SUNDAY SERMON: The First Martyr

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin 

NT: Acts 6.1-8.1

Something I really enjoy is visiting churches. All different kinds of churches. Small churches, big churches, churches with gospel choirs, churches with praise bands, churches with organs, all kinds of churches! 

One time when I was in college, I was visiting a church where I stuck out like a sore thumb. Only one who couldn’t clap on beat to the gospel choir! Only guy who wasn’t in a three-piece suit! Only white dude in the building! And the pastor was curious as to why I was present. During the sermon, he pointed me out. He asked me my name. In front of the whole church! 

I told him my name was Stephen. 

He said, “You know that name carries with it a responsibility. Do you know the significance of that name?”

I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Yes, sir, Acts chapter seven!” 

He raised his eyebrows and looked at the woman who seemed to be the church mother. Their Betty Ralston, in other words. She said, “Aha! Yes, Lord! He got you, preacher!” The pianist hammered a chord! The church shouted hallelujah. And the preacher didn’t say another word to me. 

He was a very good preacher who I came to know well over the years. Rev. Staples from Beckley, and he died several years ago. I respected him greatly, and I’ve thought a lot about the question he asked over the years. “Do you know the significance of Stephen?” It’s a question the entire church needs to consider. 

As the early church grew in Acts 6, a problem developed. There weren’t enough people to do all the work. You had disciples waiting tables feeding the poor, and the widows felt their needs were being neglected. So the disciples decided to bring on some help to feed the hungry. 

Stephen was their first recruit. He was beloved. According to scripture, he was full of grace and power and did signs and wonders among the people. He was so beloved…that other church leaders became jealous. They started a whisper campaign against Stephen, quietly telling people, “He blasphemes God and Moses.” 

Word spread, and his reputation was damaged. People got in such a frenzy that they called Stephen before a council of Jewish church leaders. They planted witnesses to say he said awful things he never said. They accused him of wanting to destroy the church. 

The high priest questioned him about all the charges and said, “Is this true?”

Stephen responded with a history lesson of monumental proportions. It is the longest speech in the entire Bible. He told the whole story of the Jewish people–from Abraham to Jacob to Moses. From the parting of the Red Sea to the exodus in the wilderness to the promised land. He told the story of God’s faithfulness to stubborn people who kept getting in their own way. 

And then he said, “You stiff-necked people. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

They were enraged. Immediately, they grabbed him and drug him outside the city. There was no trial, only a sentencing. They hurled stones at him one by one until he was nearly dead. He asked God to receive his spirit and to forgive the people for their sins. After he said this, he died.

Stephen was the first martyr in the early Christian church. He died speaking a truth people didn’t want to hear, from a beloved man they didn’t want to be told by. Their first new recruit, nonetheless, who by all accounts was doing a good job. How could things have gone so wrong? 

I read this story a thousand times over the years. Growing up in the church, whenever I’d get bored in worship, I’d read the story of Stephen. Acts chapter seven. 

It is a remarkable story, because Stephen chose the hard road, at every turn. He took on a new job in a new faith. He did work others wouldn’t. He stood by the truth. He forgave even unto death.

It makes me wonder: What does the hard road look like for Christians who live on Easy Street? Because, truth be told, we live on Easy Street. We don’t face persecution or stoning for our faith. Christianity is the dominant religion in our community, our state, and our country. We have freedom of religion. We have faith-based movies and music and even clothing. We even give tax breaks to churches and groups who do charitable work like the disciples did thousands of years ago. Most folks claim Christianity, whether they practice it or not. 

So what does the hard road look like for Christians who live on Easy Street? It looks like the road less traveled. 

There’s a TV show called 1923, which stars Harrison Ford and follows the Dutton family building a farming empire in Montana.

One night at the dinner table, a younger member of the family is questioning his uncle about right and wrong? The uncle responds, “No such thing (as right and wrong). Can’t think that way. You can only think about what’s good for this ranch. What’s good for your family. That’s it.”

One hundred and three years later in 2026, and most folks think like that. What’s good for me? What’s good for us? 

It’s an understandable human tendency, but it’s not what Stephen did. It’s not what the scripture teaches. It’s not what our faith requires. We are held to a higher standard. The standard of grace. The standard of forgiveness. The standard of doing the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing. These Gospel standards have not changed, not even in a day and time when they are, on paper, the law of our collective hearts. But they just might be harder to practice, for they go unquestioned and untested too often. 

I’ll never know exactly what Rev. Staples meant that day when he asked me if I knew the significance of Stephen. But the more years go by, the more I understand how challenging Stephen’s story is. And more importantly, how important it is to strive for the standard he set of showing grace, forgiving those who do us wrong, and doing the right thing especially when it’s the hard thing.

For if he had not, Saul would not have become Paul. Paul wouldn’t have grown the church among the Gentiles. We might not be here sitting here today in a Christian church 2,000 years later, with the world at our fingertips and nothing stopping us from spreading the Good News but ourselves. Amen.