The efficacy of prayer.

II. The spirit it exemplified.—

1. Devout adoration.

2. Humble resignation.

3. Hopeful expectation.

III. The lessons it taught.—

1. How to pray.

2. How to die.

Act_7:60. Stephen’s Prayer for his Enemies.

I. Sin is always, in the first instance at least, charged to or laid to the account of its perpetrators.—God can by no means clear the guilty (Exo_34:7).

II. Sin, however, may in certain instances not be charged to its perpetrators. Forgiveness is not impossible (Psa_130:4).

III. If sin is not to be charged to its perpetrator’s account, it is the Lord who must grant the requisite discharge.—God alone can forgive sins (Mar_2:7), but Christ is God, and Christ by His death and resurrection has rendered it possible for sin to be forgiven (Rom_3:25-26).

IV. The followers of Jesus Christ may and should pray for the forgiveness of sins to others than themselves, even for their enemies. Christ commanded them to do so (Mat_5:44; Luk_6:28), and exemplified His own command (Luk_23:34).

The Sleep of Stephen.

I. Rested him from his labours (Rev_14:13).

II. Released him from his sufferings (Rev_7:14).

III. Introduced him to heaven (2Co_5:1).

IV. Crowned him with glory (Rev_2:10).

Act_7:54-60. The First Christian Martyr.

I. The call of Stephen was to martyrdom.—Neither he nor the Church knew the honour which awaited him. The office of the first deacons was humble. They were to “serve tables,” a labour too secular and secondary for apostles. Stephen illustrates the truth that the humblest service leads to the highest. We do not want so much men for large places as men to enlarge small places. What God wanted of Stephen did not fully appear at the first.

II. Stephen was called because he was full of the Holy Ghost.—The power of the Pentecostal baptism was upon him to a degree so extraordinary as to have drawn the attention of the Church. In the brief description of his gift, the Greek verb expresses a spiritual state. The gift in him was not occasional or transient. He was habitually a man of spiritual power. The presence of this power in him was recognised as a qualification for his official duties. Through the Spirit

(1) he had a message. The characteristic of his preaching, in distinction from that of all others of his time, was, that he carried the Christian doctrine to a new development. He went beyond the apostles. They continued to worship in the temple. They honoured the ceremonial law. They did not break with the religious class in the nation. It had not begun fully to appear how revolutionary the gospel was. Stephen made the break. He taught that Christianity was a universal religion. As sin is universal, redeeming grace is for mankind. This is biblical universalism—the universality of guilt and of grace. In his so-called defence we see the character of his preaching. He had nothing to say for himself: he preached Christ. God knows his theologians. He chose a deacon. The reason suggested is, that to so pre-eminent a degree he was filled with the Spirit. All true advances of Christian doctrine have been entrusted to spiritual men. The qualification for great teachers, the leaders of revolutions, the qualifications for all teachers sent from God, is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Through the Spirit

(2) Stephen had the power of a holy face. Those in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. What is the characteristic of an angel’s face? The word suggests softness, purity, spirituality. We apply the adjective “angelic” to womanly sweetness and grace, but the angels of the Bible are masculine. Sweetness there may have been in Stephen, purity there must have been; but more than these the council saw, what they associated with the heavenly messengers who appeared to Adam and Eve, to Manoah, to David, to the Prophets—glory, spiritual power, the ineffable, Divine light. It riveted them; it awed them. The baptism of the Spirit is an illumination. The face of every new-born soul begins to shine with the light that was never on sea or land. He is transfigured. Through the Holy Spirit

(3) Stephen displayed the Divine union of severity and gentleness. His outbreak was terrible: “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!” uttered with that angelic face. The words might be hastily taken as the utterance of passion. The expression of righteous wrath resembles passion; but, as Jesus never had more absolute control of Himself than when He pronounced His great indictments, so at no point in his argument had Stephen more absolute control of his soul than in his final denunciation. This remarkable association of wrath and love, as elements of the same emotion, is superhuman; it is Divine; it is the manifestation of the fulness of the presence of the Holy Ghost. Through the Spirit

(4) Stephen had a vision. He seemed to have a spiritual intimation. He looked up. The earnestness of his gaze was intense. “He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” The vision was inward. No eye but his saw it. Through the Spirit

(5) Stephen was sustained. He triumphed over pain. This power the Spirit gives. Christian martyrs have sung in the flames, and called them beds of roses.

III. The effects of the martyrdom.—Stephen’s death seemed a calamity. Time alone could show the wisdom of God’s large plan. But He makes no mistakes. Notice

(1) the effect on the world. He showed the world how a Christian could die. Observe

(2) the effect upon the Church. In all ages, persecution has been one of the greatest providential agencies for the spread of the gospel. Again, notice

(3) the effect on the apostles. They remained in Jerusalem. Their position must have been of great danger, responsibilility, distress. They did not flee; they stayed at their posts. The influence of their constancy upon the Christians, and also upon their enemies, must have been very great. Observe

(4) the effect upon the devout Jews. Of this class were the men who bore Stephen to his burial. They were not Christians, but favourably disposed toward Christianity. The persecution tested them. At the peril of their lives they paid the murdered man the reverence of burial. They were led to take an open stand. We see, finally

(5), the effect on Saul. Upon him the impression was deep. His reference to the part he had had in the murder, when he was in his trance at Damascus, shows it. One of the goads against which, from that time, he kicked in vain, was then buried in his heart. The immediate result was to infuriate him. He became exceeding mad. Our great intellectual changes are unconscious. They are parts of a larger movement, which is vital. The movement of the life is secret, involuntary, slow, like the growth of trees, like the coming on of summer. We argue against the truth. We triumph in the debate. But an influence has been let into our lives which gently lifts us, loosens us from our old moorings, and shifts us unconsciously to the opposite side of the stream. We find ourselves there. This process of vital movement, this set of the soul, may have taken place with Saul. Stephen may have been, probably he was, his spiritual father. The truth, which could only be answered by stones, lived on invulnerable. It took root in him.—Monday Club Sermons.

The First Christian Martyr.—Stephen had grown up into Christ in all things. His energy had been prodigiously effective. The whole city had been put into commotion. Bad men were passionately agreed. This deacon stood straight across their path. How might they be rid of him? When it came to speaking, there was really little to be said—to them. Need we talk to a storm? Do we choose words for wolves? It does not appear that Stephen even hoped to move that high-priest. As to what he really did intend, there has been a long debate. But he was probably speaking to the future, thinking aloud, building better than he knew. Providence was taking care of his speech. It was given him in that same hour. So the ideas have no shackles on. The truth has made him free. With a Gentile largeness and liberty of interpretation he expounds the Scriptures. What would be the effect of such discourse upon priests and scribes and elders may readily be anticipated. He has only to look into their angry eyes. But while this tempest rages, and in the midst of it all, there is one still place. It is the martyr’s own heart. He is not disturbed. He has no resentments and no fears. It does not seem far to heaven, and it was not far. Jesus, “standing,” risen from the throne, is ready to aid His friend, to hear his last words, and to “receive” his spirit. So the sufferer “fell asleep.” One witness at least there was of these events whose dreams for many a night they disturbed. Like serpents’ fangs they stung his conscience. It is probable that he had already been prominent among “them of Cilicia” “disputing with Stephen.” Perhaps to his hearing of the address before the council we may owe the extended report preserved for us. At any rate, with the mob he strode from the “stone chamber” to the city-walls. He was close enough to the actual violence to see the face and hear the voice of the expiring Christian.

I. We can see how bad men are made to serve the good cause.—A wise prayer for the devil would be, “Save me from my friends.” It was the design of these conspirators to cripple, and if possible to destroy, the infant Church. But it is manifest how they only strengthened and enlarged it. The people had again seen the contrast between piety and pretence. In such a case the charm of real goodness could not but win friends. It is not safe, indeed, in any case to despise even the humblest virtue. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” So it proved here. There were men and women who night and day could only think with tears how this brave servant of the truth had been struck down. See, too, how this crime wrought upon the young man Saul. So does a bad purpose blunder and defeat itself. It is like Pharaoh kindling Moses, like Goliath summoning David. A pope makes Luther necessary, and finds Him; King Charles brings Cromwell out; the Georges develop Washington; and a prison gives to the world John Bunyan and his book. At every point, therefore, were the enemies of the gospel made to aid the gospel. They excited popular indignation against their own cruelty. They secured the planting in the mind of Saul of germs of truth “which, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, afterwards developed into the Epistles with which we are now so familiar.” “And the more havoc” they made of the Church at Jerusalem the more quickly was the Church established in many distant localities.

II. We seldom know at the time how much good we may be doing.—Our opportunity often comes when we are least aware of it. Stephen could not have failed to see that he was fighting a “good fight.” It perhaps occurred to him that his death might aid the truth more than his life could have done. But how little he suspected the real culmination of his power! “If Stephen had not prayed, the Church would not have had Paul,” Augustine said. There was the tremendous circumstance. Such opportunities we easily fail to meet. They are not likely to be repeated. If we have no mind for them, no heart for them, life creeps on, commonplace, feeble, small. Stephen made no such failure. Though quite unconscious of the sublimity of the hour, he kept on in duty. That once more proved to be the path of glory.

III. We may also learn that our visions come when we need them.—“He saw heaven opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” To troubled, weary Christians the fear will sometimes arise that the Redeemer has forgotten them. “Carest Thou not that we perish?” is apt to be the cry of unbelief in storms and perils. But in the nick of time comfort comes. There is “grace to help in time of need.” Jacob, solitary, absent from home, laying his head upon a stone at Jabbok, has a vision of God and receives the promise.

IV. It is clear that such dying as Stephen’s is possible only as the fruit of such living as his.—Thus far in the brief Christian history death had often served as a dreadful warning. In utter darkness Judas, an apostle, had gone to “his own place.” Ananias and Sapphira had met their sudden doom. Now, however, in contrast with such dismal dying, comes this martyr’s victory. If we would “die the death of the righteous,” we must be careful to live the righteous life. We need envy no man’s triumph, whether in death or in life, as if it were luck instead of labour. “Do men gather grapes of thorns?” Whoever meets occasions, furnishing what is needed, only discloses the completeness of former preparations of mind and heart. For those who have a little of Stephen’s grace, Stephen’s Lord will lead the way to Stephen’s victory.—H. A. Edson, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

C.—stephen is stoned, but dies with blessed hopes, a conqueror through the name of jesus

Act_7:54-60

54[But] When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashedon him with their teeth. 55But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into [to] heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right handof God, 56And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened,40 and the Son of man standingon the right hand of God. 57Then they cried out41 with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran [rushed] upon him with one accord, 58And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whosename was Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God42, and [invoking, and]saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And [But] he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_7:54. When they heard these things.—The terms of reproach which the speaker employed, when he reminded his hearers of their ungodly sentiments, their violations of the law, and the guilt which they had contracted by crucifying Jesus, deeply wounded their pride. Their wrath, which they could scarcely control, found a vent, when he uttered the next words. [For διεπρίοντο, see above, note No. 3, on Act_5:33, appended to the text.—Tr.]

Act_7:55-56. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost.—While his hearers yielded more and more to their violent passions, and were filled with a carnal fire, and, indeed, with a spirit from the bottomless pit, the soul of this faithful witness, on the contrary, was filled, by the grace of God, with a heavenly fire—he was full of the Holy Ghost from above. Instead of looking at the men who surrounded him, and whose increasing fury might have inspired him with fear, or awakened a carnal zeal in his own soul, he looked up, and, full of faith and hope, directed his longing glance towards heaven. And he gazes in the spirit, in an ecstasy, on an object which the eye of the body cannot behold, and which no other person in that place saw at that moment, namely, the δόξα Θεοῦ (comp. ὁ Θεὸςτ. δόξης, Act_7:2), the celestial splendor in which God himself appears; he saw, too, Jesus standing on the right hand of God. As a fearless confessor, he declares aloud all that he beholds. He mentions, in Act_7:56, two particulars which characterize this internal vision:—first, the heavens are opened even unto the innermost sanctuary, unto the highest heaven (and here the plural number claims attention) [“the third heaven,” 2Co_12:2; see the note on the passage in a subsequent volume.—Tr.].; secondly, he sees the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. It is remarkable that he here applies the name to Jesus, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, which the Saviour himself so frequently employs, while the four Gospels do not mention a single case in which it was pronounced by another; and neither the evangelists nor the apostles employ it themselves in the Gospels, the Acts, or the Epistles. [The phrase: “like unto the Son of man”, Rev_1:13; Rev_14:14, is peculiar.—Tr.]. But here Stephen, to whom, perhaps, the language in Dan_7:13-14, [or, possibly, that in Mat_26:64 (Alford)] occurred at the moment, applies this name to the Messiah, Jesus. The employment of it in the present passage is, unquestionably, an evidence of the historical fidelity of the narrative before us.—Another peculiarity in the language of Stephen is the circumstance that he sees Jesus standing (ἑστῶτα) on the right hand of God. The Lord is always described, both in his own statements (Mat_26:64), and in those of the apostles and evangelists (e. g., Eph_1:20; Mar_16:19), as sitting at the right hand of God. Here, too, the language before us strikingly differs from the usual form of expression, and thus furnishes another illustration of the genuineness and fidelity of the whole narrative. What is implied by the fact that Jesus is standing at the right hand of God? Doubtless, that he has arisen, and stands ready to receive and welcome this faithful witness (comp. Act_7:59), quasi obvium Stephano. (Bengel). [Chrysostom had already replied to the question just proposed: ἵνα δείξῃ τὴν ἀντίληψιν τὴν εἰς τὸν μάρτυρα. (Alf. ad loc.).—Tr.]. The credibility of this statement respecting the vision, is attested by the circumstance that it was seen by him alone, and by no other, inasmuch as the account in Act_7:55 could have been derived only from his own words as reported in Act_7:56. It is needless to resort either to the attenuating interpretation that Stephen merely intended to express his unshaken faith in the glorification of Jesus, and in his own early entrance into heaven (Michaelis), or to the neutralizing conjecture that the historian himself had simply wished to give distinctness and force to his individual view, by expressing himself as if an ecstatic vision had actually been granted to Stephen.

Act_7:57. Then they cried out.—The exasperation of the hearers reached its height, and could no longer be controlled, when Stephen bore witness, in accordance with the vision, to the exaltation and glorification of Jesus. They began to utter loud cries, in order that he might not be understood, and stopped their ears, so that they might not hear his supposed blasphemies. Then they rushed upon him in a body, drove him with violence from the city and stoned him. The session of the council was suddenly brought to a close by the fanatical tumult which commenced; and the lapidation which followed, was, professedly, a religious act, an example of popular justice. It is apparent that a judicial decision had not yet been formally announced (Ewald), and, further, that no sentence pronounced by the Sanhedrin had yet been submitted to the Roman procurator, without whose sanction the Jews could not inflict capital punishments [Joh_18:31]. In these respects the proceedings were unjustifiable and illegal. But we are by no means authorized by the facts before us, to assert that such a tumultuary termination of a session of the Sanhedrin (which obviously began amid much excitement), could not possibly have occurred in reality. There is no reason whatever for denying the historical accuracy of the narrative, and assuming, as Baur and Zeller are inclined to do, first, that the whole occurrence was nothing more, even from the beginning, than a popular tumult, and secondly, that the account of the official action of the Sanhedrin should be wholly rejected, as an unhistorical addition.—They cast him ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, in accordance with the law, Lev_24:14, that a blasphemer should be stoned “without the camp”, in order that the abode of the people might not be desecrated by an execution. [Comp. 1Ki_21:13; Heb_13:12-13.]

Act_7:58. Stoned him; the term ἐλιθοβόλουν is here employed summarily, or by way of anticipation, and is not to be understood in the sense that they prepared or attempted (conatus) to stone him; the fact itself is stated in its proper order in the next verse.—And the witnesses laid down their clothes.—The men who had witnessed against Stephen, Act_6:13, were required by the law (Deu_17:7) to cast the first stones on the transgressor. In order that they might not be impeded in the act by their wide and flowing upper garments, they laid these aside, and intrusted them to the care of the young man who was named Saul. Then they and the rest of the people hurled stones at Stephen.

Act_7:59. Stephen, calling upon, etc.—The dying martyr uttered two exclamations: the first is a petition referring to himself; he beseeches Jesus, the exalted Lord, to receive his departing spirit unto himself in heaven. He utters the second with a loud and distinct voice, on his knees; it is an intercessory petition for the forgiveness of his murderers. [It is “copied from our Lord’s upon the cross, Luk_23:34” (J. A. Alex.), but “no parallel to it can be found out of Christian history.” (Hack.).—Tr.].—Μἢστήσῃς—τήν ἁμ. ταύτην, literally translated, is: “Establish not this sin unto them”, (comp. Rom_10:3), the antithetic or corresponding term [to ἱστάναι, here, subj. aor.—Tr.] being ἀφιέναι. Others translate: “Weigh not this sin unto them”, i.e. “Do not recompense them according to strict justice.” Both of the petitions are addressed to Jesus; this is, undeniably, true of the former, unless we offer violence to the text, (namely, by arbitrarily pronouncing ̔Ἱησοῦ to be a genitive); [“It is in the vocative case, as in Rev_22:20.” (de Wette).—Tr.]; it is equally true with regard to the latter, [For the words: upon God, in the English version, see note 3 above, appended to the text.—Tr.]

Act_7:60. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.—Luke describes the end of Stephen by designedly employing a word [occurring, e. g., Joh_11:11; Act_13:36; 2Pe_3:4], which does not, at first view, seem to correspond in the least to a violent and bloody death. He evidently intends to imply by it, that the end of the noble disciple had, nevertheless, been peaceful, through the divine power and grace of the Redeemer, who overcame for him the terrors of a bloody death, and received his spirit. For although Stephen was overpowered and murdered by lawless violence and a brutal fury that was set on fire of hell, nevertheless, even when he succumbed, he gained a glorious victory by his steadfast faith, his forgiving love, and his patience. The people of Israel seemed, indeed, to have prevailed, when they silenced this enlightened and bold confessor of Jesus, by robbing him of life. But they sustained a vast moral and religious loss, through their implacable hostility towards Stephen, their increased obduracy and opposition to the truth, and the growing power which their mad passions acquired over them. They degraded themselves, became a prey to their delusions and passions, and were, in truth, not the conquering, but the conquered party.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The vision, or view of the opened sanctuary of heaven, which was granted to Stephen immediately before his cruel death, and which was intended to strengthen his faith and establish his earnestness of purpose, was not an objective appearance, but an internal illumination. For it was solely by virtue of the fulness of the Holy Ghost imparted to him, that he was enabled to glance into heaven. The operations of the Holy Spirit, proceeding forth from the soul, not only furnished him with internal views, but also embodied, as it were, the objects seen, and presented them to the external eye, so that he saw with his eyes (ἰδού, θεωρῶ) what his heart had previously believed. This seeing was a foretaste of that “sight” which, in the world of glory, will take the place of “faith.” [2Co_5:7.]

2. The Son of man standing on the right hand of God.—Stephen sees and recognizes Jesus; he had doubtless previously known him on earth, loved him as his Lord, and often heard the term “Son of man” proceeding from his lips. He now sees him, exalted to the right hand of God, it is true, but still appearing as man. The Redeemer is, and remains, He who was born of a woman [Gal_4:4], true man.—The Scriptures employ various modes of expression, when the state of exaltation of Jesus Christ is described. The apostles and evangelists say that he sat down (Mar_16:19; Rev_3:21), or that God set him at his right hand (Eph_1:20). Jesus himself says: “Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming, etc.” (Mat_26:64). And here Stephen sees him standing at the right hand of God. All these terms express, partly, the most perfect personal union of Jesus with God the Father, and, partly, the plenitude of his divine power and authority. But these different modes of expression are, without doubt, designed to prevent the Christian from adhering to any one conception exclusively, as if it alone corresponded to the reality, and to remind him that any term which may be employed, is still only an image presented to our faith, and not the heavenly reality itself as an object of sight.

3. We cannot entertain, a single doubt, suggested by exegetical considerations, that Stephen called on Jesus himself, and prayed to Him. He had, in his ecstatic vision, seen Jesus, looking down on him with kindness and love, willing and ready to receive him. Nothing was, therefore, more natural, than that he should call on Him in behalf of himself and his murderers. Who would censure him for doing so? It is precisely because Jesus is exalted to the right hand of God the Father, is most intimately united with him, and participates in the government of all things, that men are at liberty and under obligations to call on him in prayers addressed directly to him. [“The Christians called on Jesus, Act_9:14; Act_9:21; Act_22:16; comp. Act_2:21; Rom_10:12-13.” (de Wette); see above, Exeg. note on Act_1:24.—Tr.].—Such prayers cannot impair, indeed, they rather promote, the divine honor of the Father (Php_2:10 ff.), who has so highly exalted Jesus Christ his Son, that men may honor him, even as they honor the Father [Joh_5:23], The case would, of course, be very different, if an individual should pray to Christ alone, and never call on God the Father; the New Testament furnishes no authority for such a course either by precept or example. The prayers which occur in it, are, in the great majority of cases, addressed to God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The martyrdom of Stephen is the only case of the kind which is described in detail in the Acts, and, indeed, in the whole New Testament. He is the first of all those who, under the new covenant, sealed their testimony with their blood; a cloud of witnesses followed after him. And the history of these martyrs, who died for the sake of the Gospel, and kept “the patience and the faith of the saint

[Rev_13:10], abounds in instructive materials. But here, too, as elsewhere [see Doctr. etc. on Act_7:44-53, No. 1], the sinful tendency of man to substitute the creature for the Creator, and to allow Him to recede from the view, through whom alone salvation can be obtained, and who alone possesses absolutely perfect merit, has more than once betrayed its influence. To this error the history of Stephen is already intended by the Holy Spirit to offer a barrier; for, in the first place, we have here the only case of martyrdom of which the New Testament gives a full account; and, in the second place, even this narrative designs, when its whole tenor is carefully examined, to give prominence and glory, not to Stephen, but, in truth, to Jesus Christ alone. For if the sufferings and death of Stephen exhibit any noble and holy features, and if they, in any form, terminate in victory, this is the result solely of “the fellowship of” Stephen’s “sufferings” with those of Christ, he “being made conformable unto His death.” [Php_3:10]. As Jesus prayed on the cross: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” [Luk_23:46], so Stephen prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And as the Redeemer offered up the supplication for his enemies: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” [Luk_23:34], so Stephen offered an entreaty in behalf of his murderers: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” The dying man’s soul is, very evidently, occupied with the crucifixion of Jesus, and with the words which he pronounced on the cross. It was, indeed, Christ himself, dwelling in him by faith, who spoke through him and suffered in him; Stephen’s soul, his words and his acts, like a mirror, reflected the image of Jesus himself. In him and in his martyrdom, Christ was glorified.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Act_7:54. Gnashed on him with their teeth.—As a chained dog seizes with his teeth the man that attempts to release him, so wicked men cannot endure the contact of those who desire to deliver them from bondage, and begin to rend them as enemies. Mat_7:6. (Starke.)

Act_7:55. Looked up into heaven.—Heaven accepts of that which the earth rejects. (Starke).—God grants to many dying believers, through his great mercy, a foretaste of the joys of life eternal.—Jesus standing on the right hand of God.—The exalted Saviour: I. Sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on high [Heb_1:3; Heb_8:1]; (a) ruling over all with God; (b) the Judge of the world; but also, II. Standing, ready (a) to protect his people against their enemies; (b) to receive them, when they have “fought the good fight of faith” [1Ti_6:12].

Act_7:56. Behold, I see the heavens opened.—The heavens opened above the death-bed of the believer.—The Son of man standing, etc.—It is only through Christ, and in him, that the heavens are opened, whether we live, or whether we die.—Christ, even on the right hand of God, is still the Son of man; the instruction and consolation, which this truth affords, whether we contemplate the present life, or the life to come.

Act_7:58. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him.—Blessed are the afflictions that conduct us to God himself! When the world casts us from its bosom, we ascend to Abraham’s bosom. (Starke).—He, too, was thrust out of the city, whose name Stephen confessed. The faithful witnesses of Jesus still hear the cry repeated: “Out of the city!” We cannot long preach Christ in any city without molestation; even if stones are not always thrown at us, the filth of slander is heaped upon us. (Gossner).—Now liest thou there, beloved Stephen! This is the reward which the world gives to the servants and faithful followers of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the death of true saints. (Luther).—The stones which the world casts at the witnesses of God: they become, I. Monuments, proclaiming the shame of the enemies of the truth; II. Precious stones, in the crowns of glorified martyrs; III. The seed of a new life for the Church of Christ.—A young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.—They stone one witness, but God is preparing another to take his place. (Starke).

Act_7:59. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!—Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus! This is the glorious battle-cry of the children of God, the watchword by which we recognize one another, the sound of the trumpet at which the walls of Jericho fall down. It rings in the Church of God like the alarm-bell which proclaims that a conflagration is raging in the city—it resounds like the signal-gun when the enemy approaches. Lord Jesus! This is the cry of the new-born babe in Christ, the exclamation of the aged pilgrim who is leaving the world—it is the utterance of all their grief and their hope. Lord Jesus! This is our sword, our pilgrim’s staff, our whole dependence. Stephen commits his soul into the hands of his King: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” O sure and blessed refuge of the soul! We are happy when we fall into these priestly hands, and are offered up on this altar. Many an individual becomes aware only in the last moments of his life, that he has a soul, which can no longer walk in the same way with the flesh. Whither shall this soul go? Shall it return to the world? But the gate is closed. Shall it fall into the hands of Satan? That would be an awful doom. Shall it fall into the hands of the Almighty? But he is a consuming fire. Shall it seek Jesus? But it does not believe in him. Cruel perplexity! Stephen’s soul enjoys a holy calm—it knows the way of peace. He reposes on the bosom of his Mediator: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” (Krummacher).

Act_7:60. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge!—This petition of Stephen, viewed in its different aspects: as the petition, I. Of a dying man; II. Of a man who forgets his personal concerns; III. Of a man who seeks nothing but the kingdom of God. (Schleiermacher).—Si Stephanus non sic orasset, ecclesia Paulum non haberet. (Augustine).—He fell asleep.—Not many words are expended on the pains and death endured by Stephen; they were a “light affliction and but for a moment” [2Co_4:17], “not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.” [Rom_8:18]. Hence, the historian briefly says: “He fell asleep.” It may, in truth, be said, that when the saint dies, he falls asleep; “there remaineth a rest to the people of God.” [Heb_4:9]. (Apost. Past.).—The best will and testament of the Christian: it is that which commends, I. The soul, to heaven; II. The body, to the earth; III. Friends, to the divine protection; IV. Enemies, to the divine compassion. (Starke).—The death of Stephen: I. Directing his last glance to heaven; II. Bearing his last testimony to the Lord; III. Devoting his last care to his spirit; IV. Offering his last prayer for his enemies. (Florey).—The suffering and dying Stephen, a mirror reflecting the image of the crucified Jesus: I. The shame of the cross; both appearing before the same great Council, falsely accused, unjustly condemned, cast out of the city; II. The glory of the cross; in both, fearlessness in self-defence, patient endurance, ardent love of enemies (the first word of Jesus [Luk_23:34], the last of Stephen), a blessed hope of heaven (the last word of Jesus, the first of Stephen).—The Christian’s chamber of death: I. The battle-field on which faith overcomes the word; II. The sanctuary of holy love; III. The scene of the triumph of Christian hope.—The first evangelical martyr: I. The cause for which he suffers; II. The divine aid which he receives; III. The frame of mind in which he dies. (Krummacher).—The power of Christ, manifested in believers: I. He enables them to confess him with such joyousness and courage, that no enemies can resist them, Act_6:8-10; II. He adorns them with such purity of life, that even the tongue of slander cannot reach them, Act_6:11-13; III. He fills them with such meekness and love, that they pray even for their worst enemies; Act_7:59; IV. He soothes them in the hour of death, by affording them a view of his eternal glory, Act_7:55; Act_7:59. (Leonh. and Spiegelh.).—The example of Stephen: it teaches us, that the Christian possesses, I. The zeal and the wisdom of faith, in his walk and conversation; II. The serenity and the courage of faith, in his trials; III. The confidence and the peace of faith, in the hour of death. (Bachmann).—The honorable badges by which the Lord distinguished the nobility of soul of his faithful disciple Stephen: I. He was full of faith and power, and did great wonders and miracles among the people [ch. Act_6:8]; II. He was filled with a cheerful and unshrinking courage, when he suffered from the injustice of the world; III. He beheld the approach of death with firmness and holy hope; IV. His memory was blessed [Pro_10:7], and wrought a new life (Saul), even after he had fallen asleep. (W. Hofacker).—Stephen, and his three crowns (his Greek name signifies, a crown): I. The beautiful crown of grace, with which the Lord adorned him in his words and works; II. The bloody crown of thorns, which, like his Saviour, he wore in suffering and in death; III. The heavenly crown of honor, which was laid up [2Ti_4:8] in eternity for this faithful martyr.—The three birthdays of the Christian: inconsequence of the birth of Christ, I. Our spiritual birth becomes possible; II. Our bodily birth is a welcome event; III. Our eternal birth is sure. (Strauss, on the festival of St. Stephen [Dec. 26], in allusion to Christmas [Dec. 25].).—The manifestation of Jesus Christ is both unto life, and unto death: I. It is unto life (the primitive church; the power of the wisdom and the words of Stephen); II. It is unto death (bodily, spiritual death); III. In death, it is unto life (the happy end of Stephen; the conversion of Saul). (W. Hofacker).—The manger, the path to the cross; the cross, the path to heaven. (Kapff).—The manger, the cross, and the crown, the three stations in the life of the disciple, as of the Master.—The dying Stephen, a conqueror: I. He overcomes the murderous cry of a hostile world, when he looks with the eye of faith into heaven, Act_7:54-55; II. He overcomes the bitterness of death, when he serenely commits his spirit into the hands of Jesus, Act_7:56-58; III. He overcomes his own flesh and blood, when he offers an intercessory prayer for his murderers, Act_7:59.—Why is Stephen’s death the only case of martyrdom described in the New Testament? I. This narrative exhibits the leading features of all succeeding cases of martyrdom; II. It stands alone, in order that here, too, the glory of Christ may not be diminished, and that we may, like the dying Stephen himself, look first of all to Him who is the author and finisher of our faith. [Heb_12:2].

Footnotes:

[40]Act_7:56. Tischendorf, who follows the authority of A. B. C. [also Cod. Sin.], prefers the reading διηνοιγμένους to ἀνεῳγμ.; the latter is the usual reading, and is attested by D. E. H., as well as some of the fathers. [Lach. and Alf. concur with Tisch.—Tr.]

[41]Act_7:57. κράξαντος, in place of the usual reading, κράξαντες, is found only in one manuscript [a minuscule ms.], and is unquestionably spurious. [The plural, of text rec., is found also in Cod. Sin., and is retained by all the recent editors.—Tr.]

[42]Act_7:59. [“Upon God is introduced by the Geneva version, and King James’s, no doubt with a good design, but with a very bad effect, that of separating Stephen’s invocation from its object, and obscuring, if not utterly concealing, a strong proof of the divinity of Christ.” (Alexander).—Tr.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_7:54-56. Ταῦτα] The reproaches uttered in Act_7:51-53.

διεπρ. ταῖς καρδ.] see on Act_5:33.

ἔβρυχον τ. ὀδόντ.] they gnashed their teeth (from rage and spite). Comp. Archias 12 : βρύχων θηκτὸν ὀδόντα, Hermipp. quoted in Plut. Pericl. 33; Job_16:9; Psa_35:16; Psa_37:12.

ἐπʼ αὐτόν] against him.

πλήρ. πνεύμ.] which at this very moment filled and exalted him with special power, Act_4:8.

εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν] like Jesus, Joh_17:1. The eye of the suppliant looks everywhere toward heaven (comp. on Joh_17:1), and what he beheld he saw in the spirit (πλήρ. πνεύμ. ἁγίου); he only, and not the rest present in the room.

τοὺς οὐρανούς] up to the highest. Comp. Mat_3:16. It is otherwise in Act_10:11.

δόξαν Θεοῦ] כִּבוֹד יְהֹוָה: the brightness in which God appears. See on Act_7:2. Luk_2:9.

ἑστῶτα] Why not sitting? Mat_26:64; Mar_16:19, al. He beheld Jesus, as He has raised Himself from Gods throne of light and stands ready for the saving reception of the martyr. Comp. Act_7:59. The prophetic basis of this vision in the soul of Stephen is Dan_7:13 f. Chrysostom erroneously holds that it is a testimony of the resurrection of Christ. Rightly Oecumenius: ἵνα δείξῃ τὴν ἀντίληψιν τὴν εἰς αὐτόν. Comp. Bengel: quasi obvium Stephano. De Wette finds no explanation satisfactory, and prefers to leave it unexplained; while Bornemann (in the Sächs. Stud. 1842, p. 73 f.) is disposed only to find in it the idea of morandi et existendi (Lobeck, ad Aj. 199), as formerly Beza and Knapp, Scr. var. arg.

εἶδε] is to be apprehended as mental seeing in ecstasy. Only of Stephen himself is this seeing related; and when he, like an old prophet (comp. Joh_12:41), gives utterance to what he saw, the rage of his adversarieswho therefore had seen nothing, but recognised in this declaration mere blasphemyreaches its highest pitch, and breaks out in tumultuary fashion. The views of Michaelis and Eckermann, that Stephen had only expressed his firm conviction of the glory of Christ and of his own impending admission into heaven; and the view of Hezel (following older commentators, in Wolf), that he had seen a dazzling cloud as a symbol of the presence of God,convert his utterance at this lofty moment into a flourish of rhetoric. According to Baur, the authors own view of this matter has objectivized itself into a vision, just as in like manner Act_6:15 is deemed unhistorical.

εἶδε … θεωρῶ] he saw … I behold. See Tittmanns Synon. pp. 116, 120. As to ὁ υἱὸς τ. ἀνθρ., the Messianic designation in accordance with Dan_7:13, see on Mat_8:20.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 7:54 . No charge could have been more hateful to such an audience, cf. our Lord’s words, Joh 7:19 ; see Schürer, Jewish People , vol ii., div. ii., p. 90 ff., E.T. Schürer twice quotes St. Paul’s words, pp. 96, 124, ζῆλον Θεοῦ ἔχουσιν ἀλλʼ οὐ κατʼ ἐπίγνωσιν : no words could better characterise the entire tendency of the Judaism of the period. διεπρίοντο , cf. Act 5:33 . ἔβρυχον : not elsewhere in N.T., in LXX, Job 16:10 (9), Psa 34 (5):16, 36(7):12, cf. 111(12):10; Lam 2:16 , cf. Plutarch, Pericles , 33 (without ὀδόντας , intransitive). The noun βρύχη is found in the same sense, Ap. Rh. , ii., 83, of brute passion, not the despair so often associated with the cognate noun; cf. Mat 8:12 ; Mat 13:42 , etc.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The more Satan is pressed, the more he brasteth out into an open rage.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, &c.--If they could have answered him, how different would have been their temper of mind!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 54. They were cut to the heart] διεπριοντο, They were sawn through. See Clarke on Ac 5:33.

They gnashed on him with their teeth.] They were determined to hear him no longer; were filled with rage against him, and evidently thirsted for his blood.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

54. When they heard. The beginning of the action had in it some color of judgment; but at length the judges cannot bridle their fury. First, they interrupt him with murmuring and noise, now they break out into envious and deadly cryings, lest they should hear any one word. Afterward they hale the holy man (out of the city,) that they may put him to death. And Luke expresseth properly what force Satan hath to drive forward the adversaries of the word. When he saith that they burst asunder inwardly, he noteth that they were not only angry, but they were also stricken with madness. Which fury breaketh out into the gnashing of the teeth, as a violent fire into flame. The reprobate, who are at Satan’s commandment, must needs be thus moved with the hearing of the word of God; and this is the state of the gospel, it driveth hypocrites into madness who might seem before to be modest, as if a drunken man who is desirous of sleep be suddenly awakened. Therefore, Simeon assigneth this to Christ, as proper to him, to disclose the thoughts of many hearts, (Luke 2:35.) Yet, notwithstanding, this ought not to be ascribed to the doctrine of salvation, whose end is rather this, to tame men’s minds to obey God after that it hath subdued them. But so soon as Satan hath possessed their minds, if they be urged, their ungodliness will break out. Therefore, this is an accidentary [accidental] evil; yet we are taught by these examples, that we must not look that the word of God should draw all men unto a sound mind.

Which doctrine is very requisite for us unto constancy. Those which are teachers cannot do their duty as they ought, but they must set themselves against the contemners of God. And forasmuch as there are always some wicked men, which set light by the majesty of God, they must ever now and then have recourse unto this vehemency of Stephen. For they may not wink when God’s honor is taken from him. And what shall be the end thereof? Their ungodliness shall be the more incensed, so that we shall seem to pour oil into the fire, (as they say.) But whatsoever come of it, yet must we not spare the wicked, but we must keep them down mightily, although they could pour out all the furies of hell. And it is certain that those which will flatter the wicked do not respect the fruit, but are faint-hearted through fear of danger. But as for us, howsoever we have no such success as we could wish, let us know that courage in defending the doctrine of godliness is a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(54) They were cut to the heart.—Literally, were sawn through and through. (See Note on Act_5:33.) The word describes a keener pang than the “pricked” of Act_2:37, producing, not repentance, but the frenzy of furious anger.

They gnashed on him with their teeth.—The passage is worth noting as the only example of the literal use of a phrase with which we are so familiar in its figurative application (Mat_8:12; Mat_13:42, et al.). Here it clearly expresses brute passion rather than despair. At this point rage and fury—the fury caused by the consciousness that the stern words are true—had become altogether beyond control. They had passed beyond articulate speech into the inarticulate utterances of animal ferocity.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And said, behold, I see the heavens opened,.... As they were at the baptism of Christ; see Gill on Mat 3:16,

and the son of man standing at the right hand of God; he calls Jesus "the son of man"; a name by which he often called himself in his state of humiliation; and that though he was now glorified, it being the name of the Messiah in Psa 80:17 as was well known to the Jews; and this Stephen said to show that God was on his side, and to let them know what honour was done him, what divine supports and comforts he had, and that he was an eyewitness of Jesus, and of his being alive, and in glory.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

Ver. 54. They were cut to the heart] But that I believe that God and all his saints will take revengement everlasting on thee, I would surely, with these nails of mine, be thy death, said friar Brusierd in a conference with Mr Bilney, martyr. Another friar of Antwerp, preaching to the people, wished that Luther were there, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth. {a} Plutarch relateth of the tigers, that if any one do but strike up a drum in their hearing, they grow stark mad, insomuch as at length they tear their own flesh. So, many savage people are extremely disquieted at the hearing of the word, and that merely through their own corruption; like as it is not the tossing in a ship, but the stomach that causeth sickness; the choler within, and not the waves without.

{a} Erasm. Epist. xvi.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were cut to the heart - They were exceedingly enraged and indignant. The whole course of the speech had been such as to excite their anger, and now they could restrain themselves no longer.

They gnashed on him ... - Expressive of the bitterness and malignity of their feeling.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They were cut to the heart: exasperated even to rage and madness. See chap. v, ver. 33. gnashing their teeth with indignation. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Act 5:33.

They were cut to the heart; they were angry to madness.

They gnashed on him with their teeth: gnashing of teeth is the curse of the damned, Mat 8:12, which men by their sins do prepare for. This corrosive was applied by a skilful hand, would they have endured the cure.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

54. Cut to the heart—See note on Act_2:37.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now when for when, A.V. They were cut to the heart. (see Act_5:33 and notes)

Vers. 54-60. The martyrdom of Stephen.

I THE RAGE OF CONVICTED CONSCIENCES. Pierced to the heart with the pain of the sense of guilt, though judges, they gnashed with their teeth upon Stephen, "like chained dogs who would bite those who would set them free. " "Contempt pierces through the shell of the tortoise, says the Indian proverb. On their high seat they were reached by the stinging words of the servant of Jesus; their obstinacy exposed, the contradiction between the part they were playing as the representatives of the Law and outwardly, while their spirit and aims were deadly opposed to its spirit, brought into the most glowing light. The most hellish of wrath is that where the mind is felt to be at variance with itself and seeks a victim on which to discharge its fury. If the truth does not convert men, it turns them into its foes.

II THE INNER JOY OF THE MARTYR. The martyr is he whose life-interests are bound up with the truth, to whom nothing in the world can afford satisfaction in which truth and reality are not. He cannot separate his consciousness of life and its sweetness from his consciousness of God"s light and love in him, which are dearer than life. With this clear light within his breast, he" sits in the center and enjoys clear day." "No greater thing can man receive, no more august boon can God bestow, than truth," said one of the noblest of heathen writers, Plutarch. This is the feeling in which the martyr lives, in which he is willing to die. And he may be and doubtless is often favored with peculiar visions, which foretell the triumph of truth and of faith. Stephen sees the heaven opened, and the crucified One, the "Son of man," standing in the place of glory and power, at God"s right hand. There are secrets in the life of individual piety which if known, might go far to explain the cheerfulness with which privation or persecution has been borne. God opens an inner door into heaven to others inaccessible, and speaks of things, which cannot be uttered, and offers visions, which cannot be described. We know little more than the outside of others" lives. The bad man in power, the good man in weakness and suffering, each has another side to his life.

III CONVICTION STIFLED IS VIOLENCE. Here are two resources of hypocrisy.

1. To pretend indignation against the person of an opponent. It is easy to feign a pious horror of sentiments we do not care to examine, and to cast obliquely the reproach of blasphemy upon one who utters truths which are evil in their bearing upon us, Jesus, Stephen, Paul, and in their turn all reformers, have had to incur this reproach.

2. To end the matter by violence. Cast the offender out of the synagogue; hand him over to the civil power; or put him to death under the show of law and justice. So was Stephen done to death. The worst crimes have been done in the name of law and under the cloak of religion.

IV THE MARTYR"S END. In many features it repeats that of the Master.

1. Stephen is thrust out of the city, like him who suffered "without the gate." Nor can any man expect to live at all places and times the true life, without having to suffer some form of social expulsion. In suffering for our convictions we come to know the deeper fellowship of the spirit of Jesus.

Better to go with Jesus "without the gate "and suffer, than to tarry within the city and to purchase ease at the expense of compliance with evil.

2. Life is yielded up in prayer. As he had sighed, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit," so his servant, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." As he," Father, forgive them," so Stephen, "Lay not this sin to their charge." Love, the animating principle of the Christian in life, the secret energy which prompts all, his words and deeds, in the cause of truth, love is the temper in which he dies. Christ s religion, in teaching us this love and making its practice possible, proves itself Divine. And this active love is rooted in the sense that we have been loved and sought of God. He who has once found us and blessed us with fatherly hand, gives courage for struggle and resignation in defeat.

3. The effect on others. We think of the young man Saul who stood by. What effect upon him had not this spectacle of love in death? And what evidence amidst wild scenes of savage life has not the end of the good man blessing, not cursing his foes, given to the love of God and what it can accomplish in the human heart! The red Indian, as he binds his captive to (he stake, expects him to prove his manhood, when escape is hopeless, by bitter taunts and blasphemies to the last. And this is the fruit of cruelty in many lands. It is the marvel in human nature, the appearance of the lamb where we looked for the lion the reaction of love against hatred, which betokens the presence of a power and a will beyond experience. The life of the world had passed into a new phase when men could die in the very arms of love and fall asleep with the smile of blessing on their brow. J.

Vers. 54-60. The proto-martyr.

I An EXAMPLE.

1. Distinguished faith overcoming the world, the flesh, the wicked one.

2. Spiritual vision. Heaven opened. New world under the government of Christ.

3. Patience and love, after the example of Jesus. The influence of Christ"s martyrdom on all other martyrs. The sermon on the mount exemplified.

II A new Divine SEAL upon the truth.

1. Sufferings and death in their relation to testimony. Necessity of martyrdom in a world like ours. Effect on the popular mind.

2. Contrast of the old and the new in the scene. The weakness of the persecutors, the strength of the persecuted. The two kingdoms must be set face to face. Righteousness against falsehood and violence. Argument is renounced, therefore the martyr"s death is a public exhibition of the enemy"s weakness; he is compelled to resort to violence. Show that all through Church history this is the case. The conversion of Constantine quickly followed the persecution of Diocletian. The cruelty of Rome brought about a reaction in the popular mind which paved the way for the Reformation.

3. In every darkest hour of God"s people there is some point of light which holds the future within it. Saul is in that scene. His conversion partly the fruit of it. The Spirit began to work, goading him with conviction. So the blood of martyrs has always seed of truth to water: the blood of Stephen watered conviction in Saul"s heart.

4. A wonderful testimony to the reality of the work of the Spirit. How the signs increased. From the gifts of Pentecost to this manifestation of Divine glory to a dying man, calling upon Jesus to receive his spirit, and so confirming, as with a light coming down directly out of heaven, all the facts of the gospel a risen and glorified Redeemer, able to forgive sins, receiving the spirits of his disciples into heaven, giving them complete victory over the sufferings and darkness of their last hour. May we die the death of the righteous! R.

Rebuke, and the ill fruit that comes of lust rebuke, refused.

In the brotherhood of human society there is a place for advice, for persuasion, for encouragement, for gentlest reproof, for vehement remonstrance, for beseechful expostulation, for all the energy of urgent exhortation, and for rebuke. It must be confessed, however, that the place which belongs to rebuke is (if comparison may be given to the word) far more unique in its character. Whatever it may intend, it is nothing better than the merest impertinence, except under certain very definite conditions. In connection with the ill reception, ill even to fatality, given on this occasion to the vigorous rebuke of Stephen, let us take opportunity to consider

I THE RIGHTS AND JUST GROUNDS OF CHRISTIAN REBUKE.

1. All rebuke must mean the assertion of authority, and naturally presumes some footing of rightful authority. The rebuke of parent, of teacher, of master, of age, of experience, of knowledge, each rests on its own special authority. We are, therefore, justified in demanding the authority of Christian rebuke or what may claim to be such. And we may ask of what sort its authority professes to be.

2. While some may be prepared most unhesitatingly to answer these questions, others, and these the very persons most nearly affected by the answer, may refuse to defer to them or to accept their dicta. Still, this will not disprove the authority claimed for the exercise of Christian rebuke, nor put it in any other position than some other cases of disputed authority. The decision for such persons may be deferred till the dawn of eternity; and the person who exercises rebuke of this solemn sort must be prepared, and will readily acknowledge himself prepared, to await also the same date and abide its issue.

3. The authority of the man who honestly exercises Christian rebuke is of the same sort and in part of the same origin with that which bids him, for his own sake and for the sake of all others, "have no fellowship" whatsoever with evil, "but rather reprove" it is his native right, if he will but do this very thing, to war ceaselessly with evil. Reason might have been supposed equal to teaching this. Conscience certainly teaches it. The light of revelation, where it is possessed, says it, and the only thing remaining to clinch the rightful act of the person who rebukes is present in the fact (where least confessed) of the amen, uttered in some way or other by the conscience of the person justly rebuked. The honest Christian rebuke claims to rebuke that which is bane, misery, curse, to all the world; which, because it is the duty of every one to discountenance and do his best to destroy it, infers no presumptuousness in the few who do this, but does infer laches, and most criminal laches, in those who do it not. Men may doubt, disbelieve, deny the written authority of revelation, and are answerable for the consequences of doing so. But still they are held; and they are held by a bond they cannot break or rid themselves of, when, being rebuked, their conscience either honestly owns to the justice of the rebuke, or owns to it no less conclusively though in a more painful manner by a certain violent refusal of it. And it is evident that the true Christian rebuker is not to wait till such time as the person rebuked is ready to confess his faith in things to come and his apprehension of things unseen: no; he is to speak because of his own calm, firm, yet modest and tenderly compassionate apprehension of eternal verities, the things of God, of Christ, of the soul, and of eternity. No end of other responsibility lies with him who poses as the Christian rebuker; but if he be truly this, then and then first is his responsibility rightly met. So souls are quickened, and death is startled into life. So the messages of revelation are spread with their sterner significance, and the tender words of Jesus are multiplied. So hearts that have been touched themselves, and souls that own to the earnest of salvation within them, illustrate the one compassion left to them when, other means having failed and the right moment of rebuke having arrived, they utter forth the burden with which they are charged. And Stephen now spoke before men many times himself in number, and in repute and worldly estimation many of them far placed above himself; yet he assumes the tone and place of authority, and plainly speaks the words of authority. Moreover, the character of that authority is that which beyond a doubt is most offensive to others. It deals in censure, reflects on the motives and conduct of men, and of a long line of their ancestors as well; and yet, provided his indictment is true and not slanderous, Stephen is right. Let alone the fact that he is fired with the light and the fervent flames of the Holy Spirit, he is right on the broadest ground of humanity, on the simplest principles of Christianity, in the name of truth, and in that service so often forgotten, the kind and faithful service of fellow-man. It is by no means a frequent thing to find the man who is ready to sacrifice himself in order to say and do those things of truth which have for their present reward loss even of life to claim, but for their remoter fruit the highest benefit of mankind.

4. But lastly, none who are believers in great leading doctrines of the Christian religion, and in particular in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as the force and the principle of life in that dispensation, will for a moment doubt that, in the last analysis, his authority is the beginning and the end of the rightful exercise of moral and spiritual rebuke. He finds the right for all those whom he moves in his own sovereign right. And his light, knowledge, and impulse conferred, submit to no limit except that which is self-imposed. His uncreate freedom, which so often blesses men to make them even sons of God, will yield none of its right, nor be robbed of its prerogative. When resisted, slighted, "grieved," it freely reproves through human lip; or when on the point of being "quenched" for any, it comes freely to rebuke, as now though by human lips only in words and suggestions, which "cut to the heart" men to whose heart nothing but the qualities of hardness and resistance seemed left. The rebuke of God"s Spirit, albeit coming forth only from man"s lips, can no more be restrained than the scathing lightning can be stopped in its mid-career. The rebuke of God"s Spirit carries legitimately the credentials of its right in its might. And Christian rebuke, in the highest sense, postulates just this authority, ought to postulate it, and needs no other.

II THE ILL WORK THAT COMES OF JUST REBUKE DETERMINEDLY REFUSED.

1. It certainly does not necessarily lose aught of its power to pain. "When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. " That certainly means pain, whatever the character of the pain.

2. The character of that pain is inevitably all-malignant. It is not of the pain that, sudden and sharp, lends itself also to the salutary use of calling attention to symptoms of inmost danger. It is a foregone conclusion that it shall not have any beneficial operation of this sort, and in this sad sense too to be forewarned proves to be forearmed, namely, against what might be the best of friends. It is left to such pain to work all it can, according to its own evil pleasure, purposed in its own self, without a single redeeming feature.

3. It stirs up anger"s muddiest depths. It excites anger to the turn of insanity. Anger rages first, then raves. What else is said, what less is true, when it is testified that "they gnashed on him with their teeth." Anger so mastered them that it would not let them heed or even hear its own best Mentor, ye angry, and sin not." This anger is all sin. It is sin in its causelessness; it is sin in its excess; it is sin in its character of a demonstration of opposition so unequal as against one undefended man; it is sin against conscience and against that Spirit whose mightiest office is to touch livingly the conscience; it is sin in its blind, tumultuous desperation of conduct.

4. According to the intrinsic seriousness or otherwise of the individual occasion, the inevitable tendency of the determined refusal to hear rebuke is either to that stricken heart and conscience that are equivalent to moral paralysis, or to an activity equally frantic and disastrous. The revenge which rebuke, unheeded, though it be just, takes is found to vary within many degrees. Sometimes its work is slow and secret, sometimes it is even "open beforehand" in the force of its demonstrations, and these "go before to judgment." It can scarcely be otherwise now. The present instance is typical. When arrived at a certain point, human nature seems to have it in it, rapidly indeed, to fill up the measures of its iniquities." How much better" is reproof listened to than rebuke resented! But if instead we have resented reproof, then how much better is it to listen to rebuke, to kiss the rod that smites, and, though it smite severely, while still there is left us time to pray, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure!" For pain and anger in concert know no compassion, and show mercy least of all and last of all to those who court their company and soon find themselves their driven slaves. Ill is the promise of fair entrance to haven for the vessel that is tossed in storms of anger, lashed by those blasts of pain, which are the avengings of an insulted, an aggravated, and disobeyed conscience. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When they heard

They had brought false witnesses against Stephen; he bears true witness against them, quoting the testimony of writers they owned to be inspired. He speaks of the persistent rejection of God and His servants by the nation til at last it is brought home to themselves, and arouses the maddened enmity of their hearts. It was the final trial of the nation.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The glory of God revealed to Stephen:

v. 54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

v. 55. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

v. 56. and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

Stephen’s speech was probably not finished as he had intended, but the increasing impatience and the murmuring of his hearers did not permit him to conclude in such a way as to bring Jesus into greater prominence. For the indignant words of the accused cut the judges to the heart, literally, sawed asunder in or to their hearts. In uncontrollable anger they gnashed on him with their teeth, thus cutting off every further attempt to deliver his speech properly. But Stephen was here given a special grace, a manifestation of the Holy Ghost’s power, which caused him to disregard and forget his surroundings altogether, and a revelation of God’s glory such as has been vouchsafed to but few people. He firmly fixed his eyes upward to heaven and there saw the glory and majesty of God and Jesus standing at God’s right hand, as though He were making ready to assist and to receive His servant, as one commentator has it. In a burst of ecstasy, Stephen testified to that which his eyes beheld by special grace of God. The Son of Man he called Jesus, the Redeemer, who, according to both natures, has gained a perfect redemption for all men. Note: Jesus, at the right hand of the Father, is ready to receive with open arms of love all those that rely upon the salvation earned by Him. Where He is, there shall also His servants be. He wants to receive them into His kingdom that they may see His glory and the glory and majesty of the Father. Thus the believers are, through the merits of Christ, taken from this vale of tears to their heavenly home.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The Jews’ angry and unreasonable resentment of the foregoing representation; though it was exact truth and matter of fact, yet were they cut to the heart; that is, they were angry even unto madness. Here was a most proper corrosive, and applied by a skillful hand, but they would not let it stick, nor endure a cure; such is the enmity of wicked hearts, that when the ministers of God reprove sin sharply, instead of receiving the message, they rage at the messenger: When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.

Observe, 2. How they discover their rage against the holy man two ways: by their gestures, and by their actions;

Their gestures made a full discovery of their enraged minds.

1. They gnashed upon him with their teeth; the action of damned fiends.

2. They made a great outery with an unanimous and tumultuous rage; They cried out with a loud voice.

3. They stopped their ears, resolved to hear no more either of his counsels or complaints.

4. They ran upon him with one accord, like persons combined and united together in malice and madness.

5. They cast him out of the city, not out of the synagogue only, but out of the city also. They look upon this good man, of whom the world was not worthy, as a person not fit for human society.

"Lord! why should any of thy present ministers and ambassadors wonder at, or be discouraged by the ill treatment which an unkind world now gives them, when thy blessed aposltes, full of the Holy Ghost, and endowed with power to work miracles, were cast out before us, as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things!"

But this was not all; not only by their gestures, but by their actions did they discover the utmost effects of their rage and malice against this holy and innocent person: for they put him to death; yea, stoned him to death: shooting a whole volley of cruelty at his naked breast; a shower of stones came down upon him, from those hands which ought to have cast the first stone at themselves; but all this did but join him the closer to Christ, the chief Corner-stone; Et per tot lapides petra conjungitur uni.

Learn hence, That it is not in the power of piety and religion to exempt and secure the most holy and religious person either from the attempts of popular fury, or from the stroke of a violent and bloody death; They cast him out of the city, and stoned him.

Observe, 3. What a blessed sight St. Stephen had of heaven, and of Jesus in heaven, to prepare and fit him for his sufferings, and to support and uphold him under them, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God Act 7:56.

Blessed Jesus: what encouragement it is to us suffering for thee on earth, to look up stedfastly by faith unto thee in heavnen, who art continually standing there to behold and observe, to strengthen and support, to receive and reward thy suffering servants; to count every stone cast at them, and to revenge all the injuries and wrongs done unto them!

Observe lastly, How these bloody persecutors manage their cruelties under a form of law, that they may appear the more specious. By the law of God, stoning was the punishment due to blapheming; and they that witnessed against the blasphemer were, by the law of God, to cast the first stone at him, Deu 17:7.

Accordingly the witnesses here put off their upper garments, to fit themselves for their bloody work; and a young man called Saul, undertook to look to them, kept their garments for them, and consequently consented unto his death, and had a hand in stoning of him: The witnesses laid down their garments at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. By consenting to the sins of other men, we certainly become partakers of other mens’ sins.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

STEPHEN’S MARTYRDOM

54. The officers of the Sanhedrin, clerical and laymen, are torn all to pieces by the straight, awful truth enunciated by Stephen. They get so mad that they grit their teeth. I witness to you that I have seen the same under similar circumstances, i. e., leading preachers so mad at the holiness people that they turned pale and gritted their teeth, only lacking the cooperation of the civil arm to do unto the Lord’s faithful witnesses just what these preachers and church officers did to Stephen.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

54-60. The exasperation of the Sanhedrim was the more intense, from the fact that the denunciation hurled upon them was not a sudden burst of passion, but the deliberate and sustained announcement of a just judgment. They had not been able to resist, in debate, the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke, and now their efforts to convict him of crime had recoiled terribly upon their own heads. They had no course now left them, but the usual resort of unprincipled partisans when totally discomfited, and to this they rushed with fearful rapidity. (54) " When they heard these things, they were exasperated, and gnashed their teeth upon him. (55) But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, (56) and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. (57) Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord, (58) and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid off their garments at the feet of a young man called Saul. (59) And they stoned Stephen, calling on the Lord, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. (60) And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting to his death. "

This was a strange way for a court to break up; the whole body of seventy grave rabbis, whose official duty it was to watch for the faithful and regular proceedings of law, leaving their seats, and rushing with the wild mob, amid hideous outcries and tumultuous rage, to the sudden execution of a prisoner absolutely untried and uncondemned. But the maddest pranks ever played upon this mad earth are witnessed when wicked men set themselves in uncompromising opposition to God and his holy truth. So uniformly has this been true in history, that, at the present day, when such opposition is to be sustained, whether on great or insignificant occasion, no well-informed man expects aught else than disregard of all the rules of justice and propriety. If the infuriated scenes which have been enacted under such circumstances, in the history of Christianity, could be dramatically represented, the performance might be appropriately styled, The Madman's Drama.

The vision witnessed by Stephen, while the Jews were gnashing their teeth upon him, need not be understood as the real opening of the heavens, so that the things within them could be seen by the human eye, but only a representation to his eyes, such as those granted to John in the isle of Patmos. It was vouchsafed both for his own encouragement in the hour of death, and that the remembrance of the words in which he described it, and the hue of countenance with which he gazed upon it, might remain indelibly impressed upon the minds of those who were present. There was at least one in the audience upon whom, we have reason to believe, this impression was deep and lasting. The young man Saul never forgot it; but, long afterward, when bending under the weight of many years, he makes sad mention of the part he took in these dreadful proceedings.

The death of Stephen was an event of most thrilling interest to the young Church, and well deserves the large space allotted to it by the historian. The disciples had embarked, with all their interests, both temporal and eternal, in the cause of one, who, though he proved himself mighty to deliver, while present with them, had now gone away beyond the reach of vision, and no longer held personal converse with them. They had struggled on faithfully thus far, and, amid many tears, some stripes, and much affliction, they had still found a deep satisfaction of soul in his service. It was demonstrated that their faith could sustain them in life, even amid very bitter trials; but it was not yet known how it would sustain them in the hour of death. No one of their number had yet tried the dread reality, and no man can now tell how much their spirits may have wavered in the prospect, and inclined backward toward the faith of their fathers, distrustful of the new arm of salvation. How great the strength, therefore, and how sweet the consolation imparted to every heart, when the first who died was so triumphant in the pangs of death! After witnessing the scene, they could go onward in their tear-dimmed course of suffering, without one fear or care for that within the grace, or beyond it. At the late day in which we live, which has been preceded by the happy death of millions of Christians, and which is often yet made deeply glad by their triumphs in the trying hour, we are not able to appreciate the eagerness with which the first disciples drank in the consolations of this glorious death. It was a fortuitous and most fitting preparation for the fiery ordeal through which the Church were immediately afterward called to pass.

We omit any notice of the part taken by Saul in this shocking tragedy till we come to comment on the ninth chapter, where his career becomes the leading theme of the historian. [87]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

54. They were cut to the heart. Convulsed with rage. Stephen's speech was now violently interrupted. Their rage is shown by their gnashing their teeth.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

The council reacts to Stephen's words.

Now when the council members heard these things

This is the turning point; the sermon ends and the council members react.

were cut to the heart

To "cut to the heart" is an idiom for making a person extremely angry. AT: "were extremely angry" or "became very angry" (See: Idiom)

ground their teeth at Stephen

This action expressed their strong anger at Stephen or hatred of Stephen. AT: "they became so angry that they ground their teeth together" or "moved their teeth back and forth as they looked at Stephen"(See: Symbolic Action)

looked up intently into heaven

"Stared up into heaven." It appears that only Stephen saw this vision and not anyone else in the crowd.

saw the glory of God

People normally experienced the glory of God as a bright light. AT: "saw a bright light from God" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God

To stand at the "right hand of God" is a symbolic action of receiving great honor and authority from God. AT: "and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor and authority beside God" (See: Symbolic Action)

Son of Man

Stephen refers to Jesus by the title "Son of Man."

translationWords

council

Stephen

filled with the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

heaven

glory

Jesus

Son of Man

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

54–60. EFFECT OF THE SPEECH. DEATH OF STEPHEN

54. ἀκούοντες δὲ ταῦτα διεπρίοντο κ.τ.λ., now when they heard these things they were cut to the heart. On the verb, which is only found here and in Act 7:33, see note there. It expresses the sort of cutting that would be made by a saw, its effect is always one of irritation, and at last it came to be synonymous with gnashing the teeth for rage, with which expression it is here combined.

καὶ ἔβρυχον τοὺς ὀδόντας ἐπ’ αὐτόν, and gnashed their teeth at him.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

54-60.] Effect of the speech: stoning of Stephen.

54.] διεπρ., see note on ref.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were cut. See on ch. Act 5:33. In both instances, of anger. A different word is used to express remorse, ch. 2 37.

Gnashed [εβρυχον] . Originally to eat greedily, with a noise, as wild beasts : hence to gnash or grind the teeth.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.