Stephen’s message and martyred (Acts 7:1-60) By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Stephen’s message and martyred (Acts 7:1-60)

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce   

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music 

Scriptures reading (Acts 7:1-60)

¹Then 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.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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.

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 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.

        

 Acts 7:2-53 Stephen’s sermon is the longest recorded in Acts. The text is :”you are doing just as your fathers did”(51), Stephen recited the privileges of the nation Israel and their rejection of God’s messengers; then he laid blame for the slaying of Jesus squarely on his hearers (v.53).

Verse 2 God’s call to Abraham came first when he was in Mesopotamia (Gen.15:7;Neh.9:7). Later he went to Haran (Gen.11:31-32) and later to Palestine. The glory of God. It might have been visible glory (v.55), as when the cloud and the fire appeared to Israel (Exo.16:10;24:16-17;Lev.9:23;Num14:10;16:19;20:6;Deut.5:24) and filled the tabernacle and the temple (Exo.40:35;1Kings8:11). It was the God of such glory who appeared to Abraham and  called him. His glory was a great attraction to him. It separated (sanctified) him from the world unto God (Exo.29:43) and was a great encouragement and strength that enabled him to follow God (Gen.12:1,4). In the same principle, God calls the New Testament believers by His invisible glory (2Pet 1:3).

Verse 4 Apparently Abraham journeyed into Canaan (Gen12:4-5), but actually God removed him into the good land.

Verse 14 Seventy-five in all.  Compare with seventy in Gen.46:27 and Exo.1:5. Stephen quoted this number from the Septuagint, which mentions five additional descendants of Joseph in Gen.46:20. Hence, the number he mentioned of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt was seventy –five instead of seventy. Septuagint (Greek translation of the O.T.) Which arrived at seventy-five by including the son and grandson of Manasseh and two sons and a grandson of Ephraim. (Gen 46:2) which reflects a different way of numbering Jacob’s family, totaling seventh.

Verse 15-16 Jacob was buried at Hebron in the Cave of Machpelah, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite (Gen.23:16). Joseph was buried at Shechem in a piece of ground Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor(Josh.24:32). The two transactions are simply telescoped in these verses because of the pressure of Stephen’s circumstances and need for brevity.

Verse 20 From v.20 through v.44 Stephen purposely gave a long narration in the most positive way concerning Moses. He did this to vindicate himself before his opposers, who had accused him of blaspheming Moses(6:11).

Verse 30 Angel Here and in vv.35 and 38 the angel (Messenger) in the Old Testament was Christ the Lord, who is Jehovah, the Triune God (Exo.3:2-16;Judg.6:12-24;Zech.2:6-11). This is proved by the Lord and God in the following verse.

Verse 31 the Lord and God in vv.31-35 are the Angel (Messenger) in vv.30, 35 and 38.

Verse 38 the assembly in the desert. I.e., the gathering of the people to receive the law. The word translated “church” (or congregation, assembly, gathering) is used in the N.T. of four kinds of groups: 1) the children of Israel gathered as a nation.2) in Acts 19:32,39,41 a group of townspeople assembled in a town meeting. 3) in a technical sense, all believers who are gathered together in the one Body of Christ, the church universal (Col1:18), and 4) most frequently, in reference to a local group of professing Christians; e.g., the church at Antioch (Acts13:1)

Verse 42 book of the prophet. Probably referring to the twelve books of the minor prophets, from Hosea through Malachi, counting them as one book.

Verse 43 Molech…Rephan. Molech was a title for various Canaanite deities to whom human sacrifices were offered. Rephan was the name of a god connected with the planet Saturn.

Verse 44 tabernacle of the Testimony. I.e., the tabernacle was a testimony to the presence of God in their midst.

Verse 48 Stephen called God “ the God of glory” (v.2) and “ the Most High” to vindicate himself before his opposers, who had accused him of blaspheming God (6:11). Not live or not dwell Implying that God would abandon the material temple of the Old Testament and initiate a new dispensation, that His people might worship Him in the spirit (John4:24), in which is God’s spiritual habitation, the church.(Eph.2:22).

Verse 49 This quotation from Isa.66:1-2 indicates that the Lord was seeking a spiritual habitation in man’s spirit. This is proved by the unquoted part of Isa.66:2 that says, “But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor and of contrite spirit.”

Verse 51-53 Stephen’s indictment of unbelieving Jews, amply illustrated in the previously cited history of Israel. Since Stephen was full of the Spirit (v.53) and was one with the Lord the Spirit (1 Cor.6:17), to oppose him was to oppose the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Lord indicated to Saul, one of Stephen’s persecutors (v.58;8:1) that he was persecuting Him (9:4).

Verse 55 Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Jesus’ priestly work of offering a sacrifice for sin was finished on the cross; He is therefore sometimes pictured as seated at the right hand of God (Heb.1:3). But His priestly work of sustaining His people continues (as here with Stephen); therefore, He is portrayed as standing to minister (Rev.2:1).

Verse 56 The earth rejected Stephen and was closed to him, but the heavens opened up to him, indicating that the heavens were with him and for him.

Verse 58 Saul, who later became an apostle (13:9), helped the persecutors in their slaying of Stephen. The mention of witnesses suggests that they went through the motions of a legal execution (Lev.24:14), though probably without securing the official approval of Pilate.

Verse 60 Stephen prayed for his persecutors in the same way that his Lord, whom he loved and lived, had prayed for His (Luke23:24). He fell asleep. This expression is used of the physical death of believers (John11:11;1Thess.4:13,15)

 

Bibliography,

Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.

Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV). Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.