…and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! 

Acts 7:56 

The preaching of Christ is controversial. At the point at which someone says, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other,’ they diverge from the rest of the world. This has always generated conflict. It is essentially a spiritual one. It does not involve carnal weaponry. Stephen was the first martyr of the New Testament era. He reached back into the Old Testament history to preach Christ. His audience, the religious rulers of Israel, were not at all pleased with his message. He showed how, as a nation, Israel had historically rejected the messengers God had sent them. He came to the Person of Christ and essentially charged them with the murder of the Messiah. This maddened them to the point of murder. They rushed upon him and began to stone him. As he was dying under the hail of stones, God gave him a rare sight of Christ. He exclaimed, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Christ stood to honor this first martyr of the New Testament who was dying for preaching Christ. Whatever the consequences may be, we are bound to preach Christ.

High King of Heaven, 
we rejoice that You have given Your servants boldness to preach Christ. 
We praise You that You welcome them into Your presence. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

…and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! 

Acts 7:56 

The preaching of Christ is controversial. At the point at which someone says, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other,’ they diverge from the rest of the world. This has always generated conflict. It is essentially a spiritual one. It does not involve carnal weaponry. Stephen was the first martyr of the New Testament era. He reached back into the Old Testament history to preach Christ. His audience, the religious rulers of Israel, were not at all pleased with his message. He showed how, as a nation, Israel had historically rejected the messengers God had sent them. He came to the Person of Christ and essentially charged them with the murder of the Messiah. This maddened them to the point of murder. They rushed upon him and began to stone him. As he was dying under the hail of stones, God gave him a rare sight of Christ. He exclaimed, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Christ stood to honor this first martyr of the New Testament who was dying for preaching Christ. Whatever the consequences may be, we are bound to preach Christ.

High King of Heaven, 
we rejoice that You have given Your servants boldness to preach Christ. 
We praise You that You welcome them into Your presence. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

‘Learned In All The Wisdom Of The Egyptians’

And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.

Acts 7:22

As we continue to consider the life of Moses and the manner in which God prepared him for his ultimate purpose, we come to consider the first forty years of his life. Our text is an excerpt from the message of Stephen, the first martyr of the New Testament era of the church, he says of Moses, ‘And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.’ God is the Author of Knowledge. As He prepared Moses for the role that he would ultimately play in the Providential Plan of God, He made sure that Moses received all the necessary education to be able to understand the culture in which he would be working as the liberator of Israel. So likewise, did God, the Father, give to Christ, the Son, during the days of His preparation, the knowledge necessary for Him to effectively minister in the midst of the culture of the Israel of His time. Such knowledge is neither wicked nor worthless, nor is the time wasted which it takes to acquire it. While knowledge, and the pursuit of it are not ends in themselves, but means to an end, neither does God place a premium upon ignorance; especially willful ignorance. God gives to us knowledge and experience which He intends for us to have, in order that we may make Christ known to those to whom He brings us; that they might know Him, Whom to know aright is life eternal.

Our most Holy and Wise God,
we rejoice that You know all things,
and that You impart unto us, Your servants,
all that You want us to know,
that we might be to the praise of Your glory.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Christ, The Hope of the Dying Saint

But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

Acts 7:55-56

Stephen had, by his bold preaching of Christ, delivered his soul. His enemies returned the favor, by delivering his soul to Christ. As he closed his declaration of the Gospel to them, they closed his earthly book of life. We, apart from some egregious sin, cannot choose the manner of our own death. As the poet, Emily Dickinson said, ‘Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me.’ Stephen did what he, under God, must do, by preaching Christ. His foes did, what they, by nature must do; oppose the Truth, and kill the messenger. It has been ever thus.

It is delightful that Christ, in Stephen’s dying moments, gave unto him a clear sight of Himself. As our text declares, ‘But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ Christ is the hope of the dying Saint. Other saints, not perishing under such dreadful circumstances, have testified that they have had great sights of Christ. Christ is ever the Guiding Light of His Blood-bought people. He would not have us depart this scene of time with any uncertainty. In the case of Stephen, Christ gave honor to whom honor was due. Typically, He sits upon His Throne. For the first martyr of the New Testament era of the Church, He offers a standing ovation. Oh, that our eyes as they close on earth would be filled with a clear sight of Christ and that His Face will be the First One we see when they open in Glory. As Christ has been our Hope in all our seasons upon earth, so may He be in our final hour, and afterward in all the endless ages of eternity.

Our Gracious Master,
We hope in You, in all seasons.
You are faithful, now and forever.

Where the Bush is Burning
Tomm Tice