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St. Stephen, the first Christian Martyr
December 26th is the day we remember St. Stephen
The namesake of our church - St. Stephen's Lutheran Church
Northglenn, Colorado |
So who is this St. Stephen and why did you name your church after him?
Briefly, this is the story of St. Stephen.
The setting is the city of Jerusalem shortly after Jesus' crucifixion. The story of St. Stephen is found in the book of Acts,
chapters six and seven. Stephen was chosen to be the head of the deacons. He was a very
good man and the Bible also says that he was full of both the Holy Spirit and love. |
| The early Christian community chose him to take care of the money. This money was to be used to take care of the widows,
orphans and poor people. In every good story and in every normal human situation, a conflict arose, and a conflict arose around St. Stephen. |
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| A group of Jews were very jealous of Stephen and they plotted and instigated to have Stephen killed. They made false
accusations against Stephen and they brought him to a trial in a Jewish court. |
| Stephen finally stood up and made a long speech in his own defense and that speech goes on and on in chapter
six. His speech is so long that it takes more than two pages in our Bible to hear the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and the other Old Testament heroes. Stephen recited a history of
Jewish people being disobedient to God. |
| All of a sudden, in
verse fifty-one of chapter seven, it all changes. All of a sudden this
long, disarming speech gets nasty and Stephen says: “You stiff necked, inflexible people. You people are hard hearted and your hearts are not soft to God. You people have wax in your ears and you
don’t hear the words of God. You people, your fathers persecuted the prophets, and now you betrayed and killed the Messiah. You people, you are the ones who killed Jesus.” Well, Stephen’s
bluntness made everybody mad when he said, “You people.” He had said, “You Jesus killers. You prophet killers. You worship your religious traditions and interpretations more than God.”
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| Well, to make a very long story short, these Jewish leaders took Stephen outside and threw him into a pit and started to
throw stones at him. This was the normal way the Jews executed people: throw that person into a pit and throw rocks until that person was dead. |
| As Stephen was dying, he moaned the words which have been remembered for two thousand years: “Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” These were the same words that Jesus spoke from the cross when Jesus gave that powerful sermon from the cross and forgave his executors. |
| Stephen forgave the people who were stoning him, and asked God not to punish the people. Then he said, "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit." and died. He is the first Christian martyr, the first person to die because he loved Jesus so much that he wouldn't stop talking about Him. |
| Stephen, one who had been called to tasks of loving service to the widows and to the poor. He, of course, is the one whom our modern
Stephen Ministry is named after, a ministry here at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church which will always hold a special place in my heart. Stephen Ministry is
a precious gift, the new Helping Hands is a gift. The organization is also named after St. Stephen. |
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We call our church St. Stephen because we are a Christian family that hold Jesus in our hearts. We love Jesus so much that we can't stop
talking about him. |
