Acts 7 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Acts 7:1-53

1 Then the high priest asked Stephen, ‘Are these charges true?’

35 ‘This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, “Who made you ruler and judge?” He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

37 ‘This is the Moses who told the Israelites, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.” 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

39 ‘But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, “Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!” 41 That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and revelled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

‘“Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
    for forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
    and the star of your god Rephan,
    the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile” beyond Babylon.

44 ‘Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favour and asked that he might provide a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

48 ‘However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

49 ‘“Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
    Or where will my resting place be?
50 Has not my hand made all these things?”

51 ‘You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him – 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.’

A. Find Out:

1. Who was questioning Stephen? v.1
2. What had Moses prophesied? v.37
3. What point does he make about Moses? v.35,39,42,43
4. What point is he making in verses 44-50?
5. What judgement does he make in verse 51?
6. How does he prove it? (3 ways) v.52,53

B. Think:

1. What had been the charges against Stephen?
2. How does this speech counter those charges?
3. How does it go from defence to attack?

C. Comment:

The first charge against Stephen had been that he was rejecting Moses, and thus God. The first part of Stephen’s response is to carefully work through the history of the Patriarchs up to the time of Moses and the Exodus. In this he shows that he is well taught and orthodox and in no way denies anything of Moses. He does point out when he comes to Moses that he had prophesied about one coming after him and he had been rejected by the people who had early on turned away from God.

The second charge against him was that he spoke against the Temple . He simply argues that he knew the history of both tabernacle and temple and reminds them that the Scriptures reported God as saying that any earthly dwelling place was not big enough to hold Him. The implication is that the Temple is not so important as they make it.

Having countered these two charges this man, previously described as full of faith and the Holy Spirit, now confronts them with their sin. Just like their fathers before them they had rejected God. They had rejected the prophets, they had not kept the Law, and now they had killed the One sent from God. This indictment of the Jews was hard, precise and accurate, but they would not like it!

D. Application:

1. Rebellion or rejection of God is at the heart of all sin.  
2. The task of the anointed man of God is to confront sinners with that     truth, however unpleasant it may seem!

Passage: Acts 7:54 – 8:1

54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’

57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

A. Find Out:    

1. What was the initial response of the Sanhedrin? v.54
2. What happened to Stephen and what did he say? v.55,56
3. What was the response to this? v.57,58
4. How did Stephen cope with this? v.59,60
5. Who also was there? 8:1

B. Think:

1. What prompted the Sanhedrin to actually stone Stephen?
2. What does this say about the Lord’s involvement in this?
3. How might we say Stephen died triumphantly?

C. Comment:

In many ways an awful episode; in other ways mysterious, in other ways glorious.

First, the awful aspects of these verses: Stephen has very clearly shown how the tendency of the human race, exampled by the Jews, was to reject God. All he had said was the truth, yet this ruling religious Council refused to hear it. Their minds were so set that they could not see that it was the very God they were supposedly worshipping who was behind it all. The more Stephen said the more they became upset until eventually, when Stephen appears to claim incredible revelation in front of them, they can take it no longer and take him outside and stone him for blasphemy.

Second, the mysterious aspects of this: it was only because the Lord gave Stephen such revelation that he spoke out in such a way that he provoked the Council. The Lord must have known what this revelation would do and yet went ahead. Why? We can only speculate as to specific reasons but one thing we must be able to say is that it must have fitted in with the Lord’s sovereign plan and purpose for his church. In one sense this killing sparked off the persecution that drove the church out and eventually across the world.

And triumph? Well just consider the way he died: in control with forgiveness on his lips, just like his Lord had done (Lk 23:34 ,46)!

D. Application:

1. God’s purposes are sometimes quite mysterious.
2. God’s purposes sometimes involve us going through tough times.