A Study of Acts: Steven Accuses his Accusers
Acts 7:44-53, Isaiah 66:1-2 - God cannot be contained but He is looking for the humble and contrite in spirit. He also comes to us! But do not sin against the Holy Spirit!
““Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David. David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.
However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says: ‘Heaven is My throne, And earth is the footstool of My feet; What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things?’
“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.””
Acts 7:44-53 NASB1995
Stephen nears the end of his sermon and talks about the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, which was intended to be a portable and temporary dwelling place for the Lord and was brought into the promised land by Joshua. David wanted to build Him a dwelling place, but it was his son Solomon who accomplished that deed.
However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:
“Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
Isaiah 66:1-2 NASB1995
How can anything made by humans contain God? He is in Heaven on His throne and the earth is a footstool for Him. He is the creator of this vast universe in which we reside in this mortal life; we live on a special planet (no others like it have been found so far) surrounded by millions of species that came from His hand. I have a hard time giving credence to theories that some DNA material somehow made it to Earth from “somewhere” and mysteriously turned into the life that we see and know by pure chance. He created the building blocks from the subatomic particles to the innumerable galaxies. He created the physical laws and the purity of mathematics.
I used to be hard over on the science even after first coming back to belief, but acknowledging the triune God as the Creator is so peaceful. The timeline of His creation is one of those secondary faith questions (like which eschatology theory will win the day at the end) that seems more and more irrelevant to me as I grow in faith. Just trust and believe! Leave it to Him!
I recall a conversation at work a number of years ago (after I returned to faith) when another co-worker who was also a believer and I were chatting about how science attempts to abolish God from the equation of our origins just because the universe is so vast. We both speculated on “how small” the universe would have to be to come from God (it is as big or small as He wants) and realized that the question was already answered in Isaiah 66. To the person who is humble and contrite and trembles at His word, He will look to those penitents and find them in a universe with trillions of galaxies.
I also like this commentary from Enduring Word:
Our fathers had the tabernacle… Solomon built Him a house: Stephen’s point was that the presence of the tabernacle or the temple did not keep them from rejecting God and His special messengers.
However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands: Stephen confronted their idolatry of the temple. In doing so, they tried to confine God within the temple. Yet God is too big to fit in any temple man could make.
On a more subtle level, many Christians do the same thing. It may not be the worship of a church building (though certainly that does take place from time to time), but it is the confinement of God to one place. In other words, the only place they meet God is at the church. As far as they are concerned, God is absent from the rest of their lives. In the minds and lives of some today, God might as well only live at the church.
Is God part of your daily routine? Or is He confined to that time spent at church on Sunday?
This image was found searching the internet showing Stephen standing before his accusers (artist unknown). He now becomes the accuser, pointing at the stubborn and hard-hearted group and telling them they are always resisting the Holy Spirit. He calls them murderers and betrayers, who received the law as ordained by angels, but did not keep it. Over history, they sought to destroy the prophets and have conspired to murder the Messiah. Stephen is knowingly sealing his fate as a martyr, but it makes him even more bold.
This commentary from Enduring Word is excellent:
You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you: One can imagine the angry whispering among the Sanhedrin as Stephen’s history lesson began to make sense. Stephen saw this and knew they were rejecting again the One God sent, just as before.
“He takes the sharp knife of the Word and rips up the sins of the people, laying open the inward parts of their hearts, and the secrets of their soul…He could not have delivered that searching address with greater fearlessness had he been assured that they would thank him for the operation; the fact that his death was certain had no other effect upon him than to make him yet more zealous.” (Charles Spurgeon)
You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! Drawing on concepts from the Old Testament, Stephen rebuked those who rejected Jesus as stiff-necked (as Israel is described in passages like Exodus 32:9), and as uncircumcised in heart and ears (as Israel is described in passages like Jeremiah 9:26).
In using the two phrases together, he may have in mind a passage like Deuteronomy 10:16: Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
Almost 20 times in the Old Testament, God calls Israel stiff-necked. These religious leaders were acting just as their forefathers acted.
Israel prided itself on the sign of circumcision because it separated them from the Gentiles. Stephen essentially said, “You are just like the Gentiles in your rejection of the Lord.”
You now have become the betrayers and murderers: Stephen’s main point was unmistakable: “As Israel was in its history, so you are today. God gave you the law, but you have not kept it.”
Who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it: This accusation must have outraged the members of the council. They prided themselves on their obedience to the law, even as the Apostle Paul would later claim of his pre-Christian thinking: concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (Philippians 3:6).
Though it must have offended the council, Stephen’s message was true. First, God is no respecter of places; that is, though the temple was a wonderful gift from God, it was wrong to overemphasize it as “the house of God.” Second, Israel at that time was guilty of what they had often been guilty of: rejecting God’s messengers.
Jesus said that it is impossible for old wineskins to hold new wine (Matthew 9:17). Through Stephen, the Holy Spirit showed how the old traditions of Judaism (especially the over-emphasis on the temple) could not contain the new wine of Christianity.
God used Stephen’s coming martyrdom to send the church out into the entire world, but God also used Stephen’s message to show that there was no theological reason to prevent the gospel from going to the Gentiles.
The whole idea behind a permanent, stationary temple is “you come to me.” This is why Israel, though they were a light to the nations, mainly thought in terms of the world coming to them for salvation. Through the church, God would show a different heart: “I will come to you,” including to the Gentiles.
Some key takeaways from this commentary:
Stephen is accusing them of being like the Gentiles in their rejection of the Lord.
They have God’s law, but they have not kept it. This had to enrage these nitpickers who were constantly accusing the people of minor infractions of their convoluted law.
They are guilty of rejecting God’s messengers, over and over again.
Stephen’s coming martyrdom represents the idea that the church is now sent out to the entire world.
The last bullet is really crucial - Our God comes to us!! We don’t need to go through rituals and temple chambers and festivals and good works to climb our way to Him. He has come down from Heaven to us!
After I had finished writing this devotional, I stumbled across another gem in Precept Austin from Pastor Greg Laurie on how we offend the Holy Spirit. I have to share it with you:
Greg Laurie - SIX SINS
The New Testament mentions six offenses that can be committed against the Holy Spirit. Some specifically apply to unbelievers, while others apply to believers. Still others apply to both.
1. We lie to the Holy Spirit.
Acts 5:1–5 tells the story of Ananias and Sapphira, two so-called Christians who tried to cheat the church out of some money. Peter caught them in the act and rebuked them, telling them in lying to the Holy Spirit, they had lied to God. Immediately, Ananias dropped dead. [and so did Sapphira].
2. We grieve the Holy Spirit.
This offense applies to believers. Ephesians 4:30–31 tells us, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” The phrase “to grieve” means “to make sad or sorrowful.” When we allow bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and any type of malicious behavior to take place in our lives, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Are you harboring a grudge against someone? Have you been slandering (speaking lies about) anyone lately? Have you been flying into fits of rage? All of this grieves the Holy Spirit.
3. We quench the Holy Spirit.
This, too, applies to believers. The apostle Paul exhorted the Thessalonians, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” (1 Thess. 5:19). Unbelief certainly can hinder the working and moving of God’s Holy Spirit. This happened in Jesus’s hometown as the people questioned his authority. We read that “He did not do many mighty miracles there because of their lack of faith” (Matt. 13:58). Quenching the Spirit can occur when the Holy Spirit is leading you to do a certain thing, such as sharing your faith with someone, praying more, or taking a step of faith in a certain area, and you flatly refuse to do it. Has God called you to serve him with your life? Has he led you to do something? Are you doing it? If not, then you’re quenching the Holy Spirit.
4. We resist the Holy Spirit.
Stephen, as he spoke to the unbelieving Sanhedrin, said, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 7:51). The Holy Spirit seeks to speak to the heart of the unbeliever and lead him or her to God. The Holy Spirit is incredibly patient and persistent, but it is possible to resist all the Spirit’s pleadings, as we discover from Genesis 6:3, where God said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever.” Apparently the spiritual leaders of Israel whom Stephen was addressing had resisted the Holy Spirit. It seems they were convinced of the truth of what Stephen was telling them, yet they would not yield their hearts.
5. We insult the Holy Spirit.
When someone refuses to accept Jesus Christ, he is denying the very mission of the Holy Spirit. He’s saying he doesn’t need salvation or doesn’t believe Jesus Christ can save him or that Jesus’s work on the cross was unnecessary. Hebrews warns, “How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb.10:29). Therefore, to resist the Holy Spirit’s appeal is to insult God and cut off all hope of salvation. The Bible poses this alarming question: “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).
THE MOST SERIOUS OFFENSE6. We blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
This is the unpardonable sin, which can be committed only by unbelievers. In speaking of this sin, Jesus said,
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12:31–32
This is the most serious offense against the Holy Spirit, because there is no forgiveness for the one who commits it. So what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Again, the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin and bring us to Jesus Christ. To blaspheme the Spirit is similar to insulting the Spirit by resisting the Spirit’s work altogether. This sin should not be the concern of any Christian because it is not a sin a believer can or will commit. But for the person who is playing some silly religious game, there is great cause for concern, because this is a point of no return. Where and when this would occur in an individual’s life, only God could say. So instead of lying to, grieving, quenching, or insulting and resisting the Holy Spirit, we should be open to the Spirit’s work in our lives. The Spirit wants to show us our need for Jesus Christ and then fill and empower us to be the people God wants us to be. (Walking With Jesus)
My next devotional will look at the council’s reaction to this sermon/accusation in Acts 7:54-60, in the martyrdom of Stephen.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I humbly and contritely seek Your face. You, the Creator of this vast universe, came down from Heaven to seek us and redeem us! Oh, what glory! Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.
Precept Austin was accessed on 9/16/2024 and 9/17/2024 to review commentary for Acts 7: 44-53.