Okay, well this morning I want
to look at Acts chapter 6 and chapter 7. Very long passage
but don't worry we're not going to look in great detail at any
bit of it but just to pick out some key lessons from it. It's
the account of the calling of the deacons and particularly
of Stephen and its culmination in Stephen being the first martyr
who was stoned to death. That's at the end of chapter
7. The background was that as I've said on many weeks now,
there was great blessing, the promise of the Holy Spirit had
come, tremendous blessing and there was a church in Jerusalem
of some, it must have been 10,000 people, maybe more than that
by this stage, 10,000 people there in Jerusalem and as we
pointed out last week, wherever wherever, even though these are
10,000 people who are souls saved by grace and have seen the Lord
Jesus Christ, wherever you get the flesh, which is what we all
are, then things come into play. And there was some friction and
the Grecians were murmuring against the Hebrews and they were saying
that in the ministration of those things that they'd all shared
together, the Hebrews were favoring their widows over the Grecian's
widows and you know the sort of thing so the apostles said
call out seven deacons, to basically do this ministering. Now I'm
not going to stop for one moment to learn any lessons for a church,
especially one like ours, in terms of should it have deacons,
how many deacons should it have, it's just not appropriate at
the moment. This was a church of 10,000 plus, 10,000 plus,
and these were serious problems, so these are things that we don't
need to concern ourselves with at the moment. If and when the
time is right, God will make it plain. So we'll just move
quickly on from that situation. But Stephen was one of these
seven deacons that was called out. The apostles laid their
hands on them as a symbol, as a token of the fact that that
same spirit that they had to minister the Word of God was
now upon these additional men. And Stephen is one who is picked
out. He is especially gifted. Look in chapter 6 and verse 5.
They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. See, it was marked out. He was
a man full of faith. His faith was strong and he was
full of the Holy Ghost. It was evident that this man
had the Spirit of God upon him. Look at verse 8. And Stephen,
full of faith, and power, the power that went with it, did
great wonders and miracles among the people. Although he wasn't
one of the apostles yet, God had poured out his Spirit and
he did great miracles and wonders amongst the people. Remember
what these signs were. What were these miracles? They
were signs of an apostle. They were miracles of authentication. to show that the words they were
saying were absolutely true. If I told you that the moon was
made of cream cheese, you wouldn't believe me. But if I told you
the moon was made of cream cheese and what went with it was a miracle
that you couldn't deny, you'd be more inclined to believe me,
wouldn't you? You'd be more inclined to... Well, if that can happen,
then what he says about these other things is true. And so
it was. These were miracles of authentication. And verse 10. Look in verse 10. They were not able to resist.
The one they opposed him, this synagogue of the libertines in
verse 9. They were not able to resist
the wisdom and the spirit by which Stephen spoke. When he
ministered the word of God, when he preached, it was thus says
the Lord. and they couldn't argue against
him. Despite all of their theological background, they were teachers
in Israel, they were the priests of the religion of the Jews,
and yet they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit
by which he spoke, because he was like Apollos, who comes later
in Acts 18, a man who was mighty in the scriptures. He knew his
scriptures. How did he know them? Yes, he'd
been diligent He'd studied the Word. He'd buried himself in
the Word of God. He knew it. It was part and parcel.
He'd eaten it. It had gone into his being. Just
as much as when you eat a slice of bread, it becomes part of
your muscles and your blood and your bones and all those things,
this Word of God had gone into him and it was part and parcel
of him. He was mighty in the Scriptures.
And he was like that man that we read right at the start in
Psalm 119, who loves the Law of God. not the Ten Commandments as such,
although they're all part of the Word of God, not the commandments
in verse 9, the statutes of God concerning salvation. Oh, how
I love your salvation, is what the psalmist is saying. Through
your salvation, through your gospel, through your revealed
gospel, I am wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. There
was Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith. This gospel
grace of Christ was in his heart and his being, and his enemies
were all around him, but he was so much wiser than them. He had
more understanding than all my teachers. They couldn't tell
him a thing, because he had the Spirit of God. He had the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thy testimonies are my meditation. What are these testimonies? They're
the testimonies of Christ. They're the revelation of Christ
in His Word. These are those testimonies that
are my meditation. And I understand more than the
ancients. You know, have respect for your
forefathers. Yes, indeed, have respect for
your forefathers. Look at history and learn from
it. Absolutely right. But, if you have the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you have Him, you have more wisdom than the ancients.
You understand more than the ancients. because you walk in
gospel ways, I keep thy precepts." This was Stephen, a man who was
mighty in the Scriptures, and the key is Christ. This is why he was mighty. I'm
going to turn you to that passage in Luke which is very familiar,
I know, I make no apology for turning you to it again. It's
in Luke 24, the last chapter of Luke, and it's verse 25 Verse
25, this is Jesus with the disciples, they've been on the Emmaus road,
they've been despairing, you know the story. And verse 25,
then he, Jesus, said to them, O fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken. All that the Old
Testament says. All that your Scriptures say.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? These things over
which you are in despair now? Was it not all in the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God that these things should
happen for the salvation of his people, to pay the sin debt of
his people? That's what it was for. He came
to pay the sin debt of his people. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? Surely you know that a price
had to be paid. and Christ had to come and pay
that price and to enter into his glory and look what he did
verse 27 and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself
the things concerning himself what's your subject when you
turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 27 I don't know my Bible just
fell open there but you dig hard enough and you'll find it you
know like Spurgeon told the story, didn't he, of that young preacher,
that young preacher who, the old man was there, the old preacher,
and, what do you think of my sermon? I didn't think much of
it. Why not? Because there was no Christ in
your sermon. Well, says the young man, there was no Christ in my
sermon because there was no Christ in the text. It was, it might
have been 2 Chronicles 27, I don't know. There was no Christ in
my text. And the old man says to him,
ah, this is what you must learn. Just as in every village in England
there's a signpost and a road that leads to London, so from
every text of Scripture there's Christ. Get on that road and
preach and go and find Christ. Look for Him. Dig for Him. Sometimes
He's right there on the surface. Other times you need to think.
This is in the wisdom of God, a revelation of Christ to me.
This is what made Stephen mighty in the Scriptures. Look in the
same chapter of Luke, verse 44. Luke 24, verse 44. He's with
them. in the room together, all the
disciples, they've seen him, they've eaten together. The risen
Christ in his resurrection body has eaten a meal with the disciples.
And he said to them, these are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms. What about, Lord, concerning
me? See that? All the things written
in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. You see, you can
read the Scriptures till you're blue in the face. You can go
to college after seminary, after Bible school, after missionary
school, all you like. And unless he opens your understanding,
you will never understand the Scriptures. He is the key. You
can struggle away to get into that safe. It's like a locked
safe of spiritual truth. And there's a key. And that key
is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what Stephen preached. This is what made him mighty
in the Scriptures. This is what made his words irresistible. They couldn't resist. They couldn't
contradict him. They were not able to resist
the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake, because it was
the wisdom that is Christ, the revelation of Christ, that God
would save his people, those whom the Father had given to
the Son from before the beginning of time, that Christ would come
in time, that he would represent those people, that he would earn
righteousness for them, to establish righteousness, and that in him,
because his people and Christ are one flesh, That's what Ephesians
5 says, the church and Christ, one flesh, because in him, when
he did it, his people did it. They perfectly obeyed the law
in him. And then when he went to the cross, he paid the sin
debt, and they paid their sin debt in him. This is what Stephen
was powerful in this word, and they couldn't resist it. He was
showing them that this is what these scriptures really mean.
And so, fleshly religion is always the greatest enemy of the cause
of Christ, of the truth of Christ. It's always the case. Where is
the opposition going to come from? Oh, you would say, oh,
it's going to come from communist regimes. We don't have very many
of those these days. But, you know, that sort of worldly
government. That's going to be the thing
that opposes the gospel of Christ? No, no. Look a lot closer to
home. It's established religion. It's worldly religion. It's fleshly
religion. It's that which seems as though
it would be the pillar and ground of the truth, and it's there,
it's there, because here they were, in Jerusalem, the temple,
the priesthood, the oracles of God. What advantage is there
then in being a Jew? Much in every way, for to them
was delivered the oracles of God, and yet despite all of that,
they above all people were the ones who crucified Christ. They
were the ones who stoned Stephen to death. That's where the greatest
opposition comes, and they get these these people, they suborned
men, it's one of these old-fashioned words, but they gathered up some
men of dubious character who would tell lies about what Stephen
was really saying. And so they brought accusations
against him. The accusations that he's speaking
blasphemous words against this holy place, the temple where
they were, Jerusalem where they were, the law, the customs of
Moses, that he wants to change, this Jesus will destroy the temple
and wants to change all of these things. So they bring this accusation
against him. Look in verse 13 there. They
set up false witnesses. which said this man ceases not
to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law for
we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy
this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered
to us speaking against our religion was the accusation they're speaking
against our religion they're insulting our religion he Stephen
is insulting our religion I won't elaborate on it, but does that
sound somewhat familiar, in our day, where we hear, you know,
ooh, you're insulting, insulting the religion. He was saying the
temple would be destroyed. Just look back in Matthew's Gospel.
You see, it was a fair accusation, because in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 24, and verse 2, we read Jesus saying exactly that. Matthew
24, verse 1, Jesus went out and departed from the temple and
his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of
the temple. Look at this, isn't it magnificent? Lord, what do
you make of all of these things? Isn't this absolutely, we're
in the right place, aren't we here? You know, I can imagine
this is what they were saying to Jesus. Look at this, look
at how elaborate it is, what a magnificent temple. And Jesus
said unto them, See ye not all these things, this temple? Verily
I say unto you, They shall not be left here one stone upon another
that shall not be thrown down." So this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
was saying that this temple would be destroyed. Was he right? Yes he was. In AD 70, the Romans
came and absolutely sacked, they flattened Jerusalem, they destroyed
this temple. It is absolutely true. Within
a few years, within 40 years of him saying that, not one stone
of that temple was left lying on another one. It was completely
flattened. And to this day, 2008, you go
back there, there's an Islamic dome there, but there's no temple
there, and there hasn't been since. He ended it. He ended
it. So he was speaking things against
what they saw as their religion. But what he'd been doing was
this. This is what Stephen had been doing. He'd been showing
from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ of God, the promised
one, the just one, the holy one. If you would be right with God,
if I would be right with God, I must be holy, I must be counted
just, I must be counted right, I must be counted absolutely
innocent in the eyes of God, and as I am, by nature, that
can never be. But in the person of Christ,
in the person of his Messiah, in the person of the one he promised
to send, and who was that one? It was God himself, who would
become a man. The second person of the Triune
God would become a man, and he would come, and he would be clothed
in the likeness of the sinful flesh that is ours, yet without
sin, and he would perfectly meet God's demands, and all his people
would meet those demands in him. and so that's why we sing as
we will at the end my faith looks up to thee thou lamb of calvary
because he's all my hope That's what it is. And he'd been showing,
Stephen had been showing from the Scriptures that Jesus was
this Christ of God. That he was God come in the flesh. That he was indeed God come in
the flesh. And he'd come to fulfil all of
these types. They gloried in their religion.
They gloried in their temple. They gloried in their daily sacrifices. And all of the things that they
felt that they did so right. And yet he showed them this Jesus
of Nazareth. fulfills all of those things.
They all spoke of him, and now he's come. Now he's come. There's no more looking forward
through tides and shadows. He has come. This is what Stephen
showed them. And so now, because of that,
he's accused of the capital offence of blasphemy. When I say a capital
offence, it means this, an offence for which he can be put to death.
That was it. The capital offence of blasphemy,
as it was in those days in Jerusalem. But look at him. He's calm. He's
serene. Look at him. Verse 15 of chapter
6. All that sat in the council,
looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face
of an angel. They looked at him, and there
he is with this dreadful accusation against him. And he knew where
it was going to end. He knew where it was going to go. He
knew the likely result of it. And there he is, his face as
it had been the face of an angel. I don't know what it was. There's
no elaboration. We're not told what it was, but
there was something about him that gave him a remarkable calm
serenity in the face of such mortal danger. Do you know what
it is? It's what he saw that other men
can't see. It's what he saw that the natural
man cannot see. He saw things, as all believers
in Christ see, things that the natural man cannot see. The natural
man doesn't perceive the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them. They're foolishness to him. the
believer sees the things of the Lord Jesus Christ as Paul says
in 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 18 while we look not at the things
which are seen you know all around us the things which are seen
we look not at those things but we look at things which are not
seen with physical eyes that are seen with spiritual eyes,
with that sight of the soul that God gives to his people. The
things which are seen are temporal, means just for a time. You know,
that piano, they tend to last quite a few years, but I wonder
what it will be like in four or five hundred years' time if
we're all still here then. It probably won't play a tune
like it does today, or at least if Sam plays it. It will decay. The things which are seen only
last for a while, but the things which are not seen, the things
which are of the Spirit of God, the things which are spiritual,
they're eternal, invisible things of eternity, invisible things
of sovereign grace. Why? We watched the elaborate
service from the Royal Albert Hall yesterday evening, the service
of remembrance, the annual service of remembrance and it's particularly
poignant this year because it's 90 years since the end of the
First World War and the dreadful cataclysmic event that that war
was. Very few people alive today who
lived through it or have any memory of it. But we remember,
and rightly so, and it's a highly religious thing. The nation's
religion is on display. The bishop is there in all of
his bishop's robes, and all of the pomp and the circumstance
of it. And in many ways, I'm not pouring any scorn or contempt
on it. I think it's good that the nation
is grateful for its freedom and is patriotic at such times. Absolutely. I wear a poppy because I want
to show support for the men and the women who've gone and given
their lives in the cause of the freedom of this country. Absolutely
right. But in all of that religion,
my heart grieves that in that Albert Hall with 6,000 plus people,
I doubt whether more than a handful could see these invisible things
of eternity could see these invisible things of sovereign grace so
Stephen is accused Stephen is accused and he's up there before
them with the face of an angel serene so the high priest says
to him chapter 7 verse 1 are these things so? and so he speaks
he speaks and he goes on for quite a long time in the scriptures
he goes on for how many verses is it? 53 verses till Acts 7
verse 53 that's the last words we have recorded apart from when
he's already convicted and they're stoning him and he looks up into
heaven a long discourse he replies with a long sermon he gives the
history in those 53 verses of Israel from Abraham to Solomon
picks those out, the history of Israel. Now, I got to wondering
when I was looking at this, why did he do that? Why did he do
that? There he is on trial for his
life. Wouldn't he have struggled to defend his position and say,
no, you've misunderstood, it's for this reason and that reason.
Why did he tell them the history of Israel from Abraham to Solomon. I mean, surely he was speaking
to people who already knew these things, didn't they? Surely he's
talking to people who already know these things. Why did he
cover all of this history? Which he did, he did. Read it
for yourself. We haven't got time now, but read it for yourself.
Well, I've got some points here to suggest why he did this. First
of all, in the providence of the Holy Spirit,
who breathed out the Scripture and gave us the Scriptures, in
the course of this discourse of Stephen, we're given details
about the patriarchs that we don't know from the accounts
in the Old Testament. So this thing's to do with Moses
being 40 years old at a particular time, which we wouldn't have
known any other way. He gives these extra details. The same
applies in other parts of the New Testament. We only know certain
things about Enoch because the apostle Jude put just a verse
or two in his little epistle under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit. So there are further details that are given that are
good for us. It's good. All scripture is profitable for
doctrine, for teaching. that we might learn. But I would
say that's a very incidental reason why he did this. He didn't
go on this great discourse in that moment of great peril so
that we would have some extra scriptures to look up. No, he
didn't do that. But that's one reason. He did
it, secondly, to show that the history of Israel and of the
patriarchs is the history of redemption. There was a book,
I think it was written by Jonathan Edwards, called The History of
Redemption, to show that the whole of scripture is the story
of God redeeming his people, the history. History, you know,
is his story, God's story, of how he redeems his people, how
he saves them. Do you know there's a picture
in Revelation, I can't remember exactly the chapter at this moment,
where the Son of Man stands with a little book And he's got one
foot on the land and one foot in the sea, speaking of complete
global sovereignty. And he stands there with the
little book in his hand, and he's just turning the pages.
And you know what that tells? He's persecuted, downcast, despondent
saints. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't be concerned. Who is it
that's turning the pages? Whatever might happen, who's
turning the pages? Our God in Christ is turning
those pages of history. The whole of the account of the
patriarchs, of Noah, of of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of right
the way down, David, and Solomon, and the Babylonian exile, and
all of those things, they're not just a good story, they're
not just a good read, they're not just something that can be
dramatised on the television or in a film, as they used to
be in the epic cinema films, it's the history of redemption,
that's what it is. These are they which speak of
me, said Christ, John 5, 39, they illustrate Christ, They declare Christ. All the
way through, they show, My Promised One is coming. In the lambs,
the Passover lamb, you know, pick out a lamb, perfect in every
way. Pick out a lamb, keep it, look
at it, make sure it's perfect, and then kill it and paint the
blood on your doors. And that's speaking of what? Killing lambs?
No. It's speaking of the Lamb of God, who will take away the
sins of the world, who came to pay the sins of His people. It
speaks of Christ. It speaks of Him being God incarnate. There was no false God with you,
says Isaiah. I am He. I am God, your Saviour. That He is a just God and a Saviour. It is God who is our Saviour
and God is our Saviour in the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to
save His people. It says, specifically, that He
is the God of the Hebrews. Salvation is very, very specific. Christ came to save the people
whom the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world.
He came and He died for those people. He bore every sin that
every one of those people would ever be held accountable for,
and He paid its price in full on the cross of Calvary, and
was vindicated in that He was raised from the dead. And every
single one of them He will, in time, by the working of His Holy
Spirit, bring to hear, to believe, to call upon His name, to know
Him in truth. That's what it's about. It's
about particular redemption. Thirdly, it was to show the evil
and the idolatrous unbelief of this generation, of the human
heart that was there and is in every day, even their father's
ungodly unbelieving hearts. It was to seal their condemnation
in showing them these things from the Word and showing that
Christ was all of these things, because I'm sure He actually
said more than we have recorded here. He must have expounded
on every one of these things and showed them Christ in all
of their detail. But in the process He sealed
their condemnation, those who stoned Him. You know what the
Gospel is? Paul says this in 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 16, that these words of life of the Lord
Jesus Christ, oh, they're such a sweet savour of life to the
believing heart, aren't they? Such a sweet savour of life.
It's all my hope. My heart rejoices in these things.
I rejoice in the hope of the glory of God on the basis of
these things. But to those who are perishing,
those who are outside, like these accusers of Stephen, It's the
stench of death. It's the savour of death. The
Gospel is a savour of death because it seals their condemnation for
their opposition and their rejection. It's to show Next point, and
why did he do all of these things? He was accused of saying that
this temple would be destroyed and he shows the hypocrisy and
factual error of their accusation against him because you see,
did you notice, read it for yourself, but when you read it through
you will notice that Israel wandered in a wilderness with a tabernacle
for years and years and years and for many years right up to
the time of David they had nothing other than a tent in which to
worship God. Now we think we're struggling
in an old schoolroom They had nothing other than a tent. It
was an elaborate tent. Don't worry, it was a very elaborate
tent, but it was a tent. And David wanted to build a house
for God, and God said, no, your son will. And it wasn't until
Solomon, that's why he goes right up to Solomon, verse 47 of chapter
7, Finally, after all those 46 verses, but Solomon built him
a house. You're talking about the temple
being absolutely the centre, the core, the heart of your worship
and blasphemous words against this. There wasn't even a temple
until we got to Solomon's day. Don't you see it? Christ was
manifested in all of these things and there wasn't even a temple
until Solomon's day. He showed them all of these things.
He declared Christ. revealed in all the accounts
of history of Israel's history and that the Jesus that they
had betrayed and murdered look at verse 52 which of the prophets
have not your father's persecuted and they have slain them which
showed before the coming of the just one the just one capital
letters the just one the Messiah the promised one of whom ye have
now become of whom ye have now been now, the betrayers and the
murderers." See, he lays it straight down. It was the Just One who
had fulfilled and made an end of all of these things that you're
so attached to. You've made them objects of idolatry,
your temple, your sacrificial worship, your priesthood, and
all of these things. You've made them objects of false
idolatry. And you don't see that they were
all destined to be ended. Look at Daniel. I don't mean
look at Daniel sat there in the congregation before us. Look
at the book of Daniel, chapter 9. This was in Babylon that this
was written, in the exile, before they came back. Daniel chapter
9 verse 25 know therefore and understand that from going forth
of the from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks."
This is all symbolical language, the weeks. Seven weeks, a perfect
amount of time. There is a determined time. The
going forth of the command was when Cyrus and Artaxerxes gave
the commands to go and build Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.
And that from the going out of that command until the Messiah
coming would be a pre-set time. And three score and two weeks.
The street shall be built and the wall even in troublous times. And after three score and two
weeks, shall Messiah be cut off." The Messiah's coming. You see,
I believe it's these verses that the wise men, as we call them,
the Magi, found in their libraries in Babylon and looked for the
star in the east. And they saw that star and they
said, He's coming. Messiah is coming. They believed. They had
the revelation of God to believe these things. After three score
and two weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.
He didn't need to be cut off for himself. He was sinful. And
the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary I'm not talking about the city and the
sanctuary being destroyed as Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse
2 and that all Stephen was doing was saying it's prophesied it's
going to happen and the end thereof shall be with a flood not a flood
of water but with a flood of absolute blood in the streets
when the Romans crushed Jerusalem and unto the end of the war desolations
are determined and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one
week his covenant he shall confirm with his people. And in the midst
of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to
cease. The temple worship shall be made
redundant in what Christ shall do. And for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. You
see, sacrifice and oblation shall cease. Christ came to make an
end of this. This is what Stephen told them.
Christ came to make an end of it. Let me give you some examples.
He talks of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in this sermon. You
read it for yourselves. There are 50 odd verses of it.
He talks of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in his defense. Why
did he do that? Because he says this. I'm sure
he said this. What John records that Jesus
said in his ministry on earth. John 8, 56. Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. Abraham rejoiced to see his day? They said to Jesus, you're not
yet 50 years old. And are you saying that Abraham
has seen you. How can this be? You're not yet
50 years old. Ah, Abraham saw it by faith and
was glad. Why was he glad? Because Abraham
knew that Abraham was a sinner condemned by God. And Abraham
sought that question at the direction of God's Spirit. How can a man
be just with God? And God showed him and God promised
him that in future, in the future, a Messiah would come who would
stand in his place And he illustrated it to Abraham in him giving his
own son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. You know, there
it was graphically portrayed how God would save his people
through a substitute. And Abraham believed God. He
believed what God had said concerning how a man is justified with God.
And that belief in the thing that happened was counted to
him for righteousness. Not his act of believing, as
I've said so many times before, but the thing that he believed
in was accounted for righteousness. Blasphemy against your religion? Jesus Christ is at the core of
your religion. But you can't see it, is what
Stephen was saying to these men. He was at the core of it. We
could look at Hebrews. We could look at Hebrews 11.
Look at it for yourself. And look what it says about Abraham
there. These are the things that Stephen would have said to them.
And then he turns to Moses. He turns to Moses in chapter
7 and verse 30. Just turn there with me. Chapter
7 verse 30. He says that in the wilderness
there appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an
angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. And when Moses
saw it, he wandered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold
it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God
of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the
Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place
where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen the affliction of
my people, which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning,
and come down to deliver them." How do you think Stephen elaborated
that? I think I've got a pretty good idea. He was saying this. Who was speaking out of the burning
bush? How was the voice of God manifested? It was through the
Word of God. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. It was Christ
in the burning bush. It was the second person of the
Trinity. The angel was God himself. The angel was God, the Word. And verse 32, he says, I'm the
God of thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What does that
mean? What's the significance? I am
the covenant God, who has made a promise with you, and who will
save you on the basis of a covenant, and that covenant is the covenant
of eternal grace. He's the covenant God. And verse
34, he's the deliverer. I am come down to deliver them,
and oh did our God come down to deliver his people in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, I have now seen the salvation
of the Lord," said Simeon when he held that baby in the temple,
eight days old. I have seen the Lord's salvation.
God came down. I am come down to deliver them.
Come down to stand in their place. Moses himself, look at verse
37. Moses himself said this. He pointed
this out to them. Moses, which said to the children
of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you,
of your brethren, like unto me. Him you shall hear." Who's he
speaking of? He's speaking of Christ. Christ
will come. Listen to him. He's the one who
is coming. It goes on. throughout many others. He talks about the idolatry.
He talks about the unbelief of the fathers in the face of all
of this revelation, right the way down to verse 45. And if
you have the authorised version, you'll be somewhat confused,
for it says, which also our fathers that came after brought in with
Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles. Not Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, who is Joshua actually,
because that's the name. The name is Joshua. Jesus and
Joshua are exactly the same name. If you've got a New King James
version, you'll find it's translated Joshua. It was Joshua that he
was talking about. Joshua, which means Saviour. Why was he to be called Joshua?
Why was he to be called Jesus? For he shall save his people
from their sins. Right down through David and
to Solomon, who built him a temple. And then he says this, Stephen
says this, verses 48 to 50. He says this, You're making such a fuss about
the temple, and Solomon built him a temple, but our God doesn't
need a temple. You can't, you can't parcel up
this great and awesome God and put him in a little corner where
he's convenient for you to get out when you feel religious.
Oh no. Our God inhabits eternity. Our
God made all things. He doesn't dwell in temples made
with hands, as said the prophet. Heaven is my throne and earth
is my footstool. What house will you build me
that can contain God? And you think you can wrap him
up and put him where he's in a convenient place for you. What
is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these
things? This is what he says to them.
Your thoughts of God are too small. He started to call them
the things that Christ called them. The Pharisees and the Scribes.
You brood of vipers. You know, you little nest of
poisonous snakes. That's what he called them. Not
very gentle language, was it? This is what Jesus called the
Scribes and the Pharisees. You brood of vipers. You little
nest of poisonous snakes. He doesn't need temples and things
like that. He says you're just as blind
as your unbelieving fathers. and he pronounced woes, Jesus
pronounced woes upon them for his own destruction and so did
Stephen. And it was the start of the persecution,
we'll read on next time, that led to this cosy 10,000 plus
church being dispersed. Why did he do this? Just finally,
quickly while we close, why did he do this? He was the first
martyr and he was the first of many who followed afterwards
down the hundreds of years, the 2,000 years since. Why have so
many been been prepared to die for their faith. Well, it's because
of just that. It is their faith. It's what
they see. It's their sight of the soul.
It's that thing that they see concerning Christ and the confidence
that they get from it. The full assurance of faith,
says Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 22. Do you know that? The full
assurance of faith. I will fear no evil. Though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, the full assurance of faith." You know, it's like crossing
a busy road. I sometimes cross a busy road
in London and My eyes, when I've got my glasses on and I'm looking
through the right bit of them, are pretty good and I can see
what the traffic's doing and I can make calculations that
are so quick I wouldn't dare to try and program a computer
to observe what I do and it's all because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made and I cross the road successfully because
of what I see. But if there's a blind man who
has no sight stood next to me, he's going to be scared stiff.
He won't dare step out. Stephen had confidence because
of what he saw. He knew what Jesus had said.
He said to them, you know the days will come when those who
think they do God a service will kill you. They'll kill you to
silence you because they think they do God a service. They'll
put you out of the synagogues. Don't worry. And he wasn't grasping
at his life. Mark chapter 8 and verse 35 says
this, Whosoever will save his life shall lose it. Whosoever
will grasp onto it as if he must possess it shall lose it but
whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels the
same shall save it and that's why I call this message life-saving
faith because by this faith although they stoned Stephen he was saved
for all eternity he rejoiced in the hope of the glory of God
he rested in Christ he said with Job I know that my Redeemer lives
I want to know Christ like Stevie did. Do you?