The Old Fashioned Gospel

Acts 7:44-53 (ESV)

Acts 7:44–53 ESV

“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’ “You stiff-necked people, 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 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.”

I have titled this sermon “The Old Fashioned Gospel”. This isn’t because the gospel of Jesus is in this passage flashing its high beams at us. The reason is due to the references that Stephen makes in his speech. I have heard many people talk about how the Old Testament is not relevant to us today. I have even heard preachers say this. I know many of us have spent years listening to the wonderful preaching of Charles Stanley. He had a wonderful long ministry. Even his son, Andy, went into the ministry and start a church that turned into a network of churches in the Atlanta area. But Andy, in recent years, has began to say things that are not very biblical. He has publicly said that he thinks that we need to “unhinge” ourselves from the Old Testament.

As he was staring death in the face, Stephen saw no reason to “unhinge” himself from the Old Testament. In fact, when he had the opportunity to make a defense for the faith, he went to the Old Testament to do so. He slowly built his argument, through the retelling of Old Testament events, that Jesus is the messiah.

When we think of making a defense, most of the time it is something personal. Someone has offended us, picked on us, or maybe accused us of something. This was me growing up. I was the kid that got picked on, I was the last one picked in any sport. So I got acclimated to having to defend myself. But this was not the defense that Stephen was making. Stephen was defending the faith, which is more important and more noble that any other defense. With this defense of the faith, we see a few things in Stephen as he does this.

1. We Must Be Bold

Acts 7:1 ESV

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

This sermon that Stephen is about to give is not one that was given behind a pulpit in a room of worshipers. It doesn’t follow wonderful songs that uplift the name of Jesus. It is a response to a question. Are these things so? They are continuing to accuse Stephen of the message that he has said. They have accused him of saying things that we wrong about Moses. So Stephen defends it.

You may not have experience in the area of defending your faith. Our culture today is not as hostile as it once was to Christianity. But there are figures who paid great prices in defending the faith. Like Martin Luther. You may not hear that name mentioned very often in a Baptist church. But if it were not for men like Martin Luther, we may not have the baptist church today.

Martin Luther lived in a time where the Roman Catholic Church ruled. They had authority over everything. And they were preaching messages that were contrary to scripture. Luther went to law school but was walking through a field during a storm and a bolt of lightning struck the ground near him. After this even, he became a monk. In his time of being a monk, he began to read scripture and saw that scripture taught differently than the Catholic church, specifically in the area of salvation. The verse that began this journey for him was Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””

This verse caused him to see that people are saved by grace, through faith, not by their works. The Catholic church taught that salvation can be obtained by works rather than works being an evidence of faith. He then wrote a list of discussion topics and took them to a church and nailed them on a door. This may sound strange to us but this was a common practice in the day. He was trying to spark discussion. But what he sparked changed the world. And he was only 33 years old when he did this.

Luther was then excommunicated and was requested to stand trial at Worms. At the trial, they gave Luther the opportunity to recant his teachings. He wanted to pray about his answer so he asked for a day to pray about it. The next day, he stood before the council and declared these famous words, “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand. I can do no other. God, help me.” He would then be sentenced to death, though, due to some friends intervening, he would not face it and would be smuggled away to continue his ministry.

Martin Luther was bold in his defense of the faith. In our passage today, Stephen is bold in his defense. We may not be defending our faith as much in our time today, especially with our lives. But we are all called to be witnesses(Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” ). Are you bold enough to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Being bold does not mean that you can be a jerk. We sometimes get those two things mixed up. Being bold can still be loving. Boldness can be presented without arrogance. We need to be people that present things in both truth and love. Sometimes we can be even more loving depending upon the situation. Other times we may need to be direct, but we must still be loving. And we see this in what Stephen says to them.

2. We Must Be Biblical

I like listening to sermons. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but there are particular preachers that I just love to hear. I want to admit though, that I can be very harsh sometimes about preachers that I listen to. One of the reasons is that I want to hear the bible being taught. But, many of the sermons that are out there are less like sermons and more like inspirational speeches.

If I want to be inspired, I will watch a documentary or go hear a hero talk about their sacrifice. But if I want to hear preaching, there must be bible in it. There is a church that I decided to watch some of the pastors sermons online. Their sermons were no longer than 15 minutes and he didn’t even use scripture. This is not preaching folks.

As baptists, we must be people of the book. We believe 2 Timothy 3:16–17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” This means that we believe that all of the bible is the words of God and that it holds authority over us. If the bible tells us to do something, we want to do it. If it tells us not to do something, we don’t want to do it. We are people of the book. Old Testament and New Testament. It is all God breathed. And Stephen believed this too.

Stephen was not someone who went to seminary. But Stephen had great teachers in the apostles who had the perfect teacher of Jesus. In the four gospel accounts, the apostles learned from Jesus. They did not know the scripture like Jesus did, so he taught it to them. The book of Acts is the first place that we see the Apostles quoting and teaching scripture. This is because they finally believed it. Jesus had spent countless hours teaching them the Old Testament, and they were now teaching this, along with the account of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Stephen was no different.

The accusation against Stephen is that he is speaking against Moses in the temple. So Stephen begins his defense by teaching the Old Testament accounts that surrounded Moses. And all of these references tie in together into the bigger story of Isreal. He began with the story of Abraham.

a) The Story of Abraham (v. 2-16)

Stephen teaches them that God appeared to Abraham. God had given instructions to Abraham to leave where he was and go to the land that God was going to show him. He went to a place called Haran. When his father died, God moved him from there into the land of Israel. But God did not give him any inheritance in the land. But God promised that he would give him the land and to his offspring after him. Now Abraham did not have any children. God told him that his offspring would roam into a land where they would become enslaved and afflicted for 400 years.

But God promised that he would judge the people that enslaved them. Then Abraham had Isaac. And Isaac had Jacob. And Jacob would then have 12 sons. One of them is named Joseph. Josephs brothers were jealous of him so one of them sold him into slavery into Egypt. He ended up being in Pharaohs house. There was a great famine in the land, but Egypt was no affected. So his brothers went to Egypt. Joseph knew who they were right away, but they did not recognize him yet. On the second time, he revealed himself to them. Joseph wanted to see his father(Jacob) so they went and got him.

b) The Story of Jacob (v. 17-43)

This is less about the story of the individual named Jacob and more about his lineage of his people. Over the next 25-30 verses, Stephen tells them the story of Isreal. He tells of their inception, of how they came to be. He tells them about their liberation from slavery to Egypt. He tells them about their creation as the nation of Isreal. And this both covers and leads into a deeper story of Moses.

c) The Story of Moses (v. 44-50)

Remember what the accusation was against Stephen, that he was speaking against Moses. Here, he teaches them the story of Moses and his relation to the temple. Because that is what this is really about to some degree. This is about the temple and their religious tradition.

The temple began as the tent of witness that Moses was directed to make in the wilderness. This would lead to a temple being built. I want to point out just a couple of verses in this section. Acts 7:45–48 “Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,”

David asked for a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Solomon was the one who built the house. Stephen was preaching and teaching in a place that represented the dwelling place of God. The people thought that they needed to go to the temple to meet with God. But even Stephen corrects them on this. He tells them that God does not dwell in houses made by hands and then he tells them Acts 7:49–50 ““ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’”

Buildings will pass away. Churches will seise to exist. But the Sprit of God will continue for eternity. Where does the spirit of God dwell if he doesn’t dwell in buildings? He dwells in his children. In people who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. But not only heard it but have turned from their sin and believe that he died for them. That is where the spirit of God dwells.

Stephen made sure that he used scripture to point them to the fact that this temple that they were so enamored with, is not where the spirit of God is. He used scripture to back himself up while he did this. Just like Stephen, we must be biblical.

3. We Must Focus on Repentance

Acts 7:51–53 ESV

“You stiff-necked people, 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 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.”

We talked about Stephen being bold and biblical and how we should be the same. We see this culminate here in one of the most bold statements to people in the New Testament. He calls them stiff-necked and tells them that their hearts and ears are uncircumcised. He is telling them that they are the ones who are the lawbreakers and that they have rejected the righteous law fulfiller, Jesus.

He compares them to their fathers, who rejected God’s word. He rebukes them for persecuting the prophets that came before them with the announcement of Jesus. And then, he makes sure to tell them that they betrayed and murdered Jesus, who was the Righteous One.

He reminds them that they were the ones who had the privilege of having God’s word, yet they rejected it. Do we know people today that do this? They have God’s word yet they reject it. I think we could all think of individuals. I would say that churches like the one I mentioned early that have no reverence for scripture are at least going down the path if they are not there already. There would even be whole denominations that we may would think of.

This is why we need to focus on repentance. Seeing where we fall short and turning from that. I don’t feel like I am spoiling anything in the book of Acts when I say that these people are told where they fall short but they do not turn from it in the moment. In fact, they kill Stephen for what he says. For standing on the truth of scripture.

Conclusion

Maybe there are some things that we need to repent of. I firmly believe that none of us would want to be on the side of those who killed Stephen. So we must seek repentance. Maybe, like the ones against Stephen, we are talking bad about someone or are gossiping. This requires repentance. Maybe you have been continuously lying about something to your husband or your wife. This requires repentance. Maybe you have been held in a particular sin for years and years. This requires repentance.

Just because you are a follower of Jesus, it doesn’t mean that you never need to confess and repent of any sin. In fact, as we mature as believers, we will begin to see sin completely differently. Sins that once used to be very minute and small to us, we will begin to see as something great that stand in our way of a deeper relationship with Jesus.

For those of us who have place our faith in Jesus Christ, remember that we must continuously be looking at our lives and looking for sin. And then we must repent of this sin and turn to Jesus.

The same goes for those who have not placed their faith in Jesus. (gospel) (repent and believe)

As we sing this last song, take this as a time to reflect upon yourself and see what sin there is that needs to be repented of.