Stories. Most of us like stories. You have non-fiction stories – biographies and autobiographies. You have fiction stories. They grab our attention because we often relate to the people in these stories. Suspense. Action. Romance. Plot twists. We like stories.
It comes as no surprise that much of the Bible is a story, one long story. From Genesis through Esther – seventeen books in the OT tell one long story. In the NT, we have the life of Christ in four books plus Acts which is church history for thirty years after the resurrection of Jesus. But it’s all story. So, 22 books of the Bible are almost entirely story.
We love stories. In one sense, you can say the Bible is God’s story – His – Story. It’s the story of how God created man, interacts with man, and sent Jesus to save man. All one story.
Acts 7 shows us that God wants us to know history – His history – His story of His interactions with His people. Acts 7.
WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ABRAHAM – 7:2-16:
Stephen begins his story with Abraham. God called Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia and told him to go where God would lead him. “Abraham” is mentioned 40 times in the rest of the NT from Acts to Revelation. Do you think God wants us to know the story of Abraham?
1. God appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, not in Palestine.
2. Abraham obeyed God in all that God said.
3. Israel was in slavery in Egypt and God judged Egypt for enslaving Israel.
4. In verse 9, we see that the “patriarchs,” that is, the twelve sons of Jacob, became jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery and he ended up in Egypt.
5. In talking about Joseph, Stephen once again reminds the Jewish audience that God is not limited to Palestine.
WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MOSES – 7:17-45:
As the time was approaching for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham to make a nation out of Abraham’s family, who was in Egypt as slaves at the time, the people were increasing and multiplying in Egypt. God was working in Egypt; He was not limited just to Jerusalem.
1. Moses was trying to give freedom to his people who were slaves in Egypt.
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2. Moses fled to Midian, outside of Egypt but, once again, Stephen points out that God was at work in the wilderness with Moses.
3. God sent Moses back into Egypt, where God worked through Moses in Egypt.
4. In verse 35, Stephen points out again that the Israelites back in Egypt had “disowned” Moses, just as the Jewish leaders were wanting to “disown” Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
5. God worked through Moses, performing wonders and signs so that Israel would know that God was working through Moses (vs 36).
6. And it was this Moses who prophesied that God would raise up a prophet among the Israelites, like Moses (Deut. 18:15-17).
7. Again, in verse 39, Stephen tells his Jewish audience that their ancestors, the Jews of Moses’ day, “were unwilling to be obedient to Moses, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.”
8. In verses 42-43, Stephen quotes from Amos 5:25-27, to show that the Jews had given themselves to worship things made by human hands – idols.
9. Speaking of the temple, in verse 44, Stephen says that the pattern for the tent of worship was given by God to Moses, the tabernacle which held the law.
WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DAVID – 7:46-50:
David wanted to build a place for the house of God, a permanent location for the ark of the covenant. It was Solomon, however, who built the temple itself (vs 47). But, notice in verse 48 that Stephen comments: “The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands” and Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1-2 to prove his point. God doesn’t dwell in temples anyway! Much less the temple in Jerusalem!
STEPHEN’S CONCLUSION – 7:51-53:
What have we seen here? The longest speech in the whole book of Acts is one short history lesson of the Jewish nation from the Old Testament. We can go back and read the longer accounts in our Bibles. God has given us the Old Testament – 39 books to be precise – to fill in the gaps left by Stephen’s speech. God gave us that history because God wants us to know that history, to understand that history, to learn from that history.
If we wish to be the church of Christ, we need to know the history of God’s dealings with man so we can learn what God wants to teach us.
Paul Holland
