SERVE ME
Acts 7: Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin: When the high priest asked Stephen if the charges against him were true he replied by turning to the Scriptures: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you,' verses 2-3. He reminded them that God had told Abraham to flee to Haran and God told him that he would have no inheritance there, but his descendants would possess the land even though Abraham had no child at that time. God foretold Abraham that the people would be enslaved for '400 years,' and he would punish the nation that held them captive. God then gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision and Isaac was born to him soon thereafter. Isaac had a child, Jacob, and he became the father of the 12 patriarchs who then sold one of their brothers, Joseph, as a slave to Egypt, "…but God was with him," verse 9. God was with Joseph and caused the Pharaoh of Egypt to favor with him and eventually made him ruler over all of Egypt and his palace. When the famine struck Egypt, Joseph's family eventually went down to Egypt for food and discovered that Joseph was still alive. The family of Abraham grew to about 400 when another Pharaoh came to rule and began to mistreat the Jews.
This was the time when Moses fled into the desert following an incident when he killed an Egyptian who was mistreating a Jew, and stayed there for 40 years, and had two sons. One day God appeared to Moses and told him that He was going to send him back to Egypt to lead the people out of Egypt. God gave Moses instructions to pass on to the people, but in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. Stephen went on to say the people at that time rejected the truth and they are doing the same thing. They persecuted the prophets then and continued to do so until they finally crucified the Son of God, Jesus, and they continued to ignore the law that was put in effect in those days.
The stoning of Stephen: The Jews were so furious with him that they gnashed their teeth, covered their ears and rushed him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. In the interim Stephen told them in verse 55 that he 'looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.' As they continued to stone them, Stephen prayed to the Father to forgive them because of their ignorance and then said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." and then he fell asleep. They laid his clothes at the feet of a man named Saul, (Paul), who was in favor of their actions.
There are two words in this chapter that impressed me the most, which are our obligation as Christians to observe. Verse 7 ended with these two words; 'worship me.' This the first of the two commandments that Jesus gave us. This is all that God asks of us, to worship Him and Him only. The second one, as you know is to love each other. This would be a world we would never recognize if we did that, unfortunately we won't. But, as Christians who have accepted Jesus as their Savior, this is exactly what it'll be like when we join Him in Heaven. Praise the Lord for what He accomplished for us on the cross.
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