Week 7, April 12, 2026

LESSON 7

Stephen Addresses the Council

Lesson Text:

Acts 7:2-18, 37-53

Key Terms
Blasphemy • The act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk.
Progenitor • A person or thing from which a person, animal, or plant is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent.
Sojourn • To stay somewhere temporarily.

Memory Verses
"Then they suborned men, which said We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up fa/se witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law..."
Acts 6:11-13

Suggested Emphasis

The story of deacon Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin Council actually be­gins in the sixth chapter of Acts. Stephen was one of the first seven deacons or­dained in the Jerusalem Church; but Scrip­ture indicates he effectively became an evangelist. He was performing miracles and sharing the Gospel with residents in the Greek-speaking section of the city. A large population of this community were former Roman slaves; they had their own synagogue catering to the Hellenistic Jews who had returned to Jerusalem from the diaspora (Martin, 1993). Stephen's outreach ministry enraged the leaders of the synagogue of the Freedmen, and they then expressed their grievances to the Sanhedrin. Steven was arrested and forced to answer charges before the coun­cil. The comprehensive survey of Jewish history that the deacon recounted was a rejoinder to the accusation, "This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law" (Acts 6:13). Let us walk through the arguments Stephen made in this powerful sermon.

Emphasis 1:

Disparaged Abraham and
the Holy Land?

The first observation Stephen made was about the "father" of the nation, Abra­ham. God found this revered patriarch in Mesopotamia, and said to him, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee" (Acts 7:3). The Council had to re­member that before then Abraham was a heathen worshipping false gods in Ur. It was the One True God who snatched him out of idolatry and established him as a progenitor of the Israelite people. Yet, the inheritance of land that the Lord promised him was not bestowed upon him in his lifetime; Abraham journeyed about as a nomad and a vagabond throughout his days, having no permanent home.

Stephen seemed to address an implied accusation that he showed no regard for the Holy Land. Well, Stephen reminded them that the Israelites didn't even be­come a nation until God removed them from Canaan! "And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years" (v. 6). Symbolically, Joseph was sent to scout out Egypt, and to facilitate Israel's long sojourn there. Providence led him, through temptations and trials, to an audience with Pharaoh, where God's wisdom won him favor to become second in command. And so po­sitioned, he secured safety for his whole family: "Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls" (v. 14). Plant­ed in the fertile soil of Goshen, the people of God prospered. Their blessings were not dependent upon the Promised Land.

Emphasis 2:

Blasphemed Against Moses?

In response to the specific accusation that Stephen spoke "blasphemous words against Moses" (Acts 6:11), he rehearsed a long segment about that great prophet. His intent was to compare Moses and Jesus through parallelism, as he flatly does in Acts 7:37: "This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear." We know the apostle Peter also interpreted Moses' prophecy (Deut. 18:15) as referring to Jesus (Acts 3:22). The Jewish leaders venerated Moses, but the prophet himself had pointed toward the Messiah. This was Stephen's strongest rebuttal to the argument that he disre­spected Moses. Moreover, there was no rivalry between Moses and Jesus. As dis­covered on the Mount of Transfigura­tion—when Peter thought to honor Mo­ses, Elijah and Jesus, each with his own tabernacle—God affirmed the supremacy of Christ, declaring, "This is my beloved Son: hear him" (Mark 9:7).

Emphasis 3:

Blasphemed Against the Customs
and the Temple?

To answer the charge that he spoke against the customs of the Jewish faith, Stephen reminded his audience that the children of Israel continually resisted the teachings delivered to them. Their fore­fathers "in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him" (Acts 7:39b,40). Aaron designed a golden calf for them, which many worshipped as an idol "and rejoiced in the works of their own hands" (v. 41). The people solemnly promised to obey whatever ordinances Moses brought them (Exod. 20:19), but then not seeing him for a few weeks led them to break the very First Command­ment. The infidelity of the Israelites was a chronic condition, so "God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heav­en" (Acts 7:42a). And then we're given Amos' testimony that the Israelites never offered sacrifices in the wilderness. The argument is that the Jewish people were never consistent in keeping the rites and ceremonies of their faith. This is why God carried them "away beyond Babylon."

Concerning his alleged disregard for the Temple: Stephen reminds us that from Moses to Joshua to David the meeting place with the Lord was the Tabernacle. But even after Solomon built the Temple, his dedication of the edifice acknowledged that "the heaven of heavens cannot con­tain thee, how much less this house that I have builded?" (1 Kings 8:27). Or, as Ste­phen quoted Isaiah, "Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? Saith the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?" (Acts 7:49). So Stephen again demonstrated that the people, plac­es or things that he was accused of deni­grating were not themselves held in such high esteem by God. Stephen was at­tempting to show the Council that there could be no blasphemy against Moses, or the land of Israel; against the Law, or the Temple. A blasphemer spoke against God, His plans and His purposes, which is iron­ically what the Sanhedrin was doing.

Missions Application Questions

What evidence did Stephen offer to show that Israel's blessings were not tied to the Promised Land?
How did he answer the accusation that he "spoke blasphemous words against Moses"?
Why is it impossible to blaspheme against Moses, the Law, or the Temple?  

World Missions Prayer Points

Let us pray for the wisdom to answer the critics who disparage us.
Let us pray to remember Jesus Christ has preeminence in all things.
Let us praise God that He is too immense to be confined to a temple or a church edifice.

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