Ep 397 – Acts 7:44-53

Stephen is on a roll. He is still letting the high priest and the Sanhedrin have it with both barrels, accusing them of being just like their ancestors, who had rejected Moses, the rescuer God had sent them. From Stephen’s point of view, the religious leaders of Israel we just as guilty, having rejected Jesus, even ensuring that He was put to death by the Romans. And now that His disciples were making noise and drawing crowds by preaching, teaching and healing in Jesus’ name, they were rejecting them as well. Acts 7:44-53 contains the portion of Stephen’s message where he lets his audience have it due to their inordinate love affair with the Temple, the city of Jerusalem and their special status as God’s chosen people. None of that was going to make any difference if they continued to reject God’s work being done in their midst. And it wasn’t helping their cause that, when all was said and done, they were actually resisting and rejecting the very Spirit of God – a dangerous game to play. What the Jewish religious leaders failed to recognize was that God was now dwelling in His people, not just among them. God’s presence wasn’t constrained to a cloud hovering over the Holy of Holies. He existed, in the form of the Holy Spirit, within each and every believer. As Paul will later write in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV).