"Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him (Stephen) with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
(The Stoning of Stephen.)
Ok. Let's recap what we've discussed so far:
The Jews rejected Jesus: #1) IN PERSON during the time He was ministering to Israel, going about doing good. #2) They rejected Him after He rose from the dead in His resurrected form; and...#3) They rejected Him in the preaching of Peter.
They were given chance after chance. Had they accepted at any one of those points, He would have returned and set up His VISIBLE KINGDOM. Yep; you read right: The second coming would have happened back then! He would have returned!
The persecution of the church, which began with Peter, went on all the way until Stephen was stoned in chapter 7 of the book of Acts. He was preaching to the Jewish leadership and his face, you remember, shone like an angel. But then he went and called them "rebellious." Well, that was the last straw. They couldn't take it anymore. Let's follow the story:
“When they heard these things THEY WERE CUT TO THE HEART, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, GAZED INTO HEAVEN AND SAW THE GLORY OF GOD, AND JESUS STANDING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and THE SON OF MAN STANDING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD!” Then they cried out with a loud voice, STOPPED THEIR EARS, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him...." (Acts 7:54-57)
Wait; what?! Jesus was standing? I thought He was SEATED at the right hand of the Father. Why was He standing? HE WAS STANDING READY TO RETURN!
If the Jewish leaders had repented at Stephen's preaching, He would have split the clouds and come back right then and there! But as they stoned him he prayed, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
He also put them under the Leviticus trespass offering, like The Master did, which we discussed in part 6. Look who was there as a witness to their evil deed.
"... the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named SAUL."
In the midst of this great wickedness, God would soon raise that young man. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, an ultra legalist. But our God made him into THE GREATEST GOSPEL PREACHER OF ALL TIME: The Apostle Paul!! That's the goodness of our God!
In the very next chapter, Acts 8, God brought Phillip to a man from Ethiopia, a eunuch, who didn't understand what he was reading in the book of Isaiah. He preached the gospel to him, the man got saved and Phillip water baptized the man.
For the first time GOD BEGINS TO MOVE OUTSIDE ISRAEL, saving Gentiles!
FYI: Ethiopians are descendants of Ham, Noah's son.
Then in chapter 9 Saul, who became the Apostle Paul, was saved. He is from the line of Shem.
In chapter 10, Peter was sent to the home of the Roman centurion, Cornelius. He preached to the Gentiles gathered in his house, though he didn't give an "altar call," so to speak. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit fell on them, they spoke in tongues and Peter was flabbergasted! He NEVER in his entire life expected Gentiles to get saved. You see, he still didn't quite understand God's ultimate plan: to save the whole world! Aren't we glad of that!?
Yes!
Cornelius was an Italian, a descendant of Noah's son, Japheth.
Three chapters in a row we see God beginning to moving outside Israel, saving ALL of Noah's descendants! That included you and I!
Please join me for Part 11. We’ll begin looking at the rest of Acts in our series of Rightly Dividing The Word Of God:
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