Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Destroying of the Temple*

*Acts 6:8-15*

*March 9, 2008*

* *

This morning we’re going to look at the book of Acts and the story of Stephen.

First, a quick lesson in history to give you a thumbnail sketch of who Stephen was.

After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the disciples, who were scattered when Jesus was taken, banded together to spread the good news that Jesus was risen and that salvation was through the Christ.

The book of Acts documents the rise of the Christian church.

As you know, the disciples who were the early church fathers were constantly under some form of attack.

The appointment of Stephen and six others arose out of such an attack.

They came out of a complaint that the disciples were neglecting widows (Acts.

6:1) Because the disciples did not think it desirable to leave the preaching of the word to wait on tables, additional ministers were chosen (Acts 6:2-7), Stephen among them.

Stephen is described as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” who did great signs and wonders among the people (6:8).

This is the background of our key passage this morning.

Let’s look at it together now, starting at Acts 6:9.

/And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.

Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as freed slaves and their descendents were called), and of the Cyrenians, and of Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, arose and disputed with Stephen.

But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

Then they secretly instigated men, who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us."

And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

/

There are three questions I want to try to answer from this text.

1.

The first comes from verse 14.

They accuse Stephen of saying, "This Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place [i.e., the temple in Jerusalem], and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us."

My first question is: Did Jesus say this?

Did Jesus say that he would destroy the temple?

2.   The second question is: Did Stephen mean what Jesus meant?

We will see that there is a difference in the way they talked about the destruction of the temple?

3.   Third, did Luke agree with what Jesus and Stephen had said?

If so, why did he say in verse 13 that the people set up false witnesses to say that Stephen said these things?

Before we tackle those three questions, I have question one other, namely, Does any of this matter?

Is this a vital issue?

Should you care about the rest of this message?

I will let you answer that.

But as you think about it, consider these three things.

1.   Stephen died for the truth that I am about to tell you.

In fact he chose to go on speaking this truth when he knew that it would cost him his life.

So he chose to die rather than not speak about Jesus' destruction of the temple and his changing the customs of Moses.

And verse 10 says that Stephen spoke with wisdom and with the Spirit.

So he was no fool to choose to die for this truth.

We would be fools to say ho-hum about this matter and tune out.

It is at least 10,000 times more important for your life than NHL Hockey.

2.   The Jewish leaders killed for this truth.

They saw it as so threatening that it was better to kill a good man than to let this truth about the destruction of the temple be spread.

3.   The third signal that this is very vital for us is that when Luke recorded Stephen's defense in chapter 7, he gives it more space than any other speech or message in the whole book of Acts.

All of chapter 7 (60 verses) comprises Stephen’s speech to the council and his subsequent martyrdom.

We don’t have time to read it now, so please make a note of it and read it on your own later.

I pray that the Lord will give you a heartfelt assessment of the utter importance of what we are about to see.

So let’s look now at:

Question 1: Did Jesus Really Say These Things?

Did Jesus say that he was going to destroy the temple?

Matthew 26:61 and Mark 14:58 tell us that at Jesus' trial false witnesses came forward and said, /"This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days."/

When the high priest asked him to make an answer to the charge, Jesus said nothing.

Matthew 27:40 and Mark 15:29 tell us that the crowds who passed by the cross while Jesus was dying mocked Jesus by saying, /"You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!

If you are the Son of God, come down from this cross."

/

Most importantly, John 2:19 tells us about one situation when Jesus actually spoke words like these.

He had just driven the sellers out of the temple.

And the Jews asked him, /"What sign have you to show us for doing this?"/

And Jesus answered, /"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

/They come back, /"It has taken 46 years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"/

And John comments, /"But he spoke of the temple of his body"/ (John 2:21).

Here Jesus says, "/You destroy the temple, and I will build it again in three days."/

But since we know that destroying the temple referred to his death and we also know (from John 10:18) that he was laying down his own life voluntarily, it is very likely that he would also say, "I will destroy this temple, and in three days build it again"—which is what he was accused of saying.

Now what did Jesus mean?

Did he simply mean that he would die and then rise again—his body would be destroyed and then raised up in three days?

If that's all that he meant, then why did he refer to himself as the temple?

And why would he say words like this in the temple itself, knowing that most people would take him literally to refer to the temple building and all that goes on there?

I think the answer is both.

For those who had ears to hear, and for those who thought this through after his resurrection (like Stephen did!), Jesus meant: When I die, the temple dies.

When I am destroyed, the temple is destroyed.

This whole system—all these sacrifices, all this blood flowing to make atonement for sins, all this priestly activity surrounding the holy place where God's presence dwells—it all ends when I die.

You destroy me and in dying I destroy the temple.

This is why the curtain in the temple tore from top to bottom in two as Jesus died.

It was a token of destruction.

The walls were coming down.

Jesus himself was taking the place of everything in the temple.

Jesus became our one and only high priest who lives forever to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).

So the temple priesthood was "destroyed."

Jesus offered himself and his own blood once for all to make an eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12, 25–28; 10:10–12).

So all the animal sacrifices of the temple are "destroyed."

When Jesus made himself the mercy seat of the temple (Romans 3:25), and made his own blood the blood of the covenant (Mark 14:24), the glory of God—the old shekinah glory of the temple—came down and rested on him and raised him from the dead (Romans 6:4).

Peter says, /"God raised him from the dead and gave him glory"/ (1 Peter 1:21).

He is, as James says (2:1), /"the Lord of glory."

/And so the temple is no longer the place where you go to see the glory of God.

Jesus is that place.

Destroyed and in three days raised up—Jesus is where we go to see the glory of God.

And so the temple in Jerusalem is "destroyed."

We have a new temple, a new priest, a new sacrifice, a new access to glory and fellowship with God.

So when John the apostle has a vision of heaven in Revelation 21:22–23, he says, /"And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the almighty and the Lamb.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb."

/

What Jesus meant when he said, /"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,"/ was that he himself was taking the place of the temple—by dying for sin once for all, and by rising from the dead to reign as the everlasting priest and Lord of glory.

When I die, the temple system dies.

And when I rise, I am the temple.

I am the sacrifice for sins.

I am the priest and go-between with God.

I am the presence and radiance of God’s glory.

The earthly temple is finished.

So my answer to the first question is Yes, Jesus said that he would destroy the temple.

Now let’s look at:

Question 2: Did Stephen Mean What Jesus Meant?

Did Stephen mean what Jesus meant when he carried this teaching into the early church?