Jewish people resist the Holy Spirit who is given through Jesus Christ.

Acts 7:51-53

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” Acts 7:51

Stephen called the Jewish leaders stubborn and uncircumcised of heart and ears. They were stubborn against acknowledging Jesus being the fulfillment of Scriptures pointing to Him being as the Christ and Son of God. They might have been circumcised in the flesh, but not in the spirit and not in their hearing. They were hardened to the Holy Spirit and were living as disobediently as the Israelites before the 1^st coming of Jesus Christ.

1] The Jewish leaders refused to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham to multiply his descendants. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29

2] The Jewish leaders refused to believe that Joseph was a prophecy about Jesus Christ. That prophecy being that Jesus would be betrayed by His Jewish “brothers” but rise and come again to be the King of kings. The Christ, Jesus was thrown into the pit of the grave, but God resurrected Him to life. He will return as the King of kings.

3] The Jewish leaders refused to believe that God empowered Jesus with His Spirit to bring the new commandment, or the New Covenant, in the same way He empowered Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

4] The Jewish leaders refused to accept that they were among their Israelite forefathers who chose to worship the “Golden Calf” and not to wait for Moses. That refers to them as being those who serve the Jewish culture as their god and not waiting for Jesus, their Christ, to lead them into the Kingdom of God. Today, the global population chooses to live by the “Golden Calf”, which is the beast that feeds their physiology by giving them what to speak, do, think, and feel. They deny God as the Creator, rejects Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and do not want the Holy Spirit to be part of who they are are. They refuse to wait for the return of Christ Jesus.

5] The Jewish leaders refused to accept that their manmade temple was useless as a living quarter for the presence of God. They despised the thought that the Christ, Jesus, was their Priest, and the temple is within us as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus. Today’s culture, which is global, see the human body as being the tabernacle of the beast that sets within them by giving them what to think, feel, say and do. That beast is the one “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 Click for a post on that. As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that we are the tabernacle of the Lord, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19

“Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.” Acts 7:52-53

Stephen went on to say that the Jewish leaders were just like their forefathers who persecuted the Prophets and killed those who prophesied about the coming of Jesus, their Christ and the Son of God. The Jewish leaders betrayed Jesus when they delivered Him to the Romans through Judas for thirty pieces of silver. They plotted His murder by crucifixion on the Cross. Our Lord Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!” Matthew 23:37 Stephen made it clear to the Jewish rulers that they have the word of God to read for themselves, the word given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit [“…by the direction of Angels…”] but have not kept it.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11