Bible Reading for March 8 – Acts 6:8-7:16

Those who reject the authority of Christ are not, after all, very creative. From radical Muslims who disown family members who become Christians to Marxist college professors who flunk students who stand up for Christian teachings, those who hate Jesus still tend to use force to impose their beliefs on others. And when they aren’t bullying Christians, they’re telling lies about what the Bible teaches, or making all sorts of false accusations about those who follow Jesus.

And those who opposed Stephen 2000 years ago were doing exactly the same sorts of things. Because they could not honestly refute how he taught the Scriptures, much less his manner of life (6:10), they simply lied about him, saying that he was a blasphemer (6:11). And they seized him by force and dragged him before the council of religious leaders (6:12) to get them to shut him up.

So, how should Christians respond to the violence and lies which the world continues to direct towards us? As we’ll see over the next few days, Stephen simply went back to the Bible. He began his defense by pointing to the example of Abraham and Joseph. Indeed, he pointed out that when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt (7:9), they were only using the same bully tactics that Stephen’s enemies were using against him.

But Stephen also pointed out that, far from thwarting God’s plans, the persecution of God’s people only serves to accomplish God’s will. After all, many years before God’s people went down into Egypt to escape a famine, God had told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years (7:6). But God also said that He would judge their oppressors and bring them into the land He had promised to give Abraham (7:7). And God did exactly what He promised in the days of Moses (7:34)

In the same way, we need not be afraid of the lies and threats of the bullies who continue to persecute the Church. Instead, we simply need to uphold Biblical truth, even as we place our faith in the God Who uses even the greatest of injustices – like the cross – to redeem and vindicate His people.

Acts 6:8-7:16 (ESV)

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council,
13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”
15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
6 And God spoke to this effect– that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.
7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.
13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.
14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.
15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,
16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.