PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Acts 7:1-16
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.” (Acts 7:9-10)
Stephen is accused of slandering the Temple and the Law (Acts 6:13-14).
The Temple represents ‘God with us’ – God living among us.
The Law represents the Word of God – God speaking to us.
Stephen wants to show them that Jesus fulfills both of these.
God was with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – before the temple and the law.
Both before and after the Temple and the Law, God is with us!
The Temple and the Law are temporary symbols of God’s ultimate desire.
To live with us and speak with us in eternal fellowship and partnership.
Stephen believes that Jesus is uniquely ‘God with us.’ (Matthew 1:23)
Moses spoke about God, but Jesus is God speaking with us (John 14:24).
Moses built a tabernacle for God, but Jesus is the tabernacle of God (John 1:14).
Jesus is greater than the temple and the law, and does what they could not.
Through Jesus, God is with us and rescues us from all our troubles.
Do I experience God with me in Jesus, and do I hear him speaking to me?
PRAYER
Lord, my heart is your temple, you live in me. Speak to me and through me, like you did Stephen, that others may know ‘God with us’ too.
“But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.” How could I go down life’s pathway without my God to care, protect and rescue me. I’ve been there and God helped me through – easy to see when I look back – but with fear and trepidation when I was in it – and even now I can be fearful. God was there for Abraham, for Joseph, for David for Stephen – their lives bear testimony that God was there for them. Lord, I trust – help me trust more fully as I face the future!
The Spirit of the Lord was certainly with Stephen when he spoke about God’s presence in the lives of His people – Abraham, Joseph, Jacob. He is also with you and me. As Stephen was an instrument of His peace, telling His story, I too need to tell the story of God’s love for His people. He continues to lead us by His Spirit even today.
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.