Stephen; man of courage.

A post by Arianna

We’re currently studying men of the Bible and I decided to write about Stephen. Stephen’s story is found in Acts 6-7. The disciples heard that the Grecians were saying bad things about the Hebrew people because the widows were being neglected. The 12 disciples told the other Christian men that it didn’t make sense for them to 'serve tables' instead of preaching the Word of God, so they told the crowd to pick seven men that were honest, wise, and full of the Holy Ghost. The multitude was happy with this decision and chose seven men from among themselves, including Stephen who was ‘a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.’

Stephen traveled there and did many ‘great wonders and miracles among the people’ But some of the men in the synagogue heard Stephen tell others about God’s word and became enraged. The Bible says they suborned men to be false witnesses. The word suborned means to bribe someone to do something unlawful; in this case, it was men telling others that Stephen had said blasphemous things against God when it wasn’t true.

They stirred up the people so they became angry against Stephan. The crowd brought him to the council, and once again said that Stephen had said untrue things about God. When the council asked Stephen if what the men said about him was true, he started to preach to the people. Finally, the crowd had enough and threw Stephen out of the city where they began to stone him.

Just the fact that he wasn’t afraid to tell others about Christ even when a whole multitude of people were against him amazes me. That takes so much incredible courage and faith in God. However, even though that part of his story is so impressive, it’s his last words right before he died that really speak to me. When the stones were crashing into his body and the people were treating Stephen so cruelly, right before he died he said this. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

He was being murdered because people didn’t like what he had to say. But Stephen forgave them. We can learn so much from Stephen; He’s not mentioned in the Bible much. Some people have never even heard of him. But his story touched me and I wanted to tell you about him.

Stephen. A man of faith, a man of courage, and a man of forgiveness.

~Arianna~