Acts 6-7: Stephen’s Boldness

This Sunday, we looked at Stephen’s boldness in proclaiming the Gospel and the glorious New Covenant of Jesus Christ.  As we noted yesterday, this is a beautiful fulfillment of the words of our Lord and of the prayer for boldness by the Church.  Note:

• Luke 12:11-12: When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.
• Acts 4:29-30: And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.

Those who opposed the Gospel proclaimed by Stephen plotted against him.  Their accusation against him was that he was incessantly speaking against this holy place and the law.  Notice two very critical things:

• The order of their accusation in verse 11…he was accused of blasphemy against Moses and God.  Moses was first in their accusation.
• They hated him for his stance that was “against” the Law.  Therefore, they “put forth false witnesses” (breaking the Law of Moses) in order to condemn him for his view of the Law.  This is the ultimate irony!

Stephen proclaims to them (in his defense recorded in chapter seven) that it is not he that is against the law, but that their own forefathers and they themselves are actually the ones who have always rejected the Law, for they have rejected God and his work of redemption.  He identified himself with them, referring to the forefathers as “our fathers” over and over throughout most of the chapter.  In this way, he is not against the heritage of Israel, but he is actually upholding it.

Stephen was accused of being against Moses, so in his defense, he makes it clear that he is not against Moses, but actually has been the pattern of Israel to reject Moses.

• 7.25 Moses thought that Israel would understand he was there by God’s gracious choice to deliver them, but they did not accept this.  In the same way, they do not understand that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
• 7.35 Another record of Israel’s rejection of Moses.
• 7.39-40 After Moses did deliver them from Egypt, they continued to turn away from him and from God.

Then, he makes the point very clear that indeed, God does not dwell in temples made from human hands, as the Scriptures declare!  Now he turns from referring to “our fathers” and says to them in 7:51-53:

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

The point is this: The New Covenant (The Gospel of Jesus the Christ) is not opposed to Moses, even though the Old Covenant revealed through Moses has passed away by the institution of the New Covenant by Jesus.  Jesus foretold of his judgment on Israel and the destruction of the Temple in Matthew 24, but Stephen shows that this isn’t against revelation of God in the Old Testament…it is actually the fulfillment of it!  In the same way, as Jesus revealed, he is not against Moses or the Law of Israel, but he is the fulfillment to which it all points!

This is all underscored by a single phrase recorded in two different ways in this passage. In 6.15, the opponents of Stephen “stared intently at” him in their hatred of him.  However, Stephen (in 7.55) was filled with the Holy Spirit and “stared intently at” the glory of God…Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

May our gaze be upon that same glory as we worship and serve the risen Lord Jesus!