Throughout the Gospels, Jesus speaks often of his disciples "taking up their cross" or "enduring persecutions". In these chapters from Acts, we see a bit about which Jesus was talking. The early church was persecuted intensely. To be a follower of Jesus was not popular; in fact, it was downright dangerous. Those dangers are illustrated clearly here: the apostles are flogged and Stephen is stoned to death. In their minds', though, these persecutions were worth all the tears, all the pain, all the suffering they endured. They counted it as a joy to suffer for the name of Jesus. I wonder, do we count it as a joy to suffer for Jesus? I daresay that none of us like to suffer. I'm guessing the early followers of Jesus were not thrilled with suffering, but they were willing to suffer for Jesus' sake. Are we willing to suffer for the One who suffered for us?
Another thing we see hidden in stories of the apostles' persecution is the extent to which the story is so well known by the apostles'. The story had to be told so that the apostles could stand against all the accusations thrown their way. Stephen recited a huge amount of the First Testament in response to why he was doing what he was doing. It raises the question of us, "are we so familiar with the story of God in Jesus that we can recite it and witness to it in the face of our doubters and detractors?" It is that story that needs to be told, not anything else that could be the construction of the human mind--the story of Jesus, the truth.
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