Day 322 (Acts 7-8) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Yesterday when we left off, Stephen had been falsely accused by a group of Jews from another synagogue that doesn't recognize Jesus as Messiah. Today, as he's standing before the Sanhedrin, they're the ruling council that's kind of like the Supreme Court, they give him the opportunity to defend himself.

But Stephen kind of answers questions the same way Jesus does, meaning he doesn't give you the information you ask for. He gives you the information you need to know. Stephen talks for a long time and doesn't manage to say a single thing about himself in 53 verses. He just gives a synopsis of the Old Testament storyline as it relates to the gospel. If you were with us in the Old Testament, it was probably nice to have a refresher. But if you weren't, here's the overarching storyline Stephen presents.

God keeps pursuing his people. His people keep rejecting him. They reject and persecute and kill the prophets he sends to speak truth to them. Most recently, Stephen says, they've killed the righteous one all the prophets were prophesying about.

As he recounts all the horrible ways God's people have acted in the past, they probably recognize the evil actions of their forefathers. They probably resonate with what he's saying. But they may not realize he's building through a crescendo where the greatest burden of wickedness is the one these very people are legally responsible for.

The most recent way the people have rejected God's pursuit is by killing not just his prophets, but his son. They're furious, of course, filled with rage. Stephen, on the other hand, is filled with the Holy Spirit and seems to be, shockingly, at peace. I imagine his face lighting up as God peels back the curtain of eternity and gives Stephen a glimpse into heaven.

It's almost like Stephen can see the opening credits rolling and he knows this is the beginning of it all. He sees heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Standing. Did you catch that? Most of scripture tells us Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. So why is he standing here?

My eyes filled with tears whenever I read those verses. It says it twice. Lots of scholars say this points to Jesus rising up to be Stephen's advocate, to testify before the great judge on his behalf. Some say he's standing to greet and welcome Stephen into the afterlife. I don't know. I just know it's so beautiful. Even after all his work is finished, Jesus hasn't tuned out. He's paying attention. He's involved and engaged. He's praying for us, according to Romans 8, and he's cheering us on.

Stephen tells the Sanhedrin what he sees, but they scream at him and lunge to attack him. Once they're able to drag him outside the city gates, they can enact the death penalty. They're just outside a gate called the Lion's Gate, which is now known as Stephen's Gate for obvious reasons. It's on the east side of the city, facing the Mount of Olives. We'll link to a picture of this gate in the show notes.

When the Sanhedrin get outside the gates, they start taking off their cloaks so they can be better equipped to pick up and throw stones. And they lay their cloaks down at the feet of a man named Saul. He might be a member of the Sanhedrin, but if not, he's still a very powerful local leader among the Jews and Pharisees. It's almost certain that Saul heard Stephen preach the message of Christ moments earlier. And now he stands by, approving as Stephen becomes the first martyr of the church.

Just like Jesus did in his own death, Stephen asked the Father not to hold this sin against his murderers. Stephen's death escalates the persecution of Christians and increases the local tension between Jews who follow Christ and Jews who don't, and also between Christians and the ruling Roman authorities. Saul has one foot in both of those enemy camps. He's a Pharisee who rejects Jesus, and he's a Roman citizen. His dual citizenship puts him in a uniquely privileged position—

He's the highest ranking of the oppressed, and he's also part of the oppressing regime. By the way, Saul is a Hebrew name, like Israel's first king, but the Romans primarily speak Latin, so they prefer that version of his name, which is Paul.

For much of my life, I thought Saul's name was changed to Paul at some point, but that's not what's happening here. He just has two names like a lot of the people in Scripture. We'll link to a very interesting article about the Saul-Paul situation in the show notes if you want to read more. Because of all this tension, all the Christians in Jerusalem leave town, except for the apostles. And part of that is because of what Saul does next. He starts going door to door in Jerusalem, dragging Christians, men and women alike, out of their homes and throwing them into prison.

In this day, prison is basically a death sentence. The prison does not feed you, and in fact, they sometimes prevent other people from coming to feed you. If you're in prison, you're dependent on your friends and family to bring you anything you need to survive. You do not want to be put in a Roman prison in the first century. Try to avoid it if you can. Remember the seven men the church appointed to care for the widows? Stephen was one of them, and another one was a guy named Philip.

When Philip flees Jerusalem, he goes to Samaria, which is a three-day trip north of Jerusalem, roughly 70 miles. Jesus commanded the gospel to go to Samaria, even though the Jews and Samaritans aren't fond of each other.

When Philip arrives, he starts preaching and performing signs and wonders, and people begin to believe. When word reaches Jerusalem about the Samaritans repenting, they send Peter and John to make sure everything is going smoothly. When they get there, they realize these people have been baptized with water, but that they haven't been baptized into the Spirit of God yet.

Different churches hold different positions on this. Some say the baptism of the Holy Spirit is different from being indwelled by the Holy Spirit. Others say they're the same thing, but that these people clearly hadn't had an actual conversion experience yet. They'd just been dunked in water, which doesn't amount to anything without God's Spirit being the active agent in that process.

And still others say that because of the way the Jews and Samaritans dislike each other, it's important for the apostles to see with their own eyes that the Spirit is actively working in the Samaritans. Otherwise, they might be tempted to dismiss it. So the Holy Spirit verifies this experience, showing the apostles that the God of the Jews is also the God of the Samaritans.

Regardless of which it is, the Samaritans are welcomed into the family of God. The apostles' power and the message catches the attention of a magician named Simon. The kind of magic Simon practices might be done through demonic power and intervention. He notices the difference between his magic and God's miracles, and he's hooked. But it seems like he wants power more than he wants to surrender. This is not square one.

Trying to access the power of God and not the person of God is selfish idolatry. Remember when Jesus rebuked his followers who were only after the food he gave him? Philip responds similarly to Simon here, but Luke never tells us if Simon repents or not.

Then an angel gives Philip his next assignment, so he packs up and heads to the desert. He sees a chariot and the spirit is like, go say hi. The guy in the chariot is a powerful man in the Ethiopian government. Philip hears him reading aloud, so he says, hey buddy, what you reading? The guy is reading Isaiah, but he's super confused by it all. Turns out he's actually reading what is known as the forbidden chapter among Jews, even still today. It's very controversial. They refuse to read it in the synagogues and it's been removed from some of their holy books.

We'll link to a short article and video in today's show notes if you want to see more about this. Not only will it tell you more about the meaning of the chapter, but it'll also give you some insight into common Jewish perspectives on the Messiah.

Philip starts with that scripture, then unpacks the whole gospel. And this guy finally understands what he's reading. He's been making religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem, long journeys from Ethiopia to show his devotion. But nothing ever clicked with him until Philip explained the word to him. He goes from confusion to joy. I love the juxtaposition of this story with Simon's story. Simon selfishly wants power. The Ethiopian humbly wants God.

And he also wants to be baptized. So they climb down into the water, and when they're climbing out, Philip maybe teleports? It's hard to say for sure. All we know is that he's suddenly at the coast.

My God shot today was God's consistent success at turning the enemy's arrows back on him. What the enemy means for evil, God uses for good. Here's where I saw that. When the Sanhedrin murdered Stephen, they were trying to stop the spread of the gospel, right? But remember what happens? The exact opposite. The believers in Jerusalem disperse and take the gospel with them.

They're fleeing the persecution in Jerusalem, but make no mistake, they don't run and hide, they go and tell. 8-4 says, those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Were they afraid of persecution? Probably. But it didn't stop them. They know their assignment, and they know their God, and they know He's where the joy is. Okay, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How's it going? If your first thought was, I'm behind, then I'm here to politely tell you that you're very wrong. You're right on time. You spent time getting to know God today.

There's no wrong place to be in His Word. And because He knew exactly where you'd be today and He has such great attention to detail, I bet He taught you something you needed to know about Him exactly today. The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.