Just a couple of more things in regards to Stephen and then we will move on to the next one. It is suggested in Matthew Henry's commentary that what we see here with Stephen is the fulfillment of one of the prophecies made by Jesus Christ and that is back in Luke 21. What Luke is doing here in Luke 21 is the same thing as we find over in Matthew 24.
Perhaps Matthew Henry got it right, because we find back in Acts 6:10, the freedmen were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which Steven spoke. Were their friends and family some of the the mob that killed Stephen? Will we be betrayed by our family and friends? Those are Christ's words, not mine.
Now, some of you might say, "Well, that's talking about the Tribulation." But we read right over verse 12. It says, "Before all these things, they will lay hands on you and persecute you."
It's obvious from verse 18 that he's not saying that these people will absolutely not die. Some of them indeed are going to die. When this is combined with Revelation 6:9-11, it shows that some—who were certainly not by any appearance at all Laodicean—are going to lose their lives as martyrs, as witnesses for God in the coming tribulation.
Now there, that sets the context. We are talking about the time of the end. He says that the general idea is that these people were doing what?
Most people's attention on earth is going to be on secular things. Their attention is not going to be on the return of Christ; their focus is in the world.
