Acts Chapter 7:35-60

Saul, who later we'll know as Paul, was standing there listening. So we have Stephen and we have Saul standing on opposite sides of the cross. And Saul's watching and Saul's listening.

And I have to believe that the hard heart of Saul in this was being softened. As he watched what Stephen, not as he watched what Stephen did, not just what Stephen said, but what Stephen did. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As a follower of Christ, it's important that we don't just speak about the truth of God, but that we live it out. Today, Pastor David explains how our actions often have more impact than our words as he continues teaching in the book of Acts chapter 7. Here's David McGee as he concludes the teaching, Stephen's address. Now we're in Acts chapter 7. What's going on is Stephen is speaking to the Jewish leadership and he's kind of doing a recap of the history of Israel. It's an incredible chapter.

Stephen is obviously very gifted in teaching. And right now he's talking about Moses and we're going to pick it up. Let's pick it up in verse 35. It says, this Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge is the one God sent to be a ruler and to deliver by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the red sea and in the wilderness 40 years.

God was doing all these things and yet they were messing it. In verse 37, this is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear. Now this verse is talking about Jesus. Verse 38, this is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us. Verse 39, whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt 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. Verse 41, and they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets. Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during 40 years in the wilderness, the house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God, Ramtham, images which you made to worship and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

And see, Stephen is pointing out, guys, what was really going on? What was your heart towards the Lord? What was the people's heart towards the Lord at that time? They were so close in the things of God that, well, they had become a little bit jaded and calloused to the things of God.

That can happen. We can begin to get caught up in religion and ritual and that leads into hypocrisy. Verse 44, our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen. It makes me wonder what exactly happened when Moses was up on that mound. Did Moses go up in the heaven? Was the tabernacle modeled in part over some structure in heaven?

It brings a lot of interesting questions. The reality is we don't know what happened. We only know what the book tells us. We can ask Moses when we get there, I guess, right? Verse 45, which our fathers having received it in turn also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David. Moses brought them out of Egypt. And Egypt is a picture of the world, the world's system, the world's thinking, the world's philosophy, the world's perspective, the way the world has us look at things.

Egypt is symbolic of that. Moses, the law giver, brought them out of Egypt. But Moses, the law giver, did not take them into the promised land. Joshua did. I think there's a picture here going back to what we just were talking about, about the Ten Commandments. The law can't take you into the promises of God, can't take you into the promised land.

It can take you right up to the edge. But it's Joshua who can take you in. Now, some of you are going, okay, well, I don't understand the connection. Well, let me remind you, the word Joshua, and the New Testament was written in Greek for the most part, and so Joshua, esous, is the Greek word for Joshua. And we know that that Hebrew word esous, excuse me, the Greek word esous is the Hebrew word yashua. That is the name of Jesus.

See, so you see the picture? Moses, the law, taking us up to the edge of the promised land, but not being able to take us in. And Joshua, or Jesus, being able to take us into the promises of God.

It's a beautiful, beautiful picture. And then there's a lot of interesting parallels between the book of Joshua and the book of Revelation as well. Joshua goes into the land. He takes those people who had been usurping the land and not living under the, you know, the leadership of God, just like Jesus, the new Yeshua of your will, will do in the book of Revelation. Interesting parallels. Great book.

You ought to read it. Verse 46. Who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him a house. However, the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. And what house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest?

Has my hand not made all these things? Back to this house thing. Back to the church as a building. The church is, it's not a building. And not that we shouldn't respect the house of God, the place where we meet.

We should, but we should respect God more. Here, we allow coffee into the sanctuary. That may just completely freak some of you out.

I don't know. But yeah, we ask that you have a lid on it. Well, guess what I know. Coffee is going to get spilled in here. It's going to happen. Now, maybe you're sitting there going, oh, I'm busted.

I didn't think he knew. Well, every time we moved the chairs, there's a new coffee stain and I'm more concerned about people. And if it's more comfortable for you to have a cup of coffee and sitting here and hear the word of God, then you know what? Have a cup of coffee. That's the whole concept behind the cafe.

And it was interesting just to bring this home. I was meeting with the small group leaders in the children's church and we had just laid new carpet and I found myself walking by there one day and thinking, boy, it's going to get trashed in a hurry, you know, cause kids and all that stuff. And this was like four days after that, I met with the small group leaders in there and uh, I'm a coffee drinker, guilty as charged, had a big, you know, cappuccino and went to say something and kicked it over man and front of God and the small group leaders and everybody. Well, praise God. It's been baptized now. We need to remember that we need to remember that and not get caught up in the building or the structure. But remember, God is about people. It's not about buildings and structure. And what happened with the Jewish people is they begin to think God was all about the temple.

No, God was about people. And even to this day, if you've ever seen Orthodox Jewish people, they're dressed in black and you may, why do they always wear black? Is it being modest or not drawing attention to themselves? No, they're in mourning for the temple that has been destroyed. They miss the coming of Yeshua, Jesus, but they're in mourning over building.

See how twisted it can become. And again, lest we point our fingers at the Jewish people, us as Christians, we do similar stuff and all being all about the building. And you know, there was a guy stopped to talk to one of the parking lot people one day and said, Hey, can I come in and dress like that dress like this? And the guy kind of laughed and said, yeah, you know, it's okay.

Cause I was at a church down the street and I was trying to go in and as I was going in, they caught me at the door and said, you know, if you're going to come to church here, you need to dress appropriately. Wow. May we never, ever do that. I mean, if we, you know what, if we start down that path, let's just shut the doors, padlock them. Cause we've we're missing it. We're missing it.

Here's the first life lesson. Man's dead traditions can never replace God's living truth. Man's dead traditions can never replace God's living truth. Now Steven has had this dialogue. He's been talking to these guys. He's been laying the groundwork and go back and read the whole chapter later, but he's getting ready to switch gears here and he's built a bridge, but now he's going to walk across that bridge and he's going to confront them with some truth in verse 51. He says, you're stiff neck and uncircumcised and heart and ears. 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 murderers. You have received the law by the directions of angels and have not kept it.

I understand this is the last time the gospel will be presented to the Jewish people before it's taken to the Gentiles. And Steven does it with a lot of passion. And he's sitting here and saying, you know what? You guys have not kept the law.

Why? Because that's part of the discussion. Even as I was talking about the 10 commandments, part of the discussion has to be, we have not kept the 10 commandments. We have not kept God's law. We can't gain entrance into heaven through that.

So what are we to do? And then when you're in that moment of despair where you know in your own ability, you can't approach a righteous God and you can't get into heaven, then hope walks in, in the form of Jesus Christ. And he says, I'm the way, not your way, not your works, but what I did on the cross. And we need to understand that and, and, and not get well it is you get them, Steven, you tell them they haven't kept the law. Well, we haven't kept the law either.

And we need to understand that. And while we think about that, while we consider that, how in the world can we ever pick up any religious pride when we haven't kept the law, the very thing that we accuse others who aren't following Jesus, we're guilty of some of those same sins. And yet we point our fingers and we call names when we make picket signs and do all sorts of things that I'm not sure God leads us to do instead of talking to people. This is what the Bible says. Romans chapter three says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one, nobody in here, not one person in this room, not anybody in the whole world, not anybody that's ever lived except Jesus kind of humbling in it. Romans three 23 says for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, every one of us, all of us fall short of that glorious standard of perfection.

The new living translation puts three 10 like this. It says, as the scripture say, no one is good, not even one. No one has real understanding. No one is seeking God. All have turned away from God. All have gone wrong.

No one does good. Not even one. I mean, if you're reading the book, it's hard to maintain any sort of religious pride. Isn't it? Yeah.

That's good reason to stay in the book. We've all fallen short of God's glorious standard. So that's it. Let's close.

No, I'm kidding. That's, that's, that's the bad news. The bad news is we can't approach God in our own goodness. And that is, that's bad news. That's not very encouraging, but what is encouraging is God has made a way for each and every person here.

Now the key though, is what your reaction will be, what your decision will be. You're listening to pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on cross the bridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's word to him. Every day we're presenting God's word to him here on cross the bridge with pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to cross the bridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

What an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. We want to take just a couple minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience today, specifically Grants Pass, Heinz, John Day, Junction City, Keno, Lakeview, and Medford, Oregon.

Lord, we thank you for these cities and the people who are listening now. God, even those who might not be listening, we lift up everyone. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would draw them into a personal relationship with Jesus, that they would put their faith in him. Father, we pray that they would get plugged into a Bible teaching church. Lord, we pray that you give the pastors in these cities wisdom on how to make disciples and how to encourage everyone that God brings. Lord, we pray for the city leaders, mayors, fathers, the police chief, the fire chief. Lord, we pray that we would be an encouragement to them, recognizing the serious responsibilities that they have.

Father, we pray that the church globally in these cities would walk in unity. Lord, we thank you for what you're doing. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. Now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed in the heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, look, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. Stephen is about to become the church's first martyr. He's going to die for the cause. The word witness, as it appears in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, is the Greek word martus.

That's where we get our word for martyr. There's kind of a picture that we die to ourselves as we live for God. If you're in here this morning and you think, well, I'm kind of dry spiritually. Well, first of all, have you asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins?

Well, yeah, I've done that. But you know, I don't feel like I have this living, vibrant faith. When was the last time you talked to somebody about your living, vibrant faith?

I don't mean to necessarily beat them all to the head. I'm just talking about what God's doing in your heart, what's God doing in your life. It's an important part of our faith. You know, if you feel like you're stagnant in your faith and you've done those things, you're sharing your faith, well, what about serving other people? Because Jesus was really plain that we're supposed to be serving other people. And as you do that again, your faith, you get excited. And Stephen realized that this place earth was not his ultimate destination was not his ultimate destiny.

Do you understand that the life lesson here, if you were a follower of Jesus, heaven and not earth is your home heaven, not earth is your home. You're passing through earth. You're passing through. It's, it's an adventure. It's a, it's a test. That's what we say around here.

A lot. You know, they used to have those little, you know, they made the obnoxious noise and did the color bars. I guess they still do that some, but you know, and they'd say, this was a test. It's only a test of it had been a real emergency, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

And you know, sometimes things are going wrong or it's just a test. It's the only test we're going to heaven. If you're sitting in here this morning and you've asked Jesus to forgive you ever since you're going to heaven, what bad thing could happen that would override that? Nothing, not even death as we'll see with Steven.

Let's see what happens. Oh, and notice one thing real quick says, send a man standing at the right hand of God. Usually when you see Jesus, it talks about him sitting at the right hand of God. Jesus is standing and I have to wonder if it's because Jesus is watching what's going on and he knows he's getting ready to welcome the first martyr of the church and he stands up, you know, all the wrong that you see in the world. God isn't going to deal with it one day.

He's going to deal with it one day and he's going to deal with it in his way and his timing, but that day is coming. And I wonder at times if God doesn't look at, see Jesus doesn't look and see what, what's so messed up with the world and standing up. Sometimes verse 57, then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord 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. Saul who later we'll know as Paul was standing there listening. So we have Steven and we have Saul standing on opposite sides of the cross and Saul's watching and Saul's listening. And I have to believe that the hard heart of Saul in this was being softened as he watched what Stephen, not as he watched what Stephen did, not just what Stephen said, but what Stephen did.

Life lesson here. Our actions often impact people more than words. Our actions often impact people more than words.

When we live what we say, we believe as we love one another, as we serve one another, as we show it and tell our faith, it's a very powerful thing. Verse 59. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God saying, Lord, Jesus received my spirit.

What did Stephen do? Verse 60. Then he knelt down and crowd out, cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with his sin.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Some may sit there and go, well, why didn't God do something to save him? God did something. He gave Stephen the grace while he was being stoned and killed and executed to look at the people and say, forgive them. That's what God did. He didn't say, Lord, go ahead and judge them. Lord, may they reap what they're sowing here.

Didn't say any of that. He revealed the heart of Jesus. Remind you of the words of Jesus when Jesus said, father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

When's the last time you looked at an unbeliever like that? Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing now. Instead we do the pickets and we do the protest and we talk about what all the heathen dogs are doing instead of sitting back and going, God, forgive me. They've got no idea. They don't know what they're doing.

Who would have thought from this occurrence that the church would spread wider than it would anybody ever thought it would. And that there was a man there who would be one of the most powerful men ever used by God in the history of Christianity from this horrible event. You know, friend, maybe you're going something that's hard. Maybe you're going through something that's hard. That's horrible.

That's terrible. And you're in the middle of it and you think, well, what good can God do with this situation? Let me guarantee you, God can bring something good out of him.

I don't know what it is. I don't know what his timing is, but even with the martyrdom of Steven, a horrible event, the church spread from this event and there was this man named Saul that was forever touched. But notice what Steven didn't do. Steven didn't say, God judge him. Well, there's something really wrong with these people.

There was no resentment for what his enemies had done to him. None. Ask you a question. Anybody ever done you wrong? Anybody ever hurt you? Cause pain, cause disappointment. Are you carrying that around still?

Are you still thinking, man, that, that one time that guy, that, that girl, you don't have to carry that around anymore. Jesus does not intend for you to carry that around. Oh, but I'm righteously indignant over what they did. It was wrong. I'm offended because God doesn't have the good sense to be. So I'm offended on behalf of the Lord. The life lesson here, do not carry baggage from people who have wronged you.

Let it go this morning. There's an interesting verse in book of acts, acts 22 20 Paul is speaking. He says this, and when the blood of your martyr, Steven was shed, I also was standing back consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those who are killing him. Some people believe by the fact they were putting the clothes at Paul's feet that he might've been in charge that day. Paul had a truckload of guilt. He didn't know what to do with. He probably walked away that day and thought, man, this guy was being spiritual. I was having everybody stone him.

What about you friend? What are you going to do with your guilt? Are you going to carry it around with him? Take it to from church. It's so heavy.

Why would you want to carry it around? And the amazing thing is what's so heavy to you. It's like a speck of dust on a scale to God, but why keep carrying that around the guilt for what you did last week, last year, 10 years ago, sometimes we think that's a spiritual thing to do. Romans chapter five verse eight says this, but God showed us great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we are still sinners. It wasn't like God said, well, you know, they're in church. I'll save them now.

They're doing something good. No what you were in the worst shape of your life, messing up the worst you've ever messed in your life. At that time, Jesus had his hand out, extended towards you saying, you know what? I died for that sin. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him. And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness.

Those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. Visit crossthebridge.com and click on God's Plan for New Life to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God wants to bless you and encourage your relationships today. Whether you are married, considering marriage, or engaged to be married, we have a resource for you. Pastor David wants to send you his four-part video series, Allies Stay Friends. Allow God to minister to your marriage through his word today. This was an unforgettable weekend that encouraged many marriages, and you and your spouse can be encouraged too. Allies Stay Friends is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give a gift of any amount and get your copy of Allies Stay Friends. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse through the Book of Acts.