Acts 7 - Part C

You would think that the Jews would recognize him. If he's predicted in the Old Testament as much as you say he was, why didn't they recognize him and receive him? Now some did, most did not. And they say, so I can't believe Jesus is the Messiah because the nation of the Jews would have recognized him.

Really? Not if you understand their history. They never recognized his deliverers. They always killed the prophet. That's what Jesus said. Today on Connect with Skip Heiting, Pastor Skip shows you how Jesus challenged deeply held Jewish traditional views. But first, here's a resource that honors the heroific sacrifice of today's martyrs for the Christian faith. Today's modern martyrs actions mirror the courage of a long line of brave Christians. And as believers, it's important that we know the heroic sacrifice of those who gave it all for the Christian faith so that we too can boldly stand for Christ.

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Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online and connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, now let's open up to Acts chapter seven as Pastor Skip begins his teaching. A burning fire was sometimes emblematic of the presence of God. Mount Sinai there was fire and lightning and thunder and that was all emblematic symbolic of the glory of God, the glory of the God of glory. And so God was present in his pure light, in his holiness, and so fire becomes a symbol. Here is Moses who has burned out trying to do God's work in the energy of his flesh.

He has gone up in flames, so to speak, and God is here to say, I'm here to light your fire, dude. This burning bush represents your life, not just my presence, but your life in my presence. You're going to burn and burn and not burn out because I'm going to infuse you at an old age and you're going to be called into your older years and you're going to keep going to 120. You're going to burn but not be consumed.

You're going to burn but not burn out. That's what I think it's emblematic of. I love the symbolism. I'm going to rekindle your fire. God continues and he quotes that in verse 34. I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and I have come down to deliver them and now I will send you to Egypt. That is one of my favorite verses that is such a sermon I wish I could preach right now. It's so good. I think I preached one sermon on this text years ago, but it's like it preaches itself.

There's the outlines built into it. It's just so good how God put that. But who cares if I can preach a sermon or not? Verse 35, verse 35, this Moses whom they rejected. Now watch this again. He's drawing the parallel with Christ. This Moses whom they rejected. They rejected him the first time.

They'll receive him and recognize him the second time. This Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge is the one God sent to be a ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. See the pattern? The pattern is this nation of Jewish people has always rejected its prophets and deliverers from the patriarchal period through the time of Moses, throughout the Old Testament. He's setting up this as a pattern, a pattern, a pattern. He's going through their history.

Now here's something I should have mentioned at the beginning and I didn't. The Jews love talking about, you know what their favorite subject to talk about? The Jewish people as a nation? Themselves.

And here's why. I don't mean that in an arrogant way or I mean sincerely, because they love tracing the work of God through the history of their nation. And so to a Jewish and so to a Jewish person, when you start talking about the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's their identity. Plus to many of them, that's their salvation. They believe they're saved by their hereditary status and their story. And so in going through this historical narrative, everybody in the synagogue would love it.

They're all ears because they love hearing this story. By the way, this is a pattern set up in Psalm 78 and Psalm 107. The psalmist goes through the history laboriously of some of the same highlights, telling the same story, passing it down to the next generation.

Here's a thought, and I think it's a question I need to answer because I've had you ask me this question. He says they rejected Moses. They rejected Joseph. He's going to say they rejected Christ. You rejected Christ. You're a bunch of stiff-necked individuals, disobedient to God.

He'll get pretty heavy before they kill him. A lot of people ask this question. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, you would think that the Jews would recognize him. If he's predicted in the Old Testament as much as you say he was, why didn't they recognize him and receive him? Now, some did. Most did not. And they say, so I can't believe Jesus is the Messiah because the nation of the Jews would have recognized him.

Really? Not if you understand their history. They never recognized deliverers. They always killed the prophets. That's what Jesus said. He said this in Luke chapter 11. You build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. That's your history. And what he's doing is striking a death blow to traditionalism.

The traditionalistic philosophy says, well, we respect the teachings of our fathers, and our fathers believe this, and our fathers did that, and we're thankful that our fathers preserved this. And Jesus comes along and says, your fathers killed all of God's prophets. Which one did they not kill?

Stephen is following that argument. Up till now, they're all ears. In a minute, they'll be all hands on stones. He brought them out, verse 36, after he had shown them the wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, in the Red Sea, in the wilderness for 40 years. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, quoting now, he's pulling out another text. This time he's quoting Deuteronomy 18, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear. Some of you, it's fresh enough that you remember our study in Deuteronomy 18.

It wasn't too long ago. That was the prediction Moses made before his death. I'm going to die. God's going to raise up a prophet like me. Now he, Stephen, is saying that prophet that he spoke about is none other than Jesus Christ. That is why when John the Baptist comes on the scene, they said, are you the Christ?

No. Are you that prophet? That's the Deuteronomy 18 prophet predicted. And so he's quoting it, that him you shall hear, verse 37. Now watch this. You want to see how much Jesus and Moses are alike?

Consider this. They tried to kill Moses as a baby. They tried to kill Jesus as a baby. Moses left the royal position of the royal court to be a deliverer among his people. Jesus left the royal position of the royal court of heaven, making himself of no reputation or pouring himself out to be among his people. Moses was rejected the first time, received and accepted the second time. Jesus was rejected by his people the first time, according to Zechariah, will be received and accepted the second time. Moses became a shepherd. Jesus is called the good shepherd. Moses was the mediator of the covenant, the Old Testament, the old covenant. Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant.

Incredible parallels. God will raise up a prophet like me, him you shall hear. That's the prediction for the Jewish nation. Hey nation, hey Israelites, I, Moses, am kicking the bucket. I'm dying. I'm going to be dead here.

I'm going to vapor lock pretty soon. But one day God's going to raise up a prophet like me, him you shall hear. Stephen understands that to be fulfilled in Christ. Verse 38, this is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness when the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give us, whom our fathers would not obey but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. Remember all the complaining Moses had to put up with? Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? We want to go back to Egypt.

There's that pattern again. Saying to Aaron, make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

So see what Stephen is doing? He's affirming his allegiance not only to God but to Moses and to the law that Moses gave. God gave the law. It was mediated by angels. It was received by Moses.

It was for the nation. And they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets. Now quoting another Old Testament prophet, a minor prophet, Amos. This guy's all over the place.

He's good. Did you offer me, the quote goes, did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god, Remphan, images which you made to worship and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Now the god Moloch, sometimes called Molech, sometimes called Milcom, goes by a number of names, is a name for a variety of different Canaanite gods.

Let me just sum it up by saying that. That makes it easier to remember. Many different gods of these cultures were called Molech or Moloch. It's similar to the Hebrew term Melech. Melech is king, so it means ruler, king or ruler. But Moloch or Milcom, it is said to refer to a specific number of gods and the most accurate translation is that he is the ruler of shameful deeds.

Why is that? Because part of the worship of Moloch was the sacrificing of babies, alive babies. Your infant would be placed on the red hot or white hot arms of a cast iron god and it would be heated up to just white hot and the baby alive was placed on the arms until it was consumed by fire and killed, fried to death as form of worship. He's the ruler of shameful act or shameful deeds. Remphan is said to be the god of Saturn. He was also worshipped as one of the many deities. So God said, I'm going to give you up to these idols and you'll go away to Babylon. Our fathers, verse 44, had the tabernacle in the wilderness as he appointed instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, so God gave him the blueprints, which your fathers having received it in turn also brought with Joshua, brought her into the land possessed by the gentiles whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him a house. Now he's talking about the temple. So do you see his little outline? Let me tell you about the God of glory because you said I'm a blasphemer of God.

I'm not. I love him. He's the God, your God, our God. You said I blaspheme Moses in the law. Let me tell you about the law.

Let's go through that. He said that I blaspheme the temple. Now he's talking about the temple era. Now here's something interesting about the temple. God never commanded them to build it.

I want to throw that out and let it settle and sizzle a little bit. He did command them to build one structure and that was the tabernacle, very humble cloth structure, very temporary. The temple was David's idea.

God wouldn't let David build it, said Solomon would build it, and he did. Now the temple was great. They worshiped God in the temple. It's wonderful to look at the temple mound today and consider, but God never ordered them to build it.

He was happy in a cloth tent. He was happy in the tabernacle. So a temple was built and sadly the Jews over-venerated the temple. I don't know if you've ever perused some of the ancient literature about what the Jews said about the temple, but I mean it's almost like we worship God and the temple as much as God. For example, the Mishnah said he who has never seen Herod's temple has never seen a beautiful has never seen a beautiful building.

And they, you know, talked about, you know, they had all these superstitions about the temple. What's interesting about that is the one who built the temple, Solomon, when he dedicated it, 2 Chronicles 2 says, you made the heavens and the earth. What kind of a temple am I going to make for you? I can't make anything big enough or grand enough for the God who inhabits heavens and earth.

And he brings that up. Solomon built him a house, verse 48. However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands. That's a direct quote out of 2 Chronicles 2 spoken by Solomon. This guy knows his Bible. As the prophet says, now he's quoting Isaiah. Heaven is my throne. Earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord?

And what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things? Now, his historical part is done. The applicational part of the sermon begins. And this is where the people listening to the sermon decide not to approach Stephen afterwards with a handshake and say, great sermon, Stephen.

That was awesome. But I'm going to kill you. You are not worthy to live on this earth. And here's why.

You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You don't win friends preaching like that. You won't get high five and a handshake after the service. We're not going to die in the service, dude. You are.

That was their idea. You stiff necked. That sounds like Jesus. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

You're all about the outward, not about the inward. You know the woes of Matthew 23. Now, stiff necked was a term Moses used to describe the people of Israel. Stevens is using the word that Moses, whom they rejected, but now they love Moses, Moses, Moses. Moses called you all stiff necked, stiff necked. You stiff necked Exodus 33, Deuteronomy 9. And uncircumcised, ouch, telling a Jewish person who believes in the covenant of circumcision, uncircumcised where you ought to be circumcised, that's on the inside. You're all about outward show. You are uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you.

Would you say he's getting his point across? You see, I've showed you the pattern from patriarchal period, through the Mosaic period, the legal period, through the temple period. You've always rejected God. Your fathers always rejected God.

You are like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have become the betrayers and the murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they applauded and said, good job, preacher. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.

That's a word that speaks of conviction of heart. And they gnashed at him with their teeth. You know what gnashing is?

Grinding. You know, it's that scowl grumble, you know, your jaws all intense. That's gnashing. They gnashed at him with their teeth. Listen, this is a preview of coming attractions. They're going to be gnashing their teeth forever. Jesus said hell was a place of eternal torment and gnashing of teeth.

So they're just getting practice. Sad to think. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, what a contrast. They're filled with hate. They're filled with rage. He's filled with truth. He's filled with conviction. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. Gazed into heaven and saw, now watch this, the glory of God. Let me tell you about the God of glory. Wow, I see the glory of God. And Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Is there a contradiction? Because we know from several New Testament passages, Jesus ascended to heaven and did what at the right hand of God? Sat down. A priest always sat down when the work was done. Work is finished.

Tetelestai on the cross. Payment has been made. It's done. I'm done.

I'm sitting down. It's over. It's done. Finished work. But he saw Jesus stand up.

You know why? Welcome. Jesus stands up to welcome the first martyr in Christian history into heaven.

It's beautiful. I see Jesus, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God. Then they cried with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord.

Does that sound like a bunch of little kids? And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Because Saul was so close to the action, probably right up front, with a grin on his face as they took him out to stone him, he probably played a key role in the execution. He was a man of faith. He was a man of faith. Now, when you go to Jerusalem with us, there is a gate outside the temple area called Stephen's Gate or Lion's Gate. It faces the Mount of Olives toward the east. Because Stephen was in that court speaking to the Sanhedrin, they took him out of the city.

That would probably be the closest gate would be that gate area. And they stoned him. Now, just as the Mount of Olives was in that area, and they stoned him. Now, Jewish stoning—I'm going to make this really short—wasn't like, pick up a few rocks and throw it at him. They would push him over a 10-foot precipice or higher and try to have him be crushed or splat on the ground below. If he's still alive, then a large stone would be thrown at the heart to kill the victim.

If that didn't work, you'd keep piling stones on him until he's dead. That was the method of execution, according to the Jewish Mishnah. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God, ah, I get choked up, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

Who does that remind you of? Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. Lord, don't lay this sin to their charge.

Praying, interceding for them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. What happens to the soul after death? Does it go to sleep? Does it go to sleep?

Is it immediately conscious and active? So when it says he fell asleep, what does that mean? So that's the little teaser for next time.

To be continued. As we get into chapter eight, we'll make mention of the sleeping of Stephen and the resurrection event of the spirit of Saul of Tarsus. That's Skip Heitig with a message from his series, Expound Acts, showing you how Jesus challenges tradition and calls us to something so much greater. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can share life-changing teaching from God's Word with more people around the world. Studying scripture is vital if you're going to hold firmly to biblical truth.

That's why we share these Bible teachings to strengthen you in God's Word so you can stand on his truth. And when you come alongside this ministry through your generous support, you do the same for many listeners around the world. So please consider a gift today. Here's how you can do that. Visit connectwithskipp.com or call 800-922-1888. 800-922-1888.

Thank you for your generosity. Come back tomorrow as Pastor Skip begins a message looking at the persecution that scattered the early church and forced them into the world to preach the gospel. At that time, a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. That's what Jesus told them to do. They hadn't done it yet.

Now they're doing it. So the persecution brings the dissemination of the believers which will cause the expansion of the kingdom. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.