Once again a new chapter Acts ch 7 but continuing the story of Stephen which we started in yesterday's blog post about the 3 Characteristics of Service.
Yesterday we saw how the church leaders recognised Stephen as having those 3 Characteristics that were necessary for service, then outsiders charging him with blasphemy and today we see how he reacts to the charge and the result of it all.
Usually when we are asked if something held against us is true or not we want to immediately speak in our defence to show how it is a false accusation and this will focus around ourselves. This was not the case here with Stephen, instead he started with God’s call on Abraham’s life and and then went on to Moses and further through the history of the Israelites to the prophets.
Through history, well-known passages of scripture he brings the thread throughout the lives of the Jewish race which ultimately leads to the sacrifice on Calvary.
Then he made an accusation about the mistreatment of the prophets and also the mistreatment of Jesus and the responsibility on the Jewish leaders for the death of Jesus.
Not surprisingly they were furious with him.
Then he maddened them even more because he stated that he saw Jesus standing by the Father in heaven.
Their response to this was to take him out of the city and stone him
His response was to ask forgiveness for them and their actions against him.
To make up the accusations of blasphemy (which was counted as a very serious sin) the Jewish leaders must have already hated Stephen and this could have been as a result of the characteristics pointed out in the previous chapter. They would not have been happy that he was respected, that he showed wisdom and that God was working through him.
So we see here how this hatred led to false accusations which led to Stephen pointing out their faults and evil actions against Jesus which led to their extreme anger which led to the murder of Stephen. Once something is set in motion it is hard to stop and can get out of hand very quickly with disastrous results.
This is proof of the necessity of those 3 Characteristics for Christian Service.
Join me tomorrow for more about the result of this response by the Jewish Leaders.