READ ACTS 7:23–53.
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” Acts 7:51–53
Stephen goes on to tell them the end of the story in order to make his point: God’s people, the nation of Israel, time and time again, rejected God’s provision for them. They complained to Moses their deliverer, and rejected and killed the prophets that God raised up for them. What Stephen is saying is, “You’re doing the same thing! You need to repent!”
Sadly, most people, when they hear the call to repentance, harden their hearts and close their ears.
Why do you think it is so hard to repent?
Repenting demonstrates that we are needy—we’re not God. God is the only person in the universe who doesn’t need to repent because he always does what is just and right. We don’t. We are sinners. We need help. We need forgiveness. We need healing and atonement for our sin.
In this account, Stephen is pointing out their hypocrisy. They claim to be religious, but their actions tell a different story. They need to repent of their hypocrisy. The religious leaders hated Jesus for exactly the same reasons they hated Stephen: he accused them of failing to lead God’s people.
One of the things that God hates the most is hypocrisy. He wants his people to follow him as he has declared, not as they see fit. But instead of repenting of their sin, they rejected God and his messenger.
Do not harden your hearts. Revival precede after repentance.
Pr. Anand Kumar
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