"And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, 'Lord, do not charge them with this sin.' And when he had said this, he fell asleep." (Acts 6:59-60)

The above verse says that when Stephen was stoned, he "fell asleep." Our English word "cemetery" comes from this same Greek word which means "the sleeping of the dead." To label "death" as "falling asleep" is a wholesome thought about death rather than the usual harshness men associate with it. Psalm 116:15 says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints." Rev. 14:13 says, "Write: 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.' 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.'"

There have been many unjust killings since the beginning of the world as was Stephen's. The thing, however, that made Stephen great was not that he was unjustly murdered, but that he died in the Lord. Let us proclaim along with the prophet of old: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his!" (Num. 23:10)