STEPHEN --SAW THE GLORY OF GOD
STEPHEN---SAW THE GLORY OF GOD
Acts 7
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, January 15, 2011
Acts 7:55: “But he, (Stephen) being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. They cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.”
Stephen’s words had revealed the Jews’ rejection of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and their rejection of the Glory of God. The Holy Spirit is the Glory of God.
The Jews would have clearly understood that Stephen was decreeing to them. Because of their rejection of Christ, the Glory of God had left the temple and even Jerusalem. This same tribunal would have heard Jesus prophecy to them 3-1/2 years before that he indeed would be sitting at the right hand of power.
This was Christ’s own prophecy before the same tribunal. (Mt. 26: 64-66) “Jesus says to him (the high priest) “…I say to you, Hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. The high priest rent his clothes, saying, He has spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard His blasphemy.”
Hebrews 9:11: “But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
Acts 7:48-49: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool; what house will you build Me? Says the Lord; or what is the place of My rest? Has not my hand made all these things? You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did so do you.”
Hebrews 8:13: “In that he said, a New Covenant, he has made the first old now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.”
The martyrdom of Stephen was a grand historical terminating point of Gabriel’s seventy weeks (490 years from 457 B.C-A.D.34---Daniel 9:24-27). The martyrdom of Stephen is the formal rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the High Priest and the Jewish Sanhedrin! (Acts. 6:9; 7:1).
The glory had departed from Jerusalem; and was centered at the right hand of God where Stephen saw the Son of Man standing to receive him. The relation between the vision and the theme of the speech must not be missed. Stephen began his speech with the visitation of the Glory of God to Abraham (7:2). Stephen’s theme is that God reveals Himself not only by what He proclaims through the prophets, but what He does in history. Stephen’s hearers were to understand the diversity of God’s self-revelation as the God of glory and to see their own crime in the behavior of national leaders who had repeatedly rejected both divine visitation and the men God had raised up to further His divine purpose.
Stephen’s sermon of the history and restoration of Judah to the land and law of Moses was not only a fulfillment of the prophetic word, but was God’s divine design to hold the Jews in the land until the birth of the Messiah according to the prophecy of Daniel (Dan. 9:24-27).
After the death of Stephen, there was a grand historical paradigm shift
of that which is in Heaven will be heavenly on earth. In the Old Covenant, Moses was instructed to
build the earthly tabernacle according to the pattern of the Heavenly and the
Lord came and dwelt in the temple. Now
the Pattern Son had himself become the perfect offering. The proof that His sacrifice was accepted was
the fact that He is at God’s right hand in the throne of God.
The Old Testament blood could only “cover” the sin, which is the basic meaning of the word “atonement.” But the better blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of the New Covenant, did more than cover our sin; His blood, the blood of the lamb of God took away sin! He removed it.
I was fourteen years old the first time I heard the story of Stephen preached. My Sunday School teacher at Sumach Methodist Church, Mary lee Wilburn, told the story to us with tears running down her cheeks. Mary Lee was the first person I ever knew to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know exactly what that was, but I knew she had been touched by the Lord in a special way. Even though there were some young teenage boys in the class who thought they were “bad”, even they knew the Lord was speaking to us that day. It is a Sunday school class I will never forget. We were not able to resist the wisdom and Spirit by which she spoke.
Acts 6:8: “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then ere arose certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia disputing with Stephen. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”
The Lord was proving the truth of the gospel by working miracles in His name through Stephen. Stephen is the one God raised up to cause a break between the temple program and the church. He was elect of God to complete that which was prophesied to Daniel by Gabriel 490 years before. It was a sharp break. It was quite pronounced once Stephen’s work was done.
What soon followed was the consequent persecution of Jesus’ disciples, and the turning of the apostles to the nations. The time of “to the Jew first” was now ended.
For 3-1/2 years after Jesus’ death, the gospel was still being preached to the Jew first. The Apostle Paul summed it up:
“Acts 13:46: KJV “...It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo we turn to the Gentiles.”
Stephen, elect of God for Kingdom destiny, appears in the Book of Acts for this brief moment. His reward will not be on how long he was on the job, but that he did the job. (Mt. 20: 8-10) Jesus’ earthly ministry was fulfilled in 3-/12 years.
God chose Stephen to create the division between Judaism and the church. He used the great mind of this man (the Mind of Christ) to frame the last appeal to Israel, as a nation, to consider Jesus as the Messiah. His arguments are so irrefutable and unanswerable, that it will produce the final break. The city of Jerusalem will now be turned against the Christians.
(6:11) “Hellenistic fanatics were successful in spreading a false report accusing Stephen of four crimes of blasphemy:
- By making Christ greater than Moses.
- Christ will destroy the Jewish Temple.
- Christ is greater than the Temple and the law.
- Christ abolished the law and made a New Covenant.
6:15: “All that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”
Not only was Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, but he was full of scripture. He knew the Word.
In chapter 7:2, he identifies The God of Glory as His Father: “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; the God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham.”
In Stephen's vision, he saw the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many years ago the Lord spoke to me, "Carolyn The Holy Spirit is the Glory of God." The theme of the revealed presence of the Glory of God to the Jews throughout Stephen’s sermon is to emphasize the vision given to Stephen of the Glory with Jesus at the right hand of God. The self-revelation of the God of Glory is very clear in the reference to the flames of a burning bush which turned Horeb into holy ground (7:30).
Stephen is himself a flame of glory with the presence of God shining on him. Like Smith Wigglesworth once said, Let us all set ourselves aflame and burn for Christ.
Verse 37 is the clincher against the charge of blasphemy of Moses. (7:37): “This is that Moses, which said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, like to me; him shall you hear.”
This was the greatest honor God put upon Moses was to prophesy of Jesus and that He would change the customs of the ceremonial law. Christ told them himself, If they had believed Moses, they would have believed him. Moses told them that this prophet would bring a better hope, as the mediator of a better covenant. The greatest honor they could do for Moses would be to “hear ye him”.
The message is clear. Moses delivered the law, but Jesus delivered, the Spirit, forgiveness, redemption, justification, and eternal Life.
2 Cor. 4: 4-6: “…the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The Glory of God left the temple made by human hands as documented by Stephen’s vision. Today the Glory of God shines in our Spirit as we allow Jesus to rule and reign in our heart. When Jesus was walking the earth in overalls, the Glory of God was in him. Now through the Holy Spirit, we are the Temple of the Holy Ghost and His Glory is in us.
That which is in Heaven is heavenly on earth. The fullness of the temple, sacrifices, prophet, priest and king abides in each of us as we abide in Jesus.
Rev. 21:2-3: “I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
This is not future. This is now. The Lord said, “Carolyn teach New Jerusalem as purity.”
Hebrews 12:22: “You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things that than of Abel.”
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. –Bibliography: F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, E. H. Trenchard. Teaching by: Teaching by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom Acts 6 & 7, 2/27/2000. Comments and conclusions are my own as given to me by the Holy Spirit and not meant to reflect the views of those from whom I have gleaned.