The First Martyr After Jesus

Toseh guilty of killing the Son of God,
The Sanhedrin, priestly Jewish oe’rseers,
Heard His tomb was bare, must have thought it odd,
The guards reporting no strange mischievers!
Then Peter and John, point-blank to their face,
Charged them with murdering their promised Sire,
Exposing to the whole world their disgrace,
Added fuel to Jud’ism’s growing fire!
Next, all apostles followed suit, and, last
In a cold, rebuking speech Stephen gave,
Reviewing their vile, idolatrous past,
Their anger burst---they stoned him to his grave!
Onlooking, and guarding their robes, stood Saul,
A young Pharisee, later known as Paul!

The twelve original apostles (Matthias took Judas Iscariot’s place after he betrayed Jesus and committed suicide) plus the first disciples were not bashful about accusing the Sanhedrin to its collective face of murdering the Son of God. To keep Jesus’ friends from “stealing” the body and then publicly claiming that Jesus was resurrected, guards were assigned to keep watch day and night on the cave-tomb where He lay/ They saw and heard nothing unusual, yet on Sunday, the third morning, the stone was rolled away, and the tomb was empty. Beginning that day, Jesus appeared to His disciples and others, ate with them, and was seen by as many as 500 at one time for the next 40 days. He was in His resurrection body, with the nail and spear scars, which Thomas felt of. After giving his followers final instructions to wait in Jerusakem until the arrival of the Holy Spirit, He ascended to heaven, where He assumed His role as King and Lord; all authority on heaven and earth was given to Him.

The Sanhedrrin hurriedly announced a fabrication that the disciples had somehow stolen and secreted the body of Jesus, trying to allay the claims of believers that Jesus was resurrected. Nevertheless, there had to be many who suspected the truth---that Jesus was Who He said He was, for we are told in Acts 6:7 “large numbers of priests became believers” in Jesus Christ.

The apostles at first assumed they were still a part of Judaism; they met daily in Solomon’s Colonnade in the outer court of the temple in large groups, plus small group meetings in homes. At first there was no objection by the Sanhedrin. But when Peter and John healed the well-known man crippled from birth on the steps of the temple, they arrested and warned them not to speak in “that name”---meaning Jesus of Nazareth--- any more. Obeying God rather than men, the apostles kept right on teaching and healing in Jesus’ name. Their fame spread outside of Jerusalem, and many sick and lame were brought into the city and placed in the streets, in the hope that Peter’s shadow would fall on them and give them healing. All the apostles were arrested and questioned by the Sanhedring, scourged, and warned again not to teach in Jesus’ name.

By this time the Sanhedrin was boiling with rage. Still, the apostles kept on preaching the gospel. Deacons were appointed, and other laymen filled with the Holy Spirit were teaching and healing. Then came Stephen, one of the first seven deacons, who was arrested and brought before the whole Jewish council. He preached a cold, rebuking sermon, reviewing the disobedient and idolatrous history of Israel, accusing them of worshiping the temple as an idol more than they worshiped God. That was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”, for their anger burst out; they dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death. A brilliant young Pharisee named Saul watched with approval the killing of Stephen and held the robes of the rock-throwers. His name became Paul later, and he was responsible for breaking Christianity away from Judaism, completely and forever. Please read Chapter 7 of the Book of Acts in the Bible, which quotes Stephen’s speech.