Lessons From Acts – Lesson 8
Today we are going to look at Stephen
Stephen was one of the men chosen by the congregation to help with the widows. Acts 6:5 a special note is made of two qualities of Stephen.
Act 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:
He was a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Now if you remember those were qualifications that were required for all of the men chosen to help the widows. But here Stephen is not only mentioned first in this list but only he gets this mentioned in scripture of him.
Full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Full. The Bible clearly teaches that faith can grow. It only takes a tiny amount to get saved. But some go further with God. They believe more, trust more, and follow more.
The Holy Spirit can be easily grieved. He will never leave a saved person. Ever. However, if you grieve Him He will go sit in a corner (so to speak) of your heart. So to be full of the Holy Spirit, that is quite a statement. It speaks volumes about the way this man lived.
He walked with God all the way 24-7. There is something else besides the verse 5 statement that he was full of faith and the Holy Ghost that makes me think that. Verse 8.
Act 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
When we read the New Testament we find that most of the miracles were done by the Apostles and were done before one of them preached. Most of the miracles.
Here we find that privilege was also given to Stephen. And we find that Stephen like the Apostles boldly preached. So the pattern of the miracles justifying the message holds true for Stephen as well.
Stephen was bold. He was full of faith and thus would take the Word of God to where people were.
Act 6:9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Act 6:10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
By what spirit was Stephen speaking? The Holy Spirit. We have already seen that the power of the Holy Spirit is a power for witnessing. Stephen being full of the Spirit had great wisdom. He was listening to God on what to say.
And this made his witness powerful. And all these men of the synagogue could not resist the wisdom by which he spake. They could not win the argument. One of Stephen’s messages is recorded for us and we will see that he used the scripture. And a lot of it.
He did not tell a lot of entertaining stories and tell a bunch of jokes. He was direct and serious and on target. He went straight to the heart of the matter. And always the Word of God was front and center.
And the Holy Spirit did his job, which we have learned is to
Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Joh 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
Straight from the lips of the savior. The Holy Spirit reproves of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and testifies of Jesus.
When Stephen preached the Holy Spirit did his job and brought conviction. When confronted with that a few men can just brush it off, a precious few will admit their sin and get right with God, but many will just get angry.
Act 6:11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
Suborned is to procure to take a false oath, or to do a bad action. You can procure someone to do something by bribing them with money or by bullying them with threats or blackmail.
Act 6:12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
Act 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Act 6:14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Act 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Their anger must have burned. These are religious men. Men who profess to believe and follow the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law that was given by Moses.
Jesus said the 2nd greatest commandment is to love thy neighbor as thyself. They broke that here. If you love God then you will keep His commandments, Jesus said so. So if you break the 2nd one, then in a way you are also breaking the 1st one which is to Love God with all your heart.
They also broke the commandment to not bear false witness and they procured others to lie. So not only did they sin in lying but got others to join then in the sin of lying.
And soon you will see them break another one of the Ten Commandments. How quickly did anger get them to break that which they claimed to follow. They threw God’s commands and His morality out the window.
The Bible clearly shows how things work. You want to know how the world works and why people act the way they do, just study your Bible. It is all in here. Anger will get men to do things that they never thought they would do.
Take the George Floyd riots for an example. People in power lied and got others to lie. George Floyd was high on drugs at the time. The autopsy showed that it was the drug overdose that killed him. They turned it into a race issue, said the cop killed him because of race.
They got people angry. I will admit some of those people in those riots were really bad people and jumped at the chance to be bad. But many of them were just normal everyday people who lost their heads because of anger. On any given normal day they would not burn people’s cars and wreak the businesses that serve them.
They destroyed even businesses owned by black people. Anger does get people to do things that they would not normally do. And it will get them to do things that are actually against their best interest.
Many of those places where those riots happened still have not recovered to this day. It was not in their best interest to wreck the place where they live. It was not in their best interest that Walgreens closed up and left their community because of what they did.
Anger is powerful and it can and does cause people to do what they would not have done otherwise.
Politician’s know this and use this all the time. They get people worked up and angry over global warming, they get people angry about Trump. And you have really seen them get people angry over race. They use that to get people to support them and vote for them.
They did all of this during the last election and used anger to get people, I mean otherwise normal sane people to vote for a criminal with dementia. And that has not been in any way for their best interest. Look at what has happened in the last 3 years with inflation, and the border and all kinds of crazy stuff.
Anger is dangerous. It does get people to do horrible things that they normally would not have done.
Out of anger the people of this synagogue take Stephen to the council and they lie about him.
Act 7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Stephen is allowed to give an answer. And this is amazing to me. He is allowed to give a really long answer. It is kind of a history lesson. He goes back to the father of the faith Abraham and starts recounting what God has done and some of the promises that God gave.
Act 7:2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
Act 7:3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Act 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Act 7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
Act 7:7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Act 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
Act 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
None of this could be reputed. All of what Stephen is saying is 100 percent true. And every one there would agree with every single word that he has spoken so far.
Act 7:11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph’s kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16 And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
Act 7:17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19 The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
Stephen has been quickly moving thru their history and has been recounting things that clearly show how God was moving. How God chose Abraham and how God predicted their time in Egypt and how God worked in the life of Joseph to save his people from famine.
And now he gets to Moses.
Act 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:
Act 7:21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
Act 7:24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
Act 7:26 And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
Act 7:27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Stephen was showing that he believed all that the Old Testament said. Stephen was accused of blaspheming the law that Moses gave. He is showing that he believed the Old Testament.
Act 6:13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
So Stephen is answering that charge. He took a long road to get to Moses. And showed how God worked to bring about Moses and worked to get Moses out of Egypt and how God used Moses to deliver them from bondage.
So now that Stephen has laid the ground work that he believes that Moses is God’s man that God worked to use Moses. Therefore what Moses said was true and it was the word of God. That is what is being implied here. Now that has been established, and no one listening can or would want to challenge anything that has been said up to this point. This is something they all agreed on.
Now that Moses has been established that Moses did speak the Word of God.
Now Stephen drops the hammer. He quotes Moses foretelling about a future prophet. A reference to Jesus.
Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Then Stephen brings up how their fathers would not obey Moses. And how rebellious they have been thru history. He will bring up the golden calf.
Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Now he brings up the false gods they worshipped before God took them away into captivity.
Act 7:43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Act 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
Act 7:45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Act 7:46 Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47 But Solomon built him an house.
Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?
Stephen has now established how they as a people has been rebellious and not followed God over and over again. This would have stung. It goes straight to the heart of their pride. They had great pride in their history and that they were God’s chosen people.
Now here it comes. A point blank double barred shot gun blast of truth.
Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52 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:
Act 7:53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
The Just one of course is Jesus and they all knew who Stephen is talking about. He points out the fact that they are sinners. They are betrayers and murderers and hypocrites.
They were already angry and in that anger they have already broken several of God’s laws. Laws that they claim to believe and value. Their anger now is in full outrage. They cannot repute what was said. It was all 100 true.
Act 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Verse 54 is important. It sets the context and meaning of the saying they gnashed on him with their teeth.
They were not biting him with their teeth. They were hurling mean hurtful things at him thru their mouth. They were saying terrible things. Accusations and lies and blame. Hurtful things that bite.
Words are not harmless. The saying gnashed on him with their teeth is a way of highlighting the mean biting nature of what they were saying. Understanding this saying, the anger and meanness of what was being said helps you understand what Jesus was teaching when talking of hell He said
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
7 times in the Bible Jesus says in hell there shall be gnashing of teeth. The bible defines that as meaning hurtful angry hateful speech directed toward someone. There is going to be a lot of that going on in hell.
As they are verbally attacking Stephen in a vicious way Stephen sets his gaze upon the Lord.
Act 7:55 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,
Act 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
At this point all it takes is one mention of Jesus.
Act 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
Act 7:58 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.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 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.
Anger out of control. And they commit cold blooded murder.
What we also see here is the danger of a mob. That mob mentality. An angry mob is much more dangerous than a single angry person. A mob of angry people will do what a single angry person will not do.
Sin loves company. And being in the company of sin encourages more sin. One person’s angry words encourage the anger of the person standing next to them. When there are no calming voices there is no restraint.
When an angry mob gets going they are not going to listen to reason. That kid that took his rifle out to the riot never studied his Bible.
He thought that his rifle would be a deterrent. That his presence with his rifle would stop at least some of the riot. That is not what happened. In a small situation normally his rifle would have been a deterrent. But not in an angry mob situation.
Instead they turned on him in force and tried to take his rife and tried to kill him. He ended up having to shoot in self-defense. Then he had to be arrested do some jail time and endure a huge trial. He eventually won. However, I watched an interview where he expressed regret at it all and how his life has been ruined in many ways.
He did not understand the principal and yes warning in the Bible of how angry mobs work and how dangerous they are.
It is not a good idea to ever try to stand up to an angry mob alone.
The Bible clearly shows us the danger of anger, and how anger will take you to places you would not have gone. Anger can cause you to go against things that you believe. As in this case even cold blooded murder.
And the Bible clearly shows the danger of mob mentality.