Stephen’s Brilliant Defense, Part 2 (Acts Sermon 16)

Turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 7. We’re continuing this incredible, this brilliant defense that Stephen makes before the Sanhedrin. I begin with a story from a ministry that I’ve had a part in over the last two years, a ministry to a maximum security prison in Texas. I’ve had the privilege over the last two falls to preach the word of God, to preach the gospel to those who are, and many of them are, with life sentences. I had the opportunity this past November to have a conversation with one of the inmates there. Usually I don’t know their story, I don’t seek it out, but sometimes they’ll come and share their story. This was a Hispanic man who’s 28 years old, who’d been in prison with a life sentence since he was 18.

He had a beautiful, ardent faith in Jesus Christ, and he wanted to tell me his story. I won’t go into the terrible events that led him to be arrested and convicted, but I want to tell how he came to faith in Christ. He had no spiritual background at all. He had no family input at all, nothing of the gospel. He had been arrested for this terrible crime and was held without bail in a prison cell, and there was another man who was put near him. Both of those men were Hispanic and he was able to speak in a way that he could understand culturally and sympathetically and said, “Tomorrow they’re going to be bringing you some books. You should definitely take them.”  Because he has nothing else to do, he won’t be out except for one hour until his trial. So he said, “The book cart came around the next day and they brought me two books. One was the most boring book I’ve ever read in my life, about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the other was a Bible, a beat up old Bible. As soon as I saw the Bible, I threw it over my shoulder into the corner of the cell, I had no interest in it at all. But then I tried to read the other book and I had no interest in that, so I went back to the Bible and tried to read that. I had an immediate problem, he said, I just began at the beginning and started reading and it made no sense to me.  It made no sense, I didn’t get what I was reading, I didn’t know how it was relevant to me, and so I threw it back into the same corner, and then I tried that Lewis and Clark book again and that was doing nothing for me.” 

I just see, by the way, the beautiful providence of God in all of that. But in the course of time, he flipped to the back of the Bible and found a reading plan that led him ahead into the New Testament and into the Gospels and things started to make sense, and he was led to faith in Christ by simply reading that Bible with no human witness, just reading the scripture, and he’s been growing in his faith for ten years.

His testimony showed me some of the difficulty we face as we come to Acts chapter 7, and that is the problem we all have with the Old Testament. Many of us embark every year on a reading plan, and you’re going to do the same thing that this man did. You’re going to start in the Book of Genesis and you’re going to read, and if you haven’t been at it for long or if you’re not even a Christian, or et cetera, it’s not easy to read and you’re going to have the same kinds of questions. It’s a foreign world. The people are doing things we would never do. They’re going through experiences that don’t seem relevant to us at all. Even worse, there’s things that God does in judgment that are difficult to understand.  Whether a worldwide flood, or Sodom and Gomorrah, fire on Mount Sinai, and after a while it’s just difficult and it’s extremely off-putting for some, and they have difficulty with it. 

Throughout the history of the Christian Church, there have been some who claim to be Christians who have openly disparaged and denigrated the Old Testament, and have spoken against it. For example, in the year 160 AD, there was a false teacher named Marcion who said that basically the Bible presented two gods. There was Yahweh, the God of the Jews of the Old Testament, and then there was Jesus, and there are two entirely different gods and present different approaches.  That was a heretical view. But many people throughout the ages who have been outside of the church, or even some false teachers within it, have disparaged the Old Testament. We don’t disparage the Old Testament but we do have questions, as we look at it we try to understand what it’s all about, and its unfolding story, it’s difficult for us. Martin Luther in his preface of the Old Testament said the Old Testament is the cradle and swaddling cloths of Christ, and he urged all Christians to be thoroughly versed in the teachings of the Old Testament. But we have a higher authority than Martin Luther, infinitely so, for Jesus himself clearly taught that the Old Testament predicted Him, proclaimed Him, His person, His work, his life, His death, His resurrection. It’s all right there in the Old Testament.

After His resurrection from the dead, He spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said to them, “’How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’” Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.” [Like 24: 25-26] Later in that same chapter, that same day, he appeared to the apostles in Jerusalem and said, “’This is what I told you while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures.” [Luke 24:44-45]  Jesus had said plainly in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.” [Matthew 5: 17-18]  In John chapter 5, Jesus said to his enemies, the Jewish leaders, “If you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.” [John 5: 46] 

Many Christians do in fact feel very uncomfortable with the Old Testament. It seems an unfamiliar world, and they don’t know how to trace out its story in a way that culminates in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Bible, therefore, is a glorious unity with Jesus Christ himself as the ultimate purpose of the whole book. He is both the foundation and the crowning stone of the work.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end of this story of redemption.  Many Christians do in fact feel very uncomfortable with the Old Testament. It seems an unfamiliar world, and they don’t know how to trace out its story in a way that culminates in the person of Jesus Christ.

 In Acts chapter 7, we have an amazing example in the brilliant speech of Stephen before the Sanhedrin. He is a role model for us and a tutor, teaching us how the history of the Jews is a unity culminating in their rejection of Jesus Christ. It is one of the most thrilling chapters in all the Bible, the words of a true genius, one of the greatest and most underrated heroes in the illustrious history of the Christian church, this man, Stephen.

Over the last few sermons we’ve been introduced to Stephen. We met him first in Acts 6, as a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, also full of faith, entrusted with the task along with six others of overseeing the daily distribution of food to the Greek-speaking widows in the church in Jerusalem. But his ministry went far beyond that. He did amazing miracles, and he defended, ardently and clearly defended the faith, the Christian faith in a series of Jewish synagogues there in the Jerusalem vicinity. We’re told that he had debating opponents who began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the spirit by whom he spoke. He won those debates, clearly won them.

Unable to defeat Stephen in these debates, they resorted to false witnesses who secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” They orchestrated, they wrangled his arrest, and had him hauled before the Sanhedrin, the very body, the deliberative religious spiritual leader body that had condemned Jesus to death. These same men, and now Stephen’s in front of them and they said this to the Sanhedrin, “This man never stopped speaking against this holy place and against the law.” [Acts 6:13]The holy place is the temple. The law is the law of Moses. “For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place,” [the temple] “and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” [Acts 6:14]

This trial before the Sanhedrin begins with this amazing occurrence in verse 15 of chapter 6, “All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” And then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?” Stephen begins his defense. Stephen was charged, as I said, with four counts of blasphemy, any one of which would’ve merited the death penalty in their society. Blasphemy is speaking words of falsehood or words of disrespect, and the blasphemy was against God, against Moses, against the law of Moses and against the temple. 

Last time as we began walking through this lengthy defense, we saw that Stephen had four goals. First, he wanted to seize and hold their attention. He knew that at some point they would be tempted to kick him out and stop listening to him, so he wanted to grab their attention so they would listen to him. Secondly, he wanted to defend himself against their charges of blasphemy. Thirdly, he wanted to convict them of their sins. And fourthly, to proclaim Jesus as the Savior. He wanted to save them, and the only way they would be saved is to repent of their sins, their stubborn unbelief, and come to faith in Christ. 

In Acts 7, we see how Stephen accomplishes these four goals in an ever increasingly powerful presentation. He does seize their attention right away by narrating their national history, which was a topic very near and dear to their hearts.  They loved to talk about their Jewish heritage and their Jewish history, their fathers, their Jewish forefathers. So he seizes their attention. Then he begins to defend himself against these charges of blasphemy. He shows his zeal right away for God, the God of our fathers, the God of glory, he calls him. He has the highest respect for God; he’s not a blasphemer. He also shows his zeal for Moses, his esteem of Moses. We’re going to walk through that today. Also, the law and the temple. Again, he’s no blasphemer, but then he’s going to turn it around and convict them of sin in a pattern that I call a little bit like “boiling the frog”. Little by little by little, he’s starting to stack things up, and a regular pattern starts to emerge, but they didn’t see it right away.  But we can see it looking back, especially when he reaches the climax of his address. In line with the regular pattern of their fathers, they are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears. What that means is, stiff-necked, they’re stubborn, they’re rebellious, they won’t yield ultimately to Jesus’s yoke. They won’t submit to him, they won’t submit to God, they’re stiff-necked and uncircumcised in their hearts and their ears. They don’t hear properly, they don’t believe and love properly, they’re hard-hearted, and they always resist the Holy Spirit of God. 

That array of statements is ultimately my application for all of us. I’m going to say it right now. It is wise for all of us when we see a very convicting, maybe negative part of scripture, to be humbled before it and say, “Lord, is this true of me?  Am I in any way stiff-necked, and am I uncircumcised in heart and ears? Am I resisting the Holy Spirit?” I know I’m speaking to two categories of people this morning. I believe I’m speaking to two categories, people who walked in here as yet, not Christians, not yet having crossed over from death to life through faith in Jesus Christ, that you would take the warning that Stephen is giving to not be stiff-necked, but to repent and believe in Jesus while there’s still time.

Then I’m speaking to Christians, mostly to Christians. In that I can give you two applications. First, thank God that He rescued you from being stiff-necked with uncircumcised hearts and ears, resisting the Holy Spirit. That’s what all of us were before we were converted.  So give God the praise and the glory for saving you from that. But secondly, is it not true that those words are occasionally true of you whenever you sin, that you act like you’re stiff-necked with uncircumcised hearts and ears and you’re resisting the Holy Spirit, that you would repent of those patterns? So that’s basically my point of the whole sermon. 

The fourth point he didn’t ever get to, and that is to proclaim Jesus as the son of God, the Savior, in his presentation. He did it as he was dying, and God gave him a vision of heaven standing open, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said, “Look, I see the son of man standing at the right hand of God.” [Acts 7:56]  Heaven opened, and there He is. Jesus is up there. Jesus is the Savior, and they killed Him. 

That’s the whole message. Last week we got through the first portion of the details. It’s important for me that you get the main point. So I’ve given it upfront, but I think the details are important too, and it’s not easy to follow all the details. This is a long complex story, God and Israel, God and the Jews, and it’s not over yet. There’s a complexity to what God has done with the Jews, but this is a major theme, and that is the Jews always resist what God is doing. They fight him and they resist him. And we who are not Jews, but Gentiles, we’re no better. It’s not like our tribe would have done any better. This is a problem the world has. This is a theme.

I. Israel’s Rejection of the Deliverer

We began the first portion tracing out God’s history with Abraham, and then leading to Joseph. Joseph was rejected by the twelve patriarchs. The great fathers of the Jewish nation were jealous of Joseph and sold him as a slave. They wanted to kill him, but instead they got some money out of him and sold him as a slave to Egypt. But he was the very one that God had chosen to be their deliverer from a famine. He’s already set up as the first Christ-like image or figure. Joseph is a type or pattern of Christ, rejected by the Jews, but ultimately delivering or saving them from famine. 

Now we’re stepping in right in the middle as he continues his developing argument, and we zero in on Moses, and he’s the next rejected deliverer.  The basic point here is Stephen is not a blasphemer against Moses. He has the highest respect for Moses. He speaks reverently of Moses as a person and his calling and his role. But the real issue is that Israel rejected Moses, not once, but again and again and again, from the very beginning of their connection with him, and on again and again rejected Moses. But Moses was a type or a picture of Christ. He was a deliverer, a ruler, a redeemer, ultimately from bondage in Egypt. Jesus is the true and final deliverer and ruler and redeemer, and Moses also prophesied about Christ. 

He made actual verbal predictions about Jesus, especially in the animal sacrificial system, so we’re going to walk through that.  The setting is Israel’s suffering in Egypt. Look at verses 17-19, “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. Then another king who knew nothing about Joseph became ruler of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.” So these were the circumstances which led to the need for Moses as a deliverer. This is the history in Exodus. The larger context is God’s unfulfilled promise to Abraham, the promise concerning the Promised Land. That’s why it’s called the Promised Land. God had made a prediction that Abraham would have the land. Abraham in Genesis 15 asked, “How can I know that I’ll get it?”  God had said to him in Genesis 15, the very thing that Stephen quoted, look back at verses 6-7, “God spoke to Abraham in this way,’Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, where they’ll be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years. But I’ll punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘And afterward they’ll come out of that country and worship me in this place.’” 

We’ve already seen that, but now the time has come for that to happen, to fulfill every aspect of that promise. There was another king that came up in Egypt, another Pharaoh. Stephen spoke about how Joseph had been forgotten, and that’s not surprising because Israel was in Egypt for 430 years.  It’s understandable that the next generation or two or three of Egypt’s royal family wouldn’t know anything about some Jewish individual that did something a hundred years ago or seventy-five years ago or something. They didn’t remember him. They didn’t know him. To make matters worse, Israel flourished reproductively. They just exploded in population. In those 430 years, the nation would grow from the seventy-five people that Stephen talks about that came at the time of Joseph. For some experts, I think the number may have been as high as 5 million, based on the census of military aged men and then extrapolating out to older and younger males, and then women, babies, all of that. It might be as many as 5 million people. Incredible.

The king who ruled over Egypt at that time was nervous about that, very nervous about the increasing population of Jews. He decided to take stern measures. He reduced them to slavery, bondage, so they’re building the great buildings of Egypt, and a modified form of genocide by forcing the Jews to expose or kill their boy babies. Moses appears at that time. Look at verse 20, “At this time, Moses was born and [he says], “He was beautiful in God’s sight.” He was a very handsome looking boy. You can see Stephen is very complimentary. He doesn’t need to say that, what a good-looking baby he was. Every parent thinks their kid is beautiful, but Moses was unusually attractive, he was unusually handsome.  Why does he do that? He’s saying, “Look, I’m very favorably disposed toward Moses. I’m not negative on him.”

Then he speaks more significantly about his upbringing in verse 21, “And when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.” Like all the other Jewish boy babies at that time, he was in fact exposed. He was in fact cast out into the Nile, but in a basket made of reeds. An amazing providence led to his rescue by Pharaoh’s daughter and a dual-culture, dual-highlylanguage upbringing. Stephen only mentions that Moses was brought up in Pharaoh’s household as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  But we also know from the Exodus texts that he was nursed and reared from infancy by his own Jewish mother, Jochebed. He was bilingual and bicultural. This was amazing providence. Moses was specifically being groomed for the role as Israel’s deliverer. 

Now Stephen focuses on his highly cultured training within Pharaoh’s household. Look at verse 22, “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” He knew their culture, he knew their education, he knew how they did things in the court. He was familiar with the court, comfortable with it, knew what was going on. And it says, “He was powerful in speech and action.” He’s positioned to be a great leader of men.

By the way, this is an interesting little moment here, “powerful in speech.” Do you remember when God called Moses out of the flames of the burning bush? Remember what Moses said? He said, “I have a speech impediment.” Remember this whole thing? It’s like, who are you kidding? You don’t have a speech impediment. I’ve seen this for years. People were like, “Oh, Moses stuttered. He had a speech problem.” It’s like, no, it’s that he didn’t want to do the mission. Remember how at one point he says to the angel who speaks to him out of the burning bush, “Please send the one you choose.” It means, send someone else. But God said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” [Exodus 4:11] “I’m bigger than any speech problem you have, but the fact is you have been prepared and groomed for this. You’re ready, and powerful in speech and action.”

When he was forty years old, he tries to save Israel in a clumsy sort of awkward way, the first time. Look at here 23-24.  When Moses was forty years old he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. So realize, this is a long time now, forty years into his life, he at that point cast his lot with Israel. So he’d been living in luxury. He’d been living in the halls of power, but he’s decided he’s going with the Jews. He decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Remember how he looked this way and that and buried him in the sand?  He cast his lots with Israel. This was a massive decision as the author of the Hebrews tells us, in Hebrews 11:24-26, listen to what the author of the Hebrews says in that hall of faith. “By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking forward to his reward.”  Moses we’re told by the author of Hebrews there, he does it all for Christ. He does it all for Jesus, who hadn’t even been born yet. It says in the next verse, in Hebrews 11:27, “By faith, he left Egypt not fearing the king’s anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”  Who’s the him? Previous verse, Christ. He saw the invisible Christ by faith. That’s what the author of the Hebrews is saying, it’s by faith. Is that not the same for us? We’ve never seen Jesus. We look back at an invisible Christ and believe in him. He looked ahead by the prophetic word to the invisible Christ and trusted him. The Old Testament say it the same way we are. He persevered as seeing him who is invisible. Now by faith, Moses could see ahead to the days of Christ, though only dimly.

by faith, Moses could see ahead to the days of Christ, though only dimly.

For Stephen’s argument though, the issue was that Moses was taking the role with Israel of savior and defender, and they rejected him from that role. That’s Stephen’s point here.  Look at verses 25-28 in chapter 7, “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, your brothers, why do you want to hurt each other?’ But the man who is mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?'” 

Moses had reached the point at age forty where he said, “I’m going with the Jews. I’m casting my lot with them.” He thought, Stephen tells us, that the Jews would realize what a boon and an advantage that would be.  “I mean, you realize I’m coming from Pharaoh’s household to help you,” but they didn’t see it that way, and they did not welcome him, they pushed him aside. This is another step in Stephen’s progression here, his argument, and that is this, the Jews always reject the ones that God sends. They always do. They reject the prophets, they reject the redeemers, they reject the judges, they reject them, and now they’ve rejected Christ. That’s his point. But little by little, they don’t see it yet but that’s where he’s headed. They were so proud of their Jewish forefathers. They’re so zealous for Moses, that they’re accusing Stephen of blaspheming Moses, but the shoe is actually on the other foot.  Their forebears, the Jews, rejected Moses saying, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” They rejected him. Stephen’s going to return to that statement in a moment. 

God calls Moses to be the deliverer. Look at verses 30-34, “After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord’s voice, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. The place where you’re standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard they’re groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'”

Stephen’s point is in verse 35, 36. This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, “Who made you ruler and judge?” He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. There it is, Israel’s forefathers rejected Moses as ruler and judge and deliverer, but God chose him for that role. Actually, we know from the story they rejected Moses again and again, not just once, again and again. They were ready to stone Moses when there was no water in the desert.  Stephen’s going to show this repeated pattern of rejection a little later in his part about the law when he said they refused to obey him. There is the plain evidence. They consistently rejected Moses from being their savior and deliverer. 

Moses also predicted the coming Messiah. Look at verse 37, he’s just rubbing it in now. This is that same Moses.. You know the one they rejected? That same Moses who told the Israelites, “God will send you a prophet like me from among your own people.” This is a well-known prophecy, the prediction of the coming of the prophet, like capital P, prophet. Some people wondered if John the Baptist was the prophet. You can read about it in John chapter 1.  They’re waiting for the prophet. It was recorded in Deuteronomy 18, this clear thing, “God will send you a prophet like me.” Peter had already alluded to this very same prediction. This is a very important prediction, in Acts 3:23, “Anyone who does not listen to that prophet that God raises up from among your own people will be cut off from his people.” You’ve got to listen to the one who comes, or you’ll be cut off. So Moses predicted the coming of the Messiah and warned them that if they rejected him, they would be completely cut off. Summing up this phase of Stephen’s presentation, Stephen makes it plain that the Jewish nation consistently rejected Moses from being their leader despite their supposed fierce loyalty to him, centuries later.

II. Israel’s Rejection of the Law

Next, Israel’s rejection of the law. Stephen now turns to the next aspect of their charges against him, blasphemy against the law, that he would change the customs Moses handed down to them. Stephen introduces the law, verse 38, “He was in the assembly in the desert with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, and he received living words.” He received living oracles to pass on to us. It is beautiful the respect that Stephen has for the word of God, living oracles. I can’t help but think about Hebrews 4:12, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitude of the heart.” When you look at Hebrews 3 and 4, it is an extended meditation on Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” That was about Israel’s hardness of heart in the desert. David wrote that Psalm 500 years later. The author of the Hebrews works it, “Today, if you hear his voice, don’t harden your heart,” and then steps back and says, “Isn’t the word of God amazing?” It has converting and convicting power. 

Stephen does the same thing, he received living words. I think it also refers to Deuteronomy 32:47, where God said about the law of Moses, “These are not just idle words for you, they are your life.”  That’s even more true of us now that Christ has come and we have the Gospel. These are not just idle words for us. This is our life. Our eternal life is found in this book, in the words of the scripture, living words. Stephen is no blasphemer against the living words of God. He had the highest honor and respect for the word of God. 

Note that Stephen also mentions the angel who spoke with him in verse 38. He was in the assembly in the desert with the angel who spoke to him. This is undoubtedly, I believe, the angel of the Lord. It was the angel of the Lord who spoke out of the flames of the burning bush when Stephen says the Lord spoke to him.  The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ, and God spoke of the angel of the Lord in Exodus 23. He said, “Behold, I’m sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him, he, my angel, he will not forgive your rebellion since my name is in him.” Do you realize what that’s saying? God Almighty would never say that about an angel, just an ordinary angel. This is definitely the pre-incarnate Christ, and you better obey him because He’s not going to forgive your rebellion against Him.”

The word “angel” means “messenger,” and Jesus was that, He was the ultimate final messenger of God. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.” [Hebrews 1:2] Jesus is the final word. It says in Exodus 23:22 of Christ, “If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and oppose those who oppose you. I’ll save you from all of your enemies, if you’ll follow him.” Jesus Christ received the living words of God and committed them to Israel. 

Now later in Stephen’s speech, he’s going to mention other angels, plural.  I believe that the angels had a role in delivering the word of God to the prophets. It’s really interesting, the Book of Revelation talks about this, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, Jesus, to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to a servant, John. It’s God to Jesus, Jesus to an angel,  an angel to John, and John to us,  like a relay race of truth. It seems in the Old Testament, the Old Testament articles were mediated through angels, and Stephen’s going to mention that at the end. 

Stephen’s point though is, yes, you got the law, you got the words, but you never obeyed it. You never obeyed it. You got living words from God and you didn’t keep them. The day they came, you violated them.  God spoke out of fire in a cloud on the top of Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, and that same day they made a golden calf. Look at verse 39-1, “Our fathers refused to obey him, instead they rejected him and their hearts turned back to Egypt.” Moses is up on the mountain. Remember, he went up to get the rest of the law from God, and he was gone up there in the cloud and the fire. They rejected him and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. They told Aaron, “Make us gods who will go before us.” As for this fellow, Moses, who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him. This was the time they made the idol in a form of a calf.  They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. They were wicked idolaters in Egypt before the Exodus. I didn’t know that, brothers and sisters, but read about it in Ezekiel 20, God warned them before the Exodus to give up their idols. While they were still in Egypt they wouldn’t do it. Ezekiel 20 is one of the most heartbreaking chapters there is, and it fits right in line with what Stephen’s saying, “You always, always, always reject me and your idolaters.” There are wicked idolaters in Egypt, there are wicked idolaters in Mount Sinai. There are wicked idolaters for forty years in the desert until God killed that whole generation off. They continue to be wicked idolaters after they entered the Promised Land. It wasn’t long before they forgot all of that and were going after the gods of the Canaanites.

Stephen makes this plain, look at verse 42-43, “But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies.” This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets, “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert of the House of Israel? You lifted up the shrine of Moloch and the star of your god, Rephaim, the idols you made to worship, therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.” He told them He was going to do that before they even entered the Promised Land. Read about it in Deuteronomy 34 with the song of Moses, God said, “I want to teach,” or Moses said, “I’m going to teach you a song before any of your history happens to tell you what you’re going to do. You’re going to go into the Promised Land and you’re going to eat crops you didn’t plant and live in houses you didn’t build. You’re going to get fat and comfortable and you’re going to kick against me and you’re going to go after idols and I’m going to have to discipline you by Gentile armies, and they’ll exile you, and you’ll lose the Promised Land.” So just memorize that song and sing it until it happens. Whoa. That’s the song of Moses, Deuteronomy 34, before they ever entered the Promised Land. It’s heartbreaking. But that fulfillment came after centuries of warnings by the prophets, centuries of warnings. Elijah and Elisha and one prophet after another came and said, “You’ve got to turn from your wicked ways.”

God gave them over to the worship of idols and eventually punished them by the exile of the Babylon. “So who is it?” Stephen will ask. “Who is it that’s the blasphemer against the law? Is it me? No, it’s not me. It’s your forefathers. Frankly  it’s you, the real blasphemers are you,” he would say to the Sanhedrin. 

III. Israel’s Idolatrous Temple

Next we have Israel’s idolatrous of the temple. What he’s saying is the Jews’ real idolatry was the temple itself. They thought their religion could save them. He traces out the history of the tabernacle and the temple. Look at verses 44- 50, “Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the testimony with them in the desert.  It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built the house for him. However, the most high does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says,’Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me,’ says the Lord, ‘Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all of these things?’”

The secret of the tabernacle God showed to Moses in a vision of heaven, a heavenly tabernacle, and there was a pattern given to Moses which then became the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a type and a shadow and a picture of that heavenly reality. That’s what the tabernacle was. The author of Hebrews tells us this, that this pattern was a type and a shadow of a true tabernacle in heaven. The type and shadow was never meant to replace the reality, the heavenly reality. It was just a symbol, an earthly picture of it. In the course of time, David decided the time had come for an upgrade. “Here I am,” David said, “Dwelling in a palace of cedar and God’s in a tent. I think I’ll make him a house.” Remember this whole thing? “I think I’ll make him a house of cedar.”

Following Stephen’s trail of history, after the tabernacle was made, the Jews carried it with them through the desert. They brought it with them into the Promised Land under Joshua. It was around with them the whole time as they’re conquering in the Promised Land, clearing the land of the pagan tribes of Canaan. Then centuries later, David had this idea for the upgrade, he wanted to make basically a palace of cedar for God. God sent him a prophet, Nathan, to speak to him. First he said, “Hey, that’s a great idea.” Then the word of the Lord came to Nathan and said, “Ah, on second thought, go back and say something to David.”  This is what he said to David. This is God speaking to David, “’Are you the one to build a house for me? I have not dwelled in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt. To this day I’ve been moving from place to place in a tent, with a tent as my dwelling.’ Instead, God says, ‘I’m going to build a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I’ll establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish a throne of his kingdom forever.’” There’s no doubt who that is, the son of David, that’s Jesus.

Jesus builds the eternal dwelling place. He said in John 14, “I go to prepare a place for you.” We find out in 1 Peter, we’re the living stones, we are the place. Through salvation, He is building this beautiful heavenly structure where God and man will dwell in intimate fellowship forever. But the point of the tabernacle and of the temple was, we’re not there yet. You’re not welcome. You’re excluded. “This far you may come and no farther. It doesn’t matter if the wall that blocks you is cloth or gold-covered wood, you’re not allowed to come.” The way had not yet been disclosed as long as that structure was still standing, the author of Hebrews tells us. But instead the Jews, and by the way, at the time of the dedication- Stephen mentions this-  at the time of the dedication, Solomon understood this. God gave Solomon wisdom and perspective to see what was really going on here. At the dedication of the temple, that gold box made of, I guess, acacia wood, covered with gold leaf, he’s dedicating it and he’s praying to God, and he said this 1 Kings 8:27, “But will God really dwell on earth? Heaven, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built?”  You can’t make a box for God. The universe isn’t big enough for him. “There’s no container for the infinite God, certainly not this gold box that I [Solomon]have made here in the city of Jerusalem.” But the Jews idolize the temple. They made an idol of it.

They looked on the temple similar to the ark of the covenant itself, like a good luck charm. Do you remember the story with Eli when they were fighting against the Philistines, and they got beaten by the Philistines in day one of a battle?  “I have an idea,” someone said, “Let’s get the ark of the covenant. Get it on the battlefield. We’ll win.” Remember this? Eli was very worried about the ark.  They bring the ark the next day and they lose. The arc gets captured by the Philistines, which, as you know from the story, did the Philistines no favors. God can take care of himself, Eli, He doesn’t need your protection. But the point was there in Shiloh, God was willing to give his ark over to the Gentile enemies because of the wickedness of Israel, and the fact that they looked on the ark as a good luck charm.

Years later they would do the same. Only this time it was the Babylonians coming, not the Philistines. They said, “God will never let the Babylonians in here because we have the temple of the Lord.” And Jeremiah the prophet said, “Don’t you believe it.” [Jeremiah 7:4] “Do not trust deceptive words and say, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people, Israel. Do not think for a moment I’m not going to do it again.” And he did do it. The Babylonians came in with axes and chopped the temple of Solomon to bits, took the gold, burned the rest.

Stephen’s concluding point, verses 48-50, “However, the most high does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? What kind of house will you build for me,’ says the Lord, ‘Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?’” The true blasphemy of the temple is not Stephen or Jesus, it’s these Jews that trusted in it like a spiritual good luck charm and forgot that the whole point was to point out their own wickedness and sin and the need for an atoning sacrifice, and that they’re excluded from a holy God. The true dwelling place would come later and Jesus is the one who would build it.

IV. Israel’s Consistent Sin

Now he’s come to his conclusion. “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears, you’re just like your fathers, you always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you have betrayed and murdered him, you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” (Acts 7:51-53)

That God doesn’t dwell in houses made by men points to a salvation yet to come, and that is Jesus.

Stephen’s been building to this point, now we see what he’s about. We see it. He makes clear what his whole agenda has been, “God sent Joseph, your fathers rejected him and wanted to kill him.” He later saved Israel. “God sent Moses, your fathers rejected and wanted to kill him.” He later saved Israel. “God gave the law of Moses, your fathers rejected it and disobeyed it in every generation.” But it points to a salvation later to come. “God gave the temple, your fathers idolized it and missed the whole point of it.” That God doesn’t dwell in houses made by men points to a salvation yet to come, and that is Jesus.

V. Applications

I’ve already given you the application, I gave it to you at the beginning. If you came in here, not yet a Christian, I hope today for you is the day of salvation. How could any sinner stand before God, a holy God who knows everything you’ve ever said or done, all of your thoughts, with any hope that your righteousness is enough? It isn’t. Turn away from your righteousness, trust in Christ and He will forgive you. His bloodshed on the cross is the atonement, the only atonement that God has given. All we have to do is believe in it, like the thief on the cross. Trust in him and your sins will be forgiven. 

For the rest of us, I’ve already said, thank God he rescued you from being stiff-necked with uncircumcised hearts and ears, resisting the Holy Spirit. Thank God. Give him the credit that He took out your heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh. Thank God for that. But then ask God to deliver you from the remnants of that because we still show it, don’t we? We’re still stubborn. We’re still fleshly. We’re still selfish. May God deliver us.

 I also want you to marvel at God’s wisdom in the Old Testament. Isn’t this incredible? What an incredible story, and this is just one little theme through it. There’s so many other things that God has done. I delight in the fact that God’s going to win the story with Israel. Isn’t that awesome? Romans 11 says, “All Israel will be saved.” That doesn’t mean every single Jew that’s ever lived. No, but that final generation, God’s going to redeem them, and they’re going to look to Christ and they’re going to believe in him. In the meantime, they’re breaking his heart, as He says in Romans 10:21, “All day long I have held up my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” And then we look at ourselves and say, “Lord, make me different.” 

Finally, Stephen was bold. We have an opportunity this week. Maybe we don’t have Stephen’s gifts, and we don’t have Stephen’s opportunities, but we have our own gifts and we have our own opportunities. Let’s be bold this week. Let’s tell people about Jesus. I would again invite you to come and pray with us on Wednesday morning.  This is what we’re praying for, that we would have boldness and opportunity to share. And then that God would bless it. 

Close with me in prayer. 

Father, thank you for the depth, the complexity, the clarity that comes from studying your word and from Stephen’s amazing insights. Lord, I pray that you would take these lessons and press them home to our hearts. I pray that no one would leave this place under the wrath of God, unsaved, that they would know today is the day of salvation and repent and believe in Jesus and find full forgiveness and release for all time from their sins. And Lord, help us who have already done that to live holy lives, to put sin to death by the Spirit, and to be bold in witnessing as Stephen was. In Jesus name. Amen.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

From the very earliest part of church history, teachers claiming to be Christians have disparaged the Old Testament. They look on it as an obsolete book of embarrassing stories of a wrath-filled tribal deity whom Christ came to supersede. The New Covenant God a God of love and acceptance and tolerance more fit for a modern age. They cannot understand aspects of the Old Testament and seek to minimize it.

The earliest example of this is in a heretic named Marcion who died around the year AD 160. He basically taught that there were two deities, Yahweh (the God of the Old Testament), and Jesus. He taught that Christianity was an entirely new thing, a complete discontinuity with Judaism.

Many other teachers across the ages have had a similar disdain for the Old Testament.

But Martin Luther, in his preface to the Old Testament, said that the Old Testament is the “cradle and swaddling clothes of Christ” and urged all Christians to be thoroughly verses in the teachings of the Old Testament.

We have a higher authority than Luther… infinitely so, for Jesus Christ himself clearly proclaimed that the Old Testament proclaimed him—his coming, his mission on earth:

After his resurrection from the dead, he spoke to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus:

Luke 24:25-27  He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  ²⁶ Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

After that, he later appeared to the apostles in Jerusalem and said this:

Luke 24:44-45  “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Jesus had said plainly in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:17-18  Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  ¹⁸ I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

And again, in John 5, Jesus said directly to his enemies, the Jewish leaders:

John 5:46  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.

The Bible is a glorious unity, with Jesus Christ himself as the ultimate purpose of the entire Book.

Now many Christians do in fact feel very uncomfortable with the Old Testament… it seems a very unfamiliar world. And they do not know how to trace out its story in a way that culminates in the person of Jesus Christ.

In Acts 7, we have an amazing example in the brilliant speech of Stephen before the Sanhedrin. He is our role model and tutor teaching us how the history of the Jews is a unity culminating in their rejection of Christ. It is one of the most thrilling chapters in all the Bible, the words of a true genius and one of the greatest and most underrated heroes in the illustrious history of the Christian church—Stephen.

Recap:

Over the last few sermons, we have been introduced to Stephen. We first met him in Acts 6 as a man full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, as well as full of faith, entrusted with the task of overseeing the daily distribution of food to widows.

But his ministry went far beyond that. He did amazing miracles and defended the faith in Jewish synagogues:

Acts 6:9-10  These men began to argue with Stephen,  ¹⁰ but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

Unable to defeat Stephen in a debate resorted to false witnesses:

Acts 6:11   they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”

They wrangled his arrest and had him hauled before the Sanhedrin:

Acts 6:13-14  “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.  ¹⁴ For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

His trial began with a most amazing occurrence:

Acts 6:15  All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

So the High Priest asked him,

“Are these charges true?”

Stephen was charged with four counts of blasphemy, any of which merited the death penalty: blasphemy is speaking words of falsehood or disrespect against 1) God, 2) Moses; 3) the Law of Moses; 4) the Temple.

As we saw last time, Stephen has four goals:

1)   To seize and hold their interest

2)   To defend himself against the charge of blasphemy

3)   To convict them of their sins

4)   To proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Savior

In Acts 7, we see Stephen’s mission accomplished!

1)   Stephen held their attention fast right to the end.

2)   Stephen defended himself against their charge of blasphemy by showing his zeal for God, Moses, the Law and the Temple

3)   He then convicted them of sin… in line with the regular pattern of their fathers, they were resisting the Holy Spirit, stiff-necked, rebellious, refusing to submit to what God was doing, and if they don’t repent, they will perish

4)   He proclaimed Jesus as the Son of Man and Son of God. The true Savior

Then… they killed him.

That, my friends is the whole message.

Last week, we got through the first portion, verses 1-16, tracing out God’s history with Israel through Abraham and Joseph. Joseph, though rejected by the Patriarchs had risen to rule Egypt and save Israel from starvation.

Now, we seek to walk through the details of the rest of his message. I will deal with Stephen’s death next week.

I. Israel’s Rejected Deliverer

Basic points: Stephen is not a blasphemer against Moses, but rather speaks reverently about his person and calling.

The real issues were 1) Israel rejected Moses; 2) Moses was a picture of Christ; 3) Moses prophesied about Christ

A. The Setting: Israel’s Suffering

Acts 7:17-19  “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.  ¹⁸ Then another king, who knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt.  ¹⁹ He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

1. These were the circumstances which led to the need for a Deliverer, a Savior

2. Context: God’s unfulfilled promise to Abraham

a. The promise concerned the land… that’s why it is called “The Promised Land”

b. As we saw, God had predicted the suffering of Israel at the time he made his covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15; Stephen already quoted this, as we saw

Acts 7:6-7  God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.  ⁷ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’

c. Now the time had come to fulfill every aspect of that promise

3. Another king in Egypt

a. Stephen spoke of how Joseph had been forgotten

b. Israel was in Egypt for 430 years total; so it’s understandable that Egypt’s royal family eventually forgot Joseph

c. To make matters worse, Israel flourished astonishingly… growing in population by huge amounts

d. In those 430 years, the nation would grow from the 75 people that Stephen mentioned in verse 14 to possibly as many as five million men, women, and children at the time of the Exodus

e. The king who ruled Egypt felt this astonishing growth was a major threat to the security of Egypt

f. So he decided to take stern measures… harsh slavery and modified genocide, forcing the nation to kill their boy babies

B. Moses Appears and is Groomed to Be Deliverer

Acts 7:20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight.

1. Stephen says highly complimentary things about Moses, showing that he is no blasphemer of Moses

2. The phrase highlights Moses’ astonishing physical attractiveness; Moses was an extremely handsome baby

3. Moses’s upbringing

Acts 7:21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

a. Like all other Jewish boy babies, Moses was cast into the Nile

b. But the difference was that he was cast in a basket made of reeds

c. Amazing providence led to his rescue by Pharaoh’s daughter and his dual upbringing

d. Stephen only mentions that Moses was brought up in Pharaoh’s household as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; but we also know he was nursed and reared from infancy by his Jewish mother, Jochebed… so he was bilingual and bicultural

e. This was an AMAZING providence! Moses was specifically being groomed for the role as Israel’s deliverer

f. Stephen however focuses on his training within Pharaoh’s household… his was highly cultured

Acts 7:22  Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

g. Positioned to be a great leader of men!!

h. By the way, this shows what a lie it was when at the burning bush, Moses claimed to have a speech impediment!! “I am not eloquent but am  slow in speech and tongue.”

Exodus 4:10-11  The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?

i. In other words, YOU CAN’T FOOL ME, MOSES… I know exactly what you can do!

C. Moses Tries to Save Israel the First Time

Acts 7:23-24  When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites.  ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.

1. Moses had made up his mind to cast his lot with Israel

2. This was a massive decision, as the author to Hebrews tells us

Hebrews 11:24-26  By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.  ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

3. Moses did it all for his early faith in Christ

Hebrews 11:27  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

4. Him who is invisible is Christ, according to Hebrews 11:26!!

5. By faith, Moses could see ahead to the days of Christ, though only dimly

6. For Stephen’s argument, though, the issue was that Moses was taking the role of Savior, Deliverer… and the Jews rejected him

Acts 7:25-28  Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.  ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’  ²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?  ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

7. Though Stephen’s hearers could not see it yet, this is another major step in his argument… that the Jews ALWAYS reject the ones God sends

8. They were so proud of their Jewish forefathers, and were so zealous for Moses that they were accusing Stephen of blaspheming Moses, but the shoe was on the other foot… the Jews rejected Moses saying “Who made you ruler and judge over us???”

9. Stephen will return to that statement in a moment

D. God Calls Moses to Be Deliverer

Acts 7:30-34  After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.  ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord’s voice:  ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.  ³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground.  ³⁴ I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

1. Stephen’s point:

Acts 7:35-36  This is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.  ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert.

2. There it is!!! Israel’s forefathers rejected Moses to be their Deliverer

3. And actually, they rejected him again and again

4. They were ready to stone Moses when they had no water in the desert

5. Stephen will show this repeated pattern of rejection a little later in the part about the Law, when he said they refused to obey him

6. There is the plain evidence… they consistently rejected Moses from being their Savior and Deliverer

E. Moses Predicts the Coming Messiah

Acts 7:37  “This is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.’

1. This was a well-known prophecy, given in Deuteronomy 18

2. The clear warning is this, already given by Peter in Acts 3

Acts 3:23  Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.

3. Moses predicted the coming of the Messiah and warned them that if they rejected him, they would be completely cut off

Summing up: Stephen makes it plain that the Jewish nation consistently rejected Moses from being their leader, despite their supposed fierce loyalty to him centuries later

II. Israel’s Rejected Law

Stephen now turns to the second aspect of their charges against him… blasphemy against the Law; that he would change the customs Moses handed down to them

A. Stephen Introduces the Law

Acts 7:38  He was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living words to pass on to us.

1. It is beautiful the respect Stephen has for the Word of God; he calls scripture “living words”

2. We can’t help but think about Hebrews 4:12

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

3. I also think about this:

Deuteronomy 32:47  They are not just idle words for you– they are your life.

4. Stephen was absolutely no blasphemer against the living words of God; he had the highest honor and respect for the Word

5. Note: Stephen also mentions the ANGEL who spoke with him

a. This probably refers to the Angel of the Lord, who spoke with Moses from the flames of the burning bush and who led Israel through their pilgrimage

b. This Angel was none other than the preincarnate Christ!

c. God spoke of the Angel of the Lord with this statement:

Exodus 23:20-21  Behold, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.  ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.

d. MY NAME IS IN HIM!! What angel would God ever say that about?

e. But the word “Angel” also means “Messenger,” and it was through Christ that the Law came to Israel

Exodus 23:22  If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.

6. Jesus Christ received the living words of God and committed them to Israel

7. Later in Stephen’s speech, we find out that Christ used other angels to deliver the Word of the Law to Israel

B. Stephen’s Point: Israel NEVER Obeyed the Law

1. Almighty God spoke the Ten Commandments to Israel with a voice so terrifying they thought they would die if they heard it anymore

2. Then while Moses was up on the mountain meeting with God, Israel rebelled as we’ve said and made the Golden Calf

Acts 7:39-41  “But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.  ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt– we don’t know what has happened to him!’  ⁴¹ That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made.

3. They were wicked idolaters in Egypt, they were wicked idolaters at Mt. Sinai, and they were wicked idolaters every step of the way in the desert for forty years until that generation died out

4. As Stephen made plain

Acts 7:42-43   But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?  ⁴³ You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.

5. The exile to Babylon was predicted in the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 34

6. Its fulfillment was after centuries of warnings by one prophet after another

7. God gave them over to the worship of idols and eventually punished them by the exile to Babylon

8. So who is it that is blaspheming against the Law? Is it not Israel in century after century of idolatrous rebellion?

III. Israel’s Idolatrous Temple

Stephen now addresses the charge that he blasphemed against the Temple

He said the Jews idolatry of the Temple was the real blasphemy

Stephen traces out the history of the Tabernacle, then the Temple:

Acts 7:44-50  Our forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.  ⁴⁵ Having received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David,  ⁴⁶ who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.  ⁴⁷ But it was Solomon who built the house for him.  ⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:  ⁴⁹ “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?  ⁵⁰ Has not my hand made all these things?’

A. The Secret of the Tabernacle

1. God showed Moses a pattern by which he made the Tabernacle, the dwelling tent where God would meet with Israel

2. The author to Hebrews tells us this pattern was a type and shadow of the true Tabernacle in heaven

3. This type and shadow was never meant to replace the true heavenly dwelling place of God, where God would dwell with his people

4. It was just an earthly picture of it

B. David’s Desire

1. After the Tabernacle was made, the Jews carried it with them everywhere they went in their pilgrimage through the desert and into the Promised Land

2. Joshua had it with him while he cleared the Promised Land of the pagan tribes of Canaan

3. Centuries later, King David, who enjoyed God’s favor, was sitting in a palace made of cedar and felt guilty, because God was dwelling in a tent

4. So he decided to make a more permanent dwelling place for God

5. God spoke to David through Nathan saying

2 Samuel 7:5-6  Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?  ⁶ I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling.

6. Instead, God stated he would build a house for HIM through his son

2 Samuel 7:12-13  When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.  ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

7. That son of David was the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who built an eternal dwelling place in heaven, not just for David but for all the believers throughout all eternity

8. When Solomon built the physical Temple on earth, he also built it according to a pattern that God had shown to David his father

9. The Temple, like the Tabernacle, was a type and shadow of Christ

10. Solomon in dedicating the Temple, humbly acknowledged its limitation… a small golden cube, a physical box for the Infinite God

1 Kings 8:27  But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

C. The Idolatry of the Temple

1. The Jews in their wicked idolatrous hearts came to see the Temple of the Lord like a religious good luck charm

2. Just like in the days of Eli the priest, when God allowed the Ark of the Covenant to be captured by the Philistines when they carried it into battle, assuming it would guarantee victory

3. Centuries later, right before the Exile to Babylon, the Jews displayed the same idolatrous conviction of the Temple… they believed God would never allow the Temple to be destroyed

Jeremiah 7:4  Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!”

Jeremiah 7:12  Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

D. Stephen’s Concluding Point, Quoting Isaiah

Acts 7:48-50  However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:  ⁴⁹ “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?  ⁵⁰ Has not my hand made all these things?’

The true blasphemy of the Temple is not humbly understanding its symbolic nature, that its animal sacrifices could never take away sin, and that all of it pointed to a Savior who was to come later, who would build the true dwelling place for God and his people

IV. Israel’s Consistent Sin

Acts 7:51-53  “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!  ⁵² Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him–  ⁵³ you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”

We have been building to this point.

Now Stephen makes it clear what his whole agenda has been.

God sent Joseph. Your fathers rejected him and wanted to kill him. He later saved Israel.

God sent Moses. Your fathers rejected him and wanted to kill him. He also later saved Israel.

God gave the Law of Moses. Your fathers rejected it and disobeyed it in every generation. But it points to a salvation later to come.

God gave the Temple. Your fathers idolized it and missed the whole point of it… God does not dwell in houses made by men. It points to a salvation later to come.

V. Applications

A. Let Israel’s Long History of Sin HUMBLE US ALL

1. We’re no better than the Jews

2. No Gentile nation would have done better

3. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

4. We all need the Savior that the Law and the Prophets predicted

B. Marvel at God’s Wisdom in Old Testament History

1. Moses was a servant of God in leading Israel out of bondage in Egypt

2. This was an amazing picture of the salvation Christ would later work

3. Moses also wrote the Law which pointed powerfully to Christ

4. At the center of the Law was the animal sacrificial system and the Tabernacle

5. Lessons:

a. All sin deserves the death penalty

b. Death penalty can be paid by a substitute

c. Substitute cannot be an animal

6. SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT

Isaiah 53:5-6  he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7. Trust in Christ NOW!!

8. Celebrate the long history of courageous witnesses, even martyrs who courageously laid down their lives for the gospel

C. Boldly Witness

1. We are not likely to be as gifted as Stephen or have the same level of persecution

2. God wants us to be FAITHFUL in our time

3. Step out in faith and witness this week!!