And 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.
– Acts 7:58
This is the verse that encapsulates the first story of martyrdom we see in the Bible. The first person who dies specifically for their proclamation of the Gospel.
Acts 7:58 Narrates the Story of the First Christian Martyr
Stephen, who we prayed according to Acts 6:10, had spoken with wisdom and grace and power, the Gospel in front of these religious leaders and people could not withstand the spirit in him. While He continues to proclaim the Gospel in Acts 7, and they stone him. Just imagine the scene. Obviously, it’s horrifying, and graphic to see a man in the middle of a group, in a sense, a mob of religious leaders, picking up rocks, large, heavy rocks and hurling them at Stephen to kill him for what he is saying.
You can only imagine the followers of Jesus seeing this happen and wondering, “Why is this happening and what will happen as a result of this?” In Acts 8, the very first words we read is how there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And we’ll pray more according to Acts 8 and the next episode. But for now, just to put yourself in the shoes of followers of Jesus, thousands of them now in Jerusalem who realize that their faith may cost their lives.
Some of them likely realized that before, but now it’s really hitting home. And you wonder, “God, why is this happening or where are you in all of this?” That’s why I read this verse in particular because it doesn’t just stop with saying that Stephen was stoned. This verse, Acts 7:58, says the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul, and we know what’s going to happen with Saul as this story progresses.
Acts 7:58 Introduces Us to Saul
Saul, who’s persecuting the church, will soon become a proclaimer of the Gospel. And Acts 7:58 is a reminder that we don’t always see all that God is doing, especially in hard moments where we don’t understand why something is happening. When God here in verse 58 was working in the life of a young man named Saul in a way that would totally transform the church and the spread of the Gospel in the first century all the way to the 21st century. In this moment, we can trust in God in every moment that even when we don’t see it.
Romans 8:28 is true, God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. And so, there’s so many different directions we can pray. Let’s just pray in all those directions. God, we pray today for Stephen’s around the world and for our persecuted brothers and sisters. We pray for their boldness.
Lord, we pray for those whose lives are being threatened today. We pray that you’d help them to proclaim the Gospel, to share the Gospel boldly and faithfully even when it costs them everything. God, we pray for their families boldly trust in you in the middle of seeing their family member persecuted. We pray for our church and family in persecuted places that they would not shrink back from sharing the Gospel when they face persecution. And God, even in that, we pray for ourselves, especially those of us who have freedom to proclaim the Gospel.
Acts 7:58 Encourages us to Boldly Proclaim the Gospel
Help us to boldly proclaim your Gospel, we pray, and help us not to be silent when we have so little to risk. God, we pray for those who are persecuting followers of Jesus around the world that you would bring about Saul-like conversions. God, please save prosecutors, transform their lives, turn them into proclaimers of the Gospel.
We pray that you would do that today. Would you, God, hear our prayers today and do Saul-like work in someone’s heart? And God, in all of this, we pray that you would help us and help your church around the world to hold fast faith to trust in you when days are hard and when the questions are many, and we don’t understand why this or that is happening. God, help us to trust in you all the way to death.
God, help us to follow in Stephen’s footsteps, to live and to die with faith in you, with trust in you that you are working all things together for our good and the good of all those who love you and have been called according to your purpose. And we will be glorified with you. Oh God, toward that end, help us to give our lives no matter what it costs, proclaiming this Gospel that others might experience this.
Praying for the Jad People of India
God, we pray for the Jad people of India, just a small people group in India of Buddhists. And we pray, God, for their salvation and we pray for the spread of the Gospel to them knowing that there’s been more and more persecution of the church in India. God, we pray for boldness for the Gospel to spread in India, specifically among the Jad people and all the people groups of the world. God, we know these people groups that we pray for almost every day on this podcast will not be reached without people giving their lives to reach them. And so, we pray that you would make us those kind of people.
God, that we would follow you no matter what it costs to make disciples of all the nations confident that you will use our lives and our deaths in ways that resound to your glory and the good of others. We pray the eternal good of others and our eternal good in the process. God, we pray all of us according to this picture of Stephen in Acts 7:58. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
