Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So last week we spoke about how the Bible uses
repetition as a literary device in order to help us
progress from knowing the gospel to believing the gospel. The Bible,
we learned, often repeats itself to help move things from
our head into our hearts. At our time of studying
the Book of Acts here on Sunday mornings, we've seen
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this very thing unfolding. In Acts chapter four, verses one
through twenty two, we saw that there was opposition to
the church that was boiling up from outside. There was
external opposition, and then we were told the result of
that was that the church grew. After that, in Acts
chapter five, verses one through eleven, we saw tension and
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difficulty inside the church, and as they navigated that, the
church grew. Acts Chapter five, verses seventeen through forty two,
yet again we saw opposition outside the church, and the
result was the church grew. Last week, as one through seven,
we witnessed tension and difficulty inside the church.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Again the result was the church grew.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, there's this outside, that inside, then outside, then inside,
and the pattern continues in our text today we will
see opposition to the gospel occurring outside the church. The
pattern continues, However, for the first time, there's a breaking
of the repetition within the pattern. At the end of
our text, we are not told that the church grew.
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What we are told is that the church was starting
to be destroyed by a man named Saul. We see
Stephen being murdered, and we're told that a man named
Saul began to destroy the church. So what's happening here?
Has God has his purposes finally been thwarted and sidelined?
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Is this the end of the line for the disciples?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
In actuality, We're going to see over the next few
weeks that once again, in spite of the.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Opposition God, God's will will prevail.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
He's still at work. He will make his purposes his
kingdom to move forward. At the end of our text today,
we are told the disciples.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Are forced out of Jerusalem. They are dispersed into foreign lands.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
It was that dispersal that would eventually cause the Gospel
to sort of rapidly expand to every corner of the world.
In fact, the man named Saul, who we see destroying
the church at the end of the text is going
to become extremely vitally important in that spread, he will
later be known as the Apostle Paul. He'll have a
name change and he will become the Apostle Paul. So,
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due to the longer nature of our Texas warning, we're
going to do something a little bit differently. Instead of
having sort of a typical scripture reading, I want to
set aside some time for you to read the text
on your own Stephen's words to the Sanhedrin found in
our scripture today. This is one of the longest speeches
in the entire New Testament. In fact, size the Sermon
on the Mount, this is the single largest longest speech
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in the entire New Testament. And in his address, Stephen
is answering two accusations that the Sanhedrin levies against him.
We read this in our text in Acts, chapter six,
verses twelve through thirteen, which I highlighted in red for
you on on the handouts on the table. So if
you haven't grabbed one, go ahead and grab one now.
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So in Red says they seize Stephen and brought him
before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified this
fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against
the law. So the point of Stephen's speech. What he
is trying to accomplish is addressing these charges. He is
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accused of speaking against the Temple. He's accused of speaking
against the Mosaic Law Acts seven to one the High Priests, Stephen,
are these charges true when it comes to being the
right relationship with God? Are you dismissing the importance of
the temple? Are you dismissing the importance of the Mosaic Law?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Are these charges true?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So, as you start to read the text on your own,
I want you to highlight, I want you to take notes,
I want you to underline. I want you, in your
own words, to indicate how Stephen answers these charges.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
In your own opinion.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
What does Stephen say in his own defense when it
comes to the accusation that he is speaking against the temple,
and when it comes to the accusation that he's speaking
against the law, what does Stephen say about the law
and about the temple when it comes to us being
in right relationship with God? So, after having some time
for some individual thought at our tables, we'll discuss before
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we move forward today.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So let's spend the.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Next few moments just reading the scripture on your tables
this morning. So anything worth note that your table wants
to offer just a group as a whole, Any observations,
any conversations, any pieces of interest that your table want
to say, Hey, like this is what we were talking about. Sure,
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Like that's like a rhetorical question, Like you're saying, hey,
why is this going on right here? This is something
I'm interested in knowing more about. So been saying this
is a weird detail. They're they're laying their coats at
the feet of a guy. Why is that matter that
he's like this coat taker, dude? That is certainly not
just a throwaway detail. What else other either notable things
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in your conversation, burning questions, that kind of stuff. Yeah,
I mean that this type of things that we see
that's still live and well. Right in the opposition to
different ideas, we revert to a lot of just desperation
of name calling straw man. Whether that's so that that's
this whole pattern still them well in our world today too.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Anything else? Maybe one more? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, it definitely reminds us of the Ecclesiastes that there's
nothing new under the sun, that this this stuff's been
going on the entire time. Okay, so let's let's kind
of turn our attention to taking a deep dive onto
like what's actually kind of a materializing here in the text.
Let's first zoom in on what Steven's actually saying about
the axeization that he's speaking against the temple. I think
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the most obvious and straightforward thing that Stephen says regarding
that is found in Acts chapter seven, verses forty eight
through fifty. As I saw some of you guys already
had sort of like highlighted or circled this part of
his defense, Stephen actually quotes the prophet Isaiah Isaiah sixty six.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We read this Acts seven, forty eight through fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
The most High does not live in houses made by
human hands, as the prophet says, heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
What kind of house will you build for me?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Says the Lord? Or will will my resting place be?
Has not my handmade all these things? In other words,
what Steven has sort of said, like it is a
mistake to think that God's presence, his activity, his his
will can be confined to a geographic space, to a building,
to a temple.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All of creation is God's kingdom.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He is present with his followers everywhere, and during his speech,
Stephen shows that that has always been true throughout the
history of the Hebrew people, like this is something that
has always been clearly known. A few examples he gets
from the speech is a Act seven to two. He says,
the God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham while
he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in hero
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and he's like like Abraham. Well, God was present to Abraham.
There was no temple Act seventy nine. Because the patriarchs
were jealous of Joseph. They sold him as a slave
in Egypt.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But God was with him.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Like Joseph is completely cut off from his homeland, forget
like the temple, He's not even in the homeland.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
God is there present with him. Act seven thirty through
thirty two.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
After forty years had passed, Angel appeared to Moses in
the flames of a burning bush and the desert near
Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at
that site, and he went over to get a closer look.
He heard the Lord say, I am the God of
your father's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God
is present with mos of Again, this is not occurring
within a temple. Here's Stephen's point the temple. The temple
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has a purpose, but that purpose is not to exclusively
house the presence of God. It's through the Temple that
we learn who God is, and we learn how badly
we need God to intervene in our lives, how badly
we need a savior, and through the Temple that God
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is signifying I am not far off, I am present
among you. But at the same time, because of the
set apart nature of the Temple's inner rooms, the Holy
of Holies can only be entered once a year by
the high priests. After like a lot of religious ritual
has to be there's a set apart nature.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
To the Temple as well.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So we're supposed to lot God's present, and at the
same time, there's a gulf that exists between us and God.
We're taught that in order to approach the Lord, a
sacrifice must be made in our place to eliminate the gap,
to bridge that gap. So through the Temple we're supposed
to learn that the Lord is present, and we're supposed
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to learn that the Lord is set apart. Through the temple,
we're supposed to understand our desperate need for a savior.
You see, to Stephen, the temple in and of itself
was never the point. It always pointed to Jesus. The
entire temple system, the sacrificial system of the temple, always
pointed to the ultimate sacrifice to the Lamb of God.
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The fact that the Jewish religious leaders rejected and murdered
Christ this is clear evidence that the Sanhedrin had no
real grasp on the importance of the temple. How can
they possibly think that Stephen is speaking against the temple
when they have murdered and rejected Jesus Christ, the person
the temple was pointed to the entire time. It is
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impossible for Stephen to be speaking against the temple because
he's speaking in favor of Jesus. Likewise, by rejecting Christ,
as clearly the Sanhedrin, who is speaking against the temple
in essencere Stephen's defense. Your view of God has become
so narrow and so sanitized that you don't even recognize
his presence when he stood among you in human flesh.
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God's presence and his activity cannot be confined to a building,
And for us today, I think this same idea has
to sink into our hearts. There's absolutely nothing special about
this building. We don't go to church friends, we are
the church. We are the church. We come together once
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a week in this geographic space, not because this is
the only place we can find God. We come together
because this is where we find each other. And then
we discern God's presence. We tend to God's presence in
a unique way.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
The scripture sayshere two or three are gathered there, I
am present with them. We come together so that we
can work together to tend to God's presence. We worship
the Lord with one another so that we can recognize
his presence, his activity, his mission when we come face
to face with it in our everyday lives. Here on
Sunday mornings, we're linking our lives together and worship so
that we can know and follow Jesus. So it's not
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be like the say ahedron and miss the point of
what we're doing right now.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
We are worshiping God.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Are we are agreeing that He is the most glorious,
most righteous, most amazingly loving like being in the entire universe.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We're coming together to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And the reason that we're doing that is so that
we're shaped into people who can recognize when the most glorious,
the most righteous, the most loving person is at work
in someone's heart, and that we can join him in
that work. So let's discover and discern how God is
moving in us and around us throughout the week. And
let's do that as we recenter and refuel ourselves with
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one another here on Sunday mornings. God is present and
active everywhere, so let's worship him so that we tune
ourselves into that into that truth. Let's not miss the
point like the Sanhedrin did. The temple was always pointed
to Jesus the entire time, and friends, when we come
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together on Sunday mornings, we should be pointed towards Jesus
the entire time. This isn't just something we did. Oh
I feel good about myself because I went I went
to church. No, you are the church. You are the church.
Let Sunday morning point you towards Jesus because he's the point.
Stephen is not speaking against the temple. He's speaking against
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misunderstanding the point of the temple. So that being said,
let's uom it on Stephen's words against these accusations that
he's speaking against the law. Just like with the Temple,
Stephen is not speaking against the Mosaic Law. He's speaking
against misunderstanding the point of the Mosaic Law Act seven
thirty nine through forty three. We read our ancestors refused
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to obey Moses and staid they rejected him, and in
their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They told Aaron, make us gods who will go before us.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
As for this fellow Moses, who let us out of Egypt,
we don't know what's happened to him. This was the
time that they made an idol in the form of
a calf. They brought sacrifices to it. They reveled in
what their own hands had made. But God turned away
from them and gave them over to their worship of
the Sun, the moon, and the stars. And this agrees
with what's written in the Book of the Prophets. Did
you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the
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wilderness people of Israel. No, like you've taken up the
tabernacle of Molek, the star of your God, refin the
idols that you made to worship. Therefore, I will send
you an exile beyond Babylon. It's like Steven is saying,
you keep talking about how how much that you value
the law, but you've never obeyed the law under Moses.
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You didn't obey the law under Aaron. You didn't obey
the law under the prophet Amos, who who Stephen quotes,
you didn't obey the law. Steve is saying, I'm not
speaking against the law. The law is good, the law
is right. The law does God. The problem is you
have never obeyed it and you never will. You claim
that the law is important, yet you continually violate the
law Verses fifty one and through fifty three. You stiff
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necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. That's
an interesting word. Your hearts and ears are still not
of the law. You have spiritually hard hearts. You're just
like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was
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there ever a prophet? Your ancestors didn't persecute, They even
killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.
And now you've betrayed and murdered him. You who have
received the law that was given through the angels, but
who have not obeyed it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
We can miss this detail.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
This is a very He calls Jesus the righteous one,
which is a very odd description. This is not a
description that's used very often in the New Testament, calling
Jesus the righteous one so as to be a wided
Stephen called Jesus the righteous one because this is a
description of who he is when compared to the law.
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To be righteous is to be on the right side
of the law. Means you've done what's correct. What the
law requires. To be righteous is to be on the
right side of the law.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
He did. Jesus did everything the Mosaic law required. He
perfectly loved God, and he perfectly loved others. Jesus fulfilled
the law.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
More than that, he fulfilled on our behalf by becoming
the ultimate sacrifice that the temple pointed to the entire time.
Jesus traded us places, He fulfilled the law, and then
gave us his own perfection by taking our sins upon himself.
So Jesus perfectly embodied everything that the Sanhedrin claimed was important,
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and they rejected him at the same time. And this
lack of congruence is Stephen's point throughout this speech. You
claim one thing, and yet you live and act in
a completely different way. You claim the value of the law,
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yet you never uphold it. And what's worse, you've missed
the entire purpose of it. The purpose of the law
has always been pointing to our need for a savior.
See the fascinating thing is that Stephen's his words, his point.
These are remarkably similar to what the apostle Paul would
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later teach the Galatian Church Galatians three nineteen through twenty five.
We read this, Why then was the law given? It
was given alongside the promise to show people their sins,
But the law was designed to last only until the
coming of the savior who was promised. So is there
a conflict then, between God's law and God's promises? Absolutely not.
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If the law could give us new life, we could
be made right with God by obeying it, But the
scriptures declare that we are.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
All prisoners of sins.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So we have received God's promise of freedom only by
believing in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Until Christ came. It protected us until we could be
made right with God through faith. And now that the
way of faith has come. We no longer need the
laws our guardians. Here's something that I have completely missed
my entire life before studying for this message. As Ben
already mentioned, this is a weird detail. They're laying their
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coats or at this at the feet of this man
named Saul. What that basically means is that we know
we know that the apostle Paul was there.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Listening.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Paul was hearing these words of Stephen Acts seven fifty
eight through sixty. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at
the feet of a young man named Saul.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
While they were stoning him.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Stevehn prayed Lord Jesus received my spirit that he fell
on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold
this sin against him. When he had said this, he
fell asleep, and Saul approved of their killing. So it
wasn't just like Saul was there. Saul was like, yeah,
I got your coats, guys, you go do this, and
he's like, yep, I think this is really good what
we're doing right now. So here An acts the question,
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because where did Luke hear about this speech from Stephen?
Luke is probably recording this detailed and lengthy speech the
second most detailed and lengthy speech and the entire New Testament.
He's probably recording these as Paul is telling him about it.
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Paul must have remembered these words in such great detail
he probably couldn't get them out of his mind. They
were probably burned into his psyche. Stephen's words had to
have cut him to the heart, shook his very foundation.
What that means is that Paul's theology was more than
likely heavily influenced by Stephen. That's why we see Paul
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teaching and expanding on Stephen's ideas in the churches that
he would let her later start in Shephard. These words
that we read in Galatians, these are just Stephen's ideas
fleshed out and expanded on. And here's why I'm so
encouraged by this. Stephen plays a somewhat minor role in
the entirety of the biblical arc. He doesn't get a
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whole lot of screen time, yet his influence is profound. Friends,
do you understand what that says about you? You have
no idea when you go out of your way to
love that person that you'd rather not love right now.
You have no idea that your patience, your challenging words
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to someone, your forgiveness, your insight, your encouragement, your presence.
You have no idea how important and far reaching those
things could become in the grand scheme of God's kingdom.
To you, they might seem like that's not a really
big detail, but they could be profoundly important. Your life,
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your worship, your obedience, your sacrifice, those things will never
be inconsequential. In the hands of the Lord. God can
and will use you in profound ways. God can and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Will reveal his heart towards you.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He will continually affirm that you matter to him, You
matter to His kingdom. This is what we see clearly
happening with Stephen in the last moments of his life.
Here in our text, Act seven fifty six. Another interesting
detail that's easy to miss look Stephen said, I see
heaven open and the sun a man standing at the
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right hand of God. Normally, in the New Testament, when
we are showing a glimpse of the heavenly throne room,
Jesus is all but one time depicted as seated at
the right hand of God, symbolizing it's finished. Jake actually
read from Ephesians. We saw that in there. There's only
one time and the entire New Testament that Jesus is
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not depicted as seated.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
At the right hand of God.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
This in our text today Hebrews one three, we said,
we see, after he had provided purifications for sins, Jesus
sat down at the right hand of them, majesty in
heaven Mark sixteen nineteen. The Lord Jesus, after he'd spoken
to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat
down at the right hand of God. Ephesians one twenty,
that Jake read for us. Already God raised Christ from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places Colossians three to one. If then you
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have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
This is the only time in the entire New Testment
that Jesus has depicted in the heavenly thrown room as standing.
So why seeing those days in first century Palestine, the
throne room of the king would also serve as the
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court room. This is where the king would decide the
fate of people. For us in America, that's an easy
detail to sort of gloss over because we have this
separation of power.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
We have the judicial brands, we have the executive branch.
So it's easy for us to sort of miss this imagery.
Why is Jesus standing, what's that signify? He's standing because
he's advocating, he's making his case. He's appealing to the
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Lord for the sake of Stephen. Stephen is of me,
He's one of mine. Father, you cannot find him guilty
because there's no more sacrifice that needs to be made,
There's no more payment. Because what I've done. Stephen is free.
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He has already been redeemed. He is already whole. I've
paid the price for a sin. Therefore, Father, for you
to condemn him, it would be unjust. As the apostle
Paul would later write, probably influenced by Stephen, Romans eight
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to one, there is now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ. Jesus case dismissed. That's the case that
Christ is making on behalf of Stephen. That's why he's
standing before the throne. There's no condemination for Stephen. He's
in me. Theologian F. F. Bruce puts it this way,
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as Stephen was confessing Jesus to the Sanhedrin, he saw
Jesus confessing Stephen to the heavenly Father. In other words,
as the earthly courtroom was condemning Stephen to death, he
sees a picture of a heavenly courtroom where he's being
commended to eternal life by Christ.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And Jesus.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Stephen saw that the entire law was already fulfilled for him.
He wasn't speaking against the law. He was proclaiming that
because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the law
one hundred percent fulfilled. The purpose of the law was
appointed to Jesus the entire time. To friends, here's what
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I hope move from your head to your heart this morning.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's finished. It is finished. The Lord Jesus has done.
He's done it all. He's done it all for you.
You don't need to.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Accomplish a single thing to be worthy of him. Yet,
everything that you do for the Lord, these things will
radiate and ripple out.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
They will have.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Profound and lasting and impact in his kingdom. You don't
need to accomplish anything, yet, through the finished work of
Jesus Christ, you are freed to accomplish so much more
than you'd never dare to dream. You don't need to
accomplish anything, but you are freed to accomplish more than
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you'd ever dare to dream.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You are a whole, You are right. It is finished.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You matter more than you'll ever know, you are safe
more than you'll ever know, you are loved more than
you'll ever know. And it's through that you are free
to accomplish for God's kingdom more than you'll ever know.
So in a moment, we're gonna remind ourselves of that truth,
the truth of Jesus's love and sacrifice. When we take
the Lord's table together and we take communion, We're gonna
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eat the bread and drink the juice to affirm what
we believe is true, to help move from our head
to our heart this truth. You matter more than you'll
ever know, You are safe more than you'll ever know.
You were loved more than you'll ever know.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Through Jesus, it is finished.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
From that posture, we can serve the Lord and build
his church regardless of our circumstances. So nothing, friends, can
thwart God's purposes for you, and nothing can thwart his
purposes for his kingdom. So as we're closing our time
of teaching, let's pause and pray.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
God, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Loving us so much more profoundly than we could ever
that we could ever imagine in our minds. Thank You
for not only creating us, but being mindful of us,
from knowing us intimately. Thank you for attending to us.
Thank you for being present with us. Thank you that
through Jesus Christ, no gap exists. Thank you for the
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gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that we have access
to all the time. Lord, help us to accept that
through your son is finished. Jesus, help us to accept
that through your work it is finished. And help that
the motivate us all the more to join you in
building your kingdom. So we love you, we thank you
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so You're precious and holy name. I pray Amen.
So last week we spoke about how the Bible uses
repetition as a literary device in order to help us
progress from knowing the gospel to believing the gospel. The Bible,
we learned, often repeats itself to help move things from
our head into our hearts. At our time of studying
the Book of Acts here on Sunday mornings, we've seen
(00:22):
this very thing unfolding. In Acts chapter four, verses one
through twenty two, we saw that there was opposition to
the church that was boiling up from outside. There was
external opposition, and then we were told the result of
that was that the church grew. After that, in Acts
chapter five, verses one through eleven, we saw tension and
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difficulty inside the church, and as they navigated that, the
church grew. Acts Chapter five, verses seventeen through forty two,
yet again we saw opposition outside the church, and the
result was the church grew. Last week, as one through seven,
we witnessed tension and difficulty inside the church.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Again the result was the church grew.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Right, there's this outside, that inside, then outside, then inside,
and the pattern continues in our text today we will
see opposition to the gospel occurring outside the church. The
pattern continues, However, for the first time, there's a breaking
of the repetition within the pattern. At the end of
our text, we are not told that the church grew.
(01:28):
What we are told is that the church was starting
to be destroyed by a man named Saul. We see
Stephen being murdered, and we're told that a man named
Saul began to destroy the church. So what's happening here?
Has God has his purposes finally been thwarted and sidelined?
(01:50):
Is this the end of the line for the disciples?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
In actuality, We're going to see over the next few
weeks that once again, in spite of the.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Opposition God, God's will will prevail.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
He's still at work. He will make his purposes his
kingdom to move forward. At the end of our text today,
we are told the disciples.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Are forced out of Jerusalem. They are dispersed into foreign lands.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
It was that dispersal that would eventually cause the Gospel
to sort of rapidly expand to every corner of the world.
In fact, the man named Saul, who we see destroying
the church at the end of the text is going
to become extremely vitally important in that spread, he will
later be known as the Apostle Paul. He'll have a
name change and he will become the Apostle Paul. So,
(02:41):
due to the longer nature of our Texas warning, we're
going to do something a little bit differently. Instead of
having sort of a typical scripture reading, I want to
set aside some time for you to read the text
on your own Stephen's words to the Sanhedrin found in
our scripture today. This is one of the longest speeches
in the entire New Testament. In fact, size the Sermon
on the Mount, this is the single largest longest speech
(03:05):
in the entire New Testament. And in his address, Stephen
is answering two accusations that the Sanhedrin levies against him.
We read this in our text in Acts, chapter six,
verses twelve through thirteen, which I highlighted in red for
you on on the handouts on the table. So if
you haven't grabbed one, go ahead and grab one now.
(03:26):
So in Red says they seize Stephen and brought him
before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified this
fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against
the law. So the point of Stephen's speech. What he
is trying to accomplish is addressing these charges. He is
(03:46):
accused of speaking against the Temple. He's accused of speaking
against the Mosaic Law Acts seven to one the High Priests, Stephen,
are these charges true when it comes to being the
right relationship with God? Are you dismissing the importance of
the temple? Are you dismissing the importance of the Mosaic Law?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Are these charges true?
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So, as you start to read the text on your own,
I want you to highlight, I want you to take notes,
I want you to underline. I want you, in your
own words, to indicate how Stephen answers these charges.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
In your own opinion.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
What does Stephen say in his own defense when it
comes to the accusation that he is speaking against the temple,
and when it comes to the accusation that he's speaking
against the law, what does Stephen say about the law
and about the temple when it comes to us being
in right relationship with God? So, after having some time
for some individual thought at our tables, we'll discuss before
(04:43):
we move forward today.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So let's spend the.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Next few moments just reading the scripture on your tables
this morning. So anything worth note that your table wants
to offer just a group as a whole, Any observations,
any conversations, any pieces of interest that your table want
to say, Hey, like this is what we were talking about. Sure,
(05:16):
Like that's like a rhetorical question, Like you're saying, hey,
why is this going on right here? This is something
I'm interested in knowing more about. So been saying this
is a weird detail. They're they're laying their coats at
the feet of a guy. Why is that matter that
he's like this coat taker, dude? That is certainly not
just a throwaway detail. What else other either notable things
(05:39):
in your conversation, burning questions, that kind of stuff. Yeah,
I mean that this type of things that we see
that's still live and well. Right in the opposition to
different ideas, we revert to a lot of just desperation
of name calling straw man. Whether that's so that that's
this whole pattern still them well in our world today too.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Anything else? Maybe one more? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, it definitely reminds us of the Ecclesiastes that there's
nothing new under the sun, that this this stuff's been
going on the entire time. Okay, so let's let's kind
of turn our attention to taking a deep dive onto
like what's actually kind of a materializing here in the text.
Let's first zoom in on what Steven's actually saying about
the axeization that he's speaking against the temple. I think
(06:27):
the most obvious and straightforward thing that Stephen says regarding
that is found in Acts chapter seven, verses forty eight
through fifty. As I saw some of you guys already
had sort of like highlighted or circled this part of
his defense, Stephen actually quotes the prophet Isaiah Isaiah sixty six.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We read this Acts seven, forty eight through fifty.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
The most High does not live in houses made by
human hands, as the prophet says, heaven is my throne,
the earth is my footstool.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
What kind of house will you build for me?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Says the Lord? Or will will my resting place be?
Has not my handmade all these things? In other words,
what Steven has sort of said, like it is a
mistake to think that God's presence, his activity, his his
will can be confined to a geographic space, to a building,
to a temple.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All of creation is God's kingdom.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He is present with his followers everywhere, and during his speech,
Stephen shows that that has always been true throughout the
history of the Hebrew people, like this is something that
has always been clearly known. A few examples he gets
from the speech is a Act seven to two. He says,
the God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham while
he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in hero
(07:33):
and he's like like Abraham. Well, God was present to Abraham.
There was no temple Act seventy nine. Because the patriarchs
were jealous of Joseph. They sold him as a slave
in Egypt.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But God was with him.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Like Joseph is completely cut off from his homeland, forget
like the temple, He's not even in the homeland.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
God is there present with him. Act seven thirty through
thirty two.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
After forty years had passed, Angel appeared to Moses in
the flames of a burning bush and the desert near
Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at
that site, and he went over to get a closer look.
He heard the Lord say, I am the God of
your father's the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God
is present with mos of Again, this is not occurring
within a temple. Here's Stephen's point the temple. The temple
(08:20):
has a purpose, but that purpose is not to exclusively
house the presence of God. It's through the Temple that
we learn who God is, and we learn how badly
we need God to intervene in our lives, how badly
we need a savior, and through the Temple that God
(08:41):
is signifying I am not far off, I am present
among you. But at the same time, because of the
set apart nature of the Temple's inner rooms, the Holy
of Holies can only be entered once a year by
the high priests. After like a lot of religious ritual
has to be there's a set apart nature.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
To the Temple as well.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So we're supposed to lot God's present, and at the
same time, there's a gulf that exists between us and God.
We're taught that in order to approach the Lord, a
sacrifice must be made in our place to eliminate the gap,
to bridge that gap. So through the Temple we're supposed
to learn that the Lord is present, and we're supposed
(09:20):
to learn that the Lord is set apart. Through the temple,
we're supposed to understand our desperate need for a savior.
You see, to Stephen, the temple in and of itself
was never the point. It always pointed to Jesus. The
entire temple system, the sacrificial system of the temple, always
pointed to the ultimate sacrifice to the Lamb of God.
(09:42):
The fact that the Jewish religious leaders rejected and murdered
Christ this is clear evidence that the Sanhedrin had no
real grasp on the importance of the temple. How can
they possibly think that Stephen is speaking against the temple
when they have murdered and rejected Jesus Christ, the person
the temple was pointed to the entire time. It is
(10:04):
impossible for Stephen to be speaking against the temple because
he's speaking in favor of Jesus. Likewise, by rejecting Christ,
as clearly the Sanhedrin, who is speaking against the temple
in essencere Stephen's defense. Your view of God has become
so narrow and so sanitized that you don't even recognize
his presence when he stood among you in human flesh.
(10:27):
God's presence and his activity cannot be confined to a building,
And for us today, I think this same idea has
to sink into our hearts. There's absolutely nothing special about
this building. We don't go to church friends, we are
the church. We are the church. We come together once
(10:52):
a week in this geographic space, not because this is
the only place we can find God. We come together
because this is where we find each other. And then
we discern God's presence. We tend to God's presence in
a unique way.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
We know.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
The scripture sayshere two or three are gathered there, I
am present with them. We come together so that we
can work together to tend to God's presence. We worship
the Lord with one another so that we can recognize
his presence, his activity, his mission when we come face
to face with it in our everyday lives. Here on
Sunday mornings, we're linking our lives together and worship so
that we can know and follow Jesus. So it's not
(11:31):
be like the say ahedron and miss the point of
what we're doing right now.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
We are worshiping God.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Are we are agreeing that He is the most glorious,
most righteous, most amazingly loving like being in the entire universe.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
We're coming together to do that.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And the reason that we're doing that is so that
we're shaped into people who can recognize when the most glorious,
the most righteous, the most loving person is at work
in someone's heart, and that we can join him in
that work. So let's discover and discern how God is
moving in us and around us throughout the week. And
let's do that as we recenter and refuel ourselves with
(12:09):
one another here on Sunday mornings. God is present and
active everywhere, so let's worship him so that we tune
ourselves into that into that truth. Let's not miss the
point like the Sanhedrin did. The temple was always pointed
to Jesus the entire time, and friends, when we come
(12:29):
together on Sunday mornings, we should be pointed towards Jesus
the entire time. This isn't just something we did. Oh
I feel good about myself because I went I went
to church. No, you are the church. You are the church.
Let Sunday morning point you towards Jesus because he's the point.
Stephen is not speaking against the temple. He's speaking against
(12:51):
misunderstanding the point of the temple. So that being said,
let's uom it on Stephen's words against these accusations that
he's speaking against the law. Just like with the Temple,
Stephen is not speaking against the Mosaic Law. He's speaking
against misunderstanding the point of the Mosaic Law Act seven
thirty nine through forty three. We read our ancestors refused
(13:13):
to obey Moses and staid they rejected him, and in
their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
They told Aaron, make us gods who will go before us.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
As for this fellow Moses, who let us out of Egypt,
we don't know what's happened to him. This was the
time that they made an idol in the form of
a calf. They brought sacrifices to it. They reveled in
what their own hands had made. But God turned away
from them and gave them over to their worship of
the Sun, the moon, and the stars. And this agrees
with what's written in the Book of the Prophets. Did
you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the
(13:42):
wilderness people of Israel. No, like you've taken up the
tabernacle of Molek, the star of your God, refin the
idols that you made to worship. Therefore, I will send
you an exile beyond Babylon. It's like Steven is saying,
you keep talking about how how much that you value
the law, but you've never obeyed the law under Moses.
(14:03):
You didn't obey the law under Aaron. You didn't obey
the law under the prophet Amos, who who Stephen quotes,
you didn't obey the law. Steve is saying, I'm not
speaking against the law. The law is good, the law
is right. The law does God. The problem is you
have never obeyed it and you never will. You claim
that the law is important, yet you continually violate the
law Verses fifty one and through fifty three. You stiff
(14:28):
necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. That's
an interesting word. Your hearts and ears are still not
of the law. You have spiritually hard hearts. You're just
like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was
(14:51):
there ever a prophet? Your ancestors didn't persecute, They even
killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One.
And now you've betrayed and murdered him. You who have
received the law that was given through the angels, but
who have not obeyed it is interesting.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
We can miss this detail.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
This is a very He calls Jesus the righteous one,
which is a very odd description. This is not a
description that's used very often in the New Testament, calling
Jesus the righteous one so as to be a wided
Stephen called Jesus the righteous one because this is a
description of who he is when compared to the law.
(15:30):
To be righteous is to be on the right side
of the law. Means you've done what's correct. What the
law requires. To be righteous is to be on the
right side of the law.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
He did. Jesus did everything the Mosaic law required. He
perfectly loved God, and he perfectly loved others. Jesus fulfilled
the law.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
More than that, he fulfilled on our behalf by becoming
the ultimate sacrifice that the temple pointed to the entire time.
Jesus traded us places, He fulfilled the law, and then
gave us his own perfection by taking our sins upon himself.
So Jesus perfectly embodied everything that the Sanhedrin claimed was important,
(16:15):
and they rejected him at the same time. And this
lack of congruence is Stephen's point throughout this speech. You
claim one thing, and yet you live and act in
a completely different way. You claim the value of the law,
(16:36):
yet you never uphold it. And what's worse, you've missed
the entire purpose of it. The purpose of the law
has always been pointing to our need for a savior.
See the fascinating thing is that Stephen's his words, his point.
These are remarkably similar to what the apostle Paul would
(16:59):
later teach the Galatian Church Galatians three nineteen through twenty five.
We read this, Why then was the law given? It
was given alongside the promise to show people their sins,
But the law was designed to last only until the
coming of the savior who was promised. So is there
a conflict then, between God's law and God's promises? Absolutely not.
(17:19):
If the law could give us new life, we could
be made right with God by obeying it, But the
scriptures declare that we are.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
All prisoners of sins.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
So we have received God's promise of freedom only by
believing in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Until Christ came. It protected us until we could be
made right with God through faith. And now that the
way of faith has come. We no longer need the
laws our guardians. Here's something that I have completely missed
my entire life before studying for this message. As Ben
already mentioned, this is a weird detail. They're laying their
(17:55):
coats or at this at the feet of this man
named Saul. What that basically means is that we know
we know that the apostle Paul was there.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Listening.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Paul was hearing these words of Stephen Acts seven fifty
eight through sixty. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at
the feet of a young man named Saul.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
While they were stoning him.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Stevehn prayed Lord Jesus received my spirit that he fell
on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold
this sin against him. When he had said this, he
fell asleep, and Saul approved of their killing. So it
wasn't just like Saul was there. Saul was like, yeah,
I got your coats, guys, you go do this, and
he's like, yep, I think this is really good what
we're doing right now. So here An acts the question,
(18:43):
because where did Luke hear about this speech from Stephen?
Luke is probably recording this detailed and lengthy speech the
second most detailed and lengthy speech and the entire New Testament.
He's probably recording these as Paul is telling him about it.
(19:06):
Paul must have remembered these words in such great detail
he probably couldn't get them out of his mind. They
were probably burned into his psyche. Stephen's words had to
have cut him to the heart, shook his very foundation.
What that means is that Paul's theology was more than
likely heavily influenced by Stephen. That's why we see Paul
(19:31):
teaching and expanding on Stephen's ideas in the churches that
he would let her later start in Shephard. These words
that we read in Galatians, these are just Stephen's ideas
fleshed out and expanded on. And here's why I'm so
encouraged by this. Stephen plays a somewhat minor role in
the entirety of the biblical arc. He doesn't get a
(19:52):
whole lot of screen time, yet his influence is profound. Friends,
do you understand what that says about you? You have
no idea when you go out of your way to
love that person that you'd rather not love right now.
You have no idea that your patience, your challenging words
(20:15):
to someone, your forgiveness, your insight, your encouragement, your presence.
You have no idea how important and far reaching those
things could become in the grand scheme of God's kingdom.
To you, they might seem like that's not a really
big detail, but they could be profoundly important. Your life,
(20:40):
your worship, your obedience, your sacrifice, those things will never
be inconsequential. In the hands of the Lord. God can
and will use you in profound ways. God can and.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Will reveal his heart towards you.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
He will continually affirm that you matter to him, You
matter to His kingdom. This is what we see clearly
happening with Stephen in the last moments of his life.
Here in our text, Act seven fifty six. Another interesting
detail that's easy to miss look Stephen said, I see
heaven open and the sun a man standing at the
(21:25):
right hand of God. Normally, in the New Testament, when
we are showing a glimpse of the heavenly throne room,
Jesus is all but one time depicted as seated at
the right hand of God, symbolizing it's finished. Jake actually
read from Ephesians. We saw that in there. There's only
one time and the entire New Testament that Jesus is
(21:49):
not depicted as seated.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
At the right hand of God.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
This in our text today Hebrews one three, we said,
we see, after he had provided purifications for sins, Jesus
sat down at the right hand of them, majesty in
heaven Mark sixteen nineteen. The Lord Jesus, after he'd spoken
to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat
down at the right hand of God. Ephesians one twenty,
that Jake read for us. Already God raised Christ from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places Colossians three to one. If then you
(22:14):
have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
This is the only time in the entire New Testment
that Jesus has depicted in the heavenly thrown room as standing.
So why seeing those days in first century Palestine, the
throne room of the king would also serve as the
(22:34):
court room. This is where the king would decide the
fate of people. For us in America, that's an easy
detail to sort of gloss over because we have this
separation of power.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
We have the judicial brands, we have the executive branch.
So it's easy for us to sort of miss this imagery.
Why is Jesus standing, what's that signify? He's standing because
he's advocating, he's making his case. He's appealing to the
(23:05):
Lord for the sake of Stephen. Stephen is of me,
He's one of mine. Father, you cannot find him guilty
because there's no more sacrifice that needs to be made,
There's no more payment. Because what I've done. Stephen is free.
(23:31):
He has already been redeemed. He is already whole. I've
paid the price for a sin. Therefore, Father, for you
to condemn him, it would be unjust. As the apostle
Paul would later write, probably influenced by Stephen, Romans eight
(23:51):
to one, there is now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ. Jesus case dismissed. That's the case that
Christ is making on behalf of Stephen. That's why he's
standing before the throne. There's no condemination for Stephen. He's
in me. Theologian F. F. Bruce puts it this way,
(24:16):
as Stephen was confessing Jesus to the Sanhedrin, he saw
Jesus confessing Stephen to the heavenly Father. In other words,
as the earthly courtroom was condemning Stephen to death, he
sees a picture of a heavenly courtroom where he's being
commended to eternal life by Christ.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
And Jesus.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Stephen saw that the entire law was already fulfilled for him.
He wasn't speaking against the law. He was proclaiming that
because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, the law
one hundred percent fulfilled. The purpose of the law was
appointed to Jesus the entire time. To friends, here's what
(24:59):
I hope move from your head to your heart this morning.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's finished. It is finished. The Lord Jesus has done.
He's done it all. He's done it all for you.
You don't need to.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Accomplish a single thing to be worthy of him. Yet,
everything that you do for the Lord, these things will
radiate and ripple out.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
They will have.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Profound and lasting and impact in his kingdom. You don't
need to accomplish anything, yet, through the finished work of
Jesus Christ, you are freed to accomplish so much more
than you'd never dare to dream. You don't need to
accomplish anything, but you are freed to accomplish more than
(25:47):
you'd ever dare to dream.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You are a whole, You are right. It is finished.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
You matter more than you'll ever know, you are safe
more than you'll ever know, you are loved more than
you'll ever know. And it's through that you are free
to accomplish for God's kingdom more than you'll ever know.
So in a moment, we're gonna remind ourselves of that truth,
the truth of Jesus's love and sacrifice. When we take
the Lord's table together and we take communion, We're gonna
(26:17):
eat the bread and drink the juice to affirm what
we believe is true, to help move from our head
to our heart this truth. You matter more than you'll
ever know, You are safe more than you'll ever know.
You were loved more than you'll ever know.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Through Jesus, it is finished.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
From that posture, we can serve the Lord and build
his church regardless of our circumstances. So nothing, friends, can
thwart God's purposes for you, and nothing can thwart his
purposes for his kingdom. So as we're closing our time
of teaching, let's pause and pray.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
God, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Loving us so much more profoundly than we could ever
that we could ever imagine in our minds. Thank You
for not only creating us, but being mindful of us,
from knowing us intimately. Thank you for attending to us.
Thank you for being present with us. Thank you that
through Jesus Christ, no gap exists. Thank you for the
(27:22):
gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that we have access
to all the time. Lord, help us to accept that
through your son is finished. Jesus, help us to accept
that through your work it is finished. And help that
the motivate us all the more to join you in
building your kingdom. So we love you, we thank you
(27:47):
so You're precious and holy name. I pray Amen.
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