Acts 7:54-60--The Stoning of Stephen

Acts 7:54-60
English Standard Version
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The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

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We now see the response to Stephen's speech.  The Jews listening to this, both the ethnic Jews and those who had converted to Judaism, were enraged that Stephen would tell them that they were just like their forefathers always opposing the Holy Spirit, persecuting the prophets, and participating in the killing of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.  They became so angry that they began to grind their teeth at him.

He once again opened his mouth and told them that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God--the position of power and privilege and authority.  We normally see Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father in Scripture to show that His work is complete, but Jesus stands up to welcome Stephen into heaven and give His approval of everything that Stephen has just said.

They could no longer bear to hear any more and they stopped up their ears (probably figuratively as it would be impossible for them to both stop up their ears and pick up stones to throw at him) and they dragged Stephen out of the city (for it was not lawful to execute a man within the city).  Then they laid their garments down at the feet of Saul of Tarsus (another person we'll see coming up in the story very soon) as he was giving his approval of what they were doing, and they picked up large stones which they hurled at Stephen to stone him to death (the prescribed punishment in the Law for blasphemy, but the very thing the Jews were unwilling to do to Jesus because they claimed they had no right under Roman law to put anyone to death).

As he was being stoned to death, Stephen says two things that sound very similar to words that Jesus spoke from the cross.  The first was, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  The main difference here is that this is directed at Jesus instead of the Father, and Stephen is asking Jesus to receive His spirit whereas Jesus said to the Father, "In Your hands I commend My spirit."  The second was, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  We see a key difference here between Jesus' and Stephen's prayers.  Jesus added at the end of His prayer, "for they know not what they do."  Stephen doesn't pray that probably because they do know exactly what they are doing, but he prays for their forgiveness anyways.  Stephen desires for even these men to be saved and for their sin not to be held against them.  We know of at least one of these men that that happens to.  This was Stephen's last words that he spoke as after this he "fell asleep" which is one of the ways that the Bible talks about physical death, especially for a believer who will be resurrected again, for what we call death is not the end--the body and spirit are separated from one another for a time and body "sleeps" in the ground (Paul will also make the analogy that it is like a planted seed later) awaiting the return of Jesus to transform the earthly body into one fit for the new heavens and the new earth.