Acts 7:1-53 / 51-53 – “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!” Stephen had just reminded them that God did not ask for a house to be built for Him. It was man’s idea to do so. The idea to put God in a house is similar to what men, even Christian men, do today. They, in pride or even rebellion and fear, try to build a box of their theology to contain God in. They say things like God cannot or will not do today the mighty works He has done in the past. Run from those who say that God no longer does the miraculous healings and no longer gives signs. As if they have all the knowledge and wisdom of God. Run from those who place limitations on God. It is blasphemous to even think that mere man can contain and limit God in any way. No, we are to know that God has not changed (James 1:17) and that there never were and never will be limits on God. Only God, in His infinite knowledge and wisdom, can place limits on Himself. The rainbow reminds us that He said He would never flood the entire earth as He did in the days of Noah (Genesis 9:8-17). This is a promise from God to mankind that He decided. It is a limit He made. No-one places any limits on God. God sets all limits (Job 14:5). No-one can confine God. How horrible is that proud thought! Run from the one who places limits on God. Only God, in His perfection, limits Himself. Praise God!
Stephen continues that his audience is a stubborn people. He states that their hearts and ears are uncircumcised (Leviticus 26:40-41, Deuteronomy 10:16, Jeremiah 4:4). He is saying that the sin, the desire for it, has not been cut away from their hearts or ears. The pattern of resistance and rebellion against God, that had plagued their ancestors, was still residing in them. We, like those Jews, can do outward works that seem to show love and obedience to God while inwardly our hearts are hard and resistant to God’s will. Circumcision was a reminder that what God really wants is people with circumcised hearts and minds to love, learn, and obey Him. Today we can attend church, go to seminars or seminaries, be involved in ministries or be ministers and still have hearts and ears that are hard and resist God. God wants us to have a heart that is not calloused over, but soft, healthy and fully vulnerable to His touch. He wants our minds to be open to every concept He wants to give to us. God wants us to allow the pain of having every speck of the world cut away from our hearts and minds so that they become fully able to love and receive Him, and all the wonders of Him, both in our hearts and in our minds.
What they and their ancestors had done and were doing, is resisting the sweet and loving Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who lives within all who loves Jesus, is the One who was calling to them to submit to God. They rejected Him. That is they followed the spirit of the evil one who wanted to raise his own will above the will of God. Family, we must be diligent to always, every day, search the motives of our actions and words. Are we wanting to please self or God? Let’s not cast stones at the Jews while being guilty ourselves. The history of the rebellious of the past is written so that we might not make the same mistakes. The truly wise do not need to learn the folly of sin through experience, but can know the folly of sin from the Word of God, from the Holy Spirit within, and even from the folly of others.
“Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?” Even their self-proclaimed hero Moses they wanted to stone. The evil spirit within them was manifest to all who see when they sawed the great prophet Isaiah in half. Family, there is no end to the evil a person can do when God is resisted and evil is submitted to.
“They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.” The prophets who predicted the coming of Jesus were rejected, and some killed, such as Isaiah. The Righteous One is the One who was innocent and just. Those who foretold of Messiah Jesus were killed by the people whom He came to save.
“And now you have betrayed and murdered him…” Stephen comes to the point. The Savior whom the prophets spoke of, they had ultimately been responsible for the murder of Him also. God sent people to tell of Jesus and to let them know that He was coming to save them. They killed the prophets. Then the one the prophets had said was coming to love and save them, they also killed Him. The same spirit that was in their ancestor was in too many of them also.
“you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.” Their ancestors were the ones chosen by God to receive the Law and to share it with those who would receive it. They were to treasure what God had given them and live by these Words from God. But they did not obey God. Very sad. How honored are the Jews! What a prized position God has given them. Yet, they, like us, too often rebelled. Sad on them! Sad on us!
Family, we have received the Word of God in the flesh. We have inherited the Word of God from the Jews. Do we learn from what God has given us, or do we desire to control our own destiny? If God marches us into the desert, do we complain and want to turn back the world? How are we different then the Jews? When we openly demand our own will, aren’t we also crucifying Christ again, just as they did? (Hebrews 6:6) Family, let’s be thankful that through Jesus we have the forgiveness of sin. That Jesus died once for all our sins (Romans 6:10). We ought not to be proud that we are children of God. The Jews were not the Chosen people of God because of something they did. It was by the will of God. Family, we are not the Chosen people of God because of anything we have done, but by the will of God. We are children of God not by merit, but by the loving grace of God given to us through Jesus our Savior and Lord. Let our praises not be only our words but more importantly, our loving obedience and following of Him. Let us all be humble. We who love Jesus are blessed beyond all others. Let’s appreciate what Jesus did for us. Let’s yield so that He changes our hearts and minds to how they are meant to be so that we may truly understand the love and greatness of our God. Praise God!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.