Stephen's History Lesson

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to church.

I hope you all were able to dodge the storms this week and that you and yours are all well.

This morning we continue our series in the book of Acts, with Deacon Stephen's address to the Sanhedrin Council.

As a review, you will recall that Stephen was appointed deacon to help oversee the daily distribution to the needy widows of the assembly.

Stephen was challenged by the men of the Synagogue of the Libertines in Jerusalem. He was taken captive and brought before the council of priests for questioning.

We resume our reading in Acts 7...

Acts 7:1–8 CSB

1 “Are these things true?” the high priest asked. 2 “Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 3 and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you. 4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living. 5 He didn’t give him an inheritance in it—not even a foot of ground—but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even though he was childless. 6 God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years. 7 I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place. 8 And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

[PRAY]

Stephen’s History Lesson

Stephen began by giving the top religious scholars a brief overview of the history of Israel.

As I began to study this, I was looking at Stephen’s address, which is one of the longest messages we have recorded in the book of Acts to this point. I realized that this lecture given by Stephen to the Sanhedrin Council of religious leaders in the temple of Jerusalem is a master class in seeing how Jesus and his followers understood the history of Israel.

To be clear, these priests—who were accomplished religious scholars—knew the history of Israel. However, they had come to a wrong conclusion about God’s relationship with Israel and how they should respond to the message of Jesus Christ.

Stephen hit all the highlights in his address. He dropped the biggest names in Israel’s history:

Abraham, Israel’s father, the founder of their faith (Acts 7:1-8)

Joseph, Israel’s protector, the one who saved them from certain death (Acts 7:9-17)

Moses, Israel’s redeemer, the one who brought them out of slavery (Acts 7:18-44)

Joshua, Israel’s conqueror, the one who secured their land (Acts 7:45)

David and Solomon, Israel’s kings, the ones who built their temple (Acts 7:46-50)

They knew their names. They knew their stories. They worshipped these men, who had built a lifestyle for them. However, what they did not know was that they had completely missed the point.

Stephen spoke about these names because he wanted to connect with the council about something that they knew. But he also wanted to teach them something that they didn’t know, or had not yet realized.

Stephen wanted these religious men to understand that:

1. They misunderstood their own spiritual roots (vv 1-8).

Verses 1-8 are about Abraham’s friendship with God and his call to establish a relationship and a covenant with God. It centers around God’s promise to Abraham to give him a son, who would father a nation. The promise was that his descendants would be given a land of their own. However they would not achieve that land until after an extended period of living and being enslaved in Egypt.

They were to wait in faith for God to fulfill his promise, a test that they would fail time and again throughout the ages.

Instead of focusing on their devotion to God they began to focus on the land and the laws and the temple.

Stephen told the council that God had remained with his people whether they were in the land he had given them or not. He was with them whether they had a temple or not. God was always more interested in a relationship than he was in establishing a religion. But the Hebrews lost their way then they began worshipping their religion rather than their God.

God repeatedly sent messengers to them to attempt to get their attention. Yet Israel rejected her prophets over and over again. We can see in Stephen’s telling that the forefathers of Israel often misunderstood what God wanted from them.

Stephen emphasized that faith and obedience was always more important than the physical markers: such as the land, the temple, the circumcision.

It was always the motivations of their hearts that had God’s attention over their rituals

Stephen continued his speech by moving into a review of the way that God’s messages were rejected by his people.

2. They had rejected the messengers that God had sent them (vv 9-35).

Stephen spoke about how Joseph, as God’s messenger was rejected by his brothers, to the point that they sold him into slavery and faked his death. However, God continued to favor Joseph and brought reconciliation to the family.

Moses brought his people out of slavery and led them to the Promised Land, but the rejection of the people and their bickering with God led to a delay in their fulfilling the promise that they had waited for over 400 years. What’s 40 more years in the wilderness, right?

Continued rejection of God’s prophets set the stage for showing that this was a theme that echoed throughout Israel’s history. In spite of this rejection God continued to reveal himself to Israel. He continued to reveal his plan and continued to demonstrate his sovereignty.

3. They had disobeyed their beloved Law (vv 37-43).

Moses gave Israel the Law as they camped in the wilderness. And it seemed that they could not wait for an opportunity to reject that law as they built a false idol to worship.

Moses had warned them of the coming of a great prophet, when he said...

Acts 7:37 CSB

37 “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.

Moses was talking about Jesus, and he was yet another prophet in a long line of prophets that Israel had rejected. In addition to rejecting Moses’ promised prophet, Israel rejected his leadership They were unwilling to obey his law and they yearned for Egypt.

Acts 7:39 CSB

39 Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

It was under Moses’ leadership that Israel ignored the commandments that he had brought them from God and built a golden calf so that they might have a false sacrifice.

Acts 7:40 CSB

40 They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.

This was outright idolatry and violated the first and second commandments, which prohibited having other gods and worshiping idols.

Stephen points the council to the book of Amos, where it was noted that Israel had disobeyed God time and time again throughout their history.

Amos 5:25–27 CSB

25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness? 26 But you have taken up Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, images you have made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus.” The Lord, the God of Armies, is his name. He has spoken.

The pattern of disobedience and worship of foreign gods was persistent and pervasive throughout Israel’s history.

4. They had despised their beloved temple (vv 44-50).

David had planned for the temple, that his son, Solomon, was allowed to build. However, the Jews actually despised the very temple that they held in such a place of honor. They misunderstood its true significance.

This started with the portable tabernacle, the mobile dwelling place for God’s presence among the Hebrews as they travelled in the wilderness.

While Stephen acknowledged the historical purpose of the Temple, he wanted to focus on its true purpose...

Acts 7:48 CSB

48 but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:

Then he quoted the prophet Isaiah saying...

Acts 7:49–50 CSB

49 Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What sort of house will you build for me? says the Lord, or what will be my resting place? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?

While the Jews believed that God was confined to the Temple and they had the power to come to him at any time, God had a much greater purpose. He dwells in heaven and beyond, through the gift of his Spirit, given to his people, he now dwells within his people that dwell with him.

God’s rhetorical questions, through his prophet Amos, were intended to emphasize that God has no limitations. The physical building, that was known as the Temple, could not hold him. It could not box him in.

In fact the Jews were not only disrespecting a place that they claimed to be the most holy of the most holy, they were disrespecting and disregarding God and his purpose. When that purpose was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, the Jewish leaders rejected God’s ultimate expression of his presence.

Jesus said it very well in John 15...

John 15:5–7 CSB

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

When the Sanhedrin Council rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah, they were rejecting God himself.

5. They had resisted God’s own truth (vv 51-53).

Stephen got downright personal with the council when he called them stiff-necked and said that their hearts and ears were uncircumcised.

Acts 7:51 CSB

51 “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.

The term “stiff-necked” was a description that the Old Testament used to describe a people that were stubbornly resisting God’s commands.

This phrase is an indicator of outright rebellion against God.

When he said that their hearts and ears were “uncircumcised”, he was telling them that they may physically meet the requirements of their Jewish faith, however their hearts and minds were not truly dedicated to God. They had no integrity in their dedication to God.

Again he was using Old Testament language, which they were well educated in and it revealed their motivations...

Jeremiah 6:10 CSB

10 Who can I speak to and give such a warning that they will listen? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, so they cannot pay attention. See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them— they find no pleasure in it.

Ezekiel 44:7 CSB

7 When you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in both heart and flesh, to occupy my sanctuary, you defiled my temple while you offered my food—the fat and the blood. You broke my covenant by all your detestable practices.

Stephen reminded the high priest and the council that their ancestors persecuted the prophets who had told them of their Messiah, the so-called “Righteous One” and they had done the same to Jesus Christ.

Their persecution of the prophets included rejection, ridicule, imprisonment, exile, and even killing the prophets (1 Kings 19:10, Nehemiah 9:26).

They had wholeheartedly rejected and persecuted those who announced the coming Messiah and they had completely disregarded God’s plans and messages that the prophets had delivered.

Stephen stood with the other apostles in calling the Sanhedrin out for betraying and murdering Jesus. These priests of the council were consistent in their pride and arrogance that they could recognize God’s work and they followed the same lead that they had taken from their ancestors when the Righteous One did come.

Acts 7:53 CSB

53 You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it.”

It didn’t matter what their source was. If God himself had come down to stand in the streets of Jerusalem and say “This is my chosen one in whom I am well pleased” they would have rejected God right there on the spot.

Because they had never been interested in pleasing God in the first place.

Conclusion

The real problem with the religious leaders in the time of the early church was that they were hypocrites. Jesus agreed with Stephen. He called the priests hypocrites on more than one occasion...

Matthew 15:7–9 CSB

7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said: 8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”

The word “hypocrisy” is acting in a way that is inconsistent with one’s speech or beliefs.

Jesus got strait to the point when he spoke about their relationship to the Law of Moses...

Matthew 23:1–3 CSB

1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.

More than just what one says, hypocrisy is a conflict of duplicity in the heart itself. The prophet Jeremiah said...

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

The priests of the Sanhedrin Council were ready to impose the Law on the people, but they ignored what they found convenient.

Question: Where is the gospel message in Stephen’s address?

[These priests and all of Israel had the opportunity to hear the truth of the message of Jesus Christ and they rejected the gospel message.]

How do we apply this to the church today?

I’ve told you before that church people can be pharisaical. That is to say that people who call themselves Christian can be more tied to their rules and their legalism than they are to God, to Christ.

We can avoid this by avoiding duplicity of the heart. We can forgive others as we have been forgiven. We can avoid judging others for their mistakes and encourage them to the best that they can be.

We can avoid worshiping our traditions and our preferences as the council priests did. But we can worship Christ and live out the new creation that Christ put within us, living out the character of Christ that his Spirit is growing within us.

We start within ourselves, by being what Jesus wanted for us to be.