टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Acts 7 — Lord Jesus, Receive My Spirit
Stephen answers the council with the longest sermon in Acts — a sweep of Israel's history from Abraham to Solomon. The thread: God's people have always resisted God's messengers. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. Pricked to the heart, they gnash their teeth. Stephen, full of the Spirit, sees the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. They cast him out, stone him. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. He falls asleep. A young man named Saul stands by, consenting.
“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.”
— Acts 7:55-56
- v.1-50 Israel's history rehearsed
- v.51-53 You always resist the Holy Ghost
- v.54-60 The first martyr
Jesus standing. Elsewhere Christ is seated at the right hand (Mark 16:19, Hebrews 1:3). Here He is standing — to receive His martyr. The seated King rises for the dying servant.
Heaven opens at the moment of greatest earthly hostility. The stones are still in the air, but Stephen is already in glory's sight. Christians die looking up.
A prayer Christ Himself had prayed (Luke 23:46) — though to the Father. Stephen prays it to the Lord Jesus, treating Christ as the receiver of his spirit, the rightful keeper of his soul. The early church's view of Jesus' deity is already this direct.
A model death for the believer. The body is dying; the soul is going to its Lord. The instinct of every dying Christian is the same — Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
The second prayer mirrors Christ's on the cross — Father, forgive them. The grace of the Saviour reproduces itself in the dying disciple. Where Christ forgave His killers, His martyr forgives his.
Fell asleep. Death for the Christian is not termination; it is rest. The terror is for the killers; the dying believer goes to sleep. Among the listeners stands young Saul (8:1), who will later remember.
Stephen's death is the pattern. When mistreated, mistreated again, finally killed, his last words were a confession of Christ and a prayer for the killers. Examine your responses to far smaller offenses. Do you carry your grievances or pray for those who give them to you? The grace that forgave Saul's consent at Stephen's death is the same grace that flows through you when you forgive yours.
The risen, standing Christ is the heart of the chapter. Stephen sees Him; trusts Him with his spirit; reflects His forgiveness; falls asleep in Him. The whole death scene is Christ-saturated. And the witness was not lost — a young man named Saul was watching, holding the cloaks. The chapter ends planting the seed that will become the apostle to the Gentiles.
The hinge of the sermon. Stephen turns the charge — you, who claim Moses and the prophets, are the ones who resist the Spirit who sent them. The accusers are revealed as the spiritual heirs of those who persecuted the prophets.
Uncircumcised in heart. Outward ritual without inward submission. The very mark of belonging had become a covering for unbelief. The harshness of Stephen's words is the cost of telling the truth where lies have long been comfortable.