A Change of Heart

Acts 7

Today we are continuing our journey through the Book of Acts. Chapter seven is one that you really have to sit down and think about while you read it. On the surface it sounds like Stephen is giving the religious leaders a history lesson that ends with them killing Jesus, but if we pay close enough attention we can see why they get so mad at him. Mad enough to kill him. This chapter is very dark and sad, but the events of chapter seven propel the church beyond Jerusalem, just as God commissioned His followers to do. To start here, but then spread throughout the land and then to the ends of the earth.

When I was a kid, my brother and I had little toy Hot Wheels cars that would drive themselves. To get them to do it you had to back them up so that a spring would tighten inside of them. When you let go of the car the wheels would start spinning and propel the car forward. To me, that is a good picture of what has been happening in Acts so far. The Christian movement has been growing and growing, but it is still just in one spot. As it grows, the tension between the Christians and the Jewish religious leaders has been tightening, like the car. In chapter seven the tension becomes too much and the car breaks loose! The religious leaders go full speed at the followers of Christ, and in chapter eight the Christians will go full speed out of town.

Last week Mike was talking about a TV show that depicts the Book of Acts in a modern sense and it got me to thinking about the story Luke is telling. If he knew that someday we could watch stories instead of reading them, how would he do the details? To me, Acts starts out strong! The Christians face struggles, but for the most part it is very exciting! Seven episodes later, everything suddenly looks very gloomy.

Maybe he would use a storm to depict that change. In the beginning it is a bright and sunny day while everyone is celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, but maybe in many of the shots you can see dark clouds in the distance. A tiny flash of lightening in the distant storm may indicate to anyone paying attention that something ominous is growing closer. If that is how he would do the TV show, today’s episode would be in the middle of the storm. Outside of the the building the religious council holds their trial you would see rain coming down and hear frequent thunder. By the end of the episode there will be pouring rain and hail.

I am not going to read all of chapter seven to you today. If I did you would all be asleep in record time and we would accomplish nothing. Hopefully we can read enough to know what is going on and be able to identify a lesson that we can take with us. That being said, I want to encourage you to read through this chapter in your study time this week. Take your time with it and identify the connections Stephen makes to the Old Testament. There are plenty of rabbit trails to chase down in this passage.

Last week we talked about Stephen being a prophetic figure, and his speech to the religious leaders really hammers that thought home. As a prophetic figure, there is so much that can be learned from what he says as he stands before the people who have turned their backs on God. Before we dive in to that, let’s ask God to guide our study this morning…

Pray

As a quick reminder, last week we read chapter six and it carries us directly into chapter seven. As I said just a moment ago, in chapter six Luke portrays Stephen as a prophetic figure. He says that Stephen was “full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people, and displayed wisdom and the Spirit” when he spoke. At the end of the chapter Luke said that Stephen’s face was like that of an angel. These descriptions align with the way prophets in the Old Testament were depicted, specifically Moses and his shining face.

When a prophet walks into a room, full of grace and power, doing great wonders and signs, displaying wisdom and the Spirit, and their face is glowing light a light bulb, you might think that the people would stop everything to listen to the message that this person brings. Instead, the religious people lie and say, “Stephen is speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. He never stops speaking against this holy place and the law. He says that Jesus will destroy this place and change Moses’ customs.”

He should be seen as a prophet, but instead he is viewed as a blasphemous traitor. How could the religious people who supposedly care about God’s laws react so backwards to this obvious moment? However, according to Stephen’s response it seems that their reaction may not be so out of character. Let’s look at Stephen’s speech and notice what he says. He doesn’t simply accuse them of rejecting God and murdering Jesus, he calls them out for their long ancestral heritage of rejecting God…

Acts 7:2–3 NIV

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 Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’

Then Stephen describes Abraham’s obedience to God and his lineage down to Joseph who would become ruler over Egypt under the Pharaoh. How did his brothers feel about the possibility of Joseph ruling over them? They didn’t like it! They were Jealous!

Acts 7:9–10 NIV

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 Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

After some time went by, the next Pharaoh didn’t feel the same way about Joseph and his family. He oppressed the Israelites and killed their babies. That’s when Moses was born. Moses was taken in by the Pharaoh’s daughter and she raised him as her son. When he was forty, Moses went to visit the Israelites and he saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian. That’s when he intervened and killed the Egyptian…

Acts 7:25–28 NIV

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 Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

So Moses ran away. Another forty years passed and Moses encounters the burning bush near Mount Sinai where God tells him to leave his home, like Abraham, and go back to Egypt. Then Stephen points out an important thought…

Acts 7:35 NIV

35 “This is the same Moses 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.

The religious leaders know that God sent Moses, yet they originally rejected him. Stephen describes Moses with some of the same words Luke would later use to describe Stephen himself. He said Moses performed wonders and signs. Stephen said that Moses received living words from God to pass on to us. Moses told the Israelites that “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.” But what was their reaction to Moses?

Acts 7:39 NIV

39 “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

Again, the people reject God. After quoting the prophet Amos who spoke against Israel’s rejection of God, Stephen gets to the critical point of his speech when he makes the mic-drop statement that guarantees his death…

Acts 7:51–53 NLT

51 “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! 52 Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53 You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”

Don’t you know there were some gasps coming from onlookers! “Can you believe he just said that!” What Stephen is pointing out to them is a lesson that is important even for Christians today…

Actions are an overflow of the heart.

This is a lesson that Jesus taught in His ministry…

Matthew 12:33–35 NIV

33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

If we go back and look closely at Stephen’s speech, we can see several things that became a problem in the hearts of the Israelites at different times. Some are jealousy, anger, pride, and impure hearts. All of these are opposite of the qualities that Jesus listed in the Beatitudes. Not jealousy, but being poor in spirit. Not anger, but being merciful and a peacemaker. Not full of pride, but meekness. Not having an impure heart, but being pure in heart.

Ironically, Jesus even warned us that people would react in horrible ways, just like they are reacting to Stephen…

Matthew 5:11–12 NIV

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Why are the religious people acting this way? Because their hearts are producing rotten fruit. They think they are producing good fruit by adhering to the law, but they are actually doing the opposite. It’s all about perspective, because while they believed they were doing the right thing, their hearts were in the wrong place and in turn that made them do the wrong thing.

Another way to look at it is the way Jesus taught to give to the needy. Jesus warned to be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. So when you give to the needy, don’t announce it to everyone to be honored by them, but do it in secret. To the bystander, it would appear that both people are doing the right thing when they give to the needy, but there is a huge spiritual difference and it comes down to the heart. A heart of pride versus a meek heart.

How is it that respected religious leaders who teach and observe God’s Word could be far from the Lord and ignore what matters to Him? The condition of their hearts. Stephen is very direct with this important message, but this isn’t the only message that we can pick up on in this passage. Let’s read a little further…

Acts 7:54–56 NIV

54 When the members of the Sanhedrin 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.”

John B. Polhill says that two recurring themes stand out in Stephen’s speech. “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. The second major theme is that of Israel’s pattern of constantly resisting and rejecting its God-appointed leaders… The pattern of rejection in the past foreshadows the ultimate rejection of God’s appointed Messiah in the present.”

In other words, God consistently calls His people to exodus. “Go from your land to the land I will show you.” Secondly, Israel is a people that consistently rejects God’s anointed leaders. The only thing Stephen is guilty of is warning about the New Exodus of the Messiah. It was expected that a new Moses would come and He would initiate a new Exodus. Stephen is saying, “He has come and His name is Jesus!”

That statement made the religious leaders angry. Verse 56 draws from Daniel’s vision and from Isaiah. Let’s look at these verses side by side…

Acts 7:56

“56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.””

Daniel 7:13

“13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.”

Isaiah 3:13

“13 The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people.”

In verse 56, Stephen is able to see past his illegitimate, corrupt judges to the true Judge who stands in Heaven. In other words, Stephen is saying that Jesus has already taken His place to rule and have dominion and now He stands to judge these corrupt leaders. It also means that the Sanhedrin’s authority is removed. Think of Saul in the Old Testament who held on to the throne even though his anointing was removed. These corrupt leaders convene their councils even though they no longer have any authority. They know it and they understand the full weight of Stephen’s indictment against them.

Stephen’s speech made them furious, but this final statement sent them into a blind, rage filled, fury! Have you ever seen someone this angry? I accidentally made my brother this angry once. In his defense, I deserved it.

Dusty was staying the night at our cousins house with some friends, and they were there by themselves. Another cousin called me and said he was rounding up some people to go mess with them. (That is me passing off some of the blame.) So we loaded up and headed to the house they were at, but obviously we parked a half mile or so away so they couldn’t see us coming in the dark. That’s when we started doing things like tapping on the windows.

One thing that made this so much fun was that we had an inside man! We would call the inside man and pretend to be a concerned uncle or something. That’s how we always knew where they were because he would say things like, “I think someone is trying to break in, so we are hiding in the kitchen pantry!” To everyone in the house, that was innocent enough, but the reality is that we always knew where they were hiding.

We almost got caught a couple of different times, but when we finally decided to bring it to an end we decided that the inside man would come outside and yell, “Help!” then lay down on the ground and pretend to be dead or something. The plan was to jump out and say, “SURPRISE! Gotcha! It’s just us.”

That part of the plan worked great! Their reaction is what we weren’t smart enough at the time to predict. We didn’t count on them finding weapons before they came outside. The next thing I know, golf clubs and baseball bats came running to rescue the man on the ground. They were so set on their mission that it didn’t matter what we said.

Fortunately nobody actually got hurt, but this is somewhat similar to what happened to the religious leaders. They went into a blind rage and reacted…

Acts 7:57–58 NIV

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…

I am consistently amazed and impressed with Stephen in this story. Like I said last week, he could have fought the whole way to defend his innocence. He could have argued against every lie they spoke about him. Instead, he stayed silent, patiently awaiting the opportunity God was giving him to deliver the prophetic message he was given. Then he gave it with immeasurable boldness, courage, and confidence. No hate, no anger, no pride, no impurity in his heart.

In the Book of Acts, Luke shows the stark contrast between the religious authorities and the Christ followers. The religious leaders cling to their authority and fight all opposition, while the believers submit to the true and authentic authority, Jesus. Down to their last breath, they submit to Jesus. The last words from Stephen are the same last words of Jesus…

Acts 7:59–60 NIV

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.

Here is what Jesus said when He was being murdered…

Luke 23:34 NIV

34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Luke 23:46 NIV

46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

What a powerful, powerful two chapters. He seems to come from nowhere, but his brief appearance in scripture has a massive impact on Christianity. Because of his martyrdom, the church scatters. That scattering spread God’s Word everywhere. Stephen may have thought of himself as just an ordinary guy, going to church, and loving God, but the impact his life had on the world is impossible to quantify. Not only that, but as we have it recorded we can reflect on what happened and it still impacts us today.

What a great example we have in Stephen. He shows us that it is possible to let Jesus transform us into a new creation. Quite literally, with the glowing face thing! By trusting in Jesus and letting Him fill us with the Holy Spirit, God can transform the world around us. This story would have been much different if Stephen had reacted differently to the persecution. In all honesty, if he had have acted differently his story probably wouldn’t have been recorded by Luke.

I am thankful for Jesus and the Holy Spirit in Stephen though. It is inspiring for me to see him reflect our Lord in such a powerful way. I pray that when we encounter bad fruit, like Stephen did, Jesus will give us the power and boldness to respond with good fruit. To reflect God’s love and proclaim the one true authority.

Pray