“When they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
“And Saul approved of his execution.
“And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” [1]
Joe McKeever relates how a missionary ticked him off on one occasion. This is what McKeever says happened. “In a letter home to friends and supporters, this Christian worker in a heavily Muslim country, unnamed for security reasons, was making the point that we should not discriminate against all Arabs or Muslims for the work of a few terrorists. Okay, I can see that. Then the missionary said, ‘After all, those terrorists lived in the United States for many months prior to the September eleventh tragedies. Why didn't your church lead them to Christ while they were living in your city?’”
McKeever then said, “That's what stung.” [2]
Well, the missionary did raise a fair question. Why didn’t a congregation—a Baptist church, a Pentecostal church, a Presbyterian church, any congregation composed of worshippers of the Risen Saviour—reach out to win these terrorists to Christ? Did these Islamic thugs never encounter a Christian during the days before they highjacked those planes and turned them into missiles carrying passengers to their deaths? There are destructive people living in our communities—people who want to destroy our society, people who want to overthrow our government, people who are intent on destroying our way of life, people willing to destroy themselves. Could we turn them from their destructive way by pointing them to Christ Jesus? News reports throughout Canada and the United States suggest there are disaffected people living among us ensuring that we have ample opportunity to win a terrorist to Christ.
Candidly, it seems highly unlikely that a terrorist on a mission to kill those he considers his enemies, will be visiting the New Beginnings Baptist Church. Should such an individual visit our congregation and hear the message we declare, we would rightly question whether we could reason with him. Some people simply cannot be reasoned with, and it seems unlikely that someone motivated by blind hatred would agree to listen to the message of life we declare.
Still, I must wonder whether my kind of Christianity would win a terrorist to faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. Here is the reason for my question: it is an unwritten law in evangelism that you cannot win to Christ anyone more committed to his way of life than you are to the Lord. In other words, if I am to win that terrorist to Christ, I must outlive that terrorist, I must out-love that terrorist, and I must outdo that terrorist with my own commitment and sacrifice if I hope to earn his attention. And I may be compelled to out-die that terrorist if my faith will make an impact. And therein lies a problem!
A TERRORIST CREATED — “Saul approved of [Stephen’s] execution” [ACTS 8:1a]. In the first century, our spiritual forebears faced a terrorist onslaught led by the threat of a major terrorist. This threat to the Faith was inflamed by the rage of a man named Saul from the city of Tarsus. This terrorist, for that is what he was, was determined to extirpate the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the early Christians recognised as the promised Messiah and as the Son of God. This Saul was a religious leader among the Jews, a learned rabbi trained in the nuances of Judaic Law under the tutelage of Rabbi Gamaliel; and this wicked man rabidly assailed the faithful, even pursuing them into districts far beyond the borders of Judea.
Shortly after introducing the readers to the man identified as Saul, Luke, the historian who has provided the written account of the early advance of the Faith, would write of this terrorist, “Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” [ACTS 8:3 NET BIBLE 2nd]. With white-hot fury, this terrorist only accomplished the scattering of the church, as noted when Doctor Luke writes, “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria” [ACTS 8:1b].
Like stomping on a campfire blazing in the middle of a parched and dry forest, a potential conflagration awaiting only a spark before exploding into a raging fire consuming the land, attacking the church only scattered the faithful to distant areas. And wherever these first century saints went, they proved obedient to the command of the One Whom they served. They spoke of Him, telling how He was the Anointed One of God, and how He would forgive sin and give peace with God to all who believed in Him. Jesus had commanded, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” [MARK 16:15-16]. He had promised, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” [ACTS 1:8b].
This raging rabbi had inadvertently become the means by which the Lord accomplished His will for His church. Jesus commanded those who have believed to carry the message of life into the whole world, but the faithful were not obedient to His charge. They had a comfortable life in Jerusalem, their feet straddling the divide between the accepted religion with which they were familiar and the worship of Jesus as the Anointed One of God. The Saviour had commanded them to go, carrying knowledge of His sacrifice and conquest of death, hell, and the grave; but they were comfortably ensconced in Jerusalem where they could go up to the Temple whenever they wished, where they could attend the synagogue of their choice, where they could still find acceptance from friends and family. In their estimate, they could have it all—acceptance by friends and family and opportunity to worship Jesus as the Christ.
Much like contemporary Christians who want just a little bit of religion—not enough to disturb anyone, but just enough to make them right with God, these first believers saw no need to be fanatics about their faith in the Risen Lord of Glory. Going into all the world would mean that they had to tell Samaritans of the salvation they had found in Jesus as the Son of God, and they had spent a lifetime learning to hate Samaritans. Going into all the world would mean speaking with Gentiles of the Christ; and after a lifetime of praying, “Blessed are you, Hashem, our God and king of the world, who did not make me a Gentile,” [3] the thought of speaking to Gentiles, much less accepting them as equals before the Lord, was more than they could bear.
But the persecution unleashed by this terrorist would drive them from their comfort to obedience. Doctor Luke tells how this man, identified by his violence toward the saints, sought and received the support of the high priest to pursue the followers of the Risen Saviour. Doctor Luke writes, “Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” [ACTS 9:1-2].
Much later, this same man was haled before the Jewish Council on the serious charge of religious sedition. Before that august body, this man reflected on his earlier work on behalf of the Council, saying, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished” [ACTS 22:3-5]. This man had just testified that the leading lights in that Council could verify that he worked for them to destroy those who might foolishly dare name the Name of Jesus as the Messiah of God!
In his apologia before the Council, this man confessed how he prayed, “Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him” [ACTS 22:19-20]. This man admitted he had served as their henchman, the executioner, the zealous assassin carrying out the murderous intent of the religious leaders when the Faith of Christ the Lord was just aborning. He was a first century Osama Bin Laden, enraged that anyone would dare claim that a man executed as a common criminal could be the Son of God. In his estimate, there was but one way to deal with this evil, and that was to destroy these vile followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
The people of Israel, and especially the religious leaders, could not casually dismiss the credentials that made this terrorist what he was. Many years after attacking the faithful, this man would confess, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless” [PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-6].
You may have noticed from your years of watching the response of people infected with a liberal mindset, or through years of observing those with mushy minds harbouring the fallacious idea that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as you are sincere, that there is little rational thought arising from those opposed to the Faith of Christ the Lord. The hive mentality of leftists doesn’t appreciate those who are associated with them deviating from the ever-changing standard the hive has established. As evidenced by watching Islamists and adherents of the Hindu lunatic fringe, rabid zealots don’t tolerate any deviation from the current groupthink, and that groupthink, unbounded from reality, can change in an instance.
As an aside of no small significance, professing Christians unbounded by the written Word of God and unrestrained by the Spirit of Christ are just as capable of fanaticism as the most fanatical Islamist or Hindu fanatic. It is impossible to force people into the Kingdom of God through coercion, through threats, or through intimidation. It is the Spirit of the Living God Who draws people to faith in the Son of God. We who are twice born are witnesses of the grace of God—nothing more and nothing less. We must never imagine that we are anything other than a vessel of God’s grace.
Saul was a resolute Judaizer; whatever current dogma propounded by the Sanhedrin was what everyone must accept as reality. These followers of “the Way” were a blight on the earth, a desecration of Judaism, a defilement of the Mosaic Law. They would not be turned from their belief that this criminal who died a humiliating death on a Roman cross was the promised Messiah of God. These deluded people were so committed to their worship of the Nazarene that they left no option save death if the Jewish religion was to be purified and freed of the blemish with which the hated worshippers of the crucified man marred the religious landscape.
We tend to imagine that religious people are peaceful people. However, that perception is often wrong. Religious people can be very dangerous people. Anyone who disagrees with the religion held by the religious person is often seen as a threat. To be certain, the individual who has no strong conviction may not be a threat because they have preferences rather than convictions. However, the person who has convictions will pose a threat to the religious person.
We encounter the concept of religion but a few times in the New Testament, but those occurrences are significant. Briefing Agrippa about the prisoner named Paul, Festus spoke of what had occurred leading to that incarceration. Doctor Luke presents Festus’ summation of the situation that compelled him to incarcerate Paul in this fashion: “There is a man left prisoner by Felix, and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him. So when they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed. Rather they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive” [ACTS 25:14a-19]. Did you catch that? The conflict revolved around a dispute about their own religion and whether Jesus, whom Paul worshipped, was alive or dead. The Jews felt their religion was under assault, and they felt strongly enough to try to kill Paul.
Contrasting the Faith of Christ the Lord with religion that is built around rules and regulations, Paul has written, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” [COLOSSIANS 2:20-23]. Dear people, if your religious exercise is treated as a duty, you know nothing of the grace of God. If you measure your devotion to Christ by the effort you may exert to please God, you know nothing of the mercies of God.
James insists that religion must be transformative. We are not religious just so we are enabled to perform certain duties; rather, we who are redeemed are being transformed. Thus, we live in such a way to reveal the transformation that is now taking place! In his letter, James has written, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” [JAMES 1:26-27].
Saul was one of those deluded souls who performed religious duties to make himself acceptable to God! And all such efforts are worthless! Listen to me when I say, “If your religion has not changed you, change your religion!” Were you baptised to make yourself acceptable to God? You have deceived yourself! Do you partake of the Communion Meal to make yourself acceptable to God? You are deluded! Do you attend the service of worship to make yourself acceptable to God? You are misled! Never forget: “By grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them” [EPHESIANS 2:8-10 NET BIBLE 2nd].
A TERRORIST UNLEASHED — Turning once more to the text, we read of a violent storm that broke over the church in Jerusalem. “There arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria” [ACTS 8:1b]. At the centre of that storm was one man. Thus, we read, “Saul was trying to destroy the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” [ACTS 8:3 NET BIBLE 2nd].
For over two millennia, various religions have sought to extirpate through persecution and death those dear souls and the forebears of us who walk by faith in the salvation of Christ the Lord. Jewish religionists attempted to kill off those who walked in “The Way” during those early years of the Faith. Roman emperors sought to drive the followers of the Christ from the Faith and into the ranks of the worshippers of state approved gods, though the attacks were never empire wide. Adherents of the state church tried to rid the land of the worshippers of the Risen Lord when they didn’t prop up the Romanists. And these religious assaults have continued to this day in various lands where the Romanists hold sway. The Calvinists united with Lutherans to persecute Anabaptists in a vain attempt to destroy them. The history of the Faith in Europe, Africa, and Asia is a story of bloody persecution of the worshippers of the Christ to this day.
One might imagine that freedom to worship Christ according to the dictates of one’s heart would characterise religion in the New World. After all, those sailing to the American shores made the perilous journey to find freedom to worship according to the dictates of their hearts. However, early in the history of the New World, religious freedom was but a dream. Congregationalists in Massachusetts persecuted any who worshipped in a manner not controlled by the state-approved clergy, attempting to drive them from the colony. The actions of these freedom-seeking Congregationalists are a primary reason for the establishment of Rhode Island colony, the first colony to practise freedom of religion. Anglicans in Virginia drove from their homes any who dissented from the state church, compelling them to underwrite the state supported clergy or be driven into the wilderness. The story didn’t differ greatly in most of the remaining colonies. In more recent days, threats against the Christian Faith continue to rise, primarily from those of a more liberal bent when they are elevated to power.
Today, Hindus in India attack worshippers of the Son of God; they are intent on killing off anyone who does not support their polytheism. And Islamists in northern Africa, throughout the Middle East, and in southeast Asia attack any refusing to worship the desert demon they claim as a god. Jesus our Master warned us of these very conditions when he said, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” [LUKE 6:26].
Remember the warning Jesus delivered to His disciples immediately before His Passion: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause’” [JOHN 15:18-25].
Jesus has warned us, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” [JOHN 16:33]. It is almost as if Jesus was warning that the world is hostile to Him and to any who dare live to honour Him. Imagine!
In his final missive to his erstwhile companion who had shared many hardships with him, the Apostle to the Gentiles would warn, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” [2 TIMOTHY 3:12-13]. Timothy, now Pastor of the congregation meeting in Ephesus, was in need of encouragement if he would fulfil the ministry the Lord had assigned.
Recall the message the missionaries delivered at the conclusion of their first foray into pagan lands. “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” [ACTS 14:21-23].
Here is what we must not ever forget—from start to finish, the ministry of the first saints spoke of trials and tribulations for all who would dare follow the crucified and resurrected Saviour. Anyone seeking an easy path to Heaven should avoid the Faith of Christ the Lord. Following Him will not be an easy path, but it is the only path to God. Early in His days in the flesh, Jesus said, “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life, and there aren’t many people who find it” [MATTHEW 7:13-14 ISV]!
And the slaughter of the innocents continues to this day. Though it was almost ignored in the news reports of the day, this past June, Islamists in Nigeria shot, hacked, and burned over two hundred Christians. The heavily armed Fulani jihadists attacked Nigerian Christians over a two-day period, killing the followers of Christ while they were sleeping. [4] Between November 2022 and November 2024, Islamists killed 9,814 Nigerian Christians. These brothers and sisters in Christ were slaughtered because they dared believe that Jesus the Christ of God, suffered and rose from the dead that we may live in Him. [5]
In India, 4,949 attacks on Christian properties—homes and churches—were recorded in 2024. In February 2024, eighteen church buildings were destroyed in the Islamic State of Mozambique. [6] Since 2022, at least 1,559 Chinese Christians have been arrested and sentenced because they worship the Son of God in unregistered churches! [7] In Azerbaijan, over 120,000 Christians were displaced by Azerbaijani military actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. Over 60,000 Christians have been displaced in India because of ethnic conflict in Manipur. Similar disruptions are reported in Mozambique, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Myanmar. [8] More than 9,000 Christians—many young girls—are reported to have been abducted in the past year. [9] These young women are frequently forced to marry Muslims where they are treated as concubines, solely for the pleasure of their captors. In Mexico, in Haiti, in Cameroon, and in Ethiopia, Christian gatherings are often targeted and pastors and elders targeted for assault and abduction. Among the nations in which Christians suffer for their Faith, Russia ranks high with the fifth largest number of killings and the fourth highest number of arrests, as the government targets Evangelical Christians. [10]
To this day, there can be an awful cost borne by the individual who worships the Living Son of God. Jesus warned, and I have witnessed with my own eyes, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” [MATTHEW 10:16-22a].
Shortly after delivering these stunning words to caution His followers, Jesus warned, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” [MATTHEW 10:34-39].
Is God working in the time when His saints are distressed? Jesus said, “My Father is still working, and I too am working” [JOHN 5:17 CSB]. Jesus promised that He would always be with His people. We who know Him as Lord have this promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” [HEBREWS 13:5]. Therefore, even when we are attacked because of our Faith, Christ is with us, watching over us and guarding us in our time of trial. He is at work to ensure that we will stand firm, and that He will be glorified in us.
Greg Laurie tells a story about codfish that were being shipped from the East Coast to the West Coast. He says that the problem was that the fish arrived spoiled. The fish were frozen and sent off but were still mushy to the taste. They tried sending the fish alive, but they arrived dead. Then they sent them alive, with one change. In the tank with the live cod, they included their mortal enemy, the catfish. By the time the cod arrived, they were alive and well, having run from the catfish the entire journey. The people who ate it said it was the best cod they ever tasted. [11] Perhaps God is putting a catfish in the tank to keep His people alive and spiritually vibrant. We can be certain that nothing comes into the life of the faithful that has not been permitted by God Who is too wise to make a mistake and too good to needlessly hurt His people,
Few of you have suffered because of your Faith. You may have been the brunt of jokes. Some may have experienced the loss of a job. I have known a few who suffered the breakup of a marriage, but few have been physically assaulted because of the Faith. Surely, the words of an unknown writer hold true for us today, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” [HEBREWS 12:4].
We are prone to forget that God is always working. Few of us can say with conviction, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” [PHILIPPIANS 1:20-21]. Though few of us can say those words with conviction, all of us should say those words with the prayer that Christ will work through us to transform the lives of lost men and women.
A TERRORIST TRANSFORMED — Turning again to the text, we read, “When [the Jews] heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at [Stephen]. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep” [ACTS 7:54-60].
The text tells of Stephen's death by stoning. Witnessing this violence, standing apart, was Saul. He was watching all that was taking place. He had to have noted Stephen’s courage and the calm demeanour with which he faced the hostile mob intent on taking his life.
Saul did not throw a stone, but as he guarded the coats of those throwing the stones and congratulated them for their courage he witnessed all that took place that day. He heard the bold Deacon pray for his executioners, pleading with the Lord to forgive them for their ignorance. The mad rabbi saw the angelic countenance spread across the bruised face of the bleeding disciple; he heard him as he called out, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” [ACTS 7:56]. He heard the dying Deacon as he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and as he pleaded for his tormentors, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” [ACTS 7:59-60]. Saul saw the courage with which Stephen faced death, and he never forgot.
I read this account, and questions arise in my mind. Did anyone in the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Jerusalem ever say in a prayer meeting, “Let’s pray for Saul to come to Christ and be saved!” Remember, these first saints had witnessed miracles. They had witnessed thousands of hostile Jews confess Christ in a single day. They had witnessed lame men healed and enabled to walk without a limp! They had witnessed the Holy Spirit strike dead a lying couple because they tried to steal glory from God. They had witnessed their leaders jailed and then mysteriously freed from jail.
And that wasn’t all! Doctor Luke informs us, “Many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed” [ACTS 5:12-16].
However, doesn’t it seem that asking God to save a terrorist is a bit much? I rather suspect that it is possible that most among that first congregation were willing to pray for the followers of the Christ to be protected from the terror raining down on them. I don’t doubt that many among those first saints prayed for relief for those who were suffering under the heavy hand of persecution aimed at those who worshipped the Risen Saviour. One Nigerian Believer is reported to have pleaded, “Join with us to pray that God Himself should be our defender and sustain us and keep us.” [12] That’s how we would pray; but to pray for Saul to become a fellow worshipper with them? I suspect that was somehow more than any follower of Christ could have dared hope!
Nevertheless, God had bigger plans than anything these early saints could have imagined. All God required was someone who could outlive, someone who could out-love, someone who could outdo Saul. And that someone might even have to out-die the terrorist named Saul. And that someone was a godly deacon named Stephen.
You may recall that Stephen was a charter member of the first deacon fellowship, serving the members of the New Beginnings Baptist Church of Jerusalem. This godly man was recognised as a man who was “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” [see ACTS 6:5]. He was recognised as being “full of grace and power,” and he was witnessed “doing great wonders and signs among the people” [see ACTS 6:8]. Those of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, and some from Cyrene, Alexandria, from Cilicia, and from Asia, attempted to engage this deacon in debate, but, “They could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” [ACTS 6:10]. Unable to refute his arguments for believing the message that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, they struggled to find something with which they might charge him, only to come up empty. At last there was no alternative in their mind except to resort to the stratagem rogues have employed since time immemorial—they suborned witnesses to lie about Stephen and what he was saying. This was God’s man for an incredible mission—win a terrorist to Christ!
That day, Saul was bested. At last, the rabid rabbi met one individual more committed to Christ than he was committed against Christ. From that moment on Saul was never again the same violent, hate-filled man he had been. Over the next few days—perhaps it was even for the next several weeks, Saul continued his murderous attacks, but the seed had been planted and that holy seed was taking root. The Spirit of God had penetrated the hardened heart of the maddened rabbi with the arrow of a man holier than he could ever hope to be through his puerile efforts. Eventually, on a road outside Damascus, God reeled him in. The rest is history.
Now, the question for us is this: Would my kind of faith and witness win that kind of enemy to the Lord? It's a question that is meant to drive me to my knees in prayer, and to stand up with a new determination not to be outlived, not to be outdone by the likes of enemies set in opposition to the Risen Christ. About us are people newly arrived in our nation, and perhaps even some who were raised among us, who are opposed to the Faith of Christ the Lord. Do we adjust ourselves to their unbelief? Or do we live godly lives to the glory of Christ our Saviour?
The message is a call to a real holy war—a life that loves those who hate us, a life committed to pray for those opposed to Christ, and a call to lay down our lives if need be. This is, after all, how the Lord destroys terrorists—He turns them into disciples. Who, in the realm of your knowledge, will you win to faith in God’s Son? Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Joe McKeever, “Win a Terrorist to Christ?”, Crosswalk, Dec 08, 2001, https://www.crosswalk.com/archive/win-a-terrorist-to-christ-1109162.html, accessed 9 August 2025
[3] Max DuBoff, “The Three Blessings,” The Three Blessings: Past and Future, accessed 10 August 2025
[4] Talia Wise, “‘Babies Were Burned’: Muslim Gunmen Massacre up to 200 Christians in Nigeria,” CBN, 06-18-2025, 'Babies Were Burned': Muslim Gunmen Massacre up to 200 Christians in Nigeria | CBN News, accessed 13 August, 2025; Madeleine Kearns, “As Christians Are Slaughtered, the World Looks Away,” The Free Press, 06.26.25, As Christians Are Slaughtered, the World Looks Away, accessed 13 August, 2025; “New Attacks in Nigeria Leave 200+ Dead,” Open Doors, New attacks in Nigeria leave 200+ dead · Serving Persecuted Christians Worldwide, accessed 12 August, 2025
[5] The 2025 Global Christian Relief Red List, https://globalchristianrelief.org/gcr-red-list, accessed 16 August 2025
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] 9,311, Ibid.
[10] Christians Face Increasing Global Persecution, Lifeway Research, https://research.lifeway.com/2025/01/28/christians-face-increasing-global-persecution, accessed 16 August, 2025
[11] Greg Laurie, “Why Are Christians Persecuted in 2025?” Harvest, Mar 15, 2025, Why Are Christians Persecuted in 2025?, accessed 16 August 2025
[12] Pastor Barnabas, “New Attacks in Nigeria Leave 200+ Dead,” Open Doors, New attacks in Nigeria leave 200+ dead: Serving Persecuted Christians Worldwide, accessed 13 August, 2025
