Well, here we are, another episode of the Semi
-Seminarian. We're continuing our look at the
Acts of the Apostles in this episode. We're going
to look and see what happens when the church
experiences its first level of persecution and
the martyrdom of the Apostle Stephen. I'll see
you on the other side. The way that this 6 through
8 is kind of framed, this is like a movie. Whenever
you see how this part of the story ends, you're
going to have a movie image in your head. So,
again, we're going to be tonight's lesson, Acts
section 4, persecution to expansion. It's going
to deal with looking at Acts chapters 6, 7, and
the very beginning of 8. So up to this point
in the story, The church, the early church, empowered
by the Holy Spirit, has been on an incredible
run of successes. From the day of Pentecost,
right, until where Peter preached in the middle
of the city of Jerusalem, converted thousands
of people. Every time it seems like the authorities
have an attempt to squash the movement, it seems
to just make them stronger and more bold. And
we also see a successful attempt by these early
Christians to begin to create a radical, powerful
society within the existing society. The work
of the early church was then, and should be today,
about changing the way that we live with one
another from the individual up. of the kingdom
of God here on earth was one of the heart. You'll
notice in nothing that we've studied thus far
with regard to the birth of the church, was there
any attempt by the followers to overturn the
political structure from the top down. This was
a rethinking, a reimagining of what society should
be like as followers of Christ from the individual's
heart up. And so far in our story, the wins and
successes for these early Christians was piling
up. But things are about to change. Like anything.
the larger and more complex a organization or
community gets, the greater the likelihood there
is for tension within that community. So how
does the early church deal with adversity? Acts
chapter 6 opens the very human problem I think
that we all can relate to and a grace -filled
solution that I think in the end, when we understand
what's happening, we can truly admire. So I'm
going to begin reading here. Chapter 6. We're
going to read all of 6, 7, and beginning of 8.
There's going to be a stretch there where I'm
going to read Stephen's, what's called Stephen's
Apology. I'm going to read that in whole. It's
kind of a long stretch of scripture here, but
it'll be worth it. There's a reason why. So in
those days, the beginning of the church. Remember
where we've just come from. Pentecost, growing
church, Peter and John going to the temple courts
daily to pray. They heal the lame man whom everybody
knows that had been seen at the temple gates
for decades. They couldn't deny it. And the Sanhedrin,
the Supreme Court there, the officials, the authorities,
had asked them to please stop preaching in the
name of Jesus. Peter and John. basically respond
that that's just not possible, that the authorities
can do with Peter and John whatever they wish,
but they can't stop preaching what they have
seen and what they've heard. And it's in those
days where we see ourselves tonight. When the
number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic
Jews, I've got some definitions here that will
help you kind of understand who these groups
are, the Hellenistic Jews, among them, claimed
that the Hebraic Jews, because they're widows,
were being overlooked in the daily distribution
of food. So the twelve apostles gathered all
of the disciples, the followers of the way, gathered
them all together and said, it would not be right
for us to neglect the ministry of the word of
God in order for us to wait tables. Brothers
and sisters, Choose seven men from among you
who are known to be full of spirit and wisdom.
We will turn this responsibility, this distribution
of alms and food to the widows, the poor. We're
going to turn that responsibility over to them
so we, the twelve, can focus our attention on
prayer and the ministry of the word. This proposal,
this idea, pleased everybody, pleased the whole
group. And so they chose seven men. They chose
Stephen. We're going to talk a lot about Stephen
tonight. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Spirit. Also, Philip. We're going
to be talking a lot about Philip next time. Procurus,
Nicantor, Timon, Paraminus, and Nicholas from
Antioch, who was not a born Jew, but actually
was a convert to Judaism, from Antioch. They
presented these men to the apostles, who then
prayed and laid their hands on them. Okay, so
let's pause right there. We often think, I think,
especially in the time of Jesus in the first
century, we often will think of the Jewish people
during this time in very monolithic terms. Like
we think of the Jewish people as one big group
of people, and maybe followers of Christ, the
Christians, as... one other group of people in
opposition to this other large group. But that's
not an accurate portrayal of the Jewish people
in the first century. And what I mean to say
is that sometimes we'll just think of the Jewish
people just as the Jewish people in a one -size
-fits -all kind of way. The reality is, in the
first century, that there is a great amount of
diversity amongst the Jewish people in what was
known at that time and today as the Second Temple
period, Second Temple Judaism. Some of the various
groups we already know of, there's the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, both having their difference
of Jewish religious thought. They're Jews, but
they have different beliefs. There's a group
called the Zealots who were militant about the
overthrow of Roman oppression. In other words,
they saw the message of God through revolutionary
and violent terms. They saw their duty and their
worship of God as a form of active opposition
to the Roman oppression. Then there was also
the Essenes. The Essenes become famous. In the
20th century, because it's their writings that
are discovered in the 1940s that we now know
as the Dead Sea Scrolls, those are writings,
scrolls that were contained amongst the Essenes.
Those were Jews that chose to live outside of
normal society and chose to live together communally.
And you might think of the Essenes like the way
we might think of as monks. So they lived together
in kind of monasteries, and they were cloistered
or separated away from the rest of society so
that they could focus on their relationship with
God and try to minimize any form of interaction
with the outside world. There were also Jews
of different ethnicities, and that's what we're
seeing here. These Hellenistic Jews... would
have been Jewish people that would have come
from outside of Judea. They would have been Greek
-speaking, and they would have also followed
Greek culture. Then we would also, at least in
the first part of chapter 6 here, we see the
Hebraic Jews or the Hebrews. These are Jews that
grew up and live in Judea, right? And they would
probably have spoken either Aramaic. Well, they
wouldn't have probably. They would have spoke
Aramaic or Hebrew, and they would have followed
Hebrew culture. Now, we know that one of the
defining characteristics of Hebrews is the way
that they define themselves in opposition to
the other, right? Many of the cultural rules
that are set up, we find in the Hebrew scriptures
in the Old Testament, often deal with Hebrews
either doing certain things or prohibiting the
doing of certain things so that they may be seen
as distinct from other. other cultures that they
neighbored against. So even though these are
Jews that would have, they are Jewish people,
but they grew up in a different place, the Hebrews,
those that would have grown up in Palestine,
in Judea, in Galilee, would have looked at the
Hellenistic Jews, even though they are brothers
and sisters in the faith, as the other. And what
we're seeing in this dispute here early on, is
this belief by these Greek -speaking Jews that
their widows and orphans are being mistreated
compared to the treatment of the widows and orphans
of the Hebrew Jewish people. Now, there's no
evidence to suggest that that's on purpose. It
just happens to define the conflict that we see
amongst this group of Jews whom have now converted
to Christianity. They're still living ethnically,
culturally as Jews, and in many ways religiously.
We still see Peter and John, apostles of Christ,
still showing up to temple in the afternoon every
day to pray in the temple. We're not to the point
that these people have surrendered their Jewish
way of life, even though they now accept the
messianic truth of Jesus. So earthly Judaism,
when we put these kind of ethnicities to it,
often is about us and them. And these Orthodox
Jews would have prided themselves on not having
to do with anything that they would have considered
pagan, and they would have considered anything
pagan that wasn't exactly like them. That's how
they would have viewed these Greek Jews. So,
where have these people come from? Well, let's
stop real quick, because where are we? We're
in Jerusalem, and now there is this huge amount,
there's thousands of people that would be Hellenistic
Jews that are part of the body of Christ now,
part of the early church. How has this happened
within Jerusalem? Well, one, there would have
been a number of Hellenistic Jews that would
have just by nature, by natural course, would
have lived in Jerusalem. But let's not forget
how they got there. Remember, Pentecost fires
up, pardon the pun, fires up the early church
with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, right?
Why are the Jews, what's significant to Pentecost?
They've come. They've returned back from Passover.
They've returned after Passover, 50 days later,
and they've come to offer their first fruits
in Jerusalem. So Jewish people that lived outside
of Judea, These Hellenistic Jews have returned
back to Jerusalem to offer their first fruit
offerings. And while they were there, they had
no intention of staying. But while they're there,
they hear this sermon by this crazy guy named
Peter. Their hearts are touched about Christianity
and they stay. They don't go back home. Their
lives have forever been changed. because now
they're Christians. So they have decided to stay
in Jerusalem. Well, this influx of these Greek
-speaking, Greek -cultural Jews are the ones
that's caused this tension. So of the seven,
what's interesting, of the seven that are chosen,
each one of these, beginning with Stephen, And
then Philip, secondly, what is interesting about
these seven men that are chosen, each one of
them are Greek. Now the reason why I think that
this is a grace -filled solution to the problem
is even though there are a large amount of Hellenistic
Jews, by far and away within the city of Jerusalem,
the larger amount of the body of Christ at this
point are going to be made up of Hebrews. So
the Greek speaking Jews come to the apostles
with a complaint that their old and affirmed
are not being treated equally. So the apostles
say, well, let's come up with a way that this
can be corrected. So pick seven of the whole
of both groups. Pick seven to be the ones that
will be in charge of this to make sure everything
is administered fairly. And what we find is none
of the seven that are picked are Hebrews. So
they've actually decided to pick those of the
minority. And I think that that's a very graceful
moment in the history of the early church. And
as a result, I believe, of the desire not to
seek power, but to seek grace and harmony, verse
7 of chapter 6 says, so the word of God spread.
The word of God spread. the number of disciples
in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number
of priests became obedient to the faith. That's
significant because now we're actually seeing
priests being converted. Now, we are guessing
that these are going to be priests that are going
to be lower on the totem pole. And I say guess
only because when we see members of the Sanhedrin
convert, We know their names, right? I mean,
when we go to Joseph of Arimathea, right, was
a member of the Sanhedrin. He converted to being
a follower of Jesus. We know his name because
Joseph of Arimathea was an important guy at the
time. So the fact that these priests aren't named
is probably an indication that they are lower
tiered priests, but priests nonetheless. And
here we are now going to be introduced. to the
first martyr of the Christian church, and not
the first martyr of Christendom, right, because
that's Christ, but the first martyr of the church,
verse 8, Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace
and power, performed great wonders and signs
among the people. Opposition arose, however,
from members of the synagogue of the freedmen,
as it was called, Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria,
as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia,
who began to argue with Stephen, but they could
not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave
him to spoke. So he is preaching within this
synagogue that's composed of these people. That's
significant. These places that are mentioned,
these are provinces of the Roman Empire, not
provinces of Judea. So places like Alexandria
and Sicilia and Asia are going to be places that
are part of the Roman Empire, but they are Hellenistic.
They are Greek -speaking, Greek -cultured people.
Cilicia is particularly mentioned, it's believed,
because that is a province of the Roman Empire.
I can't say it. And the capital of that province
is Tarsus. And there's a very famous person that
comes from the city of Tarsus. Anyone? Saul comes
from Tarsus. So the argument here is that Stephen
has picked a fight with perhaps the very synagogue
in which Saul attended. That's going to come
back into play. Now they couldn't stand up against
the wisdom the Spirit gave him to spoke. So they
had these debates with Stephen, but they couldn't
beat him with words. So they're going to try
to go after him with false witness. We're going
to find out. So again, who's mad at Stephen?
These are Jews. This is a synagogue, again, that's
frequented by Jews that are not Palestinian.
They're not of Judea, right? Or the Roman province
of Judea. And again, that Cilicia is the capital
of Tarsus where Saul is from. Verse 11, they
secretly persuaded some men. Here's the false
witness part. We've heard Stephen speak blasphemous
words against Moses and against God. So they
stirred up the people and the elders and the
teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and
brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced
false witnesses who testified. This fellow never
stops speaking against the holy place and the
law. So we get an idea of what Stephen's sermons
are about and what is making the Jewish people
angry. Stephen is saying something that makes
them angry about the holy place or the temple
and also about the law, the Torah. For we have
heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy
this place and change the customs Moses handed
down to us. And this is actually an accusation
that was falsely made against Christ as well,
right? That he said that he would tear down the
temple and rebuild it magically in three days.
Now we know from the gospel account, according
to John, that's not what Jesus said, right? He
actually said, you tear down the temple and I
can rebuild the temple in three days. But he
didn't say, I'm going to destroy this temple.
He wasn't even talking about the temple, really,
was he? He was talking about the temple being
replaced with the body, the spirit in the body.
So all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin, all
of these Supreme Court justices, they looked
intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face
was like the face of an angel. In other words,
they didn't see fear. They didn't see uneasiness
or worry. They saw the peace of Christ. The apostle
Paul tells us about later in his letter to the
Philippian church. They see his calmness. Now
why are they mad? Because Stephen is challenging
their understanding of the story of God and his
relationship with his people. And how is he challenging
that? Well, Jews are going to hold two things
sacred in their religious spiritual lives, the
temple and the law. And Stephen is somehow challenging
notions about what the chosen people, the Jewish
people, think about the temple and the law. And
actually, Stephen is going to be the first apostle
to make the argument that Jews are not the chosen
people. for the exclusivity to God. But they're
actually the chosen people because they're chosen
by God to serve as messengers of His love to
the rest of the world. So Stephen's thesis about
the Jewish people of which he, although is Hellenistic,
is one of. is that we as Jews are God's chosen
people, but we're not chosen people at the exclusion
of every other person on the world that's not
Jewish, but actually the chosen of chosen people
means God entrusted to us the message of his
love for every creation in the world. And that's
what our job is. Our job isn't to just sit back.
and enjoy the fact that we happen by complete
biological accident, been born into the right
race of people, but rather it comes with a responsibility.
That our job is actually to clearly and succinctly
argue to every person that we meet, whether they're
Jewish or Gentile, that God loves them and offers
them salvation through Jesus Christ. Now how
is that different than... Peter's message, for
example. Peter, the first sermon we hear at Pentecost.
Peter, we hear preaching in Solomon's porch in
the temple. Well, Peter's message is different
than Stephen's because Peter's message was a
message to the Jewish people that they are to
repent because they missed the coming of the
Messiah. Peter was not necessarily preaching
about what's to come outside of the walls of
the city of Jerusalem. He was actually preaching
to what happened inside the hearts of the Jewish
people within Jerusalem. So Peter wasn't preaching
to Gentiles or about Gentiles and their salvation,
but Stephen is. And that's going to anchor the
high priest. We suspect would still be Caiaphas,
the same high priest that would have tried Jesus.
So the high priest then asked Stephen, are these
charges true? We are right at the beginning of
chapter 7 of Acts. To this, Stephen replied,
brothers and fathers, listen to me. Now, this
is called Stephen's Apologies. This is going
to be... A long section of scripture that I'm
going to read, but it's necessary that we read
the whole thing. Brothers and fathers, listen
to me. The glory of God appeared to our father,
Abraham, while he was still in Mesopotamia, before
he lived in Haran. And God said to him, leave
your country and your people. And God said, go
to the land and I will show you. So he left the
land of the Chaldeans. And he settled in Haran.
After the death of his father, Terah, God sent
him to this land where you are now living. He
gave him no inheritance here, not even enough
ground to set his foot on. But God promised him
that he and his descendants after him would possess
the land, even though at the time Abraham had
no child. This is Stephen recounting their history
to the... jewish supreme court god spoke to him
in this way for 400 years your descendants will
be strangers in a country not their own and they
will be enslaved and mistreated but i will punish
the nation they serve as slaves god said and
after they will come out of that country and
worship me in this place then he gave abraham
the covenant of circumcision and abraham became
the father of isaac circumcised him eight days
after his birth. Later, Isaac became the father
of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the
12 patriarchs. Because the patriarchs were jealous
of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt.
But God was with him and rescued him from all
of his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled
him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh, king of
Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and
all his palace. A famine struck all Egypt and
Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors
could not find food. When Jacob heard that there
was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on
their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph
told his brothers who he was, and the Pharaoh
learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph
sent for his father Jacob and his whole family.
There were 75 of them in all, and Jacob went
down to Egypt. where he and our ancestors died.
Their bodies were brought back to Sechem, and
he placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought
from the sons of Hamor at Sechem for a certain
sum of money. As the time drew near for God to
fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of
our people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then
a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came
to power in Egypt. He dealt treacherously with
our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing
them to throw out their newborn babies so that
they would die. At that time, Moses was born
and he was no ordinary child. For three months,
he was cared for by his family. When he was placed
outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought
him up as her own son. Moses was educated and
all the wisdom of the Egyptians was powerful
in speech and action. When Moses was 40 years
old, he decided to visit his own people, the
Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated
by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and
avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought
his own people would realize that God was using
him to rescue them, but they did not. The next
day, Moses came up upon two Israelites who were
fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying,
men, you're brothers. Why do you want to hurt
each other? He was mistreating the other, pushed
Moses aside, and said, Who made you ruler and
judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me
as you killed the Egyptian yesterday when Moses
heard this? He fled to Midian, where he settled
as a foreigner and had two sons. After 40 years
had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the
flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount
Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the
sight. As he went over to get a closer look,
he heard the Lord say, I am the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses
trembled with fear and did not dare look. Then
the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals,
for the place you're standing is holy ground.
I have indeed seen the oppression of my people
in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have
come down to set them free. Now come, I will
send you back to Egypt. This is the same Moses,
They, the people, had rejected with the words,
Who made you ruler and judge? He was sent to
be their ruler and delivered by God himself through
the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He
led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and
signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for 40 years
in the wilderness. This is the Moses who told
the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet
like me from your own people. He was in the assembly
in the wilderness when the angel who spoke to
him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and
he received living words to pass on to us. But
our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they
rejected him and their hearts turned back towards
Egypt. They told Aaron, make us gods who will
go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led
us out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened
to him. That was the time they made an idol in
the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to
it and reveled in what their own hands had made.
But God turned away from them and gave them over
to the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. This
agrees with what is written in the book of the
prophets. Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
40 years in the wilderness, people of Israel?
You have taken up the tabernacle of Molech, the
star of your God, Rephan, the idols you made
to worship. Therefore, I'll send you into exile
beyond Babylon. Our ancestors had the tabernacle
of the covenant law with them in the wilderness.
It had been made as God directed Moses according
to the pattern that he had seen. After receiving
the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought
it with them when they took the land from the
nations God had drove out before them. It remained
in the land until the time of David who enjoyed
God's favor and asked that he might provide a
dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was
Solomon, David's son, who built a house for them.
However, the Most High does not live in houses
made by human hands. As the prophet says, heaven
is my throne, the earth is my footstool. What
kind of house will you build for me, says the
Lord? Or where will my resting place be? Has
not my hand made all these things? He is quoting
the Old Testament prophet Isaiah there. You stiff
-necked people, he's quoting Yahweh there. Your
hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You're
just like your ancestors. You always resist the
Holy Spirit. Was there ever even a prophet your
ancestors did not persecute? They even killed
those who predicted the coming of the righteous
one. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.
You who have received the law that was given
through the angels. but have not obeyed it. That's
the end of what we call the apology of Stephen.
So let's look at, that's a lot of stuff. That's
basically the whole of the history of the Jewish
people from Abraham to Jesus. Basically, in a
nutshell, right there. So let's look at the argument
that Stephen's making and why the next verse
will say, when the members of the Sanhedrin heard
this, they were furious. and gnashed their teeth
at him. What's made them so upset? That's right.
But let's tease out specifically what Stephen's
argument is making. So let's go back to the first
paragraph of his apology. That's going to be,
let's see here. Verse 2, that's right. To this
he replied, Brothers and fathers, listen to me.
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham
while he, that's Abraham, was still in Mesopotamia.
And it was even before he lived in Haran. He
told him to leave your country and your people.
So God comes to Abraham, right, in Mesopotamia.
Now let's look at the very last paragraph. The
very last paragraph. beginning with verse 48.
However, the Most High does not live in houses
made by human hands. And then he quotes the prophet
Isaiah here. Stephen is making a very, very succinct
statement about where God resides. And what he's
saying is God doesn't reside in the temple. There
wasn't... A promised land. This was back in Mesopotamia.
This was in Ur. And God was there. And fast forward
through all of this history of the Jewish people,
at the time of Jesus, and Stephen's still quoting,
Isaiah is saying, God doesn't live in houses.
God is bigger than... You Jewish people are in...
It's through the hardening of their hearts, okay?
But they are limiting God. They're placing God
in a box, quite literally, the temple. Because
if God doesn't reside in the temple, then the
temple system is severely flawed with its power
and legitimacy, right? And not only that, Another
thing I think Stephen is making, and here is
very, very subtle, but here's where Stephen begins
talking about what God values in faith and to
whom God is trying to reach. Because as we look
through this discourse of Stephen's brief history
of the Jewish people, we notice that each person,
Abraham and Joseph, And Moses, each one of these
people, God sends favor upon. And each one of
them had the courage to do something. Leave.
When God directed them, when God interceded in
their lives to take them outside of Jerusalem
and outside of Judea, the men that... trusted
God and did that were those that found favor
with God so Stephen is making a very very subtle
argument here about who is favored amongst God
and it's not just the chosen people of Judea
but it's the men and women of the world that
hear and respond to God's direction That is super,
super important for Stephen, right? Because Stephen,
like other prophets, have been warning the Jewish
people for centuries about just hearing the wisdom
of God, but not doing anything about it. That's
what got them in this mess in the first place.
And so Stephen is saying there is something very
valuable that we have been missing in our relationship
with God. That God places favor upon men and
women who not only hear the wisdom of his truth,
but act as a result of it. This is going to inflame
the Sanhedrin. Because as he is attacked, Stephen,
subtly, as he has attacked both the validity
of the temple and the strength of the Torah,
because basically what he's saying is finding
favor with God isn't just about following these
rules, but allowing your lives to be transformed
to where you might go to a place where you don't
even know what's going to happen tomorrow, but
you trust in God. That's finding favor with God.
It's not the 613 commands that we find in Leviticus.
The Sanhedrin, what he's basically saying is,
everything that you guys stand for is wrong.
And you are wasting all of our and God's time
by acting like you're important. That's basically
subtly what Stephen is saying. The Sanhedrin...
they don't take too well to this resolution.
And instead, they become furious and they gnash
their teeth at him. But Stephen, remember, face
like an angel, full of the Spirit, looked up
to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus
standing at the right hand of God. And look,
he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man.
standing at the right hand of God. Now, I believe
that to be a true and literal event, but I also
believe that that has something to teach us in
the 21st century as well, that there is a tremendous
amount of peace that can be gained by us when
we focus on the right hand of God and not focus
on those that are gnashing their teeth all around
us. And so Stephen is focusing on Christ in this
moment. Although he doesn't mention Christ, does
he? He calls Him the Son of Man. The Son of Man.
And this is actually going to be the only other
time in the New Testament where we hear anybody
refer to Jesus as the Son of Man other than Jesus
Himself. Happens to be the only time. At this,
the Sanhedrin, you can imagine. Not only have
we decided to find you guilty of heresy, but
even in our ability to pronounce judgment against
you, you continue to blaspheme. And he continues,
if you are seeing God glorified and you're seeing
Christ with him, you're blaspheming us as we're
sentencing you to death. And they covered their
ears. And they yelled at the top of their voices.
And they all rushed him. dragged him out of the
city and began to stone him. Now, what's interesting
is this is not an execution. The Sanhedrin did
not have the power to put anyone to death. This
is a lynching. This is vigilante justice. Although
the Sanhedrin had the ability to pronounce guilt
or innocence, they did not have the legal authority
or ability to condemn anyone to death. Meanwhile,
the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of
a young man named Saul. While they were stoning
him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord,
do not hold this sin against him. And when he
said this, he fell asleep. And that is the first
martyrdom. of a Christian apostle. So let's back
up here a little bit, and we have been introduced
to this seemingly important but we're not quite
sure character of this guy by the name Saul.
So how would Saul describe himself in this particular
moment, if he could, in Acts chapter 7? Well,
let me just jump to Philippians chapter 3. Verse
3, and I'll tell you how Paul would have described
himself in this moment. For it is we who are
of the circumcision, we who serve God by His
Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, put no confidence
in the flesh. Though I myself, Paul says, have
reasons for such confidence. If someone else
thinks that they have Reason to put confidence
in the flesh. Great. But I have more. He says,
I was circumcised on the eighth day. There was
no mistake by my parents. Parents' responsibility
to circumcise their male children by the eighth
day. Of the people of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, the elites, the Benjamin, the Benjamite.
are the elite rulers of Israelites. A Hebrew
of Hebrews. In regard to the law, I was a Pharisee.
I didn't just know the law. I could expound upon
the law. As for zeal, persecuting the church,
as for righteousness based on the law, I was
flawless. This is the character. that we have
just been introduced to here at the end of chapter
7, this young man by the name of Saul. Meanwhile,
the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of
a young man named Saul, the end of verse 58 says,
meaning to say that whilst the crowd has decided
to stone Stephen, Saul watched over their coats
while they did the dirty work. They trusted Saul
to hold on to their outer garments while they
did the stoning. And Saul, chapter 8 opens, approved
of their killing him. Now this relationship,
this story, not only about what Stephen said
to the Sanhedrin, but at the end of his life,
this is going to come up again. Because Saul...
When he's Paul, he's going to remember this story,
and this story is going to have a very, very
deep impact on his life. When Saul converts to
Christianity, this moment is one of the moments
that convicts him. So even in the midst of this
terrible, terrible atrocity, this vigilante justice,
This first century lynching, God is planting
the seed in the heart of Saul who still has Christians
to persecute that will eventually bear the fruit
of Paul's evangelism. On that day, a great persecution
broke out against the church in Jerusalem. And
all except the apostles scattered throughout
Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen.
and mourned deeply for him. Saul began to destroy
the church. Going from house to house, he dragged
off both men and women, and he put them in prison.
And that's where we'll end our story for this
time. Well, there you have it. I hope that episode
was as inspiring for you as it was for me. Join
us next time as we... Watch as the apostles will
now take the message of Jesus Christ outside
of Jerusalem and eventually to the wider world.
We'll see you next time here on the Semi -Seminarium.