Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00010B
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00:02 Welcome back to Books of the Book. When we went to our break
00:06 we were just beginning to enter into chapter 7 of the book of 00:11 Acts and so that's where we want to pick up. Stephen had just 00:16 been addressed by the high priest who had been told many 00:20 false accusations and he wanted to know how Stephen was going to 00:24 answer to this. Stephen took the opportunity to walk through the 00:28 history of God's people, the nation of Israel, and we're not 00:31 going to have the time to read through all this but I want to 00:34 do a brief review of the key points of what he shared and 00:38 then especially highlight the end of that particular address. 00:42 In verse 2 he begins to talk to them about first how the God 00:46 of glory appeared to our father Abraham; he starts with the 00:49 father of the Jews, Abraham, and how Abraham had been called out 00:53 of his country and given promises of descendants and was 00:57 told to go to a land that God would show him. And then as he 01:01 continues through the account he speaks of how Abraham begot 01:05 Isaac and then Isaac Jacob and then Jacob had the 12 patriarchs 01:09 And then of course one of the sons of Jacob was Joseph and 01:13 was sold into slavery. He tells the story of Joseph being sold 01:16 into slavery and how that was for a purpose, to spare God's 01:19 people when the famine came upon the land and Joseph was there to 01:23 provide for his brothers and his father at just the right time. 01:28 But then of course the children of Israel, the patriarchs, died 01:33 and the children of Israel began to grow and as they grew 01:37 stronger and stronger in Egypt we find that they were placed 01:41 under oppression. So God raised up Moses and Stephen brings 01:46 Moses into the narrative. And he begins to talk about how Moses 01:50 was raised up to be a deliverer of God's people because of the 01:55 oppression that they were under there in Egypt. When you get 02:00 down to verse 35 he begins to use some language that speaks 02:06 of how the nation of Israel did not respond all that well to the 02:10 working of God. In verse 35, it says this Moses whom they 02:13 rejected, he just adds that in there, this Moses whom they 02:17 rejected saying who made you ruler and a judge is the one 02:20 God sent to be a deliverer and a ruler. So the people were not 02:25 responding in favor to what God was doing for them. As you 02:29 continue through he talks about how they rebelled against God 02:34 In verse 38 it says, This is he who was in the congregation in 02:37 the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai 02:41 and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles 02:45 to give us, speaking of Moses, whom our fathers would not obey 02:49 but rejected. So he again points back to the fact that our 02:53 fathers were not... as many wonderful things that we have to 02:57 say about them they did reject the messengers that God sent 03:00 and the deliverers that God sent Then he turns to the account of 03:05 what God instructed Moses to do, to raise up a tabernacle and he 03:10 describes this in verses 44-50 concluding in verses 48-50. I'll 03:14 read there: However the most high does not dwell in temples 03:18 made with hands as the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and 03:22 earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me says 03:26 the Lord or what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made 03:30 all these things. They put, the Jews and the religious leaders, 03:34 a great emphasis on the temple and on that which was built. 03:38 That was their national pride. But he brings into this 03:41 scripture to say, You know, as important as that was truthfully 03:46 God cannot be housed in a temple and he's bringing little 03:52 statements in that lead to conviction in the hearts of 03:56 those who were listening, these religious leaders. And I can 04:01 only imagine that while he is looking in the eyes of the high 04:06 priest and these religious leaders that he begins to 04:08 recognize this is not going anywhere. They're beginning to 04:12 get uncomfortable. They are not responding favorably. He can 04:16 sense that it's not going to do any good to continue down this 04:20 narrative and so suddenly... You know, Jim, as preachers 04:24 we've both had the opportunity when you preach to a 04:27 congregation and maybe this is giving something away to our 04:30 viewers, but preachers can tell when a person starts to get less 04:34 receptive. Body language starts to shift a little bit and they 04:37 cross their arms and things like this and you see that the 04:40 reception is now shutting down and so there were evidences that 04:42 the reception is now shutting down and so there were evidences 04:44 that Stephen could pick up on in his hearers to see whether or 04:47 not they were receptive. That's right and I think in this 04:51 moment it almost seems out of place but Stephen recognizes 04:54 that it's not going to be of any benefit to go down this same 04:58 path, to go down this same narrative and he stops and he 05:02 comes right to the point and he speaks with great fervor and 05:07 directness and honesty as has characterized the teaching and 05:12 preaching in the book of Acts. He gets into verse 51 and he 05:17 says some things that I would not feel comfortable or would 05:22 not be able to say from my pulpit without some major 05:26 ramifications. Mark, why don't you take us through this 05:30 incredible turn of events in the address of Stephen. 05:33 Well as you said in verse 51 when you're reading through this 05:38 you get a clear shift in his delivery and he says in verse 51 05:42 You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. 05:46 You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did so do 05:50 you. There's so much that could be said here. The idea of 05:54 circumcision. It was an outward right for them and Stephen 05:59 points out here that circumcision was not meant to be 06:02 merely outward and their whole religion has been merely outward 06:06 and he basically says, but you are resisting the Holy Spirit 06:10 and when I talked about that lack of receptiveness that you 06:13 can see when you preach sometimes the reality is we need 06:16 to realize that when we feel unreceptive and sometimes we 06:19 feel very justified, we may be resisting the Holy Spirit. They 06:22 were resisting the Holy Spirit and what he says here next is 06:26 powerful. He says, As your fathers did, so do you. Which of 06:31 the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed 06:35 those who foretold the coming of the Just One of whom you now 06:39 have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the 06:43 law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. Now our 06:47 viewers may not pick this up right away but there are two 06:51 things that Stephen brings out here and that is the Law and the 06:54 prophets, in reverse order, the prophets and the law and they 06:57 have rejected both of them. And this is not a first time 07:01 occurrence. It's interesting and I think he's making reference 07:05 this in Nehemiah chapter 9. If we go to Nehemiah chapter 9, 07:09 we're going to see something interesting in verse 26, back 07:13 before the Psalms, back before the book of Job. Go back to the 07:17 book of Nehemiah and chapter 9 verse 26. This is an address 07:21 that Nehemiah gives the people of God in the days after the 07:26 Babylonian captivity. In other words, this is a time when 07:30 Israel has been unfaithful to God. God allowed them to go into 07:34 captivity and after them coming out of captivity, Nehemiah is 07:38 describing what led them into that captivity and he says in 07:41 verse 26: Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against 07:46 you, speaking to God; they cast your law behind their backs and 07:51 killed your prophets who testified against them to turn 07:56 them to yourself. So the prophets the whole reason for 08:00 their testifying against the people, just like Stephen 08:04 testifying against the people, was to turn them to God and they 08:07 worked great provocations. Therefore you delivered them 08:10 into the hand of their enemies who oppressed them. And in the 08:12 time of their trouble when they cried to you, you heard from 08:15 heaven and according to your abundant mercies you gave them 08:17 deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies. 08:19 And so God did with Israel. Even in the Babylonian captivity, he 08:25 allowed them to go into the captivity because of their 08:27 rejection of the Law and the prophets and when they came out 08:30 of that captivity Nehemiah gives this address and there's a 08:33 reason for this because it's a special period in time for 08:35 Israel. That's right. And you know right 08:38 after the Babylonian captivity the Lord gave a probationary 08:42 opportunity to Israel and at the risk of going through a pretty 08:46 in depth study here I just want our viewers to recognize that 08:50 there is some prophetic significance to what we're 08:53 seeing here in this address of Stephen. Back in Daniel chapter 08:59 9 we find a vision that is given that points from the period 09:03 right after the Babylonian captivity beginning during the 09:07 days of Persia and points all the way to this time of 09:11 Stephen's address. There's a prophecy that begins in verse 24 09:15 of Daniel 9 and it begins, 70 weeks are determined for your 09:20 people. Now this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel so your 09:24 people would be the Jewish nation. Seventy weeks are 09:29 determined for your people and for your holy city. Now this is 09:34 an appeal being given to the Jewish nation and Jerusalem and 09:39 it continues to say this is what you have 70 weeks to do. 09:44 It's a probationary time. That's right, 70 weeks of 09:47 probationary period, to finish the transgression, to make an 09:50 end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to 09:54 bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision 09:58 and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. 09:59 So this was the last chance for Israel to stop rejecting the law 10:03 and the prophets. That's right. You see that 10:05 during this period where the law and the prophets were 10:08 continually being rejected that led to the Babylonian captivity 10:11 and now right after the Babylonian captivity God says, 10:16 Okay, I'm going to give you a period of time to make amends 10:19 for your rejection of the law and the prophets. And that 10:22 period of time is 70 weeks. Now 70 weeks, there's seven days in 10:27 a week, so 70 x 7 would be 490. And commentators are agreed that 10:31 what we're looking at here are days that are prophetic days 10:35 that equal literal years. So this is 490 years for the nation 10:39 of Israel to get things right and it begins with the command 10:43 to restore and build Jerusalem, which happened during the days 10:47 of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. So you're going from Persia, all 10:51 the way 490 years and those that have studied this prophecy 10:54 recognize that that takes you past the life and ministry of 10:59 Christ to his baptism, his crucifixion and that 70 weeks 11:03 or 490-year period... It doesn't just get past but 11:05 through because it points out and gives the time of Christ's 11:09 baptism, his crucifixion and the concludes, believe it or not 11:14 right here three and a half years later after the 11:17 crucifixion we see the stoning of Stephen and his fervent 11:23 appeal as the last proclamation of this probationary period. 11:27 That's right. In fact, he's announcing the close. It's an 11:31 indictment and so his mentioning the rejection of the law and the 11:34 prophets was a fulfillment of their rejection of their last 11:38 probationary period. That's right. They did not make 11:42 amends for their violation of the law and the prophets. 11:46 And so the Bible says that they were cut to the heart when they 11:49 heard it. It's interesting, the same language is used in Acts 11:52 2 only when they were cut to the heart in Acts 2 they said men 11:55 and brethren what shall we do. But here it says when they were 11:58 cut to the heart, in verse 54, they gnashed at him with their 12:04 teeth and it goes on to say that he sees the Son of God standing 12:10 at the right hand of God and he says that in his address and 12:14 then it says in verse 57, they cried out with a loud voice and 12:17 they stopped their ears. So when they were cut to the heart, 12:20 convicted by the Holy Spirit, instead of turning for 12:26 repentance they stopped their ears, they didn't want to hear 12:28 anymore and they sealed their rejection. 12:30 That's right, they did. And they went and stoned Stephen 12:33 to death. When I think about this 12:35 rejection, I'm taken back to Stephen's specific words because 12:41 he says in verse 51: You stiff necked and uncircumcised in 12:45 heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your 12:50 fathers did so do you. You can't help but hear in that this sense 12:56 of safety that they felt just doing what their fathers had 13:02 done, doing what the masses around them were doing. 13:04 Well you know there's that famous gospel song, Give Me That 13:08 Old Time Religion, it was good enough for mother, it was good 13:11 enough for father, it's good enough for me. There's an 13:16 element of that that's positive but there's an element of that 13:18 that says I'm not going to investigate and think that I'm 13:21 going to ever learn any more truth. 13:22 That's right. If I go to 1 Corinthians 10 just to make 13:26 reference. This is the apostle Paul speaking about the children 13:29 of Israel and it says: They were all under the cloud, all passed 13:32 through the sea, all were baptized unto Moses in the 13:34 cloud and in the sea 13:36 but with most of them God was not well pleased for their 13:40 bodies were scattered in the wilderness. So just because the 13:44 majority are going in a certain direction we cannot resist the 13:48 voice of the Holy Spirit. When the truth is coming into our 13:52 heart we cannot look at those around us to determine whether 13:56 or not it's true or we're going to find ourselves in a very 14:00 unsafe place and potentially find ourselves resisting the 14:04 truth as the children of Israel did. Well we're out of time. 14:08 So we'll look forward to seeing you next time on 14:11 Books of the Book. |
Revised 2014-12-17