The Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 7

The Trial of Stephen

There is no division between chapter 6 and 7, showing Stephen standing in front of Caiaphas (or Ananus) the high priest in the courtroom of the Sanhedrin Council defending himself on false charges.  The charges against him were: 

1. Speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God and against the holy temple and the law. 
2. Accused of claiming that Jesus would destroy both the temple and the customs delivered by Moses.
3. Considered a blasphemer of God and an apostate from Judaism.  

Stephen stood motionless before the Council, while his accusers ranted and raved about his guilt.  Stephen, on the other hand, showed himself calm, at peace, and just waited for his turn to preach the Gospel in a way they could understand the truth.

The high priest then turned to Stephen and asked him to respond to the the charges against him.  "Are these things so?" asked the high priest to Stephen.  In other words - "Are you guilty or not guilty?" 

Acts 7:1  Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

In his response, Stephen began by pointing out he  was a son of Abraham, and valued himself a Jew in every respect.  In paving the way for presenting the Gospel, Stephen opened up by giving a panoramic view of the history of the Scriptures, with the purpose of proclaim the truth that this Jesus, whom he had been testifying about was prophesied in the Scriptures as their Messiah.  This Jesus is the One they had been waiting for, proving it by going all the way back to Abraham.     

The Abrahamic Covenant

² And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. ⁵ And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶ But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ ⁸ Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.

Stephen spoke out how Abraham, living in the pagan land of Mesopotamia where God revealed Himself to him as the true God above all other gods.  The first question would then be - why did God specifically pick out Abraham to show Himself as the One true Almighty God?  

• Being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, God saw down the corridors of time to know that Abraham would recognize and receive God as the One true God in the midst of all of the pagan gods.
• God knew that Abraham would worship and serve Him, and through Him many seeds would come upon the earth.  God, however, needed to get him out of his country and away from the influences of his pagan relatives.
• God had a specific country that He wanted to bring Abraham to - a country that Abraham and his seed could call their own - a country where they could serve their God.
• This transfer; however, woud take time and be done in stages.

Stephen also reminded the Sanhedrin Council how Abraham had no children, but that God gave him a promise through a covenant, known as the Abrahamic Covenant, that he would not only have a child, but he would have many descendants after him that God would call His children in this new land where God would bring him.  He would, however, come to this land for a short time, but then his descendents would live in a foreign land and becomes slaves for 400 years under another ruler with many gods. God, however, would then bring them out of that foreign land and make a covenant with them.  As a sign of that covenant, all male children would become circumcized.  They were meant to be a separate people under the One true God.

Joseph and the Israelites

⁹ “And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰ and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 

¹¹ Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³ And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. ¹⁵ So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

Here was see Stephen reminding the Sanhedrin Council of how Joseph, the son of the Patriarch Jacob, was sold into Egyptian slavery by the evil deeds of his brothers, but how later Joseph received favor from the Pharaoh and was made governor over Egypt in the midst of famine.  This famine was the catalyst that brought Joseph's family from their country to Egypt to live where Joseph eventually died and his family becames slaves of the Egyptians for 400 years.  The family of  Joseph (renamed Israel by God) would eventually be known as the Israelites.  They came in as a family,of 75, and in the time of those 400 years, they had become a nation known as the Israelites - the sons of Israel.

Moses in the Palace

¹⁷ “But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸ till another king arose who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹ This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. ²¹ But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. ²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

Because God had made a covenant with Abraham, the family of Joseph (Abraham's grandson), who had all grown into a nation of people over the past 400 years, was given mercy and favor by Almighty God.  When the time of the promise was drawing close, what looked like a tramatic series of events by the Egyptians killing the babies of every Israelite family, God spared one male child by the name of Moses.  He was spared death by the Pharoah's daughter who found him floating in a basket in river, and raised him as her precious son. As such, Moses learned the ways of the Egyptians, and became a very powerful man throughout Egypt. 

Moses on the Run

²³ “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵ For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. ²⁶ And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ ²⁷ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

We see here that when Moses was 40 years old, he went out to see some of his Israelites kin folk. What he witnessed was one of them beating up on another, and he came to the oppressed one's defense, striking the beater down dead.  Out of fear, Moses then hid his body. The next day Moses went back and found two more men fighting. Trying to talk to them, he found out that the death he caused the day before was rumored all over.  This knowledge frightened Moses so much to where he fled Egypt to escape any punishment.  He crossed the desert, ending up in the land of Midian, where he settled down, married and had two sons.

Moses and the Burning Bush

³⁰ “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, ³² saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ³³ ‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. ³⁴ I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.” ’

AFter 40 years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a bush consumedby a flaming fire somewhere in the mountainous area of Mt. Sinai.  As Moses approached the flames, the voice of the Lord spoke out to him saying "I am the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  In fear, Moses couldn't even  open his eyes.  Then God said to him, "take off your sandals, for this place you are standing on is holy ground."  God then told him that He had seen the oppression of His people in Egypt and He was ready to free them, but He would be using him to free his people.  Moses was to return to Egypt.

³⁵ “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

Moses the Deliverer

Moses, descendant of Abraham, yet the one raised in the Egyptian palace by Pharoah's daughter, would be the one whom God had called and sent to be a ruler and deliverer by the hand of that same angel who first appeared to him in the burning bush.  The Egyptian rulers, however, would reject him. 

Through many signs and wonders, the Scriptures verifird that Moses brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.  One of the wonders was the opening up of the Red Sea, the Israelites crossing through the Sea, and when the Egyptian army came after them, the sea swallowed the army.  God has shown Himself faithful, by then protecting the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years.

³⁷ “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’  ³⁸ “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, ³⁹ whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ⁴¹ And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ⁴² Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:

Stephen, being accused of blasepheming Moses, now gives honor to Moses by pointing out how the Scriptures, through Moses, foretold that through the Israelites God would raise up another prophet like him some day. 

This same foretold prophet had been with the patriarchs in ages past speaking the oracles of God to them.  This same foretold prophet was also with Moses when God spoke to him in the burning bush on Mount Sinai. 

Moses had the honor of being with this foretold prophet, and foretelling He would ultimately come to earth as the fulilled Messiah to the Jewish people.

When the Israelites first wandered in the wilderness, their hearts turned back to Egypt when Moses was up on the mount talking to God.  In fear, many made a golden calf for an idol to worship and offer sacrifices, rejoicing in their evil deeds.  God then gave up on them and simply allowed them to worship whom they chose and then devoured them in death.

This prophet Moses also spoke of the One who instructed Moses with the commandments of God and watched over the children of Israel all those 40 years in the wilderness. 

Turning Back to Idols

While they were commanded to give sacrifices of their animals to God during the 40 years in the wilderness, when they came to their promised land, they began turning to and worshiping the god of Molach and other idols.  As such, God forced them to leave their promised land and go into exile under another ruler.

‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?  ⁴³ You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of your god Remphan,  Images which you made to worship; And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

All this was not to blaspheme Moses, but to give him the honor as the person God used to point the way to the prophecies throughout Scripture that would lead them to Jesus.  Jesus was thas prophet!  He is King, He is the Son of God - the One with the true Living God.  Jesus is God.

Tabernacle to Temple

⁴⁴ “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, ⁴⁵ which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. ⁴⁷ But Solomon built Him a house.

Their fathers, under Moses, once had a tabernacle in the wilderness, to be used as a pattern for future worship.  At the end of 40 years, where another generation had grown up, Joshua led the Israelites back into their promised land that was then possessed by Gentiles. 

But the Israelites, through the hand of God, drove them out until the days of King David.  David asked God for a temple, and God used his son Solomon to build the temple of God.

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:  ⁴⁹ ‘Heaven is My throne,  And earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,  Or what is the place of My rest?⁵⁰ Has My hand not made all these things?’

As Stephen continued, the air as tension began to mount in the court of the Sanhedrin Council.  Stephen boldly spoke out that God no longer dwells in temples made with hands.  He confronted their idolatry of the temple, confining God to within the walls of the temple.  In doing so, he was confronting their idolatry of the temple.  God, however, is a much bigger God than that. 

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, ⁵³ who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

Stephen boldly called them stiff-necked and unircumcised in heart and ears meaning they were completely blind as to what they were doing, obstinate, and determined to do what they wanted to do. There was nothing anyone could say or do to change their mind.  He accused them of resisting the Holy Spirit in the same way those of their ancestors had done.  They persecuted and even killed the prophets before them, and now they betrayed and murdered their Messiah.  They had the Law, they knew the Law, but they disobeyed the Law.

The Martyr of Stephen

⁵⁴ When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. ⁵⁵ But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, ⁵⁶ and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

After listening to Stephen, the Council was angered even to the point of madness.  Stephen, on the other hand, being full of the Holy Spirit proclaimed to them: "Look, I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." 

⁵⁷ Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; ⁵⁸ and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Refusing to listen to him, they covered their ears, screaming and running toward him like a wild mad crowd.. At that, they dragged him out of the city and stoned him, as was his sentence for being found guilty of blaspheme.

Those who were part of the stoning laid their outer garments at the feet of a young Pharisee named Saul, acting as the official over the stoning.

⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

He laid down and died.

That concludes chapter 7

Click here for Acts - Chapter 8

God bless!

Pastor Joyce Erickson
Believersbibleschool.com