Jesus Is Worth Dying For August 3, 2014 Acts 7:1-60 Matt Rawlings

1 Jesus Is Worth Dying For August 3, 2014 Acts 7:1-60 Matt Rawlings And the high priest said, "Are these things so?" 2 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, 3 and said to him, 'Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.' 4 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. 5 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, though he had no child. 6 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. 7 'But I will judge the nation that they serve,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.' 8 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. 9 "And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him 10 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. 11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and 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. 17 "But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 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, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 "When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 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?' 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30 "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. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.' And 1

2 Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 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.' 35 "This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'- this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, 'God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.' 38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, 'Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: "' Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.' 44 "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, 49 "'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? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?' 51 "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." 54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 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. 56 And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 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. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 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. (Acts 7:1-60) Last year, my son was given a radio controlled helicopter. It is a great helicopter. It flies well. It does what it is supposed to. It s enjoyable. But the directions to assembling it and getting it to fly are challenging. They were clearly written in another language and then translated to English. If you read the instructions, it sounds like the little helicopter has the power to either make your life incredible or destroy it entirely if you get it wrong. It might leave you bewildered and confused about how to get the helicopter to do what the author intended. 2

3 In contrast, the Bible is written beautifully and is inspired by God and our translations are excellent. And indeed, God's Word really can change your life. But, when you read Stephen s sermon in Acts 7, it can seem a little confusing the first time you read it, especially 2,000 years removed from the culture and context in which Stephen preached. At times, some work is required to understand the background. The Jewish ruling elite may have understood what Stephen was getting at and why he was giving them a history lesson, but they clearly didn t get it or at least they didn t believe what he was explaining to them. Throughout the years, various people have missed the explanation that Stephen was giving as well. George Bernard Shaw, the famous author, playwright, economist and Nobel Prize winner missed the point of Stephen s message all together. In fact, in his preface to Androcles and the Lion, he called Stephen a quite intolerable young speaker, and a tactless and conceited bore. He accused Stephen of delivering an oration to the council, in which he inflicted on them a tedious sketch of the history of Israel, with which they were presumably well acquainted as he. But he was wrong. Stephen actually was making a brilliant defense, while also trying to explain to the council why they should repent and follow Jesus. You see, Stephen was inspired by the Holy Spirit and Luke wrote down what Stephen said so that the church then and now the church today as well, would see who Jesus really is and why Jesus is worth dying for. In the past, I have kind of scratched my head a little, wondered why is Stephen giving them a history lesson and then applauded him for the end when he really stuck it to the Sanhedrin. But he is doing something more here. You see, he really was responding to the accusations of the Sanhedrin, he just was doing it in a different way. Let s look together at what they accused him of in Acts 6:13-14: "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.'" Their charges were that he spoke words against this holy place the temple; and the law. So, Stephen sets out to show them that Jesus fulfilled the temple and the law. Main Idea: Jesus replaces the temple and the law and this truth is worth dying for! The temple was a magnificent building and was the most impressive building in the Middle East at the time, with a marble finish and gold inlays. It was physically beautiful and revered something to be proud of. But don t misunderstand, it wasn t because of its architectural beauty that it was valued. The temple was held in highest esteem amongst the Jews because the God of all Creation, the supreme Sovereign, had promised to meet His people there and put His name there. David sang of this in Psalm 27:4 and longed to seek God s face there and live in God s presence. He said, "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple." It was right of David and the Israelites to desire God s presence and to be grateful for His presence with them in the tabernacle and then the temple. But many wrongly concluded that if the temple stood, then they were guaranteed of God s protection, while, if the temple was destroyed, then God had somehow abandoned them. Some revered the temple so highly, that 3

4 the building itself became almost idolatrous to them as if God was somehow limited to only dwelling in the temple and that His presence was confined to the temple. So, when they thought that Stephen was saying that Jesus would destroy the temple, then they saw this as a threat to their existence as God s people and they couldn t see that their forefathers never thought of God as being confined to the temple. So, Stephen sets out to show them that he wasn t talking about the destruction of the temple but he was talking about the replacement of the temple with Jesus and that the temple bore witness to Him. Stephen is really getting at two ideas in his sermon. First, he is showing that Jesus came to replace the temple and then, he makes the point that Jesus has fulfilled the law. 1. Jesus replaces the temple How he makes the first point, that Jesus replaces the temple is by highlighting four major eras in Israel s history and showing that in each era, God s leaders knew that God wasn t confined to a specific place only. a. Abraham and the Patriarchs (vv 2-8) b. Joseph and the exile period in Egypt (vv 9-18) c. Moses, the Exodus and the wilderness (vv 19-43) d. David and Solomon (vv45-50) Look down in your Bibles - Stephen explains Abraham and the Patriarchs in verses 2-8; then he explains Joseph and the exile period in Egypt in verses 9-19; then the third period he explains in verses 20-44 are Moses, the Exodus and the wilderness and then lastly, in verses 45-50, he explains the period of David and Solomon. And the thread through each period is that the presence of God is not confined to a specific place. Instead, Stephen demonstrates that God is the God over all and is ever-present with His people, no matter where they go. In each example that Stephen gives, God is an active God who calls His people to go out and follow Him, like we see in verse 3, when God told Abraham to go out to a land that He would show Him. a. Abraham and the Patriarchs (vv 2-8) In verse 2, God is the one who manifests Himself and appears to Abraham, when Abraham was in Ur which was a pagan land but God wasn t limited by Abraham s location. Then, Abraham moved to Haran and God moved him to Canaan and later to Egypt and back again. Abraham covered the whole fertile crescent and God was with him every step of the way. But Abraham didn t even have a foot of soil or any permanent home, even though He had God s promise of the land and offspring both. In verses 6 and 7, God told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved and afflicted in in a foreign land for 400 years but God would judge the nation and they would come back to the land. This captivity wouldn t be outside of God s plan though it was part of God s plan to begin with. Then, God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision and then Abraham circumcised his son as a sign of the covenant. Why does Stephen mention this? Because he was showing that even before there was any holy land, God had made a holy people and He promised to be with them. 4

5 Then, notice verse 9, Stephen moved from the founding father of God s people to a Savior figure if God s people, where it says, "And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him..." b. Joseph and the exile period in Egypt (vv 9-18) In verses 9-18 he shows that even though Joseph was a foreign slave and even a prisoner, God was with him the whole time. God was not limited to a place but was with Joseph even in the hated, pagan, enemy Egypt. And Stephen makes sure that he drives this point home by mentioning Egypt 6 times. Not only was God with him, the text says that God rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom so that he was made ruler over Egypt. In verse 11-16, God moved the whole family that would become the nation of Israel and saved them from starving. God told Jacob to go down to Egypt, even though he must have known that his father Isaac was forbidden by God from going there. But God was with them all, even though all of the fathers of the tribes of Israel died in Egypt, never returning to the land alive only their bodies were brought back eventually. In verse 17, God caused the people to increase and multiply in Egypt. Then, Stephen shifts from Father Abraham and then Joseph and the Patriarchs to Moses. c. Moses, the Exodus and the wilderness (vv 19-43) In verse 19 through 22 he shows that Moses was beautiful to God and he was kept alive by God and not only protected from being killed by Pharaoh but raised in Pharaoh s own house. God made sure he got the best education possible probably on the whole planet at the time and Moses thrived in Egypt, becoming mighty in words and deeds. He wasn t suffering because he was outside of the promised land he was excelling. So Moses decides to go see what is going on with his people and sees them being mistreated so, he goes to their defense and kills an Egyptian. Now, look at verse 25 it says Moses, "supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand." So Moses goes away to another foreign land and lives in the desert wilderness across the Jordan out of Egypt s domain and away from Canaan too, which eventually was called Midian by the Israelites. But God is not confused and he didn t lose track of Moses. He didn t need GPS tracking he was with Moses all along, even if Moses may not have known it at first. Not only that, after 40 years, God hasn t lost hope God has an angel light a bush on fire and appear to him in a burning bush in the desert a pretty unlikely place to encounter God. But God speaks to him as he goes over to check out the strange sight. And God spoke to Him personally and then, look in verse 33, God tells Moses, "Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." The word for ground in the original language can also be translated land. So, Stephen is saying you think that the temple is the only place where God s presence is contained but wherever God s presence is, is the holy land. And he also shows them that their forefathers rejected God s chosen one through whom he would give them salvation. So, look down at your bibles - twice in verse 27 and in verse 35, the Israelites reject Moses. Stephen said in verse 35 and 36, "This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?'- this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by 5

6 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." There was already a foreshadowing to the fact that Jesus is the bread of life and feeds His people, as the true and better Joseph. Now, Stephen is subtly drawing a parallel between Moses and Jesus the ruler and redeemer who leads God s people out of the true spiritual wilderness and does signs and wonders, as he also did in Acts through His apostles and Stephen himself. Yet, the people rejected Moses leadership and make a false god in the form of a calf and they worship what their hands had made. Just like now, they are worshipping the temple and not truly worshipping God Then in verses 42-43 Stephen quotes the prophet Amos and says that even though they had the tent of witness to God s presence with them, they might as well have been carrying around the tent of Molech, because that is who they were worshipping, so he sent His people into exile beyond Babylon. But even then, God spoke to Moses. Stephen is making the point that from Egypt to Midian and all through the desert wilderness wanderings, God was everywhere present and the holy place was wherever God was. d. David and Solomon (vv45-50) David couldn t build the temple even though he desperately wanted to and asked God if he could build a temple and was denied, but it still says that he found favor in the sight of God. And even though Solomon was allowed to build a house for God, he knew that God couldn t be limited to an earthly home. Stephen then quotes one of their greatest prophets Isaiah in verses 48-50 and says, "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 will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?'" He is saying God is the Creator of all who can t be confined to the work of human hands. God is a pilgrim God as John Stott said, who can t be restricted to any one place. Stott goes on to say, It is evident then from Scripture itself that God s presence cannot be localized, and that no building can confine Him or inhibit His activity. If He has any home on earth, it is with His people that He lives. He has pledged Himself by a solemn covenant to be their God. Therefore, according to His covenant promise, wherever they are, He is also." John Stott So Stephen s defense is that the temple is with God s people and God s chosen one. And his listeners all knew that all of the prophets foretold of the Righteous One the Messiah who would come as a prophet and priest and king to redeem and deliver them into God s presence. Then, the second defense that Stephen made in response to their false accusations that he said Jesus would destroy the temple and the law is to show that... 2. Jesus fulfills the law Stephen turns things around on his accusers and says in effect, it isn t me who has disregarded the law, but your fathers and you have. First, their fathers all rejected Joseph s rule over them. Then, in verses 27 and 35 Stephen pointed out that the Israelites rejected Moses as their ruler and judge and thus rejected God s chosen redeemer. In verses 38-39, he made it clear that they rejected Moses who spoke the very living oracles or declarations of God. They rejected God s living Word, thrust Moses aside and refused to obey the law and instead turned away in their hearts. 6

7 Not only did they disobey Moses and rebel, they asked Aaron to make them a golden calf to replace the law. In Exodus 32:8-11, God told Moses: They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt. I have seen these people, the Lord said to Moses, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation. But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. They disobeyed the first and second commandments to not have any other god before them and to not make themselves any idols at the same time Moses was receiving the commandments! And in verse 52 of Acts 7, Stephen accuses the Sanhedrin of the same sin of being stiff-necked like God has called the Israelites in Exodus 32. He said that they are a stiff necked people this is a picture of an animal who refuses to be yoked and refuses to go in the direction of its master an animal who rebels against its rightful owner. In Exodus, Moses interceded so that God s wrath was turned away and a few verses later in Exodus, he sought to atone for Israel s sins. So in verse 37, Stephen deliberately quotes where Moses said, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Now, Christ is the Righteous One demonstrated by signs and wonders as Moses had been but they rejected God s Word and they rejected the One who came to fulfill the law. Then Stephen really brings down the gavel on their heads and he says in verses 52-53, Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it." All the while, Stephen wasn t really giving a self-defense as much as he was testifying to Jesus Christ. Jesus had come as the replacement of the temple to bring God s presence to God s people and to fulfill the law and take away the demands God s people could never meet on their own. He had explained that Jesus was the end of the temple because Jesus is the manifest presence of God. Jesus is the end of the law because He perfectly kept the law and made a way into God s presence through His own merit and none of ours. Then, Stephen looks up and gives eye-witness testimony to something he sees. But they cannot see, because they are blind. So he finishes his defense by telling them what he is seeing as he is looking up into heaven. He says in verse 56, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." And they prove their disobedience to the law and that they don t really want the presence of God by rejected Jesus and killing Stephen. But Stephen knows that this glorious reality of who Jesus is, is worth dying for. 3. Jesus is worth dying for They won t listen to Stephen they won t listen to God speaking through Stephen God s messenger and once again, they reject God. It says they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears. Instead of listening to the life giving words of God, they stopped up their ears like a toddler and said, I m not listening to you and rushed at him and threw him out of the city. Then, even though they didn t have the legal right to execute a person without Roman approval, they stoned Stephen in a blind rage. 7

8 Most of the time in the New Testament, Jesus is said to be sitting at the right hand of the throne of God because it signifies that He has finished His work on our behalf. But Stephen saw Jesus standing. I think this is a beautiful picture Jesus isn t sitting back. He stands up to receive His first martyr and welcome him into God s ultimate presence. FF. Bruce said, Stephen has been confessing Christ before men, and now he sees Christ confessing His servant before God. And Stephen knows that Jesus is worth dying for. He doesn t put up a fight. Look in verse 59-60, Luke writes, "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." Stephen s teaching had been misunderstood. He had really taught that Jesus was the fulfillment of both the temple and the law. Jesus Himself told His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." God s presence is not tied to a place God is with His people and Jesus goes with His people wherever they go on the mission he has sent us all on. Wherever we go, we go confident that Jesus has perfectly fulfilled the law in Himself - what we could never do ourselves. We go, knowing that no matter what pagan land and no matter how corrupt the government we live under may be God is with us. No matter if we are enslaved or if we go hungry like Joseph and the patriarchs God will be with those of us who are His people. Jesus is our true bread of life and although our flesh may fail, if we feast on Him we will never die. David longed to live in God s temple so that he could seek God s face now, we can come into God s presence freely through Christ and find mercy and grace in our time of need. Up until this time, the church was still teaching in the temple. But God used Stephen s murder to separate the church from the earthly temple so that they would rely on Christ, not the temple. The church was shocked by Stephen s murder and the opposition and persecution that came afterwards. Verse 3 of chapter 7 serves as a motif for the passage doesn t it? God told Abraham, leave your home your place of comfort and go where I will tell you and I will be with you. And in the end, God used Stephen to call His people to go out, and to go into all the lands He would show them. Ultimately, God used Stephen to scatter His people everywhere and further the spread of the good news about Jesus. As Christians, we are called to leave our place of comfort and go out on our mission as His disciples, confident that His presence will be with us; confident that He has taken away God s wrath from us perfectly and completely something Moses couldn t ever do; confident that He has atoned for all our sins in Himself. And I think that there are some other important applications that we need to make from this passage. We need to see that it is possible and expected that people can be religious and go to church and appear good on the outside, yet not be following God and actually be rejecting God s presence. Make sure this isn t true of you. Make sure you are following God and not some southern, cultural, hollow shell of Christianity. We need to see that people can claim to be good and upstanding Christians and yet not obey God s commandments. But let us not be that sort of people and let us love the Lord with all our hearts and minds and souls and love Jesus by obeying Him. 8

9 People can fail to see that Jesus came to fulfill the temple and the law; fail to see that Jesus desires to be with them as His people; that Jesus wants them to trust in Him and not the law. But let us hear a warning from this passage and trust in Jesus alone and not the law. Let us look to Him alone to bring us into God s presence and not trust any merit or religious duty or effort of our own. We all need to ask What are you trusting in? Are you following Jesus? Are you seeking His presence? Are you trusting in Him as the fulfillment of the law? What are you living for? Are you living for your systems and preferences and tradition and missing Jesus? In all of this, Luke also has another intent, another thread if you will, that runs through the whole tapestry of all of Acts and that is that God s plans are not hindered, Jesus continues to build His church and empower His people, despite all opposition. God has promised to be with His people and He has bound Himself forever to His church, the bride of Christ and His Word that will never pass away. Jesus said He will never leave us nor forsake us. Not only that, He gives us His very presence in the Holy Spirit and now we as the church are called His temple and dwelling place. And Jesus is calling us to go and preach the gospel throughout our neighborhoods and the world, making disciples of all nations. And He promises that He will be with us wherever we go, no matter what opposition we face. Jesus is worth dying for. And like Stephen, although we might be killed, if we die in Christ, our bodies only sleep. We do not truly die but we are present with God until we receive our resurrection bodies in Him. 2014 Redeeming Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Website. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 9