The Art of Stephen's Knees | Acts 7:54-60

There's literary and moral art in Stephen's stoning is stunning. Glory be to God.

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| Transcription |
Welcome back to the Bible is Art where we explore the literary artistry of the Bible and this week we’re talking about Stephen’s stoning

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

After Stephen gives a long speech, walking through Scripture, the council does not respond point by point, they do not address the texts Stephen did, they ground their teeth, mouths shut, refusing to hear God’s word.

This is characteristic of rebellion against God. When we stop hearing God, and just try to shut him up, stop reading Scripture, stop going to church, stop listening to preaching. When the word comes, we shut it down.

But what does Stephen do? Other than speaking, here we get the only physical action of Stephen in the story - falling to his knees. In this he mirrors his master, Jesus, who is the only other person who prays on his knees in Luke-Acts. And Stephen transforms the stoning of his legs to the liturgical action of prayer. Stephen’s killers help him to pray. And this first action in the scene is also his last. He expires in prayer, prayer for his killers.

You see Stephen has been so formed by the life of Christ that he can love not just the unkind or ungrateful, not just love after time has healed wounds, but while the wounding is happening. This is a level of love that we should pray in earnest for. Stephen had it because he, like Luke tells us multiple times, was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will allow you to love in darkness, while darkness is consuming you. While your wife doesn’t understand you, yells at you, while your husband ignores you and your children mouth off, deny you, or even deny Christ. Love even then.

Stephen’s whole life has mirrored Jesus. Both do signs and wonders, both are falsely accused, both are brought before the Sanhedrin, both are killed, both commit their spirits to God and both pray for their enemies in their last moments. Stephen’s life has been completely conformed to Christ.

But there is one other similarity. For both Jesus and Stephen, their deaths are not the end. For both, their deaths catalyze the expansion of God’s kingdom.

For Jesus, he’s resurrected, he ascends to heaven, sends the Holy Spirit and kingdom explodes.

For Stephen, notice what it says when they stone him. Luke says “they cast him out of the city and stoned him.” They cast him out of the city. This is the first movement outside of Jerusalem we have seen in Acts, and remember Jesus said they would be his witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And 8 chapters in we’ve been in Jerusalem. Who would have thought that the way that the kingdom expands is by finding a place to execute a Christian.

In the first verse of the next chapter, Luke will tell us that “there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.” So what’s the missionary strategy in Acts, how to you get the gospel to the next town, run away from rocks.

So far from extinguishing, stopping the Spirit, they are helping it expand. If the worst possible thing that an individual or government can do to you, death, does not stop life, what can? And that, my friends, is why, the Bible is Art.