Commentary on Acts 7:51-53

By Bob Myhan

⁵¹"You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

The term “stiffnecked” is a figure of speech for stubborn rebellion. The Lord Himself used it to refer to Israel in the wilderness.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your descendants I will give it.' And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people." And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.'" (Ex. 33:1-5)

The worst insult one could pay an Israelite is to call him “uncircumcised in heart and ears.” This implies that his heart is no purer than that of an uncircumcised heathen.

Stephen has not stopped abruptly due to some reaction he sees on the part of his audience. Rather, he has come to the point in his discourse to make the application he intended to make from the beginning. But it was necessary, in all fairness, to first give the evidence of the charge he is now making. He has shown by example after example that their fathers did “always resist the Holy Spirit,” even as his audience was now resisting the Holy Spirit by resisting those who speak by inspiration.

⁵²Which 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, ⁵³who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it."

He challenges them to name one prophet that their fathers did not persecute, even to death. Jesus said much the same about their ancestors.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (Matt. 23:29-36)

Not only had they “become the betrayers and murderers” of “the Just One,” but they would also kill and/or scourge the apostles and prophets during the kingdom or church age.

They had “received the law by the direction of angels” in that God had revealed it to Moses by means of heavenly messengers.

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. (Gal. 319)

For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Heb. 2:2-4)

That they had not kept the law was also a matter of record within the law.

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jer. 31:31-34)

An example of their having broken God’s covenant (and had, therefore, not kept it) is the fact that they did not observe the feast of tabernacles from the time of Joshua until after the Babylonian captivity.

And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim. So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner. God did not need either the tabernacle or the temple as a dwelling place (Neh. 8:14-18).

Next week, we will notice the reaction of Stephen’s audience to his discourse.

(To be continued)

The Lord’s People Part #1

By Bob Myhan

Jesus was a master at using the things in the material realm, with which everyone is familiar, to illustrate the things in the spiritual realm, to which no one has direct access through the physical senses. He used a variety of figures to illustrate various features of the spiritual relationship that is possible between Him and us. Among them are “the church,” “the family of God,” “the kingdom of God and Christ,” “the body of Christ,” “the building of God” and “the vineyard of the Lord.”

The Church

The word, “church” comes from the Greek “kuriakos,” which means “of or pertaining to the Lord” [ex: “the Lord’s Supper” (1 Cor. 11:20), and “the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10)]. It almost always translates the Greek word, “ecclesia,” which refers to a group of people who have been “called out” of the general population for some (not necessarily spiritual) purpose. The word, “church,” is used in the universal sense (Matt. 16:13-18), the local sense (Matt. 18:15-17) and the geographical sense (Acts 9:31-ASV; NRSV), but it always refers to those who have been called out of the world. While many in the denominational world use the word “church” to refer to a fellowship of local churches, more or less organized above the local level, the New Testament knows nothing of this use of the word.

The nature of this calling is manifold. The Lord’s people are called of God (2 Tim. 1:7-9; 1 Cor. 7:15; 1 Pet. 5:10), called into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor. 1:9), called to peace (Col. 3:15), called to be children of God (1 John 3:1; Rom. 9:25,26), called to be saints [sanctified ones] (1 Cor. 1:2; Rom. 1:7), called with a holy calling (2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet. 1:15; 1 Thess. 4:7) and called with a heavenly calling (Heb. 3:1).

The means of this calling is twofold. First, we are called through the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 2:21); Jesus suffered, bled and died that all might come through Him unto the Father (John 6:44,45; 14:6; Matt. 26:28; Heb. 2:9-18; 1 Pet. 2:21-25). Second, we are called by the gospel of Christ (2 Thess. 2:13,14; Matt. 16:13-18), which includes facts to be believed (1 Cor. 15:1-8) and commands to be obeyed (2 Thess. 1:8; Acts 16:31-33; 2:37,38; 10:48; 22:16).

There is a hope associated with this calling. Hope is desire plus expectation (Rom. 8:18-25). One does not hope for what he either does not desire or does not expect. Expectation without desire is “dread.” And desire without expectation is mere wishful thinking. But the Lord’s people have hope (Eph. 4:4). It is a living hope of heaven (1 Pet. 1:3), “which hope “we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb. 6:19,20).

(To be continued)