UNIFORM LESSON FOR SEPTEMBER 27, 2015
Scripture passage and lesson focus: Acts 5:27-30, 33-42
This unusually long passage is easier to understand if it is read as a one long speech. Our author Luke was obviously not present to hear this speech, so he must have relied on reports he received from others just as he had for his first volume, the Gospel of Luke (see Luke 1:1-4). Basing his account on these sources, he composed what he believed Stephen would have said. This was a commonly accepted practice of Hellenistic historians when reporting events they had not witnessed personally.
The audience for this speech was the Sanhedrin, Jewish religious leaders trying to deal with a group of Jews who were proclaiming their faith in the resurrected Jesus and urging their fellow Jews to do the same. Luke emphasizes their shared Jewish heritage by having Stephen refer to his hearers as brothers and fathers.
The Sanhedrin’s specific concern was with Stephen, a charismatic follower of Jesus. Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin for preaching about Jesus. According to his accusers, Jesus had said he would destroy the temple and change the way the Law of Moses had been practiced. Luke attributes these charges to Jews now living in Jerusalem but who had come from other Jewish communities scattered throughout the Mediterranean world. This constitutes the first expansion of Luke’s description of the early church as a worldwide movement that began in Jerusalem and spread to Rome.
Luke depicts Stephen as person very familiar with the history of Israel from Abraham to Solomon. The main point of his speech is to demonstrate that a pattern of opposition to God’s prophets has been a recurring theme throughout Israel’s past. Stephen tells the Sanhedrin that the death of Jesus was the most recent chapter in that long history.
Acts 7:2-8 – Abraham believed
Stephen’s selective account of Israel’s history begins with Abraham. God called Abraham to make a long journey from Mesopotamia to Haran and finally to Canaan. God promised Abraham that his progeny would possess the land, even though Abraham had no children at the time. God initiated an agreement, a covenant, with Abraham. The distinguishing sign of belonging to the covenant people was circumcision. Abraham believed God and became the father of the Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, who was the father of the 12 patriarchs. God faithfully kept the promise to Abraham. The absence of any reference to the matriarchs of Israel, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel or Leah is a byproduct of the patriarchal culture in which the early church developed.
Acts 7:17-37 – Moses heard God’s call
Moses, “beautiful before God” and “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” fled from Egypt and settled in Midian. After 40 years, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob appeared to him in the burning bush. God challenged Moses to return to Egypt to rescue the covenant people. God was faithful and did not abandon the covenant people in Egypt. Stephen reminded his audience that God not only empowered Moses to lead the people out of Egypt, but God also promised to raise up a future prophet like Moses.
Unfortunately the people did not obey Moses. Instead they turned to the worship of idols. Consequently, God handed them over to the worship of other gods and ultimately to exile beyond Babylon.
Acts 7:51-53 – Forever opposing the Holy Spirit
Stephen comes to the end of his abbreviated and selective account of Israel’s history with this confrontational conclusion aimed at the Sanhedrin: “You are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.” He knew they would have no answer to his exaggerated rhetorical question “Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?”
The death of Jesus was the latest chapter in the long story of Israel’s opposition to God’s prophets, Stephen claims. The prophets had foreseen the advent of Jesus, identified here as “the Righteous One.” Stephen points an accusing finger at the Sanhedrin, and in terms reminiscent of the prophets of Israel, he calls them “stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears.” Not surprisingly, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged.
For discussion: Do you consider yourself to be part of a family of faith that includes Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David ? Or do you prefer to think of your family of faith as beginning with Jesus and continuing through Paul and Calvin? Do you think Stephen’s speech was an effective response to the question he was asked in Acts 6:11-7:1? How would you describe God’s relationship to the covenant people in Stephen’s account?
