Good morning once again. Would
you join me for the opening verse of scripture in the book of Amos? This is going to lend itself
to our study in the book of Acts. I asked myself the question,
what was Stephen before the Lord revealed himself to him and he
became a preacher of the gospel? What was he? Well, I think we
find out the answer here in the book of Amos because Amos kind
of represents everybody. Amos was just a common worker.
He was just a man born from the loins of Adam. And as a result
of that, he was a sinful man. And God came and saved him by
His grace. Now notice here in the book of
Amos, chapter 7, verse 14, Amos is Well, I'm going to be facetious
here for just a moment. He's bragging about what school
he's been to. He's bragging about the theology
that he believes. He's bragging about his pins
and all of his certificates. Not, he says here, then answered
Amos and said unto Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's
son, but I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit.
I just believe that that covers every gospel preacher. And generally
speaking, that covers everybody that has ever been saved. He
saves us out of where we were. And here Amos represents to me
Stephen. Now we think of Stephen. We're
introduced to him. after he becomes one of the seven
that was chosen to help with those Hellenistic Jews and the
widows. We're introduced to him after
he has known grace. We're introduced to him after
he has been a servant of the Lord. So we don't have much said
about him prior to that, but we know what he was by nature
because everybody that God has ever saved has the same problem. And Brother Loren read there
in the psalm this morning, if God should count iniquity, if
God should keep track of our sin, who would stand? Who could stand? So Stephen is
going to have to agree with that too, just like everybody else.
Well, turn with me now, if you would, to the book of Acts chapter
6 as we pick up the account of Stephen once again. Stephen is
mentioned here in Acts chapter 6 as being one of the servants
that was there in the church. Now, there were many servants,
but these were specifically set aside for that responsibility. They were holy men, they believed
the Gospel, they loved God, they believed in His Gospel, they
believed in His Word. We might just ask ourselves,
how did Stephen know that the Gospel that he was preaching
is the Gospel? Well, I have to agree with what
we find in Scripture. It glorifies God. The true Gospel
glorifies God and not man. men are the blessed one recipients
of the gospel, but we're not the producers of the gospel.
So, the gospel that Stephen is preaching is a gospel that glorifies
God, and it is true to the Old Testament. Now, when Stephen
was preaching, he didn't have the New Testament like we did,
but everything he has to say is a statement out of the Old
Testament, which becomes part of the New Testament. It rests
on the person and work of Christ. He is going to share with us
under these accusations that are brought against him by this
council. They say that he has made blasphemous words against
Moses, God, the temple, and the law. That's the four accusations
that are brought against him. And we will find out that Stephen
did not bring any blasphemous words against Moses. He did not
say anything against God. He did not say anything against
the temple. And he did not say anything against the law. He's
just sharing what those things were useful for. And as we follow
that, enables God to be just and justifier by honoring the
law and satisfying justice. God's gospel honors the law. Jesus said, I came not to destroy
the law, but to fulfill it. And he absolutely did. And he
is the righteous one. As a result, he kept every jot
and every tittle of the law. And he is the righteous one. And he is gracious enough to
impute that keeping of the righteousness of God and passing it to us or
imputing it to us. So this, he's just. God is going to punish sin. And
he did in the person of Christ Jesus for all of his children.
And he is a justifier. He's the only one that can justify
us and make us right in the presence of God. The gospel that Stephen
preached is a gospel that can save sinners. It doesn't just,
well, most people have the idea that only good people are saved.
Well, I'm sorry to tell you. No, I'm glad to tell you. He
saved sinners. I remember hearing that someone
quoted that passage of Paul writing and said he was the chiefest
of sinners, and the person who was speaking said he was chiefest
of sinners until I came along. Now that title goes to me. Well,
I think every believer has that thought about themselves. There's
nothing good in us by nature. And finally, we find that the
gospel that Stephen preached, and he believes this, it keeps
a person saved. We don't have to worry about
where we are with God. When God saves His people, He
gives unto them eternal life. And it is never put in question. It is never brought up, well,
if you do this, it is always, he grants unto us, he gives unto
the church eternal life and all the blessings that go with that.
So Stephen is a preacher of righteousness. He preaches the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as we look here in the book
of Acts chapter six, and I'd like to begin reading with verse
eight, It tells us here that Stephen was full of faith, full
of faith and power, great wonders and miracles among the people.
Now, this cannot go unnoticed because God in His purpose is
going to have the gospel preached to, again, that great council. You know, as we read about Peter
and John going up to the temple and they healed that man, God
opened the door so that Peter was able to preach to that council.
Well, God has always had control over the doors of preaching the
gospel. He is the doorkeeper for the
preaching of the gospel. I was just thrilled yesterday
when a young man I've been talking to for about two years says,
Norm, I listened to one of your messages yesterday. And you know
what? It didn't take me very long to
figure out he actually did. Because when I mentioned, I said
so, why did I do that? I said so, he says, I heard my
dad and mom say that. So he understood what I was saying,
at least at that point. So if you'd pray for him. All
right, here it tells us then in verse nine, and there arose
certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the
Libertines and the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians, and of them
of the Cilicia and Asia disputing with Stephen. They were disputing
with, they were arguing with him. They were going carrying
on about what he had to say. They did not believe what he
had to say, and so they're gonna argue with him. And you know,
we're gonna find out, just like we always find out, that if there
isn't some word that can be brought against someone who is preaching
the truth, then they'll just simply say, and besides that,
you're ugly. They will not stay with the scriptures
because they cannot stand on the scriptures. They will always
reach out to make some kind of insult that is not from a scriptural
standpoint. All right? And they're going
to do that. They're going to arrest him, and they're going
to take him, and eventually they're going to stone him to death,
and it is going to be in such a rage that they're not even
thinking they're out of their heads. They debated and opposed
Stephen. They could neither support their
own arguments nor answer his. That's an interesting thing.
When you're teaching a lie, you can't support a lie. And if you're
fighting against the truth, you cannot fight the truth. We're
caught in a quandary, and that's where these men are. They're
caught in a quandary. They debated and opposed Stephen,
who could neither support their own arguments. You know, if they
went back to the temple, they couldn't support their own arguments,
because Moses himself, Solomon himself, David himself talked
about that place as only being a place. It is not that important. It is only a type and a shadow
and a picture. You know, Solomon in his dedication
prayer, we have a God that cannot live. He's not going to be in
a building. He's just not gonna be in the
building. And we find out these guys said he's in this building
and nowhere else. So when Stephen preached against
that and said, we have a temple that's much higher in this temple
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. They said, oh no, no, we can't
have that because he is in this place. Well, we'll look into
that in just a moment. Stephen proved Jesus to be the
Christ by such irresistible arguments. You know why? Because he knew
the word. He knew the gospel. He knew Genesis to the book of
Malachi. God had revealed unto him the
truth that is contained in the Old Testament, and he s preaching
it, and now we get to read it in our New Testament. His irresistible
arguments, and delivered himself with such clearness and evidence
that they had nothing of any weight to object against Him
and what He taught. And then in verse 10 it says,
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which
He spake. You know, several of us have
had people we bring to their attention the gospel, and if
it doesn't mean what I'm telling you what it means, what does
it mean then? And you know the answer? They didn't have one. If it doesn't believe what I've
shared with you, then tell me what it is that it means. And
they just are up against a brick wall because they have no truth. And the truth is what God's people
hold to with great tenacity. They were not able to resist.
They were not able to stand against or oppose what Stephen was preaching. They were disputing with Stephen
about the doctrine that he preached and the miracles that he wrought
and the authority by which he did these things. They kept having
trouble with this one man. Now, I'm convinced that the other
six were doing exactly the same thing that Stephen was doing,
but this one man was picked out by Almighty God to demonstrate
what grace will do for a person. And that grace will make you
strong in grace, and that grace will make you deliver grace. And that message that God gave
to Stephen was a message that was so convincing that it caused
great confusion among this group of people, these men of authority,
and yet it was so against their grain that they would show what
natural man will do when they're faced with the truth of the gospel,
they will get upset. I know that for a fact. I've
shared with you many times the first words in my mouth after
I heard the man who brought me the gospel the first time. I
hate that man. And you know what? I did. Because
he, in one message, destroyed 35 years of what I believed. And you know what he preached?
Christ. That's all he preached. He didn't
preach church or church authority or eschatology or all of the
other things that are so valuable in our religious world today.
He just simply preached Christ. Well, we find out that's exactly
what we have here with regard to what Stephen, he's preaching
Christ. You know, it appears here that Stephen was not caught
by some of the teaching that the disciples had. You remember
what they had to say to Jesus just before he ascended back
to the Father? At this time, are you going to restore the
kingdom to Israel? And he just simply said, you
know, that's even off the plate. We're not going to talk about
that. There's no reason to talk about that. Jesus Christ never
came to set up an earthly kingdom. Stephen doesn't seem to be caught
up in that and we can say thank God Isn't it wonderful that we
once in a while run into somebody that has absolutely a clean slate
They don't have any religious thoughts one and so they're just
ears They're not resistant ears. They're ears. That's all they
do is listen. But I know what it is to be very
resistant against those things because I was there. I had been
trained in religion. And I know what religion is and
what religion does. And when faced with the truth,
it made me very upset. And it made me very upset with
the people that had taught me because I found out they lied
to me. There's no greater terrible experience
in a person's life than to find out that you've been lied to
and lied to about something that you hold very dear, and that's
our religion. Well, before we go any further,
would you join with me over in the book of John chapter six?
Let's just straighten this out. Let's just see what the scriptures
have to say about the Lord Jesus and him coming to set up an earthly
kingdom. He is asked by Pilate, there
in the book of John, Are you king? For that reason I was born. But if my kingdom was of this
world, my followers would fight. It's not of this world. Now John
chapter 6 verse 14. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, ìThis is of a truth, that
prophet that should come into the world.î Now, weíre going
to refer to that in just a minute, but thatís what Moses wrote about,
that prophet that should come into the world. ìWhen Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and take him by force to make
him a king, He departed again into a mountain himself alone. It's not why I came. He came
for spiritual reasons, not to set up a kingdom, not to, and
he's not going to do it again. He's always reigned. He has never
not reigned. He's reigned from eternity. He's
the God of all reign. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
have reigned over all things for all times. They are the creator. They are the reigner over all
things. And so, He doesn't have to have
us consent to His reign. He's already doing it. We're
not looking for some time when He comes down to this earth and
sets up an earthly kingdom. We're looking for Him coming
the second time when we shall be with Him for eternity and
see Him as He is and we shall know Him as He is. That's what
I'm looking forward to. I'm looking forward to seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. And that's what the church
is looking forward to. Stephen did not go to the Old
Testament and try to pick out stuff that was for the church and just say it's for Israel. He believed with all his heart
that not all Israel is of Israel. He knew what it was to be a true
Israelite. And that wasn't that he traced
his line back to Abraham. He traced his line back to Christ.
That's where it is. All right. The accusations. Would you join
me there in the book of Acts again? They bring up four things
against him, four accusations. In the seventh chapter, he's
gonna deal with them. But let's look at this in Acts
chapter 6 there in verse, Acts chapter 6 verse 11. And they
suborned men. That means that they paid men
to lie. It's not enough just to ask him
to lie, but he paid. They paid men to lie about Stephen
and about what he had preached. They suborned men which said,
we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against
God. And they stirred up the people
and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and caught
him and brought him to the council. Now, this is not a very pleasant
experience. If you had this happen to you,
you would say, what in the world's going on? They came and took
him by force. and brought him to the council."
And then in verse 13 we have the other two accusations that
are brought against him, "...and set up false witnesses, which
said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against
this holy place and the law." for we have heard him say that
this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and shall change the
customs which Moses delivered. And all that sat in the council
looked steadfastly on him and saw his face as it had been the
face of an angel." Well, let's look at these accusations that
have been brought against brought against Stephen, that he had
blasphemous words against Moses, and against God, and against
the holy place, and against the law. Most of the time we never
have the word blasphemy used against somebody. It's always
used against God. blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
It's having that terrible attitude towards God. What could this
mean? Blasphemous words against Moses. You know, Moses was a preacher
of righteousness. And when he was leading the children
of Israel, he wrote the five books that we know as the Pentateuch. Now, he was not the author of
them, he's the secretary of them. God, the Holy Spirit, gave him
the words in the original to put down on whatever it was,
papyrus, a slate, I don't know, but it was preserved enough to
come down to the time when the translations were made. In the
book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18, we hear the words of this
great preacher of righteousness, Moses. You know, it tells us
in the book of Hebrews a lot about Moses, and part of it is
by faith Moses. Now, there are several things
that are gonna be listed under that, but by faith Moses. Now, where did Moses get his
faith? Was Moses a good guy and then
God just rewarded him? You know, most people believe
that Noah was just a good guy and God rewarded him. and said
he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Well, if we understand
what grace is, we know that that is absolutely contrary to what
Noah believed about himself. He was a rascaling rabbit. He was a man fallen in sin. He was born of parents that were
related to Adam. He had a heart wicked, desperately
wicked, a heart that could not perceive God. And God came upon
him through the preaching of the gospel. Now it doesn't tell
us who came to him with the preaching of the gospel, but he had to
hear the preaching of the gospel. And when God came to him and
saved him by his grace, then he gave to him the gift of faith. And that's why we read, by faith
Moses. or by faith Abraham, or by faith
Abel, or by faith Daniel, or any of the others that are listed
there in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. And the
same is true today. If you have faith, the faith
of God's elect, then you have been given that faith, and that
faith is not a reward. It's a gift. It's not a bargainship. Not because we did something
good does God give us faith. We did something terrible and
God overrode that terribleness by the grace that he has. Here
in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we read these words that
Moses left us in the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter
15. Now Moses believed the Lord. Moses believed God. Moses believed
in the Messiah. Moses believed what we read over
in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15, that there's going to be
somebody that's going to be the seed of the woman that's going
to beat down Sam's head. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15.
It's going to happen. Moses believed that. He believed
in the Messiah. Now, in the Old Testament, we
have the word Messiah many times mentioned, but the insinuation
is there's someone coming. Someone is coming. Someone is
coming to take care of sin. And Moses believed that. Well,
we look back today and say, well, someone's come. He's already
been here. And he went to the cross. And
he died in the stead of his people. And we find out at the conclusion
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the promise is that that someone's
coming back. And he's gonna shake up this
world like it's never been shaken because he is going to put in
order all those sheep and all those goats. And we can't tell
the difference, but he can. Here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 18, these first blasphemous words against Moses, what could
this mean? Stephen preached about Moses
declaring what Christ even declared. It says here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 18, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet. Now, the translators of that
were correct in putting a capital P. In fact, it could have been
all capitals because this is a very significant word with
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the Messiah coming.
In the Old Testament, we have the word Messiah. In the New
Testament, we have the word Christ. If you've ever read the combination
of words Jesus Christ, you're reading Jesus the Messiah. The Promised One. And you know
what? Stephen's going to get into trouble
for preaching that. Jesus Christ. It isn't His name. It is His title. Christ, the
Messiah. He says, There is a prophet from
the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, Unto him ye shall
hear, or hearken, according to all that thou desirest of the
Lord thy God in Horeb. In the day of the assembly, saying,
Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let
me see the great fire any more, that I die not. And the Lord
said unto me, They have well spoken which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet. from among their brethren, like
unto you, unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and
he shall speak unto them all that I have commanded him. Now, it's interesting that when
we go to the New Testament, we find out that this is brought
into the New Testament as so often the Old Testament is. Sometime,
if you want to, borrow a book from me about the Old Testament
verses that are mentioned in the New Testament. And you'll
be surprised how much of the Old Testament is our New Testament.
And it is a declaration about the truth of the Old Testament.
Alright, turn with me, if you would, to the book of John, chapter
6 and verse 14. They found fault with Stephen
because, and they call it blasphemous words against Moses. And you
know what Stephen was preaching? A prophet is coming. God is going
to send his prophet, just like Moses wrote about. Here in the
book of John chapter six and verse 14, we read these words,
the New Testament bringing up the subject, John chapter six
and verse 14, the scripture says, then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that
prophet that should come into the world. Now, follow this out
with me, if you would, in the book of John chapter 7. John
chapter 7. Let's just go one more chapter.
John chapter 7 and verse 40, and we read this. John chapter
7 verse 40. Now, that in the previous verse,
we read that they understood that sometime there's going to
be a prophet coming. Now, they didn't believe God.
But they had some understanding about what the word had to say
about a prophet coming. They're the ones that wanted
to make him king. Now, if you want a physical king,
move to England. You want a spiritual king, come
to Christ. here in the book of John chapter
7, verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the
prophet. Others said, this is Christ.
But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Some said He's
the Messiah. And then others said, there's
no good thing that can come out of Galilee. No good thing come
out of Nazareth, which was in Galilee. Turn with me just a
little further, if you would, into the book of Acts chapter
3. In the book of Acts chapter 3, we read these words about
this subject of the prophet. Acts chapter 3, there in verse
22. Acts chapter 3, verse 22. Moses, hundreds of years ago, wrote
that God would raise up a prophet from the brethren, from the people. He would look like them. He would
be like them in every way, except for one great thing. He would be without sin. That's hard to imagine, isn't
it? To be without sin. You know, to me, that is in the
same category. Trying to figure out, and I've
seen it with my own eyes, someone painting with their feet because
they have no hands. Now, how in the world do they
do that? It's beyond me. Well, in a much
greater way, a man on this earth without sin. not plagued by it,
doesn't wake up in the morning with it, doesn't go to bed in
the evening with it, don't have the problems with it during the
day. This one Jesus Christ is a man without sin. yet without
sin. Here in the book of Acts chapter
3 verse 22, for Moses truly said unto the fathers, here we are,
Acts chapter 3 verse 22, Moses truly said unto the fathers,
a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren. A quote from the book of Deuteronomy
found here in the book of Acts which becomes part of our New
Testament. The Lord God shall raise up unto him from your brethren,
like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall
say unto you. And it shall come to pass that
every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed
from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken,
have likewise foretold of these days. The Old Testament spoke
of these days when the Son of God would come to this earth.
He was the prophet that was promised over in the book of Deuteronomy.
He would come and do exactly what God said he would do. He
would declare what God said he would declare, and he would go
to the cross and lay down his life, a ransom for his church,
just like God declared he would do. Just a little further over
here in the book of Acts chapter seven, if you'd travel with me
there, Acts chapter seven. In verse 37, we read these words
about this blasphemous words against Moses. They took it all
out of context. All he was doing was quoting
scripture. That was his preaching. He didn't
preach about himself and he didn't preach about Israel. He preached
about Christ. He preached the glories of Christ,
the blessings of Christ, the blessings of salvation that we
have in Christ. Here in the book of Acts chapter
7 and verse 37, this is that Moses which said unto the children
of Israel, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren like unto me, him ye shall hear. This is Stephen
writing or preaching on that day when he stands before that
great congregation of people. Christ and all gospel preachers
often quote Moses, Moses' writings with great respect because they're
God's word. They appeal to them for examples
of God's grace, the types and shadows and pictures that we
find in the Old Testament with regarding Christ. And He's the
one that brings out into the New Testament, all of those guys
wrote to me. Moses wrote of me. If you believe
Moses, you would believe me because Moses wrote of me. That's what
he said to a whole group of religious people. Stephen declared these
truths about the Lord Jesus Christ, and now he is arrested for it. Stephen did not preach that anybody
was saved by the keeping of the law. or their religious activities,
they were saved by the grace of God. The second accusation
that was brought against him was blasphemous words against
God. You know what that all is? He
preached that Jesus Christ is God. That didn't set well. That didn't set well when Jesus
preached Jesus Christ as God. They were ready to stone him
over that very issue. We're going to look at a few
verses of scripture along this line. Stephen declared that the
prophets, Moses, the psalmist, Jesus Christ Himself, the Messiah,
said about Himself that He is God, and beside Him there is
none else. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of John chapter 10. In John chapter 10, John chapter
10 verse 26, we read these words that the Lord Jesus Christ declared
about Himself. John chapter 10 verse 26, and
He said to them, in John chapter 10, what a glorious chapter this
is, what a glorious book it is. But here in chapter 10, He says,
but you believe not, verse 26, because you're not of My sheep,
as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man can pluck them out of my Father's
hand. Now in my Bible, that's all red. That's the words of the Lord
Jesus, just like the ones in black are, the words of God. All right. I and Father are one. Then the
Jews took up stones again to stone him. And Jesus answered
them, saying, Many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do you
stone me? And the Jews answered him, saying,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy. same accusation that has been
brought up against Stephen. Blasphemous words against Moses,
blasphemous words against God. Now, if Jesus is God, then they're
having a problem. All right, it goes on here. Jews
answered and said, for a good work we stoned thee not, but
for blasphemy, because that thou being a man makest thyself capital
G-O-D. Jesus answered and said, it is
written in your law. I said, you're gods. And he uses
an argument that they can't deal with. He goes down and use some
of the Psalms about it, but he shares with us in that passage
of scripture. I am God. What does John chapter
one verse one say in the beginning was the word. The word was with
God. The word was God. Here we're
dealing with God. We're dealing with God when we're
dealing with Christ. When we're dealing with Jesus,
we're dealing with God. He is God, the very God, come
in human flesh for the suffering of death. In the book of John
chapter 5, would you back up there with me for just a moment?
John chapter 5, we read these words, verse 18. John chapter
5 and verse 18. The Jews sought the more to kill
him. You know why they didn't kill
him? It wasn't his time. The other day I was told that
since I've been spraying some weed killer that I better be
careful because I might die before my time. And I said, you know
what? I'll die on time. right on time,
exact time. It has been determined by the
God of heaven that everybody that he has ever created from
Adam to today, they have an appointment. And that appointment is, it is
appointed unto man once to die and after that to judgment. And
we're not going to live one second longer or die one second sooner. You know, in many ways, a lost
sheep is, there's no way they can die. We should have died,
but we can't die until God sends us the gospel. And we're saved
first. We have to be saved first. All
right, let's notice here with me. Verse 18, therefore the Jews
sought the Moor to kill him, because he not only had broken
the Sabbath, oh my goodness, They misunderstood the Sabbath
so much. Moses wrote in the Old Testament
about the Sabbath. Jesus or God there in the book
of Genesis wrote about resting on the seventh day. And it didn't
mean I'm gonna kill you if you work on the seventh day. It means
there's a day of rest. And that rest is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath and we
rest in him. That's what it meant. And they
never got that because they don't know the gospel. But said also
that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do, for what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. So again, he
makes the statement, I am the Son, he's God, I'm his Son, I
am God. And they were having trouble
over that. You know, that's one of the accusations
going to be brought against Jesus there as they bring him to be
crucified. He made himself God. He's not
only broken the Sabbath, but he's made himself God. Stephen
declared that Jesus Christ is the one written of in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15. Whoever it is that's going to
bruise Satan's head, this is him right here. Bruised or crushed
or overwhelmed. Stephen declared that Jesus Christ
is the one spoken of in Isaiah chapter 53. He's the fulfillment
and summation of the Old Testament. Jesus himself said, the Old Testament
was written about me. And here's Stephen in his preaching. We will find him when he gets
to the book of Isaiah, just like that Ethiopian eunuch as he is
traveling home. That's an interesting account,
isn't it? He's traveling home, reading the 53rd chapter of the
book of Isaiah. And Philip, one of the other
seven that were chosen that day, a preacher of righteousness,
is sent to him, and he's reading the 53rd chapter of the book
of Isaiah, and he says, do you understand what you're reading?
And you know, at least one thing about that Ethiopian eunuch,
he was honest about this. His heart was wicked and desperately
wicked, but he understood this, I don't understand it. I do not
understand the Bible." And you know what, Stephen got up there
right beside him and said, let's take a look at that verse of
scripture. And they read through it, and then he began at the
same place and preached unto him Jesus. Now, I believe that
Stephen did the same thing. When he went through the 53rd
chapter of the book of Isaiah, he preached unto them, Jesus,
he's the one that was a lamb taken to slaughter. He's the
one that was silent. He's the one who was covered
with our sin. He's the one that was a root
out of dry ground. He is the one. And they brought
this accusation against him. Stephen declared that What Peter
declared, if asked Stephen, who do you say
Jesus is? You know what Stephen would have
answered? He's the Christ, the Son of the living God. If he
was asked as Thomas was, Thomas touch my hands and my side and
my feet, touch them. And you know Stephen didn't have
to do that, but he answered this, my Lord and my God. Stephen would
have answered exactly the same, because every believer will answer
exactly the same way. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, my Lord and my God. Stephen declared what
we find in the Bible. Stephen declared that Moses wrote
of Jesus Christ. We read that sometimes, several
times, about John chapter 5, verse 46. If you'd have believed
Moses, you'd believe me. Because Moses wrote of me. Stephen declared that all the
Old Testament scriptures declared the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Turn with me to the book of Luke,
if you would. The book of Luke, chapter 24. And these are the
charges against him. blasphemous words against Moses,
blasphemous words against God. And God the Father was well pleased
with God the Son. And God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit are well pleased with the Father. And they're just
that, you just go around, all three of them are in such unanimity
with each other. Here in the book of Luke chapter
24, we find again the words of the Lord Jesus with regard to
the Old Testament. And I'm convinced that that's
exactly what we'd find that the apostle or the preacher Stephen
would be doing there among all those folks in those days. Here
in the book of Luke chapter 24, verse 27, we read these words. It says, And beginning at Moses,
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the first part
of our Bible, beginning at Moses. This is Christ speaking and declaring,
and all the prophets, all right, we've got those historical books,
we've got all those prophets in the Old Testament, expounded
to them in all the scriptures, Genesis to Malachi. the things concerning himself. And just a little bit further
in that same chapter, verse 44, we have these words recorded
for us. As we look at the Old Testament, we find that they
are exactly what God said in a declaration about His Son,
the Lord Jesus. And He said unto them, His disciples,
these are the words which I spake unto you, Luke chapter 24, verse
44, which I spake unto you while I was yet among you, with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them,
Thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead the third day. So Jesus Christ said
this. You know, if Jesus Christ said
it, every one of his gospel preachers are gonna declare the same thing.
He said it, he's in the Old Testament. I say it, he's in the Old Testament.
I haven't found it all yet, though. We found a little bit over time,
but we haven't found it all yet, so we get to look some more in
the Old Testament about the Lord Jesus Christ. First, Stephen
was arrested for the purpose and reason of God, but he was
one that said, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The third accusation, and we
don't have time to get into it today, but the third thing brought
against him was that he spoke blasphemous words against the
holy place. I just want to prepare you. Jesus was asked one time, oh,
look at this building. It's magnificent. It was, it
paled in comparison to what it once was. Solomon, when he built
that, it was immaculate. But this one pales, and yet those
people were worshiping that temple. Oh, it's wonderful. And Jesus
said, you destroy this temple, and in three days, I'll raise
it up again. And then he said, he spoke of his body. That's all that meant. It was
a picture, a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ the righteous. So we'll pick that up next time.
Thank you for your kind attention today.