Transcript

Josh McDowell wrote this, “People refuse to believe that which they don’t want to believe, in spite of evidence. When explorers first went to Australia they found a mammal which laid eggs; spent some time in water, some on land; had a broad, flat tail, webbed feet, and a bill similar to a duck.

Upon their return to England, they told the populace of this, and all felt it was a hoax. They returned to Australia and found a pelt from this animal and took it back to England, but the people still felt it was a hoax. [It was a platypus].

But in spite of the evidence, they disbelieved because they didn’t want to believe.”

This kind of unbelief is what Stephen faced standing before the ruling body of religious leaders in Acts chapter 7.

In the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, Stephen had given them a powerful discourse on the history of Israel.

He had demonstrated from her past, how Israel’s deliverers, such as Joseph and Moses, had at first been rejected, but then they were accepted the second time.

He had reminded them how Moses spoke of another prophet that would come, like Moses, who would speak the Words of God, and that they should hear Him.

He had unmistakably shown the hard-heartedness, rebellion, and unbelief of God’s people in the past. Throughout the centuries, Israel had refused to submit to God and obey the truths He had revealed to them. Stephen was calling the Sanhedrin to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, Deliverer and Savior.

But like those in England with the platypus, in spite of all the evidence, they disbelieved because they didn’t want to believe. And we find the tragic results in Acts 7:51-60.

Acts 7:51-53: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”

Stephen concluded his defense by accusing his accusers. They had leveled false charges against him, but now he brought more serious and true charges against them.

Stephen suddenly ceases his retrospect of Israel’s past and his tone changes. Throughout the speech tension had been building.

Having laid the historical foundation, Stephen hits them with a devastating indictment: they were just like the fathers of Israel in the past.

Stephen, according to chapter 6, verse 5, and verse 55 of this chapter, was “full of the Holy Ghost.” Stephen’s words here were inspired and directly from God Himself. Stephen was the mouthpiece of the Judge who pronounced sentence on these men.

Stephen says they were “stiff-necked.” This descriptive term was God’s characterization of the nation when it rebelled against Moses and created and worshiped the golden calf.

Exodus 32:9 reads, “And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people.”

Stiffnecked is a figurative expression from biblical times taken from oxen that were obstinate and headstrong, and would not submit to be yoked.

Applied to the men on the Sanhedrin, Stephen meant that they were stubborn and self-willed. They had stiffened their necks and refused to submit to God.

Stephen says they were “uncircumcised in heart and ears.” Their necks would not bow to the truth. Their hearts would not receive the truth. And their ears would not hear the truth. They were spiritually hard-hearted and spiritually deaf.

The Jews prided themselves on their physical circumcision. While they were circumcised in the physical sense, their disobedience in refusing the truth caused them to be uncircumcised in God’s sight. In their hearts and ears, they were uncircumcised and unresponsive to God’s will.

They were as unclean before God as the uncircumcised Gentiles. Their religion was only outward. In the heart, they were unclean and rebellious against God.

This passage reminds us that God looks at the heart. To be transformed by God’s grace, we must allow God to change our heart by His Word and by the Holy Spirit.

The Lord told Israel, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders” (Mark 7:21). And in this passage, we see how out of the heart of men, a murder takes place.

It’s the heart that needs transformation. And God can do this as we trust and obey Him, so that our hearts are filled with His goodness, righteousness, and truth.

This indictment of Stephen is reminiscent of Jeremiah’s words to Israel: “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings” (Jer. 4:4).

God’s fury coming forth like fire because of the evil of their doings in crucifying God’s Son, was the issue at stake with Stephen’s address and indictment of these Jewish leaders.

Stephen told them “ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” In resisting Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, they were resisting the Holy Spirit.

Throughout his address, Stephen had spoken about the fathers of the nation to these men and addressed them as “our fathers.”

Here he changes it to “your fathers.” He disassociates himself from them. Being “uncircumcised in heart and ears” they did not belong to God’s people.

He tells them that your fathers resisted the Holy Spirit in their stubborn unbelief, and that they were just like them, and were guilty of doing the same thing.

As their fathers did, they opposed the message brought to them by the authority of God and under the inspiration of His Spirit.

In verse 52, he reminds them how in their resistance of the Holy Spirit, their forefathers persecuted and killed the prophets that God in His mercy sent unto the nation to call them back to God and His law.

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted” Stephen asks. They persecuted all of them. Israel confessed to God in Nehemiah 9:26, “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against Thee, and cast Thy law behind their backs, and slew Thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to Thee…”

Their fathers resisted and persecuted God’s messengers sent to them, even killing the prophets that prophesied of “the coming of the Just One,” the Righteous One, the Messiah.

And then Stephen levels the charge to the Sanhedrin that they were the ones personally responsible for the betrayal and murder of that Just One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Their fathers had killed the prophets who spoke of the coming of the Messiah. And these men in front of Stephen, had actually betrayed and murdered their own Messiah.

The Lord said in Matthew 23, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” They had now done so much worse and gone even further.

Their fathers had murdered God’s prophets. They had murdered God’s Son. And they were about to commit another murder, of a man full of the Holy Spirit.

As Stephen keeps coming right at them, he points out that while they prided themselves on their fathers having received the law by the disposition and direction of angels, by their murder and betrayal of Christ, they had not kept the law in which they boasted. They were guilty sinners and blatant transgressors against God’s law.

These Jewish leaders had sought to put Stephen on the defensive. But he became the prosecutor and they became the guilty defendants.

The accusation against Stephen had been that “This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law” (6:13). Stephen reveals that they were the ones guilty of not ceasing in breaking God’s law.

Stephen had reminded them about Abraham, to “get thee out.” And Abraham obeyed this command by God courageously by faith.

“Get thee out” was in essence what Stephen was calling these Jewish leaders to do, whose only desire was to stay put, not move, and keep things as they were.

They would not take that step of faith of God calling them out of their traditions and religion and to trust that Jesus was the Christ and to find everlasting life in Him.

“Get thee out” is still what people often need to do when they are stuck in their religion and comfortable in their traditions and ritual. We call people to faith in Christ alone for salvation. And people need to lose their religion to find their salvation.

The Sanhedrin should have heard Stephen’s message which was reaching for their hearts and calling on them to repent of what they had done, but tragically they did not.

Acts 7:54-56: “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”

The arrows of God’s truth carried by the Holy Spirit found their mark and they “cut to the heart” of the men on the Sanhedrin. Instead of changing their heart and mind, they responded with rage. The Greek word translated “cut” means to saw through. His sharp words of the Spirit cut them in half.

Stephen’s charges of them being stiffnecked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit and murdering their Messiah, convicted and highly offended the pride of the Sanhedrein. His words were more than their guilty consciences could bear.

They are infuriated and they retaliate fiercely. Verse 54 says “they gnashed on him with their teeth,” meaning they were grinding their teeth in their rage. In their seething hatred, they are dumb and they cannot speak.

They could not answer him. They can’t even find the words to vent their fury and so they just grind their teeth. They were like a pack of hungry, snarling wolves.

In front of this mob of enraged, snarling men, stood Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit. He was a picture of absolute peace in the middle of the turmoil around him. In that peace of God through the Holy Spirit, Stephen looked up.

And looking up, he gazed intently as God pulled back the curtain and allowed him to look “into heaven.” Seeing into heaven, he “saw the glory of God.” And seeing the glory of God in heaven, he saw “Jesus standing on the right hand of God.”

Stephen stands there calmly focusing on what he was seeing and narrating for all to hear what he was observing.

Stephen was one of the few in Scripture blessed with a glimpse into heaven, joining the likes of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Paul, and John.

Looking into heaven, Stephen saw the shekinah glory that reveals God’s glorious and awesome presence in heaven. Within that glory, was “Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” Christ is seen by Stephen standing rather than sitting.

Now Mark 16:19 clearly says: “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”

Why is Christ standing and not sitting? Some have offered the explanation that the Lord was standing to show His concern for Stephen or to welcome Stephen home to heaven.

But Stephen is seeing this before they take him out to stone him. What he sees is what enrages them the most and caused them to take him out of the city and stone him.

Christ’s ascension to God’s right hand under prophecy was about God’s divine displeasure at the rejection of Christ and foretold the judgment to be visited upon His enemies.

Psalm 110:1 reads “The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”

The Lord was invited to the Father’s right hand because He has “enemies” on earth who will not have Him. He was to remain seated with His Father at His right hand only “until” the time when His enemies shall be made His footstool.

Often in the Psalms we find the cry: “Arise, O God” and “Arise, O Lord.” It is in connection with the judgment of Christ’s enemies and the deliverance of the faithful remnant that we find the Lord standing in prophetic passages such as:

Psalm 7:6: “ARISE, O Lord, in Thine anger; LIFT UP Thyself because of the rage of mine enemies…” Psalm 94:1-2: “O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. LIFT UP thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.”

Christ standing at the right hand of God was a sign of judgment, the righteous anger of God, and the wrath He was going to pour out against His enemies.

The reason they were enraged by Stephen saying he saw Jesus, the Son of man, Israel’s Messiah standing on the right hand of God is because they knew this meant judgment, and that Stephen was saying that they were the enemies of God and that they had brought the wrath of God upon themselves by their rejection of the Son of man.

Acts 7:57-60: “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

“And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

“And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Overwhelmed with what he saw, Stephen exclaimed, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at God’s right hand!” They knew that when he said “Son of Man” he meant “Jesus.” They knew that Stephen was saying Jesus was the Messiah.

And the rulers, very familiar with the Psalms, and with the Lord rising in judgment and lifting Himself up in vengeance against His enemies, now believe Stephen to have spoken blasphemy. They can contain themselves no longer, and they lose it.

In their rage, they all cry out together with a loud voice out of agony of soul. At the same time, they all stop or cover their ears, because they did not want to hear any more of this blasphemy. And then with one mind they all RAN and rushed upon Stephen together.

The Greek word for “ran” was used to describe the mad rush of the demon-possessed swine into the Sea of Galilee. It was also used of the frenzied mob that took two of Paul’s companions and rushed into the theater at Ephesus.

The highest religious court in Israel cast aside any dignity and self-respect and was turned into a chaotic, furious, wild, murderous, lynch mob.

They do a couple things according to the law of Moses. For the sin of blasphemy, the law commanded that the person should be taken outside the camp and stoned.

Leviticus 24:14: “Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.” Thus, verse 54 says that they “cast him out of the city, and stoned him.”

In John 18:31, however, when the Sanhedrin was attempting to have the Lord crucified, “Pilate unto them, Take ye Him, and judge Him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.”

It was not lawful for the Jews to carry out this death. They did not have the authority to execute someone without Roman sanction. Thus, this was an illegal act.

But this was an angry, out-of-control mob. They weren’t going to take the time to try to get the Romans to do it for them. So they dragged Stephen out of the city, and they stoned him with their own hands.

Another thing they did according to the law in verse 58, is that the “witnesses” threw the stones first at Stephen.

Deuteronomy 17:7 commanded Israel, “The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people.”

These witnesses “laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.” The laying down of their clothes speaks to the viciousness of the stoning. They didn’t want their outer robes to hinder their throwing of the stones.

In their rage, they wanted to throw those stones as hard as they possibly could, because a 90 mph fastball is more effective than a 50 mph one.

Remember, that Stephen was a man full of the Holy Spirit. Their cruelty and anger toward Stephen, and those stones they threw as hard as possible at him, shows their wicked heart of rebellion against God and utter rejection of Jesus Christ.

A young Pharisee of Tarsus took a prominent part in this awful scene. The witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. He kept watch over the clothes of Stephen’s executioners. He was fully behind and agreed with putting Stephen to death. He was right up front, helping with the clothes, and in the middle of the action.

The mention of Saul is not without significance. Christ would later appear from heaven to Saul on the road to Damascus. It is Saul, that Christ would call to be the Apostle of the Gentiles and reveal the dispensation of the grace of God.

Stephen stood before these Jewish rulers filled with the Holy Spirit, with his face “as it had been the face of an angel,” but they would not listen.

Right there and then resisted the Holy Spirit and committed the unpardonable sin of which our Lord had so solemnly warned them of in Matthew 12:31-32.

Israel had rejected God the Father in their past through their idolatry. They had rejected God the Son and demanded His crucifixion. Here they reject the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and they kill Stephen with their own hands.

The stoning of Stephen is the fall of Israel. This event should have triggered the day of the Lord and the beginning of Daniel’s 70th week, the 7-year Tribulation.

Christ standing at God’s right hand showed the judgment that Christ was about to pour out on the world and His enemies.

Instead, God in His grace and mercy, and according to His eternal purposes, delayed His judgment. He temporarily set Israel aside in her unbelief and temporarily suspended His prophetic program with her. And through Israel’s fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, or the nations, Romans 11:11 says.

The Lord Jesus Christ saved the chief of sinners, Saul, by His grace, and by his conversion, God ushered in an age of grace. That age continues to this moment. And this age will come to a close with the Rapture of the Church.

After the catching away of the Body of Christ to heaven, God will pick up where He left off with the judgment of the day of the Lord in the Tribulation, and He will fulfill ALL the promises He has made to Israel, including her glorious kingdom on the earth.

Stoning is a slow form of death. During his last moments and as he was being stoned, Stephen responded to death as the Lord Jesus did at the Cross.

Stephen called out to God and prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Christ had prayed, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”

Then he kneeled down and prayed for his executioners, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Likewise, as He was crucified, the Lord Jesus had said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

When these men of Israel were at their worst, the man Stephen was at his best. Even in death as these wicked men were throwing those stones, his concern was for them, and not having this sin put to their charge.

Stephen had been, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “changed into the same image [of the Lord] from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” The same can be true of us. We can be changed into Christ’s image by the Holy Spirit.

Then, having prayed, Stephen fell asleep. He calmly slipped into the presence of his Lord and Savior. Stephen’s body, not his soul, “fell asleep” to await resurrection, when the dead body will be awoken to life, and life eternal.

It’s been said well, “For Stephen the whole dreadful turmoil finished in a strange peace. He fell asleep. To Stephen there came the peace which comes to the man who has done the right thing even if the right thing [leads to his death].”

May we do the right thing, and like Stephen, take a stand for the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and make Him known to others.