Sermon Tone Analysis

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?