Rebellion and Resistance are Futile

Acts 7:37-60

Israel Rebels Against God

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:

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.'

God's True Tabernacle

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.

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?'

Israel Resists the Holy Spirit

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 the Martyr

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!"

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.

Stephen Continued his speech testifying to the call and rejection of God’s word by his forefathers and sums it up by saying that their rebellion and resistance are futile in the face of accountability to the LORD.  He began by reminding them of the words given Moses whom they revered because of the Law which they held so high but did not follow from their hearts; the scriptures told them that the LORD who was their God would raise up a Prophet like him from among them whom they must hear.  This was of course Jesus as the final prophet according to Acts 3:26 and Hebrews 1:1-2 by showing it was Jesus Christ Moses was pointing to down through the centuries to them that they should have been listening to.  Stephen recounted how Moses had spoken with God and to man who rejected their LORD in utter rebellion of sin in seeking immortality and idolatry instead.  He pointed out their hypocrisy in claiming to worship the Lord of Heaven while simultaneously worshipping the host of Heaven as well without truly knowing and serving the true God in wholehearted worship of single devotion of their lives in body and soul.  He spoke also of the temple built with human hands according to the heavenly pattern which became their center of worship instead of the LORD who inhabited that holy meeting place.  This temple was planned out by king David who was a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22-23) as he was shown and built by his son Solomon afterwards.  He reminded them of the scriptures which made it clear that God does not live in earthly places but in the reign from heaven above over all creation, but that they had worshipped the works of their hands (idols, Jeremiah 44:8) and resisted true worship with hearts and hands lifted to the LORD who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15) in His place.  Stephen then was moved by God’s Holy Spirit to accuse them directly as those unclean (uncircumcised) in their hearts and hearing with their stiff-necked ears that could not hear and hands that worked against the God who called them.  They were like their fathers before them who resisted God’s word and sovereign authority over them and killed the prophets before and including the final Prophet, Jesus the Christ sent from heaven above to the lower parts of the earth to walk among them and speak face to face with them.  He then looked up into heaven himself as God was calling him and told the listeners what he saw there, the LORD who was high and lifted up (Isaiah 6:1) and the Son of God seated next to His Father whom they claimed was theirs also in word only.  Like when the LORD answered Isaiah, they rejected that word with deaf ears once more (Isaiah 6:9-10) as God closed them off from Him in their disbelief and rejection of Him and His Word sent to them to hear (Acts 7:37).  When Stephen bore witness of the Lord Jesus in heaven, the council lynched him with stones as they put their coats down by Saul who was Paul the apostle to be.  This godly witness used the example and words of his Savior as he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not charge them with this sin” as the Lord did on the cross (Luke 23:34, 46) before him.  Then he went to be with the Lord forever.  May all who read know that rebellion and resistance are futile in light of eternity, and hear the final Prophet instead who is the Son of God and know the only Father God through Him alone.  This is our testimony and witness of the truth.