e16 Stephen’s Testimony - Acts 7
Tell me the Old, Old Story
pt 2
Jesus Stood Up
Deacon Stephen has been giving his defense before the Sanhedrin court in Jerusalem. The charges against him were, one, that he was criticizing the law of Moses, did not respect him, and was actually blaspheming God, since the law came from God. And two, the false witnesses claimed that Stephen was predicting that Jesus was going to come back and destroy their wonderful temple.
Stephen has been reciting the high points of Jewish history, showing that he totally believes the record of Moses. We have looked at his testimony up to the point where he mentions the wise counsel that Joseph gave to the Pharaoh. Seven very good years would be preceded by seven years of famine. His counsel was, do whatever we can to prepare for the coming bad years.
We will re-read verses 11 and 12 and then proceed with Stephen’s defense.
11 Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food.
12 But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time.
13 And the second time his brothers had a meeting with Joseph, and Pharaoh had knowledge of Joseph’s family.
14 Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five persons.
This is how it came about that Abraham’s descendants (Jacob’s in particular) are no longer living in Canaan, the promised land. Abraham’s son, Jacob, moved the whole family to Egypt.
15 “So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. And there the family stayed and multiplied for the next 430 years.
16 “And they (Jacob and his 12 sons) were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
17 ¶ “But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18 “till another king arose who did not know Joseph.
19 “This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.
Stephen next talks about the conditions of the Israelites during their 400 years being treated as slaves. Their numbers continued to multiply. This caused concern to the Pharaoh. He knew that the Egyptians would soon be outnumbered by the Hebrews (Israelites) … and if they should decide to revolt and take back their freedoms … he decided to reduce their growth rate by killing all of the male babies that were being born.
Next Stephen talks about Moses, the person that, allegedly, he was blaspheming.
20 “At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.
21 “But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.
22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
Stephen is actually speaking very highly of Moses. He goes on,
23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
It is impossible to know just how much Moses knew about the Hebrew people. His mother had raised him for the first 5 or 6 years of his life, and no doubt taught him everything she possibly could in that short time. My guess is that it was enough knowledge for him to know who he really was. I think as he grew up, he took it upon himself to learn as much about God’s people as he could. In the above verse we read that his learning about them involved an actual visit.
24 “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
Moses was an adopted son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. His place in government would be of very high rank. Some believe that he would be in line to be the next Pharaoh. Whether or not he ever could have been a pharaoh or not, he was in line to have a lot of power. But his Israelite roots were very strong. He sees cruelty taking place against one of his ‘people’, kills the Egyptian taskmaster, and buries him in the sand. He is acting in support of the Israelites. He thought he had their trust.
Stephen says, 25 “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
When I re-read the account in the book of Exodus, I see nothing mentioned about what Moses supposed. But it is clear that Stephen understood that Moses saw himself as the potential deliverer of the Israelite people.
But did the Israelite people even know that he was one of them? Did Moses perhaps assume that his parents would have told the neighbors that their son had been taken by the Egyptian princess?
Moses was still ‘visiting’ the people as Stephen adds, 26 “And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’
27 “But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 ‘Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’
How shocked Moses must have been. The news of what Moses had done the previous day has spread, as the expression goes, like wild-fire. So Moses fled for his life.
29 “Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
Fleeing to Midian involved crossing the Arabian desert. Since there is no mention of how he crossed the Red Sea, we understand that he avoided it by going around it to the North. The Arabian desert was under the control of Egypt in those days, so this meant that Moses would have to cross it completely. Midian is the next ‘country’ to the East of Arabia, across the Persian gulf.
Here is just a bit of history regarding Midian. You will remember that Abraham’s ‘miracle’ son was named Isaac. From them, through Isaac’s son Joseph came the Israelites.
But Abraham had two other sons. While waiting for the ‘promised’ son, Abraham acted according to his and Sarah’s own logic, and Abraham produced a son via Sarah’s handmaiden. They named him Ishmael. But many of us are not aware that after Sarah died, Abraham had another son through Keturah. Some commentators believe Keturah to be a ‘concubine’, but others believe that she became his wife after Sarah died.
Keturah and Abraham had a son named Midian. So now we know that the area and the people to whom Moses fled were distant relatives. They together could celebrate being a descendant of father Abraham. However, close to 500 years have elapsed since Abraham’s time. A lot can change in 500 years, when you consider that America and Canada are not yet that old.
Moses spends 40 years living in Midian. He is married and has two sons there.
30 ¶ “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
He is taking care of his flock of sheep in very desert-like country when he comes across this very unusual sight. 31 “When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 “saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.
33 ‘Then the LORD said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 “I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
“This Moses”, says Stephen. Does this sound at all like Stephen is speaking against Moses? Is he discrediting or blaspheming him? Thus far in his testimony against the charge brought against him, Stephen is doing a marvelous job showing that he is not guilty.
This is ‘that Moses’ who 36 " brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
38 “This is (that Moses) who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
Stephen is saying, ‘This is the Moses who we all revere and respect and love, who gave us the law. A law which, by the way, we really have not obeyed’. He said, 39 “whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40 “saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
41 “And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 ¶ “Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
How easy it is to forget the ‘dark’ parts of our history. The Jews are hearing a reminder of what the forefathers had been guilty of. It is one thing to lift up Moses and see him as a hero … which he was, but it is quite another thing to admit that we are just as guilty as they were in allowing ourselves to be led astray by many outside influences.
Stephen moves on to another phase in the precious history of the Jewish people.
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45 “which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,
46 “who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
David, says Stephen, wanted to make a special ‘dwelling’ for the Lord. Stephen has mentioned Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and now David. And finally he mentions Solomon, 47 “But Solomon built Him a house.
Stephen goes from showing his total support of Moses and the other forefathers … to preaching. What he says from this point on in his testimony is no longer relating a familiar story. He now brings the focus directly upon God and what it takes to have right standing with Him.
He said, 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made all these things?’
Stephen is completely finished giving his testimony, but yet he keeps on talking. Did he do the right thing by saying, 51 ¶ “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52 “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53 “who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
I guess we could say, “OK. Now you've done it!” Did Stephen not think that they would react to this? I believe he did not care. He was so filled with God’s Spirit that he was no longer in control of his words. As a matter of fact, all of the words in this whole defense came from God. Whatever happened next would be up to God.
54 ¶ When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
What did Stephen just say?! He saw Jesus … standing? What a tremendous vision and privilege to ‘look right into heaven’! And what he saw there is amazing.
The writer of the book of Hebrews said, But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:12
And that is how we usually see it in our minds. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. But Stephen, before he was being stoned to death, before his life was actually draining from him, was given a sudden clear vision of a scene in heaven …and he saw Jesus … standing.
Faithfully and fearlessly, Stephen’s face appears to be that of an angel … he shares the old old story … and fearlessly brings it to a conclusion which will cost him his life.
And Jesus stood up … and He let Stephen see Him standing. Perhaps He was standing with out-stretched arms.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
(We read more about this young man later in the book of Acts.)
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
What a marvelous, incredible brother in Christ. Just like his Lord Jesus, Stephen, in his dying breath, prayed that they not be charged with his death.
And how incredible it is to read about the welcome that Jesus gave to Stephen. It is so hard to imagine, and yet we read,
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10,11
May we all make every effort to be welcomed home as Stephen was.
Stephen has been reciting the high points of Jewish history, showing that he totally believes the record of Moses. We have looked at his testimony up to the point where he mentions the wise counsel that Joseph gave to the Pharaoh. Seven very good years would be preceded by seven years of famine. His counsel was, do whatever we can to prepare for the coming bad years.
We will re-read verses 11 and 12 and then proceed with Stephen’s defense.
11 Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food.
12 But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time.
13 And the second time his brothers had a meeting with Joseph, and Pharaoh had knowledge of Joseph’s family.
14 Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five persons.
This is how it came about that Abraham’s descendants (Jacob’s in particular) are no longer living in Canaan, the promised land. Abraham’s son, Jacob, moved the whole family to Egypt.
15 “So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. And there the family stayed and multiplied for the next 430 years.
16 “And they (Jacob and his 12 sons) were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
17 ¶ “But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18 “till another king arose who did not know Joseph.
19 “This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.
Stephen next talks about the conditions of the Israelites during their 400 years being treated as slaves. Their numbers continued to multiply. This caused concern to the Pharaoh. He knew that the Egyptians would soon be outnumbered by the Hebrews (Israelites) … and if they should decide to revolt and take back their freedoms … he decided to reduce their growth rate by killing all of the male babies that were being born.
Next Stephen talks about Moses, the person that, allegedly, he was blaspheming.
20 “At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.
21 “But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.
22 “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
Stephen is actually speaking very highly of Moses. He goes on,
23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
It is impossible to know just how much Moses knew about the Hebrew people. His mother had raised him for the first 5 or 6 years of his life, and no doubt taught him everything she possibly could in that short time. My guess is that it was enough knowledge for him to know who he really was. I think as he grew up, he took it upon himself to learn as much about God’s people as he could. In the above verse we read that his learning about them involved an actual visit.
24 “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
Moses was an adopted son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. His place in government would be of very high rank. Some believe that he would be in line to be the next Pharaoh. Whether or not he ever could have been a pharaoh or not, he was in line to have a lot of power. But his Israelite roots were very strong. He sees cruelty taking place against one of his ‘people’, kills the Egyptian taskmaster, and buries him in the sand. He is acting in support of the Israelites. He thought he had their trust.
Stephen says, 25 “For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
When I re-read the account in the book of Exodus, I see nothing mentioned about what Moses supposed. But it is clear that Stephen understood that Moses saw himself as the potential deliverer of the Israelite people.
But did the Israelite people even know that he was one of them? Did Moses perhaps assume that his parents would have told the neighbors that their son had been taken by the Egyptian princess?
Moses was still ‘visiting’ the people as Stephen adds, 26 “And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’
27 “But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 ‘Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’
How shocked Moses must have been. The news of what Moses had done the previous day has spread, as the expression goes, like wild-fire. So Moses fled for his life.
29 “Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
Fleeing to Midian involved crossing the Arabian desert. Since there is no mention of how he crossed the Red Sea, we understand that he avoided it by going around it to the North. The Arabian desert was under the control of Egypt in those days, so this meant that Moses would have to cross it completely. Midian is the next ‘country’ to the East of Arabia, across the Persian gulf.
Here is just a bit of history regarding Midian. You will remember that Abraham’s ‘miracle’ son was named Isaac. From them, through Isaac’s son Joseph came the Israelites.
But Abraham had two other sons. While waiting for the ‘promised’ son, Abraham acted according to his and Sarah’s own logic, and Abraham produced a son via Sarah’s handmaiden. They named him Ishmael. But many of us are not aware that after Sarah died, Abraham had another son through Keturah. Some commentators believe Keturah to be a ‘concubine’, but others believe that she became his wife after Sarah died.
Keturah and Abraham had a son named Midian. So now we know that the area and the people to whom Moses fled were distant relatives. They together could celebrate being a descendant of father Abraham. However, close to 500 years have elapsed since Abraham’s time. A lot can change in 500 years, when you consider that America and Canada are not yet that old.
Moses spends 40 years living in Midian. He is married and has two sons there.
30 ¶ “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
He is taking care of his flock of sheep in very desert-like country when he comes across this very unusual sight. 31 “When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 “saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.
33 ‘Then the LORD said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 “I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
“This Moses”, says Stephen. Does this sound at all like Stephen is speaking against Moses? Is he discrediting or blaspheming him? Thus far in his testimony against the charge brought against him, Stephen is doing a marvelous job showing that he is not guilty.
This is ‘that Moses’ who 36 " brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
38 “This is (that Moses) who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
Stephen is saying, ‘This is the Moses who we all revere and respect and love, who gave us the law. A law which, by the way, we really have not obeyed’. He said, 39 “whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40 “saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
41 “And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 ¶ “Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
How easy it is to forget the ‘dark’ parts of our history. The Jews are hearing a reminder of what the forefathers had been guilty of. It is one thing to lift up Moses and see him as a hero … which he was, but it is quite another thing to admit that we are just as guilty as they were in allowing ourselves to be led astray by many outside influences.
Stephen moves on to another phase in the precious history of the Jewish people.
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45 “which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,
46 “who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
David, says Stephen, wanted to make a special ‘dwelling’ for the Lord. Stephen has mentioned Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and now David. And finally he mentions Solomon, 47 “But Solomon built Him a house.
Stephen goes from showing his total support of Moses and the other forefathers … to preaching. What he says from this point on in his testimony is no longer relating a familiar story. He now brings the focus directly upon God and what it takes to have right standing with Him.
He said, 48 “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what is the place of My rest?
50 Has My hand not made all these things?’
Stephen is completely finished giving his testimony, but yet he keeps on talking. Did he do the right thing by saying, 51 ¶ “You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
52 “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53 “who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
I guess we could say, “OK. Now you've done it!” Did Stephen not think that they would react to this? I believe he did not care. He was so filled with God’s Spirit that he was no longer in control of his words. As a matter of fact, all of the words in this whole defense came from God. Whatever happened next would be up to God.
54 ¶ When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
What did Stephen just say?! He saw Jesus … standing? What a tremendous vision and privilege to ‘look right into heaven’! And what he saw there is amazing.
The writer of the book of Hebrews said, But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, Hebrews 10:12
And that is how we usually see it in our minds. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. But Stephen, before he was being stoned to death, before his life was actually draining from him, was given a sudden clear vision of a scene in heaven …and he saw Jesus … standing.
Faithfully and fearlessly, Stephen’s face appears to be that of an angel … he shares the old old story … and fearlessly brings it to a conclusion which will cost him his life.
And Jesus stood up … and He let Stephen see Him standing. Perhaps He was standing with out-stretched arms.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
(We read more about this young man later in the book of Acts.)
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
What a marvelous, incredible brother in Christ. Just like his Lord Jesus, Stephen, in his dying breath, prayed that they not be charged with his death.
And how incredible it is to read about the welcome that Jesus gave to Stephen. It is so hard to imagine, and yet we read,
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:10,11
May we all make every effort to be welcomed home as Stephen was.