Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome and Announcements

Be aware that Natalie and I will be away December 8th-10th.

We’re not going on vacation, we’re just taking a quick trip to SC.

If you need to talk with us, please feel free to call, text, or email.

If there is an emergency, please contact Deane Herbst.

Next week, December 11th, we have several different things occuring during and after Sunday AM Worship:

Austin Burton, intern with BRN Next at Penn State University will be preaching during the Sunday AM service.

After the service, we’ll have a brief special business meeting in which we have several things that we’re voting on—since I’m obligated to tell you what we’re voting on in advance, let me just list them—and if you have questions about them, feel free to ask me after today’s service:

The first order of business involves voting new members into the church, which will be done without ballots.

Everything else will be done on ballots:

Tara Domanick is resigning as clerk in order to serve as treasurer—we need to approve both the resignation and nomination.

Melissa Bush has agreed to serve as clerk—we need to approve this nomination.

Tom Medzie has gone through training to serve as a deacon—we need to affirm his service in this role.

The whole meeting should take about ten minutes, but please plan to be there if you are a member.

On December 17th there will be a Ladies’ Cookie Baking Extravaganza starting at 11am until the cookies are finished.

This is an opportunity for outreach—the cookies are baked, divided into bags, and then are utilized by the church to essentially meet your neighbors and talk to them about Jesus—as in, we’ll provide the cookies the next day at church, you’ll be able to take as many as you need, and you’ll use them as an opportunity to meet your neighbors, talk to them about Jesus, and ask them to visit our church.

Please see Natalie, if you have any questions.

In your worship guides, you’ll notice a list of dates that you should note.

These are special services and changes to our worship schedule for Christmas and New Years.

Let me encourage you to take a look at the list.

To prevent confusion, I will only mention these dates the week before—I’m not going to list them during our announcements every week, but they will be available in every worship guide until the end of the year.

You’ll notice this morning that we’re gradually shifting towards a brief Christmas series—that’s happening primarily through decoration and musical worship over the next two weeks.

After the 11th, our Sunday morning series will focus on the Joy of Christmas before we return in January to Acts.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving.

To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box.

Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church.

Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Gradual shift towards Christmas

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 68:1-7)

Our Call to Worship this morning is Psalm 68:1-7, which is a psalm of David that reflects on God’s majesty.

It is a psalm that celebrates God’s working in and for Israel and it ends with great praise to the Lord.

It is a rather long psalm, so we’ll be splitting it up over several weeks.

Please stand and read with me Psalm 68:1-7, I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Congregational Singing

Come Praise and Glorify (44)

Behold our God (126)

Christ, the Sure and Steady Anchor (406)

Scripture Reading (Acts 6:8-8:3)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is a large passage of Scripture.

The reason for that is simple, the sermon is an exposition through part of this text, but to keep it in context, we’re reading through the entire pericope together before I preach through the smaller portion today.

Remember, we’re in Luke’s account of Stephen’s martyrdom—last week we worked through the first section, this week, we’re working through the middle section, and in about three weeks, we’ll work through the last section.

Natalie, can you read Acts 6:8-8:3 for us?

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 7:1-53)

Introduction

Now, I realize that there is a lot for us to work through this morning, but I think you’ll see clearly that we really can’t divide this text any more than what we’re doing or we’ll lose what the text actually means.

Because it is a much larger passage than what we typically work through during one service, I’ve made some concessions to shorten the amount of time required for us to work through the text—for instance, normally I re-read certain sections when we get to that section, we’re not going to do that this morning and usually we read the whole text before we dig into the passage, but since we’ve already read the text as Scripture Reading, we aren’t going to re-read the text.

Instead, let me explain exactly what Stephen is doing and then we’re going to jump straight in and because I’m not going to re-read the individual sections, I’ll do my best to make clear where we are throughout the sermon and I’d encourage you to do your best at following along throughout the text.

Stephen in this speech that he gives is utilizing the history of Israel to show how God had repeatedly spoken to Israel, but Israel continuously rejected God.

Or in other words, God has been calling out to them throughout history and they keep rejecting Him.

We see this in Stephen’s sermon as he works through different covenants that he had with different people throughout the Bible.

As we study this text, we’re going to look at it in four parts: (1) The Abrahamic Covenant (1-16), (2) The Sinaitic/Mosaic Covenant (17-43), (3) The Davidic Covenant (44-50) and (4) The New Covenant (51-53).

We will see God’s grace, mercy, and goodness as He continuously worked in His people and cried out to His people.

We’ll see just how stubborn and obstinate the Israelites were.

I think we’ll be able to relate to the passage as those who stubbornly and obstinately oppose God even as believers, on occasion.

Prayer for Illumination

The Abrahamic Covenant (1-16)

Our text starts by transitioning the scene.

Remember in Acts 6:8-15, we read about how Stephen was fulfilling his ministry as a deacon of the church and as he was doing these things, he was speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We read about how those that didn’t want to listen to the Gospel did everything they possibly could against Stephen:

They accused him of lying

They instigated people who accused him of blasphemy

They then took him by force to the elders and scribes and set up false witnesses who claimed that Stephen spoke against the temple and the law.

Up to this point in the text, we actually don’t know much of what Stephen said, Scripture doesn’t tell us.

But it does tell us that what Stephen said was the wisdom of God given in the right spirit—meaning he was preaching the Gospel righteously.

And really, the fact that he was proclaiming the Gospel with the right spirit is the only reason why the people wouldn’t be able to withstand the wisdom that Stephen proclaimed.

Why?

Because he wasn’t proclaiming his own, earthly, human wisdom; he was proclaiming the wisdom of God according to the truth of the Scriptures and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, he’s standing in front of the council, which has already been riled against him, we see see in v. 1, the high priest posing a simple question, “Are these things so?”

It’s this question that then moves us into this sermon-like speech from Stephen that continues over the next fifty-two verses.

I say that it is a sermon-like speech because some scholars today don’t think Stephen was preaching this—they think that he was providing truth in a teaching manner, but the reality is, his speech has all the hallmarks of a sermon.

He’s utilizing Scripture and he’s teaching and explaining what God’s Word says before, at the very end of his sermon, he calls out the Israelites for their lack of repentance.

That sounds to me like a sermon.

Regardless, he jumps straight in by talking about Abraham.

He calls the attention of all the people around him in v. 2, “Brothers and fathers, hear me” and then he starts by tracing the history of Israel starting with the one whom the Jewish people consider their founder.

And he’s not just focusing on the person, Abraham; he’s focusing on how God spoke to Abraham, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land . . .

and go into the land that I will show you.’”

He highlights again, God speaking to Abraham in v. 6, “And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

But I will judge the nation they serve, . . .

and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision.”

As Stephen highlights how God had spoken through Abraham multiple times, the emphasis is on certain covenants or promises that God made to Abraham.

God covenanted with Abraham concerning the Promised Land.

God covenanted with Abraham concerning his offspring’s inheritance of that land.

And God’s covenant with Abraham is symbolized with the act of circumcision

This covenant is really spelled out in Genesis 17.

God says in Genesis 17:2, “I will make My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”

And then in Genesis 17:4, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.”

In Genesis 17:8, God promises the possession of the land of Canaan, “I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land where you live as a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

And in Genesis 17:10, God explains the issue of circumcision, “This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised . . . it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.”

Stephen is highlighting this covenant between God and Abraham to show that God had spoken to Israel and made Israel a promise through Abraham—what we now call the Abrahamic Covenant.

Of course, we know that Abraham eventually dies, but the historical account doesn’t end there.

Stephen continues recounting this history by speaking of Joseph in Acts 7:9, “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt” but remember, Stephen is recounting how God worked in the lives of the Israelites.

And Stephen’s highlighting the covenants given—in this case the promise that Abraham’s descendents would inherit the Promised Land and God would be their God.

So Stephen reminds us of this, “but God was with [Joseph] and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, . . .

who made him ruler over Egypt.”

So that when there was a famine throughout the land, Jacob was able to provide sustenance to the descendents of Abraham through the food reserves of Egypt.

It’s almost as if God was and is completely sovereign and through His providence was able to keep His promise even in the midst of a grave and dire situation.

Through God’s sovereignty and providence, the descendents of Abraham were saved from certain destruction.

And they continued to live with Joseph—all the descendents of Abraham remained in Egypt with the third patriarch, Jacob finally dying and being buried in the tomb Abraham had purchased in Schechem.