Acts 7:51–55

Stephen had been reviewing the history of Israel under God's promises and revelations. He had shown that at every fresh step in unfolding His purposes of love, God met opposition. God sent Moses. He brought the people out of Egypt and set them in the land. He established the tabernacle as a divine centre, set up the kingdom under David, and Solomon built a temple. God took each step after they had failed to enjoy what He had already given, and each step only gave them a fresh occasion to resist the Holy Spirit.

"I have seen this people," said Jehovah to Moses at Mount Sinai, "and behold, it is a stiff-necked people" (Ex. 32:9)... But Moses, the mediator, skilfully turned this very fact into a plea: "If now I have found favour in Your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance" (Ex. 34:9). If Stephen repeated the word at the end of their history, the beginning of their history had already proved it true.

With all their self-satisfaction they were "stiff-necked" in heart and ears. The outward sign in the flesh only made their total lack of its spiritual meaning more glaring. The flesh was strong instead of being judged as evil.

God never designed it so, but circumcision became a merely formal act once the people ignored the covenant itself. God then speaks of Israel as having "uncircumcised hearts." Stephen charged the Jewish council with being "uncircumcised in heart and ears." Lev. 26:41; Acts 7:51.

It was themselves who were resisting the Holy Spirit, "you" above all. Without doubt, as already proved from Holy Scripture, their fathers had done so: this ought to have been a warning to them. Sadly, they also followed the same destructive course; and they did so "always."... They killed the prophets who announced the Messiah. In their own day they did worse than all before them: they handed over the Righteous One Himself and murdered Him.

Stephen begins there, and gives the whole history of Israel. He sums it up like this. They received the law by the arrangement of angels, and have not kept it. Their fathers persecuted the prophets, and killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One. And they themselves had now betrayed and murdered Him. You have there the law broken, the prophets killed, Christ crucified, and the Holy Spirit resisted. And so that chapter is the turning-point of Israel's, and indeed of man's history.

We know well that unconverted men do resist the Holy Spirit. It is the commonest thing possible where people know God's word. And it is not only resisting the word, but the Spirit, of God. That is why Stephen said to the Jews, "You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you." The Holy Spirit uses the word to touch the conscience, and whoever refuses this resists both the word and Spirit of God.

Stephen had been accused of speaking against Moses and against God, and also against the temple and the law. He is asked to answer these accusations… And before he finishes his testimony the accused becomes the accuser of the nation; the one to be judged becomes the judge.

The prophets dealt with the people's sin. They exposed it without fear, in the light of truth, righteousness, and God's judgment. At the same time they looked on to the kingdom of God, which would set aside all evil, and to the suffering Messiah, who would be exalted and lifted very high. The prophet held the light of God against the wicked will of man, and that light condemned it. This is what drew out the hatred of Israel. It made the prophet an object of dishonour and hostility, nowhere more than in his own country. God was brought near, and guilty man will not have God at any price… Whatever their thoughts later, their bitterest anger broke out against those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One. It was a kingdom they wanted, with ease and honour for themselves; not a King to reign in righteousness, and princes to rule in judgment.

For faith does not act by decorating tombs or putting up memorial tablets to the holy sufferers of days gone by. Faith walks and suffers reproach in the days that are now, if not worse persecution. It looks for heaven and glory only when Christ appears. Unbelief, on the other hand, seeks present satisfaction and credit by honouring those who no longer give a living testimony to their consciences. So it falls for the trick of the enemy. He builds ever higher that hypocritical temple of worldly religion, where those once despised and killed as martyrs now stand in a niche as idols.

Stephen now saw Him as the Son of Man, and in heaven, standing there in the place of honour — at the right hand of God. Power, then, belongs to the crucified One. … Now Stephen tells them to their face that he could see the One who once stood on trial before them. He is standing at the right hand of God. The inference was plain — a child could draw it. Their guilt was undeniable. The weighty charge he had just brought against them, of murdering the Righteous One, was only too true. Righteous He was. His presence in heaven proved it.

Stephen gives the whole history of Israel and sums it up like this. They received the law by the arrangement of angels, and have not kept it. Their fathers persecuted the prophets and killed those who told beforehand of the coming of the Just One. And of Him they themselves had now been the betrayers and the murderers — "you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." You have there the law broken, the prophets killed, Christ crucified, and the Holy Spirit resisted. And so that chapter is the turning point of Israel's history, and indeed of man's history.

Because of the intercession of Jesus on the cross, the nation of Israel was treated by God as someone guilty of manslaughter (Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17), God viewing the killing of Christ as a sin of ignorance. But when the testimony of the Spirit of God was rejected, the nation was no longer in ignorance; it was wilful in its guilt, so that Stephen says, "you have been now the betrayers and murderers" of the "Just One."

Stephen summed everything up when he said to the Jews, "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?… you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." They had broken the law, killed the prophets, killed the Just One (Christ), and resisted the Holy Spirit. All was over.

Israel received the law not as a code drawn up by human wisdom. It was administered by angels, and so came through them from God. That is what makes their failure to keep what was divine so serious. The allusion seems to be to Deuteronomy 33:2: "The LORD came from Sinai… He came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand."

The way God gave the law showed how far the people stood from Him. It came by the ministry of angels. An angel appeared to Moses in the burning bush. It was Jehovah, no doubt, but Jehovah acting through a representative — and that representative was an angel. It was also an angel at Sinai, Jehovah speaking by angelic means.

And what was their glorying in the law but a vain and empty boast? They received it, no doubt, with the most solemn ceremony at Sinai… A law that is not kept can only condemn the guilty. What blindness to brag about a law they did not obey! But it is always so, when someone without faith in the Saviour pretends to honour God… If we do not profit by His grace, what remains but His judgment?

He accuses the Jews, his persecutors, of having betrayed and murdered the Just One. This they can bear. But then he adds that they had not kept the law they received by the ministry of angels. Their gnashing teeth declared how much more serious law-breaking was in their eyes than shedding the blood of the Pretender of Nazareth — which, in their unequalled moral corruption, is what they considered Him to be… That they had murdered Him did not stir them; that they had broken the law made them gnash their teeth. But that the One they had killed was in the glory of God — that was the signal for his life to be forfeited.

Every Jew knew that angels played a very large part in the giving of the law through Moses, though Exodus says little about them. The words of Stephen in Acts 7:53 show this… In the minds of the people, this display of angelic power gave great authority to Moses and to the law he brought them. And now the Divine Spokesman appears among men. Yet to them He is only Jesus of Nazareth, a humble and despised Man… So it became vitally important to insist on the true glory of His person — above all angels beyond measure.

"The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow." This is a painful process, either "pricking the heart," and leading to godly sorrow (Acts 2); or "cutting the heart" (Acts 7:54), stinging the conscience.

It was the same with the council that tried Stephen. Its members were cut to the heart and convicted of their sinfulness. But they did not seek salvation. They gnashed at the preacher with their teeth (Acts 7:54). They hated the truth and loved darkness. The light only brought out what was already inside the hearts of those who heard it.

The Holy Spirit, through the lips of Stephen, had turned the tables on his persecutors. They found themselves accused, as though they stood in the dock instead of sitting on the judge's bench. Stephen broke off his account of history without warning and launched God's accusation against them. That suddenness must have added tremendous power to his words. They were cut to the heart and stirred to fury.

Now they deliberately refuse the Spirit's testimony in Stephen. They hear his witness against them and do not repent. Cut to the heart, they gnash their teeth at him. The same spirit that met the Son of God now meets His servant who witnesses to Him by the Spirit.

Their conscience was convicted, their heart hardened, their will unchanged. So rage filled the members of the council, and they gnashed at him with their teeth... In their history we have man always resisting the Holy Spirit; in Stephen, a man full of Him as a result of redemption.

They deeply resented being exposed like this as real enemies of God, and they "gnashed at him with their teeth."... God gave people teeth for a good purpose: to chew their food and make it digestible. Yet men always seem to use their God-given abilities and privileges in ways completely opposed to the reason they were given them.

Here we see the effect of religiousness without Christ. These men claimed to be the guardians of religion and the guides of the people. But this proved to be religion against Christianity... They were full of religious animosity and rage: he was full of the Holy Spirit. They gnashed their teeth: his face was like that of an angel. What a contrast!

Those who belong to Christ should suffer for the truth told in love, and for nothing else. That is what happened here. Stephen gave love and faithfulness, and hatred came back — just as it did to his Master.

Nowhere does a more blessed picture of the Christian appear. The Jews resisted the Holy Spirit; he was full of Him. He fixed his gaze on heaven, as we should, and he was allowed to see with his own eyes what we can only see by faith: the glory of God, and Jesus at His right hand.

Here we see what religion without Christ produces. These men claimed to be the guardians of religion and the guides of the people, but this turned out to be religion against Christianity. In them we see a terrible display of a godless, Christless religion; in Stephen we see a lovely display of true Christianity. They were full of religious hatred and rage; he was full of the Holy Spirit. They ground their teeth; his face was like the face of an angel. What a contrast!

One writer has said, "To have the Holy Spirit is one thing; to be filled with the Holy Spirit is another. When He is the one source of my thought, I am filled with Him. When He has possession of my heart, there is power to silence what is not of God, to keep my soul from evil, and to guide every act of my life and walk" (J.N.D.). So, full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen looks up to Christ in glory. He does not see that glory with his natural eyes; he was full of the Holy Spirit. But let us remember that this is not limited to Stephen, for the Apostle says, "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image."

Ezekiel had seen "the likeness of a throne" and "the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it" (Ezek. 1:26). But Stephen saw no mere "likeness" or "appearance." He saw the MAN Himself, standing at the right hand of God. Jesus, once crucified, is now the Man of God's right hand. He is the mighty Executive, the One through whom God will govern the universe!

It is the Person of Jesus in the glory of God that holds the eye and the heart of Stephen. Even as the words of eternal life were inseparably bound up with the Person of the Son in Manhood, so now is the glory of God indissolubly bound up with the Son of God at God's right hand.

Here He does not sit, because, until the Jews had refused the testimony of His glory, the Saviour was still expecting to come back, in keeping with what Peter had said in his address. As soon as Stephen is killed, this testimony ends. With a single soul in heaven, the gathering of the spirits of the redeemed begins.

In Acts 7, we read that the Lord was standing. Perhaps He was about to sit down, since He had entered heaven not long before... Or perhaps He is said to be still standing because He was waiting for His people to change their mind, so that He could come back. In any case, He is the Son of Man at the right hand of God, and Stephen sees Him standing there — no doubt to receive him at his martyrdom.

There we see a man in the most terrible circumstances: enemies rushing at him, death staring him in the face. Yet those circumstances do not touch him or control him at all. Heavenly things control him completely. He looked up into heaven and saw Jesus. Earth was rejecting him, as it had already rejected his Lord. But heaven was open to him, and as he looked up into that open heaven he caught some of the rays of glory shining in the face of his risen Lord. He did not only catch them; he threw them back into the moral darkness around him.