2 and 7:51-53 The glory of God appeared
Acts 7:1 · Vern Peterman · Jun 25, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 23
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492661133124

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Great to see the kids here, even if they have to leave, right? So, that's great. We're going through Acts chapter 7. In this case, we're going to be doing a kind of an overview of the middle of the passage and the reading as we had it from Acts 7, verses 1 and 2, and then going to verses 51 through 53. So, just to kind of bring ourselves up to speed here, Acts 1 through 7, we had the selection of seven servants, kind of proto-deacons, if you will, selected and then appointed by the apostles in order to serve those in the church body, particularly the widows. In Acts 6, 8 then, we had the statement, here is among the seven, Stephen, who is performing great wonders and signs and filled with the Holy Spirit, full of grace and power.

And so we have a kind of a summary statement introducing Stephen. In verses 9 through 11, so Acts 6, 9 through 11, we have then the opposition that arises from the synagogue of the freedmen. And so these, in arguing with Stephen, in trying to overcome him with argument, are unsuccessful, so that they kind of turn up the heat and handle it a different way. So those in the synagogue of the freedmen have Stephen is then taken before the Sanhedrin, also called the Council.

And we have this here on the top of the first page as to the location. This is the Chamber of Hewn Stone, which is on the south central part of the middle temple there, the inner temple. And so he is brought before them there. This is what it appears like, and you'll have 35 members on one side, 35 members on the other, in roughly a horseshoe kind of shape.

The high priest there at the center, and then the accused, which in this case would be Stephen, appearing before them, the high priest, and with all these other members of the council around him. So that would be the appearance there. So in Acts 6, 12 through 15, which we looked at previously, we then find the false accusations against Stephen. Those false accusations are actually distortions of things that have been previously brought out, and very similar to the false accusations that were made against Christ, as a matter of fact. So just in looking at this, we have Stephen who is full of grace and power, and we're going to see what grace and power looks like.

In Acts 6.5, we saw he was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 6.8, full of grace and power.

And Acts 7.55, full of the Holy Spirit again, as we will soon see.

Acts 6.8, he was performing great wonders and signs among the people, and he was also vigorously opposed by the Jews of the synagogue of the freedmen. So here's Stephen of this great spiritual character drawing opposition. So he's charged by the devious efforts of the synagogue of the freedmen. He was arrested and then falsely charged with speaking against both the temple and Moses.

Two very serious crimes in the Jewish perspective on things. These were things that if demonstrated or proven brought capital punishment. So they were bought before the council, also known as the Sanhedrin. This 35 on each side headed up by one high priest.

Stephen will now be given the opportunity to speak in his defense. He's being charged with blasphemy. That's what this accusation against, okay, you're going to tear down the temple or threaten to do so, and you're speaking against the law of Moses. Those are blasphemy. Those are capital punishment charges. So these are very serious charges that are being brought against him.

So here's Acts 7, 1 and 2. The high priest said, Are these things so? And he, that is Stephen, said, Hear me, brethren and fathers. The glory of God appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. So this high priest is still Caiaphas for probably about another year and a half after this time. And the, are these things so, is essentially asking the question, are these charges true, right? We'll take a more careful look at that in a minute here. So hear me, Stephen responds, hear me brethren.

This was a common way of referring to fellow Jews. Peter, earlier on in the book of Acts, we saw called his fellow Jews brethren. So it's not a mixing The church, in fact, called people within the church brethren as well, but it's not a mixing of those two, even though it's the same word. Fathers, that is acknowledging that there's seniority and authority. This would imply that Stephen is probably a younger fellow than many of them.

And then referring to Father Abraham, he was a selected Gentile while in Ur of the Chaldees. Interesting, there's a story among the Jews that goes like this. Really, if you think about it, here's Abraham who was actually a Gentile. God selected him to be the head of the Jewish people and nation through Isaac and then through Jacob. And the Jewish story goes like this, that Abraham's father ran an idol shop in the city of Ur, right? And so one day, his father had to be out of the shop for a while, and he left Abraham in charge. And as the story goes, when the father came back, he was just completely distressed and dismayed to find every single one of the idols completely destroyed except for one. And the father looked over at Abraham, and Abraham said, that one did it.

That's at least the way the Jewish story goes. And so here is this, the glory of God, the God of glory rather, appeared to Abraham. And one of the things that we bring out here, glory, and we'll keep coming back to this, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. So when you say the God of glory, that glory is the radiant essence of who God is. So it's personal. It's not a commodity. You can't, you know, cut off a slab and say, okay, here's five pounds of glory, right? It's not a commodity. It's personal. It is God's character.

So the high priests asked this question, are these things so? One of the points we've made is that this took place in April 35 AD, so it was actually two years to the month after Christ had been crucified, buried, and resurrected. You have as a supplement on your way out to the right on the cabinet there a kind of a two-page listing of here's the chronology of things through the book of Acts. And so this has been two years.

Caiaphas is still high priest. He's probably just going crazy because he thought he'd gotten rid of Jesus and now this thing is getting worse and worse, right? So this is Caiaphas. He's the son-in-law of Annas who used to be the high priest. Caiaphas was high priest from 18 to 36 AD, the year after this set of events takes place here, about a year and a half.

So after hearing these charges against Stephen, which we know are trumped up, they were distortions of the truth. In other words, there was some truth behind it, and then they were distorted in order to fabricate them into claims of capital punishment. So there were false charges, so he asked in brief, are these things so? We would expand that to say, are these charges that these men have made against you true?

That's essentially what he's asking. So, one of the things that we recognized on the farm is when something wasn't quite right, we saw that it wasn't quite right, you know, and we recognized that. And so anyway, now believe it or not, my cousin actually did something very close to this.

What he did was he went out and he put the saddle on. I said, do you know how to put that saddle on? Oh yeah, I know how to put the saddle on. But the one step he hadn't quite taken. So anyway, the horse he was getting ready to mount was a horse that had been a racehorse in its earlier years and loved to run.

And so only minutes later, as I'm looking, here's the horse just galloping by with my cousin on the underside of the horse, holding onto the saddle for all that he could. And so anyway, it was not quite like this, but close. So anyway, but there's a recognition something isn't quite right here, right? And of course, my cousin realized something's not quite right either. Fortunately, when he dropped off of the horse, he couldn't keep holding on. The horse was very polite and jumped over him. So anyway, it turned out to be funny, which was good, right?

But the thing is, here's Stephen, and at Stephen, you know, you would think, okay, I'm going to go in here, and you would think, anyway, that he would say, I'm going to go in here and show that these accusations are false. And I'm going to call up two or three witnesses, as I'm entitled to do, and they're going to testify in my support that these accusations are false. That's what you'd think he would do.

But what he does is look at a larger problem that these guys have. And in fact, the Jews have had for centuries. So how will he respond to these false charges? These charges are serious. They could bring the death penalty. So they're not to be taken lightly. So did he respond by laying out the truth regarding the charges?

That he wanted to destroy the temple, which of course he did not. And that he spoke against Moses, which he didn't either. You see, Stephen could have avoided all this. Imagine earlier on he could have just kind of softened his talk with those of the synagogue of the freedmen. Just kind of soften it a bit. Don't get him so upset, right? He could have softened it, couldn't he? He could have simply proved that the charges against him were false, bringing the witnesses, getting the witnesses to testify in his favor, get a vote that he's not guilty. Get out of this thing. Isn't that the human inclination? How do I get out of this? How do I get out of this mess?

So here's the Stephen strategy. He goes back to the very beginning of the issue, starting when the glory of God, when God appeared to Abraham, back when Abraham was still living in Ur of the Chaldees, way back then. So Dr. Luke records for us in detail, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Stephen strategy. What's Stephen going to do and say?

He spoke as he was filled with the Holy Spirit. So what he's saying here is not a big oops. Oops, I said the wrong thing. Everybody felt like, uh oh, I've said the wrong thing. That's not what he's doing here. He knew that the Lord wanted him to say these things. So Here's how we went about it.

He laid out how God acted in the lives of Abraham. This is Acts chapter 7, verses 2 through 7. He then referred to Abraham as the father of Isaac and Jacob, Acts 7, 8. So he went back to, here's how it all started. Here's how we began as a nation and as a people. And he's referring to fellow Jews as he says these things. He then refers to Jacob and his sons, including specifically naming Joseph there.

Acts 7, 8 through 16, of course, as they go into Egypt and Joseph is given a place to essentially rescue the family. He then speaks at length about Moses and Aaron. This is Acts 7, 17 through 43, and he talks actually mostly about Moses and Aaron in this speech before the Sanhedrin. He spoke about the tabernacle, and it's interesting, this is what Stephen started off with, and it's actually what the author of Hebrews makes the most reference to is this tabernacle, which was out in the wilderness under Moses and Aaron. and then was continued on in the land of Israel until the time of Solomon.

David had wanted to build the temple as it was, but was Told by God, no, you can't do that. Instead, Solomon was brought in to build the temple. Here would be a graphic presentation of what the tabernacle would look like. Can you imagine, you know, here you are, everybody's camped out by tribe around this tabernacle, right? And imagine, you know, the mother and dad telling the kids to go to sleep. Shalomo! Go to sleep! You know, I can't, there's this great big fire out there roaring. Can you imagine what that was like? So anyway, here they are out there, and there's this pillar of fire by night out here over this tabernacle, right?

And then as Solomon comes into power, he's granted the rights to build the first temple. So he in fact does that, and this is what Stephen mentions. Now, he spoke about Moses the most in this discourse, as we laid out the number of verses. In all that, he did not speak ill of Moses at all. He didn't speak ill of the law of Moses at all. He didn't do so in any way or in any time. He didn't do that before this time or in his statement before the council. So was he guilty of speaking against Moses and the law?

No. Stephen also spoke about the tabernacle that was turned into a temple by Solomon in that he did not say anything about the future destruction of the temple or anything bad about the tabernacle of the temple. So at least in what he said, there was nothing with which he could be charged. He certainly didn't confirm, yes, these charges are true, but in fact made a positive statement, no, they are not true. So here's what Stephen, however, did say.

What he did say about the tabernacle and temple was that these were rightly constructed exactly as God had directed. under Moses and Solomon, all to specifications. But Stephen made very clear, he quoted Isaiah chapter 66 verses 1 and 2, God does not need a building made by human hands in which to live. His hands made everything. So he didn't speak against the temple, he spoke God doesn't need this building that you guys are all obsessed with, right? It's not that building it was wrong.

As a matter of fact, everything was made to specification. But you guys are obsessed with it as if God needs it. As if you're doing God a favor by giving him a house to live in, right? Instead, God is the one who made everything, including all the materials from which the temple was made.

Along with these accounts, Stephen also noted the times of Israel's rebellion and idolatry. He included in that the rejection of Moses as ruler and authority. He included Aaron making the golden calf out in the wilderness. He quoted Amos 5, 26 and 27. He spoke of the Jews' idolatrous worship of the pagan deities Molech, or sometimes pronounced and spelled Moloch, and Rompha. Molech was a god to whom they sacrificed children. This was out of the Canaanite rituals.

The Sanhedrin was rightly prepared to hear Stephen tell them. So I'll tell you guys a great Jewish joke and then I've got to go, right? A rabbi, a priest, and a Levite walked into a bar. Uh-oh, a bar mitzvah. No. No, anyway, no. He didn't do that, did he? He didn't do something to kind of lighten things up. Instead, what did he do? He, yes indeed, did have some things to say to them. It wasn't any Jewish jokes.

Here's Acts 7.51. It says, You men are stiff-necked, Now, notice he didn't just say, they were, you men, right here, these guys, all you guys deciding my fate.

Your stiff neck and uncircumcised in heart and ears and always resisting the Holy Spirit, you're doing just as your fathers did. The uncircumcised in heart, we'll see some Old Testament passages that include that. The Old Testament in multiple places refers to them being uncircumcised in heart.

Now, so what is circumcision? Circumcision was a ritual the Jews were to do to the male infants on the eighth day. It was to indicate God touching and impacting the person at very deep level, right, and having a sensitivity to God. At least that's what it was supposed to picture.

They were always resisting the Holy Spirit, not just right now, but from Old Testament times on into now, just as your fathers did, starting from the time out in the wilderness. So, we have, of course, the situation, their stiff neck, and massage therapy is not going to fix it. It's not that kind of stiff neck. your stiff neck just like your forefathers.

So, rather than disproving the false accusations, what did Stephen do? He did not attempt to disprove those false accusations against him. Really not at all, did he? Stephen's strategy was to get at the root cause of the problem that these Jews had. So, they were going to judge him, correct? What did he do? He judged them, and he pronounced God's judgment upon them. The problem is very similar to the spiritual problems the Jews had for centuries, which is why he could refer to all these things. Stephen went to the source and heart of their very, very large problem. You see, they have a serious heart, and as a matter of fact, as he puts it, an ear condition, right? They have a very serious heart condition, the exact same as the Jews have often had in generations past.

Furthermore, they're all stiff-necked, spiritually speaking. Even at an advanced age, they are uncircumcised in heart. When was circumcision to take place? Eight days. Here they are many days past that, and they're still uncircumcised in heart. He tells them they chronically, you are always, they chronically resist the Holy Spirit.

That is a huge issue. Here's an Exodus 32, 7 through 9. This is what he's referring to. And you can see something similar in the next chapter, Exodus 33, 3. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, Go down at once, for your people, whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Here is Moses up on Mount Sinai, and imagine, you know, there's no cell phones around, so he somehow hears from the Lord, right? They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it. and said, This is your God, O Israel, who brought you from the land of Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Obstinate people. This is what he's referring to as stiff-necked. Here's Leviticus 26, 40-43. Here is later on. Leviticus is still within the law of Moses.

If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers and their unfaithfulness, which they committed against me also in their acting with hostility against me, I also was acting with hostility against them to bring them into the land of their enemies, where if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob. I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham as well. And I will remember the land. for the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinance, and their soul abhorred My statutes." Uncircumcised heart. Here's a few other passages. This from Isaiah 63, 10. But they, that is Israel, rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. This you can also make note of, not in your handout, if you like.

Ephesians 4.30, where the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Ephesus about grieving the Holy Spirit. And notice what grieves the Holy Spirit? Rebellion. Rebellion.

Here is Jeremiah 6.10, To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed, And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

And you can write in there Hebrews 5.11 as another New Testament passage where the closed ears, dull of hearing phenomenon is taking place among the Hebrews.

And then Jeremiah 9.25 and 26, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord.

I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised. Egypt and Judah and Edom and the sons of Ammon. So here you have Jews and Gentiles all the same, right? And Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples. I think Nancy does that to me. Anyway, for all the nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. Here's the uncircumcision of heart.

That's made reference to again. So this is a frequent Old Testament passage from early on on into much later Ezekiel 44 7 and 9 says some similar kinds of things So here's Acts 7 52 and 53 which one of the prophets did your father's not? Persecute they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you have now become And you have received the law as ordained by angels, yet did not keep it." Whoa, okay?

These are potent, powerful words. So these are Old Testament prophets. These are prophets all the way through Malachi in the Old Testament. This is your fathers, who are the Jews, who are predecessors in their lineage there. Those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, these are the Old Testament prophets, the lineage, they had announced the coming of the Righteous One who was Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is called the Righteous One, Isaiah 53.11. This is the passage we'll be looking at fairly shortly. Isaiah is the one who speaks seven centuries in advance about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And so we'll be taking a closer look at that in the weeks to come here.

There are murderers guilty of death under the law. He doesn't just say, you killed him. They say, he says, you are murderers. You are guilty of his death, guilty of death yourselves under the law. So, of course, these guys are so excited they give him a standing ovation, right? They just love what he has to say. Is that what happens? Not so much. They're not excited about it.

And these words that Stephen has to say about the prophets, these are very similar to what Jesus had already said in Matthew, among these same leaders. Matthew 5.12, in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, and Matthew 23, 31, 34, and 37.

So you testify against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. About the previous announcements that he made reference to, the prophets had previously given many prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, who is, he calls, the righteous one.

These very men, these guys right here, including Caiaphas, that he's standing before, who says, are these charges true? These very men betrayed him and murdered him and he says it outright. You guys did it. They had planned it. Caiaphas was the one who came up with the idea and spoke it out first.

We have on the road to Emmaus, which is recorded for us in Luke 24, 13 through 35, on the road to Emmaus the Lord spends quite a bit of time going through all the different previous announcements, prophecies, some of them centuries, many centuries old, of Christ's first coming.

Things told centuries in advance. We have, as another supplement available to you, so we have as an additional handout a listing of a number of different prophecies, not all of them, but I think it's very well done, a listing of the prophecies of Christ's first coming. I think about seven pages of them and their fulfillment in the New Testament. This is one of the great supports for the truth and integrity of scripture that for centuries the coming of Christ was foretold and then fulfilled down to the finest detail. And this is what Jesus had been telling the disciples on the road to Emmaus on the day in which he was resurrected.

Then from Moses who received the law by the mediation of angels on down to this time, and that's recorded for us in Galatians 3.19, Hebrews 2.2, and also in this very chapter.

These men had been the means by which the loopholes and great distortions of the law were devised. Now to develop a mathematical relationship, which I know all you engineers and mathematicians and technical people will appreciate, the more laws you have, the more loopholes you have. So laws and loopholes are proportional. So you get that. The main idea is these guys had themselves been instrumental in generating and propagating these loopholes.

I can swear and swear something is true, but if I swear by certain things, I don't have to tell the truth. And so that would be an example of some of the loopholes. They would say, well, you can't go more than a Sabbath day's journey. So they would devise ways of going more than a Sabbath day's journey by extending their household. All the loopholes from these things allowed them to not respond to what the Law of Moses actually required.

So here's Stephen. He's not done and they're not done. We're going to take a look at that this next week here. But ponder this. Here is Stephen. filled with the Holy Spirit. You would think at times, well, that would make him say very nice, gentle things. Yeah, at times. But at times, it might make him say something that's harder to swallow, right? And in this case, it's very clear from beginning to end that what he is saying is exactly what the Lord has in mind. Something else to look at, too, is that being filled with the Holy Spirit will not excuse us from difficulties, right? Are we to walk in the Spirit? Are we to be filled with the Spirit? Yes, and we'll talk more about that before long as well.

But those should not be looked upon as, boy, if I do all the things right, then that'll make everything smooth. It may very well not make things smooth. And so that's a key thing for us to look at. And finally, what we're going to be seeing is that he is going to be the first and primary example there in the church of beholding the Lord. And so we'll take a further look at that. We all with open face, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed. as a work of the Holy Spirit into his image. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage.

Stephen is such a great example of so many things, and yet at the same time he's also a great example of walking in fellowship with you, walking in dependence upon you, does not guarantee us a smooth path, does not guarantee us an easy way forward. And as a matter of fact, it is not necessarily a way out, but it may be the way home. And we pray just as we continue to look at the life of Stephen and even at the end of his life, that you would bring home those lessons to us, to our hearts and our minds. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.