You Can Know
and not understand
Scripture Reading: Acts 7
For a long time, I puzzled at Stephen’s sermon before the Jewish council. His audience was made up of experts in the Old Testament. Yet, Stephen gives them an overview of Old Testament history. I wondered why? Looking more closely at his sermon, we can see the particular emphasis Stephen makes. He points out the pattern of rejection that was woven into the history of the Jewish people. Joseph, Moses, and the prophets were all rejected to some degree. Stephen unfolds the history of Israel in a way that leads to his climactic point, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you…” (Acts 7:51).
In his sermon, Stephen was telling them what they knew but did not understand. Like the Jewish council, we can be “experts” in something and not understand its true spiritual significance and implications.
When we boarded the subway in Rome, one of the men with me had been engaged in a spiritual conversation with a young Roman Catholic man. He was getting nowhere and thought I might take a run at it. So, we sat together and discussed the gospel. The young man was well versed in the Scriptures. He knew a lot. He knew history and theology. He understood the differences between Protestantism and Catholicism. But what he seemed completely blind to, was the gospel itself. He was one of those who knew without understanding.
Paul says spiritual things are spiritually discerned. He didn’t mean that a person who is not saved can’t understand anything about the Bible. Lost men and women can teach in seminaries and Bible colleges, they can pastor churches, they can recite Scriptures and creeds. They can be like the men on the council to whom Stephen preached. They can know a lot and understand very little. They can miss the point. And so too can we.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and ears. Pray that you would not be a “stiff-necked people.” Pray that you would know with understanding.