{"id":1560,"date":"2019-05-01T11:25:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T19:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2019-05-01T11:26:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T19:26:19","slug":"devotion-acts-7-1-53-irrefutable-defense-part-18-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1560","title":{"rendered":"Devotion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Acts 7.1-53\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Irrefutable Defense\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Part 18 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 7:1-53 \/ 54-60 <\/strong>\u2013 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious\u00a0and gnashed their teeth at him.\u00a055\u00a0But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.\u00a056\u00a0\u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cI see heaven open\u00a0and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.\u201d\u00a0 57\u00a0At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,\u00a058\u00a0dragged him out of the city\u00a0and began to stone him.\u00a0Meanwhile, the witnesses\u00a0laid their coats\u00a0at the feet of a young man named Saul.\u00a0 59\u00a0While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, \u201cLord Jesus, receive my spirit.\u201d\u00a060\u00a0Then he fell on his knees\u00a0and cried out, \u201cLord, do not hold this sin against them.\u201d\u00a0When he had said this, he fell asleep.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious\u00a0and gnashed their teeth at him.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Stephen had just pricked their hearts and consciences by exposing their hypocrisy and their guilt in killing not only the prophets they revered, but also the very Messiah that they proclaimed to be waiting for. When one\u2019s conscious is pricked one of two things usually happens.\u00a0 One, they repent and seek forgiveness.\u00a0 Or two, they get furious and want to hurt or destroy whoever is the tool of God to prick their conscious.\u00a0 If we tell the world of the evil it does, then it gets mad, real mad.\u00a0 If they are able to, they will kill us.\u00a0 A great example is that when we proclaim the gospel message that only through Jesus is one right with God, people get mad.\u00a0 Real mad.\u00a0 Some religions want to behead us or shoot us.\u00a0 Others, who consider themselves more civilized make laws against the Gospel to try to quiet us.\u00a0 They don\u2019t repent, they attack.\u00a0 So we see, man has not changed.\u00a0 John the Baptist exposed the sins of man and was beheaded.\u00a0 Jesus exposed the sins of man and was crucified.\u00a0 The Apostles exposed the sins of man and they killed all of them, except John, who they tried to kill by boiling in oil, but God spared him.\u00a0 Family, speak the truth and watch those who love evil respond in out-of-their-mind anger.\u00a0 Sometimes, the truly arrogant, just mock.\u00a0 Sad is the destiny of one who does not repent.\u00a0 They are no different than those who killed the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.\u00a056\u00a0\u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cI see heaven open\u00a0and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.\u201d\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 How did Stephen respond to all of their anger?\u00a0 He could have been frightened or even angry.\u00a0 Instead of those he turned his attention from them to Jesus.\u00a0 He focused on God and saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God.\u00a0 Family, when we are attacked we need to focus on Jesus.\u00a0 Has someone committed wrong against us?\u00a0 Then let us look to see Jesus.\u00a0 Let us see Him through His Word or even, God willing, with spiritual eyes that are opened by the Holy Spirit to see Jesus.\u00a0 When we are focused on Jesus, we are not only overwhelmed by He Himself, but also by what He did for us.\u00a0 We see the scars where the nails were driven through Him, and we see where the spear pierced Him, and we know it was done for us.\u00a0 When we clearly see that, we forgive others as we have been forgiven.\u00a0 If we want peace, we get it through Jesus and not through anyone else.\u00a0 We receive peace that goes beyond understanding only from Jesus (Philippians 4:7<\/strong>). \u00a0When the enemy, or even our own beloved attack us, look to Jesus.\u00a0 Then we receive His peace and having that, we forgive others.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.\u00a056\u00a0\u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cI see heaven open\u00a0and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.\u201d<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Stephen, as the Apostles attested to, could not help but speak out what He was seeing (Acts 4:20<\/strong>).\u00a0 To us, this sounds so beautiful and we think how great it would be to see what Stephen saw.\u00a0 To the Jews, who rejected Jesus, they only heard more of the reason they had Jesus killed, that was equating Jesus with God (John 10:31-33<\/strong>).\u00a0 To the Jews who rejected Jesus, this was blasphemy and according to The Law, blasphemy was punishable by death (Leviticus 24:13-16<\/strong>).\u00a0 Though they were horribly wrong, they killed the one they called a blasphemer and one who was propagating the blasphemy.\u00a0 Yet, they are not innocent, as we have seen in the past, some Jewish leaders had selfish reasons, and not religious reasons, for killing both Jesus and Stephen, and subsequently, many other disciples of Jesus.<\/p>\n

When attacked, Stephen looked to Jesus and was rewarded by a wonderful vision of Jesus.\u00a0 Most often Jesus is mentioned as sitting next to the Father.\u00a0 Here, Jesus was standing, with open arms, to welcome Stephen to his eternal home.\u00a0 We all, who believe, at the death of our earthly bodies, shall see Jesus in the same way.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,\u00a058\u00a0dragged him out of the city\u00a0and began to stone him.\u00a0Meanwhile, the witnesses\u00a0laid their coats\u00a0at the feet of a young man named Saul.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 We think of justice as being decided by rational, calm and judicious men who make decisions based on facts. \u00a0This group had decomposed into a blood thirsty, crazed mob.\u00a0 While Stephen was at peace with eyes on Jesus, these were looking at a man and were crazy in their anger.\u00a0 Family, let\u2019s not look at man or circumstances, but at Jesus, where our peace is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, \u201cLord Jesus, receive my spirit.\u201d\u00a060\u00a0Then he fell on his knees\u00a0and cried out, \u201cLord, do not hold this sin against them.\u201d\u00a0When he had said this, he fell asleep.<\/em>\u00a0 Stoning is not a quick death.\u00a0 It is slow and brutal.\u00a0 It comes stone by stone.\u00a0 Stephen remained calm through it all.\u00a0 When his final breath on this earth was to come he cried out to Jesus and gave his spirit to Jesus to receive.\u00a0 Just as Jesus his Savior and Lord had done the final words from Stephen were the love of God flowing from his heart as he asked Jesus to forgive his murderers.\u00a0 Wow!<\/p>\n

Family, we must hold unwavering to our faith in Jesus.\u00a0 Whether the cost of doing so is insults, being ostracized, or death, we must remain focused on Jesus.\u00a0 He is our strength!\u00a0 Someday He will stand and greet us with open arms and we will be home.\u00a0 It is for that day of being forever in God\u2019s presence that we strain forward.\u00a0 Oh that glorious day when faith fully becomes sight, when we shall ever more be free from suffering and pain and when we will be forever united with God, and reunited with all are loved ones who also have loved Jesus, it is for that day we yearn and press forward to.\u00a0 Today we yearn and push against worldly restraints as we focus on, with sure hope, of that glorious day.\u00a0 Praise God! Oh praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/em><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acts 7:1-53 \/ 54-60 \u2013 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious\u00a0and gnashed their teeth at him.\u00a055\u00a0But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit,\u00a0looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.\u00a056\u00a0\u201cLook,\u201d he said, \u201cI see heaven open\u00a0and the Son of Man…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,100,2454,94,1871,17],"class_list":["post-1560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-john","tag-leviticus","tag-micah","tag-philippians","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1562,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}