Rejected by Men, Received by God

Here is in the book of Acts. We are going to cover Acts 6, 8 to 7, 60 today. It's a relatively long

section and so during the sermon I'm not going to be reading large chunks of scripture like I

normally do. I'll be summarizing a lot of it so when I'm reading it in the beginning please try

to pay attention and pay attention in particular to the themes of rejection and themes of

God's presence transcending Jerusalem and its locale. But let me pray before for the reading

and preaching of God's word. Heavenly Father, we humble ourselves before you. Lord, it is

our sin. To care so much about looking good than being good. To care so much about seeming

righteous rather than being righteous. To care so much about the recognition and

acknowledging from men and not from you, Lord. Forgive us and now address us by your word.

Transform us so that we might be faithful witnesses who live with an eternal perspective,

who live to receive that acknowledgement and commendation from the heavenly court, from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And not to please men.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Acts chapter 6 verse 8 to chapter 7 verse 60.

Acts 6:8

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

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.

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

Then they secretly instigated men who said,

We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.

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.

And they set up false witnesses who said,

This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law.

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.

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

And the high priest said,

Are these things so?

And Stephen said,

Brothers and fathers, hear me.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,

before he lived in Haran,

and said to him,

Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.

Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.

And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length,

but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him,

who he had no child.

And God spoke to this effect,

that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others,

who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God.

And after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision.

And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day.

And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.

But God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions

and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh,

king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction.

And our fathers could find a food.

But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt,

he sent out our fathers on their first visit.

And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers

and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred,

seventy-five persons in all.

And Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, he and our fathers.

And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb

that Abram had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

But as the time of the promise grew near, which God had granted to Abraham,

the people increased and multiplied in Egypt.

But until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph,

he dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants

so that they would not be kept alive.

At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight.

And he was brought up for three months in his father's house.

And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,

and he was mighty in his words and deeds.

When he was forty years old, he came into his heart to visit his brothers,

the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed men

and avenged them by striking down the Egyptians.

He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand,

but they did not understand.

And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling

and tried to reconcile them, saying,

Men, you are brothers.

Why do you wrong each other?

But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside,

saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian,

where he became the father of two sons.

Now, when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai

in a flame of fire in a bush.

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight,

and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord.

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.

And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.

Then the Lord said to him,

Take off the sandals from your feet,

for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt

and have heard their groaning,

and I have come down to deliver them.

And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.

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.

This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt

and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,

God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

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 us.

Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside,

and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,

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.

And they made a calf in those days

and offered a sacrifice to the idol

and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

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?

You took up the tent of Moloch

and the star of your god, Rephon,

the images that you made to worship,

and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

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.

Our fathers, in turn, brought it in with Joshua

when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.

So it was until the days of David

who found favor in the sight of God

and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But it was Solomon who built the house for him.

Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.

As the prophet says,

Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house would you build for me, says the Lord?

Or what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things?

You stiff-necked people,

uncircumcised in heart and ears,

you always resist the Holy Spirit.

As your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed those who announced beforehand

the coming of the Righteous One,

whom you have not betrayed and murdered.

You who received the law as delivered by angels

and did not keep it.

Now when they heard these things,

they were enraged,

and they ground their teeth at him.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit,

gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God

and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And he said,

Behold, I see the heavens opened

and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

But they cried out with a loud voice

and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.

Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their garments

at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And as they were stoning Stephen,

he called out,

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And falling to his knees,

he cried out with a loud voice,

Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And when he had said this,

he fell asleep.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

We were introduced to Stephen

in the preceding passage

as one of the seven appointed

to distribute bread, food,

to the widows in the church.

He was described as full of spirit and wisdom,

full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

And so it's not surprising then now

to see him ministering effectively

among the Greek-speaking Jews.

He says that he was ministering

full of grace and power,

was doing great wonders and signs

among the people in chapter 6, verse 8.

But as always,

as Stephen is growing in favor

with God and man

and his ministry is thriving,

there are detractors that come

to speak against him.

It says in verses 9 to 10,

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 Cilician Asia,

rose up and disputed with Stephen.

It's unclear whether this represents

all distinct synagogues

or whether it's one synagogue

of the freedmen

that had all these people

from different ethnicities

or different regions represented there.

But it seems that Stephen was ministering

to the Greek-speaking Jews in particular.

These are all regions

of parts of the Roman Empire

of where the Jewish diaspora lived.

The synagogue of the freedmen

likely was a synagogue

made up of Jews

who had been formerly slaves

but emancipated.

And so he's ministering

to fellow Hellenist Jews.

Stephen himself was a Greek-speaking Jew

who is culturally Greek, Hellenist,

even though he's ethnically Jewish.

But some of them, it says,

disputed with Stephen,

but they could not withstand

the wisdom and the spirit

with which he was speaking

because Stephen was full

of the Holy Spirit.

However, when prideful, foolish men

can't win,

they cheat.

So in verses 11 to 14,

it says that they secretly

instigated men who said,

we have heard him speak

blasphemous words

against Moses and God.

They're conspiring to destroy Stephen

by accusing him with blasphemy,

which was supposed to be punished

by stoning with death,

according to Leviticus chapter 24.

Leviticus 24 · chapter mention

So on the one hand,

they secretly instigate men

to falsely charge Stephen

with blasphemy.

And on the other hand,

they stir up the people in public

in response to that charge

that they themselves instigated.

And so they fire up the crowd

and see Stephen

and drag him before the court

in the Sanhedrin.

And once there,

they continue their malicious work

by setting up false witnesses.

And they say this,

this man never ceases

to speak words against

this holy place and the law.

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.

So the charge is primarily twofold.

The charge of blasphemy.

First, they allege that Stephen said

Jesus will destroy the temple.

And then secondly,

they charge that Stephen said

Jesus changes the customs of Moses.

As is often the case

with false accusations,

there's at least a modicum of truth

in both of these allegations.

And that gives it an air of credibility

because Jesus did prophesy

during his ministry

of the destruction of the temple.

What's false, however,

is that he never claimed

that he himself will destroy.

And Jesus also said in John 2, verse 19,

John 2:19

destroy this temple

and in three days I will raise it up.

The Jews misunderstood this statement

to mean the literal temple,

the physical temple standing in Jerusalem.

And John clarifies in that context

that Jesus was not speaking of the temple

but of his body.

If they destroy him and kill him,

that he will be raised on the third day.

He was pointing to the once and for all sacrifice

he would make in his own flesh

by dying and being raised from the dead

so that to make sacrifices for sin

in the temple no longer necessary.

But to devout Jews

and maybe especially to the diaspora Jews,

the Hellenist Jews

who had returned to Jerusalem

to be near the temple,

this would have been a particularly offensive claim

because they had come intentionally

to be more actively, intentionally Jewish

and to practice their faith

within the temple.

And so they twist Stephen's words

and charge him with blasphemy

and we can see their murderous intent

because they know very well

that the punishment for blasphemy is stoning.

And in their wickedness,

they raise up false witnesses

even though they know

that the law also prohibits

being a false witness.

But they're willing to violate the law

as long as it suits their agenda.

And in chapter 7, verse 1,

the high priest calls upon Stephen

to defend himself

and he says,

Are these things so?

Are you really preaching

against the temple of God

and the law of Moses?

Are you really preaching

that Jesus will destroy the temple

and change the customs of Moses,

the two charges?

This is not a question

that Stephen can answer

with the simple yes or no.

because he could have

totally disavowed those claims

in order to get himself off the hook.

But if he did that,

he would not be bearing

faithful witness to Jesus.

Because it is true

that salvation is found

in no one else

but in the name of Jesus.

Jesus does supersede the temple.

Jesus does bring the law of Moses

to its intended end,

as it says in Romans 10, verse 4.

Romans 10:4

Jesus does not destroy the temple

or abolish the law,

but he does fulfill

both of those things.

Jesus is the new

and the greater Moses.

And so simply replying

yes or no

would not have sufficed.

So he chooses

to use this last opportunity,

his last few breaths,

to preach the gospel,

to speak of Jesus.

Jesus.

And Luke's main point

in including this narrative here

in Acts

is to teach us

that whoever acknowledges Christ

before the court of men

will be acknowledged by him

in the court of God.

And he answers the two charges.

So first,

he talks about how Jesus

is the new temple.

And then secondly,

he talks about how Jesus

is the new Moses.

First, Stephen recounts

the history of Israel

to make a biblical case

that God's presence

has always transcended

Jerusalem and its temple.

And in doing so,

he supports his assertion

that Jesus is the new temple of God.

And beginning with Abraham,

the father of faith,

he speaks about this

in verses 2 to 8.

He begins with a conciliatory tone,

addressing the Jews

as brothers and fathers,

affirming that they're his fellow Jews.

But then later,

when he's speaking of Abraham

entering the promised land,

in verse 4,

he distances himself

from his audience.

And he says,

God removed him from there

into this land

in which you are now living.

He doesn't say

this land in which we are now living.

He distances himself

from the land

and from the fellow Jews.

He's trying to make

a theological point.

This is a point that he,

notice how he emphasizes

Abraham's geographical movements

in that section,

verses 2 to 8.

In verse 2,

he says that God appeared

to Abraham where?

Not in Israel,

but when he was in Mesopotamia.

And after that,

Abraham doesn't enter

the promised land right away,

but then he lives

in among the Chaldeans

in Haran.

It's only after that

that Abraham finally

enters the promised land.

But even when he does,

Stephen notes in verse 5,

God gave him

no inheritance in it,

not even a foot's length,

but promised to give it to him

as a possession

and to his offspring after him.

This is a remarkable point.

God didn't merely

promise Abraham

that he would give his land

to his offspring.

He promised it to Abraham

himself as a possession,

but then he didn't give him

a foot's length.

This is why it says

in Hebrews 11, 8 to 10,

that by faith Abraham obeyed

when he was called

to go out to a place

that he was to receive

as inheritance.

And he went out

not knowing where he was going.

By faith he went to live

in the land of the promise

as in a foreign land,

living in tents

with Isaac and Jacob,

heirs with him

of the same promise.

For he was looking forward

to the city

that has foundations,

whose designer

and builder is God.

In other words,

the land of Canaan

represents and points

to something far bigger,

far better.

It represents the city of God.

Living in the presence of God,

in perfect communion with him,

it's a type

or a foreshadowing of heaven.

Similarly,

Abraham's descendants

won't immediately possess

Canaan either.

God told Abraham

that his offspring

would be sojourners,

aliens,

foreigners

in a land belonging to others.

Stephen's pointing out

to his Jewish audience

that though they make

much of the fact

that they now occupy

the land that God himself

had promised to them,

that though they occupy

the Jerusalem

where the temple is,

Abraham and many

of his descendants

never themselves

physically possessed

the land.

They were instead

sojourners,

and yet they were fathers

and exemplars

of the faith.

Being a faithful Jew,

in other words,

is not so inextricably

tied to the Holy Land.

moving on from Abraham,

Stephen makes the same point

about Joseph

and the other patriarchs

in verses 9 to 16.

Joseph was sold

into slavery

by his jealous brothers.

Nonetheless,

despite the fact

that Joseph had been

forcibly disinherited

from the land of Canaan

and removed

from the promised land,

Stephen notes

in verse 9

that God was with him

in the foreign land.

And by God's favor,

Joseph rose to become

a ruler over Egypt.

And during the time

of the great famine

all over Egypt and Canaan,

God used Joseph

to summon all of Jacob

and his household

to live in Egypt

because in Egypt

there was still grain

because of God-given wisdom

that Joseph had.

So once again,

the 12 patriarchs

during this time

did not live

in the land of Canaan,

but in Egypt

where God's nonetheless

blessed them

and prospered them.

Of course,

Stephen is aware

that Joseph specifically

asked his brothers

in Genesis 48-25

to carry his bones

from Egypt

and to bury them

in the land of Canaan

after his death.

This was his expression

of his faith

in God's promise

to Abraham

that he would occupy

the promised land.

But then,

even in recounting

that detail,

Stephen highlights

in verse 16

that they were carried

back to Shechem

and laid in the tomb

that Abraham had bought

for a sum of silver

from the sons of Hamor

in Shechem.

The city of Shechem

mentioned twice here

is significant

because it's

a Samaritan city

at the foot

of Mount Gerizim,

the holiest site

in Samaritan worship.

As some of you

might recall

from Jesus' dialogue

with the Samaritan woman

in John chapter 4,

John 4 · chapter mention

there was bad blood

between Jews

and Samaritans.

They avoided each other

like a plague

because the Samaritans

were descendants

of Jews

after the Assyrian invasion

who had remained

in the land

that was occupied

by their conquerors.

They stayed

and settled there

and intermarried

with the Assyrians.

And because of this,

the Jews saw them

not only as political rebels

but also as racial half-breeds

whose religion

had been adulterated.

And one notable difference

between Samaritan worship

and Jewish worship

was that Samaritans

constructed a rival temple

on Mount Gerizim

at Shechem.

And the Jews

worshipped on Mount Zion

in Jerusalem.

And Stephen

makes it a point

to emphasize

that Joseph,

a patriarch

that the Jews revered,

is not buried

in Jerusalem,

not in Judea,

but in Shechem,

in Samaria.

This is yet another way

that Stephen

is undercutting

the Jewish contention

that the gracious presence

of God

is confined

to Jerusalem

and its temple.

moving on

from Joseph,

Stephen recounts

the story of Moses,

which is the longest

section of this speech,

verses 17 to 43.

And here, too,

he emphasizes

the same theme.

He notes that

because of a wicked Pharaoh

who threatened

to kill

the Jewish infants,

in fact did,

the Jews were forced

to expose their infants

to the elements.

And Moses was exposed,

it says in verses 21 and 22,

it was the Egyptian Pharaoh's

daughter

who adopted him

and brought him up

as her own son.

And Moses was instructed

in all the wisdom

of the Egyptians

and he was mighty

in his words

and deeds.

The Moses

that the Jews revered,

the person

that the Jews revered

above all other forefathers,

was born a Jew

but reared

as an Egyptian.

And not only that,

when Moses tried

to come to the defense

of his fellow Israelites

and struck down

an Egyptian

who was oppressing

his fellow Jew,

they rejected him

saying,

who made you a ruler

and a judge over us?

And it's their rejection,

his Jewish brethren's

rejection of Moses

that made him free,

he says,

to become an exile

in the land of Midian.

Once again,

a sojourner,

an exile,

removed from

the promised land.

After another 40 years,

he says in verse 30,

an angel appeared to him

in the wilderness

of Mount Sinai

in a flame,

a fire,

and a bush.

And when God spoke there,

he says in verse 33,

he said,

take off the sandals

from your feet

for the place

where you are standing

is holy ground.

Later,

Jewish rabbis

commented on this

saying that

God's revelation

in the wilderness

proves once and for all

that there is no place

that is too desolate

for the presence of God.

That's a similar point

that Stephen is making here.

Where did God

appear to Moses?

Not in Jerusalem,

but in the wilderness.

Not in Mount Sion,

but on Mount Sinai.

The Jews charged Stephen

in verse 13 of chapter 6

with speaking against

this holy place,

but Stephen insists

that even the desolate

wilderness of Sinai

was consecrated

and became

a holy place

when God revealed

himself there.

In other words,

Jerusalem and its temple

are not the only

holy place.

The holy place

is wherever

God's Spirit rests.

all this serves

to make the point

that being a sojourner

and an exile

is the norm

and not the exception

in the life

of God's people.

That God's presence

is not limited

to Jerusalem

and the temple.

And even when

God's people

finally did come

to occupy Jerusalem

and built the temple,

they did so

with the understanding

that God cannot

be confined

to such physical locales.

to make this point,

Stephen mentions

in verses 44 to 45

that the tabernacle,

the tent of witness,

which was the portable tent

where the Israelites

worshipped and made

sacrifices and such

during their time

in the wilderness,

that this tabernacle

preceded the temple

of God

and God's presence

moved with it.

And even after

conquering

the land of Canaan

in Joshua 18.1,

this tent,

the tabernacle,

was set up

in Shiloh

and people

continued

to worship God

there

for approximately

300 years

until the time

of David.

And when time

finally came

for them

to build

the great temple,

it wasn't David

the great king

who built the temple,

but it was

his son Solomon.

And when Solomon

was dedicating

the temple,

Solomon himself

said in 1 Kings 18

1 Kings 18:27

verse 27,

Solomon well

understood this

and Stephen

does as well.

And so Stephen

says in verse 48,

the most high

does not dwell

in houses

made by hands.

And to drive

that point home,

he cites

Isaiah 66

Isaiah 66:1–2

verses 1-2

in verses 49-50,

saying,

heaven is my throne,

where God says,

heaven is my throne

and the earth

is my footstool.

What kind of house

will you build

for me,

says the Lord?

Or what is the place

of my rest?

Did not my hand

make all these things?

How can the God

who created

the cosmos

dwell,

be confined

to a man-made

temple?

How can the

Most High God

be constricted

to such a lowly

place on earth?

It's absurd

to think that God

can be confined

to a physical

location.

The temple

was never meant

to be

the permanent

exclusive dwelling

place of God.

It was a type,

a shadow

of the reality

to come.

And that reality

is Jesus.

In Jesus,

the Son of God

took on human

flesh and became

simultaneously

Son of Man.

And it says,

in Him,

the whole fullness

of deity

dwells bodily

in Colossians 2

Colossians 2:9

verse 9.

But that's not

the end of the story.

This amazing

condescension of God

in taking on

human flesh

continues in

Colossians 2

Colossians 2:10

verse 10

when he says

that to believers,

you have been

filled in Him

who is the head

of all rule

and authority.

This is similar

to what Paul says

in Ephesians 1

22-23

that God gave

Christ as head

over all things

to the church

which is His body,

the fullness

of Him

who fills

all in all.

Human beings

were alienated

from God

due to their sin

and guilt

before God.

And God

was alienated

from human beings,

sinful human beings

because of His

righteous wrath

towards sinners.

But by dying

on the cross

for our sins,

Jesus

simultaneously

removes our guilt

and satisfies

God's wrath

so that we can

be reconciled

to God.

and when Jesus

died on the cross,

the curtain

of the temple

was torn in two,

indicating that

the barrier

between God

and man

had been

torn down.

And now Jesus

is the one

mediator

between God

and man

and when we

repent of our sins

and believe in Jesus,

His death

and His resurrection

on our behalf,

we are united

to Jesus

by faith.

we become

one with Him,

we become

His body

and by extension

because Jesus

is the temple

of God,

we ourselves

become temple

of the Holy Spirit

as 1 Corinthians

3 says.

And that's why

where we meet

for corporate worship

is ultimately

not important.

We are looking

hard right now

for a place to meet,

for a permanent

home for our church.

But in light

of this truth,

it's not ultimately

important.

we can worship

God at a building

dedicated to His

worship like this

place,

or at a rented

school facility

like we used to,

or even outdoors.

The Spirit of God

indwells God's

people.

The church

is the gathered

people of God.

So it's not

inside a church

building,

but wherever we are

gathered as God's

people,

that God

is present.

And this is such

a wonderful

privilege.

Think about it.

God dwells

with us.

All of the other

major religions

have pilgrimages

to sites

that they deem

holy.

You have to make

long,

arduous journeys

in order to make

merit

by visiting

these holy sites.

Every other

major world

religion has this.

but true

biblical Christianity

has no such

requirement.

God is not

over there

in the distant

land,

in some holy

place quarantined

from rest of

sinful humanity.

He is with

us.

He is

imminent.

He inhabits

us.

He befriends

us.

us.

Look at the

intimate way

in which

Revelation 3

20 describes

God's indwelling

presence among

us.

The Lord Jesus

says,

Behold,

I stand at

the door

and knock.

If anyone

hears my

voice and

opens the

door,

I will come

into him

and eat

with him

and he

with me.

The living

God comes

into our

home.

into our

life,

into our

body,

he dines

with us.

You get

that in no

other religion.

God comes

to

God.

God

is

God.

And the

implication of

this is that

we can't

box God

in.

We can't

set him

aside somewhere

in a neat

little box

where he

doesn't disturb

our lives.

God

God

is

God.

This is

Stephen's

main charge

against his

fellow Jews.

The problem

is not the

temple itself.

The problem

is the way

they use

the temple

to box

God in,

to try to

contain him

and control

him.

In a

similar way,

people nowadays

reduce God

to amulets

and pendants

and talismans,

as if we

can put God

in our

pockets and

carry him

around like

a good luck

charm.

We reduce

God to

rituals and

formulas and

legal requirements

as if we

can control

him and

manipulate him

to do what

we want him

to do.

As one of the

prayers we

sometimes use

for a confession

of sin says,

we often

worship not

your true

self, but

who we wish

you to be.

We too

often ask you

to bless

what we

do,

rather than

seeking to

do what

you bless.

Forgive us

for seeking

concessions when

we should be

seeking guidance.

Forgive us

when our

worship shapes

you into

what we

want,

instead of

shaping us

into what

you want.

In what

ways have

you compartmentalized

God in your

life?

Sunday

worship is

God's

time, but

the rest

of the

week is

mine.

Is that

your attitude?

No,

every hour

of your

life you

are alive

to glorify

God.

A tithe of

my income

belongs to

God, but

the rest of

the paycheck

is mine.

Is that

your attitude?

No,

every dollar

in your

bank account

is a gift

from God

that you

might glorify

God with

it.

Do you

behave

yourself,

wear nice

clothes and

abstain from

profanity and

put on a

smile during a

worship service

only to live

in a way

that is

completely

contrary to

the gospel

of Jesus

Christ the

rest of the

week?

God cannot

be contained.

He cannot

be boxed

in and

set aside

so that our

life and

worship is

compartmentalized.

Our entire

life is

supposed to

be a

living sacrifice,

a spiritual

worship to

God because

our bodies

themselves are

the temple

of the

living God.

That's

Stephen's

charge,

his defense.

The

Sanhedrin's

second charge

against Stephen

was that he

spoke against

the law of

Moses,

that he

told them

not to

follow Moses'

customs,

the customs

handed down

to them by

Moses.

And Stephen

answers this

charge by

demonstrating that

Jesus is the

new and

greater Moses,

who instead of

merely giving the

law engraved in

stone, who now

engraves the

very law of God

onto our hearts

so that we can

actually obey

him.

Even before

Moses, God

had ordained that

he would deliver

his people from

the upcoming

famine by making

Joseph a ruler

over them.

So this is part of

the history that

Stephen recounts.

And he revealed

this to Joseph in

a dream that he

would be a ruler

over God's people,

that he would be

used by him to

rescue them.

But Joseph's

brothers, the

patriarchs, were

jealous of Joseph.

They rejected

him and sold

him into slavery

in Egypt.

Much like the

Jewish leaders,

who are filled

with jealousy,

as it says in

Acts chapter 5,

Acts 5:17

verse 17,

and Acts chapter

Acts 13:45

13, verse 45,

and in Acts

Acts 17:5

chapter 17,

verse 5,

there's a

recurring theme.

He's setting up

a pattern that

the Jews that are

persecuting Christians

actually fit the

pattern of those

who reject God's

prophets and his

messengers time

and time again

out of jealousy.

And not only

Joseph, but Moses,

the lawgiver himself,

was rejected by

the Israelites.

Chapter 7,

verse 22,

described Moses

as mighty in his

words and deeds.

That's a phrase

that's not actually

found in the book

of Exodus,

but it's a phrase

that's actually found

later in Acts chapter,

or in Luke chapter 24,

Luke 24:19

verse 19,

where Jesus is

described as mighty

in deed and word.

So, immediately,

Luke is establishing

a connection between

Moses and Jesus

when he describes

Moses this way.

And then,

he further recounts

in verses 23-25

that when Moses

was 40 years old,

it came into his

heart to visit

his brothers,

and when he tried

to make peace

among them

by trying to

stop them

from fighting

against each other,

once again,

the Jews rejected

Moses,

retorted to him,

who made you

ruler and a judge

over us?

Repeatedly,

Moses is rejected.

The people don't

understand that God

is making him,

using him to rescue

them from their

slavery in Egypt.

Likewise,

the Jews,

in Stephen's day,

it says,

acted in ignorance

in chapter 3,

verse 17,

in crucifying Jesus.

They did not

understand.

And Stephen says

in verse 35-38

that this Moses

whom they rejected

as their ruler

and judge,

God himself

has made

both ruler

and redeemer.

He uses

Moses

to perform

signs and wonders.

He uses Moses

to speak

God's living

oracles.

And this,

once again,

establishes the

parallels to Jesus.

Like Moses

who performed

signs and wonders,

Jesus is described

as attested

to God

by mighty works

and wonders

and signs

in Acts chapter 2,

Acts 2:22

verse 22.

Like Moses

was rejected

by his fellow Jews

from being ruler

and judge,

but nonetheless

appointed ruler

and judge

and redeemer,

Jesus is rejected,

but then God

appoints him,

it says in Acts

Acts 5:31

chapter 5,

verse 31,

leader and savior

to give repentance

to Israel

and forgiveness

of sins.

In short,

Jesus is

the prophet

like Moses

that Moses

himself

had prophesied

that God

would raise up

in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 18:15

chapter 18,

verse 15.

So it's no surprise

then that the Jews

in Stephen's day

reject Jesus

the same way

their forefathers

rejected Moses.

verses 39

to 40

and following

Stephen

talks about

how the Jews

continually

turned back

in their hearts

toward Egypt,

made an idol,

a golden calf,

and worshipped

other gods.

He quotes

from Amos

5,

25 to 27

there.

And having

observed

this pattern

in Israel's

history

of rejecting

God's

bookspersons,

Stephen challenges

the Jews

in verses

51 to 53.

He says,

You stiff-necked

people,

uncircumcised

in heart and ears,

you always resist

the Holy Spirit

and as your

fathers did,

so do you.

Which of the

prophets

did your fathers

not persecute?

And they killed

those who announced

beforehand

the coming

of the righteous

one,

whom you have

now betrayed

and murdered.

As he did

earlier,

Stephen is now

again

distancing himself

from his

fellow Jews.

Previously,

he spoke of

our fathers,

but now he

says,

Your fathers

did.

He's trying

to make the

point that he's

trying to tell

them what

separates Stephen,

what separates

him from the

rest of the

Jews.

It's his

submission to,

his listening

to Jesus

as God's

chosen Messiah,

unlike his

fellow Jews

who reject

him.

The charge

of being

a stiff-necked

people,

of course,

was the

charge that

the Old

Testament uses

over and

over again

to refer

to God's

people and

their

rejection

of him.

And so

it's a

stinging

charge.

And even

though the

Jews took

pride in the

fact that

God gave

Abraham the

covenant of

circumcision,

he now calls

these proud

descendants of

Abraham

uncircumcised

in hearts

and ears.

once again,

Moses himself

had prophesied

in Deuteronomy

30 that

one day

God would

circumcise

our hearts

so that we

can actually

obey him.

Prophet

Ezekiel in

chapter 36

also said

that God

would give

us a new

heart and

a new

spirit and

cause us to

walk in his

statutes.

This promise

is fulfilled

ultimately by

the person

and work

of Jesus

Christ.

As it

says in

Romans 2

28-29,

what matters

is not

physical

circumcision,

but the

circumcision

of the

heart.

And that

circumcision

of the

heart is

performed

not by

human hands,

but it

says by

the spirit

in Romans

2-29.

it's

when we

have the

obedience

of faith

to Jesus

Christ,

when we

accept him

as our

Lord and

Savior,

as the

Messiah sent

by God

for our

redemption,

to be our

ruler and

king,

that's when

we are

indwelled by

the spirit

of God.

So

according to

Stephen,

it's not

him who

has rejected

the law

of Moses.

Moses.

It's his

Jewish

accusers who

have rejected

Moses,

because they

have rejected

the prophet

like Moses

that Moses

himself

prophesied

of.

These Jews

sought to

justify

themselves by

keeping the

letter of

the law

when God

himself had

ordained that

we should be

justified by

faith in

Jesus Christ.

These Jews

put their

confidence in

their own

flesh, in

the trappings,

the external

trappings of

religion,

rather than in

the inward

testimony of

the Holy

Spirit.

Do you

put your

confidence in

the external

religious

trappings?

Do you

put your

confidence in

your religious

heritage,

your pedigree,

your father

as a pastor

or a seminary

professor,

that your

family has

been Christians

for many

generations?

Many Jews

of Stephen's

day could say

the same

thing, and

yet they were

uncircumcised in

hearts and

ears.

Do you put

your confidence

in your own

moral or

religious

observance,

that you go

to church

every week,

that you read

the Bible and

pray regularly,

that you subscribe

to the right

theology,

or that you're

part of the

right denomination,

that you have

not committed any

blatant sins

recently, or that

you support the

right social and

political causes,

or that you're

an upstanding

citizen, or that

you donate money

to charity.

Many Jews of

Stephen's day could

say the same

thing, and yet

they were

uncircumcised in

hearts and

ears.

The only way to

have right standing

with God, the

only way to be

saved is to

believe in the

name of Jesus,

the righteous

one.

Instead of

resisting the

Holy Spirit, we

are to yield to

the Holy Spirit by

repenting of our

sins and trusting

in Jesus Christ

alone for our

salvation.

I want to

plead with those

of you who are

living with guilt

that hasn't been

dealt with, or

with shame in

your own

identities.

stop trying to

save yourself.

Stop trying to

atone for your

own sins.

Stop putting your

confidence in your

own flesh, in your

own qualifications,

as Stephen's

Jewish contemporaries

did.

It's not our own

labors.

It's not our own

righteousness.

It's not our own

piety or devotion

that atones for

our sins.

Only those who

come naked to the

cross,

can be clothed

with the

righteousness of

Jesus.

Only those who

come empty

handed to the

cross of Jesus

can receive God's

mercy and be

filled with the

Holy Spirit.

Jesus alone

saves us.

Unfortunately,

Stephen's Jewish

audience didn't

heed this warning,

and instead, we

are told in

verses 54 to 58

that they were

enraged, they

ground their teeth

at him.

And after hearing

of Stephen's

vision of the

glory of God

and Jesus

standing at the

right hand of

God, verse 57

says, they cried

out with a loud

voice and stopped

their ears and

rushed together at

him.

Covering their ears,

a gesture of

righteousness,

self-righteousness,

saying that I can't

bear to hear the

blasphemous words that

are coming out of

Stephen's mouth.

But all it does is

to confirm what

Stephen said earlier,

that they are

uncircumcised in

their ears.

They are deaf to

the truth of

Jesus.

They throw Stephen

out of the city and