Day #322

Sermon - Audio
Acts 7-8 - Reading
Acts 7-8 - Audio

Daily Insights - Please Comment

Acts 7: Stephen turns the tables on the Jewish leadership insisting that they, not him, are those who are unfaithful to God.

• 7.1: The High Priest’s question opens the door for Stephen to give his defense.

• 7.2: Some in the Jewish community believed that God only spoke and showed himself to people in Israel. Stephen points out that God spoke to his people through out the world.

• 7.4: A quick check of the age of Abraham and the age of his father in the book of Genesis indicates that his father was still alive when Abraham responded to God’s call. The rabbis explain that his father was as good as dead because he had originally received the same call as Abraham but had stopped short of carrying it out.

• 7.11-16: Joseph and his life is paralleled with the life of Jesus. He is rejected by his brothers, he is handed over to foreigners, he is the savior of his family—but at first his family does not recognize him.

• 7.19: “throw out” was a term used in the Roman empire for leaving babies exposed to the elements to die. While it was a common Gentile practice, Jewish people found it abhorrent. Stephen is making Pharaoh look even worse in the eyes of his listeners.

• 7.22: Stephen points out that Moses was educated in all the ways of Egypt. Early Christian commentators seized on this as a good reason to study the philosophers of antiquity.

• 7.25: Moses, like Joseph, is not recognized as the savior of his people. He has to flee because they do not accept him and his life is in danger.

• 7.30: As in the case of Abraham and Joseph, so Moses also hears the voice and call of God outside the land of Israel.

• 7.35-36: Stephen points out that the very one who was rejected as deliverer turns out to be the savior of his people—sent by God himself.

• 7.37: Stephen drops his first strong hint that another Moses is coming—maybe one who like Moses will not be recognized at first as the savior of the people.

• 7.37: This verse also makes it clear that Stephen is not attacking the customs that Moses handed down (6.14). If another prophet like Moses came, that prophet would be true to what Moses taught (cf. Matthew 5.18, “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished.”) . It was always the argument of Jesus that he did not get rid of the Torah, but rather that he interpreted it rightly.

• 7.38: “living words” i.e. Torah

• 7.39: Another picture of a savior being rejected.

• 7.41: The incident of the golden calf was considered by the rabbis to be Israel’s lowest moment.

• 7.42-50: Stephen reaches back into history and the prophets to show that the temple is not the central thing in faith, rather God is. The people of his day had made the temple into something of an idol, paying more attention to it than to God. Stephen is making it clear that in speaking out against the temple that he is not rejecting God, but rather their idolatry.

• 7.51: The ideas of this verse ring with Old Testament language. As these leaders have rejected the Savior, Jesus they have become just like their fathers who rejected or missed seeing the saviors of their day.

• 7.52: As their ancestors had killed those who predicted the coming of the Messiah (notice that Stephen finds himself in trouble because he has been showing how these prophets pointed to Jesus Acts 6.8-10) they have killed the Messiah.

• 7.53: Stephen totally turns the tables on his accusers. It is not he who has been unfaithful, but them.

• 7.54: His accusation is not well received—their following actions show that they are indeed just like their fathers.

• 7.56: Jesus is normally shown as sitting down by the right hand of the Father. Jesus stands here in defense of Stephen.

• 7.58: The law of stoning said that the person to be stoned was first to be stripped. There is not evidence of this. Instead those who are stoning “strip”. It is a picture to show who is truly guilty.

• 7.58: We are introduced to the person who will soon become the main character in the Acts narrative.

• 7.60: Throughout this chapter Stephen has been showing Old Testament characters who look like Jesus, not Luke shows us that Stephen himself has caught the heart of Jesus and so offers forgiveness to those who are executing him.

8.1: This chapter begins the spread of the gospel according to the command of Jesus in Acts 1.8. The word now moves into Samaria (and to the ends of the earth). The painful part is that the word goes out only after persecution begins.

• 8.2: It was illegal according to Jewish law to mourn a condemned criminal. Those who loved Stephen ignore this law and believe that his condemnation was unjust and so decide to do the risky thing and mourn him. Notice that it is “godly men” who bury Stephen.

• 8.3: “destroy” is better interpreted “ravage” The word in Greek is a strong one that reflects beatings, whippings and torture. Prison, as we’ve noted before, is not a place of punishment but a holding place until judgment is rendered.

• 8.4: Ingrained in the early church is the need to share the message of Jesus wherever they went.

• 8.5: Going to Samaria carried a certain level of risk. Most Jews did not associate with Samaritans. To offer them a part in the kingdom might have struck many Jews as being unfaithful to Israel. This willingness to risk reminds us that this early Christian leadership was a strong and courageous group. It also reminds us that if they are like their Rabbi Jesus (who also stopped and spoke to Samaritans John 4) that Jesus too was strong and courageous.

• 8.8: One can only imagine the joy in a day of little medicine and little hope for sick and demon possessed.

• 8.10: In this day many were beginning to combine all the gods into two gods. One male and one female. It seems that Simon was saying he was the incarnation of the one male god.

• 8.12: The good news of Jesus trumps the work of Simon.

• 8.15-17: In the book of Acts when the gospel enters a new area the Holy Spirit also comes. At the same time the Spirit comes only when one of the apostles is present (so when the gospel moves to the Gentiles Peter is there—but in that case the Spirit comes before baptism Acts 10).

• 8.18: In Simon’s world you could buy the latest magic spell or trick with money. He is following a practice that he knows well.

• 8.20: Peter quickly points out that Simon is on or already gone through thin ice. It is not clear if Simon’s initial conversion was real.

• 8.24: It is simply not clear if Simon is seeking to manipulate things or if he is truly repentant. In later church history Simon was identified as an archenemy of the early church.

• 8.26: Philip is told to leave the growing work in Samaria and travel an almost deserted road. It must have seemed like a strange request to him.

• 8.27: This Ethiopia is not modern day Ethiopia, rather it is located in modern day Sudan.

• 8.27: Candace is not a name but the title of the queen mother.

• 8.28: Here we see God reaching out to the super wealthy. Only the most wealthy people road in chariots. The gospel will go out to rich and poor alike—and it is beginning its journey to the ends of the earth.

• 8.30: It is only in the last 500 years or so that people have read silently.

• 8.32: The eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53.

• 8.35: One of the truths about these early tellers of the story of Jesus is that they knew the Old Testament so well that they could prove Jesus is the Christ from pretty much any starting point.

• 8.39: The Spirit brings Philip to the next place he is called to do ministry