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Acts 7 "Are These Things So?"
"Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?"
Acts 7 is a courtroom drama in which Stephen is his own
defense before the council. He stands accused of blasphemy against God
and Moses, specifically that Jesus would destroy the temple and change
the customs of Moses.
We can learn much from Stephen's defense. Right off we see that he does
not waste time attacking his accusers. He doesn't say stuff like "They
are lying", or "They are twisting around my words" It
is important that we learn from Stephen, because some of the most sparkling
witnesses to Christ come from times of difficulty, even attack. Remember
the three friends that were thrown into the fiery furnace in the book
of Daniel? And how the King gave glory to God when they were brought
out of the fire unharmed? Remember the centurion at the cross of Christ,
who after commanding his men to crucify Him, exclaimed at His death,
"truly this was the Son of God!" It is when people see us
in the fire that they will truly believe what we say. This is why we
should be careful to control our tongues. It is easy to get angry when
unfairly accused, easy to strike back, get even. But if we do this the
chance for them to see Christ is lost.
One peculiar thing about my country of America, is that we love to compete.
Especially in discussion. My brother and I used to take opposite sides
of an argument just for the fun of a lively topic. We would be shouting
and gesturing, each getting excited about our own position, each just
as stubbornly refusing to listen to the other. When we got into this,
my poor wife would run and hide. At first she thought that we would
never speak to one another again. But it is just an American thing to
do. I used to think that if my argument was better than the other persons'
then I would win. But it seldom happens that way. Deep inside the other
person still believes he is right, and if he could just find the right
words he would tell you. Haven't you ever walked away from a discussion
and then later thought up what you should of said? I heard a very wise
saying, "A man persuaded against his will is of the same opinion
still." Resist the temptation to attack back.
So what does he say? Listen to Stephen's sermon, "And he said,
"Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our
father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
"and said to him, `Get out of your country and from your relatives,
and come to a land that I will show you.' "Then he came out of
the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his
father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. "And
[God] gave him no inheritance in it, not even [enough] to set his foot
on. But even when [Abraham] had no child, He promised to give it to
him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. "But God
spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land,
and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress [them] four
hundred years. `And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will
judge,' said God, `and after that they shall come out and serve Me in
this place.' "Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and
so [Abraham] begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and
Isaac [begot] Jacob, and Jacob [begot] the twelve patriarchs. "And
the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was
with him "and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him
favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made
him governor over Egypt and all his house. "Now a famine and great
trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers
found no sustenance. "But when Jacob heard that there was grain
in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. "And the second [time]
Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known
to the Pharaoh. "Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and
all his relatives to [him], seventy-five people. "So Jacob went
down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. "And they were
carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for
a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, [the father] of Shechem. "But
when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt "till another king arose
who did not know Joseph. "This man dealt treacherously with our
people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies,
so that they might not live.
Now all of this was well known to the council. Some of
them were probably thinking, "Ok, ok, tell us something that we
don't know." Our minds too, get bored quickly with this retelling
of the story of Israel. We categorize it in the "Been there, Done
that", file and tune out. We like to hear something new, not something
old.
The times we live in are full of people who want to make a new story.
They take advantage of this desire for something new in people's hearts
and fill it with fantasy and then charge a high price for it. Just to
see what is being peddled now, I typed in New Age into the internet
and in a few seconds it found over 30,000 sites! "New Age, UFO,
Paganism, Occult, Alternative Spirituality, Tarot Cards, Numerology,
Oracles, Pendulums, New Age Parlor Games, Spell Kits, Magic Oils, Kama
Sutra Products, Crystals and Stones, Crystal Balls..." The list
goes on and on. If you come up with something weird enough and can mass-market
it, you will surely make a lot of money.
The temptation is there for us too, surely no one wants to hear the
old, old story again. It is much more exciting to talk about healings
and prophecy and church building programs and pop psychology and anything
other than the Bible. Stephen made the New Age folks look tame by comparison.
He was doing signs and wonders before all the people. He didn't take
you into some dark, back room and impress you with smoke and mirrors.
He was doing miracles for everybody to see. He could of proven himself
to the council by performing miracles, or telling them of the people
that he had healed, of the new power of the Holy Spirit, but instead
Stephen told them the old, old story.
Dear people, we must come back again and again to this old story, because
in it we find the love of God, the grace of God, the faithfulness of
God. We find God! We need to know this story. We need to tell others
this story. This is why I want to teach you the Bible. Because the more
you know the Bible the more you will know God. Don't let me get sidetracked
on anything else. Keep me teaching the Word of God.
"At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God;
and he was brought up in his father's house for three months. "But
when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him
up as her own son. "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of
the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. "Now when he
was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the
children of Israel. "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 dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
"And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
"When Moses saw [it], he marveled at the sight; and as he drew
near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, "[saying],
`I [am] the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. `Then
the LORD said to him, "Take your sandals off your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy ground. "I have surely seen the oppression
of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have
come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt."'
"This Moses whom they rejected, saying, `Who made you a ruler and
a judge?' is the one God sent [to be] a ruler and a deliverer by the
hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. "He brought
them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,
and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. "This is
that Moses who said to the children of Israel, `The LORD your God will
raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall
hear.' "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness
with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and [with] our fathers,
the one who received the living oracles to give to us, "whom our
fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned
back to Egypt, "saying to Aaron, `Make us gods to go before us;
[as for] this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not
know what has become of him.' "And they made a calf in those days,
offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own
hands.
There is a pattern in the old, old story that I want you
to catch. I believe this is why Stephen told it. This is the story of
God's love. How God reached out to the world through Israel. It starts
with Abraham, called to leave his own land and go into a land that he
did not know. And yet there was no possession for him there in the land.
Although he was called by God, he was not able to stay. Then Stephen
skips over to Joseph, how he was called by God, but rejected by his
brothers, and sold into slavery. But that God turned this situation
around for good, to save His people. Then there is Moses. He is called
by God, but then rejected by the people. Again on Mount Sinai, he is
called by God to bring them the law, but the people reject him again
by setting up the golden calf. Are you starting to see the pattern?
God calls his servant, the servant is rejected, but God saves out of
His mercy. Abraham was called, Abraham was rejected. Joseph was called,
Joseph was rejected. Moses was called, Moses was rejected. And then
Stephen brings back to mind the prophecy of Moses, 37 "This is
that Moses who said to the children of Israel, `The LORD your God will
raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall
hear.' And God did raise up one just like Moses. Just as Moses was rejected,
Jesus was rejected.
Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as
it is written in the book of the Prophets: `Did you offer Me slaughtered
animals and sacrifices [during] forty years in the wilderness, O house
of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of
your god Remphan, Images which you made to worship; And I will carry
you away beyond Babylon.' "Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness
in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according
to the pattern that he had seen, "which our fathers, having received
it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the
Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the
days of David, "who found favor before God and asked to find a
dwelling for the God of Jacob. "But Solomon built Him a house.
"However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands,
as the prophet says: `Heaven [is] My throne, And earth [is] My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the LORD, Or what [is] the place
of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?' "[You] stiffnecked
and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit;
as your fathers [did], so [do] you. "Which of the prophets did
your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming
of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
"who have received the law by the direction of angels and have
not kept [it]."
God did not stop with Moses, He sent the prophets to call
the people back from idolatry. But each of the prophets was also rejected.
Israel had the form of religion, the temple, without the reality, God!
The temple, the status, was much more important to them than God. Do
you know why we want the "new" thing so bad? It is because
the old thing is not being taught. The preachers that people are looking
to, are teaching everything but the old thing. People think they know
the old, old, story, but they don't. The council thought, "Yeah,
yeah, we know this." But they didn't! They knew the words, but
not their meaning. They knew the facts, but not the love of God.
My mother used to work in the hospital as a nurse. She would tell me
about certain patients that would come in every day to see the doctor.
Usually these would be older people, who liked to be reassured that
they were allright. The doctors would prescribe for these people a "placebo".
A placebo is a pill that does not have any medicine in it. It is just
a capsule with sugar inside. It looks like medicine, the patient takes
it and feels better because they took "their pill" and then
goes right back to the doctor the next day.
When people come to a placebo church, they take the form of religion
for a while. But after a time they say, "Hey, this isn't doing
any good." and they leave and look for something new. Later, you
try to talk to them about Christ and they say, "Yeah, yeah. I tried
that but it doesn't work." Stephen gave the council the medicine
that they needed, not an empty pill. His was full of the Word of God.
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they
gnashed at him with [their] teeth. 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, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" Then they cried
out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
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. 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.
The word of God cuts to the heart. Stephen, like Jesus, like Moses,
like the prophets, was rejected, but like each of them, his words did
not come back empty. In verse 58, we see that those who stoned them
laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. The witness
of Stephen would also cut him to the heart, and remain there until a
later time when he too would come to know the grace of God.
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