In what may be a reverse parallelism, Luke concludes Stephen's martyrdom with the twin themes of persecution and the church's further advance. The hinge phrase on which they turn is except the apostles. Whether because Hellenistic, not Hebraic, Jewish Christians are targeted in the persecution or because the apostles feel a duty to hold things together at Jerusalem, they stay there. Their continued presence in Jerusalem certainly does provide stability and continuity for the young church's life and mission. There is no hint from Luke that their lack of initiative at this point is disobedience to Acts 1:8.

From this apostolic center the centrifugal forces of persecution and ever-expanding witness push out. The main impetus is a great persecution against the church at Jerusalem. It is closely connected with Stephen's death, for it happens on that day. Persecution—"harassing somebody in order to persuade or force him to give up his religion, or simply to attack somebody for religious reasons"—encompassed a wide range of activities from ridicule to social ostracism to occasional beatings to confiscation of property to imprisonment to execution (Marshall 1980:151; Krodel 1986:158). Saul "tried" (attempted, not incipient, action as NIV; E. F. Harrison 1986:140; Gal 1:13, 23) to destroy the church, as a wild animal mangles its prey (Lake and Cadbury 1979:88; compare Acts 20:28; Is 65:25). He goes from house to house and drags both men and women off to prison. This imagery and these actions give us a sense of the severity of the persecution.

But the dispersion through persecution creates a band of missionaries, not refugees. All are scattered, as seed is sown, and go about evangelizing (Acts 8:4; compare Lk 8:5, 11). Judea and Samaria, the second two theaters for the Great Commission's fulfillment, have now been entered. A Christian witness is raised in Jerusalem even after Stephen's death. Devout men, whether non-Christian Jews (E. F. Harrison 1986:139; compare 2:7) or Hebraic Christian (Williams 1985:136), bury Stephen and publicly mourn him (NIV does not point out the public aspect with its wording mourned deeply). This is a courageous witness to Stephen's innocence, for Jewish custom forbade public mourning of one executed for blasphemy (m. Sanhedrin 6:5-6).

Indeed, "the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church." And today the same dynamic is at work, whether in China since the coming of communism or in Uganda and East Africa with their political turmoil or in the previously predominant religious hostility of Latin America. The fruit of witness under persecution, even martyrdom, is now being harvested. The gospel born by Spirit-filled Christians is life. Death cannot stop it!