Acts 7

v1-16: Stephen's speech showed that he was "well read and knowledgeable about the Scriptures," and that they had "thoroughly equipped [him] for every good word and work."  He was able to apply what God had already revealed to the present situation, and because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he could use the Scriptures "to convict these people who contradicted him" and was taught how to apply them for their conviction.  "Those who are full of the Holy Spirit will be full of Scripture."

v17-29: Watch out!  Don't refuse and reject the one God has raised up to be a prince and Saviour like Israel did.  "If you will not wilfully shut your eyes to the light, you will be able to understand that through this Jesus, God will rescue you from a worse form of slavery than that in Egypt.  Make sure you do not thrust him away, but receive him as your ruler and judge."

v30-41: God took notice of both the suffering of the Israelites and their sense of suffering in Egypt.  He saw their affliction.  He heard their groaning.  "God views the troubles of his church and the groans of his persecuted people with compassion, and their rescue arises from his pity."  Even though God is present everywhere, in all places and in all times, He expresses His rescue as "coming down" because that is what His Son Jesus would do "when, for us human beings, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven."

v42-50: Those opposing Stephen "were deceiving themselves if they thought God was confined to any one place."  Remember the Israelites did not have any fixed place of worship until they came to the Promised Land, and so the destruction of the Temple and the Holy Place will not stop God from being worshipped by people. "Just as it had been no dishonour to God, but an honour, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple, so it was now an honour to him that the material temple gave way to the spiritual one, and so it will be in the end, when the spiritual temple gives way to the eternal one."

v51-53: They were stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts that resisted the Holy Spirit.  They "were stubborn and wilful and would not be persuaded by the various means God used to restore and reform them... hardened against both the word of God and his providence."  They "were not devoted and given to God, as most of the people were devoted to him in profession by the sign of circumcision."  When God saved us, this resistance that is present in our hearts, is overcome and overpowered, and "the throne of Christ is established in the soul, and every thought that had exalted itself against that throne is brought into captivity to it."

v54-60:"Just as his persecutors were full of Satan, so [Stephen] was full of the Holy Spirit... Those who are full of the Holy Spirit are equipped for anything, either to act for Christ or to suffer for him." In his dying moments, Stephen, like Christ offers two short prayers to God.  He prayed for himself that Jesus would received his spirit.  "Christ’s receiving our spirits at death is the great thing we are to be concerned for and comfort ourselves with. We should be concerned about this while we live so that Christ may receive our spirits when we die... We must, therefore, commit our souls to him every day, to be ruled and sanctified and made fit for heaven, and then, and not otherwise, he will receive them. Moreover, if this has been our concern while we live, it can be our comfort when we come to die that we will be received into eternal dwellings."  He also prayed for his persecutors that Jesus would forgive them, because what they were doing was a great sin, which, "unless divine mercy and grace stepped in, would be held against them, to their eternal shame."