CAN YOU remember when God first showed Himself to you? What was the incident; how did you know it was He? Where did it happen? Was it a vision, or was it a voice? Did you somehow just know? When did God reveal Himself to you and how did that make you feel? Did you feel the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit showing Himself to you? Why do you think He did that? How often have you sensed Him since?
We enter Stephen’s life almost at its end. He was chosen by the Apostles when Peter, frustrated by the endless demands of the new Jerusalem church came now with the claim that he and the other Apostles were neglecting Greek-speaking widows. The complaint sounded like that of any church. “The pastor isn’t doing his job,” was the gist of it. Peter had seen 3000 people come to Christ on one day, and then the group grew thereafter every week. It was enough of a logistics problem for them to even hold meetings. The size of the group was getting the attention of the Temple and the local government, who were now seeking ways to stop this renegade bunch of Galileans.
Peter called a meeting and proclaimed that the Apostles’ job was to preach the Gospel and it ought to be somebody else who visited the sick and hungry, people dispossessed by their own family members who now considered them dead. Seven men were chosen, all who spoke Greek and had lived abroad, and were able to relate well to the foreign-born new members of the Way. Among these a young man, Stephen, was picked and from that day he distinguished himself in bringing many to Christ. He was a firebrand, a passionate speaker, and a thorn in the side of the Jewish rulers. Miracles were attributed to him, and crowds formed wherever he went.
At one such speaking engagement he was arrested, and brought before the same tribunal that condemned Jesus, that admonished Peter and John after healing the lame beggar. The high priest and Sanhedrin that had Jesus executed now faced this young fanatic. They brought their accusation then asked him to speak for himself. Given opportunity, Stephen looked at his audience, and began as he would before a crowd in the market square or the Temple grounds. “Men, brothers, fathers, hear me…” He told the entire Jewish national story. He won them over, showing his faithfulness to their common beliefs, giving credence to their fondest ideals, and then he led them to the cross. “You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death; You, to whom the law was given as it was ordered by angels, and who have not kept it.” Acts 7:51-53 (BBE) This sudden rebuke snapped the elders out of their reverie and their anger against him boiled over once more.
But this angelic young man looked skyward and he saw his vision. What Stephen saw at that moment made the rest of his young life, short though it was, even more remarkable. Filled at this point with God’s Spirit, who had been speaking through him to the assembly, he saw the roof of the Sanhedrin dissolve and heaven open before him, with the glorious brilliant light of God shining approval on him, and there was Jesus Christ, seated at the Father’s right hand. The sight transfixed him. He explained to the priests of God, who had never seen a vision of any kind themselves, “I see heaven open, and the Son of man at the right hand of God!” v 56 The exclamation sealed his fate in two ways. It ended the proceedings, for they simply raged at him, picked him off his feet and carried him to the edge of the city, where these fine elders and leaders of the people picked up rocks and hurled them at his head. His last words were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 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.” Id. The vision raised the stakes to the level of an execution, but it also prepared Stephen for heaven, and inspired him to pray forgiveness toward his executioners.
When did you first become aware of God? Obviously, Stephen knew God from some earlier experience with Him. This was not his first vision, or if it was, he was used to having God touch him, move him, speak to him and through him. We may think his beatific vision extraordinary, but remember your own experience. My father had a waking vision of Jesus in his younger life. I know of many people with the same blessing. I was made sure of God’s reality while freezing in a open fishing craft at dawn on Lake Mead one morning at the age of seven. Wind cut across that huge expanse, setting a chop that caused the little motorboat to kick up spray and coat us all with frigid water. I wasn’t dress warmly enough, and it occurred to me to pray that God, if he heard my silent request, would stop the wind. The wind stopped the next second, turning a hundred square miles of Lake Mead into a sheet of glass. God is real. You know it and so do I.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish,” Prov 29:18 said Solomon. A population without the knowledge of God is doomed. People see God, or some example of His power, or hear Him. It happens, whether it’s a burning bush, or a ladder running with angels, or a still small voice, or a fiery chariot, or a pillar of cloud, or a sapphire throne and four winged creatures with many eyes and faces. The vision of heaven opening and God’s throneroom may be rare, but He does show Himself, doesn’t He?
After the fall of the Soviet Union, in the vacuum of authority that left people aimless, hopeless and purposeless, the Russians called for people of faith to come teach them morals and religious truth, to children, to everyone. In 1994, two Americans answered this call, and they taught Jesus in public schools, prisons, businesses, fire and police departments and one large orphanage where a hundred children, abandoned by their destitute mothers and fathers, heard the story of Jesus. Nearing Christmas, these ambassadors told of Christ’s nativity. Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem and found no room in the inn. Jesus was born and placed in a manger: a familiar story to us all. To these orphans, it was the first time they had ever heard of the wonder of God’s Son having been born on earth.
The staff then gave each child a little cardboard, a yellow napkin, a scrap of flannel, and some tan colored felt and instructions to make a manger of their own. Each orphan tore the napkins into straw, folded the cardboard into little manger-boxes, and placed the felt baby, wrapped in a flannel blanket inside. The Americans relate, “All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously.
“For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately – until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.
Then Misha made up his own ending to the story as he said, ‘And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mama and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, ‘If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?’
“And Jesus told me, ‘If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.’ So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him—for always.”
Little Misha’s eyes cascaded with tears and he laid his head on the table and sobbed, his little shoulders shaking. But he was overcome with joy. In his six years, he had so valued warmth, but never had he found anyone who would not ever abandon him, abuse him, leave him, but would stay with him for always. A Russian Christian Story, Will Fish - Eternal Perspective Ministries
Stephen saw Jesus seated at the Right Hand of God on high. Little Misha saw Jesus lying in a manger, and speaking comfort to his heart. I wonder what your story might be and how God touched you and made you to know—“I am here. I love you. I have always known you. You are mine. You can cry. You can laugh as well. It’s alright now. I’ll never leave you or reject you. Stay with Me. I’m with you for good—for always.”
At the stoning of Stephen, another young man, who also had come from Greek lands, much like Stephen, zealous, brilliant, faith-driven, stood holding the cloaks cast off by the Sanhedrin members as they hurled stones in their execution of a saint. At that moment, he approved of their violence. But the moment was not far off, not many months or years, when this young man, breathing out hatred of these heretics, leading an arrest team to Damascus to bring the Christians back in chains, would be confronted by the glory of God himself, and hear a voice, the voice of God, saying, “I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting. Why are you so opposed to Me? I have another life for you to lead. I am calling you, Saul, to be an ambassador to the Gentiles.”
What Stephen saw you see too. It’s like the stars during the daytime. We know they are there. Look up. Oh, the blue sky obscures the vision from your eyes during the day. The stars are there anyway. God is there anyway. God is speaking anyway. God is quite real. So now, how did He first show Himself to you?
PFH+