THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYR

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:59-60 NKJV). If Christ lives in you, then He can love in you and through you. You too can forgive injuries, pray for your enemies, and make every allowance for their wickedness. The first man ever to die for Christ was Stephen. Our reading of Acts 6-7 makes it clear that he was unjustly murdered. But Christ lived in him. His last words were a magnificent echo of Calvary: “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” Remember, Stephen was stoned to death. Imagine how painful that must have been! One by one the stones pounded the life from his body, but though they battered the life out of him, they could not batter the love out of him! Like his Lord, he kept on loving to the end. Christ was on his mind up until his last moments. “Lord,” he said, “do not charge them with this sin.” The chapter ends with a lovely sentence: “And saying this, he fell asleep.” But don't let these words lead you to think that there was no hurt, no pain, no physical agony. He would have felt it all; you can be certain of that. But the love of Christ poured into him and through him, and, taken up with HIM in his heart and mind, his soul was taken up to be with HIM… As an afterthought: A man named Saul agreed with putting Stephen to death. In fact, he stood holding the clothes of those who threw the stones. He was “ravaging the church, and he would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3). Later, as he travelled to Damascus, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, Jesus revealed Himself to him and asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus identified Himself with the martyrs! Are you a Stephen (who loved and forgave his enemies) or a Saul (who ravaged people) and unknowingly also Jesus at the same time? However, after Saul's conversion and later becoming Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, he wrote to the Philippians: “Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God GOD], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!” (Phil. 2:5-8, Amplified Bible).