Acts 6:8-8:3 | Battling Unbelief

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I have the distinct privilege, I guess, of preaching a sermon on a sermon.

Stephen preached a sermon, and I get to preach a sermon on Stephen's sermon.

And I've wrestled with how to approach this material.

And I think the best path forward is to approach it by addressing two questions.

What and how?

Actually, not so much the how, more why.

Why.

This section on Stephen is so long and so complex that it's easy to read without grasping what's happening.

So the first step is to answer what's happening.

Why does Stephen go into this lengthy rebuttal to these challenges before the synagogue rulers, before Israel's rulers?

What is he doing there?

Obviously, he's doing something because the end result makes them angry enough to kill him.

The second step may be more complex than the first.

Because Luke recorded the history of the early church here and shows us the difficulties and the obstacles that the church faced in its early years.

But do we know why?

Do we know why Luke included these things?

On the one hand, the answer to that is yes.

If you go back to the beginning of Luke's gospel in Luke chapter 1, verses 1, 2, 3, and 4, he tells the man by the name of Theophilus, I'm writing these things so that your faith will be strengthened, so that it will be confirmed, and that your faith will be firm in the things in which you've been taught.

Luke 1:1

But if we dig a little bit deeper and we ask, why this one?

Why this account about Stephen, other than just the pure historical value that Stephen's the first martyr, why would Luke include this?

Of course, we can't adequately answer the why without knowing the what.

We have to know what is happening to be able to answer why it's there.

Luke recounts the reality of Jewish faith and religion.

Jewish faith and religion in the first century were grounded in the law of Moses, in the temple, and in their tradition.

All three components are right here in our text.

The new Christian faith that's burgeoning, bursting at the seams, thousands coming to faith in Christ in the city and region of Jerusalem did not perfectly fit with the typical Jewish expectations.

So Stephen naturally draws attention with his impactful ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Twice we're told that he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

We're told that he's a wise man.

And in his speaking and in his ministry, he's confounding those who oppose him.

Much like another man named Paul, who will come a little bit later.

So the only option left to the opposition is the same tact that they took against the Lord Jesus.

They have to establish false witnesses who make false claims before a council that can make decisions.

And the end result is that he dies.

This entire section, though, is about Jesus' work.

These are God's acts.

The risen Christ at the right hand of God the Father is acting in his world to accomplish his purpose and to build his kingdom.

He is expanding his kingdom beyond Jerusalem, beyond the temple, and ultimately beyond Judea to the ends of the earth.

But that flew in the face of the Jewish traditions.

And the continuing implication is that if people do not listen to Jesus, then they're not going to listen to Stephen.

And if they don't listen to Jesus and they don't listen to Stephen, and they don't listen to Paul and they don't listen to Peter, do we really think they will listen to us?

If they reject Jesus and they reject Stephen and they reject Paul, will we be accepted?

The charge is in chapter six, verse eleven.

Stephen is charged with speaking against Moses and God.

That's a sweeping, sweeping blanket statement.

Covers everything.

But the text continues on by narrowing the specificity.

As he's brought before the council, false witnesses claim that he continually spoke against the temple and the law in verse 13 of chapter 6.

Then it gets more specific, saying that he was declaring that this man named Jesus would destroy the temple and change their Mosaic traditions.

So if we work backwards, the very specific pinpoint charge is he's speaking against our temple and against our traditions.

If you take a step back, that means he's speaking against the law of Moses.

And if you take a step back from that, it means he's speaking against our God.

That's the charge.

So you can see then that this is not merely about Stephen.

It's about Stephen's message.

More specifically, it's about the person Stephen speaks about.

And so all of chapter 7 contains Stephen's rebuttal, his defense, if you will.

This is a lengthy recounting of Israel's history.

And there are different ways to approach this, but I think it's most helpful to grasp how Stephen points to specific people that represent periods in Israel's history.

As we were reading through, you probably picked up him speaking about Abraham and Joseph and the patriarchs and Moses and David.

He's speaking about people that represent time periods pointing to how God worked.

Remember, Acts is about God's acts.

And Stephen recounts God's acts in ancient Israel all the way from the time of Abraham right down to the time of Jesus.

He starts with Abraham and he ends with Jesus.

So the people and the periods that Stephen highlights make it, I think, simple for us to consider because they encompass God's relational covenants with his people.

So, for example, we have the Abrahamic covenant dealing with Abraham and Joseph.

We have the Mosaic, or more properly, the Sinatic covenant made at the Mount Sinai, with Moses and the law being introduced to guide the relationship between God and his people.

We have the Davidic covenant with the institution of David as king and the bringing together of the kingship of the Davidic line and the temple that was the symbol of that rule.

And then at the very end, we get to a new covenant.

So Stephen's rebuttal is an overview of history from a theological perspective.

In other words, it teaches us not about Israel's history, but about what God did.

And Stephen is now responding with an overview of biblical theology from the time of Israel's beginning to the time of the coming and sacrifice of Christ.

Let's start then at the very beginning, just to review this and see what theological truths is Stephen gathering from Scripture.

First, we see, beginning in chapter 7, in verse 2 through verse 16, we see that geography did not restrict God's presence and work during the time of Abraham and the patriarchs and Joseph, that Abrahamic covenant relationship.

How do we know that?

How do we see that?

Well, two geographical locations stand out in this first section of Stephen's speech.

First, Stephen begins with God calling Abraham while he lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, of the Babylonians, as an idol worshiper.

That's in Mesopotamia, modern Iran and Iraq.

So God is working outside of the promised land, outside of Palestine, in that territory, in a different country, in a different region, in a pagan world, among Gentile idol worshipers.

Later, God sent Joseph into a Gentile context in Egypt.

Why?

To bring about God's salvation of his people.

You see, Stephen argues that God's work and his presence in time and place cannot be restricted to Jerusalem or even to the Jerusalem temple.

Jewish history proves that.

God worked through his chosen people in Gentile regions among Gentile peoples.

Most of you may be able to relate to this in some way or another.

Well, guess what?

He also worked in my life across the state line in Montana.

And then in Missouri and Wisconsin, and now back in North Dakota.

God isn't restricted to geographical locations.

Isn't that part of why we send missionaries?

Because we know that God transcends time and space, and he is not restricted or confined to any particular place.

God chose Abraham and Joseph to be his instruments and his messengers.

And God did that work outside of the boundaries of the promised land, outside of Jerusalem, outside of the temple.

Abraham left his family, but Joseph was rejected by his family.

God's presence with Joseph and his working out of his purpose through Joseph is evident here, but also in Genesis.

God was with Joseph.

The text in Genesis repeats that again and again.

God was with Joseph when he was in Potiphar's house.

God was with Joseph when he was in prison.

God was with Joseph when he was in Pharaoh's household.

God was with Joseph as he was guiding the recouping of food sources to save Egypt and Israel.

But through most of that time, Joseph was rejected by his own family.

Notice verse 9 of chapter 7, Stephen says, and the patriarchs, our fathers, were jealous of Joseph.

And they sold him into Egypt, but God was with him.

Joseph was sent away to Gentile Egypt, and he became their savior when he was reunited with his family.

Understand the parallel here.

Stephen is what Acts calls a Hellenistic Jew.

That means he has a Greek background.

He's not from Israel.

He's Jewish ethnically, but he was raised somewhere else, learned another language as his heart language, and has now returned to his homeland, to Israel, to minister to his people.

He's like Joseph.

God is working through him, sending him away, now bringing him again to his people to bring salvation to them, but he is not received by his own.

In that way, the Jewish people and the leaders of the Jewish people fill the spot of Joseph's brothers.

They're like the patriarchs who cannot see God's hand at work and who reject their brother.

So Stephen takes his people back to the beginning of God's covenant with them to show them that God isn't limited to a temple.

God isn't even limited to a city.

God isn't even limited to a country or a particular ethnic people group.

Scripture and God's program proves that God transcends time and space and human traditions.

It's a good reminder to us, friends.

He is not limited to the walls of our buildings.

God is not limited or confined by the styles of our worship.

God is not limited or confined by who we are.

So we have to be careful to not fall into the trap of the Jews opposing Stephen, where we somehow confine God, put him in a box of sorts, and say he has to function in this box the way we expect him to, because that's where he belongs.

No, your Old Testament, if you read it properly, shows God is beyond the box.

He is transcendent, he is above all.

And he works in all different kinds of situations and time and place.

As we move on from the Abrahamic covenant to the Cyanadic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, we see there that Israel rejected God's presence and work through Moses.

They ought to have known, they ought to have seen that God was working.

He did all of those miraculous things in Egypt.

He brought them powerfully out of Egypt, but they rejected him.

Stephen here is building on his case about God's presence and work.

He's amplifying it.

So with Moses beginning in verse 17, God continued to work outside the boundaries of the promised land.

He's working in Egypt, where Israel was enslaved.

We might think that because God's people were enslaved, that that somehow limits God from working.

No, that's not the case at all because God said 400 years earlier, that's going to happen.

It's part of my plan, it's part of my program.

God brought them out of Egypt, where they wandered in the wilderness desert, where there was only a movable tent for worship.

So yet again, God is not contained to a space or a place.

He worked among pagan Gentiles, and his place of worship moved from place to place to place.

But Stephen expands on that argument.

He reminds his accusers that even though God chose Moses, protected him, called him, and empowered him, the people still rejected him.

He was God's chosen prophet, but verse 39 and verse 35 tell us he was rejected.

Stephen shows how God is with his people each step of the way.

And if scriptures were written about our lives, we could look at scripture and show how God is with us each step of the way.

He's not limited to where we are or where we might be.

God then sent Moses out of Egypt into the Sinai Desert.

So he's called them from Mesopotamia with Abraham to Canaan, to Egypt in the south.

Now from Egypt going east to the Arabian desert, sending Moses away for 40 years.

Where suddenly God appears in a burning bush of all things.

God then called Israel out of Egypt, giving Moses to them as a ruler and a redeemer.

He had Moses schooled in the most pagan education of the time to prepare him for God's use.

In similar ways, God can use men like Stephen who didn't grow up in Israel, were not schooled under the Sanhedrin, who learned a different language, but who proclaimed salvation to their people.

God is not limited to places, traditions, or human structures.

Now, notice how Stephen relates Israel's rejection of God to this.

It began with their rejection of Moses.

God chose and sent Moses in verse 34.

He sent Moses as a redeemer and ruler in verse 35, but they rejected him, who made you a ruler over us, right?

He sent Moses as a prophet in verse 37.

But ultimately, Israel rejects Moses.

They reject the word of God in verses 38 and 39.

They refuse to obey him.

They thrust him aside, and they ultimately reject God Himself by sacrificing to idols in verse 41.

God is with them wherever they go, he's leading them wherever they go, but they say, no, we don't want that.

We're going our own way.

You can see the pattern developing.

If God's presence and work were not confined to a particular or single space or place in time, whether in the time of Abraham or the time of Joseph or the time of Moses, and if God worked through his people who were living among Gentile peoples at the time, then the same God can work in Stephen's time and work through Stephen to proclaim salvation to God's people.

So they should not be surprised if God is doing that.

God is not confined to this place, Stephen argued.

And God can work among the Gentile peoples and the Jews living among Gentile peoples.

Our own scriptures show that.

Or tradition or space limits God's presence and work.

But that's not all.

Stephen is demonstrating the pattern that scripture reports.

The pattern is that despite God's presence and work, God's people continually reject his prophets.

They reject his messengers, they reject his work, and they reject his word.

Which ultimately means they reject him.

They don't believe in their God or receive him.

Now, before we look at the third section, the Davidic covenant, consider how Luke reports all of this to us.

Luke is a fantastic narrator.

He tells this story in a wonderful way by pointing out things that are easy to miss.

In verse 36 of chapter 7, a reference is made to Exodus chapter 7, verse 3.

Exodus 7:3

Now, Acts 7.36 says that Moses led them out performing signs and wonders in Egypt.

God promised Moses that he would do that through Moses.

Moses is a man who performs signs and wonders.

God was with Moses.

That is a sign of God's work and God's presence.

Moses was God's instrument for those signs and wonders.

Well, if you look back at Acts chapter 6 and verse 8, guess what you find?

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs.

Stephen is his generation's Moses.

God is giving Stephen to his people to say, I'm present and I'm working.

Will you listen?

Also, do you remember when when Moses came down from Mount Sinai?

Remember, he'd spent 40 days and 40 nights up on the mountain in the presence of God, talking with God.

And he came down from the mountain and he starts interacting with people, and they said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Moses, you got to do something about your face, dude.

His face was like an angel.

It was shining.

It was so bright that they asked him to put a veil on it.

Because he was in the presence of God so intently and so personally, he was reflecting the glory of God.

Well, Stephen spoke of that same God of glory in chapter 7, verse 2.

Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.

The God of glory appeared.

Stephen spoke of that God of glory.

And so at the end of chapter 6 and verse 15, the council is looking at him and seeing that his face is what?

Like the face of an angel.

Luke, in a wonderful storytelling manner, is showing Stephen is like Moses.

And just as the patriarchs rejected Joseph, just as Israel rejected Moses, so these sons of the patriarchs reject Stephen.

Stephen was a Jew who grew up outside the promised land and is now bringing God's salvation to his people.

So he connects him with Joseph.

He also connects him with Moses.

He brings God's word and he does signs and wonders that display a unique relationship with God, showing his working and his presence.

But if God's people rejected Moses and rejected Joseph, how would they respond to Stephen when he speaks of God's saving work?

Let's move on in verse 44 to the Davidic covenant.

Just as the time of Abraham shows us that God's presence and work were not restricted by geography, the Davidic covenant shows us that God's presence and work are not restricted by the temple.

Stephen doesn't need to recount much of this era of Israel's history.

He doesn't need to do that because God himself makes Stephen's point indisputable.

You see, Solomon's temple, as glorious as it was, did not restrict God's presence or work.

First, in verse 48 of chapter 7, God doesn't live in houses, much less man-made houses.

To expect God to move in and keep himself confined to that location is ludicrous.

It's ludicrous because in verse 50 we're told he made it all in the first place.

The maker of heaven and earth cannot be confined to a single location.

That's why at this very moment our Lord Jesus can be working here in our midst, and in working at the same time in any other number of churches in our community and in our world at this very moment.

God did not cause his presence to dwell in Solomon's temple as a confinement.

You remember that Solomon sacrificed hundreds of thousands of animals, and God's glory came and filled the temple just as it filled the tabernacle?

God didn't do that to say, I'm coming to this box and I'm gonna live in this box and be confined and restricted to this box.

No, he did it as a gracious act of condescension to be present among his people.

The transcendent, omnipotent, omnipresent God says, I'm going to give you a sign that I am here.

A transcendent God who is exalted above space and time cannot be confined or limited to even the holiest place in a human building.

So accusing Stephen of speaking against the temple, of speaking against Moses and speaking against God has no basis if Stephen is ministering in the ways that God has always worked.

Instead, if Stephen is functioning as many of God's spokesmen throughout history have done, the Jews' rejection of him puts them on par with all of their forefathers who rejected Moses and Joseph and all the prophets.

Stephen is rejected by his Jewish leaders, just as the patriarchs rejected Joseph.

The people reject Stephen, just as the people rejected Moses, and by rejecting Stephen, they're rejecting God's word, and by rejecting God's word, they're rejecting God himself.

However, two more elements take this rebuttal to yet another level.

And here we begin to answer the why question.

Why did Luke put this here?

Why would Luke include this long account of Stephen's speech?

Well, on the one hand, to help us learn how to read our Old Testament.

But why would Luke want us to know what Stephen said and how the people responded?

Why is this significant for the people at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota, in January of 2025?

The answer lies in Stephen's shift to the time of the New Covenant.

Because the Jewish leaders rejected God's presence and work in the New Covenant just as they had rejected his presence and work at other times.

Verse 51.

You stiff-necked and uncircumcised and hardened ears people, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

What a great way to influence people and make friends.

And the way that Stephen speaks of the resistance to the Spirit points to all of Israel's history that he's just recounted, as well as that very moment.

And suddenly he shifts his pronouns from our fathers, our forefathers, to your fathers.

He indicts all of those present who rejected God's work and God's messengers.

He's pointing the finger at those leaders in the council before him.

They continually resist the work of the Spirit.

They resist the Spirit by not paying attention to the prophets who spoke of Jesus.

They're so wrapped up in their temple, they're so wrapped up in Moses, they're so wrapped up in their traditions that they missed the one that all of those pointed to.

Those are all just mere symbols, more pictures of the reality that's found in Jesus.

They rejected God by rejecting his son, whom they betrayed and murdered.

Verse 52.

They rejected him because they did not believe that God could condescend to take on human form.

Oh, they believed that God could condescend to take up residence in their temple.

They did not believe that God could condescend to take on the form of a man, like a slave, so that he could die a death.

They could not see that God wasn't in their temple.

God had never returned to the rebuilt temple like he had in Solomon's temple.

They could not see that God had established his temple among them in a new way.

First, he tempted among them in a movable tent in the times of Moses.

Then he established his presence in Solomon's temple.

But when they departed from his ways, God departed from that temple and never returned.

And then on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, God is establishing his temple presence in those who believe in Jesus.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That's why the Apostle Paul says to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

He uses a plural pronoun, all of you together.

He also says that of individuals in 1 Corinthians.

God isn't in a building now, he is in his people.

So it's not Stephen who speaks against the temple of God.

It's the Jewish leaders who are speaking against the new temples of God and the new work of God, and who would drive Stephen out of the city and destroy God's temple by murdering him.

The script is completely flipped.

And it goes from bad to worse because it's not just Stephen.

Persecution starts to increase such that Christians can't even stay in the city anymore.

Church feels like it's on life support because everybody's being driven out.

And this this guy named Saul, who's all in favor of Stephen's execution, is going from city to city, arresting every Christian he can find.

And surely it's got to all fall apart because God is restricted to just the temple, right?

So if Christians run away, God isn't with them.

God's temple is now in his people.

And God is transcendent above any time and place.

So why does Luke want us to know this?

First, he wants us to remind, he wants to remind us of God's transcendence and mission.

God is far above any single space and time.

So God is more than capable of fulfilling his purpose to send the gospel to the ends of the earth.

He is not restricted to a box of any kind.

He's not restricted to your home, to your church, to your office, or to you.

He can fulfill his purpose.

And if he can be that transcendent, he's not limited to one martyr.

He's not limited to multiple martyrs.

He will build his church, even though the gates of hell come against it.

That truth, my friends, friends, encourages us.

It emboldens us.

It motivates us.

You may not feel in a given moment that Christ is with you, that the Spirit is living within you to empower you.

You may not feel that, but if you belong to Him, it is always true that He is in you and with you.

Believe Him, not your feelings.

More on that than Anton's emotions are us.

And also to remind us of the cost of carrying the cross.

It's not a cheery place for Christians.

And if you haven't really experienced that a whole lot in your life, it may be because you've not been enough like Stephen.

Maybe you need to point fingers more.

You stiff-necked and crooked people.

If you consistently live and work in the power of the Spirit, you will face the world's opposition because the world is opposed to a God who is present and working.

The third reason is to remind us now that we are walking temples.

You are a holy place.

God has taken up residence within you.

That doesn't mean he's limited to you.

He has condescended to be in you, to give you his spirit, to empower you, to do his work and his will.

You are a living temple.

Wherever you go, you take God's presence.

That is both convicting and encouraging.

But there's a fourth reason.

And that is to remind us of Jesus.

God's work in history points us to Jesus.

It points us to the cross.

It points us to the empty tomb.

It points us to his glory.

It calls us to faith, to following him, and to faithfulness.

You see, the New Testament shows us that a proper grasp of the Old Testament prepares us for Jesus.

Stephen proclaimed to all of those religious leaders: if you just open up your Bible and you just read it and understand it properly, you'll get who Jesus is and what he's doing.

Only stubborn, hard hearts refuse to see Christ pictured in Moses, in Joseph, in David, and in the rejected prophets.

But for those who do believe, God condescends to them and says, I'm making you my new temple.

And work through you.

That is the message of Stephen.

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, use us.

Use us, please.

You've called us to yourself.

And Lord, I pray that your spirit would convict any who might be unsure of their standing with you.

At this very moment, they would be challenged by how they've thought of you.

And that they would come and submit themselves to you by faith in you as the Son of God who gave himself for them.

And to put their hope and trust entirely in you.

Lord, thank you for the encouragement and the hope that you've given your people.

That yes, this life may end sometimes even in a brutal way for your people.

But it reminds us that our life is far more than life itself.

May you become our life.

May your purposes and your work and your glory consume us and become all that we need and all that we have and all that we are.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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