Acts 7

Recap from last week from the 7 men who where chosen to serve the widows so that the apostles could continue preaching and teaching. WE learned that ministry to Jesus looks different in many ways and it sometimes isn’t glamorous but it is servanthood to Jesus which we are all called to.

We will look at Acts 7 as we continue this study .

In Acts 6 Stephen is mentioned performing amazing miracles and signs among the people and some men from the synagogue started debating with stephen and they end up persuading some men to go and lie about Stephen saying Stephen was guilty of blaspheme against Moses and even God. After this lie the edlers and teachers of religious law arrested Stephen. In Chapter 7 we will take a look at some of Stephens speech to the council.

So Stephen begins this address with essentially a history lesson of Israels rejection to the God. This structure of this speech can be broken into

The New American Commentary: Acts 3. Stephen’s Speech before the Sanhedrin (7:2–53)

five sections: (1) the promises to Abraham (vv. 2–8), (2) the deliverance through Joseph (vv. 9–16), (3) the deliverance through Moses (vv. 17–34), (4) the apostasy of Israel (vv. 35–50), and (5) the rejection of the Messiah (vv. 51–53).

READ Verse 35-4

Verse 48, He argues that Gods presence insn’t limited to the temple or a specific place and this made the religious leaders very angry because the temple to the Sanhedrin was the literal dwelling place of God, Praise God that the Spirit of God is not confined to any four walls or any nation or any state or any religious establishment.

Read Verse 50-59

Verse 51, Stephen calls them out for their rejection of the Holy Spirit as history has continued to repeat itself. This clearly caused a significant amount of anger towards Stephen and its because what Stephen said was the TRUTH and the word of God cuts deep and and they couldn’t stand to listen to it anymore.

Its worth noting the courage that Stephen had in the strength of the Holy Spirit to stand before this council after being falsely accused of blasphemy and to call them out on their rebellion and rejection of their sin. And he brings recipets that they all knew off that caused them such anger.

Stephen is known as the first martyr in the early church and as you read here in scripture he was stoned to death and what he says to his killers is nothing short of extraordinary. His final words are almost exactly the words that Jesus spoke on the cross, “Lord, don’t charge them for this sin!”

The heart is revealed in these final words as a Christian he was not casting judgment on them but simply addressing their sin and disobedience to God in order to lead them to repentance he then expresses concearn for them in his final words asking Jesus to essentially have mercy on his accusers.

After much thought of this story and looking at the close paralles in this story of Stephen and the story of Jesus Im stuck with this really sobbering and maybe even difficult question for myself , and it is this “ Is my heart actually broken for the lost?” Does my heart grieve for the souls who do not belong to Jesus who are living in sin and apartness from Him? AM I desporate to see lives changed by message of the Gospel and to see people turn in true biblical repentance into convenant and relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. Do I look at them as sheep with out a shepherd or is it something lower than that.

We are angered at others rebellion and well say its “righteous anger” but is our heart truly concernd for their soul? Or is it a diversion of our own flaws and brokeness that we find joy in calling out others sin and mistakes because we beileve we have gotten to a certian place of right standing with the Lord?

The life of Jesus was spent with lost and broken individuals because the Fathers heart yearned for them and he desired relationship with them. The same people the religious establishments judged and pushed away Jesus reached out to them and broke those barriers.

It is my prayer that we might adopt the heart of the Father for his children and begin to truly pray for those who are lost and to truly minister to the people in our life who are in desperate need of Him.

Recall the conversation I had with Pastor friend , “ im tired of seeing revival every where else im tired of it being in ohio and oregon and kentucky God we want to see it here. My immediate thought was this “ DO we really want to see a move of God”? and if we do does our prayer life reflect a heart whos desperate desire is to see the Spirit of God at work in our very own homes, in our very own city, ?

I love this particular moment in Acts 4 after the release of Peter John from prison the believer pray for Boldness

READ Acts 4:29–31 “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” xss¢∂3x

Close wiht Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”