Acts 7
Read: Acts 7
When good things begin to happen, Satan prepares to make his move. In Acts 7 we have the first recorded instance of someone being killed for proclaiming the name of Jesus. Stephen, “full of the Holy Spirit,” speaks a powerful message about the history of Israel and he condemns the listeners for rejecting the message and messengers that God had sent them time and time again. Stephen’s death was just another example of their stubborn blindness and they only proved what he said to be true.
Recently, I watched an amazing movie called End of the Spear. It is about pilot Nate Saint, who went with missionary Jim Elliot and others to reach the Waodani people in the jungles of Ecuador. As these men watched these tribes killing one another and showing hostility towards outsiders, they knew that if the Waodani people didn’t hear about Jesus, they would spend eternity separated from him. They dropped gifts from their airplane several times to show the Waodani that they wanted to be friends and meant no harm. When they finally attempted to make ground contact with the Waodani people, they were speared to death… But that’s not the end of the story. Nate’s wife and son, along with the families of the other men who had been killed eventually were able to make peaceful contact with the tribe that had killed these men. Their families went to live among the Waodani people and taught them God’s plan of redemption and peace. Nate’s son Steve spent many years living amongst these people, and has even made peace and friendship with his father’s murderer. Because of their sacrifice, today many of the Waodani people have replaced their lifestyle of revenge and hostility with one of grace and forgiveness.
Only the gospel can bring that kind of change! And only through the Holy Spirit can people do the sort of things that these missionaries did. They had a willingness to lay down their lives and were not even willing to fight back because they did not want to kill someone who did not yet know Jesus. And then their families didn’t give up after losing husbands and fathers, but instead they went to live amongst them to serve, love, and teach these people about God. In Acts 1 Jesus told his followers that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came. This is the kind of power he was talking about! Both Stephen and these missionaries stepped out and put their lives in danger because they had hope in a bigger plan. They believed in God’s plan of redemption and wanted others to have the opportunity to believe in it too. Today many of us are afraid to share this message because we simply just don’t want to be made fun of… I pray we would walk in the same Spirit of boldness that Stephen and these missionaries did; I pray that we would be willing to do whatever it takes to reach out to the lost world around us and tell them about Jesus.
