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The book of Acts

Stephen

Chapter 6:8 to 8:4

One of the men chosen to be deacons was Stephen ("Crown"), full of grace and power of God, to the point that he did great wonders and signs among the people. He is the first man out of the apostles, of whom we read that God used to do such things.

This time the opposition started with some men of a synagogue called the Synagogue of the Freedmen: even in Jerusalem, there were synagogues attended by different groups that met on Sabbaths to study the Scriptures. The "freedmen" were Jews who had been freed from slavery by the Romans, and came from different localities of the Roman Empire.

Stephen himself was probably a Hellenist, which would explain why the opposition to his powerful ministry came from this synagogue. Those who gathered there opposed the gospel he preached and discussed with him heatedly, but could not resist his wisdom, that is, his better understanding and knowledge and the Spirit with which he spoke (as promised by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 10:19,20).

Losing their arguments, they provoked a session of the Sanhedrin by using the same method that had been used to convict the Lord Jesus: they bribed two witnesses to accuse him of saying blasphemous words against Moses and God, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy that place (the temple) and of changing the customs that Moses had passed on to them.

In fact, Stephen had not blasphemed, but they had perverted his words. To destroy the temple and to change the customs of Moses was, according to them, to supplant Judaism and to end with the Jewish nationality. By implying that, in saying these things, he would have denied the divine origin and character of the temple and make a falsehood of the Mosaic Law.

Stephen was just teaching that the temple and the Mosaic Law were transient in nature, serving a temporary purpose, until the arrival of the Messiah Jesus (they were types).

The Sanhedrin met to carry out the judgment of Stephen, and when he appeared, everyone "saw his face as the face of an angel." We understand that, as an angel is the messenger of God, he contrasted with those religious and evil fanatics, and an expression of his sincerity and purity of character could be seen on his face.

In reply to the high priest's question, "Are these things so?", Stephen made ??his speech which is a model of oratory, in which not only he defended himself but even more, the whole cause of the Gospel itself:  he told the history of the relationship between God and Judaism through time, from the perspective of the rejection of God by the people. It started with "The God of glory" and stopped when seeing the glory of God.

His speech shows the progress of divine revelation which culminates in Jesus of Nazareth, who came not to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17). His purpose was to reveal to his inquisitors the true meaning of the Israelite history in relation to the recently occurring facts, so that they could better understand and judge the present, and correct their behaviour. The knowledge they would acquire from their history and religion under this new light should force them to clear him of the charge of false teacher and blasphemer.

We summarize his main arguments as follows:

1. God's manifestation to Israel was gradual and began long before Moses and the temple. Thus, it was not completed with Moses, as he himself said, "God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren” (v. 7:37).

2. Throughout their history the people of Israel was characterized by disobedience. Finding it hard to believe and understand God's revelations, they rejected Him and turned again to idolatry, and persecuted and killed the prophets (v. 7:38-53).

3. God does not dwell in temples built by human hands. The people, in their idolatry, took up the tabernacle of Moloch, but God gave them the tabernacle of witness until the days of David, and Solomon built Him a house (see 7:43-48). However, the prophet Isaiah wrote: "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me? Says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?  Has my hand not made all these things? " (Isaiah 66:1,2).

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Stephen finished by accusing the members of the Sanhedrin, who represented the people of Israel there, as being "stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you."

Enraged, and hearing Stephen describe his vision of the "Son of man" (as Jesus declared He was) in heaven, the Sanhedrin thrust him out of the city and stoned him. Even then, he knelt down and, before dying, cried loudly asking the Lord not to blame them.

We do not know who the pious men who buried Stephen were, but they may have been members of the church or even pious Jews who knew him, or had benefited from his cures. They lamented him greatly, because in addition to having him in high esteem because of his character, they knew they would miss him very much.

On the same day that Stephen was stoned, there arose a great persecution against the church. The people had been stirred up by the members of the synagogue the day before, when they unjustly accused Stephen of blasphemy. When they followed this by stoning him, after being condemned by the Sanhedrin, they began to pursue all of Christ's church, of which he had been a deacon.

The Pharisees had joined the Sadducees in condemning him this time, and among them was young Saul, who had watched with pleasure and approved the execution of Stephen. He now led the persecution of the church, moved by his zeal for God (Philippians 3:6), binding and imprisoning both men and women (chapter 22:3,4).

Paul lamented having done such a thing after he realized his mistake (1 Corinthians 15:9), but the death of Stephen and the persecution that followed, sparked the movement that spread the church throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria and "those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the Word."

This far we see how the members of the church in its infancy obeyed what the Lord Jesus had commanded:

1. They went out as He had done (John 20:21, Acts 8:1.4).

2. They sold their goods, giving the proceeds to the poor (Luke 12:33, 18:22, Acts 2:45, 4:34).

3. They left father, mother, houses and land to preach the Word elsewhere (Matthew 10:37, Acts 8:1,4).

4. They made disciples and taught them to work and obey (Matthew 28: 18-20, Acts 8:4).

5. They took up their cross and followed Christ (Matthew 10:38, Acts 4:1-3).

6. They rejoiced in tribulation and persecution (Matthew 5:11-12, Acts 16:25, 1 Thessalonians 1:6-8).

7. They “let the dead bury the dead” and were preaching the Gospel (Luke 9:59-60, Acts 8:2).  

 

R David Jones

 

8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
11 Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."
12 And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
13 They also set up false witnesses who said, "This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us."
15 And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.

Acts chapter 6, verses 8 to 15

1 Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?"
2 And he said, "Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3 and said to him, 'GET OUT OF YOUR COUNTRY AND FROM YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME TO A LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.'
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5 And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
6 But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.
7 'AND THE NATION TO WHOM THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE I WILL JUDGE,' said God, 'AND AFTER THAT THEY SHALL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.'
8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.
9 "And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
13 And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people.
15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers.
16 And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
17 "But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt
18 till another king arose who did not know Joseph.
19 This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.
20 At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father's house for three months.
21 But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.
22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
23 "Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
26 And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?'
27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE OVER US?
28 DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME AS YOU DID THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY?'
29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
30 "And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him,
32 saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF YOUR FATHERS—THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB.' And Moses trembled and dared not look.
33 'Then the LORD said to him, "TAKE YOUR SANDALS OFF YOUR FEET, FOR THE PLACE WHERE YOU STAND IS HOLY GROUND.
34 I HAVE SURELY SEEN THE OPPRESSION OF MY PEOPLE WHO ARE IN EGYPT; I HAVE HEARD THEIR GROANING AND HAVE COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM. AND NOW COME, I WILL SEND YOU TO EGYPT." '
35 "This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 "This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'THE LORD YOUR GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN. HIM YOU SHALL HEAR.'
38 "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
39 whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, 'MAKE US GODS TO GO BEFORE US; AS FOR THIS MOSES WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT HAS BECOME OF HIM.'
41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: 'DID YOU OFFER ME SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS AND SACRIFICES DURING FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
43 YOU ALSO TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH, AND THE STAR OF YOUR GOD REMPHAN, IMAGES WHICH YOU MADE TO WORSHIP; AND I WILL CARRY YOU AWAY BEYOND BABYLON.'
44 "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45 which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,
46 who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built Him a house.
48 "However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL. WHAT HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? SAYS THE LORD, OR WHAT IS THE PLACE OF MY REST?
50 HAS MY HAND NOT MADE ALL THESE THINGS?'
51 "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts chapter 7

1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.
3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
4 Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.

Acts chapter 8, verses 1 to 4