The Word This Week
Acts 7:1…
Stephen has frustrated the intellectual theologians at the Synagogue of the Freedmen to such an extent they have induced false witnesses against Stephen with the intent of bringing a charge of blasphemy against God.
They were no longer content to engage him in dialogue or theological arguments because Stephen was proving them wrong in embarrassing fashion, and they saw themselves as protectors of the Jewish faith just as the Sanhedrin had with Jesus.
And just as the Sanhedrin had put Jesus to death on charges of blasphemy against God, the Synagogue of the Freedmen, (possibly/probably including Saul of Tarsus,) would seek the same result. Failing to win the argument with Stephen, they conducted him to the Council.
(Lest we forget, the reason they heard from Stephen in the first place was because he performed signs and wonders among the people.)
Now before the Council, the high priest opened the hearing by seeking to know if the things they had heard about Stephen were true.
Stephen continued in the same line of reasoning he had employed with the Synagogue of the Freedmen. (If anything, he turned it up a notch.)
Whereas Jesus, before the Sanhedrin said nothing in his own defense, Stephen had much to say, but not in his own defense. Stephen laid out a troubling history of the nation of Israel, from its inception with Abraham all the way through the entirety of the Old Testament, proving over and over again Israel had rejected the redeemer God had sent them, and then in each case, had come to understand the one they had rejected was in fact, the only redeemer who could save them.
Over and over again they rejected the prophets God had provided to convict them of their sin before God, and they chose rather to continue in their sins and idolatry rather than repenting.
Some prophets they jailed, and some they killed.
Now they will do exactly the same thing to Stephen, and he doesn’t back down to preserve his life. In fact, he turns up the heat, hoping they may listen to the brutal truth about themselves.
Pastor Bill
Stephen has frustrated the intellectual theologians at the Synagogue of the Freedmen to such an extent they have induced false witnesses against Stephen with the intent of bringing a charge of blasphemy against God.
They were no longer content to engage him in dialogue or theological arguments because Stephen was proving them wrong in embarrassing fashion, and they saw themselves as protectors of the Jewish faith just as the Sanhedrin had with Jesus.
And just as the Sanhedrin had put Jesus to death on charges of blasphemy against God, the Synagogue of the Freedmen, (possibly/probably including Saul of Tarsus,) would seek the same result. Failing to win the argument with Stephen, they conducted him to the Council.
(Lest we forget, the reason they heard from Stephen in the first place was because he performed signs and wonders among the people.)
Now before the Council, the high priest opened the hearing by seeking to know if the things they had heard about Stephen were true.
Stephen continued in the same line of reasoning he had employed with the Synagogue of the Freedmen. (If anything, he turned it up a notch.)
Whereas Jesus, before the Sanhedrin said nothing in his own defense, Stephen had much to say, but not in his own defense. Stephen laid out a troubling history of the nation of Israel, from its inception with Abraham all the way through the entirety of the Old Testament, proving over and over again Israel had rejected the redeemer God had sent them, and then in each case, had come to understand the one they had rejected was in fact, the only redeemer who could save them.
Over and over again they rejected the prophets God had provided to convict them of their sin before God, and they chose rather to continue in their sins and idolatry rather than repenting.
Some prophets they jailed, and some they killed.
Now they will do exactly the same thing to Stephen, and he doesn’t back down to preserve his life. In fact, he turns up the heat, hoping they may listen to the brutal truth about themselves.
Pastor Bill