We are currently studying the book of Acts in a series entitled “You will be My witnesses”. Our objective is to carefully examine the Scriptures and the early church so that we as individuals and as a local body can be equipped to bold witnesses for Christ in our community. Two weeks ago we looked at Acts 6:8-15. Through it we were introduced to Stephen. Stephen was a Hellenistic Messianic Jew who had been chosen to serve as a deacon in the church. He was an extraordinary man of incredible faith.

When away from his duties of caring for widows he could be found in the local Hellenistic synagogues proclaiming Christ. At three of those synagogues leaders came together and debated him but their worldly arguments were no match for his godly wisdom and he defeated them. Out of pride and jealousy they instigated false witnesses against him and drug him before the Sanhedrin. The false witnesses came forward and claimed that Stephen had committed blasphemy against God, Moses, the law, and the temple. That is where we left off and this morning we will be continuing in the narrative.

Take your Bibles and turn to Acts 7:1-7. What we’re about to read and study is known as “Stephen’s Speech”. A better title would be “Stephen’s Apology”. This isn’t a typical apology where a person says that they’re sorry. Stephen is not sorry and has no reason to be sorry because he has been proclaiming the truth in love. This what we call an apologetic. Apologetics is the study of the defense of the faith. The English word derives from the Greek word apologia, which means “a speech in defense of something.” The goal of apologetics is two-fold. It is to defend the faith against attack and to present the truth claims of Christianity to unbelievers.

Stephen used a four-fold apologetic strategy to defend the truth and to evangelize his hearers. The allegations against him were very serious. To blaspheme God, Moses, the law, and the temple were serious crimes punishable by death. Stephen will answer their claims by addressing each of the four allegations through illustrating his knowledge of Israel’s history, of God, of Moses, of the law, and of the temple. He will prove to them that he is not ignorant. Towards the end of his apology he will flip the allegations on his hearers in an effort to wake them up from their sin and disobedience.

We must keep in mind that Stephen’s goal is not to get himself out if trouble. He has no interest in being cleared before these men. He has no interest in being set free.

His desire is to go as far as he must go, even unto death, to prove to the Sanhedrin that they need to repent and turn to Jesus. One commentator wrote that Stephen basically dared the Sanhedrin to kill him so that he could prove that Israel has always rejected and even murdered those whom God sends to them. Let’s read our text together, pray, and examine it.

Read Acts 7:1-7

Pray

Examine

Verse

1And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

Commentary

After the false witnesses gave their testimony, the high priest asked Stephen if he was a blasphemer. The high priest at this time was probably Caiaphas. Caiaphas was the reigning high priest during the ministry and trial of Jesus and held the office till 36AD. He was a Sadducee and the son in law of Annas who was the former high priest. Caiaphas was a political leader who worked to keep Rome happy and calm so that he and his cronies could keep their money making racket at the temple. Caiaphas was a godless man who rejected all things supernatural.

Caiaphas is a great example of why a state or government run church is a bad idea. When the state or government runs the church they can dictate how the church will function and they can appoint to power whoever they want, even godless men. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution protects against these things but who knows how long it will last. There are wicked people who are advocating for a government run church that will control what is taught so that they can remain in their sinful lifestyles unchallenged. We may see a government takeover of the church in our lifetime and we may experience Caiaphas type leaders.

All in all, Caiaphas is the fruit of a state run church. He was appointed by the government of Rome and he was godless and no good. Again, he questioned the man of God, Stephen. He said, “Are these things so?” Look at verse 2:

Verse

2And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me.

Commentary

Stephen began his apology by showing solidarity and respect. He said “Brothers”. Stephen identified himself as one of them, as one of their brethren. Not in Christ but as a fellow Jew. As a Hellenist his listeners would not have regarded him as a brother. They saw him as a foreign half Jew who had been tainted by Greek culture. They had contempt for his kind. But Stephen saw them differently. He saw them as the covenantal people of God, as the children of promise. He considered them brothers and was not ashamed to be identified with them. He loved them even though they despised him. This was caused by the gospel. It is likely that prior to Christ Stephen may have been at odds with men like these. A tremendous rivalry existed between the Hellenists and the Hebrews. There was a bit of a social war between them. But the love, grace, and mercy of Christ had extinguished some of that animosity. Stephen loved his brethren because the love Christ compels such a love for others.

He also said “fathers”. This was Stephen’s way of paying respect to them as the leaders of the nation of Israel. Look at the rest of verse 2:

Verse

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and said to him,

Commentary

Stephen began his account of Israel’s history. He takes it all the way back to the beginning. He starts with the God of glory. This title appears in one other place, Psalm 29:3 (Spencer read it earlier). It is the most rich, complete, description of the almighty, holy, sovereign God, since His glory is the composite of all His attributes. Beginning with God signified Stephen’s belief that God was sovereignly behind all redemptive history and that He was the orchestrator of the nation of Israel.

After opening with the Sovereign source, he turned to Abraham, the father of faith and of God’s people. Prior to Abraham, the nation of Israel did not exist. It was through Abraham that the nation came forth. It was through his grandson, Jacob that the leaders or the patriarchs of the nation came forth. So this is the starting point but being that God is both eternal and sovereign we must remember that the nation of Israel was conceived in His mind in eternity past and it was simply initiated when God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia. Stephen addresses something else here that is somewhat hidden. A careful analysis of the context brings it out.

The common belief held by the Jews, especially the religious leaders, was that all of God’s dealings in the world were done in and through the nation of Israel.

They believed that God had restricted Himself to Jerusalem and to the temple. You might say that they kept the God of the universe in a little geographical box. The cause of this thinking was spiritual pride. During the exodus God said that He had chosen the nation of Israel from all other nations to be a kingdom of priests to the rest of the world. Israel’s task was to bring the message of the promised Redeemer or the gospel to the rest of the world. So God’s plan of salvation had always been a global plan and Israel was to serve as His messenger. We’ll that’s not how the majority of the Jews viewed it. They pretty well kept God’s message and plan of salvation to themselves. This is not to say that every Jew was guilty of this because God has always had a faithful remnant that obeys Him. But the overwhelming majority of Israelites tried to keep God to themselves hidden away in a little wooden box behind a veil.

Stephen understood this and part of his apologetic was to expose his listeners to their sins of idolatry and divine seclusion. At this point in the narrative, the Jews had traded their love for God for love of the law, for love of the temple, and for love of their country. Stephen begins to systematically dismantle their idolatry in verse 2 by reminding his hearers that God has operated outside of the Holy Land in the past. He tells them that when God first visited Abraham, it wasn’t in Palestine. It was in Ur, Mesopotamia which was 550 miles north of what would later become the city of Jerusalem. The inference here is that is that God isn’t limited to Palestine. That God is not bound to their parameters. His reminder also infers that living in the Holy Land does not guaranty that a person is right with God. The members of the Sanhedrin believed that they were saved because they resided in Palestine or the Holy Land. Living in the Holy Land was a sign of their salvation.

But living in the Holy land is not a default mode for salvation. Just as living in the US does not automatically make you a Christian. Being born in a particular country may bring certain advantages and opportunities but salvation is not on the list. There are a tremendous amount of people in our land who believe that heaven awaits them because they were born here. They figure that since the US is a ‘Christian nation’ that means that everyone born here is automatically a Christian and saved. 86% of our citizens claim to be Christian. If this is your mode of thinking you must know that your nationality will not and cannot save you, ever. I’ll venture to say that this country of ours has more in place to hinder and block you from salvation than to lead you to it. Things like consumerism and the American-dream-gospel of health, wealth, and personal betterment are to name a couple. Don’t be misled by believing that your place of birth, family heritage, nationalism, upbringing, parents’ faith, or good deeds will save you. None of them will.

The Bible says that a person must be born again rather than born in a particular place to be saved.

You must be born of the Spirit of God through repentance and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that can happen in any place or town. For the Apostle Paul it was on a road to Syria. For me and many of you it was here in good old Meth-des-to. Now Stephen’s point was not to undermine the Holy Land; he was not trying to devalue it. He was trying to lead his hearers away from their idolatrous hold on it and away from keeping God in a nice little Jerusalem box. He was trying to show them that their zeal for the land had turned to deadly idolatry. This is why he reminded them of how God first met Abraham in Mesopotamia which was far from the Holy Land. We’ve got to be incredibly careful ourselves not to bind up God with boundaries. We’ve got to be careful not to limit Him. Sometimes theology can do that. May we always approach our studies in humility with the understanding that our minds are finite and extremely limited.

Stephen continues in verses 2 through 4 by reminding them of what God said to Abraham of Ur. Look at it with me.

Verse

‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.

Commentary

God told Abraham to leave it all behind. Leave your home, relatives and go. Go to the land I will show you. And then it says that Abraham left Ur and went to Haran. There is a picture of what a true life in God looks like here. Believers are to be pilgrims; pilgrims that listen for the voice of God for direction. If God calls them to pack up and move on they are supposed to hear and obey Him, even at a moment’s notice. Sometimes that calling can be very difficult because we will have to leave things, and comfort, and people behind.

By reminding his listeners of God’s calling for Abraham and Abraham’s obedience, Stephen is once again pointing out their error. These men were not like pilgrims; ready to listen and to do whatever God called for them to do. They were deaf and fixed. Their fixation with the nation, the law, and the temple, kept them from hearing, obeying, and even knowing God. If God were to call for them to do something, they would not hear Him. As a matter of fact, God did call for them to do something when He sent Jesus to them. And how did they respond? They stopped their ears, clung to their religion, and murdered the Author of Life.

It is true that God gave the Israelites the Promised Land as an inheritance and home. But the Promised Land was supposed to be more than a dwelling place.

It was supposed to be a ministry base for worldwide evangelism where people would be trained, equipped, and sent to reach others for the coming Messiah (Exodus 19:4-6). Therefore God’s requirement for His people is that they must be ready by faith to listen and to go to wherever He might send them; to take the gospel to the ends of the earth if you will.

We should never fall too much in love with our dwelling place because God may call us to leave it behind. Why, because we are pilgrims on a pilgrimage and missionaries on mission.

By faith we must keep our ears open and by faith we must obey if we get the call to move on. This line of thinking was unfathomable to Stephen’s hearers.

These men could never imagine leaving the land that God gave them. For them it had become an idol. And yet from the onset of the nation God made it clear that His requirement for His people is that they had to be ready and willing to leave if He called them to do so. Abraham’s examples shouts aloud, “Don’t put your roots down too deep!” As followers of Christ, do we understand this basic fundamental truth? Do we understand that we are all pilgrims? Do we understand that we are all missionaries? The church has taught us that only some people are to go to other countries to spread the gospel. We’ve seen their pictures hanging. At Big Valley we once had a wall full of them.

But Christ called for the whole church to reach the whole world for Him. We all share the responsibility to evangelize the world. Would you be ready and willing to go to Africa if God said go to Africa? What if God said, “I want you to move to a different city because I’m going to use you there”. Would you be ready and willing to go? What if God said, “I want you to leave the church that you’ve been at for the last 5, 10, or 15 years because I have something new for you at a different church.” Would you be ready and willing to go?

America calls for us to make a life for ourselves and for our families, to choose the best neighborhoods and schools, to put our roots down deep, and to pursuit happiness. And yet Jesus calls for us to take up the cross. To live a life of humble sacrifice. To use and to leverage all that we are and have for the sake of the gospel. To live as pilgrim families who listen and obey their Master. Let’s continue. Look at the rest of 4.

Verse

And Abraham’s father died, God removed him from Haran into this land in which you are now living. 5Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

Commentary

After the death of Terah, Abraham’s dad, God sent Abraham to Palestine. Stephen calls Palestine, “the place where you are now living.” Abraham’s obedience under God’s sovereignty accomplished God’s purpose for his life. He made it to the destination in which God called him to go to. Stephen focusses on Abraham as a man of faith. Completely by faith he obeyed God’s sovereign call and left his homeland, not knowing exactly where he was going.

Even when he arrived in his new country, God gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground. The only land Abraham possessed was his burial plot (Gen 23). All he received---and though he had no child or aire---was God’s promise and pledge that he would give him and his offspring after him the land as their possession. The closest Abraham came to seeing such a grand promise fulfilled was the birth of Isaac. God tested Abraham again, look at verse 6 and 7.

Verse

6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’

Commentary

In Genesis chapter 15 God told Abraham that his offspring would become sojourners in a land that belonged to someone else. He was speaking of Egypt. The exact length of Israel’s stay in Egypt 430 years. Stephen gives a round figure from Genesis. God told Abraham that He would judge the nation that enslaved his progeny and He would free them so that they could return to Palestine to worship Him. Interesting. The purpose for their freedom and return was worship. Not worship of the land, or worship of the things that would come later like the Mosaic Law, the Tabernacle, or the temple. No, worship of God! The possession was given for the purpose of Divine worship.

Everything has been given for that purpose. Creation, possessions, homes, spouses, children, loved-ones, jobs and so on are all given for the purpose of generating love for God, and gratitude, and it’s all supposed to culminate in worship to Him, to Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Even a thorn in the flesh is given for the purpose of worship. Even tragedies. Our ailments and difficult experiences are supposed to drive us deeper into God. They are supposed to create a greater reliance on Him and a broader-wider heart of love for Him. They are meant to bring us to the place of helpless humble worship.

Some of us have allowed things to come into our lives that God is opposed to. Things that offend God and harm us and others. These things do not inspire worship.

Jesus came to the temple many times during His life and ministry. On two occasions He flipped tables and cleared the temple of wickedness. If you are in Christ, your body is His temple. Maybe you have allowed wickedness into His temple. And maybe you need to let Him flip your tables and drive the wickedness out? You know what those things are. They could be on your computer. You might have a flirty, or even adulterous relationship going at work.

Maybe you and your girlfriend or boyfriend have been living without certain boundaries. Maybe you spend money that you don’t have. Maybe drugs or too much alcohol are the problem. None of those things inspire worship of God. As Christians our whole life is to be like one continuous worship song to our God. We are living sacrifices.

-Daily our old self is being put to death.

-Daily we take up our cross.

-Daily we listen to and obey our Master.

-Daily we praise Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.

And all of this is done through the One whom God sent, Jesus Christ; our Redeemer, our Rescuer, and our Deliverer. May worship be our loving response, moment by moment, and minute by minute, to our good gracious Heavenly Father. Praise Him for what you have, and praise Him for what you don’t have. Praise Him in good times, and praise Him in bad times. Praise Him during sunshine, and praise Him during the storm.

In ending I’d like to read Psalm 34.