A Jewish History Lesson

Acts 6:15-7:60

INTRO: Good morning. The last time we were together we left Stephen, a man full faith, power, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit according to Acts 6:38... in the middle of a religious debate where he was accused by false witnesses of blasphemy.
We said that the best way to deal with religious conflict is by going back to the source, the scriptures.

Luke continues to inform us of what happened next in Acts 6:15-7:1- “15. And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel. Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?''”

Remember in Exodus 34:29-35 where the writer there tells us that Moses' face shone after he had been with the Lord to the point that people could not look directly at him?
Luke tells us that Stephen’s face was like that, like an angel’s face.
Despite Stephen's appearance, the high priest asked him if the accusations of blasphemy, which had been brought against him, were true.

What we are going to hear today is a history lesson from Stephen about God’s dealings with His people.

Like we’ve said time and time again if want to understand the New Testament we need to understand what God was doing in the Old Testament.

These people are accusing Stephen of blasphemy, an offense which is punishable by being stoned to death.
How does Stephen answer this question?
Does he say sorry and beg for forgiveness so that he might live a little longer?
Does he say, no, all these witnesses are false and have been paid to say these things?
No, he doesn’t.
He gives those in the Sanhedrin a Jewish history lesson.
I’m not going to read all of Stephen’s defense because it is a bit long for one sermon but what I do want to do is summarize his words and look at what happened when he talks about their history.

I want us to go back in time with Stephen and then we will look at some applications. Genesis 12:1-9 – “1. Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. 2. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'' 4. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land.'' And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. 9. So Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.”

I. In Acts 7:2-4 Stephen begins his history lesson with God’s dealings with Abraham and his children. He reminds the council of Abraham's call to leave the country of his people, which was first received in Ur of the Chaldees and renewed in Haran after his father's death.

A. The point that Stephen is trying to make here is that Abraham moved, under God's direction, to the land of Canaan. In other words, this wasn’t Abraham’s idea to get up and go. This was God’s plan for the future of the Jews and God was going to direct them.
B. Stephen continues in Acts 7:5-8 by speaking about what God said to Abraham in Genesis 15:13-14 – “Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.”

1. The actual length of their stay in Egypt was 430 years as we find in Exodus, but Stephen rounded it off to 400, just as God had in Genesis 15:13. Again Stephen wanted to let them know that the time the Jews were slaves in Egypt was set to the exact date by God.
2. Let’s look at Exodus 12:40-42 – “Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years on that very same day it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.”

C. Then Stephen moves on and talks about God’s word to Abraham in Genesis 17:9-14 – “9. And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. 10. "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11. "and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12. "He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13. "He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14. "And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.''”

1. We find that even though God did not give Abraham an inheritance in the Promised Land, He did promise to give him a son and give the land of Canaan to his descendants.
2. What Stephen is doing here in Acts 7:5-8 is showing how God told Abraham he would judge the nation of Egypt and bring his people out to serve Him in the land of promise at the end of the appointed time.
3. It was after making those significant promises to Abraham, that God instituted circumcision as a sign of the covenant between Abraham and his descendants.

II. We can imagine those listening to Stephen saying, “Yeh, yeh we know all about our history, we know all about our Father Abraham, you might as well go on tell us about our time in Egypt.”

A. That’s exactly what Stephen does next in Acts 7:9-19. He takes them through Genesis 37 - Exodus 1.

1. He tells them about Abraham's great-grandson, Joseph, who was sold into Egypt because of the jealousy of his brothers, but God, in His providence, noted Joseph's mistreatment and delivered him. He went on to make him governor over the land of Egypt.
2. A great famine left Jacob and his household without food to sustain them. Having heard of the plentiful food in Egypt, he sent his sons to purchase grain on two separate occasions.
3. On the second occasion, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers and let Pharaoh know who they were. Joseph, with the approval of Pharaoh, sent wagons to bring his aged father to Egypt.
4. Seventy-five souls left Canaan for the land of Egypt. Jacob's body was carried back to Shechem to be laid in the cave of Machpelah alongside those of Abraham and Sarah.
5. God had not forgotten his promise to Abraham and as the days passed, the children of Israel multiplied from the original seventy-five until they appeared to be a menace to the Egyptians.

B. In time a king ascended to the throne who did not recall the salvation of Egypt by the hand of Joseph. The king mistreated them by placing them in bondage and slaying their babies.

1. Stephen carries on in Acts 7:20-23 and tells that it was during those hard, and difficult years in Egypt when all these babies were being murdered that Moses was born. Stephen is now referring to Exodus 2:1-10. We know from Exodus Moses was hidden by his parents for three months and afterward, God caused him to be found by Pharaoh's daughter and reared as if he were her son. He was taught everything the Egyptians of his day knew. He was a strong man in word and deed. At the age of forty, he visited God's people.
2. Stephen continues in Acts 7:24-29 to talk about how Moses was rejected by God's people. “And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. "For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. "And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?' "But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 'Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?' "Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.”
3. Moses killed an Egyptian who was mistreating one of his brethren. Moses thought they would understand that what he did was in their defense but he had to flee when a Jew questioned his authority and revealed he knew of the Egyptian's death. Moses had to learn that it would not be by his hand that deliverance would be achieved, but by the hand of God! Moses fled to Midian, where he married and had two sons.

III. Stephen, still under the accusation of blasphemy, carries on with Israel’s history in Acts 7:30-36 by reminding them of the events from Exodus 3 right up unto Numbers 13.

A. He says, when Moses was eighty years old, God spoke to him from a burning bush in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

1. God told him He had seen His people suffering in Egypt and heard their groaning. He told Moses that he would deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage.
2. What Stephen is doing here is reminding his listeners that God did deliver His people from bondage. God did deliver them at the Red Sea and looked after them for forty years in the wilderness.

B. Stephen’s point is that God delivered them by the hands of the very one which the children of Israel had previously rejected. There was a shocking parallel to this in the venomous question from those of the Sanhedrin who had rejected Christ in almost the same words, demanding, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?" (Mark 11:28). This point could hardly have escaped the bitter enemies to whom it was addressed.
C. This is not my favorite type of sermon but when we’re dealing with a lot of text, we need to keep it in its proper context so that we can get inside the mind of Stephen and those listening. Jewish history is our history and we need to understand where we come from.

1. It’s a bit like this mother and her four-year-old son who were looking through an old family photo album. The boy pointed at a picture of a handsome young man with dark, curly hair. He asked, "Who's that?" She told him, "That's your father." The boy looked confused. "Then who is that bald guy who lives with us now?"
2. Of course, God’s people didn’t have photo albums. They had the Old Testament scriptures, and these were important to them. It’s important that Stephen goes ahead and reminds them of Israel's rebellion against God.

D. In Acts 7:37-43, Stephen reminds them of their adventures from Numbers 14 right up until the Israelite’s captivity in Babylon as we read about in 1 Chronicles 9. Stephen says that this very deliverer, Moses, was the one who foresaw the day God would raise up another prophet like him.

IV. Moses faithfully worked with those Jews who had been called out of bondage. Through him, they had heard God's living message. Yet, while Moses was receiving God's will on Mount Sinai, the people were rejecting that very will and turning back, at least in their hearts, toward Egypt. When they got Aaron to make the golden calf for them to worship, the people were effectively rejecting the Almighty. He, in turn, gave them up to serve worthless idols.

A. Stephen wanted to show them from the scriptures that their rejection of God was the very reason they were led away into Babylonian captivity.

1. He quotes Amos 5:25-27 – “25. "Did you offer Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 26. You also carried Sikkuth your king and Chiun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. 27. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,'' says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.”
2. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who just tells the story from the very beginning and all you want to do is just get to the point?
3. Perhaps some are thinking this sermon is a bit like that, maybe you’re thinking – “will you hurry up and get to the point?”

B. In many ways, Stephen is about to do that. Remember the last time how we saw that Stephen was telling the Sanhedrin that Jesus was going to destroy the temple?

1. What Stephen is trying to do here is explain that this is also part of God’s plan. Abraham’s leaving to go to the Promised Land could only be done if Abraham followed God’s instructions to the letter.
2. Moses delivering the Israelites from Egypt could only be done if Moses followed God’s instructions.
3. When God’s people didn’t follow His instructions they were punished. That’s why they ended up being taken into captivity by Assyria and then by Babylon.
4. Here in Acts 7:44-50 Stephen reminds them that God has a pattern for His people’s lives which needs to be followed to the letter. In other words, if we want to live in God’s true house, we need to live by His rules.

C. Stephen says the pattern for making the tabernacle was one of the things that God revealed through Moses which had to be followed exactly.

1. Hebrews 8:5 – “who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.''”
2. Stephen says do you remember David? David’s son Solomon says in 1 Kings 8:17-18 – “17. "Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. 18. "But the Lord said to my father David, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19. 'Nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son, who shall come from your loins, he shall build the house for My name.'”
3. Stephen says David wanted to build a temple for God to dwell in but God wouldn’t let him according to 1 Chronicles 28:3 because he was a man of war. Instead, Solomon, David's son, was allowed to build the temple.

D. Then Stephen gets to the point. He says that the Creator of the universe does not dwell in temples made with men's hands. Stephen quotes from Isaiah 66:1-2 and Psalm 102:25 which clearly show that God cannot be confined like the gods of the pagans.

1. Instead, God, their God, and our God today who created the universe has made the very universe He created to be His throne.
2. The Sanhedrin needed to ask themselves the very same question which Solomon asked many years before them. 1 Kings 8:27 – “"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”

V. OK, the history lesson is over, now for the message. It’s now that Stephen makes his point, all that history to get to this important truth.

A. Acts 7:51-53 – “51. You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52. 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, 53. who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.” Stephen says, you are just like your fathers before you. Your necks are as hard as rock, so hard that you won’t bow down to God just like your forefathers.

1. Have you ever noticed on the back of some cars, there are these stickers of a fish which is supposed to be a symbol for being a Christian? Sometimes when you talk to a person you have just met they can’t wait to tell you they are a Christian because they go to church every week. That is OK, but being a Christian isn’t just about the things on the outside of a person that makes them a Christian it’s what’s in the inside.
2. It’s easy to be a Christian when you just go around living your life however you think is right. Christianity is far from easy when you allow God’s word to change your life. The people who Stephen is addressing had the outward signs of religion but their hearts were far from the truth. They had been circumcised but their hearts were still encased in sinful flesh.

B. If I ignore my mortgage bill, they will send another one. If I still don’t pay I’ll get another until I get a summons and end up in court. I could lose my home and all the money I have invested in it.

1. God, in a very real sense, did that. He told them time and time again through His prophets that the time was coming when He was going to send the Just One, who we know as Jesus.
2. Again just like their fathers before them had persecuted and killed those prophets who foretold the coming of God's Just One, Stephen said they had betrayed and murdered the Just One!
3. Remember this parable in Matthew 21:33-39 – “33. "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34. "Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35. "And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36. "Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37. "Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38. "But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.' 39. "And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him.”
4. How many times, how many people and angels would it take for them to not only listen to God but follows His will? Stephen says you know what? You guys are just as bad as your ancestors were.

C. Folks when the truth hurts, it hurts deep doesn’t it? I know lots of people who don’t like the truth. I suspect there are even Christians who are afraid to be told the truth.

1. Do you know why I know they don’t like the truth? Because their reaction is very similar to that of those who were listening to Stephen.
2. Acts 7:54-58 – “54. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56. and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!'' 57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58. and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”
3. Just like Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:37, the truth hurts because the truth cuts to the heart and they were raging. And folks, when you’re faced with a reaction like this one, there is only one place to look, and that’s heavenward.
4. It was the Lord's Spirit who had inspired Stephen to speak and it’s the Lord’s Spirit who caused him to look intently into heaven.

CONCLUSION:
I wonder; do we believe that God cares when we are in trouble? Do we believe that He cares about His people when they are in trouble?
I’m sure most of us would say, yes I believe He cares. Let me tell you something, when one of God’s children is in trouble you better believe He more than cares.

Look at Stephen. He looked up and he saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the Father's right hand. In the New Testament Jesus is almost always described as sitting at the right hand of the Father, but not when one of His children is in trouble. Stephen saw Him standing.

Jesus not only cares about you but He stands up for you. You need to believe that He does that for you every time you’re troubled. In other words, don’t look to the world for protection. For all the answers look to heaven.

When people of the world and even some Christians can’t handle the truth and they get all upset with you, if you keep going to the source, the Bible, for your answers it won’t be long before they ask you to leave.

Stephen told the council what he saw. They cried out, stopped their ears, rushed to him, threw him outside of the city, and stoned him.

It’s here Luke tells us that those who stoned him laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Just before we finish let me ask you, if you were about to die what would your final words be?
Let me leave you with Stephen’s dying words which echo the words of the Christ as He was dying on the cross of cavalry in Luke 23:34.
Acts 7:59-60 – “And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'' Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin.'' And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

I don’t know many people who would say those words with their dying breath after going through what Stephen went through, except Jesus Himself of course. We should thank God for people like Stephen who are willing even unto death to hold onto the truth and even with his dying words ask God to forgive them.

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We learn from the New Testament how to be saved. We need to hear the word; believe in Jesus; repent of our sins; we must confess our belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and be baptized for the remission of our sins... If we follow these steps, the Lord adds us to His church.

Perhaps there is someone in the assembly today with the need to be buried with Christ in baptism. If you have never done these things, we urge you to do so today. If anyone has this need or desires the prayers of faithful Christians on their behalf, we encourage them to come forward while we stand and sing.

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Reference Sermon: Mike Glover