Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The First Martyr | New Testament | Acts 7

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

In Acts 7, you meet Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Should Christians now be expected to be martyrs? In today's episode, Keith shares how to respond to opposition while not allowing your faith to waiver. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 7

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. If someone tells you, don't be a martyr, they're saying that you're exaggerating your suffering to get sympathy. In this context, being a martyr is a bad thing. But that's not how the word was originally used. Martyr comes from the Greek word meaning witness, and it was used to describe Christians who were put on trial or killed for their faith.

In Acts chapter 7, we meet the first Christian martyr. His name is Stephen. He was the first Christian martyr, but he was far from the last, because there were many martyrs in the rest of the New Testament, and of course many thousands more in the history of the church. One of my favorite stories of an early Christian martyr is about a man named Polycarp. The year is 155 AD, and the persecution against Christians had swept across the Roman Empire. It finally came to a city called Smarck. It finally came to a city called Smyrna. There the pro-counsel, just think government official, swept up a bunch of Christians in the persecution, and he gave the order that the bishop of Smyrna, which was Polycarp, was to be found, arrested, and brought into the public arena for execution. So the soldiers found Polycarp and brought

him before the thousands of spectators who were screaming for his blood. But the pro-counsel all of a sudden had a change of heart. He decided to have compassion on this man who was nearly a hundred years old. So the pro-council signals for the crowd to be quiet. And then to polycarpy said this, look, here's all you have to do. I won't kill you. If you will simply curse the Christ, you will live. The crowd waited for the old man to answer. In an amazingly strong voice, he said this, 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How dare I blaspheme the name of my king and lord and with that polycarp became a martyr they burned him to death inside the stadium well that's not exactly right they tried to burn him to death but according to historical reports the burning didn't work

i don't exactly know how that happens but eventually a soldier stepped forward and stuck a knife into polycarp that was the final death blow i recently read a book called christian persecution in antiquity, and it's full of stories of the kind of persecution that Christians faced in the Roman Empire. Now Luke introduced Stephen to us at the beginning of Acts 6. There we learn that he was full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, grace, and power. But in verse 9, we learn that there are people who are opposed to Stephen and his message. And this opposition wasn't just polite disagreement. By the end of chapter 7, the crowds have stoned Stephen to death. Before we go any further, I just want to make the point that even when we do things the right way,

even when we are like Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, demonstrating love, kindness, patience, and peace, we still face opposition and antagonism. I mentioned that because I think in our fractured world, Christians think that if they can just be humble enough, kind enough, they'll be accepted by society. while we should always always demonstrate the fruit of the spirit it would be naive and unbiblical to think that if we do so the world will like us think about jesus he said the right thing at the right time and the right way with the right tone the right body language i mean he got it all right but he was crucified it's important to realize that christians will always face opposition in this world now that does not give us permission to be jerks I'm just trying to put things in perspective, realistic perspective. Acts chapter 6, verse 9 tells us that the opposition against Stephen came from the synagogue. I think that means it came from the leadership of the Jewish people.

But verse 10 tells us that all that opposition couldn't stand up against the wisdom that the spirit had given Stephen as he spoke to them. So this is kind of a fulfillment of Jesus' promise to give his disciples the words and wisdom they'd need to answer their critics. Having failed to win their argument against Stephen, these opponents start a smear campaign against him. Acts 611. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedron. They produced false witnesses who testified this fellow never stopped speaking against

this holy place and against the law. It sounds like Stephen was accused of speaking against the temple and the law that God had given Israel. But remember, that's what the false witnesses were saying. Verse 14, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and changed the customs Moses handed down to us. Did Jesus ever say anything like that? What did Jesus say about the temple and the law? Well, first he said he would replace the temple. In Mark 14, a different set of opponents said this about Jesus.

We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days I will build another, not made with human hands. The people replied, it has taken 46 years to build this. temple and now you're going to build another one in just three days? John tells us that the temple he had spoken of was his body. Jesus said that he was God's new temple, the place that God dwelt, and he was

replacing the old temple. Jesus said, I tell you, one greater than the temple is here. The people had met God in the temple, but after Jesus's death and resurrection, they would meet God in Jesus. The false witnesses also accused Jesus of speaking against the law. But here's the truth. What Jesus had spoken against was their man-made laws. The man-made laws that they had equated wrongly with the law of God. So Jesus rejected their misinterpretation. He rejected their additions to the law. But he never disrespected the law of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5, do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So Jesus taught that the temple and the law were gifts from God that were pointing to him. That makes them more important, not less important.

So Stephen was teaching exactly what Jesus had taught. The false witnesses, they were the ones who had gotten things wrong. They portrayed Christ's work in negative terms. But Stephen was saying that Jesus is the one that the story of Israel pointed to. Then in chapter 7 verse 1, the high priest asked Stephen, are these charges true? The rest of chapter 7 is Stevens against those false charges. To understand Stephen's defense, you have to know that the Jews prized the temple, not because it was big and beautiful, but because it was the place God dwelt in a special way. The problem is that the Jews treated the temple almost like a lucky rabbit's foot.

they started to believe that the temple's existence guaranteed God's favor. Stephen walks through important stories in the Old Testament to show that the major figures of the Old Testament didn't limit God's presence to any one place. On the contrary, the God of the Old Testament was the living God, a God who was on the move, a God who was always calling his people out to fresh adventures, and always accompanying them and directing them wherever they went. So Stephen starts by telling the story of Abraham, who lived in Ur of the Caldeans. He and his family worshipped other gods.

There, God met him and called Abraham to follow him. Then Stephen tells about Joseph and how God was in Egypt. First, he had saved his people from famine, and then he was with his people while they were in slavery in Egypt. Next, he tells the story of Moses, who met God in the burning bush well outside the promised land. When Moses approached the bush, God told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Here's the point. There's holy ground outside the holy land, because wherever God is, that place is holy. Then after Moses led Israel out of Egypt, God was with them in the wilderness

as they faced trials and hardship. Finally, Stephen tells the story of David and Solomon. They teamed up to build the temple. But they knew that while God dwelt in the temple, the temple didn't contain God. Solomon said, the highest heavens can't contain God. How much less this temple? Verse 54 tells us that when the members of the Sanhedron, which was this Jewish governing body, heard Stephen's speech, heard all these examples of God being with his people outside the promised land, well, they were furious and they gnashed their teeth at him. At this, They covered their ears, and they yelled at the top of their voices. Then they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him.

Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. See, the Jews couldn't legally perform capital punishment, so this was mob rule. While he was being stoned, Stephen said this, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. then he cried out Lord do not hold this sin against them so even in his death Stephen the first Christian martyr is imitating Jesus

he is treating those who stoned him the same way that Jesus treated those who crucified him there's so much we can learn from Stephen perhaps what we need to learn is that we need to be more courageous and speak openly about our

faith or perhaps what we need to learn from Stephen is that we need to know the story of the Bible better. I mean, under pressure, Stephen was able to tell the story of the Old Testament in a way that highlighted a certain truth about God. And that truth is the truth that we'll close with, that God is with us wherever we are. God is not contained in a building on Sunday morning. And especially comforting to us might be to know that God is with us in the wilderness,

just like he was with Israel, when they were one. wandering through the desert, facing trials and hardships. If you feel like you're in the wilderness today, you can be sure that God is with you. If you're getting ready to walk into an important meeting, you can be sure that God is with you. If you're getting ready to have a challenging conversation with a friend, maybe it's about a conflict the two of you are experiencing. Or maybe it's about some poor choices this friend is making that has you concerned. You could know that as you go into that conversation, God is with you. Maybe you're getting ready to go into the doctor's office and you're scared about what they're going to say,

or you're facing major surgery and you're unsure of how it's going to turn out. You can know this. God is with you. Maybe you're getting ready to have a baby. It's your first child and you're not sure you're prepared for being parents. First of all, as a parent of four, let me assure you you're not prepared, but that's okay. because God is with you. Wherever you are today, whatever you're facing,

you can be confident that God who loves you, the God who sent his son to die for you. He is there with you. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week.

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