Sunday, July 20, 2014

The Persecuted Church: Living by Faith in a Faithless World - Acts 7:1-53

The Persecuted Church: Living by Faith in a Faithless World
Acts 7:1-53
Introduction:  I remember being at a Christian Ed meeting some time ago. We met in the nursery since it allowed some young mothers on the committee to be at the meeting while their kids played. I remember when Mary Ann sat in the rocking chair, one of the little toddlers went over to a box, pulled out a little piece of carpet, laid it on the floor right in front of Mary Ann and sat down. It took a moment to figure out what was happening, but that is where Mary Ann sits when she is going to tell the kids a Bible story, so he just assumed it was Bible time!  Everyone loves a good story! One of the books I have in my library is entitled, “He Gave Us Stories,” by a scholar named Richard Pratt. That book was translated into Portuguese, and in Portuguese the title presents an interesting ambiguity, since “History” and “Story” are translated today by the same word, “histÓria.” Most of the Bible, Old and New Testament, is narrative, it’s history, and it focuses on God’s unfolding plan.
The Story of God is written in human history, and it includes God’s people, the great cloud of witnesses who lived by faith, who took God at His word.  Put that into the context of the New Testament, the Book of Acts, and the speech of Stephen in Acts 7, it’s clear that the message is a call to believe God, specifically, to believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of God and the very presence of God among His people. It is true that Stephen is on trial, and on one level he is giving an answer to the charges that were brought against him. On another level however, his accusers are on trial as well. Their response to God’s story will reveal the truth about their hearts and show beyond question the path they are on in terms of their eternal destiny. 
I do want to be sensitive to the context here, and so I am saying it is the path they are on that is revealed, not necessarily their destiny. We have a powerful reminder in this context that as long as we have life, it may be that our eyes will be opened, our heart will be changed, and we’ll turn in faith to God. Saul of Tarsus is a part of this story. That is the same Saul who is later known as the Apostle Paul. Here he stands with Stephen’s accusers approving what was happening. A couple chapters over in Acts, he is brought into a dramatic confrontation with the resurrected Christ and his life is changed. Do you have someone you have been sharing Christ with that seems determined in their unbelief? Do they seem like an “impossible case”? God may have a plan for them that is yet to unfold, so stay faithful, keep praying, and see what God may yet do!
Stephen was on trial for his life. He was charged with blasphemy (6:11). The issue was that he was preaching Jesus. Stephen responds by retelling some highlights of the story of redemption, beginning with Abraham.  It is a powerful message since they really couldn’t dispute what he was saying, the actions of their forefathers revealed the depravity of humans despite God’s repeated efforts to reveal himself to them.  You can almost see the leaders reluctantly nodding and agreeing with Stephen, “Yes, our fathers were a stiff necked people!” And then, he makes the application: “You are just like your fathers!”
Stephen mentions at the beginning and end of his speech the glory of God, first God’s glory was revealed to Abraham (v.2) and finally to Stephen even as he is being put to death (7:55,56).  Paul, in his letter to the Romans, reminds us of Israel that “…they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.  5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all…” (Rom 9:4,5).  The glory of God led them through the sea and through the wilderness. God’s glory descended on the Tabernacle, was revealed on Mt. Sinai, and filled the Holy place of the Temple.  Because of unbelief the glory of the Lord departed for a season, until in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son… Of him John said, “We have seen His glory, glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth…” (John 1:14). Stephen is standing strong in the faith, speaking only the truth, testifying to God’s grace revealed in history, and so giving God the glory. That faithful witness brings glory to the Lord.
The Big Idea: God is glorified when his people live by faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

I. Take God at His Word: Abraham (7:1-8). God told Abraham to go, and he went. He believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
            Notice first of all that Stephen addresses his accusers with empathy and humility: “Brothers and fathers…” Rather than emphasizing their theological differences at the start, he begins by calling them “brothers.” He is putting himself in the same boat with them, affirming their common heritage and history. They were Jews, like him, they had the same blood, and they acknowledged the history of God’s dealing with the Jewish people.  By calling them “fathers” he seems to be acknowledging with respect the Sanhedrin and their role as religious leaders of the nation. “Listen…” i.e., “hear me out.” He will appeal to their common faith and also the history of their people of rejecting the deliverers God had given them. The facts were the facts, it was their history, and Stephen will use that history to explain the current situation.
 Stephen begins by saying the God of glory appeared to Abraham and spoke to him. That passage, starting in Genesis 12, is so familiar that we maybe take for granted how significant that was. God’s revelation was more generalized before that, but now He was focusing His promise on a man and his descendants. We see God in his sovereignty revealing himself to that human, not only in theophany as he appeared to him, but by speaking to him. The God who is, the great I AM, the creator and sustainer of the universe, has chosen to use human language to reveal himself to us, and to show us what he wants from us. We have a fuller revelation than Abraham had. We can read in the Bible of God’s work in the past, His instructions on how to live, His plan for the future. We have the Light of His full revelation in Jesus and the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Abraham had a much more limited revelation, but he heard the Word of God, and he stepped out in faith, leaving what he knew for what he did not yet know, because God said to go. 
            It is certainly true that Abraham did have to learn to trust God, and his faith had some ups and downs along the way. But God was teaching him, building his faith, enabling him to believe, to trust. He went out in faith, but then was afraid when a famine caused him to go down to Egypt and he lied about Sarah his wife for fear of the men in the land (and does the same thing a second time in chapter 20!). He showed faith when he trusted God and took what was left when Lot walked by sight and pitched his tent toward Sodom. He believed God when he was promised a multitude of descendants, then he doubted, and agreed to take Hagar as his concubine. Finally, when God tells him to sacrifice his promised Son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah he is ready to do the unthinkable, to the point of lifting the knife over his son, until God intervenes…   The lesson is to believe, God is trustworthy, we can take Him at His word. Because God is glorified when his people live by faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

II. Trust God when we don’t understand: Joseph (7:9-16). The son’s of Jacob, the patriarchs of the twelve tribes, were not all, at all times, great examples of living by faith.  Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, but God was with him. The story of Joseph emphasizes God’s sovereignty and His grace.
            Stephen reminds his own accusers that the patriarchs became envious and sold Joseph their brother into Egypt (7:9). These were the men to whom every Jew could trace their family tree – they betrayed their own brother out of jealousy and lied to their father, saying he was dead. Stephen is making it clear that their ancestry is not a cause for being prideful, quite the contrary their fathers were far from righteous. In fact they had acted cruelly and deceitfully to the one God had chosen. Yet we see grace in the story of Joseph and his brothers. What set them apart was God’s sovereign choice and his providential hand working to accomplish His good purpose.
             Stephen is saying that the partriarchs, the sons of Jacob (ex-Joseph), rejected the one that God had chosen to deliver them. Even so, God in His grace worked to accomplish that deliverance through the one who He had chosen. Does that sound familiar? These people did same with another chosen Son, Jesus, by rejecting Him and delivering Him up to be killed. Even so, through His death God saved a remnant, chosen by grace, who would repent and believe.
            Joseph trusted God, even when it seemed that His world was falling apart around him.  Jesus had trusted the Father, in the Garden and to the Cross and the grave. And now Stephen, even as he spoke to his accusers, was trusting God.  God is glorified when his people live by faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

III. Obey God’s Commands: Moses (7:17-43).  God revealed himself to Moses and Moses obeyed God, even as the people committed idolatry.
            One of the specific charges that were brought against Stephen was that he spoke against Moses, so it is not too surprising that he spent the biggest part of his message talking about Moses. Moses was probably the most respected and revered of the human leaders God had given to Israel. He spoke to God face to face, he met God on the mountain and saw his glory pass by, he was used by God to lead the nation out of Egyptian bondage, and he received the Law by direct revelation from God. Moses authored the first five books of the Bible, the Torah. He was the paradigm prophet, the one to who all subsequent prophets of God would be compared and ultimately, a promised “Prophet like Moses,” the Messiah, would come at the right time to deliver the faithful remnant of Israel.
            With all of that, no wonder the nation held Moses in such high esteem!  Yet, like Joseph, Moses did not always have such an easy time with the sons of Israel. After God brought them out of Egypt, they had times of doubting and they began to grumble against God and against Moses and Aaron. Whether it was about water or food or the enemies in the land, the doubts and complaints had consequences.
            God revealed the stipulations of the covenant to Moses and the people committed themselves to obey, yet the history of Israel from Joshua, through the judges and kings of Israel, the faithfulness of God and the cycles of unbelief by the people and their leaders, and the consequences of that unbelief, explains the history of Israel.
            Remember the Word of Jesus, “If you believed Moses you would believe Me, because he spoke of me” (John 5:46). Trust and obey. John put it this way: “He who believes in the Son has life. He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, for the wrath of God abides on Him” (John 3:36). True faith will show itself by obedience, not to the letter of the Law, but to the Spirit of the Law. God is glorified when his people live by faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
IV. Worship the God who is Present: the Temple (7:44-53). Another charge brought against Stephen was that He preached that Jesus would destroy the Temple. Stephen answered that they seemed more concerned about their traditions and the physical building than about knowing and worshipping the One true God, the Great I AM, the God who spoke the universe into existence.
God is the creator of all things and omnipresent (44-50). Yes, Moses and Aaron mediated between God and the people in the wilderness, and the priests continued in that role later. The tabernacle housed the ark of the covenant in the center of the camp and it was the place where the Shekinah glory descended and was present, above the mercy seat and between the cherubim. Later the Temple was built in Jerusalem and took the role of the Meeting Place, the House of God. But Stephen quotes the oracle of the Lord to Isaiah which made it clear that the Creator of the Universe is not contained or limited by a physical building, He is omnipresent.
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?' (Acts 7:48-50; see Isa 66:1,2a).
Remember the Latin phrase used by the Reformers, Coram Deo, living before the face of God. That is living by faith. Trusting that God is transcendent, He is infinite and omnipresent, not limited to a particular place or building.  See He is also imminent, right here with us, always present, always watching.
And our Hearts are revealed by our response to Him (51-53). Stephen turns the tables on His accusers and charges them with unbelief, a lack of faith in the God the Scriptures which is revealed by their response to Jesus.
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…” (Acts 7:51-52).
 Stephen told the story of the fathers and he only spoke the truth. You can almost read between the lines and by their silence imagine the leaders nodding their heads in reluctant agreement as he tells the story of God’s revelation and Israel’s struggle to believe and trust Him. “Yes, the fathers were a stiff necked bunch weren’t they?” But then Stephen makes the point: they had rejected the prophets God sent, and the prophets spoke of the coming of Messiah, Jesus. Now you handed Him over to be killed! You are just like your fathers!  Ok, if you are taking notes on how to be an effective witness for the Lord, this may not be the best approach for everyone! But at this moment, in this situation, it is clear the Stephen said exactly what God wanted him to say.
      “…you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it” (Acts 7:53).  Stephen says on the one hand you claim to venerate the Word, yet on the other hand you don’t obey what it says. Faith means trusting God, taking Him at His Word. If we really believe that God is who he claimed to be and that He has spoken, we will want to obey what He says.
What is God saying to me in this passage? God is glorified when his people live by faith and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage? The glory of God was revealed to humans. Moses met God on the mountain, and when he descended his face glowed with the glory of God’s presence. The prophet Isaiah also got a glimpse of the throne room of heaven, the seraphim circling the presence of the King of Kings. Some of the disciples saw Jesus transformed on the Mount of transfiguration. Stephen, his face like that of an angel, sees heaven opened, and Jesus standing at the Father’s right hand. When John wrote his prolog to the Gospel he said, “We have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Have you come here today to meet with Him and to Worship Him? He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, and He is worthy to be praised. Do you recognize His presence, now, and as you go about your life through the week, choosing to live Coram Deo, before the face of God? He is glorified as we bring the message of his grace to the world. Stephen spoke the truth, knowing what the consequences might be. Most of us will not be on trial for our life, but lives are at stake. The lives of those around you who desperately need to know Him. Are you ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you? Will you?              AMEN.

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