Friends, that day refers to the day Stephen was martyred. It was a day of death and sorrow, yet the Bible records his death as falling asleep. It uses the expression falling into deep sleep, not simply passing away. The Bible often describes the death of saints as sleep. Genesis records Jacob sleeping, Deuteronomy records Moses sleeping, and Acts 13 records David sleeping. In the New Testament, Jesus also referred to the deaths of Jairus#039 daughter and Lazarus as sleeping. The reason the death of saints is called sleep is clear: just as one who sleeps will surely awaken, the Lord will awaken us on the last day. Death is not the end the Bible describes it as sleep because there is the promise of resurrection that must follow. Therefore, that day is not merely a day of sorrow, but the day of resurrection, the day of life when we hope for reunion. Today, let us meditate together on what must happen for that day, the day of resurrection, to come in our lives.
First, there is great persecution.
For the apostles, Jerusalem was not the final destination but the starting point. Yet after Pentecost, a single sermon led to three thousand and five thousand people being converted. They did not want to leave, content with this amazing revival. The Lord#039s final command was clear: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Yet the disciples remained within Jerusalem. Therefore, God permitted a great (megas) persecution to shake them awake. As a result, all the saints except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Here, scattered (diaspereo) means the act of a farmer scattering seed. The seed is scattered passively, but the farmer sows actively. Thus, the scattering was not accidental but sowing according to God#039s providence. This persecution became an opportunity to break self-centeredness and expand horizons. When stubbornness and clinging within us are broken, the life of the Word flows to others. Just as an egg must break for a chick to be born, my world must break for new life to emerge. Both individuals and the church advance to the ends of the earth only when broken through persecution. The Antioch church recorded in Acts 11 became the center of Paul#039s mission its remarkable expansion was precisely the fruit of this breaking. To endure well and scatter wellampmdashthis is the life of the diaspora.
Second, there is great weeping.
Verse 2, The devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. Here, great is megas, and weeping is kopetos, meaning to beat one#039s chest and wail. According to the law and the council#039s ruling at that time, those sentenced to death were considered cursed by God, so they should not have wept. Yet they wept with Stephen, risking their own disadvantage. Burying him was not merely disposing of the body it was a confession of bearing the burden together, of walking together. It was a tearful confession of solidarity and repentance: 'I too am a sinner like him. I too will follow that path.' It was a cry of repentant solidarity.
Tears restore broken emotions and make hearts beat anew toward God. Yet bureaucratic diligence devoid of empathy breeds evil. Pilate, knowing Jesus was innocent, handed him over to be crucified to preserve his positionampmdasha prime example. The banality of evil stems from zeal lacking reflection and empathy.
Saul devastated the church. This word depicts wild boars trampling a vineyard, bursting its fruit so it spatters like blood. Yet that very Saul later became Paul and preached the gospel. Luke did not conceal Saul#039s past. For it is precisely that pain and those tears that become part of the history of redemption. It is God#039s work that the very person who trampled us becomes an instrument of salvation. Thus, great weeping is not mere lamentation it is tears that ultimately give birth to a new mission.
Third, there is great joy.
After persecution and weeping, when the scattered group preached the gospel, the text testifies, There was great joy in that city. That city was Samaria. To the Jews, Samaria was a land of contempt, a forbidden territory where they did not even wish to set foot. Yet it was precisely there that the gospel was preached. When Philip, not an apostle but one of the nameless laypeople, preached the gospel, demons departed and the sick were healed. What mattered was not a person#039s status, but the message delivered. The gospel of the early church was one thing: Jesus, who lived well, died, rose again, and is our Savior, Christ.
This truth manifests equally in our lives today. Today#039s communal confession is my story. Several years ago, I received an urgent call that my father had been in a major traffic accident. Taking my severely injured father to various hospitals, we were turned away and rejected four times. I pushed his wheelchair back and forth between examination rooms, cleaned up urine he had spilled on the floor, and endured verbal abuse and mistreatment. It felt like an incomprehensible, immense persecution. But one sunny afternoon while we were moving between hospitals, my father suddenly burst into tears in the car. Seeing those tears, I began to understand the weariness of his life. I gathered my courage and asked, Father, how can I go to heaven? He answered simply, In Jesus#039 name. In that moment, the barrier between usampmdashwhich had long felt like Samariaampmdashcollapsed, and forgiveness began.
On the final day of my father#039s funeral, the devotional passage read, We do not want you to be ignorant about those who sleep in death, so that you may not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13ampndash14). God called my fathers death sleep and granted great joy within that faith. The joy that came to Samaria was the fruit of obedience that passed through great persecution and great weeping. The day that began with Stephens martyrdom continued through tears and was finally completed in joy. The life of resurrection expands to the ends of the earth through these scattered witnesses.
Beloved, God breaks us and scatters us through great persecution, makes us bear one another#039s burdens through great weeping, and finally comforts us with great joy. Today, we too go beyond Jerusalem toward Samaria and the ends of the earth. I earnestly pray that in the midst of great persecution, our self may die, that in tears we may stand in solidarity, and that ultimately we may stand in the great joy of the mission to proclaim the gospel.
