Acts 7:45-60
45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
49 “ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
At the stoning of Stephen, even with St Paul standing by, the people of Israel have already been told repeatedly about who Jesus is and what God has done for his people. These people that stand before Stephen throwing stones appear no different than those who did not listen to the prophets of Old. The people resisted listening to Joshua, the many Judges, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and even John the Baptist. Nothing seems to change even after Christ's death and resurrection.
Stephen calls them the same thing their fathers where called, "stiff-necked people." But St Stephen adds one more thing Christians today should take to heart. "You always resist the Holy Spirit." Our sinful nature urges us to resist the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Most people today will not say that they resist these Prophets of the Old Testament or New Testament. But they do! They resist them just as much as the people that would not listen to them then resisted them.
But even worse, they resist the Holy Spirit. Someone once asked me which part of the Third article of the Nicene Creed is most important. I naturally assumed all were equally important, but wrote down "spoke by the prophets." It is in this line of the Third Article of the Nicene Creed that we confess that all Scripture is spoken by God. The Holy Spirit gave the prophets and Apostles the words to speak. It was the Holy Spirit who directed them to say what they said.
Thus, we still resist the Holy Spirit, when we do not take what is written in Scripture as the complete truth. It is the Holy Spirit who gave St Stephen the words to speak to these stiff necked people. It was the Holy Spirit who gave St Paul the words to write. It was the Holy Spirit who brings you the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is for me the great mission of the Holy Spirit to reach into everyone's heart and mind telling them of their salvation. But stiff-necked people in every generation will always resist the Holy Spirit.
Stephen calls them the same thing their fathers where called, "stiff-necked people." But St Stephen adds one more thing Christians today should take to heart. "You always resist the Holy Spirit." Our sinful nature urges us to resist the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Most people today will not say that they resist these Prophets of the Old Testament or New Testament. But they do! They resist them just as much as the people that would not listen to them then resisted them.
But even worse, they resist the Holy Spirit. Someone once asked me which part of the Third article of the Nicene Creed is most important. I naturally assumed all were equally important, but wrote down "spoke by the prophets." It is in this line of the Third Article of the Nicene Creed that we confess that all Scripture is spoken by God. The Holy Spirit gave the prophets and Apostles the words to speak. It was the Holy Spirit who directed them to say what they said.
Thus, we still resist the Holy Spirit, when we do not take what is written in Scripture as the complete truth. It is the Holy Spirit who gave St Stephen the words to speak to these stiff necked people. It was the Holy Spirit who gave St Paul the words to write. It was the Holy Spirit who brings you the message of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is for me the great mission of the Holy Spirit to reach into everyone's heart and mind telling them of their salvation. But stiff-necked people in every generation will always resist the Holy Spirit.
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