Seeing Christ in the Stones | Acts 7:55-60
Seeing Christ in the Stones
Acts 7:55-60 (New Revised Standard Version)
But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
Stephen is arguing that the gospel of Jesus removed the need for the temple and all the sacrifices and other rites that were commanded by Mosaic Law.
The Jews brought Stephen before a judicial council on the charge of speaking “words against this holy place and the law” and of saying that “Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
Stephen’s opponents believed that the very existence of their faith was in danger.
When faced with adversity because of who he was, Stephen didn’t turn from what he represented or who he was; He didn’t fight his accusers, instead he saw the glory of God in the stones.
Stephen, following the pattern of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, prayed just as Jesus had prayed on the cross, saying in essence, “Father, forgive them. Into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
The moment those men lifted those stones in the air, Stephen didn’t see punishment, or death… he saw Christ in the stone.
He didn’t beg them to stop or have a change of heart… he begged for their forgiveness.
Stephen’s death by stoning is no mere coincidence, but an irony.
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” This honor, then, is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” and “A stone that makes them stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. -1 Peter 2:2-10
We hear him describe Jesus as the living stone, the cornerstone.
Cornerstone- extreme corner of a structure responsible for its soundness… what keeps it all together.
It must be the strongest and longest lasting of all the rocks used. It keeps the structure standing. That structure is us.
A stone isn’t meant to harm or kill or tear us down, but the living stone keeps up standing strong.
The stones that day didn’t kill Stephen, but gave him new life; eternal life.
God used those stones to create a new home for Stephen, and God does the same for each of us.
When people raise stones against you in this world, see Christ in those stones.
Don’t see the potential for persecution or even death; see God’s glory.
See what you have to gain and how much more valuable that is than anything you could possibly lose.