Acts Chapter 7.

Acts Chapter 7.

Stephen before the Sanhedrin. B-D. 1142.

Stephen's speech.         7:1-53.

Stephen's Death.           7:54-8:3.

Two great lessons of Stephen's sermon:

*   The Jews had always rebelled against God and rejected the deliverers He sent to them.

*   God is not a local deity, neither is He confined to an area, building, nor is He found in foreign lands.

God has given signal manifestations of His presence and glory.  Wherever God reveals Himself, that is holy ground.  Stephen in his sermon recalls God's dealings with the Patriarchs and the nation and sets forth the continuity of the history of salvation.  It is the history of the progressive unfolding of God's purpose, an unravelling of the greater and larger intention of that purpose.

           

The contents of Stephen's address:

*   The call of Abraham.  It was in a distant land that the God of glory appeared to the Pariarch, who never gained possession of the promised land.

*   The story of Joseph and his sojourn in Egypt.   God appointed as their deliverer, the youth they sold into slavery.

*   The story of Moses.   He too, was rejected by his kinsmen and it was while still an exile in another land that God appeared to him which had become holy ground.  There God commissioned Moses to deliver the children of Israel from the Egyptian bondage.  But they did not continue to obey Moses, and fell into apostasy.

           

God distinguishes Moses by:-

His birth.                                        7:17-20.                       

His training.                                   7:21-29.

His call.                                          7:30-34.                       

His life-work.                                 7:35-38.

It was Moses, they disobeyed.   7:39-43.                       

The failure of the Temple.            7:44 -50.          

           

Stephen's speech seems critical of the Temple. It suggests that its building was a consequence of the constant disobedience and their inability to understand the true nature of the Deity.

           

The moral application of this historical review to his Jewish listeners.  7:51-53.

           

The indictment:

*   Their history was that of a people who had always resisted the Holy Spirit and had persecuted the prophetic messengers.

*   The murder of the Righteous One, was the climax of a long history of rebellion.

*   They had not kept the law, which they regarded as the glory of their religion. This marked them out, not as Moses' disciples, but as followers of those who disobeyed Moses.

           

Stephen summarised the history of Israel as having been, on God's part, the story of His mighty and gracious acts but, on their part, the record of constant revolt and resistance. 

           

In the theology of Stephen God is not the exclusive possession of the Jews, neither can He be localized.   Here we see the rise of a new conception of Christianity in which God's chosen people are such as worship Him from every nation.  God is greater than Judaism.

           

Stephen's martydom.    7:54-8:3.

           

*   His vision.   The title "Son of Man," is not used elsewhere except by Jesus.  Rev.1:13, must be treated separately.  Its use here by Stephen suggests the passing away of the nationalism and particularism of Judaism, and anticipates the catholicity of the Gospel. The sovereignty of the 'Son of Man' must extend over all men.

           

*   His commitment.   He called upon the Lord Jesus, committing his spirit to Him..   7:59.

           

*    His prayer.   He prayed for his murderers.  He was aware of the greatness of their sin, it was murder, but the murder was the outcome of their unbelief, disobedience and spiritual blindness.

           

So died a man born before his time, one of the greatest path-blazers of the early Church and whose meteoric appearance had great consequences for the shape and direction of things to come.