Acts 7
I)Introduction
A)Acts 1 – Christ’s ascension, details of return, promise of the spirit, replacement of Judas.
B)Acts 2 – Baptism of Holy Spirit, First Sermon, First people added to Church
C)Acts 3 – Healing of Lame Beggar, Peter’s Second sermon
D)Acts 4 – Peter and John Arrested, threatened and released, Rejoice in Trial
E)Acts 5 – Ananias and Saphira, Apostles Re-arrested, Gamaliel’s Advice, Apostles Released.
F)Acts 6 – Choosing of 7 Men to Distribute to Widows, False Accusations Against Stephen
II)Acts 7 – Stephen Shares Teaching with Sanhedrin (6:12,15) and is Put to Death.
A)Vs. 1-8 - Abraham
1)“Are these things so” - Caiaphas
2)Mesopotamia
3)Haran
4)Vs. 5 – “He gave him no inheritance in it,”
(a)He was promised no land there for himself.
(b)He did purchase cave for burial – Gen. 23:3-18
5)Vs. 6 - 400 years - Exodus 12:40,41, Genesis 15:13
6)Vs. 8 – Covenant of Circumcision
(a)Gen. 17:4-10 – Promises to Abraham
B)Vs. 9-16– Joseph
1)Vs. 9 – Oddly, Joseph was the first deliverer of Israel and they were Jealous and Rejected Him.
2)Vs. 14 – Coffman
(a)Threescore and fifteen souls ... This number has been seized upon as a contradiction of Genesis 46:27 which gives the number as "threescore and ten." But as George DeHoff observed:
- Jacob's children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren amounted to sixty-six (Gen. 46:8-26). Adding Jacob himself and Joseph with his two sons, we have seventy. If to the sixty-six we add the nine wives of Jacob's sons (Judah's and Simeon's wives were dead; and Joseph could hardly be said to call himself, his own wife or his two sons into Egypt, and Jacob is specifically separated by Stephen) we have seventy-five persons as in Acts.<9>
C)Vs. 17-22– Moses in Egypt
1)Vs. 20 - “lovely in the site of God”
(a)“Exceedingly Fair” – KJV - These terms are synonymous.
2)Vs. 22 – “Man of Power in Words and Deeds”
(a)Exodus 4:10 – [I am not dynamic] – This does not contradict the power of his words.
D)Vs. 23-29- Moses the Young Deliverer
(a)“He supposed” “vengeance for the oppressed” – It was Moses belief based on emotion that his good deed to them would be seen as a deliverance from oppression. He was not commanded by God.
(b)Furthermore, this deliverance would be viewed as a blessing from God.
2)Vs. 27 – “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?”
(a)Mark 11:28 - "By what authority doest thou these things; or who gave thee this authority?"
- Neither Moses nor Christ were accepted by their own.
E)Vs. 30-38– Moses the Old Deliverer
1)Vs. 34-35 – God chooses the one rejected by Israel to be deliverer.
(a)He was a stone rejected which would become their cornerstone until Christ.
(b)God sent Moses because he heard Israel’s groaning – that is he loved them.
(c)God sent Christ to deliver from sin – Because he loved us – John 3:16.
2)Vs. 36-38 – Who was this deliverer?
(a)Vs. 36 - Performed miracles and signs
(b)Vs. 37 - Prophesied of Christ
(c)Vs. 38 – He received the Word of God - Romans 3:2, 1 Peter 4:11
F)Vs. 39-43– The Disobedient Israel
1)They Reject Moses as Joseph.
2)They Reject God
3)Vs. 42 – “host of heaven”
(a)Sun, moon, planets, stars
4)“Rompha” “Rephan” god associated with Saturn.
5)“God turned away and delivered them up”
(a)God desires a man not sin. When man makes that choice God lets them experience full penalty.
G)Vs. 44-50- God not Man Establishes What God Wants
1)God told Moses what he wanted.
2)David tried to suggest something else and was refuted by God.
(a)2 Sam. 7:12-13–Seed of David would be God a House.
(b)Mat. 12:6 - One greater than the temple is here.
- Christ was the temple to be built
- In Christ is where we truly worship.
3)Solomon ignored God’s pattern and God’s admonition.
4)Everything given by Moses through the Holy Spirit was rejected by Israel.
(a)God’s Deliverer
(b)God’s Word
(c)God’s Tabernacle.
H)Vs. 51-53– You are the Man!
1)Stephen Expresses they too have rejected the Holy Spirit as Their Forefathers.
2)They had Rejected the Prophets as their Forefathers.
3)They Rejected God through His law as their Forefathers.
I)Vs. 54-60– The Stoning of Stephen
1)Vs. 54 - “Cut to the heart (quick)”
(a)5:33 – “Cut”
(b)2:37 – “Pierced to the heart”
2)Response? Anger!
3)Vs. 55 – Full of Holy Spirit he Spoke.
4)Vs. 55– “Standing”
(a)Stephen is the first recorded Christian Martyr.
(b)He is one who died preaching Christ.
(c)Is this why Christ is standing? Speculation.
5)Vs. 56 – The only occurrence outside of Christ’s usage we see the term“son of man”
6)Vs. 57 – Think of the times Christ disappeared in a crowd or said it was not yet his time.
(a)This is very possibly what could have happened.
(b)This action was illegal.
7)Vs. 58 – Paul has to live with this the rest of his life.
8)Vs. 59 – We see the existence of the spirit separate from the body.
9)Vs. 60 - Consider Christ’s example at the Cross.
(a)Consider his words at sermon on mount -Mat 5:44- But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
(b)Consider Stephen’s words