A Sermon to Die For

Introduction

Hurricane Dorian - Probably revealed some hard-headedness. You’ve seen the car on the beach, but what about car in the kitchen. Hard-headed husband wouldn’t clean out his garage. His wife said it wouldn’t fit in the kitchen. He said, “Watch this...”

Are you hard-headed? Are you spiritually hard-headed?

If you’re spiritually hard-headed, you’re not alone. The Bible is full of stories of people who were spiritually hard-headed - Adam and Eve, Pharoah, the nation of Israel, etc.

NT - Israel’s religious leaders are the epitome of spiritually hard-headed people. Jesus went head-to-head with them, and it cost Him His life. Now, a follower of Jesus, Stephen, goes head-to-head with the same religious leaders and it costs him his life as well.

Powerful story of a bold, Spirit-filled man willing to speak truth to people who couldn’t handle the truth.

records longest sermon in Acts - Stephen’s first and last sermon - a sermon to die for.

If you are spiritually hard-headed, you need to listen to and heed Stephen’s words. Stephen gives us three ways to overcome our spiritual hard-headedness.

Stop trying to define God on your terms.

- Seven men chosen to help serve widows, but two do much more than serve widows: Stephen and Phillip.

Stephen, not an apostle, but ministry looks a lot like that of Peter and other apostles. Same Holy Spirit in him!

Preaching in synagogue of Freedmen - Synagogue in Jerusalem attended by Jews who had been slaves in different countries - probably a Greek speaking synagogue. (Note Cilicia - the region where Paul was born. Paul may have attended this synagogue - and may have heard Stephen debating.)

Vs. 10 - could not withstand the wisdom and Spirit so they made false allegations “Blasphemer! Speaks against Moses and God.” Taken before the council - another follower of Jesus before the high priest.

What did Stephen say to get him in trouble? Don’t know, but maybe, “Take your eyes off of Law of Moses and customs and put them on Jesus. You can’t keep the law anyways. Take your eyes off the temple and put them on Jesus. He’s the real temple. Remember what He said?” (John 2:19-22)

vs. 15 - face like an angel - reminiscent of Moses () - Stephen in the presence of God - and like an angel about to deliver a divine message.

The message: How hard-headed can you be? You’ve limited God to the Temple and the giving of the Law at Sinai, and as a result you have missed the Messiah.

Stephen: “Let’s talk about how God works. You revere this land and this temple as the place of God, but He’s always been at work outside of this holy place.”

vs. 2- He was at work in Mesopotamia when He called Abraham, outside the land. Abraham never even lived in the holy land, yet he was the father of the Jewish faith!

God told Abraham that his descendants would live in a foreign land, and they did! Joseph and his brothers in Egypt where there descendants were enslaved for 400 years - and God was there! At work in their lives!

In Egypt, God raised up a deliverer, Moses, who fled from Egypt to Midian. In Midian, God appeared to Moses, outside the land - told him to take off his sandals (vs. 33) - on holy ground - outside the land!

In the wilderness, God instructed people to build a tabernacle (vs. 44) - A reminder of God’s presence among His people. David asked to build a temple, but God would not allow it. Instead, He allowed Solomon to build the temple. BUT - the Most High doesn’t live in tabernacles or temples! (vs. 48-50)

You’ve made this temple the center of worship, and you live and act as if this temple is contains all the glory of God, but a temple cannot contain Him, and He is at work globally - outside of this land! (Aren’t you glad?)

Stephen: “And while we’re at it, let’s talk about the Law. You study it all the time. You talk about it all the time. You police people to make sure they’ve kept the law, but you don’t even keep it! Throughout our history we’ve never been able to keep the law!”

“Go back to Mt. Sinai. (7:37) The great Prophet Moses was receiving the Law and while it was being freshly etched into stone, our ancestors at the bottom of the Mountain making an idol out of their earrings - rejecting God and His prophet, Moses.” Continued in idolatry rather than obedience to the Law - vs. 43-44

Note vs. 37 - God has raised up another prophet who you are rejecting even now, Jesus because you are still turning to idolatry! You’ve made the temple your idol!

Starts by challenging their view of the temple. Nothing more sacred for a Jew than the Promised Land that housed the temple. ()

vs. 53 - You recieved the Law delivered by angels but you have not kept it!

The temple so revered, but it can’t contain God! He’s always been at work outside the temple and even outside the land.

Problem for ancient Israel is same for us: defining God on our terms, making God into our image, trying to contain Him - making Him the God we want Him to be rather than worshipping Him for the God who He is. You’ve done it:

God is the Big Man Upstairs - out there somewhere, but not relevant to my life.

God is a Celestial Santa - He exists to give me what I want. Always disappointed when God doesn’t answer your prayers.

God is a 911 Worker - He exists to help me out of a jam.

God is an Angry Judge - He exists to wreck my fun. He’s just trying to catch me break the rules.

God is a Passive Pushover - He’s all love. Anything goes. At the end, He’s going to welcome everyone in to His eternal presence regardless of what they believe or what they have done.

Problem with American culture - we try to contain God by defining Him for who we want Him to be, and a result many of us have an incomplete or flat-out wrong view of God. We want people to know God but do we even know God?

Why do we try to contain God? We’re not comfortable with a holy God who demands that we surrender our lives to Him and allow Him to work through us. We’re not comfortable with a God who desires that we die to ourselves and live for His will.

At Northwood, we don’t want to contain God to how we define Him. We want God to reveal Himself to us for who He is. We want to unleash the God of the Bible!

Ill. - Hudson comparing mall to Walmart - overwhelmed with enormity of mall.

Stop ignoring God’s messengers.

Stephen: “You’re continuing to do what you’ve always done: silencing God’s messengers.”

vs. 39 - ancestors refused to listen to Moses.

vs. 51-53 - Stiff-necked and uncircumcised. What an insult to religious Jews! You are no different than the pagans.

You always resist the Holy Spirit. What prophets did your fathers not persecute? Some were even killed because of your hard-headedness! You killed the prophets that announced the coming of Christ, and you killed the Christ who came to save you.

In His grace, God constantly raised up men to woo the hearts of the Israelites back to Him, and ultimately He sent Jesus. But, they ignored His messengers.

How many of us have looked back over life and said, “I wish I would have listened to…”

How long will you ignore? God has given you His Word so you might know Him and how He desires you to live for Him.

God has raised up men and women to speak truth into your life. He’s given you pastors who faithfully labor for your sake - who study the Word, pray for your souls, and teach the truth to you week in and week out, but for how many of us is it in one ear and out the other?

God has given you men and women of faith who love you, who pray for you, who gently speak truth into your life…

None of us who are speaking truth into your life are perfect. We mess up just like you do, but we desperately want you to know the One who is perfect - the One who you keep rejecting - the One who loves you so much that He died for you and rose again for you.

Some of us need to quit being so hard-headed and start listening to God’s Word and to the people that God has put around you who are speaking God’s Word into you.

Stop ignoring the way to God’s presence.

They ignore Stephen. Ground their teeth at Stephen.

Stephen looked up and God gave him a vision - Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father.

Sees Jesus as the exalted King. Stephen stands before the same people who crucified Jesus just months earlier because Jesus claimed to be king. Stephen: “I see Him. The Son of Man that Daniel prophesied about. He’s standing at the right hand of God. He really is the King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Do you see what Stephen is saying to these religious leaders that angers them so much? The temple is not the way to the presence of God (After all, the religious leaders didn’t see God) Jesus is the way to God’s presence. The One who died and rose again is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. ()

These words enough to get Stephen stoned - to them the words of Stephen absolute blasphemy - stopped their ears, drug him out, and killed him. All the while, Saul of Tarsus looking on.

vs. 59-60 - Stephen faced his death just like Jesus. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, and forgive them.”

Nothing brings you into the presence of God but Jesus.

Not a temple.

Not good works.

Not moral living.

Not religious devotion.

Not being a nice person.

We’re all like the high priest and Sadducees - We’ve all tried to define God on our terms. We’ve all broken His Law. We’ve all rejected His messengers.

But, there’s Jesus. He came to show us God for who He is. () He came to keep the Law we could not keep. He is our messenger - the ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King who shows us God’s love by dying in our place and rising again so we could come into the presence of God through faith and repentance.

And Jesus stands: Interesting - because everywhere else in NT that refers to throne Jesus is seated. Why standing?

Jesus stands to condemn. For those who reject Jesus, the King will stand from His throne and say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” ()

Jesus stands to receive. For Stephen, the vision was not of condemnation but One of love - Jesus standing to receive one who was faithful to the end. Almost as if Jesus is giving Stephen a standing ovation for a life lived for Christ unto death.

When you breath your last, will you be received by the One who stood in your place on the cross and now stands in glory waiting to receive the faithful?

This morning - quit being so hard headed. Believers - repent of being hard-headed. Start listening again. Start following again.

Not a follower? Don’t reject Jesus. Believe and be received into His eternal Kingdom.