Acts 7
1 Stephen, one of the 7 men who have been tasked with supplementing the apostle’s mission, has been pulled in front of the Sanhedrin to answer for various “crimes”. But what are the crimes? The charge against Stephen was an accusation that he made the claim that Jesus was coming to destroy the temple and the Jewish customs. This, of course, was a lie, perpetrate by a Jewish sect that couldn’t stand up to Stephen’s truth, so they began a smear campaign against Stephen himself.
The following is a long dissertation by Stephen to refute the claims of the Freedom Synagogue. Stephen will take the Sanhedrin through the history fo the Jewish people to show that his claims of the risen Christ is true and that Christ ties into the Jewish culture as the Messiah they have been looking for.
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
Stephen’s main concern is to show that God is not secluded to a building or a singular denomination, but is everywhere. In that, God appeared to Abraham before he was in the Promised Land. God is not requisitioned only to the Promised Land but is a mobile God. He sent Abraham to the Promised Land without any seeming provision. Abraham had to go on faith. This land was promised to Abraham’s descendants, but many years would need to pass before it was realized. And even though this occupying of the Promised Land would not happen in Abraham’s lifetime, the covenant nonetheless was achieved.
9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
The second part of the history Stephen covers is in Egypt. Joseph, a man sold into slavery in Egypt, was rescued by God, provided for, and even grew into a lofty position in Egypt based on that provision. That provision was paid forward by Joseph, who in turn provided for his family and Israel. And even though Joseph was provided for in a land that wasn’t The Promised Land, God’s plan still had to prevail. Part of this plan was the wholesale oppression of the Israelites, as they were sold into slavery in Egypt.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
The next part of the history is about Moses and how he was prepared by God. Moses, an Israelite, belonged to God, but was not in the Promised Land. His story began in Egypt, when he was scooped up in the Nile and reared in the palace of the Pharaoh of Egypt. It wasn’t until he was forty years old that he defended an Israelite from an Egyptian overlord and ended up murdering the Egyptian. This would cause him to flee Egypt, to the land of Midian, where he would spend another forty years shepherding in the rugged hills.
Midian is a hilly country inside what is modern day Saudi Arabia. Again, God’s people, and the places where God is effective, is not quarantined inside the Promised Land but many other places.
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
When God appeared to Moses, he was eighty years old. This was a time of preparation in Midian for Moses. He was selected by God to lead God’s people out of Egyptian slavery. Through this anointing, Moses was all to perform signs and miracles which were displayed before the Pharaoh as signs from God.
37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
The prophet Moses refers to is Christ. He was given the truth, from God, so that the Israelites would understand and one day believe.
39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43
You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
The Israelites refused to believe the truth. They not only disbelieved, but they turned away from it and openly opposed it. They turned to other gods. They turned to nature. They turned to anything that wasn’t the truth. Because of this, there were consequences to their opposition.
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
49
“‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50
Has not my hand made all these things?
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
The tabernacle, the place of worship that was conceived by God and carried out by human hands, was a mobile place of worship. Every time the Israelites moved, the tabernacle moved with them. When Solomon built the temple, it was directed by God but was never meant to be the sole place God lived. It was a permanent place to worship the ever-present God. God lives everywhere, not just in the building.
The problem with the Jewish people at this time was that they believed more in the authority of the ceremony rather than the authority of God himself. The rules had become more important. The Pharisees had grown in power and sought to keep that power. They had forgotten the omnipotence of God, the strength and power of the almighty, and instead regulated Him to one place of worship, the place where He allegedly lived. They sought to control the almighty and bring Him into submission to them.
Stephen’s main points are as follows”
God is a mobile God.
God is a spiritual presence.
God provides for and protects his people.
God gives strength and power to his committed people.
God is persecuted by those who do not understand Him.
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Instead of introspection, the Sanhedrin turn to anger. Their furious response is only because Stephen has laid bare their intentions. Remember, when the Sanhedrin brought Peter and John before them, they already knew something amazing was happening. But instead of embracing it and attempting to understand it, they chose to quietly kill it.
To them, Stephen is a mystery. He is calm and alive with joy. Instead of fear he sees the risen Lord aside God, at HIs right hand. This of course enrages the Sanhedrin even more and they lash out, much like they did to Christ in Matthew 25:64-66. But this is even more ferocious; it belays their religious identity. They drag him into the city square and stone him. This is under the watchful eye of Saul, who will later become Paul, the most ardent missionary of the Christian church ever. But for the moment he is still a zealous Pharisee, roving the Promised Land in hopes to persecute any and all Christians.
Stephen’s last words are reminiscent of Christ’s own. He prays for their ignorance. He prays for their very souls before he commits his own into the care of the father. As Stephen breathes his last, the act is approved by Saul, which is our introduction to the future Christian.
1 Stephen, one of the 7 men who have been tasked with supplementing the apostle’s mission, has been pulled in front of the Sanhedrin to answer for various “crimes”. But what are the crimes? The charge against Stephen was an accusation that he made the claim that Jesus was coming to destroy the temple and the Jewish customs. This, of course, was a lie, perpetrate by a Jewish sect that couldn’t stand up to Stephen’s truth, so they began a smear campaign against Stephen himself.
The following is a long dissertation by Stephen to refute the claims of the Freedom Synagogue. Stephen will take the Sanhedrin through the history fo the Jewish people to show that his claims of the risen Christ is true and that Christ ties into the Jewish culture as the Messiah they have been looking for.
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
Stephen’s main concern is to show that God is not secluded to a building or a singular denomination, but is everywhere. In that, God appeared to Abraham before he was in the Promised Land. God is not requisitioned only to the Promised Land but is a mobile God. He sent Abraham to the Promised Land without any seeming provision. Abraham had to go on faith. This land was promised to Abraham’s descendants, but many years would need to pass before it was realized. And even though this occupying of the Promised Land would not happen in Abraham’s lifetime, the covenant nonetheless was achieved.
9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
The second part of the history Stephen covers is in Egypt. Joseph, a man sold into slavery in Egypt, was rescued by God, provided for, and even grew into a lofty position in Egypt based on that provision. That provision was paid forward by Joseph, who in turn provided for his family and Israel. And even though Joseph was provided for in a land that wasn’t The Promised Land, God’s plan still had to prevail. Part of this plan was the wholesale oppression of the Israelites, as they were sold into slavery in Egypt.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
The next part of the history is about Moses and how he was prepared by God. Moses, an Israelite, belonged to God, but was not in the Promised Land. His story began in Egypt, when he was scooped up in the Nile and reared in the palace of the Pharaoh of Egypt. It wasn’t until he was forty years old that he defended an Israelite from an Egyptian overlord and ended up murdering the Egyptian. This would cause him to flee Egypt, to the land of Midian, where he would spend another forty years shepherding in the rugged hills.
Midian is a hilly country inside what is modern day Saudi Arabia. Again, God’s people, and the places where God is effective, is not quarantined inside the Promised Land but many other places.
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.
When God appeared to Moses, he was eighty years old. This was a time of preparation in Midian for Moses. He was selected by God to lead God’s people out of Egyptian slavery. Through this anointing, Moses was all to perform signs and miracles which were displayed before the Pharaoh as signs from God.
37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
The prophet Moses refers to is Christ. He was given the truth, from God, so that the Israelites would understand and one day believe.
39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43
You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
The Israelites refused to believe the truth. They not only disbelieved, but they turned away from it and openly opposed it. They turned to other gods. They turned to nature. They turned to anything that wasn’t the truth. Because of this, there were consequences to their opposition.
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:
49
“‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50
Has not my hand made all these things?
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
The tabernacle, the place of worship that was conceived by God and carried out by human hands, was a mobile place of worship. Every time the Israelites moved, the tabernacle moved with them. When Solomon built the temple, it was directed by God but was never meant to be the sole place God lived. It was a permanent place to worship the ever-present God. God lives everywhere, not just in the building.
The problem with the Jewish people at this time was that they believed more in the authority of the ceremony rather than the authority of God himself. The rules had become more important. The Pharisees had grown in power and sought to keep that power. They had forgotten the omnipotence of God, the strength and power of the almighty, and instead regulated Him to one place of worship, the place where He allegedly lived. They sought to control the almighty and bring Him into submission to them.
Stephen’s main points are as follows”
God is a mobile God.
God is a spiritual presence.
God provides for and protects his people.
God gives strength and power to his committed people.
God is persecuted by those who do not understand Him.
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Instead of introspection, the Sanhedrin turn to anger. Their furious response is only because Stephen has laid bare their intentions. Remember, when the Sanhedrin brought Peter and John before them, they already knew something amazing was happening. But instead of embracing it and attempting to understand it, they chose to quietly kill it.
To them, Stephen is a mystery. He is calm and alive with joy. Instead of fear he sees the risen Lord aside God, at HIs right hand. This of course enrages the Sanhedrin even more and they lash out, much like they did to Christ in Matthew 25:64-66. But this is even more ferocious; it belays their religious identity. They drag him into the city square and stone him. This is under the watchful eye of Saul, who will later become Paul, the most ardent missionary of the Christian church ever. But for the moment he is still a zealous Pharisee, roving the Promised Land in hopes to persecute any and all Christians.
Stephen’s last words are reminiscent of Christ’s own. He prays for their ignorance. He prays for their very souls before he commits his own into the care of the father. As Stephen breathes his last, the act is approved by Saul, which is our introduction to the future Christian.