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Unlikely Leaders

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    A Holy Radiance Shines on Stephen’s Face

    As Stephen stood to answer the charges, “all who sat in the council ... saw his face as the face of an angel.” Many trembled and shaded their faces, but the rulers’ stubborn unbelief and prejudice did not waver.ULe 37.5

    Stephen began his defense in a clear, thrilling voice that rang through the council hall. In words that held the assembly spellbound, he reviewed the history of the chosen people. He showed a thorough knowledge of the Jewish religious system and the spiritual interpretation of it now evident in Christ. He made plain his loyalty to God and to the Jewish faith, while he connected Jesus Christ with all the Jewish history.ULe 37.6

    When Stephen connected Christ with the prophecies, the priest, pretending to be horror-stricken, tore his robe. To Stephen this was a signal that he was giving his last testimony. He abruptly ended his sermon.ULe 38.1

    Turning on his enraged judges, he called out: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”ULe 38.2

    Priests and rulers were beside themselves with anger. In their cruel faces the prisoner read his fate, but he did not waver. For him the fear of death was gone. The scene before him faded from his vision. The gates of heaven seemed open to him, and, looking in, he saw Christ, as if just risen from His throne, standing ready to sustain His servant. Stephen exclaimed, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”ULe 38.3

    As he described the glorious scene, it was more than his persecutors could endure. Covering their ears, they ran furiously at him in one united action and “cast him out of the city.” “While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died” (NRSV).ULe 38.4

    The Roman authorities accepted bribes of large sums of money to make no investigation.ULe 38.5

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