During the 2008 college football season, the University of Texas played their annual game against the University of Oklahoma. Both teams were rated in the top ten. It was a highly emotional game; Texas prevailed, but the next week they had to play another top-ranked team. The head coach for Texas knew that to properly prepare for the game, the team had to put the emotional victory over Oklahoma behind. So, he decided to conduct a funeral. In a ceremony with all the players, they buried the game ball from the Oklahoma game, symbolizing the end of the celebration of that victory. Now all attention would focus on their next game.
What outstanding imagery for the Christian life! Christians are called by God to die to their old way of life so they can focus on living for Jesus.1 Christians cannot live well while looking back at lives in bondage to sin but must look forward to freedom from sin.
This truth is the foundation for living holistically in Jesus, which includes one’s personal life, family life, work life, church life, and community life. Christianity defines all norms. This means that Christians are to live under the lordship of Jesus all the time, every day, and everywhere.
Most who truly know Jesus acknowledge this truth in their personal and church lives. But what does this look like in the workplace? Some pedestrian answers are human flourishing or the common good, but these are not profound answers. If one views the Creation Mandate as the highest expression of God’s purpose for humans, then the profound answer is that human beings are created by God to serve as his ruling agents. Consider Genesis 1:26 (ESV):
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
What does it look like to rule as God’s agents in the workplace?
Consider the first Christian martyr, Stephen, whose story is recorded in Acts 6 and 7. Stephen worked as a food distributor. He was one of seven men appointed to solve the food distribution problem experienced by the first New Testament church (ekklesia). These men were assigned this task based on the C4 principle2—a divinely ordained tool to help humans discern their ruling assignments. Stephen was the leader of the seven. Scripture recorded that he was full of the Holy Spirit, faith, grace, and power.3 These traits were expressed both in and outside of the church.
Within the first church, there were numerous non-indigenous Jews. They were visitors to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who did not have the means to support themselves while in the city. After the birth of the church, these people stayed longer than expected and, apparently, ran out of food and money. The church began to provide food for them, but the distribution became disorderly. The apostles directed the community to identify seven men, based on the C4 principle, to solve the problem. Stephen was one of the seven. The food distribution problem was solved, and there were other benefits as well. Both the quality and quantity of the members of the church improved. Before solving the food distribution problem, the quantitative growth of the Christian community was characterized as “increasing,”4 but afterward, Luke wrote that the church “increased greatly.”5 Furthermore, the quality improved when “a large group of the priests became obedient to the faith.”6 The priests were religious leaders who opposed Jesus and were the hardest to convert.
Outside the church, Stephen’s work was also noted. He performed signs and wonders and was an irrefutable orator.7 Stephen was the first non-apostle who performed signs and wonders. Stephen drew the attention of those who opposed the church. But the enemies of Jesus could not refute Stephen’s arguments, so they conspired against him. Stephen was brought before a kangaroo court and falsely accused, but he was so peaceful that his accusers described him as one who had the “face of an angel.”8 When he was martyred, he was not fearful but able to pray for forgiveness for his enemies.9 How could Stephen display peace in the midst of this persecution and torture? He understood that his position in Christ was greater than his circumstances.
How was Stephen so mature, particularly given the embryonic condition of the first Christian community? This Christian community was unique, particularly compared to communities today. It was said of this community that they were unified in heart and mind, enabling them to think selflessly about financial resources; that is, they were able to use financial resources selflessly to support the will of God.10 Today the common mantra is “what’s in it for me?” In the first church, the mantra was “what’s in it for God?” Putting God ahead of ourselves and our money is challenging. Stephen displayed a level of maturity congruent with the mandate the apostle Paul would later give to the Colossians when he wrote that every word and action should be performed in the name of the Lord Jesus.11 Stephen’s life illustrated a level of maturity in Christ that facilitated metaphysical awareness12 and supernatural activity.
Though there seems to be little desire today to view reality with metaphysical awareness, there is a desire to experience signs and wonders. But there seems to be little empowerment. This intimates that the maturity level of Christians today is not commensurate with Stephen’s and the first-century apostles’. Therefore, the paradigm of Christianity today does not produce disciples who live and die as Stephen did. He clearly demonstrated the truth that Jesus gave us: if you want to truly live, you must die.13
Stephen was a model Christian who lived under the lordship of Jesus. His life illustrated the truth of 1 Peter 4:1–2 (CSB):
Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God's will.
Stephen lived to fulfill God’s purpose for his life. He was not intimidated by those who opposed him, and he died at peace while praying for his enemies. Along the way, he was empowered to speak irrefutable truth and perform confirming signs and wonders. He lived solely to do the will of God according to the ways of God for the glory of God. He aligned with his C4 life purpose, served as a powerful witness for Jesus, and contributed to efficacious evangelism. If we learn to live this way, we will have the grace to bear such fruit.
If you know the Lord, you should have been baptized. And your baptism represented the funeral of your old way of living in bondage to sin and the freedom, in Jesus, to live in obedience to him.
Living under the lordship of Jesus is the high calling of everyone who calls on his name. Stephen displayed markers of living under the lordship of Jesus that included alignment with this C4 work, supernatural signs and wonders, unequivocal irrefutable communication, and divine empowerment to die well.
When the opponents of Jesus confront us, may we have the grace and maturity to follow Stephen's example and endure the persecution well, living every day, everywhere, and all the time for the glory of God.
