Friday Acts 7:1-8

Stephen talks about Abraham.

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Stephen has been accused of blasphemy against the Law of Moses and against the temple. The high priest asked him if it was true. Stephen responds with the longest speech in the book of Acts. At first glance if appears that Stephen does not really answer the question. Actually, he does answer the question. But, it is not just a yes/no question. In some respects, he is guilty of their accusations. He has been telling people that they should not trust in the Law of Moses. He has been telling people not to trust in the temple. He has been trying to change their traditions. However, he is not guilty of blasphemy. He is calling people back to God.

So, he uses the history of God’s people to answer the question. Stephen’s response has two themes to it.
1. God is not tied down to a location. He does not live in the temple. He has been the God of His people wherever they were. His people were actually the closest to Him when they were pilgrims without a land.
2. The people of Israel have a history of rejecting the people that God has appointed as their leaders. This pattern has been repeated in the rejection of Christ.

He begins with a review of Abraham who was revered by the people of Israel. He was their father. Abraham was called by God to be the father of God’s people. But, God first spoke to Abraham when he was still in the pagan land of Ur. Abraham never possessed any of the promised land, yet God was still with him. The promise of the land to Abraham was so that his descendants would have a place to worship Him.

Stephen is making the case that the central point of the promise to Abraham was not land to possess, but the freedom to worship and serve God. The Jews may have been occupying the land, but they were not truly worshiping God. They had the temple, but they were not following God.

The Jews of that time had replaced faith with traditions. They had replaced God with the temple. We can be guilty of the same problems. We can replace faith with traditions. We can replace God with the church. We substitute church service for serving God. We substitute church activity with following Christ. We do not go to church – we are the church. When we gather together on Sunday we are the church gathered. When we are following Christ the rest of the week, we are still the church.