Acts 6-7. Stephen, one of the seven deacons appointed to oversee the distribution of food to the widows (Acts 6:1-6), was "full of faith and the Holy Spirit" and performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose from the synagogue of the Freedmen; unable to withstand his wisdom, they suborned false witnesses and dragged him before the Sanhedrin. His defense (Acts 7) was a magnificent historical survey of Israel from Abraham through Moses, David, and Solomon, climaxing in the charge that his accusers were following in their fathers' footsteps by resisting the Holy Spirit and betraying and murdering the Righteous One. Enraged, they dragged him outside the city and stoned him, laying their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. As he died, Stephen said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit... Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
The Stoning of Stephen is the first Christian martyrdom and one of the most important events in Acts. Three significances. (1) Template for martyrdom. Stephen's words echo Jesus' on the cross: "Receive my spirit" (cf. Luke 23:46) and "Do not hold this sin against them" (cf. Luke 23:34). From this moment forward, the Christian template for facing death is clear: forgive, entrust, go to the Lord. Tertullian's famous line — "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" — starts running from this scene. (2) Stephen saw Jesus standing. At Jesus' exaltation He sat down at the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110:1, Mark 16:19, Hebrews 1:3) — indicating the finished work. But here Jesus is standing (Acts 7:56) — as though rising to welcome the first martyr home. The Lord honors His dying witnesses by rising in His throne to receive them. (3) Conversion of Saul begins here. The coats laid at Saul's feet is no incidental detail; Luke is setting up the Damascus Road. Stephen's dying prayer — "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" — was answered when the chief mover in that stoning became the chief missionary of the gospel. Every persecutor prayed for may still be converted. (4) Persecution scattered the Church. The day Stephen died, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and the saints were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. But wherever they went, they preached the word (Acts 8:4) — turning persecution into missionary expansion. What Satan meant for destruction, God used for the advance of the gospel.