Acts Episode 15: Stephen’s Brilliant Defense: Part 2

Wes 

Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to TwoJourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode. 

This is Episode 15 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. This episode is entitled Stephen’s Brilliant Defense, Part 2, where we’ll discuss Acts 7:30-8:1. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.  

Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today? 

Andy 

All right, so the significant movement in the Book of Acts is from a religion of Jewish people only, Jews only, to Jew plus Gentile and a worldwide religion. And also significant to the movement is the movement from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. 

And it’s amazing that this man Stephen sees the significance of that shift, that things have changed. The Old Covenant religion was founded on animal sacrifice, and Stephen saw that the days for that were over. But also, along with that is the very sad theme of Jewish resistance to the movement of God. That when the Holy Spirit moved, when God sent key leaders and deliverers to move them to the next phase of redemptive history, they always resisted. They were stiff-necked and hostile to the messengers that God sent and that culminated in the death of Jesus. 

And so, Stephen is needing to show them their sin and their reticence, their hostility to Christ in order to save some of them. And he did save at least one of them, Saul of Tarsus, as we’ll see as Acts unfolds. So, what we’re going to see today is the ending of Stephen’s brilliant defense of the gospel and his building up of his argument that they always resisted the deliverers. And the fact that the time for animal sacrifice and a sacred space, the temple, was over and everything had been made new. Also, we’re going to see the death of Stephen as a martyr. 

Wes 

Well, let me go ahead and read Acts 7:30-8:1 as we prepare to walk through this text today. 

“Now, when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.  

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’  

“This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ – this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give us.  

“Our fathers refused to obey him but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who let us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets: 

“‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your God Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 

“Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,  

“‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?'”  

“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,  you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” 

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 

But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of his execution.  

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. 

Andy, we’re picking up really in the middle of a section of Stephen’s defense regarding Moses and the law. How does Stephen craft the call of Moses at the burning bush as a vindication of the one they had rejected? 

Andy 

Okay. So, we’ve seen already with the case of Joseph being the one that God had chosen to rescue or deliver his people from famine, and they thrust him aside, they hated him. Some of the patriarchs wanted to kill him. And it was through their hatred of Joseph that he was sold as a slave into Egypt, thus beginning the history of the Jewish people in Egypt. 

And then God sent them a deliverer, Moses from Egypt. And already we saw last time how this Jewish man pushed Moses aside saying, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?” And then that was the reason that Moses fled because what he had done had become known to Pharaoh and so he leaves. That’s exactly where we were last time. 

And so now after 40 years had passed, so Moses was 80 years old, the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush. And this was the angel of the Lord. This was the pre-incarnate Christ, absolutely vindicating Moses as the one chosen by God to be their deliverer, their ruler, and deliver the very point that Stephen is about to make. So, vindication comes from the sacred sight that Moses had of the burning bush and the call of God out of the bush, “Take off your sandals for the ground on which you’re standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). And Moses was then chosen and sent to be the deliverer and the ruler and the lawgiver for the Jewish nation. 

Wes 

Now, why does Stephen stress that it was an angel who appeared to Moses in the flames of the burning bush? And what does he say about the angel who also shows up in verses 35 and 38 later on? 

Andy 

Well, I think careful students of the Bible, especially Christians who understand where we’re all heading with the Old Testament have no difficulty seeing in the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ. Because the angel of the Lord spoke out of the burning bush, and he’s the one that said, “I AM.” Also, God had said concerning the angel who would lead them at Mount Sinai, he said, “My Spirit is in him, and he will not forgive your iniquity” (Exodus 23:21). Just as we had seen earlier at the time of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, that commanded by God, as he had stretched out his hand to kill his son Isaac under the command of God, the angel of the Lord spoke to him and stopped him and said, “Now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son whom you love” (Genesis 22:12). 

Well, who’s an angel to speak like that if it’s not God? “Withheld from me”? No angel would ever say that. But this was the pre-incarnate Christ. And so, we do believe as Christians that the angel of the Lord who spoke to Moses out of the flames of the burning bush was in fact Almighty God and the second person of the Trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ. 

Wes 

Andy, it’s remarkable as we walk through Stephen’s defense, how many details he includes. I think of when I’m in a stressful situation many times details leave my mind, they don’t enter them. And certainly, my defense is not as clear or articulate. Why do you think Stephen, on trial for his life, includes details like Moses’ reaction to the burning bush? 

Andy 

Well, we have the clear testimony in the Book of Acts, again and again we see it with Peter and John. We see it also with Stephen that when they speak before their adversaries, they’re filled with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus had said very plainly, “When you are arrested, do not worry ahead of time what to say. At that time, it will be given you what to say. For it will not be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mark 13:11). 

And that I think is happening here. Acts 7 was directly written by the Holy Spirit in the mind of Stephen at that moment. And it came out of his mouth, and then later Luke wrote it down for us. And so, this is clear evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit to bring in such details without even necessarily developing them. But we’re looking at things like the angel, the angel, the angel several times and all that. It’s not an accident. The Holy Spirit gave these things to Stephen to say. 

Wes 

That’s a powerful meditation as we consider the weight of these words, not just that they’re weighty coming from Stephen, but also as the Holy Spirit speaks through him, this is a message God intends for the Sanhedrin and the Jews of that day to hear. What does Stephen say about the roles that God gave to Moses and how does that relate to Stephen’s trial before the Sanhedrin? 

Andy 

All right, so earlier the man who Moses tried to separate from his Jewish brother, they were fighting each other. He said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” And it says in verse 35, “This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?'” So, he quotes that again and then he emphasizes, “He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself,” and he was in fact their judge. I don’t know if you remember that, that encounter that he had with his father-in-law, Jethro where he stood and watched and Moses spending all day long adjudicating cases. 

Wes 

This is not. 

Andy 

This is not a good use of your time. You need to have a pyramid system where you have rulers of tens, hundreds, thousands, and 10 thousands before. And you’re like the Supreme Court, the highest hardest cases get to you. At any rate, he was in fact sent to be their ruler and judge, but also, he uses the word here, deliverer. God himself sent Moses. There’s the answer to your question, but here’s the pattern that Stephen is elucidating. You always resist and fight against the ones that God sends to you, and you’ve done it again. 

Wes 

How does verse 36 point to Christ’s ministry and vindication? How is Moses a type of Christ in this passage? 

Andy

the real exodus is the deliverance of the people of God from bondage to sin and from the penalty of sin, which is death. Jesus did the real exodus.

Well, Moses is a type of Christ in that he did miracles, he did signs and wonders, and he led them on an exodus. And as a matter of fact, in I think Luke’s account of the Mount of Transfiguration, it says that Moses and Elijah were there talking with Jesus about the exodus that he was about to affect and that was the real exodus- the real exodus, which just literally in Greek means “way out.” But the real exodus is the deliverance of the people of God from bondage to sin and from the penalty of sin, which is death. Jesus did the real exodus. Moses did the type and shadow exodus, which was physical, an actual historical exodus, but it was a type or symbol of the true salvation Jesus came to work. So, Moses is a type of Christ in that he did those signs and wonders, the miracles. He was a prophet who spoke the words of God and a lawgiver. He was their ruler, he was their deliverer, and he led them out of bondage into, well, almost to the promised land. Jesus is the perfection of all of those roles. 

Wes 

How does verse 37 also point ahead to the Christ and how does it contribute to Stephen’s defense? 

Andy 

All right, so in Deuteronomy 18, Moses laid the way for the office of prophet, a lasting office in the nation of Israel. And as we remember, it’s very clear in the book of Deuteronomy that God had spoken with such a terrifying voice. Also, we see this first in Exodus 20:18-19, such a terrifying voice at Mount Sinai that the people pleaded with Moses that God no longer speak to them because they did not feel they would be able to survive. “Please Moses go up into the presence of God, go up into the glory cloud and receive from him the words he wants you to say, then come and tell us and then we’ll do everything you tell us to do.” 

And then God said, “What the people have said is good. Oh, that they would forever fear me as they do today.” So, Moses was, for the nation of Israel, then the first prophet. Certainly, the patriarchs were all prophets, but Moses was in the official role as the mouthpiece of Almighty God. But then Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:18-19, “The Lord will raise up after me, a prophet, and he will tell you or speak to you the words of God and you must obey him. And anyone who does not listen to him will be cut off from his people.” And so, he opened up the office of prophet, which many followed such as Elijah, Elisha, others, but the ultimate prophet, but final prophet ultimately not chronologically, but in terms of superiority is Jesus Christ. As the author of Hebrews tells us, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). 

And so, Jesus is the final word of God to the human race. So, God will send you a prophet like me from your own people and there’s a threat or a warning. It’s interesting there in Deuteronomy also they have to vindicate the prophet. How can we know if the prophet is sent from God? If what he has said comes true, then he has spoken from God. But if it does not, you don’t need to fear him. He is not sent from God. He’s a false prophet. And the rules for false prophets were to put them to death. 

And so, Jesus should have been put to death if he was a false prophet, but he should be listened to if he wasn’t. And the implication is you should be put to death if you don’t follow him. So, it’s death either way, either death for the false prophet or death for you if you don’t follow the true prophet. And that’s the threat or the warning here. Anyone who does not follow Jesus as Messiah will suffer eternal death. And so that’s the idea of God raising up a prophet like me from among your people. 

Wes 

What does the word living mean in verse 38? And how does verse 38 help show Stephen’s attitude toward the law of Moses? 

Andy 

Yeah, the living words, the word of God the author Hebrews tells us, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). What a mystery, what an infinite mystery, this concept of the living word is because the word is unchanging. It’s always the same, heaven and earth are going to pass away, but God’s words will never pass away.  

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rains came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words in mind and does not put them into practice,” said Jesus, “is like a foolish man who built his house on sand and the rains came down and the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash” (Matthew 7:24-27).  

What’s the difference? It’s immovable. Unchangeable. God’s word never changes. Heaven and earth will pass away. But my words, not the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear. 

So, one of the essential aspects of living things is move, development, change, movement, development and changing. You look at trees, it’s spring now and we’re seeing all these green leaves that were nowhere to be seen a month ago and out they pop. If you saw a tree that looked the same and continues to look the same through the spring, it’s dead. So, the thing with living things is movement and change in development. So, here’s the irony. God’s word, the living words that were passed on to us never change, and yet they’re alive, living and active. 

So, I think what it is they’re alive as they interact with our hearts and souls. As they come into our lives, we make changes. It’s catalytic, it changes us, it transforms us. It’s electric. It’s like they said of the words of the Puritans, that their words had hands and feet, they kind of rummaged around in your heart and they were convicting, etc. God’s word is even more that way. So, they received, he received living words to pass on to us. 

Wes 

Yeah, it’s so important and helpful that we understand how that word living is used in relation to scripture because there are those who think about living documents as those kinds of documents that can change or can be interpreted in a new way based on the situation or the circumstance that someone finds themselves in, but not so with the word of God. Yes, living and active as it interacts with our hearts, but unchanging and eternal in its nature and power. 

Andy 

Rock solid. Never changes. Even the smallest letter-like stroke of a pen will still be reading the same. Isn’t that comforting too? We look at how bizarre, frankly our culture has gotten. How weird. Even like redefining marriage, redefining gender as though we are the first generation that ever really saw the truth about these things. Quite the opposite. We’re being greatly deceived. Isn’t it wonderful to know that the Bible will never change, and it’s just rock solid? 

Wes 

Absolutely. 

Andy 

It is right to call it living and active. 

Wes 

So how did the fathers respond to Moses’ law in the desert and why is that argument here vital for the overall message that is being laid out as we build toward this conclusion in verse 51 and 53? 

Andy 

Well, listen, the patriarchs disliked Joseph for a while, but they rejected him in one decisive moment, throwing him into a pit and then selling him as a slave. Moses got rejected day after day after day. They couldn’t stand him. They were fighting against him when he went up. What’s cited here is when he went up into the glory cloud for 40 days and they’re like, “We don’t know what happened to this guy. He’s gone.” And so, they said to Aaron, “Make us gods and lead us back to Egypt.” They were ready to go back. Everything that Moses had done up to that point, they would undo by their unbelief. And they did not obey. They did not follow Moses. Moses led them to the brink of the promised land. They sent out the 12 spies, 10 spies, 12 came back, but 10 came back with a negative report, and they would not believe, and they would not cross over. 

And so, they had to wander for 40 years in the desert. And so fundamentally, they did not trust Moses, and they did not trust God through Moses. They refused to obey. They rejected Moses. It says in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. They were willing to go back. “Oh, if only we could have those days just like we used to have. Remember the good old days where we ate onions and leeks by the Nile, and we had plenty of food and wasn’t it wonderful?” 

What a weird alternate reality history they had. They were slaves with slave masters. And so, it fits into the overall argument that Stephen’s going to make very plain at the end here at the climax of his speech. He’s going to say, “You always resist the deliverers, the leaders that God sends.” And so, they rejected Moses. It wasn’t the only time. You remember where Aaron and Miriam said, “God hasn’t just spoken through you. He’s spoken through us.” And then God struck Miriam with leprosy. 

Then there was Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and then the earth swallowed them up, remember? If these men die in an ordinary way, you will know that God has not spoken through me. But if you see the earth open up and swallow them, then you will know that I’ve been sent by God. Soon as he gets done speaking earth opens up swallows. But the reason for all of that is rebellion, disobedience and rebellion. It’s a consistent pattern of the Jewish nation. Now, lest we Gentiles think we would’ve done any better, the fact is human nature’s the same all over. The Jewish nation represents all of us in the tendency to resist and rebel and disobey. And all of those things, that marks out the entire human race. 

Wes 

Andy, there’s two powerful phrases in verse 42 that I would love for us to look at for just a moment before we move on from seeing Moses as this type of Christ and how he was rejected. What does it mean in verse 42 when it says God turned away and gave them over to worship of heavenly bodies? These phrases show up elsewhere in scripture, but it says God turned away and gave them over. What’s the significance of this here? 

Andy 

It’s heartbreaking. What they were doing with the golden calf, which they would continue to do. They came out of Egypt idolatrous; they came out of Egypt pagans. They were pagans, most of them. And most of them died in the desert. Their bodies were scattered in the desert as Paul writes in Corinthians, they died. Because they were just straight unbelievers and pagans. 

And that’s the quote he’s going to give us here from Amos 5:26-27, “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings? Forty years in the desert, you lifted up the shrine of Moloch and the god of your god, or the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship.” And then he says, “I’m going to send you away into exile in Babylon.” It’s interesting, that’s the Alpha through the Omega of the Jewish time and the promised land. They were idolatrous right straight through. It’s the consistent story of Israel. Going after the gods of the nations, the gods of the Canaanites, the gods of the Philistines. 

They worshiped all these false gods, and it says God turned away, turned away in disgust. There was a loathing inside God concerning his bride to some degree as Hosea was commanded to marry a wife of whoredom, a prostitute who was constantly going after other men. And God turned away in disgust from his own people because of their idolatry. And then it says he gave them over to false worship. And we see this several times in the Book of Romans, Romans 1 where it says, “God gave them over.” This is wrath. Wrath from God. He will not fight against you. He says, “Go ahead.” And he actually even says this in the Book of Judges, he said, “Turn to the gods you worship, let them save you, let them deliver you” (Judges 10:14), I’m done with you. 

So, he says that plainly in the Book of Judges. And so, God turns away in sorrow and disgust, and he gives them over to their paganism. 

Wes 

Stephen then turns to one final image before the stinging rebuke that he’ll bring in the conclusion and he turns to the temple and the tabernacle. How is the temple a source of false security to the Jews? And what does verse 44 teach us about the tabernacle? 

Andy 

Yeah. So, one of the charges made against Stephen is that he had never stopped speaking against this holy place and against Moses. So, he’s already addressed their strange loyalty to Moses. Now it’s like if you had been alive back then you would’ve rebelled against Moses and hated him, all right? And now you’re honoring him? And Jesus says you decorate the graves of the prophets, and you say, “If we had lived back then we would not have taken part with our great-grandfathers in shedding the blood of the prophets.” And Jesus said, “So you testify against yourself that you’re the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the sin of your forefathers.” In other words, kill me because that’s what you do. 

Basically, Stephen’s saying the same thing that Jesus did fundamentally. He’s going to zero in, now let’s talk about the temple. And you asked the question, “How was it a sense of false security?” Well, you really see this, especially in the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah was told to go stand in front of the temple and proclaim concerning their false security. “Stop saying,” this is in Jeremiah 7:4, “stop saying the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” You should go to Shiloh and look and see what I did there. So, what’s Shiloh? Well, Shiloh is the place where the tabernacle was. Now there wasn’t a temple of course when Israel was wandering for 40 years in the desert and when they crossed the Jordan River. When they destroyed Jericho and they took over the promised land, there was only the tabernacle, a tent, a movable tent, moved from place to place. 

And when they had conquered most of the promised land and settled in, they established a place. And God had said this in Deuteronomy 12:11, “You’ll go to the one place I choose and there you’ll offer your sacrifices” in there. It was Shiloh in the time of Eli the priest. And as you remember what happened is they got into a war with the Philistines, and they got beaten badly on the first day of battle. And so, they went and got the ark of the covenant from the tabernacle and brought it as a good luck talisman to the front lines. And Eli was terribly anxious about the ark of the covenant. What ended up happening was the Philistines, they said, “Oh, what are we going to do now? These are the gods.” They said in plural, “These are the gods that destroyed Egypt and that did all these things. What are we going to do now? We’re going to lose.” 

Well, be men, Philistines, the least you can do is just stand and fight like men, even though we’re definitely going to lose, and we don’t want to be enslaved by the Israelites. Well, they ended up winning. Philistines did and God allowed the ark of the covenant to be captured by the Philistines. And when Eli, a very old man at that point heard that ark of the covenant had been captured, he fell over backwards and broke his neck. And it was said that day a woman gave birth to a baby in Eli’s family, and they named it Ichabod, which is the glory has gone. And so, Jeremiah said, “Go look and see what I did in Shiloh. Do you think I’m not going to allow the Babylonians to come and destroy this temple just because you have a temple, because you have the ark of the covenant, you think you’re safe?” So, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:12) said that. “You think you’re safe to do all these wicked things?” 

And it’s a consistent message. Also, Isaiah said in Isaiah 1:12-13, “Who ordered this trampling of my court? Stop bringing meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. Your new moon, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot bear your evil assemblies.” Don’t have this faulty trust in the temple of Lord. And so, as he says here, quoting Amos, he said, “I let you go away. I’m going to send you away into exile in Babylon.” Well, what did the Babylonians do to the temple? They burned it. They destroyed it, they leveled it. And so yeah, our forefathers had the tabernacle. And then in the time of David and then Solomon, the temple was built, but it didn’t save them. It didn’t save them. And so, what do you think is going to happen now? And Stephen knew it was going to happen. Jesus had predicted it. 

“Do you see all these great stones here in the temple? Not one stone here is going to be left on another” (Matthew 24:2). He’s giving them, while the temple still stands, one final warning to turn away from this false religion and turn to the true religion following Jesus Christ. And so, he’s zeroing in on animal sacrifice and the temple as being no focus of their religion, a good luck charm to protect them from the Babylonians or indeed the Romans in AD 70, none of that. But instead urging them to a genuine love for the living God. And he does that by saying God doesn’t live in temples made by men. I don’t know if you can ask about that. 

Wes 

Yeah, let’s talk about that briefly. The significance of verse 48 for Stephen’s case here and how Stephen uses this quotation from Isaiah 66 in a powerful way to put that man-made temple in its place, right? He’s concluding this argument as he gets ready to make his final charge. 

Andy

The whole world isn’t enough for God.

Yeah, Isaiah 66, 1 and 2, he’s quoting that, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.” I like it to say it this way. What kind of house can you build for me? I mean, the human race should be humbled by that. As Isaiah himself said, “Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires nor all of its animals for burnt offerings.” The whole world isn’t enough for God. 

And Solomon knew that when he dedicated the temple. In his prayer of dedication, he said, “Heaven, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built” (1 Kings 8:27). Solomon knew it. God doesn’t dwell in a man-made box. As a matter of fact, there is no container for God. You have no container where you can put the omnipresent, infinite God in some box where he’s on this side of the boundary but not on that. There is no place where God is not. 

You think about one Puritan said, a pagan said to him, “Where is God?” I would want to begin by asking where is God not? There is no place that God is not. And so therefore there is no special sacred, holy place where God is there, but he’s nowhere else. And so fundamentally, God does not live in these temples. And we know from what he said to the Samaritan woman in John 4:21 (paraphrase), “The day is coming when neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem will we worship the Father. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” And so, he was willing for the temple to be destroyed and never rebuilt. So fundamentally, Stephen is setting the table for the end of the animal sacrificial system. 

Wes 

So then we arrive at verses 51-53. We’ve been pointing toward this since we began even the previous episode, thinking about all that Stephen was building toward in the argumentation that he lays out. How does Stephen finally apply this message that he’s been laying before the Sanhedrin? What does the tone of his conclusion show us about Stephen and about the Holy Spirit? 

Andy 

Well, this is powerful. “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are just like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One and now you have betrayed and murdered him, you who have received the law that was put into effect your angels but have not obeyed it.” That’s the culmination of his message. You always resist the Holy Spirit, and you always resist the messengers that deliver his sentence. So, we’ve seen that as the unifying theme. 

Now what does he say specifically? Stiff-necked people. I consider stiff-necked to be equal to hard-hearted. I think they’re the same thing. Both stiff and hard, those adjectives imply an unyieldingness that God comes to change us, to get us to yield, and we fight, we rebel, we get stiff, we get hard. We do not submit; we do not yield. We’re rebellious. And so, they’re stiff-necked, the neck specifically is where the head would drop in submission, but they won’t. They’re proud. Their heads are lifted high before God. So, they’re stiff-necked. It means they’re rebellious and proud. Then he calls them having uncircumcised hearts and ears. That’s same as having a hard heart, but a pagan heart. They have pagan hearts. Uncircumcised meant pagan or Gentile to them. You’re just like pagans. You’ve got uncircumcised hearts and ears. In other words, when Jesus would frequently say with his parables, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” You don’t have ears. You guys are deaf. You’re like the idols you worship. They have ears, but they hear not. Eyes, but they see not. They have feet, but they move not. That’s what you’re like. You’re dead, spiritually dead. 

And so, he’s telling them they’re in grave, spiritual danger. You’re stiff-necked, uncircumcised, and they’re just like their fathers. And Jesus says the same thing in his seven woes in Matthew 23:35-37 (paraphrase), woe to you, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barakai whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. All that blood will come on this generation….” “Because you’re about to kill me, the son of God” (John 8:40). 

And so fundamentally, he’s saying, “In every case when God sends a messenger, when God sends a prophet, you resist. You hate. You oppose just like your fathers. And now to crown it all off, you’re the generation that killed the incarnate Son of God. You killed the righteous one, the holy one, the Son of God. You betrayed him and murdered him.” 

And then he clinches it with a, “You’re so law-abiding. You received the law, but you didn’t keep it.” As Jesus said also, “If you obeyed Moses, you’d believe in me. If you believed Moses, you would believe in me.” So, it clinches it. Now what’s going to happen here, and Jesus said this, “The reason the world hates me is that I testify that what it does is evil” (John 7:7). 

So basically, the Holy Spirit by these convicting words brings them to a fork in the road. It’s kind of like Martin Luther said, “You should always preach in such a way that when you get done, people will either hate you or they’ll hate their sins.” Well, Stephen’s done that here. They’re going to either hate him or they’re going to hate their sins. That’s the fire of this concluding message. 

Wes 

And it’s a stark contrast because earlier in the Book of Acts, we had Peter preach and it seems that those who heard him hated their sins rather than hating him. But here- 

Andy 

They were pierced to the heart. 

Wes 

Here, quite the opposite. The Jews react as we might expect after this incredible argument that Stephen’s laid out with fire. 

Andy 

A rage. 

Wes 

And a desire to see Stephen put to death. What do we learn in verses 54 of this chapter on into verse eight? And we’ll talk a little bit about the specifics about the young man at whose feet they lay the coats. But what do we learn about Stephen and the Sanhedrin in this moment right on the heels of this final accusation? 

Andy 

Well, one thing I’ve noticed, I don’t want to say too much here about myself, but I’ve noticed that pride and sinful anger go together. The root of all sinful anger on my part is pride. And so, these people are sinfully angry. They’re definitely in the way, the expression we use in the 21st century, they’re definitely shooting the messenger. 

And what does Stephen do? He’s done nothing to anybody except and teach and live. And his face was like the face of an angel. And we’re going to see how he dies. He dies so graciously. He’s got a kind heart toward them, but he really believes the Spirit uses him to say, this is the kind of fire it’s going to take to save these people. 

It’s like John the Baptist. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain hill should be leveled. He was a leveler of mountains and hills. John the Baptist was, Elijah was too and Stephen’s like this. So, it doesn’t seem to be his home base or his nature. He’s a kind person, but he’s fiery here. And so, they are enraged. And so, I think whenever you read of people doing badly in the Bible, we should always be humbled by it. We should not say, “Boy, thank God I’m not like that.” We should say, “Where do I see prideful rage inside my heart and a resistance to the word of God? I want to be humble. I want to yield to it.” So, they’re enraged and they’re gnashing their teeth in him, and they’ve already killed him in their hearts. They just haven’t done it physically yet. 

Wes 

What did Stephen see in verse 55 and in verses 55-58, what does he say and how do they react to this vision that he has? 

Andy 

Stephen, and here’s what we said just a moment ago, full of the Holy Spirit. So, all this came from the Holy Spirit. But now full of the Holy Spirit, he had a vision. He looked up to heaven and he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 

So, I just preached on Easter Sunday a few days ago as we’re recording this now a few days ago. But seeing Jesus, and I emphasize the fact that we’ve never seen Jesus, that once Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter can say, “Though you have not seen him you love him” (1 Peter 1:8). Well, Stephen was the exception. I chose not to give the exception. And also, the apostle Paul was caught up to the third heaven, and also John saw him in his glory as well. 

So, there are these visions, and Stephen has a vision of heaven opened, and Jesus the one they hate, the one they have killed, standing at the right hand of Almighty God. You got this radiant glory. And then Jesus, the Son of Man. Now realize how much this is like what Jesus said to Annas and Caiaphas at his trial. They said, “I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus said, “I am. And you’ll see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:63-64). 

Same vision, except one thing. Stephen sees him standing up. The vision always or the words in the Book of Hebrews is that he’s sitting down. The idea is that he’s finished his work and he’s sitting to reign. But in this case, it seems he’s standing to greet Stephen as he dies, and standing, obviously intensely interested in what’s happening. Fundamentally, when God says in Psalm 110, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet,” God is either going to kill his enemies or convert them. And so, in either case, Jesus is highly interested in what’s about to happen to his beloved Stephen. So, he’s standing up and standing ready to receive him, but also to judge those who are about to kill his messenger. 

Wes 

Andy, you mentioned just the character of Stephen and his nature even in facing down death. What similarities do we see between Stephen’s final words and those of Christ? And how does the manner of Stephen’s death show his character? 

Andy 

Jesus says something interesting in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, “Do not cast your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6). And also, the idea of dogs, “Do not give dogs what is sacred. Do not throw your pearls before swine.” The idea is of wild boars or rabid dogs. And that’s what these people act like at this point. When he says, “Look, I see heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,” they should have fallen down on their faces even though they didn’t see the vision and believed in Jesus. But instead, they weren’t anywhere near ready for that. And so, they covered their ears and yelled at the top of their voices. That just says everything. We’re not listening. They don’t have ears to hear. 

And so, they’re rushing at Stephen to tear him to pieces. They’re ready to kill him right there. And so, they drag him out of the city and begin to stone him. So, there’s no doubt that Stephen is going to die, and he knows that. And it says the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Now, how is Stephen like Jesus? Well, in so many ways, but here as they’re stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus receive my spirit.” And then he said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And so, he dies peacefully and lovingly. 

The first statement, “Receive my spirit” is very much like Jesus’s statement as he’s dying, “Father into your hands, I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). And so, he dies like Jesus, and he dies filled with love, which reminds us also Jesus’s statement, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34). And so specifically in the case of Saul of Tarsus, who is the witness and who consented to the death, God did answer this prayer. He did not hold this sin against Saul but saved him from all his sins. 

Wes 

Andy, what’s the significance of Acts 8:1 as really a final word on the death of Stephen, and what final thoughts do you have for us on this incredible chapter we’ve spent the last two episodes examining? 

Andy 

Well, it is incredible, and I can’t wait to meet Stephen in heaven. It’s just one of the strange providences of God that super talented, super zealous, godly messengers and servants die young. Like David Brainerd at 29, Borden of Yale, numbers of others, just Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a lot of great men and women, very young. You’re like, “Oh, what they could have achieved with more time,” but it was God’s will to take Stephen out of this world. 

And so, as we think of Saul of Tarsus who we know as the apostle Paul, it almost feels like God traded Stephen for him. He was willing to kill him to save Saul. And that’s a pretty overwhelming thought, and God’s ways are not our ways. And it was worth it. We think about all of the truth that would flow through Saul, through Paul’s pen, like the Book of Romans and all of the work that Paul would do for the gospel, but to be willing to trade such a great man as Stephen to convert this man Saul. 

And there is a connection because in Acts 26, the third testimony of Saul’s conversion, he said, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads,” and we’ll talk about that in due time. But the goads are inducements that God puts in a heart, in a character, to move them to Christ. And the nature of Stephen, his arguments that could not be refuted, the manner of his death, his personality, these were goads that pushed Saul to conversion, but not yet. And soon he goes right from this to consenting to Stephen’s death and persecuting the church. So, we’ll talk more about that in due time. 

Wes 

Yeah. Andy, any final thoughts on this chapter we’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking at? 

Andy 

No, it’s glorious. It’s well worth going back over and studying. So, I commend that to all of our hearers and just be in awe as Stephen was like the morning star of the New Covenant in terms of animal sacrifice, the end of the temple, the time for Jesus to put an end to the Old Covenant and to move into New Covenant Christianity. That is beautiful. So, he’s the morning star, Stephen is, in terms of preachers in the church who saw it all coming. 

Wes 

Well, this has been Episode 15 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. We want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 16, entitled Persecution and the Growth of the Church in Samaria, where we’ll discuss Acts 8:1-25. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys Podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.