Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,

who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“I dwell in the high and holy place,

and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly,

and to revive the heart of the contrite.

For tonight we are going to look at a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit.

A man who defended the truth even unto his death.

Please turn your bibles to...

Acts 6:8–15 (ESV)

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.

10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.

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

12 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,

13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,

14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”

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

So here we have men who hate the man called Stephen who was full of Wisdom and the Spirit.

Stephen full of the Spirit will defend the truth that he is not an blasphemer of God or Moses.

He is not against the temple or the law as these men claim falsely that he is.

Now, we will not look at the entire seventh chapter, but I will be seeking to show you important points from Stephen speaking in truth and wisdom.

Stephen understood and rejoiced in what God did through Moses.

Stephen called the people of Israel in the days of the great exodus

“our fathers”

Stephen was connecting himself to these men at the council who hate him, by saying “our fathers”

Look at

Acts 7:38 (ESV)

38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers.

He received living oracles to give to us.

Stephen basically says; Moses gave our fathers living oracles from God which was given to us.

“How can I blaspheme the man Moses who received the law from God to give to our fathers?”

Why would I speak against the holy place?

Stephen is not against the law and the temple.

Look at

Acts 7:44–45 (ESV)

44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.

45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.

Stephen speaks well of the tabernacle saying Moses was directed by God to make the tent as a witness to our fathers, our fathers did not leave it in the wilderness either.

So Stephen acknowledges the law and the holy place something his fathers and him looked up to.

But, Stephen filled with the Spirit of truth, had to remind these men at the council where it all started to go down hill for his fathers and their fathers, disobeying Yahweh and his prophet, Moses.

Look at

Acts 7:39–42 (ESV)

39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us.

As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Moses has led these people of Isreal out of Egypt through the purpose and power of God, and the men of Isreal says; we don't know where is Moses, all we know is, he is not back yet, he might be dead by now.

We need a new leader.

Aaron! “Make for us gods who will keep us save and lead us to where we should go”.

“Moses has helped us so far but the gods of Egypt will lead us from here and therefore we must worship them”.

Listen to the Lord’s reaction regarding this wickedness....

Deuteronomy 9:13–20 (CSB)

The LORD also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, they are a stiff-necked people.

Leave me alone, and I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven.

Then I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.’

“So I went back down the mountain, while it was blazing with fire, and the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.

I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made a calf image for yourselves.

You had quickly turned from the way the LORD had commanded for you.

So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands, shattering them before your eyes.

I fell down like the first time in the presence of the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water because of all the sin you committed, doing what was evil in the LORD’s sight and angering him.

I was afraid of the fierce anger the LORD had directed against you, because he was about to destroy you.

But again the LORD listened to me on that occasion.

The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him.

But I prayed for Aaron at that time also.

Beloved, never underestimate the importance of prayer for your family or friends who has sinned greatly against your Lord and your God.

Even with your own sin, remember there is one greater then Moses, who is your advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous One.

Our great and High Priest, who ever lives to make intercession for us.

So, God did not destroy them, because Moses interceded for them 40 days and 40 nights without eating or drinking anything but pleading for the mercy of the Holy One, who inhabits eternity.

But, God turned away from them, He gave them up to worship the host of heaven (the stars - the creation) from that day onwards because they where not thankful of their Creator, who saved them from the evil Pharaoh in Egypt.

Look at verse 35

Acts 7:35–36 (ESV)

35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this

man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

2 Kings 23:4 (ESV)

4 And the king (Josiah) commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven.

He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

2 Kings 23:5 (ESV)

5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens.

This all started when God gave them up to worship the creation, the stars of the heavens because they made a golden calf by their own hands and danced around it.

Think about all the miracles God did for the Israelites, whom Moses lead out of Egypt.

Yahweh did amazing things for these people and after all that, they worship a golden calf made by their own hands, believing that the gods of Egypt may lead them further through the wilderness because Moses is not returning!

Look at

Acts 7:43 (ESV)

43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

Stephen quotes from Amos 5 verse 25 showing that after many years from the golden calf worship the fathers of Israel is still worshiping a star of a false god.

We know this is not just the Jewish nation but also the Gentiles.

We know what Paul said in Romans 1

You don't have to turn there.

Romans 1:22–25 (CSB)

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.

Amen.

Romans 1:26–28 (CSB)

26 For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions.