In this message we behold the uncompromising power of Stephen’s sermon to the religious crowd that was about to murder him. Just before he dies, he witnesses about the glory of the risen Jesus whom he sees standing at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and like Jesus, he dies asking God to forgive those who are murdering him.
Teaching Notes:
Stephen: The Life And Death of a Spirit-Filled Man – Pt. 2
Acts 7:1-60
Intro: It is fascinating to read the dying words of God’s people:
· Matthew Henry: “You have been used to take notice of the sayings of dying men — this is mine: That a life spent in the service of God, and communion with Him, is the most comfortable and pleasant life that one can live in the present world.”
· David Brainerd: “I am almost in eternity. I long to be there. My work is done. I have done with my friends; all the world is nothing to me. Oh, to be in heaven to praise and glorify God with His holy angels.”
Now, contrast those statements with these famous atheists:
One of the glories of the gospel of Christ, is that those who have embraced it with a living faith have historically been enabled to die well. In Acts 7
we are given a window into the 1st century, and see one such saint who lived and died well. Stephen is the first martyr of the Christian faith. Not only was his life characterized by being full of the Holy Spirit, but his death was as well. His message in Acts 7 is the longest in the entire book of Acts, more lengthy than any of the recorded messages of Peter or Paul. We have noted his progression, power, and persecution. In this message we will focus on his preaching, and then his passing.
1. The Preaching Of Stephen: 7:1-53
Stephen’s Appearance: Notice how Stephen appeared while preaching from 6:15. “And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” In other words, his face shone; it glowed. Is there anyone else in the Bible that you can recall who had a shining face? Moses, of course! It seems to be God’s purpose to give to Stephen the same glowing face when he was accused of opposing the Law, as He gave to Moses when he received the Law. God is revealing that both Moses’ reception of the Law, and Stephen’s interpretation of the Law had His divine approval.
Stephen’s Response: The high priest asked him a direct question, “Are these things so?” What things was he talking about? Well, the 2 accusations leveled against him in 6:13-14. He was being accused of speaking against the temple and the Law. Since the temple was associated with God, and the Law with Moses, Stephen’s words were viewed as being blasphemous against Moses and God. Now, notice that Stephen doesn’t give a “Yes” or “No” answer. Instead he gives a very detailed historical account of the Jewish people. In this account, Stephen doesn’t directly answer their questions. In his message, Stephen knows he only has one chance to bring these mighty Jewish rulers to see that they had rejected their Messiah, the True Reality behind all of their rituals and shadows. So, rather than seek to justify himself, he seeks to bring them to repentance. The religious leaders had become overly confident of their spiritual position because they possessed the temple where God dwelt and the Law that He wrote. And they had missed the true intent of the Law. Instead of recognizing Jesus as their Messiah, and fulfillment of all that the Law spoke of, they saw the Law as a list of do’s and don’ts that made them righteous before God. Remember that Stephen is a Spirit-filled man. Thus, I can’t help but think that the message he brought before the Sanhedrin was the very message God wanted delivered. Stephen was a very courageous man. Rather than try to come up with some answer that would get him out of hot water and save his skin, he chose to boldly declare these rulers’ sin of rejecting Jesus, their Messiah, and seek their repentance. The way Stephen does this is by showing them how the Jewish people had a history of rejecting God’s deliverers, Joseph and Moses, and how they are just following in their fathers’ footsteps by rejecting Jesus, God’s final and ultimate deliverer.
The Rejection of Joseph: 7:2-16. Stephen begins with Abraham, because he is the father of the Jewish nation. If you want to discuss the sin of the Jewish people, the logical place to start is with their founder. So Stephen speaks of God’s sovereign call to Abraham, Abraham’s partial obedience in moving to Haran, his eventual complete obedience after Terah died, God promising the land to his descendants, their future enslavement of the Jews in Egypt, and the covenant of circumcision, and then mentions Isaac, Jacob and the 12 patriarchs. This brings us to Joseph.
7:9 – Notice the very first thing said of Joseph: his brothers sold him into Egypt. Joseph would become the Savior of his brethren. I think Stephen makes this point on purpose. He is emphasizing the fact that throughout their history, the Jewish people have rejected God’s deliverers, and resisted His authority.
7:10 – the very one they had betrayed and sold was exalted to the highest place in the Nation, sitting at the King’s right hand, Lord over all.
The Rejection of Moses: 7:17-43. Stephen highlights Moses’ birth and early life, then his first attempt to save His people which ended in Moses fleeing to Midian. There are several verses to consider:
7:25 – God was giving Israel salvation by Moses’ hand, but they did not understand. Did Stephen mention salvation by coincidence? I don’t think so. He is drawing a direct parallel between Moses and Jesus.
7:27 – the Jew thrust Moses aside and resented Moses taking the role of ruler or judge. This parallels what the Jews did with Jesus. They thrust Him aside, and said, “We will not have this Man to reign over us!”
7:34 – Note that God came down to deliver the Jews through Moses. Jesus came down, sent by God to deliver His people, the true Israel of God.
7:35 – They rejected Moses, their ruler and redeemer. So too, Israel rejected Christ, their Ruler and Redeemer.
7:36 – Moses performed wonders & signs like Jesus.
7:37 – Here Moses and Christ are linked together directly. I can’t help but think this was a definite move on Stephen’s part.
7:38 – He received living oracles to give to us – just as Jesus only spoke those things that He heard the Father speaking.
7:39 – Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt. So to, the Jews did the same to Jesus.
7:42 – God brought judgment upon them for their sin. Stephen is bringing a warning to the religious leaders about what God will do should they reject and thrust aside His Son, the Redeemer, Ruler, and Deliverer.
The Fixation On The Temple As God’s House: The Jews took pride in the fact that God dwelt among them, of all the people of the earth. And the way God dwelt with them was in the tabernacle and later the temple. The religious leaders were accusing Stephen of blaspheming God because he taught that Jesus would destroy the temple. That was unthinkable to them, because they felt as long as they had the temple, they were safe and secure, for God was with them. However, Stephen reminds them that God is a lot bigger than their temple. How could the Creator God be reduced to dwelling inside something that man made?! This reminds us again that no one can put God in a box. God is so great and vast that He fills heaven and earth!
Stephen’s Application: Here Stephen gets to where he has been heading since he began his message. Here Stephen changes from the accused to the accuser; from the defendant to the prosecuting attorney. They had accused him of speaking against Moses and God. He accused them of resisting the Holy Spirit, and acting like their fathers in betraying and murdering Jesus Christ. He says they received the law but didn’t obey it. It was them, not him, that was against the law.
Stiff-necked: stubborn, unwilling to submit or yield to God’s word.
Uncircumcised in heart and ears: the Jews took great pride in circumcision. Stephen takes his life in his hands by accusing them of having an outward circumcision, but lacking the circumcision which really mattered, that of the heart.
Always resist the Holy Spirit: a throwback to “stiff-necked”. The Spirit spoke God’s truth through the prophets, but they had uncircumcised ears, were stiff-necked, and would not listen or obey.
As your fathers did, so do you: This tells us that we are right to see Stephen’s message as his attempt to get them to see that they are committing the same grave mistake in murdering Jesus that the Jews had done many times before.
2. The Passing Of Stephen: 7:54-60.
The Sanhedrin’s Rage: They were enraged and ground their teeth: When confronted with hard truth there are only 2 options: soften your heart and repent, or harden your heart and resist. They chose the latter. “Enraged” is the exact same Greek word found in Acts 5:33. Just as the Sanhedrin had reacted to Peter’s preaching, they reacted to Stephen’s. Stephen is in good company!
Stephen’s Vision: see how good and gracious God is to His servant in his dying hour. First He fills him with the Holy Spirit so that he can die well. 2nd He gives him a glorious vision. He sees the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Everywhere in Scripture, Jesus is seen as sitting at God’s right hand. He now stands to encourage and welcome His servant into His kingdom. Stephen is overcome with this tremendous vision, so he boldly announces what he is seeing.
The Sanhedrin’s Stoning: Stephen’s announcement put the Sanhedrin over the top. That was the last straw. They couldn’t restrain their rage any longer. Why did his words so infuriate them? I believe it was because these words were familiar to them. They had heard another prisoner utter the same thing. The same group of men were the judges at his trial, and it most likely happened in the same place, and this other prisoner was also accused of blasphemy. The high priest asked Him point blank, “Are you the Messiah?” Jesus responded, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mk.14:62). Now, Stephen is saying that what Jesus said was true. He IS at the right hand of God. At this point, they either had to kill Stephen or admit that they were wrong for killing Jesus. They cried out, and put their hands over their ears, unwilling to hear any more, and rushed with one mind at him. They cast him out of the city and stoned him.
Stephen’s Death: Can you imagine dying by people throwing large, heavy rocks at you? Now, how did they stone him? Well, the Mishna, the Jewish codification of law, tells us. “The stoning-place was two heights of a man. One of the witnesses pushed him on his thighs (that he should fall with the back to the surface), but if he fell face down, he had to be turned over. If he died from the effects of the first fall, nothing more was to be done. If not, the second witness took a stone and thrust it against his heart. If he died, nothing more was to be done; but if not, all who were standing by had to throw stones on him. ” Stoning still takes place in various Islamic countries. The convicted criminal is wrapped from head to foot in a white sheet, buried up to his waist so he cannot escape, and then the entire community throws rocks at him until he dies. The process usually takes 10 to 20 minutes before the person dies. It is actually stipulated that they are not to throw pebbles, or rocks that are so big that the person will die in 1 or 2 blows, but medium size rocks to prolong the torture.
There were certain legal conditions that had to be met before someone was stoned:
1. There had to be 2 or 3 witnesses, and they had to throw the first stones (Deut.17:6-7)
2. The criminal was to be stoned outside the camp (Lev.24:14). That’s why they stoned Stephen outside the city.
3. There were certain sins to be punished by stoning, one of which was blasphemy.
So, evidently the Sanhedrin had found at least 2 witnesses to what Stephen had said, the drove him out of the city and stoned him for blasphemy.
Stephen Is Like Jesus: Stephen was like Jesus in his life. He was a servant, he was a man of good reputation, he was full of the spirit and wisdom. He also worked great signs and wonders like Jesus. He spoke boldly and courageously like Jesus. But he was also a lot like Jesus in his death.
1. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” This is just an echo of Jesus’ prayer while He was dying, “Father into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” Jesus committed His spirit to the Father – Stephen committed his spirit to Jesus. Interestingly, Stephen prays to Jesus! Either Jesus is God, or Stephen is committing idolatry. Notice also that Stephen expected Jesus to receive his spirit immediately upon his death, which puts the nail into the coffin of the doctrines of soul sleep, purgatory and limbo.
2. “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Again Stephen addresses Jesus as Lord, and asks Him not to hold their sin against them. Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
What’s going on? Stephen is receiving special grace from God. We speak of saving grace, comforting grace, sanctifying grace, and so on. But here we have an example of dying grace. This is the grace that enabled God’s martyrs to go to the stake singing praises and praying for their enemies. If God calls us to die for Christ, He will grant us the grace to die well! While Stephen’s executors were filled with fury and rage, Stephen is filled with the Spirit and love. This reminds me of a wonderful Christian named George Wishert. When he was to be hanged and burned at the stake the hangman, that was his tormentor, sat down upon his knees, and said, “Sir, I pray you to forgive me, for I am not guilty of your death.” To whom he answered, “Come hither to me.” When that he was come to him, he kissed his cheek, and said: “Lo, here is a token that I forgive thee.” How can a Christian die like this?! Only by the power of the Spirit and the grace of God.
Stephen Falls Asleep: what a beautiful way to picture death. His persecutors were furiously stoning him in some kind of demonic rage, but God’s saint falls asleep and wakes up in the presence of Jesus Christ.
Life Application:
1. When necessary, rebuke boldly and courageously: We hate conflict, and will do just about anything to avoid it. However, sometimes we must disobey God in order to avoid conflict. Jesus commands us to reprove a brother who sins. Prov.27:6. Stephen’s rebuke cost him his life, but it was what God willed for him to do. Of course I’m not advocating that we go around rebuking everyone for every little thing. I think you will know when it is God who is calling you to bring a word of correction and rebuke. When He does, obey.
2. Trust God to give you the grace you need when suffering: If in the path of duty you suffer, you can expect God to draw near and support you in the midst of it. 1Pet.4:14.
______________________________
© The Bridge
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by The Bridge.
Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By Brian Anderson. © The Bridge. Website: www.TheBridgeOnline.net
Follow Us!