The First One to Follow Him All the Way

Every morning Stephen helped carry bread to the widows, and every afternoon he talked about Jesus to anyone who would stand still long enough to listen.

God filled him with power, and Stephen did great wonders among the people. Some men from one of the city's meeting houses came to argue with him. They argued all day, and they lost all day. (The Holy Spirit was giving Stephen his words, which made it a very uneven contest.)

So they secretly got some men to tell lies. They grabbed Stephen and dragged him in front of the council, the same council that had put Jesus on trial.

"This man never stops talking against the temple and God's law!" the liars said. "We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will tear this place down!"

Everyone stared at Stephen. His face looked like the face of an angel.

"Is this true?" asked the high priest.

Stephen answered by telling them their own story: how God called Abraham out of his home country, how Joseph's jealous brothers sold him as a slave, and how the people pushed Moses away and said, "Who made you our ruler?" (It is the longest speech in the whole book of Acts, and these men, who knew the stories better than anyone, had to sit through every word.)

Then Stephen looked straight at them. "You stubborn people! You always fight against the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. Which of the prophets did your fathers not hurt? They killed the men who said the Righteous One was coming. And now you have betrayed him and murdered him."

The council was furious. They ground their teeth at him.

But Stephen was looking up.

"Look!" he said. "I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

(Most places in the Bible picture Jesus sitting at God's right hand, the way a king sits on his throne. That day he was on his feet.)

The men covered their ears and yelled. They rushed at Stephen all together, hauled him out through the city gate, and began to throw stones at him. The ones throwing pulled off their coats and piled them at the feet of a young man named Saul, who watched and agreed it was right to kill Stephen. (God was not finished with Saul.)

As the stones hit him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Then he fell to his knees and cried, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!"

When he had said this, Stephen died. The Bible says he "fell asleep," a word for people who will wake up again. Men who loved God buried him and cried hard for him. That same day the hunt for Jesus' followers began, and the believers scattered to other towns, taking the news about Jesus with them.

Stephen's prayer was answered in a way nobody outside that gate could have guessed. One of the people he prayed for was standing right there beside the pile of coats. Later, Saul met Jesus on a road, and Jesus washed him clean. The man who had watched over the coats spent the rest of his life telling the world about the Righteous One.

Everything brave Stephen did that day, someone had done before him. Someone had stood before that same council while liars talked. Someone had been taken outside the city to die, and had prayed for the people killing him. Stephen was walking in footprints.

At the end of them, the one who made the footprints was on his feet, waiting for him. Stephen was the first friend to follow him all the way through death, and Jesus stood up to bring him in.