[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound, a verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God, by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. You know, there was
a little boy who was in the foyer of his
church, and he noticed a board on the wall with stars
and names under the stars. He asked his parents,
what is that for? What are these names and stars? They said, these are the people
who have died in the service. Of course, that was
new to him, so he said, would that be the 9:45
service or the 11:15 service? They said no, no, no
the military service, it refers to them. I hope that
Wednesday night isn't a service that takes life from
you, but gives life to you. That it's life-giving, and
it's enriching, and refreshing. We are in a very long
chapter, as I mentioned, Acts, chapter seven. Looking to the
end you may notice that there are 60 verses in it. These 60 verses are
about Stephen's sermon, his message in the
Synagogue of the Freedmen. A Hellenistic,
Greek-speaking synagogue in Jerusalem, which
he was speaking at. It is the longest sermon
in the book of Acts. It's the longest chapter
in the book of Acts, and he preaches
the longest sermon. He preaches a sermon
longer than Peter, Paul, or anybody else does. So it's the longest on record. Why is that noteworthy? Because, we're it
not for this chapter, most people would not think
of Stephen as the preacher. They would think of
them as the deacon. He's the guy back in chapter
6 who was one of The Seven who was selected by the
early church to serve tables. The widows who would come to get
food and a daily distribution, that was his task. He was probably a young man
who loved to serve the Lord, but filled with wisdom,
filled with the Holy Spirit. He was of Gentile origin,
though Jewish in his faith, and he comes here and delivers
a very, very powerful message. Now let me tell you how
powerful this message is. Stephen does what Peter
tells us we should do. In 1 Peter 3 he says,
always be ready to give a defense for the reason. If anyone asks you a
reason for the hope that lies in you with
meekness and fear, with reverence, and humility. That we should always
be on our toes, and ready to articulate why
we believe what we believe. There are a great
number of Christians who know what they believe. They'll say, I believe this. I believe that. I believe this other
thing, and these are the tenants of my faith. And yet, unfortunately,
there are few and far between believers
who can tell you why, and articulate to
any unbeliever, why they believe what they believe. To be an effective
believer, you need to be able to articulate to
the unbelieving world, why it is you believe that. Reasonably, as Peter
tells us we should do. Stephen, the deacon, the guy
who just served and helped out-- I'm looking at this, and
reading it, going Stephen? Is that you. Buddy, wow I'm impressed. He gives an incredible defense. By the way, when Peter,
in 1 Peter 3 said, always be ready to give a
defense, it is from that word, in the Greek apologia, that
we get the term apologetics. Apologia means a
statement of defense, or a reasonable defense, as you
would present in a court case. When we say, I'm
into apologetics, or here's an apology, It
doesn't necessarily mean, man and I'm sorry, I am a Christian. Please forgive me. I don't know what
got him to me-- it's not that kind
of an apology. It's a very solid and reasoned
defense for your faith. All of that serves as background
because he does that here. He's very, very effective at it. Here's what you'll notice as
we go through this speech. So that I don't have to
always make note of it, you'll just notice it. He's quoting a lot
from the Old Testament. He's standing up, this is off
the cuff, he didn't have notes. He didn't have his
iPad, or his computer. He's just articulating by
the power of the Holy Spirit, based upon what he knows to
be truth from this Scripture. Fulfilled Scripture, he's
quoting Old Testament passages. You have to keep in
mind that, whether it was Stephen or Paul, or Jesus,
or Peter, or John, for them, the only Bible they had
was the Old Testament. That's all the Bible they knew. When they quoted
Scripture, they weren't quoting the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, or the Book of Acts
obviously, they're quoting the Old Testament. Here's what you
discover about this guy. This guy obviously
knew the Old Testament, because he quotes from it. And he obviously
understood what it meant. And he obviously understood
that all of the Old Testament was pointing toward its
ultimate fulfillment in Christ. That's what he shows. Before, they would just
read the Old Testament, they had no clue
that it was speaking about the singular hero
of redemptive history, who is Christ. They didn't understand. They didn't quite get it. You remember the Ethiopian
eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, and Philip will come-- I'm getting ahead
of myself, that's going to be next chapter-- along and he says, you
understand what you're reading? The Ethiopian
eunuch says, how can I unless somebody
explains it to me? He was there, and he
explained it to him, and he led them to Christ
through the Old Testament. We're looking at, and listening
to, the defense, the apologia, of Stephen the deacon,
as he takes the Scripture and he powerfully unfolds
the understanding that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament
fulfilled in the New. There's something
that stuck out to me this time as I read
it, The way it opens, and the way it closes, they
are like bookends to me. The chapter opens with the
statement of, the God of glory, and that chapter opens with this
statement, the glory of God. That could just be fortuitous
or it could be put there by the Holy Spirit. I see it as a signature,
little mark, an earmark, by the Holy Spirit. The God of glory, that's what
Stephen will refer to God as, and it closes with
the glory of God. I look at this as a principle. When your life is
surrendered to, and you live for,
the God of glory, you will see the glory of God. You'll experience
the glory of God. Some don't experience
that, perhaps it's because that singular
focus on the God of glory is not where it should
be in your life. Well, we're going to
read about Stephen but, before the
chapter is ended, you're also going to read about
another young man named, Saul. I haven't even gotten
to verse one yet, but you know that's my style. I'm setting it all up. [LAUGHTER] It should be read as a unit. It is meant to be
read as a solid unit. That's why, by the grace of
God, in the next two hours-- I mean in the next hour. [LAUGHTER] We're going to make
it to the chapter, and read it, and just
make certain comments. The chapter presents,
two young men. The young man of Stephen,
and the young man of Saul of Tarsus. We know he's a young
man because, it says as they were about to
kill Stephen and stone him, they laid their clothes at the
feet of a young man named Saul. So you have two young
men in this chapter. Both remarkable young men. Both used of God, eventually. Both remarkable in their
gifting, but both of them are enemies at this point. Stephen is in the
Synagogue of the Freedman giving his speech, his
message, his apologetic, and Saul of Tarsus
happens to be going to that Synagogue in
Jerusalem, and is hearing this. He is listening to this, and
it will make an impact on him. You couldn't have two more
opposite men at this stage. The young man Stephen and
the young man Saul of Tarsus. What is dividing
them is, the cross. It's like the two thieves,
one on either side of the cross of Jesus. One died as a believer,
one died as an unbeliever. You couldn't have
more opposites. It's the same with Steven
and Saul of Tarsus. They're divided by the cross. By chapter 9, that all changes. He is introduced here, Saul of
Tarsus, and from this chapter onward becomes the dominant
figure in the book of Acts. Because of his conversion,
and how he takes the gospel to the Gentiles. I smile when I say all that. I mentioned young
man and young man, because I am convinced,
that I always have been even as an older person now-- funny to hear myself say that [LAUGHTER] But Christianity has,
for the large part, always been a youth movement. Jesus died at age 33. Between 30 and 33, he
was doing his ministry. He attracted young men
as disciples around him who could be on the move. They're walking
all over that land. There was an
excitement, in part, because of the energy of youth. i say that, and I
also have to say that, when God does a
work-- and usually churches are planted by a young men
or young couples who go out and they start church. They have the energy
and the vision. They go out and do it. It's also known that
over time, if left alone, if left unchanged, that
churches historically age out. That is they, they get grayer
and unless you intentionally infuse it with youths, younger
people, young men like Saul of Tarsus who become Paul the
Apostle, and Stephen on fire, filled with the Holy Spirit. It just sort of ages out,
and grows old with time, and dies out. Any movement, if you want to
follow a biblical pattern, is always on the lookout for
those young men and women who are on fire for the Lord. I love when I can see it. I can detect the
spark in the eyes. It's like, man, I want
to serve the Lord. And there is always a question,
and there's always a desire, and there's always a hope, and
there's always an expectation. I love seeing that fire
in the belly, so to speak, and it's in Stephen,
no question. The sad part, and the part
that might make you question the wisdom of God--
though you shouldn't-- is that, so young with such
potential, so powerful, he dies at the end
of the chapter. His life is taken. He's the first martyr recorded
in history in the book of Acts. And yet, before you say,
such a waste, keep in mind it was that seed of
that young man's death, that I believe were the
goads that Jesus referred to. When he said, Saul, why
are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to
kick against the goads. I think the goads of conviction
at seeing a young man, filled with such conviction, willing
to die for his convictions, who indeed did die, and call out
and cry out on the Lord Jesus, is what took Saul over
the edge, at that moment of his conversion. Enough said with
the introduction. "Then the high priest said, 'are
these things so?'" He had just given a few words
in the Synagogue. He had powerfully preached
a message in part. He's going to do another one. He has taken now before The
Sanhedrin, the high priest, probably Caiaphas. Because charges have been
leveled against him, he says, are these things so, in other
words, how do you plead? Guilty or not guilty? I'll refresh your
memory, Stephen has been accused of
four counts of blasphemy in the previous chapter. We don't have to read back,
you remember, four counts. They said he
blasphemed against God. He blasphemed against Moses. He blasphemed against
the law of Moses. And he blasphemed against
the temple in Jerusalem. You can't blaspheme
more than that. You blasphemed against
everything blasphemable. He did it. Now it was a lie, because they
couldn't withstand his wisdom. He was so articulate, and
so gifted, and so wise, that nobody could out-argue him. He was just brilliant, and
filled with the spirit. When you can't win an argument
the old attack is an ad hominem attack, you attack the person. You make up lies. You start a slanderous report,
so four counts of blasphemy. The high priest, Caiaphas,
says, how do you plead? Are these things so? Here's what I like
about Stephen, I like a lot of
things about him. Stephen doesn't need much of an
opener, or much of an opening, to see that that
door is an open door. The question is,
are these things so? He could have
said, yes they are. Or no they're not, I'm not
blaspheming, and just stopped. But he doesn't. Some people would
hear this question, and say, that's not
an open door for me. I'm not going to preach here. The Lord has to reveal to
me that he wants me to share a strong, powerful witness. Somebody has to say, what
must I do to be saved? That is an open door. Stephen didn't need that. He just needs a little
question like, is this right? Bam, he's off and
running in the races. For 53 verses he starts going
back over the history of Israel from Abraham's call,
the giving of the law, the patriarchal period,
the temple building. You might wonder, if you're
familiar with his chapter, what on earth is he doing? Why is he talking
about these things? Here's why. It seems odd to give an
apologia, a defense, when your life is on the line. It could cost you your life. The reason is, because he has
been accused of those four things, he's going to go
over those four things. In verses 2-16, he's going
to talk about God, showing that he's not blaspheming God. In verse 17 on-onward,
around verse 42, he's going to address the law of
Moses and Moses the law-giver. Then he's going to talk
about the temple period and how, they are in
this great temple but, God doesn't require a temple. He's covering all of the bases
for which he has been accused. Again, we've only covered one
verse, I'm sorry, but I am so-- can you tell impressed by this
young man, and his delivery. So the high priest said,
"are these things so?" And he said, "brethren,
and fathers," --notice how respectful-- listen, "The God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Haran. " He was accused of
blaspheming God so, he calls God, the first
person he mentions is God. You say I'm blaspheming
God, listen to this fathers, brothers, the God
of glory appeared. That would set their minds
at ease, you would think. That little description
of God, the God of glory, is found nowhere in the
Bible except one other place, and that Psalm 92. Let me read it to you. I'm sorry Psalm 29, that's
a little bit of dyslexia. [LAUGHING] Psalm 29, "Give unto the
Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord
glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory to His name; worship the Lord in
the beauty of holiness. The voice of the Lord
is over the waters; The God of glory thunders". It's a very famous Psalm of
worship written by David. The only other usage of it,
is Stephen's usage of it, showing his familiarity with
that title in that Text. "The God of glory appeared to
our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
dwelt in Haran and said to him, 'Get out of your country
and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will
show you.', quoting Genesis chapter 12. "'Then he came out of the land
of the Chaldeans and he dwelt in Haran. And from there, when
his father was dead, he moved him to this land
in which you now dwell. And God gave him no
inheritance in it, not even enough to
set his foot on. But even when
Abraham had no child, He promised to give it
to him for a possession, and to his
descendants after him. He was a wanderer. He lived in tents. He didn't own any property. But God said, one, day this
will be the home of your people. You're going to have a son. He was childless, remember
Sarai, who became Sarah, was barren. He'll be a 100 years
old before he has Isaac, but God promised him children,
descendants after him. "But God spoke in this way,
that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they
would bring them into bondage and oppress them
four hundred years. 'And the nation to whom they
will be in bondage I will judge,' says God, 'and after
that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.",
now he's quoting Genesis 15. Just marching through
their history, knows it off the
top of his head. "Then he gave them the
covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot
Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day;
Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot the
twelve patriarchs. 'And the patriarchs,
becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him. and delivered him out
of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom
in the presence of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt; and made
him governor over Egypt and all of his house. I don't know if you've
ever caught this or not, in reading this
chapter, but here's what you need to catch. He's drawing some parallels,
he's doing it first with Josef then with moses He's
saying, you know, the very person God selected
to deliver his people Israel, was the very one the
patriarchal leaders rejected. The leaders of the nation of
Israel, The Eleven Brothers, rejected Joseph. Joseph was one God selected. So the one God selected, is
the one the nation rejected. He was rejected by his brothers. Now what he's doing, is
establishing a pattern. Your fathers did this,
the patriarchs did this. They killed the prophets,
they were against Moses, they were against Joseph. There is a pattern of the
nation rejecting the one God sends to deliver them. "Now a famine and
great trouble came over the land of
Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers
found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that
there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. So again, you're
going to follow this, you're going to
watch this, and I want you to look for
some of this language. Because, as the patriarchal
leaders, The Eleven Brothers, treated Joseph, so the nation
of Israel treated Jesus. "He came into his own, and
his own received him not." Same pattern of rejection. Joseph heard that there was
grain in Egypt verse 12, "he sent out our fathers
first", now watch this, "And the second time Joseph
was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became
known to the Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent and
called his Father Jacob and all his relatives to
him, seventy-five people. So Jacob went down to Egypt;
and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to
Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum
of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem." Do hear the language? They came first, but
it was the second time that they understood. That's Joseph. They didn't recognize him
until his second coming. They rejected him
at the first coming. They received him
and understood, this is our deliverer,
at the second coming. Stephen obviously knows
the prophet Zachariah, that they will weep
and mourn for those whom they have rejected. And they'll mourn for
him, as for an only son. You can see that parallel
that he is drawing. So verse 16, I mentioned, but
I want to point something out, "they were carried back to
Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum
of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem," Here's
what's a little confusing, Abraham isn't buried
in Shechem, but Shechem was the place that Jacob
bought a piece of land from the sons of Hamor,
the father of Shechem, in that place. Joseph, his bones were
brought back from Egypt, and placed in Shechem. Jacob's bones were
also taken back, but he was placed down
in the Cave of Machpelah. Machpelah, you
remember from Genesis, was the cave that Abraham
bought to bury his wife Sarah. If you go to that
area today called, Hebron, you will see the
Tombs of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob are buried there. What he's doing is telescoping
two burial events into one, because he's on trial. He could die, and he has
a lot of pressure on him. And for brevity,
just to shorten up his longest sermon in the book
of Acts, just a little bit. He telescope's two
burial events into one. " 'But when the time of the
promise drew near,' " verse 17, " 'which God had
sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied
in Egypt till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously
with our people, and oppressed our forefathers,
making them expose their babies, so that
they may not live.' " He's transitioned from the
patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to Moses. Why? Because they accused him
of blaspheming Moses, and blaspheming
the law of Moses. He takes a little time in
going through this period of The Giving of
the Law with Moses, because of the accusation. In effect, what he's
saying is, not guilty. Not guilty for blaspheming God. He's the God of glory. Not guilty for
blaspheming Moses, Moses received the law
from God at Mount Sinai. Verse 20 though, takes us to
the time of his childhood. "At that time Moses was born,
and was well pleasing to God;". Now, if you were to read the
account in the book of Genesis translated from Hebrew-- He is quoting the Old
Testament, but he's quoting the Septuagint
version, the Greek version of the scriptures. Because he's a
Greek-speaking Jew. But in the Hebrew,
translated into English, text of your Bible, it says
that Moses was a beautiful baby, a beautiful baby boy. I've always liked that
text, because just like the text in
the Gospel of John, that John wrote, and
John calls himself, the disciple Jesus loved. The Book of Exodus
was written by Moses. Moses want you to know,
that when he was a baby, he was a good-looking baby. [LAUGHTER] So here's Moses writing, and
he was a very beautiful boy. Because of that text,
there are traditions that have been passed down. One of the Jewish traditions
says that, Moses as a child was so striking in
his physical physique, his physical features, that as
a child when he would walk down the street, people would
stop and stare at him. Because he was just so
well-formed and fashioned. That's just hearsay. We don't know if that's true. The Bible says he was
beautiful as a baby. I don't know what that
means as an adult. He could've looked
gnarly an adult, but he was a beautiful baby boy. Here in the Septuagint, and
he's quoting that, he was, " 'well pleasing to God; and
he was brought up in his father's house for three months. But when he was set out,
Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as
her own son.' " Remember, the mom put the baby in that
little ark of bullrushes, and put him out
on the Nile River. And, pharaoh's
daughter took him. " 'Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians,' " so he was raised in
an Egyptian home. " 'and was mighty in
words and deeds.' " Here's the thing about Moses
and the period of history that Stephen is covering. There was a Pharaoh who did
not know the story of Joseph, did not appreciate the
background and the contribution of Joseph to Egyptian culture. He had a strategy to deal with
the Jewish population of Egypt, much like Hitler's
final solution. He thought, let's just kill
these babies when they're born. Their babies, let's get
rid of these baby boys, because they're
populating so fast. Eventually they'll
become slaves, but his final solution was to
kill them at birth, or shortly after birth. That's a horrible
period of history, but God was stirring
up his people in Egypt, and raising up a deliverer to
deliver them out of bondage. Again, Stephen is
drawing the parallel between Moses and Jesus. You'll see it unfold. " 'Now when he was
forty years old, it came into his heart
to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.' "
Moses didn't hear the call-- let me put pull that back-- didn't feel called, until
he was 40 years old. He wasn't 20-something,
he was 40, before he said I've got to
do something about this. Now he won't be used by God. He won't really receive
God's calling, until he's 80. You can take Moses's life,
we've told you before, and divide up into
sections of 40. For the first 40 years,
trained in all the wisdom and schooling of Egypt. For 40 years, he was trying to
make himself into something. For the next 40
years God takes him to the back side of the
desert, and shows him that he's nothing. The last 40 years,
God shows Moses that he can take nothing
and do something with it. And he becomes the most
powerful in his life, when he's just at the
end of his rope, totally surrendered to God
at an older age. But when he was 40 it
came into his heart to do something about it. When you think of
Moses, you probably think of an old guy
in a robe, with a kind of a tattered head scarf, an
old staff, and a gray beard. But you have to picture
him in his primary years as an Egyptian, that's
what he looked like. He probably went to the famed
Temple of the Sun, the finest institution in Egypt. There he would have learned
Egyptian hieroglyphics, the art and science of language
through pictures. Egyptian hieroglyphics,
he would have learned all the
various Canaanite dialects and languages, as
well as Egyptian conversation. So He was taught in
that, now, being in the royal family, adopted
by the daughter of Pharaoh, some think that it was this
Pharaoh that had no son, and so that Moses would
have been next in line to become the pharaoh of Egypt. What that means is, that Moses
was used to dough rolling in, man. He had cash on hand. He had all the wealth of Egypt,
the writer of Hebrews talks about the treasures of
Egypt, at Moses's disposal. If you want a more accurate
picture of Moses in his younger years, you have to
think of a young, a playboy type, with his
own boat, his own chariot, with his personalized license
plate, Pharaoh #2 maybe. [LAUGHTER] You know, this guy is just like
the coolest cat on the block, rolling in cash. He has it all, he has what
people could dream of. Which makes this choice, at
age 40, all the more dramatic. You don't have to turn there,
unless you feel called to, I already have a pre-marked. You can see by these
little yellow markers. I kind of cheat
before I get here. But in the book of
Hebrews, chapter 11, in the Hall of Faith, or
the Hall of Fame of Faith, it tells us about Moses. It says this, "by faith
Moses, when he was born, was hidden three
months by his parents, because they saw he
was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid
of the King's commandment. By faith Moses, when
he became of age, refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh's daughter. Choosing. OK, stop right there. He gave up all of his
education, all of his wealth, all of a status, next in
line for the throne of Egypt perhaps. He gave it all up. We're dying to know, when
you give that much up, what do you choose? What's better than that? Listen to what he
chose, he chose rather, "to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin." Why did he do that? I'm glad you asked. It says, esteeming, he
figured, he esteemed. He thought about it. He esteemed, "the
reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook
Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the King; for
he endured, as seeing Him who is in visible." From a worldly perspective, he
gave up everything got nothing. From a spiritual perspective,
he gave up nothing and got everything. Because his values are switched. I'm part of the people of God. I want to be in the will of God. Does it matter if I'm
in the Midianite desert? If I'm in the will of
God, that's better than being in Hawaii on the beach. Being anywhere beautiful, or
lovely, or enriched, outside of the will of God is
always a step down. Being in the will of God, if it
cost you and you suffer for it, is always a step up. That's the meaning of it. And that's how profound
it is when Stephen says, when he came of age, or
when he was 40 years, it came into his heart to visit
his brother and the children of Israel. And seeing one of
them, verse 24, " 'suffer wrong he defended, and
avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.'
" We're going through Chapter 1, 2, and 3 of Exodus. " 'And seeing one of
them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged
him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his
brethren would have understood that God would deliver
them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he
appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and
tried to reconcile them, saying, "Men, you are brothers;
why do you wrong one another?" But he who did
his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, "Who
made you a ruler and a judge over us?" Sounds a lot like what
they said to Christ. "Who made you a ruler
and a judge over us?" " ' "Do you want to kill
me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?" Then, at this saying
Moses fled.' " The next 40 years of his life,
" 'became a dweller in the land of Midian, where
he had two sons.' " So he flees from Egypt to
Northwestern Saudi Arabia, that's Midian, on the Western
shore of the Eastern leg of the Red Sea, in that area. He was there for 40
years in obscurity. I just want to
briefly touch on this. Moses thought he was ready. Man, I feel like
I need to do this, and I'm the guy to
deliver these people. I'm one of them. And so he set out to do it,
in the energy of his flesh, because he figured, I've
been to school, man. I've been to the
Temple of the Sun. Hello? Best school in town, thank you. Graduated with honors. Son of Pharaoh's daughter,
thank you very much. Number one or number two. Eventually number one. [LAUGHTER] He had all of the
training physically, but God is calling him
to his spiritual work, and if you try to do the work
of God, of spiritual work, in the energy of your flesh. Though that can contribute
to your gifting, if you try to do it alone
in the energy the flesh, you'll be a failure. He was refined, but
he was not ready. He had the BA degree, and the
Bachelor of Science degree, and the Master of Arts
degree, but God gives him the third degree. [LAUGHTER] And the third degree is
the BD degree, the backside of the desert degree. God has taken him to
school, old style. He's going to
learn from the Lord what it means to be a leader. I wonder what the headlines
of the Cairo Gazette read when Moses fled town. I mean he was so
well-known, so renowned. Next in line for some government
occupation, maybe the Pharaoh. Very wealthy, and he leaves,
and he goes to the desert to become a shepherd. Maybe the headline said,
boy born with silver spoon trades it in for wooden staff. Something like that,
that's sort of a headline. He trades in the silver
spoon status of wealth for the shepherd's staff,
the shepherd's crook, on the back side of the desert. " 'And when the forty
years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the
wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled
at the sight;' " I would too. " 'And as he drew
near to observe, the voice of the Lord
came to him, saying, "I am the God of your fathers-- the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, the God of Jacob." And Moses trembled
and dared not look. And the Lord said to him, "take
your sandals off your feet, for the place where you
stand is holy ground." ' " I can't tell you
how that verse has spoken to me over the years. When I complain about my
situation or my environment, maybe you woke up this
morning and you've recently moved to Albuquerque,
and think, I hate it here. Especially when it gets colder,
and the brown becomes browner. [LAUGHTER] And you start grumbling
and complaining. Here's the principle,
ordinary surroundings get lifted to extraordinary
status when God is present. It's heaven on earth if
God called you there. And I'll prove it to you, just
try to go somewhere God hasn't. And you'll go, oh, man,
where is that burning bush? Where is that
Midianite desert, man? Nothing looked like heaven as
much as that Midianite desert. So he's out in the
middle of nowhere but, hey you're on holy ground
Bubba, take those sandals off. It was a time of worship. What's up with the burning bush? Why a burning bush? An acacia bush I'm guessing,
because that was a desert shrub, a very thorny bush. There's an Acacia Bush, wispy
kind of branches, thorns on it, and there's fire in it,
but it's not consuming. And it's not turning
black or brown, or dying out, it just burning,
and burning, and burning. What's up with that? It could be as simple as
this, because I don't know. But, I'm guessing now. This is my guess. The burning bush was emblematic
of the presence of God, because the voice said,
you're on holy ground, take your shoes off. It was the Voice of
the Angel of God. A burning fire was
sometimes emblematic of the presence of God. Mount Sinai, there was fire,
lightning, and thunder. That was all emblematic,
symbolic, of the glory of God, the glory of the God of Glory. God was present in His pure
light, in His Holiness, and so fire becomes a symbol. Here is Moses, who
has burned out trying to do God's work in the
energy of his flesh. He has gone up in
flames, so to speak, and God is here to say, I'm
here to light your fire, dude. This burning bush represents
your life, not just My presence, but your
life in My presence. You're going to burn, and
burn, and not burn out, because I'm going to
infuse you, at an old age, and you're going to be
called into your older years, and you're going to
keep going to 120. You're going to burn,
but not be consumed. You're going to burn,
but not burn out. That's what I think
it it's emblematic of. I love the symbolism, I'm
going to rekindle your fire. God continues, and he
quotes that in verse 34, " 'I have surely seen the
oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their
groaning and I have come down to deliver them. And now, I will send
you to Egypt.' " That is one of my
favorite verses. That is such a sermon. I wish I could preach right now. It's so good. I think I preached one sermon
on this text, years ago, but it preaches itself. The outlines are built into it. It's just so good
how God put that. But, who cares if I can preach
a sermon or not, verse 35, " 'This Moses whom they rejected'
", now watch this again, he's drawing that
parallel with Christ, " 'This Moses whom
they rejected,' ", they rejected him
the first time, they'll receive him and
recognize him the second time, as, " 'Moses whom they rejected,
saying "Who made you a ruler and a judge?" is the one God sent to be a
ruler and deliver by the hand of the Angel who appeared
to him in the bush. ' " See the pattern? The pattern is, this
nation of Jewish people has always rejected its
profits and deliverers from the patriarchal,
through the time of Moses, throughout the Old Testament. He's setting this up is a
pattern, a pattern, a pattern. He's going through
their history. Here's something I should have
mentioned at the beginning and I didn't The Jews
love talking about-- their favorite
subject to talk about, the Jewish people as a nation-- themselves. Here's why. I don't mean that
in an arrogant way. I mean sincerely, because they
love tracing the work of God through the history
of their nation. To a Jewish person,
when you start talking about the history of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That that's their identity. Plus, to many of them,
that's their salvation. They believe they are saved
by their hereditary status and their story. And so, in going through
this historical narrative, everybody in the
synagogue would love it. They are all ears, because
they love hearing this story. By the way, this is
a pattern set up in-- I'm trying to remember-- Psalm 78 and Psalm 107. The Psalmist goes through
the history, laboriously, of some of the same highlights. Telling the same story. Passing it down to
the next generation. Here's a thought,
and I think it's a question I need to
answer, because I've had you ask me this question. He says, they rejected
Moses, they rejected Joseph, and he's going to say
they rejected Christ. You rejected Christ. You're a bunch of stiff necked
individuals, disobedient to God. He'll get pretty heavy
before they kill him. A lot of people
ask this question. If Jesus was the
Jewish Messiah, you would think that the
Jews would recognize him. If he's predicted
in the Old Testament as much as you say he
was, why didn't they recognize Him and receive Him? Now, some did. Most did not. They say, I can't believe
Jesus is the Messiah, because the nation of the Jews
would have recognized Him. Really? Not if you understand
their history. They never recognized
deliverers. They always killed the prophet. That's what Jesus said. He said this, in
Luke chapter 11, "you build the tombs
of the prophets, and your fathers killed them." That's your history. What he's doing is, striking a
death blow to traditionalism. The traditionalistic
philosophy that says, we respect the teachings
of our fathers, and our fathers believed this,
and our fathers did that, and we're thankful that
our fathers preserved this. Jesus comes along and
says, your fathers killed all of God's prophets. Which one did they not kill? Stephen is following
that argument. Up until now, they're all ears. In a minute they'll be
all hands on stones. " 'He brought them
out,' " verse 36, "after he had shown them the
wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea, in
the wilderness for forty years. This is that Moses, who said
to the children of Israel, quoting now, he's
pulling out another text. This time he is
quoting Deuteronomy 18. " 'The Lord your God will raise
up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.' " For some of you
it's fresh enough that you remember our
study in Deuteronomy 18. It wasn't too long ago. That was the prediction
Moses made before his death. I'm going to die,
but God's going to raise up a prophet like me. Now he, Stephen, is saying,
that prophet that he spoke about is none other than Jesus Christ. That is why, when John the
Baptist comes on the scene, they said, are you the Christ? No. Are you "that" prophet? That's the Deuteronomy
18 prophet predicted. He's quoting it, " ' Him you
shall hear.' " in verse 37. Now watch this. You want to see how much
Jesus and Moses are alike? Consider this. They tried to kill
Moses as a baby. They tried to kill
Jesus as a baby. Moses left the royal
position of the royal court to be a deliverer
among his people. Jesus left the royal position
of the royal court of Heaven, making himself of no reputation,
or pouring himself out to be among his people. Moses was rejected
the first time. Received and accepted
the second time. Jesus was rejected by his
people the first time. According to Zachariah he
will be received and accepted the second time. Moses became a shepherd. Jesus is called
the Good Shepherd. Moses was the mediator of the
covenant, The Old Testament, the old covenant Jesus is the
mediator of the new covenant. Incredible parallels. " ' God will raise up
a prophet like me-- Him you shall hear.' " That's
the prediction for the Jewish nation. Hey nation, hey Israelites. I, Moses, am kicking the bucket. I'm dying. I'm going to be dead here. I'm going to
vapor-lock pretty soon. But one day, God's going to
raise up a prophet like me. Him you shall hear. Stephen understands that
to be fulfilled in Christ. Verse 38, " 'This is he
who was in the congregation in the wilderness when the
angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, with our fathers, the one
who received the living oracles to give us, whom our fathers
would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they
turned back to Egypt, ' " remember all of the complaining
that Moses had to put up with? Why did you bring us out here,
to die in the wilderness? We want to go back to Egypt. There's that pattern
again, " 'saying to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us;
as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt,
we do not know what has become of him." ' " Do you see what Steven is doing? He is affirming his allegiance,
not only to God, but to Moses and to the law that Moses gave. That God gave the law, it
was mediated by angels, it was received by Moses,
it was for the nation. " 'And they made a
calf in those days, and offered sacrifices
to the idol, and rejoiced in the
works of their hands. Then God turned and gave them up
to worship the host of Heaven, as it is written in the
book of the Prophets. ' " Now quoting another
Old Testament prophet, a minor prophet, Amos. This guy is all over the place. He's good, " ' "Did you
offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during the
forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the
tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of
your god Remphan, Images which you
made to worship; And I will carry you
away beyond Babylon." ' " The God Moloch,
sometimes called Molek, sometimes called Milkom,
goes by a number of names, is a name for a variety of
different Canaanite gods. Let me sum it up by saying that. That makes it
easier to remember. Many different gods
of these cultures were called Malek or Moloch. It's similar to the
Hebrew term, Me- lech. Me- lech is king. It means ruler. King or. Ruler Moloch or Milkom
is said to refer to a specific number of gods. The most accurate
translation is, that he is the ruler of shameful deeds. Why is that? Part of the worship of
Moloch was the sacrificing of babies alive. Live babies. Your infant would be
placed on the red hot, or white hot arms of
a cast iron "god", and it would be heated
up to white hot. The baby, alive, was
placed on the arms until it was consumed
by fire and killed. Fried to death as
a form of worship. He is the ruler of shameful
acts, or shameful deed. Remphan is said to
be the God of Saturn. He was also worship as
one of the many deities. God said, I'm going to
give you up to these idols, and you'll go away to Babylon. " 'Our fathers' ", verse
44, " ' had the tabernacle in the wilderness,
as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it
according to the pattern that he had seen,' " God gave
them the blueprints. " ' Which your fathers,
having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua
into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God
drove out before the face of our fathers until
the days of David, who found favor before God
and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built
him a house. ' " Now he's talking
about the temple. Do you see his little outline? Let me tell you about the God
of glory, because you said, I am a blasphemer of God. I'm not. I love him. He's the God, your God, our God. You said, I blasphemed
Moses and the law. Let me tell you about the law. Let's go through that. You said, that I
blasphemed the temple. Now he's talking
about the temple era. Here's something interesting
about the temple. God never commanded
them to build it. I just want to throw that
out and let it settle, and sizzle a little bit. He did command them
to build one structure and that was the Tabernacle. Very humble, cloth structure. Very temporary. The temple was David's idea. God wouldn't let David build it. He said Solomon would
build it, and he did. The temple was great. They worshiped
God in the temple. It's wonderful to look
at the Temple Mount today and consider it. But God never ordered
them to build it. He was happy in a cloth tent. He was happy in the Tabernacle. So, a temple was built,
and sadly the Jews over-venerated the temple. I don't know if
you've ever perused some of the ancient
literature about what the Jews said about the temple. It's almost as if, we worship
God, and the temple as much as God. For example the
Mishnah said, he who has never seen Herod's
temple, has never seen a beautiful building. They talked about all these
superstitions about the temple. What's interesting about
that, is the one who built the temple, Solomon. When he dedicated
it second chronicles chapter 2 says, you made
the Heavens and the Earth, what kind of a temple am
I going to make for you? I can't make anything big
enough or grand enough for the God who inhabits Heaven
and Earth He brings that up. " ' Solomon built him a
house.' ", verse 48, " 'However, the Most High does
not dwell in temples made with hands,' " That's a direct
quote out of 2 Chronicles 2, spoken by Solomon. This guy knows his Bible. " 'as the prophet says,'
" now he's quoting Isaiah. " ' "Heaven is My throne,
earth is My footstool. What house will you build
for Me. says the Lord, And what is the
place of My rest? Has My hand not made
all these things?" ' " His historical part is done. The application part
of the sermon begins. This is where the people
listening to the sermon decide not to approach Stephen
afterwards with a handshake, and say, great sermon Stephen. That was awesome! But instead, I'm
going to kill you. You are not worthy to
live on this earth. And here's why, " 'You
stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!' " You don't
win friends preaching like that. You won't get a high-five and
a handshake after the service. We're not going to die in
the service, dude, you are. That was their idea. "You stiff-necked",
that sounds like Jesus. "Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! " You're all about the outward,
not about the inward. You know the woes of Matthew 23. Now stiff-necked
was a term Moses used to describe the
people of Israel. Stephen's using the word that
Moses, whom they rejected-- but no, the law of Moses. Moses! Moses! [LAUGHTER] Moses called y'all stiff-necked. Stiff-necked! He used stiff-necked in
Exodus 33 and Deuteronomy 9. And, "uncircumcised". Ouch! Telling a Jewish
person, who believes in the covenant of
circumcision, you're uncircumcised where you
should be circumcised, and that's on the inside. You're all about outward show. You are, " 'uncircumcised
in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy
Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you,' " Would you say
he's getting his point across? I've shown you the
pattern from patriarchal, through the mosaic
period, the legal period, and through the temple period. You've always rejected God. Your fathers always
rejected God. You are like your fathers. 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
foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now
have become the betrayers and the murderers, who
have received the law by the direction of angels
and have not kept it.' "When they heard these things,
" they applauded and said good job preacher. [LAUGHTER] "When they heard these things
they were cut to the heart," " that's a phrase that speaks
of conviction of heart, "and they gnashed at
him with their teeth." You know what gnashing is? Grinding. Grr. You know it's that
scowl, grumble. Your jaw is tense,
that's gnashing. "They gnashed at him
with their teeth. " This is a preview of
coming attractions. They are going to be
gnashing their teeth forever. Jesus said, Hell was a place
of eternal torment and gnashing of teeth. They're getting some practice. It's sad to think. "But he, being full
of the Holy Spirit." What a contrast. They're filled with
hate, filled with rage. He's filled with truth. He's filled with conviction. And he's filled with
the Holy Spirit. "Gazed into Heaven and saw,
" now watch this "the glory of God" Let me tell you
about the God of Glory. Wow, I see the glory of God! "And Jesus standing at
the right hand of God." Is there a contradiction? Because, we know from several
New Testament passages, Jesus ascended to Heaven and did
what at the right hand of God? Sat down. Sat down. A priest always sat down
when the work was done. Work is finished. To tell us, die on the cross. Payment has been made. It's done. I'm done. I'm sitting down. It's over. It's done, finished work. But he saw Jesus stand up. Do you know why? Welcome. Jesus stands up to
welcome the first martyr in Christian
history into Heaven. It's beautiful. I see Jesus, " 'the Son of
Man standing at the right hand of God!' " Verse 57, "Then they
cried with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran
at him with one accord". Does that sound like
a bunch of little kid? [MIMICS CHILD-LIKE NOISES] [LAUGHTER] "And they cast him out of
the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid
down their clothes at the feet of a
young man named Saul." Saul was so close to the
action, probably right up front, with a grin on his face as
they took him out to stone him. He probably played a key
role in the execution. When you go to
Jerusalem with us, there is a gate outside
the temple area called, Stephen's Gate, or Lion's Gate. It faces the Mount of
Olives toward the East. Stephen was in that court,
speaking to the Sanhedrin. They took him out of the city,
and that would probably have been the closest gate area. They stoned him. Jewish stoning-- I'm going
to make this really short-- wasn't simply picking up a few
rocks and throwing them at him. They would push him over a
10-foot precipice or higher, and try to have him be crushed
or splat on the ground below. If he's still alive,
then a large stone would be thrown at the
heart to kill the victim. If that didn't work you
keep piling stones on him till he's dead. That was the method
of execution according to the Jewish Mishnah. "And they stoned Stephen
as he was calling on God". I get choked up. "Saying, 'Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. ' Then he knelt down and
cried with a loud voice, 'Lord do not charge
them with this sin,' " Who does that remind you of? Jesus. Father forgive them, they do
not know what they are doing. Lord, don't lay this
sin to their charge. Praying, interceding for them. "And when he had said
this, he fell asleep." What happens to the
soul after death? Does it go to sleep? Is it immediately
conscious and active? When it says, he fell
asleep, what does that mean? That's the little
teaser for next time. To be continued. As we get into
chapter 8, we'll make mention of the
"sleeping" of Stephen, and the Resurrection event of
the spirit of Saul of Tarsus. Father thank you for the ability
to cover this whole chapter. Thank you for that grace. Thank you, Lord, that we could,
see this impressive young man who was a servant. He is known. One of the Seven, selected,
appointed by the early church to give out food and
supplies to widows, but so capable in the word. So filled with the spirit. So filled with conviction. They couldn't withstand his
wisdom, as we see in chapter 6, and his face emanated the
glory of the God of Glory while he spoke. Only to see it, as
he was on his way to Heaven, as he was leaving
this earth, Jesus standing up to welcome him. Father I pray for
every single person. No matter what they
have gone through, are going through, dealing
with in their life. Whatever struggle, whatever
hardship, whatever heartache, whatever anticipation. That their life would be
lived for the God of Glory, and in so doing, they would be
able to taste and experience the glory of God. In Jesus' name, Amen! [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit Calvaryabq.org. [MUSIC CONTINUES]
