Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

hardened, so that when he went back, five years subsequently, in the fullness of the Holy Ghost and
faithfully preached to them the truth which Stephen had preached and sealed with his blood, he
found them so hard and blinded by the devil that they not only rejected him, like Stephen, but
determined to kill him, the brethren slipping him away, leading him to Cæsarea and sending him off
to Tarsus, his native city, and thus saving his life. The argument favors the conclusion that those
strong-headed preachers and church officers to whom Stephen did this awful straight and plain
preaching, for which they stoned him to death, never did receive the light, but doubtless died in their
delusion, believing that they were the true preachers of the gospel, and making their bed in hell. Then
was Stephen’s ministry in vain? Would he have better been prudent and saved his life? The truth is
never told in vain, since God is preparing to judge the world. When the members of that fallen
Sanhedrin, i.e., the preachers and elders, stand before the judgment-bar, God will put Stephen on the
witness-block to testify against them. They will go down and he will go up. Behold Stephen standing
here, friendless and alone, prosecuted by the preachers and officers of his own church for heresy and
disloyalty! He is as bold as Napoleon on the battlefield. Looking them in the face, he tells them the
awful truth of their apostasy, carnality, and disharmony with the Holy Ghost, though it costs him his
life.
STEPHEN’S MARTYRDOM.
54-60. The officers of the Sanhedrin, clerical and laymen, are torn all to pieces by the straight,
awful truth enunciated by Stephen. They get so mad that they grit their teeth. I witness to you that
I have seen the same under similar circumstances, i.e., leading preachers so mad at the holiness
people that they turned pale and gritted their teeth, only lacking the cooperation of the civil arm to
do unto the Lord’s faithful witnesses just what these preachers and church officers did to Stephen.
55. “And being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up to heaven, he saw the glory of heaven, and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” The normal posture of Jesus in heaven is sitting on the
mediatorial throne. This is an extraordinary occasion; heaven enjoys the exquisite privilege of
witnessing the death of the first Christian martyr. Now see Jesus vacate the throne, walk out to the
heavenly battlements, calling the attention of the enraptured hosts. Archangels ceased to play on their
golden harps, the cherubim hushed their triumphant song, the seraphim paused amid the triumphant
shouts, while all heaven with Jesus look down and see how His martyr can die. The judgment hall,
where Jesus, the apostles and Stephen were tried for their lives, stands on Mt. Zion, about six
hundred yards from the city wall on the mountain brow, which is there entered by David’s Gate. As
a criminal must not die in the holy city, and they have condemned him unanimously, under charge
of blasphemy, because he said he saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
which was true, but they did not believe it, in a similar manner the magnates of the fallen churches
at the present day accuse the holiness people of blasphemy and are awfully shocked at our
testimonies, and we would really fare like Stephen if the stars and stripes did not float over our
heads, and gunboats roar from the seas. Therefore, laying violent hands on Stephen and dragging him
out through the gate to the brow of Mt. Zion, beyond the wall, as the Greek says, “they continued
to cast stones on him.” Pursuant to the law against blasphemers (Deuteronomy 17), the witnesses
must testify against him and cast the first stones. Thereafter the people indiscriminately continued
to cast stones on the poor victim. There is a striking double significance in the laying down of the
clothes at the feet of this young man called Saul. They only saw in it the fact of his leadership in the