Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 7 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A courtroom turns into a mirror when Stephen answers the council’s challenge with a sweeping story from Abraham to the temple. We walk through Acts 7 step by step, tracing how God keeps promises across centuries while people drift toward idols, cling to traditions, and resist the very rescue they pray for. The thread tightens around Moses—misunderstood at forty, resisted at eighty—and lands with a hard truth: rejecting Jesus continues a long, familiar pattern.

We also talk about idolatry that hides in plain sight. Stephen names Moloch and the star of Rephan to show how easy it is to seek guidance from the heavens when the God of heaven draws near. That warning feels modern: when metrics, vibes, or horoscopes shape our choices more than Scripture, we recreate the same restless search. We reflect on the tabernacle and the temple as signposts to presence and holiness, then point to Christ as the fulfillment who refuses to be contained by buildings or boxed in by routine.

The tension erupts into violence. Without Roman approval, a mob stones Stephen, and grace shines brighter than the rage around him. His last words echo Jesus—entrusting his spirit and pleading forgiveness for his killers—while a stunning detail reframes everything: Jesus stands at the right hand of God. We share why that vision matters for everyday courage, how fixing our eyes on heaven strengthens repentance and tenderness, and what it looks like to hold conviction and mercy together. If you’ve ever wondered how to live faithfully when truth collides with pride, this conversation offers clarity, challenge, and hope. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Acts, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what moved you most?

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter seven. We're going to outline it. We're going to observe it. We're going to interpret it and we're going to apply it so that you can be all that God has called you to be today. So Acts 7 opens up with verse 1 in the big question of are these things so? Which then starts the defense in verses 2 through 16, where Stephen takes up the story of Israel from Abraham to Joseph. Then verses 17 through 43, we get the story of Moses and the Exodus. Then in 44 through 50, we get the tabernacle and the temple. And then we get then Stephen then transitions to an accusation in verses 51 through 53, where he goes, You stiff necked, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. All right, so he kind of goes there. Then verses 54 through 60, they are enraged, gnashed their teeth at them, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Stephen gazes at heaven and then sees Christ standing at the right hand of God and he goes home. All right, so let's talk about some observations about really the story that Stephen uh really reveals, kind of does a quick recap and review of Israel's history. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Gives them from Genesis all the way to Kings.

Pastor Plek:

Which you gotta say, that's pretty good.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, it's pretty good. If you're like teaching someone the Bible who doesn't know the Old Testament story, Acts chapter 7 gives a great overview. Here's everything that happened um leading up to Solomon's temple, at least. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. So what it I think it's just a um, it's just boldness to an accusation. He's able to kind of recap, encapsulate the story, and then kind of plump them all with those who killed the prophets that these guys are rejecting the Holy Spirit like the prophets of old did.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, it's interesting. He does the whole recap, and the point of it is like uh look, look at all the like all that God has done for you. Right, look at all the promises he's kept, look how he has preserved you know, a people for himself, and and yet you don't listen to anything he says, and you killed his son. It's so intense.

Pastor Plek:

Okay, and what do you think about the story of Moses? I thought this was kind of wild because you get to see that Moses always saw himself as the savior of his people. Yeah. When he's 40, he goes out and then he defends the oppressed man and avenges him by striking down the Egyptian. And at that moment, he's like, This is it. I don't know if he was like vigilante justice one by one or what his plan was. But I think he was thinking his brothers would rise up, follow Moses, and you know, put him on his shoulder, saying, Way to go, you killed one guy, uh, or something. But they turn on him. Yeah. And it's one, it's like one dude says, like, what are you gonna do? Kill me now? Like you kill that other guy. And he just, I quit. In one moment, he takes like like the idea that he was supposed to be the savior of the Jews, and he has this whole idea, it's God giving clearly, because it happens. Uh, and then he just quits and heads off to the desert, never to be seen again. And as far as he's concerned, he would never go back.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Isn't that wild? It is, yeah. And the uh it's also interesting, he really he highlights Abraham, um, Moses, and David, three very significant, you know, guys who each of them um you know had had these uh very important roles, uh, salvific or um, you know, kingly or prophetic roles. And um, you know, like with Moses there, uh, they reject him as the savior, right? And you know, that's he's showing them like, hey, your rejection of Jesus is nothing new. You've been doing this, but you don't you didn't listen to Moses when he tried to, you know, be your deliverer. You don't listen to his law. And so, of course, you didn't listen to Jesus and crucified him. This is kind of what you do. Yeah. So anyway, it's a serious accusation. It's not he's not just like randomly telling them their story, like they know it.

Pastor Plek:

They know the story.

Pastor Holland:

But he's bringing it up to say this is what you've always done. Either you repent and receive Jesus, or um, you know, you continue down this path and God's gonna judge you for it.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Uh here's one that I thought was interesting. Uh, the tent or tabernacle of Moloch. Uh, we all know that that guy is um the Canaanite or Ammonite deity, always associated with child sacrifice. They would they would they would uh I guess it was called passing the children through the fire uh is what you would do to appease Moloch is you kill your kid. And um that would satisfy uh his wrath. Yeah. Or his or that would get you whatever you needed um from him. Then there's also the star of your god Rafon, which I think ancient scholars always, you know, he kind of associates it with uh the planet or god Saturn. Um and uh they worship the planets as gods, which I thought was kind of fun. And so there you got like the star, you know, the star god. Anyway, I thought that was kind of an interesting kind of deal where he there's the he pulls out those two pagan idols as kind of how you guys just are searching anywhere but the God who lives among you. Yeah, right. Isn't that I mean, because it's it's it's like I don't want I want to search the stars, is what the literal Israelites were doing when God was living in their midst.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, right.

Pastor Plek:

Like you're you're you're looking towards the heavens, getting the zodiac out, reading the constellations to determine the future when the God of heaven is living next door. Yeah, right. Which just shows us like how wild it is that we will look past anything that God is trying to reveal to us because it's way cooler to find the secret.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, definitely. Sorry, that might have been a whole bunch there, but I just thought that was interesting.

Pastor Holland:

No, it's so interesting. I also, you know, another observation, they st they stone him. So we get the first um martyr. And um they they weren't allowed to stone him, though, right? The the Romans they didn't have the authority to so they would have to get approval, right? That was the whole deal with Jesus and how you know they had to get him crucified, um, and they needed the Roman approval of it and everything. They didn't go through any of that. This looks like just a mob stoning, like just raid. This is road rage. Exactly. It went from like, hey, you guys need to stop preaching to all right, we're gonna put you in jail, to now it's like we're gonna start, we're gonna kill you guys. Yeah, we're gonna kill you. And um I think that's important to observe in like in other cultures and nations today is what starts as like we want you to stop talking about Jesus. This is the trajectory. Eventually, it's we're gonna kill you if you don't stop. Right.

Pastor Plek:

Um, and so if memory's annoying at first, then it becomes a death sentence. Yeah. Okay. Um in two chapters.

Pastor Holland:

In two chapters.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. Um, what else do you observe here?

Pastor Holland:

Um, the way Stephen dies is just he's so he's so Christ-like. Um, receive my spirit, yep, right? Um, a prayer that uh similar to what Jesus said as some of his final words on the cross, and then don't hold the sin against them again, similar to some of Jesus' final words on the cross.

Pastor Plek:

Do you think the um Jesus not being seated? Because every time you hear about Jesus at the right hand of God, he's seated, but here he is standing. Is that a sign of respect? I think we always think of standing as a sign of respect. Yeah. Um, and so is Jesus there kind of going like, hats off, my man Steven.

Pastor Holland:

Yep.

Pastor Plek:

I think so. Yeah, I think that's kind of cool. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Okay, let's get into some truths about the nature of man. Stiff necked. Stiff necked. Yeah, I I love how they reject Moses twice. Uh they reject Moses when he's 40, and then they initially reject Moses when he's 80. And isn't until he like, in fact, it there's this thing where Moses is like, I quit, I want to quit again. I'm quitting a third time. You know, he's out. And uh God's like, no, no, go back in there, and then the miracles start happening. Um, but they are not wanting Moses, they don't want the initial thrust of whoever is coming unless he's looks like Samson. And even then, they didn't like Samson because well he was a train wreck, but it's interesting. Um, how about um grace shines brightest in persecution and death? Like when you yield to death, but your spirits you you know, you you're physically yielding to death, but your spirit's not broken. That is a huge testimony.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Man, that's powerful. Yeah, Stephen's um you really, you know, you learn about the nature of man, our sinful, selfish ways, being stiff-necked, not wanting to listen to God, rejecting his law. But then you see what the new man is like um by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you see Stephen who's obedient unto death, following the footsteps of Jesus. Um, and so this is so encouraging to me about Christianity, is it really just change you to a new person?

Pastor Plek:

Yep. That's good. Um, what else? Um I just yeah, good.

Pastor Holland:

Well, for a character of God, you see in this whole story that like God is a patient God. He, you know, this is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of history of God patiently keeping his promises. So he's a promise keeper, he's patient, um, he's gracious, even though uh his people keep rejecting the leaders that he gives them, God continues to show mercy to them. It's good. Tells a lot about God.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, I love it. Let me let's go to the character of God. Uh God does not dwell in temples made by human hands. Although he did, you know, even Solomon said that I know you don't actually live in here, but it's a place where we can go to for the reality, because nothing can encompass you or nothing can box you in. But at the same time, I love from the human perspective, we always look beyond where God said he would be uh to search for answers.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's funny.

Pastor Plek:

How about God is um I think the God's graciousness and forgiveness, which you see in Stephen kind of echoing Jesus, uh is that's all Christians should sort of exemplify that and God empowers them to do that.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Amen. Um another another one, you know, you just see uh well you see the importance of scripture and the importance of the Christian story. Like this is Stephen's dying words. Yeah. So like the yeah, I don't know. This is I don't know if it fits neatly into character of God or nature of man or something, but it's just uh maybe another observation. Like the importance of knowing the story of God and being able to discern your circumstances according to it, you know. Um yeah, that just stands out to me.

Pastor Plek:

I like that. Um, let's get to some application. What do you got for application? We're gonna do sin to avoid or confess, maybe a promise to claim, example to follow, command obey, or knowledge to believe. What you got?

Pastor Holland:

Uh example to follow. Uh know, yeah, know the story of scripture. Nice.

Pastor Plek:

That's good. Um, all right, how about this? Sin to uh avoid or confess, stiff-necked resistance to the Holy Spirit. Yeah. Don't be one who rejects God's messengers, don't be one who rejects God's spirit. Uh, don't be one that clings to religious tradition or structures over obeying God's word.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And I feel like that looks like, you know, if you're sinning and someone calls you out on it, instead of going, Hey, at least I'm not doing this, or, you know, what about these things that you're doing? Who are you to call me out? Or, you know, you can you can find all these other ways to excuse it or justify it or get yourself off the hook. Right. Or you could listen to the Holy Spirit's conviction and repent.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Um, how about uh command to obey? Uh, just uh actually, no, knowledge to believe. God is not held by temples, he is present everywhere at all times and can see everything, and so there's nothing hidden from him, and he is sovereign even through crazy circumstances.

Pastor Holland:

Amen. I love the example to follow of Stephen just having you know mercy for your enemies. They're stoning him, mob violence, you know, um uh because of their own pride and unbelief, and yet he's praying for them. Don't hold this sin against them, Lord. That's a the heart of mercy.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, uh, how about promise to claim uh we have heaven to look forward to even when when when your faith in Jesus causes persecution, even to the point of death, your hope isn't in getting out of it, your hope is in maybe going through it to see the kingdom arrive.

Pastor Holland:

Amen. I I think just that idea when it says he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, you know, you're like, what does that mean? You know, he's that a near-death experience that we get sort of experience with him. Uh I yeah, there's something going on where it's, you know. I I think what stands out to me as an example to follow is like fix your eyes, fix the eyes of your heart on heaven. And that's how you're gonna make it through every trial that comes your way. Like you're not looking at his his eyes weren't at the people with the stones coming at him. His eyes weren't at, you know, his earthly circumstances and trials. His eyes were on heaven, and he had a peace, you know. That's good. I love that. That's good.

Pastor Plek:

Uh, anything else you want to wrap up with there? I think that's it. That's it. That's really good. Hey, thanks so much for watching and uh listening. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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