“Bible prayers: Stephen prays”
Acts 7:60
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Monday, October 2, 2006 started out like any other day, any other typical fall day. Birds sang in the distance and a horse’s hooves clip-clopped as its buggy rattled down a back country road. It was a quiet day and a peaceful day in the rolling farmlands of Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, population three thousand.
A young, twenty-year-old teacher by the name of Emma Mae Zook had gathered her students in their one-room schoolhouse, complete with a bell on the roof, two outhouses, a ballfield, and an enclosed school yard. On the board was the picture of a teddy bear and a sign that read, “Visitors Bubble Up Our Days.” Twenty-six children, between the ages of six and thirteen, were her students.
Charlie Roberts was a milk truck driver who served the local community. Nine years before, his wife Amy had given birth to their first child, a baby girl. But the baby died after living for only twenty minutes. Later he said that he would never forgive God for her death and planned eventually to get revenge.
On the morning of October 2nd, Roberts said goodbye to two of his children at the school bus stop, then drove to the West Nickel Mines School. When he walked through the door, some of the children recognized him, along with the other four adult visitors--the teacher’s mother, her sister, and two sisters-in-law. But when the young teacher saw his guns, she and her mother left the other adults with the children as they ran to call 911.
Six minutes later, a state trooper arrived, soon followed by a crowd of even more officers, ambulances, and family and friends.
And that’s when the shooting began.
When it was over, five girls were dead and five more were wounded. It was the worst tragedy that that poor community had ever known.
So what would you do? How would you respond to such a senseless tragedy?
In the midst of their grief and shocking loss, they didn’t cast blame and they didn’t point fingers. Instead, they reached out with grace and compassion toward the killer’s family. That very afternoon, a grandfather of one of the girls killed expressed forgiveness while some neighbors went to visit the Roberts family to comfort them in their sorrow and pain.
It’s strange if you think about it--on the one hand was a killer tormented for nine years by the premature death of his daughter, plotting revenge, and on the other, an entire community that was willing to forgive.
In the words of a father, Christ Stoltzfus, “It’s a journey. And while I made the immediate choice to forgive in principle, it took me a few years until I could feel that I really meant it inside me.” But when he finally did find the ability to forgive, he said, “I felt a great weight falling off of me. I felt lighter.”
If you want to know more, you could watch the made-for-TV movie, Amish Grace.
The book of Acts chapter 7 also tells a story about forgiveness. I’ll start at verse 54: “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:54-60).
Here in the words of Acts chapter 7, everything was all brand new. Just as soon as Jesus died and rose again, and ascended into heaven, the church began to carry out His great command--to teach all nations and to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
And on Pentecost, as the Spirit came so vividly and so powerfully in wind and fire and foreign tongues, Peter began to preach: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). And that very day, the Bible says, three thousand people believed!
It was a time of great power and wonder and Spirit-filled gifts.
But as time passed, it soon became clear that the church had grown far too large for the apostles to care for it by themselves. They would need others, other Spirit-filled men, to lead and to guide the church.
As Luke wrote in chapter 6: “And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:5-6).
Think about this for a moment. Of the hundreds and thousands of those who now believed in Jesus, they chose seven, only seven men, and Stephen was one of them. He must have been a remarkable man!
And the qualification? Verse 3: “Men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.”
What does that tell us about Stephen? It tells us that he was a man of great faith, of wisdom and courage, that the Spirit moved in him and directed his every step, and that more than anything, he loved his Savior Jesus.
Even more, as it says in verse 8: “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.”
By his hand, the lame could walk, demons fled, and the sick were healed.
But it didn’t take long for some to stand up against him. As Luke wrote in verse 9: “Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:9-10).
So if you want to get rid of somebody, what do you do? The Bible says they stirred up the people and said he blasphemed against God and against Moses. Then they seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews.
Which takes us to chapter 7, verse 1: “And the high priest said, ‘Are these charges true?’”
High priest? Which high priest? Caiaphas, the high priest--the same one that beat Peter and John in Acts chapter 4, that bribed the guards in Matthew 28, and that condemned Jesus to death.
Then what comes next, for an entire chapter, (fifty-two verses!), Stephen preached a sermon, what would be the last sermon he would ever preach.
This is what he said: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it” (Acts 7:51-53).
And just as soon as they heard his words, the Bible says “They were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him…Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him” (Acts 7:54, 58).
But as he died, he called out, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees, he prayed. He said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). And when he had said it, he fell asleep.
Forgiving those who hate us, who do us wrong, is one of the hardest things we could ever do. But that’s exactly what Jesus calls us to do.
Remember? That’s what He said in Matthew chapter 5: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45). He said, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (Matthew 5:39-41). And He said in Luke chapter 6: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27-28).
And what should we pray for? Two things--we pray that God would show them their sinfulness and we pray for their salvation.
In the words of German pastor Martin Niemoller, arrested by the Nazis in World War II, “Is there anyone who needs your prayers more than your enemies?”
It was September of 1968 when missionary Phil Masters volunteered to hike into a remote mountain valley to reach the Yali tribe to share the gospel. He knew the risks and so did his wife and children.
They had already given up so much. They lived half a world away from family and friends, and they’d given up conveniences like plumbing, electricity, schools, and grocery stores. But they did it for the privilege of sharing the gospel with those who had never heard it. They said, “We went because we knew that was what God wanted us to do.”
And as they lived and worked among the Dani people, a tribe of some twelve thousand, they learned about blood feuds, human sacrifices, and the fear that evil spirits watched over everything.
Then in September of 1968, as his wife Phyliss, was pregnant with their fifth child, Phil and another missionary, Stan Dale, hiked into the Seng Valley to make contact with the tribe known as the Yali, to look for a place to build another airstrip.
But the Yalis were different than the Dani. They were masters of jungle warfare who killed and roasted their victims, and lived in constant fear of the spirits they tried to appease.
And as they made their way deep into the valley, they were suddenly ambushed by the Yali. Dozens of arrows flew from all directions until, finally, both missionaries lay dead on the ground.
And just as soon as Phil’s wife, Phyliss, heard what happened, what did she do? What would you do?
She chose to stay and to pray that God would use her husband’s death to soften the hearts of the people.
Three months later, a plane carrying another missionary family crashed in that same valley. And the only one to survive was a nine-year-old boy named Paul. And crawling out of the wreckage, he stumbled onto the hut of a Yali, and the Yali saved him and protected him. Seeing it as a sign, they asked the missionaries to come back.
Then five years later, the first thirty-five believers in the Seng Valley were baptized. Today, there are more than a hundred churches that not only lead their own worship, they send missionaries to minister to others.
And it’s all because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We thank You, Father, for Stephen and his faith and his prayers for his enemies. Grant us a faith just like his, never doubting, but always believing in Jesus’ power to save. In His name we pray. Amen