Last Words

 Now 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. (Acts 7:54-59 ESV).

 

There have many stories of the last moments before death. Gary Gilmore was famous for both demanding the death sentence and for becoming the first person to receive it in the United States after it was reinstated in 1976. He was a convicted double murderer Gary Gilmore and was executed by firing squad in Utah on January 17, 1977. He requested that his organs be donated, and within a few short hours after his death, two people had his corneas. Ten years after his death, his last words, “Let’s do this,” inspired Nike’s famous “Just do it.” advertising campaign.

 

Our reading today give us a stark contrast of “last words” as we read the story of the last moments of life before Stephen was stoned to death. It provides one of the few definitive descriptions of what death looks like with the authority of Scripture giving it credibility. I read an interesting article written by Michael Erard, What People Actually Say Before They Die. It gives even more pause in thinking about what’s next:

 

Mort Felix liked to say that his name, when read as two Latin words, meant “happy death.” When he was sick with the flu, he used to jokingly remind his wife, Susan, that he wanted Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” played at his deathbed. But when his life’s end arrived at the age of 77, he lay in his study in his Berkeley, California, home, his body besieged by cancer and his consciousness cradled in morphine, uninterested in music and refusing food as he dwindled away over three weeks in 2012. “Enough,” he told Susan. “Thank you, and I love you, and enough.” When she came downstairs the next morning, she found Felix dead. To the surprise of his family members, the lifelong atheist also began hallucinating angels and complaining about the crowded room, even though no one appeared to be there.

 

I hear people often ask “what’s the worst that can happen?” Often the answer has something to do with death. Perhaps that’s true for the Gary Gilmores and Mort Felixes of our world, but for the believers like Stephen, death is the best that can happen in many ways. I’m not suggesting we seek death; however, I am saying we have nothing to fear from it in Christ. His promise to all of us is to “come and get us to take us there personally” (John 14:1-6). Live by the faith that He can never break His promise!