An American Stephen

Every generation of Christians must learn to read the story that they’re in. This means saturating themselves in the word of God and bringing it to bear on their own lives and times. Several years ago, I preached a message on “Acts for Americans,” exploring the series of escalating collisions between the early Christian movement and the regnant authorities in Jerusalem in the early chapters of Acts. Four groups repeatedly come into contact: the apostles, the nascent church, the Jewish leaders, and the mass of unbelievers before whom the collisions took place.

In the first collision, the apostles are arrested because they “greatly annoyed” the Jewish leaders and are released with a warning: “Stop preaching in the name of Jesus.” We’re told that the leaders were amazed at the boldness of these uneducated fishermen.

In the second, the apostles are hauled before the authorities out of envy and rivalry, going toe-to-toe with their opponents in debate over the death and resurrection of Jesus. That collision ends with the Sanhedrin filled with barely controlled rage, beating the apostles and ending with another warning to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

In the final collision, Stephen is arrested because his opponents are unable to withstand his wisdom and testimony. He is slandered, and, when he makes his testimony before the crowd, their rage erupts, and he is murdered by a mob.

I thought about this series of escalating collisions after the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Wednesday. Like the apostles, Charlie was known for his boldness (and for the fact that he never went to college). Christian boldness is not bravado. It’s courage and clarity about Jesus and sin. Charlie’s primary mission in life was to take the truth to America’s university campuses—those leftist indoctrination centers that inculcate the foundational lies of our society. With humor and kindness, he patiently exposed such lies and sought to point his audience back to truth, to reality, to Christ. “It’s all about Jesus.” “Jesus defeated death so that you can live.” “Get married, have kids, and stop partying into oblivion. Leave a legacy, be courageous.”

In other words, Charlie Kirk was a martyr. The original meaning of that term was “witness,” someone who testified to some great truth. It came to bear its modern meaning because such testimony to the truth frequently met with hostility, violence, and death. Charlie Kirk is now a martyr in both senses.

Like the early church, he was slandered by his opponents who were unable to answer his arguments. He was called a racist and a fascist. At one time, those terms had a definitive meaning. A racist was someone who was filled with racial animosity or racial vainglory. For years, a fascist simply meant “someone I don’t like.” But now, a racist is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal. And a fascist means someone who can be justifiably murdered for their political views.

As Charlie himself noted back in April, we have moved from Cancel Culture to Assassination Culture. Cancel Culture says, “Argument weak; shout here.” Assassination Culture says, “Argument weak; shoot here.” And yet despite the threats and danger, Charlie, like Stephen before him, ran toward the battle, not away from it.

In applying the collision in Acts to America in 2016, I said this:

But if you say, as the Bible says, that men are men (and not women), and that women are women (and not men), and that marriage is (and only is) a covenantal union between one man and one woman, if you say that, then you will annoy some, and enrage others. And sometimes, that rage will be barely controlled. And in the future, who knows? Who knows? If the pattern holds true, who knows?

After Wednesday, now we know. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a reminder of where we are in the story. And even as we grieve and mourn his loss, we can also find great hope in the kinds of stories that God likes to tell.

After Stephen was murdered, the early church was scattered out from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. But they didn’t tuck tail and run; they didn’t grumble and complain and whine. “Those who were scattered went about preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). They brought the truth of God and the gospel wherever they went, applying it with the same boldness that Stephen displayed. This is the strange and surprising triumph of the gospel.

And so let us pray as the early church did when they met with opposition and evil. “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). The death of Christ, the martyrdom of Stephen, the assassination of Charlie—all of these are in the hand of God, and He is the one telling this story.

And we must not miss one more detail in the story. When Stephen was martyred, a man named Saul stood by approving. Witnessing the reaction from the left to the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk, we are rightly disturbed and angered by the celebrations and the approval. But we must take our anger to the Lord. Perhaps there are, even among the wicked, more Sauls heading for their own Damascus Road.

The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.

May the blood of Charlie Kirk be the seed of reformation and revival in our nation.