Acts Chapter Seven
Chapters six and seven run together. At the end of chapter six we saw that Stephen had been arrested and taken before the religious leaders. He had been charged with speaking blasphemous words. The end of Chapter six shows us the kind of person Stephen was. The people looked on him and saw his face as the face of an angel.
When asked if the charges of blasphemy were true, Stephen didn’t try to defend himself of these false charges. Instead, he went in to an amazing history of the nation of Israel, starting out with Abraham. He hit many high points of history bringing them up to the present day.
We should read this chapter carefully, noting the various parts of the history of Israel. God has had His hand on the nation from the beginning. It exists only because God chose to create a nation out of a man who was too old. The supernatural has been evident from the beginning.
Sadly, like so many people, the citizens of Israel didn’t always follow God. Stephen talked about their disobedience. In v. 51 he called them stiff-necked. They were stubborn to listen to God. He also said that their hearts and ears were evil. They had a good cover of religious activity, but on the inside where it counted they were fake. Stephen charged them with resisting God and persecuting the prophets.
When he got to this point, the crowd rose up in anger and rebellion against Stephen. They were cut to the heart by his words. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and speaking what God had for him. He wasn’t trying to save his skin. In fact, Stephen was given a glimpse beyond this human sphere and saw the Son of God standing at the right hand of the Father. Heaven surely looked better than earth. The glory of God was showing on Stephen’s countenance. The crowd was blocking their ears so they couldn’t hear what was being said.
Luke here records the first of millions of martyrs. Stephen was the first person killed for believing in Jesus as the risen Savior. We see the glory of God in his life right up to the end as his last words were a prayer that God would not charge these people with this sin of murder. Wow, the power of God in his life.
Don’t miss an important historical clue in v. 58. As the angry mob worked its way in to a killing frenzy, they laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Luke brings Saul very much in to the picture in the next few chapters. This is an interesting introduction to a man who would become so important to the church.
