Good Monday to you,
Read Acts 7.1-53
Today’s passage is when Stephen is before the high priest and other religious leaders. We don’t know much about Stephen other than what we learned in chapter 6 that he was “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (6.5), who did great wonders and signs (6.8), and who was brought to the council on false charges.
As he faces the council, we get the sense of the Spirit’s work in Stephen’s life, much like Peter and John back in Acts 3 and 4. Stephen tells the story of God’s people beginning with Abraham before leveling a charge against the religious leaders as people who had uncircumcised hearts and opposed to the Holy Spirit (7.51).
As I reflect on Stephen’s words about God’s work among the people of Israel, I wonder how well each of us could tell the story of God? Those who took the heilsgeschichte at Hesston probably have an unfair advantage and can retell the salvation story fairly well. What about the rest of us? How well can we tell our personal testimonies of God’s action in our lives? How well can we tell the story of God’s salvation in the Bible?
Stephen’s retelling isn’t super long, and can be expanded if necessary. I encourage you over the next few days to write down in bullet form the main stories, or people you would talk about if you were asked to tell the story of the Bible. If you’re bold enough, I invite you to practice telling it to someone else. Internalize the story of God and find your story in it. The message of the Good News of Jesus is meant to be lived and told. Too often we only live it and hope people will figure out why we do things on their own. Practice telling God stories—stories of God in your life. Practice telling God’s big story—the story of the Bible that leads to Jesus.
Grace and Peace,
Matt
Inductive Questions: (These will be included each day and your work on them will be the foundation we build upon at our Wednesday evening in-person and Zoom Bible Study as we explore the church, mission, and Holy Spirit in Acts.)
Pick at least one of these to be a focus for all of Acts, but answer as many of them as you want.
- What does the church look like in Acts? Who is a part of it? What do they do? How is it formed? How does it relate to mission and the Spirit? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the ecclesiology of Acts?
- What does mission look like in Acts? Who does it? What do they do? How does it happen? How does it relate to the church and the Spirit? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the missiology of Acts?
- What does the Holy Spirit look like in Acts? What does the Spirit do? How is the Spirit active? How does it relate to church and mission? In other words (fancy, technical terms) What is the pneumatology of Acts?
Answer the question with the language of Acts as much as possible and cite the chapter and verse reference in your notes.