Acts-Ac.7 “Man, the message”

The Spirit has devoted an entire chapter to delineate what it means to have the indwelling Spirit.The defense of Stephen was not to justify himself but for the power of the word. The same power Jesus expressed for the glory of his Father. Who was he,”Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power” and it was he who gave him authority which by the laying of hands was validated in heaven.

Jesus was the word become flesh and while he lived among men his life of witnessing was for the glory of God. In his prayer before his passion he made that clear. “ I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do./ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”(John 17:4-5). Now he was established,”when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:”(He.1:1-3)

In tracing the calling of Israel Stephen showed wherein they were estranged by citing examples. Joseph whom the patriarchs had sold, “And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,”(v.9)

Similarly Moses the man whom God had sent to deliver them from their bondage were first thrust out of their midst,”And now come, I will send thee into Egypt./ 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.”(vv.34-35) Stephen concluded his tirade with these words,”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.”(vv/51-53)

This disposition of law refers to the presence of God that gave them his word, to which the writer to the Hebrews says,”God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,/ Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”(He.1:1-2)

In the manner Stephen was cornered by disputation was similar to how they tried to entangle Jesus on many occasion. What instigated Israel to adopt this strategy. Satan would also tempt Jesus similarly. The Jews that persecuted were proxy for Satan and when he spoke a lie he was the father of it. It is what have seen in the incident of the golden calf.

“And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands./ 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?/ 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.” (vv.41-43)

Who were accusers of Stephen but the children of those who trurned their back to Moses and against God?

“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./ And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake./ Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.”(6:9-11)

Jesus rightly saw through their hypocrisy.

“Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets./ Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers./ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?(Matt.23:31-33)

The purpose of the indwelling Spirit is to equip us to worship God in Spirit and in truth.