Sermon Tone Analysis
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Main Idea
Jesus is worth any cost.
Today, we will see Stephen’s story come to a close.
It has taken us four weeks to get through the abundance of meat on the bone here.
We’ve seen how Stephen’s godly service resulted in jealous accusations.
How he was seized and dragged to the Sanhedrin, and how he vindicated the truthfulness of the gospel through historical storytelling.
Now, we will see him drive the point home and pay the ultimate price for his faith.
Outline
I - God’s House (vv.
44-50)
II - The Accusation (vv.
51-53)
III - Stephen’s Death (vv.
54-60)
BRIDGES
1. Savior bridge.
God’s leaders from history point to Christ.
2. Resistor Bridge.
The opposition to God’s leaders points to Stephen’s accusers.
RHYTHMS
1. God acts and provides wherever his people are.
2. The Israelites are prone to reject God’s established leaders.
3. God is in control of historical events.
I - God’s House
With the groundwork laid from the stories of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, Stephen makes one final appeal to Israel’s history: the tent of witness and the Temple.
The Tent
If you remember from last week, Stephen ended with a quote from Amos 5, which showed Israel’s downward spiral of idolatry and how they took up the tent of the Ammonite god, Moloch.
That is what the darkened hearts of the Israelites desired.
This stands in stark opposition to the tent of witness mentioned here.
This tent was their mobile temple in the wilderness, known as the Tabernacle.
God directed Moses to make it with very specific design requirements.
This means it is God-given, not man-made like Moloch’s tent, and instead of a deaf and mute idol at its center, God Himself would remain there.
Joshua and the ‘fathers’ took it to the promised land after they had dispossessed the current inhabitants, and it remained there through the time of King David.
The other articles were representations of God’s presence
• Table of bread = provision, life-giving, life-sustaining, Jesus is the bread of life
• 7-branched lampstand = God’s light and life; Jesus is the light of the world
• Alter of incense = man’s prayers rising to the Lord as a pleasing aroma
All of these things point to the reality that God is with his people wherever they are.
God was present and active for a long time before Jerusalem was developed, and the temple was built.
From Ur and Haran to Egypt, to Midian and Mount Sinai - God was with His people wherever they were.
That should have been even more obvious with a mobile temple that would travel with the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness before settling into the promised land.
That is the tent, but Stephen isn’t just drawing their attention to the structure.
He is also pointing to what was stored inside.
Witness
This was the tent of witness.
The witness refers to the tablets of the law in the ark of the covenant or the ark of the testimony.
The terminology here - witness and testimony - is meant to point to the exclusive relationship between the one true and living God and His people (as opposed to their desire to bow before a false god).
The tablets themselves bear witness to the event on Mount Sinai.
So, for 14 generations that span roughly 1,00 years - from Abraham to David - God’s presence and law were with the Israelites outside of the promised land.
And now, God’s promise to Abraham has been fully realized, despite their constant rejection and unfaithfulness.
All of this took place before the temple in Jerusalem was constructed.
Stephen has now driven the nail almost into the wood - God acts and provides wherever his people are.
There is only one final hammer blow needed.
The Physical Temple
Even though King David wanted to build a permanent home for God, his son Solomon was chosen to build the Temple.
And so he did, and when he completed the project, commissioned it, and God’s glory came down, Solomon uttered these words in 1 Kings 8:27:
Even King Solomon understood that God could not be contained in a single place.
Even though the Temple was glorious and magnificent, it would never house a God who fills the entire heavens!
Perhaps that is what Stephen had in mind when he quoted Isaiah:
With this final hammer blow, Stephen fully sets the nail that God’s presence is not, nor has it ever been, confined to one place, one city, or one structure.
The rhythms that (1) God acts and provides wherever his people are and (2) God is in control of historical events are now complete.
Hopefully, you can see how this applies to you.
For the 1st Century Jew, the Temple was God’s dwelling place.
Today, we don’t have temples.
We have churches.
God’s presence doesn’t dwell in buildings.
He dwells in His people.
In fact, Paul brings that metaphor full circle when he calls the human body a temple.
If you have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, you are now God’s dwelling place.
You are made holy by His presence, and you can enjoy fellowship with Him any time... anywhere.
What a glorious truth!
You’re never alone!
This would be the final defense by way of historical story-telling.
Stephen rests his defense of blasphemy with the accurate retelling of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses’ stories.
The final rhythm and the two bridges have been mostly constructed.
Now, it is time for Stephen to complete the span into the present day.
II - The Accusation
In this next section, the two bridges reach the other side.
The history lesson is over.
Now it is time for the application, and Stephen pulls no punches.
Though it may seem harsh, he unloads four accusations on his accusers, which leave them utterly defenseless.
Stiff-necked
Stephen has already used the description of Israel’s past leaders against her current leaders.
That was the point of the history lesson: you are prone to resist God’s leaders just like your forefathers did.
Last week, we left off with Israel’s rebellion at the base of Mount Sinai with the golden calf and beyond.
Now, he is using God’s own description of the past leaders against the current leaders (see Ex. 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut.
9:6, 13 for examples).
One example is used in this same story with the golden calf when God says:
Have you ever seen an animal resist being led?
That is what they will do.
Using the harness to pull them where you want them to go, they will stiffen their neck and head, actively pulling away from the direction you are pulling them toward.
My dog does this exceptionally well when he knows it’s bath time.
That is what Stephen is saying they are doing.
They see where they are being led and resist it, just like harnessed animals do.
And by using God’s terminology, this is a direct indictment, not from Stephen, but from God Himself, and brings the accusation on their heads in full force.
That’s indictment #1.
Uncircumcised Hearts and Ears
Indictment #2 brings back the previously mentioned covenant of circumcision.
Earlier, Stephen specifically mentioned God’s covenant of circumcision with Abraham.
Here, he is making the spiritual application of circumcision, saying they had adhered to the letter of the law through physical circumcision but utterly failed in the spiritual application.
Your body is circumcised, but your heart and ears remain uncircumcised.
Outwardly, you show yourself to be God’s covenant people, but inwardly, you are at war with Him because your heart is blinded to the spiritual principles behind the laws you so closely protect.
In their unfaithfulness to the true meaning of the covenant, they are no closer to God than uncircumcised gentiles.
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