Hey Stephen

This Sunday, I had an amazing time at church because I was talking to my pastor's wife and she was discussing how she couldn't watch regular boxing anymore because she found the violence of mixed martial arts and the UFC much more appealing. Right on.

The pastor also preached a sermon on Acts 6-7, about the life and martyrdom of Stephen, and it was a great reminder of some simple truths for me. But as I opened my Bible to Acts 6, my eye caught the verses preceding the chapter:

"And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name."

This verse reminded me that we don't have to rely on foreseeable consequences to come of our ministry, or of our sacrifices. In my last post, I lamented the idea that we would have to suffer through certain periods of our lives, that we would have to sacrifice some of our God-given time to something other than our happiness. And how often do we feel the need to substantiate or rationalize our suffering with a definite benefit or positive consequence that comes of it? But in this instance, the apostles don't see hundreds come to faith immediately afterward, nor do they receive the encouragement of the stubborn religious elders saying, "You're right, Jesus is the Messiah!", nor do angels descend from heaven and give them their notarized deed for a celestial mansion. They take a beating for the sake of their beloved Lord Jesus, and they are glad for the simple privilege to do it.

And Stephen! I hadn't read his story in a long time, so it was a powerful thing to recall the details. Stephen was a young man, still new to the Christian faith, but firm in his convictions and bold in his testimony. And as he delivers his reproach to the council of priests, himself full of the Holy Spirit, he seeds "the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." To offer historical context, in the Judaic judicial system, physically standing was a way of affirming someone's testimony, a more demonstrative equivalent of our placing one's hand on the Bible and swearing. To see Jesus affirming his testimony: what an honor for Stephen, the fearless fledgling believer! And he didn't ask the same questions that you or I ask, what good will come of this action. In all candor, shortly after his martyrdom, "a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered," "and as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison." It's true that in the long run, the diaspora of believers helped spread the gospel across widespread Middle Eastern regions and sent Saul on his fateful way to Damascus, but there was no way anyone saw that coming at the time. There's no doubt from the way the story is presented, from the testimony Stephen gives, and from the way Jesus Himself stands behind it, that Stephen was doing a magnificent thing for His Lord, but if Stephen were asking the same skeptical questions that I often ask, he wouldn't have acted as he did.

Of course there's a place to think sensibly about using our time and energy well, and of course cost-benefit analysis has its applications in ministry. But for where I am, it's important for me to remember the value of suffering simply in faith for my Lord, to hope that I'm worthy of the same calling as the apostles, and to not make personal cost-benefit the basis of how I approach the gospel and the pursuit of Jesus Christ.

I hope that in time and by transforming grace, I would rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.