Stephen A Man of God(part 2)
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Intro:
Intro:
TS: Last week we began looking at Stephen. He was a godly man in several ways:
A Great Man-high character, diligent in laboring for the Lord
A Wise Man- Defended the faith and defeated those who tried to debate him.
An accused Man - They made up lies to stop him. He stood accused of blasphemous words and terroristic threats against the temple.
This Week:
This week we examine Stephen’s trial.
They open up in v. 1 with “Are these things so?”
Stephen’s response at this trial shows he is also a Bold Man
Instead of attacking the lies of his accusers, Stephen preached a bold message.
MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary
Stephen’s response does not seem to answer the High-Priest’s question. Instead, he gave a masterful, detailed defense of the Christian faith from the OT and concluded by condemning the Jewish leaders for rejecting Jesus.
In this message, Stephen tells the history of God’s awesome works on behalf of Israel, and Israel’s repeated rejection of the truth, a pattern they continued all the way up to rejecting their Messiah, Jesus. He tries to get them to see beyond the ritual and regulation of the Temple to recognize true righteousness and their inadequacy
AS: We would do well to follow the example of Stephen.
He knew the Scriptures and used every opportunity to show how they proclaimed Jesus . Even in difficult circumstances, we need to point people to Jesus
God’s Amazing Grace
God’s Amazing Grace
The Call of Abraham 1-8
Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him. But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. ‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.
God Called Him out
This was an act of His amazing grace
God looked on earth and choose this man to be the Father of His people
It wasn’t due to Abraham’s merit and worth, it was due to God’s gracious choice
Established a people
Through Abraham, God began His nation
In Abraham, it was a promised nation, and through his descendants, He kept that promise
Established a covenant
V. 8 God gave them the covenant
Promised land
Promised One (Messiah)
God set circumcision as the symbol of the covenant
A perpetual reminder and sign that they were a peculiar people chosen by God
All of this was before the Temple
Stephen shows that God had been with Abraham in Mesopotamia, and that the patriarch had worshiped him there (vv. 2–8);
God has used the temple, but was always in the world and and always will be
True righteousness goes beyond Temple
Patriarchs in Egypt 9-16
“And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
God used bad situation to become a blessing
10 of his 11 brothers sold Joseph into slavery out of jealousy
Joseph rose to the top of Potiphers house, then due to false accusations, landed in prison where he again rose to the top
BUT GOD! (great words aren’t they?)
He allowed all to get Joseph in the right place and time so that God’s message to Pharaoh could be delivered.
Due to these events, the Patriarchs preserved in famine
They grew into a nation in the incubator of Egypt
Just as God was with Abraham, He is also with Jacob, Joseph, and Moses in Egypt, where they had worshiped him (vv. 9–24, 30–38);
Again, we see God at work shaping events and accomplishing His purpose long before the Tabernacle and Temple
God Delivers Israel through Moses 17-36
“But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies, so that they might not live. At this time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
“Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’ But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look. ‘Then the Lord said to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.” ’
“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
After time passed, and they were being oppressed, God delivered
Sent Moses
Sent Plagues to bring deliverance and ruin Egypt
Let them out
free from slavery
Parted the Red Sea to make good their escape and drown Pharaoh's army
God was with Israel in their wilderness wanderings, and had accepted their worship (vv. 44–46).
AP: Stephen has shown that God is a gracious and might God.
God is still at work in the world today in the post Temple era.
That isn’t entirely accurate is it
There is still a Temple!
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
We are His temples!
God still is working:
He still calls people to Himself
He still hears and answers prayer
He still is working to accomplish His plans
Israel’s Rebellious Response
Israel’s Rebellious Response
Israel Rebels against God 37-43
“This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.’
“This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness,
O house of Israel?
You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of your god Remphan,
Images which you made to worship;
And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
They had a long history of rejecting God sent deliverers
Rebelled against Moses
complained and whined about going back to Egypt
Made an idol shaped like a calf out of gold when Moses was receiving law
Rebelled against God through idolatry (Book of Judges)
Kept the idols of the pagans around
Began worshipping them
Rejected God as King, and demanded a human king.
Followed wicked kings deeper into rejection of God
God’s True Tabernacle 44-50
“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house.
“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says the Lord,
Or what is the place of My rest?
Has My hand not made all these things?’
To cap his argument, Stephen reminded the court that God does not dwell in houses made with hands. This, he pointed out, is evident from Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple; in it he expressly declared that heaven is God’s throne, the earth His footstool, and no one spot on earth the place of His rest (vv. 47–50).
Israel Resists the Holy Spirit 51-53
“You stiff-necked and 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 foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
They rejected their Messiah (the Just One)
stiff-necked -
stubborn and rebellious
uncircumcised in heart and ears
corrupt
essentially accusing them of not being circumcised.
unclean before the Lord
They rejected the messenger 54
When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
They started grinding their teeth at him they were so angry
They set their jaw and prepared to destroy Stephen
They had heard the gospel, and once again rejected it
AP: Human nature still rejects God
They reject His moral standard
we think we know better than Him what is “normal”
we think we can serve Him our way and on our terms instead of submitting to His word
They reject His offered salvation
Humans think they can earn it
Humans think they can hold onto it
Arrogantly, they think somehow they can position themselves to deserve it
I know I use it often, but I see no way to reconcile these humancentric plans with Scripture:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Salvation is by God’s grace alone
He accomplishes it due to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross
Salvation is only accessed through our Faith in Him
God set that in motion when He declared it to be so
Don’t reject God’s grace today!
Receive it by faith and inherit eternal life
Conclusion
Conclusion
AS: What have you done with God’s call?
Have you embraced Him? Have you put your trust in Him alone?
If not, respond to His call today!
Repent and received His offered gift
If you have, are you living for Him?
We have 2 distinct examples in this passage:
Sanhedrin court
rejected Jesus
tried to stop the spread of the message
Stephen
Received Jesus
Gave his life to spread the message
IS:
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works cited:
[1] Vaughan, C. (2009). Acts (pp. 47–48). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.