SCRIPTURE: Acts 7
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. [John 5:45-46]
In our passage, Stephen, like Jesus, is being accused of speaking against Moses, the Law and the Temple.
Both Jesus and Stephen challenge the religious leaders that they have totally missed the point of Moses, the Law and the Temple.
And both of them dies for their words.
Stephen reviews the history of Israel (for those of us who have read Genesis and Exodus, much of what he writes is now familiar!).
Stephen shows that Moses saw that everything was pointing to the coming Messiah, but that God’s people have usually rejected God’s message and messengers – and ultimately the Messiah Himself.
It’s not about the temple, it’s not about the Law, it’s not about Moses, it’s about the promised Messiah Who has come.
Jesus warns the religious leaders that in the end, Moses (whom they claim to follow and obey) will accuse them for missing the point.
The challenge that I hear in this is that still today, we often miss the point of the bible.
We major on minors, and miss what really matters.
The religious leaders killed and lied to protect the Law, and christians today are guilty of gossiping, false accusations, ungracious attitudes, etc. in defence of their ‘right doctrines’.
(I think of that church meeting where two elders exchanged fists in the name of orthodoxy – yikes!).
We invest huge amounts of money and time to protect and maintain our theologies, our buildings, our programs, meanwhile we do not follow Jesus in love to those that are lost, needy, oppressed, mistreated.
We are like the Pharisees that Jesus accused of worry about technical tithing while ignoring matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness [Matthew 23:23].
Both Jesus and Stephen stand up for truth, but they do so in a loving, gracious way.
Compare Jesus’ praying for those that crucified Him [Luke 23:34], and Stephen praying for those that stoned him [Acts 7:60].
We must speak for the truth, but in love.
We must practice the message before we preach it.
We must receive Jesus before we share Him with others.
Otherwise the One we speak for, the truth we proclaim, will be our accuser on the last day.
PRAYER:
Lord, help me not to miss the point in my desire to make a point. Show me if I am missing the point, and help me go in the right direction.
I was struck today and yesterday by how similar what is said about Stephen and what is said about Jesus is. Stephen was filled with the Spirit, did many miracles, spoke out about the meaning of the old testament, was accused by church leaders of heresy, and taken out of the city and killed. Before he died he asked that God recieve his Spirit and for forgiveness for his accusers.
I look at Jesus and think that he was able to do what he did because he was the Son of God as well as human, but this passage points out to me how human Jesus was, and that with the Holy Spirit in us we too can live as Stephen and Jesus did.
Prayer: Lord help me to not only know this reality, but make it part of who I am and how I live.
Zoe
Stephen tells His Story.
Throughout History, the refrain isGod was with him – with Abraham, Joseph, Moses, . . God using people for His purposes and yet some could not see the Story. Eyes they had but could not see.
Nor would the people hear. The people turned against Moses and the Lord God also turned away from them. They went to exile to learn their lesson – to unplug their hearing.
Those who heard Stephen were like those in past history – ears they had but did not hear, eyes they they had but did not see. And they stoned/killed the Truth.
And today I need to tell the Story of what the Lord God has done by words, by deeds by the leading of His Spirit in me. Open my eyes and ears Lord so I too may proclaim the Good News.
I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true;
It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.
Refrain
I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story; more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me;
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
Refrain
I love to tell the story; ’tis pleasant to repeat
What seems, each time I tell it, more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.
Refrain
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory, I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.