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Do those words sound familiar? When Stephen was dying he
said, “Father, forgive them.” When Stephen was dying he said,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Those were the words of a
crucified man. It sounds a lot like Jesus. When angry men are
throwing stones at you, you don’t say, “Father, forgive them.”
You know the natural heart like I know the natural heart. How
could he do that? Was he saying, “I’m a Christian and I’m
supposed to turn the other cheek. I better act like a Christian
because I am a Christian.” That was not possible.

Stephen’s heart was full of forgiveness. Stephen was not
repeating the words of Jesus. It sounds like Jesus because it
was Jesus. Jesus was in his heart and he now had the character
of the Lord. That’s fruit; when you are made like Jesus and
when you are conformed into His likeness. That takes a
miracle. Stephen was not some puppet that the Lord was
putting words in his mouth.

I’m sure Stephen was so focused on Christ that he was
distracted from being stoned. This is an amazing miracle. Acts.
7:58 says that they laid the robes of the ones who were stoning
him at Saul’s feet, “And when they had driven him out of the
city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their
robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” When Stephen
was dying, I don’t think he was saying, “I hope the Lord uses
this redemptively.” He was too busy seeing Jesus. It was all
automatic. It was fruit. Fruit is intuitive. We don’t have to
think about it. He didn’t think about forgiving. He didn’t think
about surrender. He was like Jesus. It came naturally. He had
a forgiving heart. He had a surrendered heart.

I don’t think Stephen saw who was holding the garments. I
don’t think he knew that the number one enemy of Christ was
holding some of the garments. The number one enemy of Christ
was the Apostle Paul and he became the number one friend of
Christ.