What does faithful Christian witness look like? Stephen is remembered as the first Christian martyr, but his death is only part of his legacy. Today’s sermon explores Stephen’s story as an example of how the Gospel is proclaimed in both word and deed. Along the way, we look at how the early church’s ministry of compassion became a powerful witness to the world around them.
Today’s Scripture readings are Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 14-16; and John 14:1-14. The direction for this sermon on Stephen was inspired by Pope Leo XIV’s writing in his October 4, 2025 Apolostic Exhortation to All Christians on Love for the Poor. I also found helpful Melissa Pickering’s April 27, 2026 GodPause devotional.
Here’s the livestream and sermon audio podcast from Living Hope:
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen
A few weeks ago, I said there were 1,941 different people named in the Bible. For the last two weeks, we’ve explored the story of Jonah, the grumpy, unfaithful prophet who runs away from God before eventually doing his job and going to the people of Ninevah.
Jonah is what’s categorized as a “minor prophet” but he does at least get a book of the Bible named after him.
This morning, I want to look at another lesser-known character, someone I’ve never preached about, a follower of Jesus by the name of Stephen. Stephen doesn’t get a book named after him, but he does get remembered as the first Christian martyr, the first person to die for following Jesus.
We don’t talk much about martyrdom in our tradition, but Stephen’s story invites us to ask, “What do you stand for that’s worth the cost of your life?”
We heard the last five verses of Stephen’s story, but there’s a lot more to his life.
Here’s where we are in the story: Jesus has been killed, he’s been raised from the dead, and he’s commissioned his followers to go make disciples of all nations, go baptize, go teach people to obey what he’s commanded. Go carry on, keep doing my work. Wait for a little while, and I’ll send the Holy Spirit to you. And then Jesus ascends into heaven.
A few weeks later, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit shows up. That story’s coming in a few weeks. Peter receives the Spirit, preaches to a crowd, and a whole bunch of people are baptized. People join this new community called the church, and they share life together.
Acts 2 says, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
They’re caring for each other, they’re excited about this new thing God is doing, life is good. The last verse of Acts 2 says they were “praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”
That’s the kind of church I want to be a part of, right? Sharing what we have, growing because people see this loving community and want to be part of it.
There’s a little conflict in chapter 4 where the authorities arrest and question Peter and John, but they get released. Things are still good.
Then in chapter 5, a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira claim they too have sold all their possessions to share in common with the community, but it turns out they’re lying—they’ve secretly held back some of it, and God strikes them dead. But mostly, things are still going pretty well.
People are getting miraculously healed, God’s rescuing people when they get arrested by the authorities, and the church is growing.
And then they run into a problem. Listen to the beginning of chapter 6: “Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists (so the people who spoke Greek) complained against the Hebrews (the people who spoke Aramaic) because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.”
The community is sharing their food, supporting people in need, but there are some growing pains, some concern that maybe not everyone’s being treated fairly.
“And the Twelve” [so the 11 disciples Jesus had called, minus Judas, plus a replacement they’d picked a little earlier named Matthias] “And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’”
All of us as Christians are called to proclaim the Word. And serving others, caring for each other and our neighbors is a vital part of how we do that. Our mission statement talks about “Loving and serving all” (Christ the King) / “Loving God and neighbor” (Living Hope).
This kind of feeding people fairly and efficiently is part of the church’s witness. Our service points to God.
Historically, the way Christians cared for their neighbors is a big part of how the church grew. Christians became known for rescuing abandoned children, and giving food to people in need, which challenged the power structures of the world around them.
The Roman emperor Julian wrote a letter in 362 complaining about Christians—this is a great quote—“For it is disgraceful that, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galilaeans [Christians – the followers of Jesus] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.”
Christians did too good of a job of feeding people. What a wonderful witness!
So it’s not that distributing food and caring for people isn’t important, but different people do different jobs. People have different gifts and roles.
Christ the King just replaced a whole bunch of carpet—that’s important, but way outside my pastoral expertise. You don’t want me trying to teach a Here We Grow 4K class; that’s not my gift. There are other people who will do a much better job.
So in the early church, they form an evangelism and outreach committee, people dedicated to serving.
Verse 5: “What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
Some of you know, in our denomination, the ELCA, and in many other denominations, we have two categories of rostered ministers, people who are chosen by the church for particular roles, and ordained.
One group is pastors (hello!), also known as ministers of word and sacrament. As a pastor my area of responsibility is proclaiming the word of God and administering the sacraments, baptism and communion.
The other category is deacons, ministers of word and service. Deacons proclaim the word of God not through leading a congregation’s worship, but through particular areas of service, feeding people, teaching, working with people in need, more focused areas. Chris at Living Hope is a deacon, an associate in ministry.
That word deacon is what’s used here for this necessary task of distributing food to the widows in the community. Problem solved: These seven people are the first deacons.
And the first one on the list is a guy named Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. His ministry is feeding people—this is how he spends his life. This is his cause.
The next verse says, “Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” Stephen’s passion, his work sharing the good news of Jesus gets results, and people are converting to Christianity.
That alarms the people in authority, and they arrest him. They find false witnesses to testify against him in a trial, and Stephen responds not by defending himself, but by giving a lengthy sermon.
We’re not going to read it, but in 52 verses, he summarizes the entire Hebrew Scriptures, ending by accusing the people who’ve put him on trial of killing the Messiah, Jesus. Verse 54: “When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.”
And that finally brings us to the reading we heard today from Ron / Aaron where they stone Stephen, making him the first Christian martyr.
I like Stephen as a model for us as Christians, not so much because he was killed—I hope that’s not an example we have to follow—but because his life, his ministry is about proclaiming the Gospel not just by what he says, and not just by what he does, but in both word and deed.
He sees his ministry of caring for people, proclaiming the Gospel as worth his life. What he stands for is worth the cost.
Listen to Pope Leo from this fall. He writes:
“Despite their poverty, the early Christians were clearly aware of the necessity to care for those who were most in need. Already at the dawn of Christianity, the Apostles laid their hands on seven men chosen from the community. To a certain extent, they integrated them into their own ministry, instituting them for the service — diakonía in Greek — of the poorest.
It is significant that the first disciple to bear witness to his faith in Christ to the point of shedding his blood was Stephen, who belonged to this group. In him, the witness of caring for the poor and of martyrdom are united.”
What cost are we willing to pay for our witness? What will we lay down for Jesus’ sake, to love our neighbors? How will we spend our lives?
Stephen’s faith is lived out in service. And at the end, filled with the Holy Spirit, he sees what Jesus promised to his disciples. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you…and you know the way to the place where I am going.”
As he’s being stoned, near death, Stephen cries out, “Look…I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Following Jesus’ example, he prays not for vengeance, but for forgiveness for his persecutors: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” What a beautiful final witness, embodying the love of Jesus, no matter the cost.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, thank you for the life and work of Stephen. Thank you for his example of faithful service, for his commitment to sharing your Gospel and proclaiming the good news of Jesus, even at the cost of his life. Stir up in us the same Holy Spirit that filled him, that we may be your witnesses in this time and place, sharing your good news in all our words and deeds, in the name of Jesus Christ our risen Lord.
Amen