bad reception

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Acts 7:59

Sometimes proclaiming the gospel message results in an outcome we would not ask to have. In the case of Stephen’s sermon before the Jewish council, the response was hatred and Stephen’s murder at the hands of haters. Stephen masterfully took these leaders through the history of Israel as the Old Testament recorded it, pointing out God’s mercies that Israel rejected at every turn. The sons of Jacob rejected Joseph who spoke God’s word. God used Joseph to deliver them. Israel coming out of Egypt rejected Moses, although God had sent him as a deliverer. The Jews later rejected the prophets God had sent to warn them. And the men gathered around Stephen had murdered the Messiah when they had Jesus crucified. They claimed to receive the Law of God but did not keep it as evidenced in repeated murder! They ultimately did not receive the Son of God.

Their reception of Stephen’s sermon just continued this trajectory of turning away from God’s uncomfortable, confrontational truth. They rushed this brash preacher to the outside of the city and stoned Stephen to death. In his last words, Stephen proclaimed the Lordship of Jesus (Acts 7:59) and like Jesus Himself, petitioned God to forgive the evil that was being done to him (Acts 7:60). Stephen died proclaiming forgiveness in Christ and portraying it to his own executioners. It’s not the reception modern day evangelism training prepares Christians to expect. But it does call us to courage, realizing anytime we share Jesus, our passion for our Savior calls us to trust in Him, even if that message becomes the last utterance we make in this world.

As much as the book of Acts shows us the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world by a welcoming reception of the message of salvation, we should also soberly realize that the message likewise spreads through bad reception. Stephen’s murder launched a vicious persecution against incipient Christianity in Jerusalem that scattered Christians into new places that had not heard of Jesus. The gospel went viral amidst that instability and chaos, reordering the Church of believers, and spreading much more rapidly. God is wise. He knows how to make something better out of even the bad reception that we may experience.