BIBLE ACTS 364
Student Name
Course Number: Course Name
July 2, 2023
1
Stephen’s vision makes it implicit that the blessings of the covenant belonged to those
who believed in him and followed Jesus, as illustrated in Acts 7: 55. Stephen beholds how
heaven opened up, and he saw the son of a man standing. The message exalts the Messiah
referred to in Psalms 110:1. In this passage, it is undoubtedly clear that God was addressing the
believed Messiah when he says, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool.”
1
David could not be the son of the man referred to in this passage since he was still
buried in his tomb and had not ascended to heaven. Furthermore, vision embodies a reference to
the heavenly court in front of which the son of man is standing and not sitting. Another statement
in the bible that may be key to understanding this vision is in Luke 22:69, which says that
“Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.”
2
I think Jesus may
have implied that he was standing to be judged before the Jewish leaders, but a time was coming
when he will be the judge as they stand before him.
As a devout and religious man, Cornelius had some knowledge about God. By using
Stephen, God demonstrated to the Gentiles that his covenant was no longer defined by political
or ethnic terms, as Israel had been. Peter’s view of the Gentiles was that he would defile himself
if he entered and fellowshipped in Cornelius’s house.
3
The Gentiles were uncircumcised, and this
meant moral and ritual impurity. Peter had to serve as an instrument of God’s saving and by
using him Gond explicitly break his resistance against the Gentiles to enforce the universal scope
1
. The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UAP (Acts 110.1)
2
. The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UAP (Luke 22:69)
3
. Stephen, Ger. The Book of Acts: Witnesses to The World. Scofield Ministries, 2004, pp. 117-173.
2
of Jesus’ death and the escatological gospel.
4
Circumcision signified the Abrahamic covenant,
which was the reason behind the Gentiles’ alienation from the blessings of the covenant as well
as their treatment with contempt, a resistance that was against the scope of the gospel.
4
. Wilson, Paroschi. "The Prophetic Significance of Stephen". Journal of The Adventist Theological Society, vol 9,
no. 1-2, 2000, pp. 343–361., https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1360&context=jats.
Accessed 17 Nov 2020.
3
Bibliography
Ger, Stephen. The Book of Acts: Witnesses to The World. Scofield Ministries, 2004, pp. 117-
173.
Paroschi, Wilson. “The Prophetic Significance of Stephen”. Journal of The Adventist
Theological Society, vol 9, no. 1-2, 2000, pp. 343–361.,
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1360&context=jats.
Accessed 17 Nov 2020.
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UAP
