The Gospel In The Exodus
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As we head into next weekend and the church camping weekend, I want to tie this Sunday and next Sunday together.
This Sunday is communion.
Next Sunday is baptism.
The two ordinances we are commanded to keep.
I want today to be a reminder of these 2 very important practices that we have the privilege of participating in and the context and background from which they come.
My text for today, though, comes from Acts 7.17-45
This is the “sermon” that got Stephen martyred.
One of the greatest summaries of the history of Israel in Scripture.
With the main point of Stephen coming in vs. 52 and 53.
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
At first glance this text may not seem to connect baptism and communion, but I hope by the end you’ll see how it does:
That being said, in addition to connecting baptism and communion, we’ll examine the following three things.
What is the narrative story that Stephen is expounding and why?
What exactly was it that the Jews did not keep?
How does that apply to us today? Which is where we will see the connection of communion and baptism.
A Little Background
A Little Background
6:11-14
The Accusation:
1) Stephen Speaks Against
Moses
The Holy Place
The Law
And Thus Against God
2) And He was preaching that Jesus was going to change these things.
The Rebuttal Begins:
The Rebuttal Begins:
Read text - Have readers read while everyone follows along. Or if I read, only read 7:17-45
At first it doesn’t look like he is answering the accusations against him.
It feels like a history lesson, with everyone rolling their eyes and saying, “What’s our history have to do with the accusations?”
But Stephen in essence says: “Alright, I’ll play your game and respond, but just for extra measure, let’s throw it all into the blender.”
Three Great Pillars of Popular Jewish Piety
The Law, The Temple, and The Land
How does he explain the narrative story and why?
The Narrative Story:
The Narrative Story:
First 8 verses: Abraham - land and covenant
Second 8 verses: Joseph / Egypt - repeated 6 times here and alluded to in verse 6-7.
The next 29 verses are all about Moses - which is where I’ll draw most of my application from.
Slavery
Deliverer
Plagues and Passover
Red Sea
Wilderness
The Law
Idolatry
Tabernacle
1 verse about Joshua - possessing the Promised Land
1 verse about David - Wanting to build a dwelling place for God.
1 about Solomon - actually building it.
Why did Stephen present his rebuttal that way?
Why did Stephen present his rebuttal that way?
He’s Pushing Back On Those 3 Great Pillars Of Jewish Piety, and then some.
Push Back On The Land - vs 2-16; 29-34
Much of God’s significant activity has taken place outside the confines of Palestine.
Abraham was a sojourner - God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia
Jacob was a sojourner - spent time back in his Uncle’s house in Haran - Upper Mesopotamia
Joseph was a sojourner in Egypt.
Moses lived as a sojourner - Midian and then God appeared to him on Mt. Sinai
Burning bush - This is holy ground
Wherever God meets his people can be called “holy ground”
Push Back On Their Following Moses - vs 17-29, 35-39, 52
You say you follow Moses?
Your forefathers rejected Moses.
In fact your forefathers killed many of the prophets who foretold of the coming Messiah.
You do just like your forefathers did.
God promised a Deliverer like Moses
And you rejected that Deliverer, Righteous One, Jesus
In fact you betrayed and killed him!
Push Back On The Law - vs.38-43
Even though they had the Law they still fell into gross idolatry
In their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
They carried the gods of the Egyptians with them through the Wilderness wanderings.
Push Back On The Temple - vs.44-50
Even though God allowed the Temple to be built by Solomon and blessed it and put his name there,
Worship of God is not contained inside a building.
What Were They Not Keeping?
What Were They Not Keeping?
Acts 7:35-38
Really the comment could have been:
You were given insight, foresight, and prophecy into the coming of Jesus and you have missed the whole point of what God gave you.
And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
Bottom line, they couldn’t see Jesus as the Promised Righteous One that God promised would come. The Promised Prophet like Moses who would be their True Deliverer and take them to the True Promised Land.
Application 1:
Application 1:
What Were A Few Things They Missed That We Do Too?
Back To The 3 Great Pillars Of Jewish Piety
The Land: Don’t Worship This Land Of Promise, Or You’ll Miss The True Promised Land
We are pilgrims passing through.
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
We can appreciate and enjoy God’s blessings in this life.
But we don’t worship the land and its blessings.
The Law: Don’t Put God In A Box, Or You’ll Be Boxed In.
God often works outside of our understanding of Him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Beware of legalism
The Temple: True Worship Of God Occurs Outside The Building, Every Day, All Day.
Worship is not about the building, but the people.
It’s not about the liturgy, but the heart.
True worship is not about religion, but about a relationship.
Worship is not one day a week, but everyday.
Worship is not about us and our accomplishments, but upon God and what He has done.
Moses: God Is The God Who Calls Us To Move Forward In Our Religious Experience
God was calling them to move on from Moses to something better.
He was calling them to move on to that which Moses pointed.
That was the coming Righteous One - Jesus!
This is not to say that we change the content or minimize God or His Word
But sometimes we get stuck in our worship and religion.
Sometimes we need a fresh, cool spring of water to burst forth in a thirsty land.
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
“Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.
The cry is 3-fold.
Keep thirsting for God.
Do not get stagnant in that longing for God.
Be aware, look for, and embrace the new thing that God is doing.
Don’t confuse being religious with a relationship with Jesus.
Now, As We Prepare Our Hearts For Communion:
This is not just a ritual we do because we’re supposed to.
It is an opportunity to reengage, reconnect with God, to meet with God again.
Communion is another way we worship God.
Where might you be stagnant?
Through our time, renew that thirst for God and look for the new thing that God wants to do.
To help us with that let’s look at the next application.
Application 2:
Application 2:
The Gospel In The Exodus: Let’s remember why we celebrate Communion and how it all connects together.
Slavery
Slavery
Slavery - Mankind after the Fall of Adam and Eve
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Jesus our Promise of Freedom From Sin, Satan, and the Curse
The Deliverer
The Deliverer
‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Jesus Our Deliverer cries out to Satan, “Let my people Go!”
Passover
Passover
Justification
‘The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
A Feast to remember
The Last Supper
A reminder of what Christ has done and in whom we put our faith.
Believe in our heart
Jesus is our pure, perfect, spotless Lamb
Red Sea
Red Sea
Passing through the waters of baptism
Public Profession by faith - an act of faith
Confess with our mouth
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Jesus was baptized - by water and by death
Wilderness
Wilderness
perseverance, purging, purifying
“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. “Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. “Thus you are to know in your heart that the Lord your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
Sanctification
Rely on the word of God.
Jesus was tempted
Jordan River
Jordan River
Leaving Behind the Wilderness
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.
Jesus went on before us - tasted death
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
Promised Land
Promised Land
Glorification
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
Jesus Was Resurrected
This is God’s overall plan for His people which He will see fulfilled.
But throughout our lives we tend to go through the Exodus cycle.
There are moments in our lives where we get stuck in Egypt and we cry out for a Deliverer.
The righteous cry, and the Lord hears And delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
There are moments when we feel like we are in the pitch darkness of God’s wrath and death is around the corner and God provides a Passover Lamb.
There are moments when we feel like we are up against the Red Sea of impossibility and God says, “Be still and watch me work.”
But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.
Song: Egypt
In moments of trial, temptation and wandering in the wilderness, God says, “Take in my Word and let it strengthen you.”
Hearts turn back to Egypt
Idolatry
“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.
Song: Speak The Name Of Jesus
Communion:
And finally, we cross the Jordan River and enter into the Promised Land.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Song: The Blessing