The First Martyr for Jesus by Myra Kahn Adams for Town Hall
Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here.
Thanks for joining us! Today we study a Jewish man named Stephen. He is known to be the first Christian martyr for his belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. We initially read about Stephen in the New Testament Book of Acts 6:1-7.
To paraphrase those verses: Since the number of believers in Jesus “was increasing,” His twelve Disciples needed more disciples to help feed the poor so they could “give our attention to prayer and ministry of the word.” (A wise strategic management decision based on promising long-term growth instead of running day-to-day operations.)
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At that time, around 31-33 A.D., Christianity was a nascent movement called “the Way” first mentioned in Acts 9:2. The “Way” reflects Jesus saying, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
To accommodate the growing ministry, the Twelve choose seven men, including Stephen, who was “full of the spirit and wisdom.” Stephen is described as “a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the [Jewish] people” (Acts 6:8).
Unfortunately for Stephen, that God-given “power” led to conflict with Jewish leaders:
“But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, ‘We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.’ So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin” (Acts 6:10-12). Note that the Sanhedrin was ancient Israel’s “supreme court” of Jewish elders.
Included in the testimony against Stephen was this prophetic charge:
