ACTS

ACTS 7

Act 7:1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

They asked Stephen if the accusations against him were true. Stephen starts from the time of Abraham to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ in his own defense.

When we read these words we can see how guilt can actually make us angry enough to kill someone. If the conviction of the Holy Spirit is resisted, it usually causes anger. If it is received, it will bring forth fruits of repentance and make a change in the one receiving the gospel. This is why there is a difference between a believer and an unbeliever. Every time we reject the word of God our heart gets a little harder. Soon it takes something drastic to change get us back on the right track. If we would repent and receive the truth the first time we hear it, it works out better for us and those that have to live with us. This story is sad but we will see what kind of stuff Stephen is made of.

Act 7:2 And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
Act 7:3 And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.

Abraham is called of God to bring forth the seed that will bring salvation to the whole world. The seed came from an old man and a barren woman and then later through a virgin.

Act 7:4 Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
Act 7:5 And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.

This land was promised to Israel. From this land would come the promised Messiah born of a virgin and born from the tribe of Judah. The land itself was given to the children of Israel. That promise has not changed. 

Act 7:6 And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.

This was prophesied to Abraham years before Joseph was sold into slavery. Israel would go down into Egypt to abide with Joseph. It would be good years at first but then prophecy came to pass and they were in bondage to a king who didn't remember Joseph.

Act 7:7 And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
Act 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,

Actually Joseph's brothers were in bondage more than Joseph was in reality. They were in bondage to sin. This sin of envy caused them to hate their own brother.

Acts 7:10 And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Act 7:11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Act 7:12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
Act 7:13 And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Act 7:14 Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
Act 7:15 So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
Act 7:16 And were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem.
Act 7:17 But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Act 7:18 Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
Act 7:19 The same dealt subtlely with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

Fear caused this wicked king to enslave and then kill innocent children of Israel. He didn't realize that he was a pawn in the hand of Satan who has always tried to kill the children of Israel to keep the promised Messiah from being born. He tried again with King Herod in the days that Jesus was actually born. The mass killing of the Jews since then is to keep bible prophecy from coming to pass and Jesus returning a second time. There has to be Jews on the earth when Jesus returns.

Act 7:20 In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:
Act 7:21 And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Act 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Act 7:23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

As Joseph brought them to Egypt, Moses would be used mightily of God to bring them back out. During these years the sin of the inhabitants of Canaan was getting to the point of no return and God could bring judgment upon them and give their land to Israel. God is a just God and never destroys any inhabitants without reason.

Act 7:24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
Act 7:25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.

When we are not in the mind to seek out and search for God, we usually will not recognize His working among us. The word of God will then seem strange to us.

Act 7:26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

This is a hint to the future judge of Israel being Moses whom they rejected at first. Later they rejected Jesus at first but they will receive Him at His second coming.

Act 7:27 But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
Act 7:28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Act 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

Moses knew that if the Israelites knew of his crime, then the rulers in Egypt knew or would know shortly.

Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

Our timing is nothing like God's timing. There is always a reason that God seems to delay his coming. Moses was forty years in the wilderness before God called him to go to Egypt to get His people out. Many are even now wondering why the Lord has not returned and some are thinking that perhaps we have to set up the kingdom for Him in order for Him to return. That is a bad mistaken idea.

Jesus told of a servant who was thinking the Lord delayed his coming so he begin to beat his fellow servants and begin to eat and drink with the drunken. This is a dangerous doctrine because is many cases where this doctrine was taught in past church history, the gospel was not preached in truth but the religion of Christianity was forced upon people thinking they were doing God a service by forcibly setting up His kingdom. Dissenters were often persecuted or put to death.

Mat 24:48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus will come at His appointed time. Peter describes why the Lord delays.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

We must not forget this. The children of Israel did not recognize that Moses was there to deliver them because they had lost hope of God's deliverance.

The Lord will return when we do not expect Him.

Act 7:31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
Act 7:32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Act 7:33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Act 7:35 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 by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Act 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

Here we see how Stephen connected the story of Moses with Jesus Christ by reminding them that Moses had promised a prophet would come, sent by God and how they were to hear Him. This is Jesus.

Act 7:38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

Jesus was present in the wilderness although His name Yeshua was not known to them.

Act 7:39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Act 7:40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Act 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Act 7:42 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?
Act 7:43 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.

After we continually reject God, are minds are given over to believe in false gods or whatever we attempt to pursue in place of God.

Act 7:44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.
Act 7:45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
Act 7:46 Who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
Act 7:47 But Solomon built him a house.
Act 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Act 7:49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
Act 7:50 Hath not my hand made all these things?

What can we actually make for God. He created all things? God built His own house. Through Jesus we worship, not in a building but in spirit and in truth.

Act 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Act 7:52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

Prophets who speak the truth and truly represented God were usually persecuted and killed.

Act 7:53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
Act 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
Act 7:55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

This is undeniable proof that there is a Father and the Son, Jesus abiding in heaven. Stephen saw both.

Act 7:56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
Act 7:57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

This is the reaction of those the resist God and refuse to repent. They wanted to hold onto what power they had. They did not desire to confess sins and live righteous. They did not want to be proven guilty of the blood of Jesus.

Act 7:58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
Act 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Act 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Here we see clearly the heart of Stephen was like the heart of Jesus when he cried out for God not to lay any sin of his death on those that were killing him.

Because of that prayer, I believe the apostle Paul was born. Precious Stephen forgave those that hurt him. His reward in heaven was waiting for him and he is even now with Jesus whom He saw before He died.

People today get so angry when we try to tell them to repent and believe the gospel. We try to give them a message that will cause them to live in eternity in a place where death or sickness can never harm them again but they would rather hold onto a few pleasures in this life rather than turn away from sin and turn to Jesus Christ.

He is coming again but like Peter said, He is longsuffering and is not willing that any should perish.

Matthew 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
 

Acts 8