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.”