Acts 7:51–60

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.

He came down as Son of God in supreme love to die for us. He has gone up in righteousness, raised from the dead and glorified in heaven. The believer who is filled with the Spirit and suffering for His sake sees Him there. Once the heavens opened on Him here as He received the Holy Spirit and was acknowledged Son of God. One day He will come out from the opened heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords to judge the living. The Christian's place and privilege lies between these two, and Stephen shows it here in its fullest light.

Stephen looked steadily up into heaven, and saw the Son of Man standing at God's right hand — a Man in heaven, seen by a man on earth! What an immense step! It is a great blessing to have Christ in heaven, to see Him there, and to share a living link with Him in that glory.

So we have the unique character of the present day — Man in heaven; God on the earth. This belongs to Christianity alone. For his own encouragement and comfort he had seen "the glory of God and Jesus" — a living, blessed Man at the centre of the glory of God.

Of this One Daniel had written, and he had seen Him in vision (Dan. 7:13). David too had sung of Him in the Psalms (Ps. 8)... Power belongs to the crucified One, and as Son of Man He will one day use it... Many members of the council were likely present when the Lord Jesus declared that He was the Son of Man (Luke 22:69-71). They had a part in judging Him worthy of death for it. Now Stephen tells them to their face that he could see the One who had once stood at their bar standing at the right hand of God. The inference was plain — a child could draw it. Their guilt was undeniable.

Our Lord sat in relation to the finished work of redemption. The work was done. His standing, as Stephen saw Him, sets out a very touching truth — that the Lord lingered over His ancient people in wonderful grace.

This told the martyr what the ladder had told the patriarch. At that very moment, he and his circumstances were the thought and object of heaven.

Strife and noisy uproar surrounded him like a wall of fire. None of it could turn his eye or heart from that blessed One who filled them... But this is not all. He does not only look; he becomes like the One into whose blessed face he looks. That One said, "Father, forgive them." Stephen too says, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Meanwhile heaven stands open for the believer on earth. He may never see it as Stephen did, but it is no less his portion by faith. And the Lord Jesus receives our spirits above at death as surely as He did Stephen's.

Stephen 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 direction of angels. Their gnashing teeth showed that law-breaking was far more serious in their eyes than shedding the blood of the Pretender of Nazareth — for that is what, in their unequalled moral corruption, they judged Him to be… It is enough. They stop their ears, shouting for the life of the man who had testified that their slaughtered Victim was standing at the right hand of God! 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 slain was in the glory of God — that was the signal to take his life.

See how Israel treats the testimony of the Spirit to a glorified Christ… Their thoughts towards the glorified Christ were no different from when He was among them in lowliness and meekness. They have no desire to hear of Christ's glory, so they stop their ears. They protest loudly against the witness to His glory, and they are fully united in their wicked desire to be rid of him. How clearly they had made their mind known: "We do not want this man to reign over us."

Stephen, the last great witness, summed up their history as the rejecters of every deliverer God had ever sent. They had sold Joseph into Egypt. Of Moses they had asked, "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" They had slain the Just One, as their prophets had foretold. And now they resisted the Spirit of God! A broken law, stoned prophets, a slain Christ, and a resisted Spirit closed the tale. As they "stopped their ears and rushed together at him," they were like the "deaf adder that stops its ear" at the voice of charmers, no matter how well they charm (Ps. 58).

Like others since their day, when faced with an answer they could not refute they turned to force. They seem to have given him no time to think. They hurried Stephen off to execution… As far as we read, no one pronounced a sentence. In a state of frenzy they had their way. They stoned Stephen, and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. By the law the witnesses were to throw the first stone at the criminal (Deut. 17:7). This was not overlooked at that moment.

None are so cruel, and so without restraint, as those who have the highest religious prestige and reject the testimony of God. That rejection is their guilt, and it is His rejection of their claims. So it was then in the great council of Jerusalem. Like their ancestors, they always resisted the Holy Spirit. Stephen, "full of the Holy Spirit," rebuked their present state, however decent it looked, as worse than all the past. More than that, he testified to such grace and glory in Jesus on high as God had never announced before.

In the murder of Stephen the nation of Israel rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and it sealed their doom. But in wonderful grace the Lord took up Saul of Tarsus, at whose feet the murderers laid their clothes. He was to carry on the testimony of the Holy Spirit to a Christ rejected on earth and glorified in heaven.

Like others since their day, when they could not answer him they turned to force. It seems they gave him no time to think. They hurried Stephen off to execution. No sentence, as far as we read, was pronounced. In a state of frenzy they had their way. Stephen was stoned, the witnesses laying down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. By the law the witnesses were to cast the first stone at the criminal (Deuteronomy 17:7). This was not overlooked at that moment.

Outside the camp the blasphemer was to be stoned (Numbers 15:35-36). Beyond the walls of Jezreel Naboth was murdered (1 Kings 21:13). Outside Jerusalem Stephen was martyred (Acts 7:58). Outside the gate the Lord Jesus suffered. So those who confess Him were urged to go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. But in doing that they turned their backs on Judaism with all its hopes, its earthly position, and its ritual.

They stoned him. The witnesses, who said he was blaspheming, took off their garments to free their arms for throwing the stones. But they did not want their garments kicked about. So they laid them down "at the feet of a young man named Saul." He did not rush into the crowd to fling stones, but he consented to the deed. He said in effect: "Let that man die. He says he has seen Jesus the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, which is completely impossible. I consent to his death."

In that guilty scene was one man no less dark and furious than the rest: Saul of Tarsus. He would later be the witness of the very Jesus whom he was then persecuting in Stephen's person. He did not only look on; he took the part given to him here with those who stoned Stephen.

The rejection of Stephen's testimony was a turning point in God's ways with Israel, and with man. The same principle had already come out at the death of Christ. After that, God never could bless the world directly. He could forgive guilty Israel if they repented, and send Christ back again, in answer to the prayer on the cross. This is just what Peter preaches in Acts 3. If the people were converted, so that their sins were blotted out, Jesus was ready to return... But now they refuse Stephen's testimony completely. They cast the witness of Christ's heavenly glory out of the city and stone him without mercy.

Those who stoned Stephen laid down their clothes at the feet of the young man, Saul of Tarsus. In this way he became the formal witness of the last possible expression of man's enmity against Christ in the glory of God. But God, in infinite grace, took up this same young man. He made him the vessel of the testimony of the last and greatest possible expression of the love of God to the man who could only hate Him. That is why he speaks of himself as the chief of sinners. In him, "chief" as he was, God showed His whole long-suffering.

There is no ground for the addition in the Authorized Version of "God", and a questionable need for that in the Revised Version of "the Lord". It was on the Lord that His dying servant called, as the blessed Lord dying commended His spirit to His Father's hands.

No Christian denies he should pray to the Father. But it is just as certain that Christians pray to the Lord. In fact, calling on the name of the Lord Jesus is, so to speak, a definition of a Christian in 1 Corinthians 1:2. Stephen called on the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit, and Paul asked Him to take away the thorn. A child prays to his Father, but the administration of the house is in the Lord's hands.

It is hard to see how a man full of the Holy Spirit would be doing something that should now be forbidden.

They could not silence his confidence, his peaceful entrance into his place with Christ. … For Jesus could say, and He alone could say rightly, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Jesus alone could fittingly say, "I commit my spirit." He who could lay down His life, and could take it again, could so speak to the Father. But the servant of the Lord could say, and rightly and blessedly, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

Stephen first says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he kneels down and prays for Saul and those who were stoning him, so setting his spirit free. Not so Jesus. First He says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." At the close of the cross He commits His spirit to His Father. The order is the other way round. Stephen was only a man — a blessed martyr indeed. Jesus was God's goodness made visible.

To the crucified One he committed himself in that solemn hour. The dying martyr prayed to Him who had not saved Himself from death. In quiet confidence he entrusted to His keeping his interests, his future, his spirit… And one who stood by was that young man named Saul. Years later, facing his own death, he could write: "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me" (2 Tim. 1:12).

Have you learned with calm conclusiveness that if the believer's spirit is now delivered from the body, it is with Jesus? When Stephen followed the track of his Master, he did it in life and in death. If they were battering his body here, the Lord Jesus was receiving his spirit there.

To be with Christ is what leaving the body means. It is not sleeping — that would be far worse than what we now enjoy, while alive, in His love.

He surely knew the Old Testament well, yet he did not speak like a saint under law. On his knees, in prayer, and in a voice loud enough for those around to hear, his last words were a prayer for the men who had rushed him to his end: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Then came silence, the silence of death. He fell asleep. Like his Master he prayed for his enemies, and like Him he trusted himself to One in heaven. The Lord committed His spirit to His Father; Stephen committed his to his Saviour and Lord.

This was the first thought of Stephen's heart. How precious the grace that shone next, as he knelt and cried out "with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them." He does not say now what the Lord said before He died: "for they know not what they do." The Twelve, and he himself, to name only the leaders, had laid that sin fully on their conscience. This was the practical grace of a Christian: doing good, suffering for it, bearing it patiently, and praying earnestly that the Jews who had done this evil might be forgiven.

Stephen first says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and then kneels down and prays for Saul and those who were stoning him, so setting his spirit free. Not so Jesus. First He says, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34), and at the close of the cross He commits His spirit to His Father. The order is reversed. Stephen was only a man — a blessed martyr, but only a man. Jesus was divine goodness made visible: as Man He was perfect in dependence before God, and He was also God fully revealed to man.

In Stephen it produced a thorough, practical likeness to Christ… He bears witness to his Master. He forgets himself and his danger, and never thinks of what it may cost him. The Holy Spirit filled him with Christ to the exclusion of care for his life, or what should follow. Christ was the only object before him. He was like Christ in confession, and like Him in suffering too… What a picture of a life shaped like Christ's in grace! He looked up to the Lord with perfect confidence and gave his spirit into His hands. And he prayed hard for the men who were stoning him to death.

To the Lord he committed his spirit, and taking the attitude of prayer, he asked mercy for his murderers. Who could have expected such an astounding answer? His exalted Lord gave it in the conversion of Saul, the chief murderer. The answer to the Lord Jesus' prayer from the cross for His murderers came when the gospel went out, beginning at Jerusalem. The answer to Stephen's prayer came in the conversion of Saul. Acts 22:20 shows that Saul himself never forgot it.

Stephen fell asleep, we read in Acts 7:60, but we know from 2 Corinthians 5:8 and Philippians 1:23 that he was with Christ. From man's point of view he slept, because his body was still, unconscious of everything happening around it… Stephen's body was still and motionless. He slept. But he was with Christ, to whom he had committed his spirit.