If you should pause briefly near death’s vigil, you may see some soul precariously perched on a precipice above the dark shadows of hades; yet.. lifted to light of life after death.. another resurrection in Christ to eternal glory with God Who Saves.
Peter and another resurrection as witness
Even as Peter travels some distance to Lydda and Joppa, somewhere back in towns nearer to Jerusalem a disciple named Lazarus witnesses another resurrection than that of the Lord Jesus Christ: his own.
So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”
It’s one of the tenderest lines in Scripture.Roger@talkofJESUS.com
– on witnesses of Jesus at Lazarus’ funeral John 11:36
In the ever so brief time prior to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection Peter, the Apostles and many disciples of the Lord Jesus had witnessed this powerful sign of the Messiah as Jesus called out to Lazarus to come out of the grave!
Earlier in Jesus ministry the Apostle also had witnessed yet another resurrection of a young man sitting up in his coffin about to be carried to his funeral wake in Nain!
Resurrection of a body which has fallen from life into the valley of death is nothing new to the Apostles. To Peter another resurrection would be completely possible IF it is the will of the Lord.
Click above for Gevurot 9:35-43 Orthodox Jewish Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Arabic Bible:
Death’s appeal from Joppa
A young woman has died..
Her friends prepared her for burial and laid her in an upstairs room. 38 But when they learned that Peter was nearby at Lydda, they sent two men to beg him to return with them to Joppa.
Aeneas of Lydda: “I can walk!
Peter responds and ACTS
Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed, has been at Peter’s side; just as a lame man in Jerusalem who was healed also had stood with him and John as witness in the Temple.
35 And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord..
37 But it happened [in those days] at that time that she [the young woman in Joppa] became sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upstairs room.
36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means [Gk. for gazelle] Dorcas);
this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.
Peter arrives in Joppa
39 .. as soon as he [Peter] arrived [from Lydda with the two men who had summoned the Apostle to Joppa], they took him upstairs where Dorcas lay.
It’s the scene of grief – mourning the loss of a beloved servant of all, a friend, a young woman once vibrant in life who succumbs to one of the many maladies of this fragile flesh.
Like those Peter had seen — the boy in a bier in Nain and Lazarus wrapped in death’s cloths behind a closed tomb in Bethany — here the Apostle takes in the vigil of those watching this Gazelle’s lifeless body, as well as the Apostle’s own entry into their sad scene in an upper room perched above the the shadows ofvalley of death.
The room was filled with weeping widows who were showing one another the coats and other garments Dorcas had made for them.
40 But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed.
(Like in Nain, Joppa will cancel its funeral procession today,
DUE TO this next resurrection.)
Another Resurrection!
.. and turning to the body, he [the Apostle Peter] said, “
The familiar command of Peter (to a dead woman) in ACTS 9:40
And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
He Raised Her Up
You Raise Me Up – Selah – 5 min.
DEATH.. and all hope for flesh and blood lost.. except for the hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! And once again, here and now, another resurrection — by the Apostle and not the Lord Incarnate.
Luke continues with the resurrection theme [45x] in his second account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
ἀνίστημι – Strong’s G450 – anistēmi – an-is’-tay-mee – to cause to rise up, raise up
42 The news raced through the town, and many believed in the Lord.
43 And Peter stayed a long time in Joppa, living with Simon, the tanner.
ACTS of the Missionary Journeys of Peter: To be continued...
Of all places the Apostles would not have ever thought the risen Christ would anoint yet another Apostle, a road to Damascus likely would have been the last place to come to mind.
Jesus had led them to places beyond Galilee (now formally a part of Syria under the administration of Rome for the readers of ACTS) like Tyre and Sidon.
Jews had built synagogues in many cities of the Roman Empire. By the time Saul studies in Jerusalem and now pursues disciples of Jesus in his zeal for the LORD, the politics of Rome, Jerusalem and the major cities of Syria, Galilee, Samaria and Judea are not-so-delicately intertwined.
Syria Cilicia Phoenice
Damascus, of course, was of strategic importance to Rome in governing all of Syria including Jerusalem and the cities of the eastern Mediterranean.
Tarsus, Damascus & the eastern administrative shore of Syria under Rome
The Roman prefects / procurators of Judea were directly subordinate to the Syrian governor.
In particular, the Legate of Syria was the next authority in complaints against the governor of Judea, as can be seen from the lawsuit brought by the Jews against Pontius Pilate to Lucius Vitellius in AD 36 and the Samaritans brought before the legate Gaius in AD 51
Click above for translations in English, Ukrainian and Russian.
On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.
Devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.
Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.
..went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus..
Meanwhile, in Damascus..
10 There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias..
Many Jews (including these Christian followers of the Way) lived in Damascus, a city with multiple synagogues. [v.2] These included a disciple named Ἰούδας [Judas, a common name of that time] [v.11].
From terrorizing Jews in Judea & Samaria to the road to Damascus
To the Roman Citizen born in Tarsus, Damascus will be a familiar stop along the roads from Jerusalem.
Now as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Acts 9:4b NASB – JESUS to Saul of Tarsus along the road to Damascus
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
“I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.”
Acts of the Apostles 9:5b-6 NASB, Response of the Lord to Saul of Tarsus with command for his leading into Damascus
7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.
Prayer and Fasting
9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
ACTS of an Apostle to the gentiles + to be continued...
Many of us remain fascinated with the testimony of a witness impacting the outcome of a trial.
μάρτυς – martys – a witness
WE are simply spectators at a trial, not a familiar rerun of a fictional courtroom scene by Erle Stanley Gardner six decades ago, but an actual ancient trial of an accused defendant, Stephen, from two thousand years ago.
Like the legal dramas whose complex plots draw us in, we know that the defendant is innocent. His advocate, however, is supernatural and his jury includes dozens of Stephen’s accusing judges.
And the outcome? Preordained. (Think of it as ‘prerecorded’ by the Author of this great mystery.)
Contemporary summary of Stephen's defense thus far from Luke's transcript in Acts 7:
You men, brethren, and fathers of the council know the Law of Moses, by which you judge my words.
I, too, revere Moses and the Prophets, and present their testimony in my defense. WE the people of the Way of Jesus love the same LORD our God and Father, who appeared to Moses before we entered the land of God’s promise. The same Lord who appeared to David before his son brought the tabernacle of witness into the Temple of Solomon.
Acts 7: continued
49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And the earth is the footstool of My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My rest? 50 Was it not My hand that made all these things?’
Acts 7:49-50 NASB – Stephen quotes the Prophet Isaiah 66;1-2
Witness to a “stiff-necked people!”
Here is a courtroom scene with the witness Stephen called to the stand in his own defense. And he seems to confess guilt. But as in most murder mysteries, this twist in the plot is not quite what it seems.
Public trials laden with false testimony in the temples of stiff-necked people.
A thousand years later King Herod, who had sought to murder Judea’s Messiah, would build it back better through an alliance with Rome. The Empire already occupied Jerusalem and would soon burn down Herod’s temple in A.D. 70, less than two score years after a trial of thirty-year old Stephen in ~A.D. 33.
Here's some background investigation from Luke's first century account of Stephen's trial.
Many acts have taken place outside the courtroom of Jerusalem's one-hundred-twenty man council.
(This trial scene will play like a mid-sixty's [A.D. 60's] rerun to most of Luke's readerssome thirty years later.) Some 21st century Christians may be unfamiliar with this current explosive climate of the Capitol City of Jerusalem (in ~A.D. 63), not to mention our ongoing political turmoil in Rome (our Babylon of this era).
Two years earlier the trial of Jesus had been a political public charade staged by the same officials of these ‘whitewashed tombs‘ of the Sanhedrin.
Then the entire assembly of them set out and brought Him before Pilate.
And they began to bring charges against Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”
one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
in an ethical sense
those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.”
ACTS 1:9 – The instruction of Jesus to the Apostles – 1:10 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
Acts 4:33 NASB
“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Acts of the Apostles 6:8 CSB
But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines,” and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
Then they secretly induced men to say,
“We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moshe and God.”
Acts 6:9-11 Hebrew Names Version
And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said,
This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!
Acts 7:51 NLT – Stephen’s closing argument!
Does the prophet speaking with the face of an angel, a shining face like that of Moses coming down from the Presence of the LORD on Sinai, not have to speak the TESTIMONY of God’s truth?
Is Stephen’s WITNESS FOR CHRIST, even in the face of inevitable execution not gospel truth to Law-breakers?
Of course. By the Power of the Holy Spirit this is exactly what Stephen does as conclusion to his testimony
.
Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One,
Herod certainly would have had full support of Jerusalem's High Council when he had beheaded John the Baptist, who was witness to the LORD anointing the ministry of Jesus in the Jordan.
and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him;
you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
Acts 7:52-53 – Stephen’s closing argument to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem
Sentencing!
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
“Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:56b NASB – a final witness of Stephen before the Sanhedrin
57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.
“Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have all the congregation stone him. Vayikra (Leviticus) 24 ::
False witnesses against Stephen would have been the first to cast stones against him! Not only were they without sin, but their stiff-necked opposition to the Son of God had brought them by their own testimony to the place of executing an angelic saint of Stephen.
Their own leaders had arranged false testimony to shield their own sins and covetous clinging to whitewashed leadership image of a PEOPLE already condemned.
(Of course THAT was twenty-one centuries ago; an opportune ACT that could never happen now... Would it?) Unresolved trials WE THE PEOPLE endure daily seem to never end - an unresolved eternity preoccupying this brief life.
But Stephen’s case must convince us and convict US: true witness with eternal judgment will come to a conclusion WE must not ignore.
Witness of a Martyr
I remind US once more of the definition above, also linked below.
ACTS 7:58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
As they were stoning him, Stephen called out to God, “Lord Yeshua! Receive my spirit!”
Acts 7:59 Hebrew Names Version
“Father, forgive them..”
Stephen had heard it before from the parched tongue of Jesus on the Cross. He had preached it with the power of the Holy Spirit.
But now as his own failing flesh of this short life suffered at the hands of his false accusers, Stephen utters one last word – a lasting impression on a leading disciple of Gamaliel.
Then he knelt down and began to pray crying out with a loud voice:
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
Having said this, Stephen died.
Impressions from an injustice witnessed
The crowds of officials must have been gloating with gratification as the stone-battered body of Stephen lay lifeless in that pit – like Golgotha, a place of shame beyond the walls of THEIR CITY.
'WE can justify our ACTS by demonstrating OUR power (like this) over these PEOPLE we represent in their Temple; so WE can say anything and they will believe US, because WE rule this 'chosen' NATION under God.'
'I think we can eliminate more of these religious opponents like this. Don't you?
(Okay, I confess my most contemporary take on their first century victories which filled crowds with anger, false witnesses and political cover without accountability.
Who would believe such lies told by so many of every party and false witness HEADLINED in so many places? - RH)
The religious and political leaders and their constituancies all return to the comfort of Jerusalem’s walls, with lavish celebrations under watchful eyes of their Roman Centurion ‘friends,’ men like them who seem just a bit more apprehensive about religion and Judean political disagreements lately.
But some recognize the accusations as false and not all process back to Judea’s Capitol abuzz with tomorrow’s HEADLINES of their victory this day..
STEPHEN GUILTY! BLASPHEMER EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY!
JUSTICE DELIVERED IN OUR NATION’S CAPITOL!
Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. – Acts 8:1
And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
ACTS 22:20 KJV – Later confession of witness by Saul of Tarsus, who Christ would call as Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul.
