Ch.7: The Stoning of Stephen

  • V.1-8: Graphic sketch of the story of Genesis from the first call of Abraham until the birth and circumcision of the 12 sons of Jacob.
  • V.9-16: Joseph and the migration of Jacob into Egypt.
    • Bad treatment of Joseph resulted in the deliverance of his family from starvation.
  • V.17-37: Moses in Egypt: Moses was raised up to be the Deliverer of Egypt yet the people turned against him too.

 

  • Recounting Jewish History:
  • V.30-37: Moses rejected but God made him the deliverer.
  • Wilderness meeting with God
  • Egypt miracles and deliverance
  • 40 years in the wilderness
  • Dt.18.15-19:”A prophet shall God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me.”
  • V.38-41: Ungrateful Jews were even more disobedient in the wilderness.

“Make us gods which will go before us”

 

  • Recounting Jewish History 2:
  • V.42-43: The final announcement of the Babylonian captivity
  • Amos:
    • “But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god Remphan, the figures which you made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.”

 

The Tabernacle and the Temple:

  • V.44-50: Stephen shows the true religious value of the temple.
  • Moveable nature of the tabernacle
  • A temple made with hands cannot be God’s dwelling place.
  • Heaven is God’s throne/Earth is God’s footstool for His feet.
  • God made them all with His hands!
  • Blasphemy???
  • V. 51-53:Stephens’s Closure
  • Joseph divinely selected by God to deliver His people—rejected.
  • Moses divinely selected by God to deliver His people—rejected.
  • All the prophets were selected by God to deliver His message—rejected.
  • Jesus divinely selected by God to deliver His people—rejected.
  • You killed Him and yet He offers deliverance for our sins!
  • V.54-57: Explosion of Anger and Violence: Stephen stoned and church dispersed:
  • They could not resist with logical argument Stephen’s indictment—resorted to violence.
  • “Cut to the heart”—literally to cut through with the rough teeth of a saw.
  • Mob violence—stoned Stephen
  • “I see Jesus standing at the right hand of God…”
  • Saul was consenting and held their clothes
    • Acts 22.19-20: Haunted Paul even though his sins were forgiven.
  • Stoning of Stephen Lessons For Us:
  • Faithful Christians cannot stand idly by and have the Lord or His church maligned without defending it.
  • Rev. 2.10: “Be thou faithful unto death…”
  • Living for Christ may be more difficult than dying for Christ.
  • Men resist the Holy Spirit when they reject the words spoken by the Holy Spirit through inspired men.
  • Forgiven sins are sometimes hard to forget
  • Psa.116.15:”Precious in the sight of God are the death of His saints.”