At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him.But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord.Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord;
3 sermons cite this verse
And with that, he fell asleep. Wow, what a story. God gave Stephen the grace he needed when he needed it. You say, wow, if I were in this situation, I wouldn't have reacted as Stephen did. I don't know that that's true. God will give you what you need when you need it. Not before, never after. because I can think of people I've seen that are suffering and I think, man, I would never be like that. I wouldn't have that kind of faith. Why do you say that? The Bible says he's a very present help in times of trouble. So God will give you what you need when that moment comes. And that's exactly what he did for Stephen. Hebrews 4, 16 says, God will give us grace to help in time of need. And so God gave him that grace. and what does Stephen see? Verse 56. I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the place of honor at God's right hand. …
… it says they looked intently, they fixed their eyes on him. Same thing in Acts chapter 7, verse 54 through 60, when Stephen is about to be stoned, it says he looked up to heaven, he saw Jesus, the glory of God, saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So it's a fixed gaze. It's not just a glance. What I want you to see is a progression here. When we begin to get a hold of the reality of the needs around us, number one, we begin to see the hurts around us. This is the progression. Very simple in this passage. We see the hurt. then second we begin to feel the hurt it's not just glancing at it oh yeah that's there it's it's beginning to feel the weight of that that's exactly what luke is getting at in verse four when it says peter and john looked at him intently it's not just a pass a look as they passed by so they saw the hurt they felt the hurt and number three we touched the hurt that's exactly what peter does a pretty bold statement to say you know i don't have any money but i do have this get up and walk. …
The human nature of Christ is yet in being. He still continues, and will continue to all eternity, to be both God and man. His whole human nature remains: not only his human soul, but also his human body. His dead body rose from the dead; and the same that was raised from the dead, is exalted and glorified at God’s right hand; that which was dead is now alive, and lives for evermore. And therefore there is a certain place, a particular part of the external creation, to which Christ is gone, and where he remains. And this place is that which we call the highest heaven, or the heaven of heavens; a place beyond all the visible heavens. Eph. iv. 9, 10. “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended, is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens.” This is the same which the apostle calls the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2. reckoning the aerial heaven as the first, the starry heaven as the second, and the highest heaven as the third. This is the abode of the holy angels; they are called “the angels of heaven,” Matt. xxiv. 36. “The angels which are in heaven,” Mark xiii. 32. “The angels of God in heaven,” Matt. xxii. 30. and Mark xii. 25. They are said “always to behold the face of the Father which is in heaven,” Matt. xviii. 10. And they are elsewhere often represented as before the throne of God, or surrounding his throne in heaven, and sent from thence, and descending from thence on messages to this world. And thither it is that the souls of departed saints are conducted, when they die. They are not reserved in some abode distinct from the highest heaven; a place of rest, which they are kept in, until the day of judgment; such as some imagine, which they call the hades of the happy: but they go directly to heaven itself. This is the saints’ home, being their Father’s house: they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth, and this is the other and better country that they are travelling to, Heb. xi. 13-26. This is the city they belong to: Phil. iii. 20. “Our conversation or (as the word properly signifies, citizenship) is in heaven.” Therefore this undoubtedly is the place the apostle has respect to in my text, when he says, “We are willing to forsake our former house, the body, and to dwell in the same house, city or country, wherein Christ dwells,” which is the proper import of the words of the original. What can this house, or city, or country be, but that house, which is elsewhere spoken of, as their proper home, and their Father’s house, and the city and country to which they properly belong, and whither they are travelling all the while they continue in this world, and the house, city, and country where we know the human nature of Christ is? This is the saints’ rest; here their hearts are while they live; and here their treasure is. “The inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, that is designed for them, is reserved in heaven,” 1 Peter i. 4; and therefore they never can have their proper and full rest until they come here. So that undoubtedly their souls, when absent from their bodies (when the Scriptures represent them as in a state of perfect rest), arrive hither. Those two saints, that left this world, to go to their rest in another world, without dying, viz., Enoch and Elijah, went to heaven. Elijah was seen ascending up to heaven, as Christ was. And to the same resting place, is there all reason to think, that those saints go, that leave the world, to go to their rest, by death. Moses, when he died in the top of the mount, ascended to the same glorious abode with Elias, who ascended without dying. They are companions in another world; as they appeared together at Christ’s transfiguration. They were together at that time with Christ in the mount, when there was a specimen or sample of his glorification in heaven. And doubtless they were also together afterwards, with him, when he was, actually, fully glorified in heaven. And thither undoubtedly it was, that the soul of Stephen ascended, when he expired. The circumstances of his death demonstrate it, as we have an account of it, Acts vii. 55, &c: “He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly 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 (i.e. Jesus, in his human nature) standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Before his death he had an extraordinary view of the glory that his Savior had received in heaven, not only for himself, but for him, and all his faithful followers; that he might be encouraged, by the hopes of this glory, cheerfully to lay down his life for his sake. Accordingly he dies in the hope of this, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” By which doubtless he meant, “receive my spirit to be with thee, in that glory, wherein I have now seen thee, in heaven, at the right hand of God.” And thither it was that the soul of the penitent thief on the cross ascended. Christ said to him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Paradise is the same with the third heaven; as appears by 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, 4. There that which is called the third heaven in the second verse, in the fourth verse is called paradise. The departed souls of the apostles and prophets are in heaven; as is manifest from Revelation 18:20, “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets.” …