Action – Speaking your Story
Have you ever asked someone a question and instead of getting a simple answer, they give you a long and detailed account of far more than the small answer you were looking for? I think we can all come up with one or two people that fit this description. And, I think that it is telling how impatient I can get during these times, just skip to the end please…but I think this is more a product of our times and the values of our culture, that we can quantify everything down to small bits…but the truth rarely is that easy to condense, because the truth needs context to be the truth. There is a bigger answer…and this is what Stephen does here in this passage, when brought up on charges of blaspheming God, the law and the temple (Hating God, trying to change the law, talking about destroying the temple) everything that was held dear to the Israelite leaders, Stephen doesn’t give a two word answer, but goes into an answer that takes the whole chapter.
And so, because it is important to see the whole thing at one time, getting the big picture that Stephen brings, we are going through the whole of the speech as well, so we need to put our thinking caps on today, we need to be up for the task today, because we are going to cover a whole lot of ground.
Yet again, the accusations come, this time speaking of destroying the temple and changing the traditions and means by which people seek God.
And Yet again, the choice is not to defend oneself, or to get out of the situation, but to share the story that is the key to everything that is going on, an invitation to step out of their current story and join with God’s action.
This time the charges were more threatening, not just stirring up trouble but now blasphemy and destruction of the temple, alteration of the law. In the background to v. 14 stands the charge of blasphemy directed against Jesus at his own trial when he was accused of threatening to destroy the temple (Mark 14:57–58). Luke did not include that tradition in the narrative of Jesus’ trial in his Gospel, but its inclusion here is highly significant. It put Jesus back on trial once again. Stephen had only been faithful in his witness to the teaching of Jesus. To reject the testimony of Stephen was ultimately to reject Jesus. That is what his trial was all about. The violent rejection of Stephen represented a rejection of Jesus the Messiah. Ultimately it was not Stephen but the Sanhedrin on trial, showing the irony in the difference between the perceived strength and the actual strength, the ones who thought they were in charge and standing in judgment, and the God who was actually calling them to decide lest he need to make judgment…
And so we start this passage, which is about a man named Stephen, who just before this in the book of Acts, was raised into a leadership position because of the evidence of God working in him and through him, putting him in a position to care for the widows and needy…and now this Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin.
12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
(Stephen speaks with thunderous conviction in this passage, but it is interesting that God shows his grace through Stephen as well. And it is powerful what is said there, because where do angels do? They deliver the messages of God, having stood in His presence, they go out. And throughout scripture, weather Moses or now Stephen, there is a point made that their faces showed the fact that they were with God. I think it is the light of life rightly aligned, a full life, showing how dim other life is)
Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin
7 Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?”
This is choice time for Stephen, what will he do? He chooses to reach out instead of defending, instead of showing that he is right, pointing out the ridiculous charges or just giving a short answer, he shares his story, why he is doing what he is doing.
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’ 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. 18 Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord’s voice: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
The style of Stephen’s speech changes here at v. 35. The treatment of Israel’s history becomes more direct; the themes are applied with less subtlety. Even though continuing his survey in a more or less straight chronological fashion, the lessons of Israel’s history are more explicitly drawn. Hammering home the points that Stephen is pulling out to show warning to what the elders of Israel are doing.
35 “This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.
37 “This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’ 38 He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39 “But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’ 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
“ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43 You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
44 “Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: 49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?
Stephen now brings things to a close, having shown that the temple is not the end of the story, he opens up
51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 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— 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54 When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
8 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.
This is not the most pleasant of endings of a story in Acts. A man of God, raised up because of how God has worked in him, caring for others, brought on false charges before the elders of the people of Israel, speaks powerfully and passionately about how God is calling the people to Jesus and a life lived with God’s presence inside them and not limited to a building.
Looking at Stephen’s speech, it doesn’t take much to notice this was not just a quick history of Israel, there were specific portions of their history that were covered in depth, and others that were skipped over, all to show specifically what they were missing in
Stephen’s speech begins with great deference and respect for the hearers, broaching common ground and beginning to bring his story to bear in the situation. But overall there are some general themes that are being brought out.
The first is that God can never be tied down to one land or place and correspondingly that his people are closest to him when they are a “pilgrim people,” a people on the move. A sedentary and complacent people are not a people that are close to God’s heart.
The second major theme is that of this pattern that Israel has of constantly resisting and rejecting its God-appointed leaders. The second theme has accompanying it a subtle pointing to Christ, which is ultimately the main goal of the speech, to show the leaders why they need to change course and see what God is doing in Christ before they miss out, because the elders are the ones who are truly on trial here.
Unfortunately, Israel’s past points to the present. The pattern of rejection in the past foreshadows the ultimate rejection of God’s appointed Messiah in the present. Other themes are related to this major one, even the explicit temple critique in vv. 47–50. The fulfillment of Israel’s true worship is in the Messiah, and in rejecting him they were rejecting what ultimately the temple was all about.
Stephen also chose examples that showed that God favoured his people before there was land, written law or Temple, and that the temple is not the culmination of the story. God was faithful before tabernacle or temple.
The second half of the history shows that Israel was not faithful even after tabernacle and temple, they did not take what God had given them to freely worship God in truth in this place (in the temple court).
God ever renews his promise despite the constant failures of his people, who reject his chosen leaders like Joseph and Moses. It reaches the temple itself, which should have led to the fulfillment of the promised goal “to worship God in this place.” There is no mistaking what Stephen meant by “this place.” The temple had been the sole meaning of the word throughout his trial (cf. 6:13–14). But Stephen points out that the real goal of God’s promise to Abraham was not the land at all, it wasn’t even the temple. It was instead the freedom to render true worship and devotion to God. This is a startling lesson that has some powerful warnings for us, who if we are honest often get distracted by what God can do for us, make us feel, or any number of other things and miss out that the point is true worship and true devotion to God.
What Stephen did emphasize, however, was the seemingly insignificant detail that the brothers made two visits and only recognized Joseph on the second. Why this emphasis? The same would be true of Moses later on in Stephen’s speech. His fellow Israelites did not recognize him either on his first visit but rejected him (vv. 27–28). Only on his second visit did they recognize him as the one God had sent to deliver them from Egypt (vv. 35–36). There seems to be an underlining warning not to miss things the second time, not to miss out on Jesus, but an invitation to recognize this time what they did not see when Jesus was here.
A glance at Exod 2:15 will show that Moses’ flight is attributed to Pharaoh’s wrath upon hearing about the killing of the Egyptian. Exodus 2:14, however, clarifies that the Israelite’s awareness of Moses’ deed first alerted Moses that the word was out and his life was in danger. By concentrating on this and passing over the reference to Pharaoh, Stephen made even stronger the connection between Moses’ flight and the Israelite rejection of him. They rejected their divinely chosen leader, put his life in danger, and forced him to flee.
The speech makes the point that God is not limited to a place, a nation or a people, but will call people to go, even when they are rejected or condemned by others. A warning for us that God’s purpose and action will go forward, so the question is not will God’s action go forward, the question is if we are going to be a part of it going forward or not? The same question that Stephen if posing in this speech is the question I want to ask you.
Mark 13:11-ff : When they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry about what you will say, for the spirit of God will give you that.
Stephen is accused of Hating God, but what Stephen shows in his speech is that loving God looked different then they thought, and that they were the ones hating what God has done, just as the people have historically done when God calls them forward.
And so, they kill him in their anger, and Stephen yet again shows the call of redemption, asking for grace for them. And the story ends with the inclusion of Saul watching and approving of the death. This would be the early scene in the movie where the camera lingers on someone in the background and saying this will be important later, you just don’t understand it now…
Applications: There are a few things that are in this passage that we should not miss, and so I want to spend the last few minutes making sure we get them.
The Israelites thought that they were “with God” because of their nationality, their education, their position…there are a thousand ways we can trick ourselves into thinking that we are loving God, following God, serving God…when really we are serving ourselves, when really we are taking God for granted…we are ok, because we grew up in a Christian home, we went to bible college, I am a life group leader. There are a thousand things we can trade God for, telling ourselves the whole time that we are following God when in reality we have no interest in doing that because it is a lot harder than going through the motions, fitting the right category.
The people reject god’s movement: There is within each of us the desire to believe that we have the corner on God, we know what he does and does not do, we try to control God. So when God does do something, and it blows the expectations away, we reject what God is doing. And it does not take long to have that become out and out working against what God is doing, just like the elders of Israel did in the time of Christ and the early church.
It isn’t about the temple: The elders of Israel had localized God, but more than that they saw where they were and how they interacted with God as the end of the road, the destination. These are two traps that still snare us today, seeing God as only in certain aspects or certain scenarios is certainly something all of us can fall into. But, at least for myself, I find the larger danger in not just getting complacent, although that is part of it, but feeling like the way God is working now or in the past is how it will always be, or how I interact with God as the way it is always supposed to be and not realizing that God is wanting us to be on the move,
We are called to share the story we have: So often we talk about the need to share our faith, but we don’t know how to do it…but the call is to share what we have, which is our story, why we love Christ, why we are passionate about God and how He has interacted with our story and changed it to a part of his story.
The results are deeper than we know: A final encouragement can be found in the last verse we looked at, as Saul stood giving approval to the death…Sometimes there doesn’t seem any hope or result even when we do as we are called, but the affects and results of what God is doing through us when we join into the action of God is farther reaching than we can see, and the results sometimes happen after we are out of the picture, just like with Stephen, God was not done with the situation.
