seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Acts 7:1 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.’[a]
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.’[b] 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.’[c] 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.[d] 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?’[e] 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.’[f] 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.’[g]
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.’[h] 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!’[i] 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’[j] beyond Babylon.
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’[j] 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.[k] 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?’[l]
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?’[l]
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.”
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.
Footnotes:
a. Acts 7:3 Gen. 12:1
b. Acts 7:7 Gen. 15:13,14
c. Acts 7:18 Exodus 1:8
d. Acts 7:20 Or was fair in the sight of God
e. Acts 7:28 Exodus 2:14
f. Acts 7:32 Exodus 3:6
g. Acts 7:34 Exodus 3:5,7,8,10
h. Acts 7:37 Deut. 18:15
i. Acts 7:40 Exodus 32:1
j. Acts 7:43 Amos 5:25-27 (see Septuagint)
k. Acts 7:46 Some early manuscripts the house of Jacob
l. Acts 7:50 Isaiah 66:1,2
Here are some outtakes from bible-studys.org.
The climax of Stephen’s sermon indicted the Jewish leaders for rejecting God in the same way that their ancestors had rejected Him in the Old Testament.
You see, Stephen was speaking to men who were circumcised in the flesh. These were men who had been circumcised in the flesh on the eighth day in keeping with the Abrahamic covenant. The problem was that they knew God in formality and had never received Him into their heart. They had ears, but could not hear, and they had eyes, but they could not see.
Stephen tells them that they were like their fathers. They were very technical about the law, but they closed themselves off and did not know the Lawgiver. They had a religion of the flesh and not the spirit. We see the extreme boldness of Stephen in the next verse.
Acts 7:52 "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:"
To these religious rulers, this was about the worst accusation that Stephen could make. They prided themselves in keeping the law. We know that many of the prophets had been killed for the truth in the Bible.
Isaiah, we are told by historians, was sawed in half. Daniel faced the lions in the den. Elijah fought the prophets of Baal. These great prophets got very little help from the rulers in the temple.
Many times, the prophets even spoke out against the religious rulers and were persecuted by the rulers of the temple. Stephen tells them, you never did truly understand the law and You have certainly not kept it.
We see here, that Stephen not only felt the Presence of the Holy Ghost, but was empowered from on high and filled with the Holy Ghost. Stephen was so filled that all scales were removed from his eyes, and he looked into heaven, and saw the throne of God, and the glory of God on that throne.
There is much controversy about Stephen seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Jesus ordinarily is seated at the right hand of God, because His work is finished, but I believe He was standing to greet Stephen and welcome him to heaven. Stephen had no fear of what they could do to him here on the earth. He knew his home was in heaven.
This proclamation of Stephen would have been impossible to hold back. To see inside heaven and all the glory there would be almost beyond comprehension. The thrill would be so great, that any kind of death would be welcomed to be able to go there.
To them, this was blasphemy, and they ran toward him to capture and kill him. I really believe, however, that they stopped their ears, because they were not ready to hear that they had killed the Lord. You see, if Stephen is telling them the truth, they know they are doomed to hell. They have to know that it is the truth, because Stephen's countenance was so bright as we read earlier.
“Laid down their clothes … Saul”: This is Paul’s first appearance in Scripture. That he was near enough to the action to be holding the clothes of Stephen’s killers reflect his deep involvement in the sordid affair (see note on 8:1).
This Saul is the Pharisee who was ordering the persecution of the Christians. This is also the Saul who Jews would rename Paul. You see Saul was one of these religious leaders who ordered the stoning to death of Stephen. Notice they took him out of the city wall before they killed him. It was not lawful (their laws), to kill a man within the city wall.
Stephen’s prayer demonstrates that he was speaking the truth in love, not in malice.
We see here, a humble servant of God. Stephen had become Christ like, because he asked forgiveness for these men who did this horrible thing to him.
As we said, this Saul will soon be called Paul and would also become a servant of God, a follower of Jesus Christ. Saul thought he was doing God a favor when, in fact, he was killing one of God's anointed.
This outtake is from the easy English site.The Jews killed people who had done very bad crimes. In order to kill such a person, the Jews threw big stones at that person. The witnesses were the first people that threw the stones. That was what happened to Stephen. Some students think that the Jews acted against the Roman law when they killed Stephen. This was because the Jews had not asked the Roman rulers about it first. But the Jews did not always have to ask the Roman rulers before Jews did such things. For some crimes, the Romans allowed them to decide whether the person should die. Those were some crimes that people did against the Temple. It was probably legal to kill Stephen. If it was not legal, probably Luke would not have mentioned the witnesses. Luke also mentioned Saul. This was the first time when Luke mentioned him. Saul took care of the witnesses’ coats. So, he approved of what was happening.
Stephen was really just a hard working kid. He was one of those chosen to distribute food and clothing to the widows. He was one of those men who would do anything for the Lord.... not the church.... the Lord. In the previous chapter.... Stephen walked into a nest of "free thinkers". Those men from the Greek culture didn't see Stephen as a good man doing and saying great things.... they saw him as a traitor.....they thought he was going to lead good descendants of Jacob [Israel] to the wrong side. These men were what I call body slappers.... [Greco Roman wrestlers and fans]. They didn't take kindly to the idea that their Temple was in the wrong. They were right.... they knew it... and they could philosophically explain it... so they were right..... Stephen was arrested because Stephen was bold enough to tell them that their backwards thinking was what really led Christ to the Cross. Those men, [Saul included] did not like that at all.... and Stephen wound up in front of the Sanhedrin being accused of basically calling them out for what they had done but would not admit... even to themselves.
Before I go to the commentaries in the morning.... I link the verses listed in the footnotes. This morning it was a review of the history of the descendants of Jacob.... all the way back before Moses..... back to Abraham and Isaac. Now Stephen had been in Temple all his life.... but I doubt seriously that Stephen learned the history of the descendants of Jacob from Abraham to past David. That speech he gave sure sounds like a witness..... that speech he gave sure sounds scholarly..... so IMHO.... Stephen wasn't giving that speech to the Sanhedrin. It was the Spirit talking.... It was the Holy Spirit that gave the speech that got Stephen stoned..... while Saul of Tarsus held their coats.
Things have changed..... in this Bible story..... I am seeing a bunch of body slappers murdering a Christian. He wasn't a hypocrite. He wasn't a priest or a preacher who lied to people. He wasn't covering anything up or holding some deep dark secret inside. Stephen was only sharing the good news.... a happy smile on his face.... talking about Jesus and Salvation.... and it was insulting to those guys who loved to get naked and wrestle..... and they got him stoned to death for it.....
Today it seems.... those body slappers aren't welcome around the good christians...... hhhhmmmm.....
