Acts 7

God does not hide.  He does the very opposite of hiding; He reveals himself by His mighty acts.  In his speech, Stephen recounts many of the times God has revealed himself to the Jewish people.  They are all familiar with the events Stephen is telling them about, and with each one, they recognize what the event revealed about God.

They remembered the birth of Isaac.  It happened long after humanly possible.  The birth of Isaac was a mighty act of God.  It revealed that God is a promise keeper and the giver of life.  When human potential is dead and barren, God gives birth to wonderful possibilities.

They remembered the stories of the Israelite bondage in Egypt.  They were powerless and unable to free themselves.  God, through Moses worked many miracles, and brought the children of Israel out of bondage.  When backed up to the Red Sea, they were facing defeat, but God miraculously split the sea and delivered them.  These acts revealed God to be a rescuer from bondage and a deliverer of freedom.

The people accusing Stephen were willing to accept that God could bring life to the dead in the earthly world.  They acknowledged that their God could deliver them from earthly oppression.  In fact, they were offended at Jesus for not doing so.  They had wanted him to throw off the yoke of bondage placed on them by Rome.  They had wanted him to give them earthly freedom.

God’s greatest act of revelation was the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  With this act, he revealed his deliverance and salvation was not just an earthly promise.  He was offering to the Israelites an eternal salvation, and He was offering them spiritual freedom.  Jesus Christ was God’s ultimate revelation of Himself.  Every other mighty act had pointed forward to this one.  The miracles and signs of the apostles all pointed back to it.

By refusing to see God in Jesus, they emptied the meaning out of all His mighty acts.  Rejecting Christ, they rejected God.