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Stephen piled Scripture on Scripture.

Acts (6)

Be sure to view the video introducing our study of Acts 6 and 7 (Lesson 6) by clicking here.

Read and meditate on Acts 7.17-50.
The remainder of Stephen’s defense, drawing from the rest of the Old Testament, drives toward a single indictment: His accusers have missed God’s point completely. In this, they’re no different from anyone with whom we might share the Good News today.

For reflection
1.  Recall that he was on trial here because he supposedly spoke against “this holy place and the law” (6.13). Having rooted his defense in God’s covenant with the patriarchs, Stephen now continues to weave it through Moses, David, and the prophets. Stephen is only emphasizing things every one of his hearers would have known and affirmed. Moses was misunderstood because he obeyed God (vv. 23-39). Our fathers were rejected because they refused God’s new revelation and wanted to go back to Egypt (vv. 38-41). God rejected them and sent them into exile under a foreign power (vv. 42, 43). Do you see a theme building here? Explain.

2.  Here, like Emily Dickinson, Stephen is “telling it slant”. He is building a case against his accusers, and, as they nodded along in assent to everything he was saying, they would have been affirming their own guilt. How can you see that Stephen is not answering these people according to their folly, lest he be like them; but he is answering them according to their folly, in order to lead them to conviction (Prov. 26.4, 5)?

3.  The Tabernacle, which was the dwelling place of God and familiar and beloved by every Jew in its day, was replaced by the Temple, authorized by God through David and constructed by Solomon (vv. 44-48). But if we think God actually dwells in a Temple made by men (v. 48), thus making that building something so sacred no one would ever dare to think of it being replaced (which Stephen, like Jesus likely insisted), then, Stephen implies, we have failed to understand the same Word of God we’ve been affirming up to this point (vv. 48-50). Stephen was basically saying to the Jews that their vision of God and what He could do and had done was parochial and small. Do people today suffer from mistaken ideas about God? Explain.

4.  This is not, as some suppose, a rambling, stalling-for-time, grasping-at-straws message. Stephen knows what he’s doing. He is leading his accusers to affirm God’s grace and faithfulness, and the requirement of obedience to His calling and commands; to recall the developing nature of God’s covenant with His people, that changes came at significant points in the covenant; and to remember that obedience to God’s Word, not veneration of temples or traditions, is what really matters. We can almost hear the high priest, if only to himself: “Yes, yes; we know all this. Skip to the end!” OK, he will. Affirm, recall and remember, obedience, God’s Word: How can these ideas help improve our witness for Christ with the people to whom God sends us?

5.  In our witness we should be looking for points of agreement with our hearers (“affirm”). By using Scripture we are appealing not only to the fact that our hearers are image-bearers of God, but that they all also know Him, at least at some deep point in their souls (Rom. 1.19-21). So we are seeking to strike a chord of recall or remembering in their souls. And we want them to know that the Gospel requires obedience to God and His Word, not just a perfunctory sinner’s prayer. How do those ideas work into your presentation of the Gospel at this time?

Summary
Note well verse 48: Stephen’s use of this drove to the heart of at least one of his hearers and lodged there like a time bomb, waiting for the Lord’s moment. We’ll see this verse again a bit later in the book of Acts. What have you learned from Stephen about being an effective witness for the Lord?

Closing Prayer
My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

Psalm 62.5-7

T. M. Moore

Each week’s studies in Acts are bound together into a free PDF that you can download for personal or group use (click here). Each week also features a video related to the studies of the week, which you may find helpful as you work through our studies in Acts.

Acts is the record of Christ’s ongoing work as King and Lord. For more insight into His work in our here and now, order the book,
The Kingship of Jesus, from our online store by clicking here.

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T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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