Acts 7
0701 The High Priest questions Stephen
0702 Stephen answers by giving a brief history lesson (50 verses long) in which I believe he
shows clearly his respect for the law and for the God of Israel, refuting the false accusations of
those who stirred up the people, and showing how they were following in the footsteps of their
fathers in rejecting those who God had sent to them.
Stephen's historical survey reviews the history of the nation from the call of Abraham to the
building of Solomon's temple. It concentrates on three main topics: (i) the patriarchal period
(Acts 7:2-16); (ii), Moses and the law (Acts 7:17-43); (iii) the tabernacle and the temple (Acts
7:44-50). The first of the three sections of this speech is an introduction to the central themes; the
second deals with the charge of blasphemy against Moses, the third with the charge of
blasphemy against God. F5
0702-16 The Patriarchal Period
0703-8 Stephen reminds the council of the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 12 & 15; about
the covenant Abraham received the sign of the covenant (circumcision) Gen 17
The most important feature of the Abraham story for Luke is that it is one in which God is the
main actor. God is the first subject mentioned (2) and his are all the main actions: appears (3),
speaks (3,6), moves (4), gives an inheritance (5), promises (5), judges (7), gives a covenant
(8).0702 God appears where and when he wishes and is in control.
0704 Tragic reversal is expressed through repeated use of key terms first in a positive and then in
a negative sense. According to 7:4 God resettled Abraham to this land. The only other use of this
verb in the NT is in 7:43, which declares that God will resettle or deport the people because of
their idolatry, this time away from the promised land. IN 7:7 God promises Abraham that his
descendants will worship me in this place. IN 7:42 God delivers up the people to worship the
host of heaven. True worship of God turns into idolatry, and the use of the same word highlights
this shift. The reference to the covenant of circumcision in 7:8 prepares for a similar reversal, for
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at the end of the speech Stephen declares that his audience is uncircumcised in heart and ears
(51). Circumcision, too, has gone bad. Thus 3 key words or word roots associated with God’s
saving work and promise in the Abraham section of the speech recur toward the end of the
speech with a negative meaning.
0709-16 The Sons of Jacob
0709 The Jews have constantly rejected God’s representatives. Joseph was rejected by
the patriarchs (9). Moses was rejected when he tried to intervene in a quarrel between 2
Jews (26-29), and yet this Moses was sent as Israel’s deliverer (35). The message of
Moses they rejected and instead erected a golden calf (39-43). Stephen climaxes his
message in vigorous language by claiming that Israelite history is a history of rejection
(51-53).
Stephen shows how God fulfilled His promises to Abraham in bringing the people to
Egypt, and finally after the 400 years or so of bondage, He delivered His people and
judged the nation they were enslaved by.
V16 problem verse? Jacob bought the land from Hamor the son of Shechem
0717-43 Moses and the Law
0717-22 A new Pharaoh & the circumstances of Moses’ birth (Moses’ 1st 40 years)
0723-29 Moses’ defense of a brother Israelite and Exile (Moses 2nd 40 years)
0726-27- Moses rejected by these 2 brethren
0730-41 Moses’ 3rd 40 years
God appeared to Moses in the burning bush
0735 The one whom was rejected as a ruler and judge, God did use as a ruler and judge
0737 Moses spoke of another prophet to come (who the people would also reject)
**** Although Stephen’s story of Moses contains no direct mention of Jesus, comparing
the description of Moses here and descriptions of Jesus in other Acts speeches reveals a
remarkable series of similarities. The story of Moses is being used to interpret the story of
Jesus and vice versa. Moses was sent by God as ruler and redeemer and though his hand
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God was giving salvation to the people (25,35). Similarly, God exalted Jesus as leader
and savior (5:31). However, the people did not understand the divine commission of
these 2 redeemers (3:17; 7:25). They denied Moses as they did Jesus (3:13,14; 7:35,
using arneomai in all three cases). The strong contrast between divine confirmation and
human denial in Peter’s speeches is also strong in Stephen’s retelling of Moses’ story.
Both Jesus and Moses are rejected in spite of the fact that they do wonders and signs for
the people (2:22; 7:36).
0738-41 God gave Moses His law, and the people refused to obey, instead having Aaron
make them an idol to serve and worship REJECTION ONCE AGAIN
Israel’s rejection of Moses and then Stephen illustrate how difficult it is for God’s people
to hear harsh and honest words that call us to repentance.
Almost automatically rejection of God’s prophets and His message leads to future
idolatry.
0741 Attention is focused solely on the aspect of idolatry. It is this aspect which is
heightened by speaking of the golden calf as the works of their hands (probably echoing
classic condemnations of idolatry in Deut 4:28; Ps 115:4; and Jer 1:16). This contrasts
sharply with the law, received from angels (7:38) and foreshadow the characterization of
the temple in 7:48 in similar terms. The implication once again is that the people
addressed by Stephen have more in common with the idolaters of Ex 32 than with Moses
the law-giver.
This Israel entered into idolatry with delight, rejoicing in what their hands had made (Ex
32:4-6; Acts 17:24-25, 29). This last phrase will be central to Stephen’s indictment of his
audience (48-51). The first-century Jew’s veneration of the temple was the same to God
as worship of the golden calf.
0742-43 God rejects His rebellious people
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0742 As in what we find in Rom 1:24-28, Stephen suggests that sometimes God allowed
the people to become captive to the consequences of their own evil choices.
(citing Amos 5:25-27) 0743 The lesson, of course, is that those who reject the prophet are
themselves rejected. When Moses was rejected the first time, he went into exile. Now,
when they reject Moses a second time, they go into exile.
This unexpected reminder of Judah’s disastrous history delivers a jolting warning to
Stephen’s present audience of Temple officials: their temple and their dignified positions
are no more privileged or unbreakable than that of their 6th century forerunners.
0744-50 The Tabernacle and the Temple
Stephen was accused of blaspheming the temple by saying that Jesus would destroy it. He
turns his attention first to the tabernacle where God in a sense dwelt among His people
until the days of David, and then to the temple that was built in the days of Solomon.
The assertion that the transcendent God is not confined to things made with human hands
would have jolted his hearers. The Jews commonly used made with human hands to refer
to idol worship. To apply this phrase to the temple could well enrage them. For a Greek
speaking Jew to use precisely this word of the temple was in effect to denounce the
temple as itself an idol. The history of Israel’s own idolatry is thereby shown to extend
from the golden calf, the work of their hands (41), not simply to the worship of the
planetary powers (42-43), but also to their devotion to the temple itself! Stephen does not
deny that God blessed and approve the building of the OT temple; but he denies that God
meant it to be the idol that his hearers have made it. While Stephen’s high-priestly
auditors would no doubt regard Solomon’s magnificent temple-house as a crowning
achievement in Israel’s history, Stephen sharply counters such perceptions: But no; the
Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands. The sting of this comment
becomes most palpable in association with the earlier depiction of the golden calf, which
the Israelites made at Sinai, as the product of their hands (7:41). Stephen comes very
close to labeling the hand-made Jerusalem temple an idol.
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The great message of the Christ was that "One greater than the temple is here" (Matthew
12:6). (See John 2:20-22.) Stephen's argument, then, is simply that Christ is the true
temple, that "in Christ," not in some building," men are called to worship God. This was a
categorical refutation of the notion that he had blasphemed God (i.e, the temple) by
repeating the prophecy of Jesus that the temple would be destroyed. The Sanhedrin were
blaspheming God by rejecting God's true temple, Jesus of Nazareth!
But even though the tabernacle and later the temple were built by men, God cannot be
contained in a building, which is what Solomon had emphasized in 1 Kings 8. God
cannot be contained to something made by human hands. He cannot even be contained by
that which He Himself has created.
Too many times in the Jews history they put their trust in the temple being in their midst
thinking that God in some way would spare them because of His temple. That was not the
case then, or now here at the time of Stephen.
0751-53 Application of Stephen’s speech
0751 The climax of Stephen’s sermon is one of the most severe and cutting accusations
anywhere in Scripture.
When relating Israel’s history to the contemporary scene, his predominant narrative
viewpoint has been first person plural, including himself along with his hearers in the
larger Israelite community (the one exception is the brief second person aside in 7:4). IN
his closing comments, however, Stephen sharpens both tone and perspective, launching
into a direct condemnation of his condemners, utilizing redundant, emphatic second
person plural pronouns: you are forever opposing the HS, just as your ancestors used to
do—so you! (7:51; note also your ancestors and you have become betrayers in 7:52).
Stephen thus distances himself ultimately from the present fathers of Israel who, in
Stephen’s judgment, are following in the wayward footsteps of their fore-fathers.
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He interjects throughout the story the ongoing spiritual failures (7:9, 25-28, 35, 39-41)
leading up to the accusation that the present generation is perpetuating the same kind of
spiritual blindness that characterized previous generations.
Just as they had rejected all of those who God sent in the past, they were doing the exact
same thing now. Those who foretold the coming of the Messiah they rejected and killed.
Matthew 23:29-38
They disobeyed the Lord and rejected His law time and time again, and ignorantly
rejected and murdered the one whom these men spoke of in the Old Testament scriptures.
They had rejected at this time Moses, the prophets, angels, the God of heaven, His
temple, and His Messiah.
Stiff-necked- The word stiff-necked is often used in the Old Testament, Exodus 32:9;
Exodus 33:3,5, 34:9, Deuteronomy 9:6,13, 10:16, etc. It is a figurative expression taken
from oxen that were noncompliant, and that would not submit to be yoked. Applied to
men, it means that they were stubborn and unwilling to submit to the Lord.
Because of Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf: Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said to
Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. THIS SAME
PHRASE USED AGAINST THE IDOLATROUS WILDERNESS GENERATION IS
USED AGAINST STEPHEN’S ACCUSERS.
Circumcision was a sign that a person was one of God’s chosen, and so Stephen’s
accusation that his audience is uncircumcised in heart is tantamount to saying that they
are spiritually outside God’s people.
Jeremiah 6:10 To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold,
their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord is to them
an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it.
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What an accusation.
0752 Instead of dealing with Stephen’s crimes or guilt, the speech becomes an indictment
of the crimes and guilt of the audience.
The betrayal and murder of God’s Righteous One (Jesus—3:14) is simply the climax of
Israel’s history of rejection (Lk 11:47-51). The rejection of God’s servants—Joseph,
Moses and the prophets—finds its climax in the rejection of the Righteous One. The
killing of Jesus is the climax of disobedience.
How would the council respond?
When faced with the truth those in error will either accept the message or seek to silence the
messenger, even permanently (4:18; 5:28,40).
0754-60 The Stoning of Stephen
0755 Stephen has already been identified in prophetic terms (6:10), but this designation
emphasizes that those who have always resisted the HS and killed the prophets are doing
so again in the rejection of Stephen. The narrator describes Stephen once again as filled
with the HS (6:3,5,10), contrasting him with the audience he has just accused of
consistently opposing the Spirit (51).
The glimpse of the exalted Jesus while gazing into heaven recalls the apostles’
observation of Jesus’ ascension. IN that scene, the apostles watched Jesus rise in cloudly
splendor and depart into heaven out of sight. Now, for the first time since that
momentous exit, Jesus becomes visible again from his heavenly station.
He receives the punishment of a blasphemer
As did Jesus, so does Stephen have grace and power, and works wonders and signs among the
people (6:8); he enters into dispute with those who challenge him (6:9; see Luke 20:1-7). He is
arrested (6:12; see 22:54), and brought to trial before the Sanhedrin (6:12-15; 22:66-71). Stephen
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has false witnesses accuse him (6:13). Stephen is taken out of the city to be executed as was
Jesus (23:32). At his death, there is the disposition of clothing, though not of his own as it was
for Jesus (23:34). Stephen prays that his spirit be accepted as did Jesus. Stephen asks forgiveness
for his murderers as did Jesus. Stephen is buried by pious people, as was Jesus.
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