“Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us” (6:14). That’s what Stephen’s accusers said, and we cannot deny that many modern Christians are just as attached to the buildings in which they gather, as well as to their particular worship practices. Some of us even insist on worshipping in a certain place or in a certain way, even though what is preached from the pulpit has long since ceased to be in accordance with the Scriptures.

Well, what did Stephen say about these sorts of attachments? In the first place, he reminded his listeners that God’s people first worshipped Him in a tent that they carried with them throughout their wilderness wanderings (7:44). In fact, God was worshipped in this way during the victorious days of Joshua, when God drove out the pagan nations before them (7:45). So, it was obviously true that God could be worshipped in more than one place.

And this is in no small part because there is no building any mere human being can construct that can possibly contain the infinite, almighty God. Stephen found proof of this not in the New Testament words of Jesus, but in the Old Testament words of the prophet Isaiah, who had written hundreds of years before that Heaven was God’s throne and the whole earth was nothing but His footstool (7:49, see Isaiah 66:1). If God made the whole earth, how could His presence possibly be limited to any one part of it (7:50)?

How indeed? Stephen’s accusers had killed Jesus and would go on to kill Stephen in large measure to keep from having to change where and how they worshipped (7:52). Will we bow down to the same sort of idols, preferring our own traditions rather than engaging in more effective outreach to a lost and dying world?

Acts 7:44-53 (ESV)

44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.
45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,
46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, 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 announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”