Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1175
“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:59, 60.
IT is of the greatest service to us all to be reminded that our life is but a vapor which appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Through forgetfulness of this, worldlings live at ease and Christians walk carelessly. Unless we watch for the Lord’s coming, worldliness soon eats into our spirit as does a canker. If you have this world’s riches, Believer, remember that this is not your rest—set not too great a store by its comforts. If, on the other hand, you dwell in straitness and are burdened with poverty, be not too much depressed, for these light afflictions are but for a moment and are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us! Look upon the things that are as though they were not. Remember you are a part of a great procession which is always moving by—others come and go before your own eyes—you see them and they disappear. You, yourself, are moving onward to another and more real world.
“‘Tis greatly wise to talk of our last hours,” to give a rehearsal of our departure and to be prepared to stand before the great tribunal of the judgment. Our duty is to trim our lamps against the time when the Bridegroom comes. We are called upon to stand always ready, waiting for the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, or else for the summons which shall tell us that the pitcher is broken at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern—that the body must return to the earth as it was and the spirit unto God who gave it.
This death scene of Stephen’s may aid our meditations while, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we cast our minds forward to the time when we, also, must fall asleep. This is the only martyrdom which is recorded in the New Testament in detail—the Holy Spirit foreseeing that there would be martyrdoms enough before the Church’s history would end— and that we should never lack memorials such as those with which Foxe’s Martyrology and works of the like order supply us. It is equally remarkable that this is the only death scene in the New Testament which has been described at length, with the exception of our Lord’s. Of course we are told of the deaths of other saints and facts relating to them are mentioned. But what they said when they died and how they felt in passing out of the world are left unrecorded, probably because the Holy Spirit knew that we should never lack for holy deathbeds and triumphant departures.
He well knew these would be everyday facts to the people of God. Perhaps, moreover, the Holy Spirit would have us gather from His silence that He would not have us attach so much importance to the manner of men’s deaths as to the character of their lives. To live like Jesus most nearly concerns us—a triumphant death may be the crown, but a holy life is the head that must wear it. To obey our Lord’s commands during our life is our most pressing business. We may leave the testimony of death to be given us in the same hour. We shall have dying Grace in dying moments, but at the present time our chief business is to obtain the Grace which will enable us to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
However, as we have this one case of Stephen given us at full length, we should prize it the more highly and study it the more carefully because it is the only one. Let us do so this morning. There are three things upon which I shall speak—The general character of Stephen’s death. Secondly, its most notable peculiarity. And thirdly, things desirable in reference to death suggested to us by Stephen’s departure.
Let us look at Stephen’s death, and notice ITS GENERAL CHARACTER. It strikes us at once that it happened in the very midst of his service. He had been appointed an officer of the Church at Jerusalem, to see that the alms were distributed properly among the poor, especially among the Grecian widows. He discharged his duty to the satisfaction of the whole Church and thereby he did most useful service, for it gave the Apostles opportunity to give themselves wholly
to their true work, namely, that of preaching and prayer. It is no small matter to be able to bear a burden for another if he is thereby set free for more eminent service than we could, ourselves, perform.
If it is so that I cannot preach myself, yet if I can take away from one who does preach certain cares which burden him—if I thus enable him to preach the more and the better—I am virtually preaching myself. The care which Stephen exercised over the poor tended, also, to prevent division, and this was a result of no mean order. But, not content with being a deacon, Stephen began to minister in holy things as a speaker of the Word, and that with great power, for he was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. He stands forth on the pages of Church history, for the time being, as quite a leading spirit. So much so, indeed, that the enemies of the Gospel recognized his prominent usefulness and made him the object of their most fierce opposition, for they generally rage most against those who are doing most good.