Stevens Defense of the Faith part 2
Notes
Transcript
Last week we started looking at the defense that Steven was giving at his trail.
The Jews had accused him of 4 things:
Speaking Against God
Speaking against Moses
Speaking against The Law
Speaking against the Temple
The Law (vv 38-43)
The Law (vv 38-43)
The more comfortable people become the more conforming they become.
The people of Israel had become comfortable in Egypt.
When God was meeting with Moses on Mt Sini and giving him the 10 Commandments the people started turning back to what was comfortable and what they knew.
They begged Aron to build them an Idol one from their time in Egypt and they started making sacrifice's to it.
In times of need you turn to what you know and what is comfortable.
It was not Stephen who disobeyed the law, but the very fathers the Sanhedrin revered.
Stephen did not reject Moses, but those same fathers repudiated Moses and the law, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
Incredibly, though they had been cruelly oppressed there, they looked back with longing at their time in Egypt Num. 11:5
5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
Worshiping idols was a continuous problem for the people of Israel.
Here in his defense Steven quotes Amos 5:25-27
25 “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 26 You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, 27 and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
When we are in trouble our natural instinct takes over we do what we know.
To put good out we must have good put in.
The Temple (vv 44-53)
The Temple (vv 44-53)
In response to the accusation that he spoke against the Jewish house of worship, Stephen traces the history of the temple to show his respect for it because it was ordained by God.
Much like modern churches today it was not so much what the building was but what happened in that building.
Steven went back to the tabernacle and then went through to Solomons temple.
Showing that God was using it as a way to point to God rather than it being God.
He quotes Isa 66:1
1 Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?
The house of God is not a building but the heart of His followers.
