Stephen's Dying Prayer
R. L. Dabney, D. D. Acts 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling on God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. This seems to teach us — I. THAT STEPHEN REGARDED JESUS CHRIST AS VERY GOD. There are sundry places where this prime doctrine is not so much dogmatically asserted as clearly implied. These are, in one aspect, even more satisfactory than formal assertions, because so obviously sincere expressions of the heart, and show how this cardinal truth is interwoven with the believer's whole experience. Our text in the Greek reads, "They stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The intention of the evangelist was to state that Christ was the object of his prayer. In every office of the Redeemer the enlightened Christian feels that he could not properly rely on Him for salvation unless He were very God. "It is because He is God, and there is none else," that Isaiah invites "all the ends of the earth to look unto Him and be saved." But in the hour of death especially the Christian needs a Saviour who is no less than God. An angel could not sympathise with our trial, for he cannot feel the pangs of dissolution. A human friend cannot travel with us the path through the dark valley. The God-man alone can sustain us; He has survived it and returns triumphing to succour us, for He is God. Unless this Divine Guide be with us, we must fight the battle with the last enemy alone and unaided. II. TO EXPECT AN IMMEDIATE ENTRANCE INTO THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST. Stephen evidently did not expect that the grave would absorb his spirit into a state of unconscious sleep until the final consummation; or that any limbus, or purgatory, was to swallow him for a time in its fiery bosom. His faith aspired directly to the arms of Christ, and to that blessed world where His glorified humanity now dwells. He manifestly regarded his spirit as separate from the body, and therefore, as true, independent substance. The latter he relinquishes to the insults of his enemies, the former he commits to Christ. If only we are in Christ by true faith, the grave will have naught to do with that which is the true, conscious being, and no purgatorial fires after death can be inflicted upon believers; for "Lazarus died and. was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom." To the thief it was said, "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise." "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." III. TO WHAT GUIDANCE THE CHRISTIAN MAY COMMIT HIS SOUL DURING THE JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF SPIRITS. Heaven is as truly a place as was paradise. When we first arrive there we shall be disembodied spirits. But spirits have their locality. The clearer evidence, however, that heaven is a literal place is that it contains the glorified bodies of Enoch, of Elijah, of Christ, and of the saints who rose with their Redeemer. But where is this place? In what quarter of this vast universe? When death batters down the walls of the earthly tabernacle, whither shall the dispossessed soul set out? It knows not; it needs a skilful, powerful guide. But more: it is a journey into a spiritual world; and this thought makes it awful to the apprehension of man. The presence of one disembodied spirit in the solitude of night would shake us with a thrill of dread. How, then, could we endure to be launched out into the untried ocean of space, peopled by we know not what mysterious beings? How could we be certain that we might not lose our way in the pathless vacancy, and wander for ever, a bewildered, solitary rover amidst the wilderness of worlds? This journey into the unknown must issue in our introduction to a scene whose awful novelties will overpower our faculties; for even the very thought of them when we dwell upon it fills us with dreadful suspense. Truly will the trembling soul need some one on whom to lean, some mighty, tender guardian, who will point the way to the prepared mansions, and cheer and sustain its fainting courage. That Guide is Christ; therefore let us say in dying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." It is a delightful belief to which the gospel gives most solid support, that our Redeemer is accustomed to employ in this mission His holy angels. "Are they not ministering spirits?" etc. When Lazarus died he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. IV. THE ARMS OF CHRIST MAY BE LOOKED TO AS OUR FINAL HOME. We are authorised to say, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; not only that Thou mayest sustain it in the pangs of dying, and guide it to its heavenly home, but that it may dwell with Thee world without end. "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am," etc. Oh, blessed resting-place! In Thy presence is fulness of joy: at Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Let us live and die like believing Stephen, and our spirits will be received where the God-man holds His regal court, to go out thence no more for ever. (R. L. Dabney, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. WEB: They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"