The wilderness, tabernacle and temple Acts 7:36-60

Introduction

As Stephen is on trial, he has preached about the Abrahamic covenant, setting Israel aside as Gods chosen people, He told of the promise to get Israel out of Egypt, He showed how God worked in the life of Joseph, from a slave to second in command in all of Egypt. God was with Joseph and we see that in every aspect of his life.

He then tells of Moses, who was born in Egypt at a time where they were killing the male children born to the Israelites to try to slow down and really stop the population growth of Israel. Moses’ parents hid Moses for 3 months and then put him in an ark and placed him in the nile where Pharaohs daughter would find him and raise him. When he was 40 years he was stirred by God to go be with his brethren, hebrews 11 puts in like this (Hebrews 11:24–26 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” )

As Moses spends 40 years in the wilderness, God appears to him in a burning bush and sends him back to Egypt to get Israel out of Egypt.

The wilderness vs. 36-41

They were brought out of Egypt vs. 36

The signs in the land of Egypt

The rivers turned to blood

Frogs

Lice

Flies

Sickness among the animals

Hail

Locusts

Darkness

Death of the firstborn

Every sign that was given attacked the gods of the Egyptians, and showed the Israelites who the true God is.

The Sign of the Red Sea

What a miracle that Red Sea crossing was. A million people crossing on dry ground.

Exodus 15:8“And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, The floods stood upright as an heap, And the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.”

Remember that the Red Sea is a picture of Salvation.

The sign in the wilderness for 40 years

If God wasn’t evident to the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness they had to have been blind

Three days into the wilderness, they were already murmuring because the water they found was bitter, God gave them pure water

Just a little while later, they are murmuring again about the lack of food. They go far as to ask “Why would God lead us into the wilderness to just let us die of hunger?” In response God rained down bread from heaven for them to eat

Later they are in the wilderness and get thirsty again. Moses cries out to God asking God what he should do with this people because they were getting ready to stone him if they didn’t get some water. God again provided the water for them through Moses

Here Stephen quotes Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15 which says “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;”

The religious leaders here would have recognized this as a Messianic prophecy, given from Moses.

Someone said this “They should have indeed recognized that “Prophet like Moses” since they professed to honor and follow Moses and were accusing Stephen of changing his customs.”

This Moses was a picture of Jesus as he led the called out assembly translated in the New Testament as the Church. They were divinely authorized to carry out ministry but not in the ultimate sense as realized in the new testament.

This is Moses who spake to the Angel of the Lord which would be Jesus as the a law was written by the finger tip of God and delivered by Jesus

John Phillips said it like this “The inspired Word was conveyed by the One who now had become the incarnate Word.”

Stephen reminds them of how they treated Moses whom God had sent to save his people from Egypt

The Bible tells us they wouldn’t obey him

Over and over the children of Israel disobeyed what God had told Moses.

They thrust from him

They kept pushing away from Moses.

Psalm 95:8–11 “Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, Proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, And said, It is a people that do err in their heart, And they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath That they should not enter into my rest.”

They turned back to Egypt in their hearts.

Numbers 14:1–4 “And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”

They continued to murmur against their leader and God.

As Moses is at the top of mount Sinai getting the 10 commandments from God, the Israelites are turning their gold into a golden calf to worship.

God commands the Israelites to have no other gods, and at the bottom of the mountain the Israelites are creating another god to worship

One of the worse parts of this is when Moses comes down from the mountain he asks Aaron what happened and Aaron tells him we just threw our gold in the fire and out came this calf.

Psalm 106:19–23 “They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their saviour, Which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, And terrible things by the Red sea. Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them.”

The Tabernacle vs 42-46

Idolatry started after the fall of man and continues even to this day.

God had given them up to their Idolatry, the Israelites moved away from God towards their gods.

Verse 42 tells us that God gave them up to worship the host of heaven which means an array of false gods believed to dwell in the heavens, associated with the stars and the practice of astrology.

Stephen reminds the of Amos 5:25–27 “Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, The star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, Saith the Lord, whose name is The God of hosts.”

What started as worship of a golden calf, turned into the Israelites worshiping the gods of their neighbors.

The way they worshiped Moloch was through child sacrifice.

The way the worshiped Remphan was through worshipping the planets. They took what God created and made false gods out of it

The blue print of the tabernacle came directly form God

It was the tabernacle of witness in that it was a testimony of God’s presence in their midst.

They brought the tabernacle to the promised land as they were driving out the Gentiles from the land they were promised.

Jesus here is speaking of Joshua

The tabernacle was used through the time of David

David desired to build the temple, he said why should I dwell in a house made with cedar when the ark of God dwells in curtains. David was not allowed to build the temple, but he was allowed to get the materials together.

The Temple vs. 47-49

David wanted God to have a permanent place to dwell so he wanted to build him a temple

David couldn’t build the temple, but his son Solomon using the materials that David had gathered built the temple.

Stephen here reminded them that Solomons temple was not made to tie God down

Solomon recognized that God dwells in temples not made with hands in his dedicatory prayer of the temple.

he quotes Isaiah 66:1–2 “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, And all those things have been, saith the Lord: But to this man will I look, Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, And trembleth at my word.”

God didn’t need a permanent place to dwell, because he dwells everywhere.

The Jews of Stephens day had turned the temple into an idol and were worshiping the temple more than the inhabitant of the temple Jesus Christ

The final point vs. 51-53

Stephen had given the religious leaders a history lesson. He started with Abraham, went through the life of Joseph, then to Moses, reminded them of the tabernacle and just finished with the temple.

He pretty much gave a rebuttal for everything he had been accused of. Just as there fathers rejected God and the leadership he had given them, these leaders had rejected the Messiah promised and prophesied all throughout the old testament scriptures.

Stephens points about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob fly in the face of saying a Judaism with a temple is automatically superior to one without it. The Patriarchs worshiped at simple altars.

The nature of one’s actual relationship with God supersedes mere formality, no matter how impressive it may appear.

He calls them a stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.

Stephen told them their hearts were cold towards God and their ears were inattentive to His word, so that God could not reach them.

The he tells them they resist the Holy Ghost as their fathers did

we can grieve, quench, or resist the Holy Spirit.

He finishes his sermon with a question

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute.

he then goes on to tell them that while they killed the prophets before Jesus came, they are now guilty of killing Jesus.

The First Martyr vs. 54-60

When Stephen finished his sermon they were convicted because everything he said was true. They lashed out at him

Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost looked up to heaven and saw the glory God and Jesus standing up, and he told them what he saw

They stopped listening to him and ran up to him and stoned him, Notice that Saul was there at the stoning of Stephen

The final words of Stephen

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit

Lord, lay not this sin to their charge

What a testimony of faith in Jesus

Conclusion

Stephens sermon can apply to all of our lives, the Israelites had focused so much on the things surrounding God that they missed God. We can do the same thing.

DOn’t be like the religious leaders here resisting the Holy Ghost, if he is calling you to place your faith in Jesus do it today.