Like Father, Like Son

Stephen is clearing up the theological fog that creeps in and has over centuries. To us in this New Testament dispensation of grace, this building, as wonderful as it is, as dedicated as it is to the glory of God, as filled as it is with people who want to worship Him and sing to Him, to be nurtured, to learn, to be instructed to fellowship and all those things as wonderful as it is to see more and more people just kind of plowing their way in here. This is not the temple of God. This is not His house.

You are. We sometimes get confused into thinking that the church is a building and we forget that we, God's people, are the church. And one of the things that we do as the people of God is live with the end in mind. In other words, much of Christian living is all about learning how to die. A man named Stephen was the first Christian martyr, but we are all martyrs in the sense that Jesus calls us to carry a cross and put to death our selfish ambitions and pride.

What does that mean? We find the answer in Acts chapter 7 and Stephen Davey will explore that with you right now. We introduced Stephen, the first martyr of the New Testament church. We discovered the word revealed that he was filled with five things. That is, he was dominated or controlled by five things.

I hope you've come to the point in your studies when you see the word filled you immediately think of the word controlled or dominated by. If you weren't with us, let me review very quickly by just pointing out those five things in chapter 6 verse 3. We're told he is dominated by the Holy Spirit. Verse 3 also tells us he was controlled by wisdom. Verse 5, thirdly, he was dominated by faith. Verse 8 tells us that he was controlled, dominated by grace, charm. Verse 8, we're also told that he was dominated by dunamis, dynamic, rendered power. We also discovered that his testimony to the authenticity of Jesus Christ's claim to be the true Messiah got him in a lot of trouble. He was violently arrested and hauled in before the Sanhedrin. And in the space of an hour or two, this godly man who was so instrumental in leadership in that New Testament early church, he will have his light extinguished as they stone him to death outside the city gates. He would become the first martyr of the New Testament church, but he would not be the last. There are many that have followed in his footsteps who have been called upon by God to die for their faith. I go back in history to the turn of the century and a woman by the name of Liz Atwater who would be beheaded along with her husband in China is a missionary during the Boxer Rebellion. She wrote this letter that was received after her death by her family.

Listen to this. Dear ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear we shall not meet on earth. I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near and he will not fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that sense and now I just pray for grace to meet the end bravely. The pain will soon be over and oh, the sweetness of the welcome above. The woman who was married two years before her death, her and her new husband were serving the Lord. Then she writes this encouragement to those who would read. Now, dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth.

Isn't that good? There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passeth all understanding. Dr. Paul Carlson who would be executed by the symbols in the Central African Republic about 40 years ago, they discovered this medical missionary and doctor who had been killed and they found the New Testament in his jacket pocket and in that New Testament he had written the date and a single word in the flyleaf the day before he was executed.

The single word he wrote and dated at the entry point of his New Testament was the single word peace. He was of the tribe of Stephen. He had followed in his footsteps. Now, the story of Stephen reveals that a most amazing thing occurred that he was able to see directly into the glory of heaven and he will declare the truth of what he observes in a matter of moments. But before we get to that point as he is executed, let's take a look at his story. The Lord wanted us to have his entire sermon. It's an entire chapter and it is probably, apart from the Sermon on the Mouth, the longest sermon recorded in Scripture. But before we get to that, let's take a look at first of all the mock trial of Stephen just before he delivers his first and final sermon.

Look at the middle part of verse 12 in Acts chapter 6. And they came upon him and dragged him away and brought him before the council and they put forward false witnesses who said, this man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the law for we have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us. And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel and the high priest said, are these things so? In other words, Stephen, are these accusations brought against you valid and true?

He was accused of blaspheming Moses and the law and ultimately God and also railing against the temple. Now what follows in chapter 7 is basically the articulation of his defense against these claims. And I'm going to basically simply read his sermon aloud and we'll stop periodically to offer some commentary. But before we do that, I've divided his sermon into several categorical themes that he delivers to the Sanhedrin, that is the Supreme Court of all of Israel. If you have your notes, the first one will be this, that Stephen recounts the virtues of the Old Testament redeemers and he will focus on two of them, Moses and Joseph. Secondly, Stephen will clearly describe the violence of Old Testament rebellion. He will recount how the nation refused to follow the redeemer that God had delivered or sent to them for their deliverance. And finally, Stephen will deliver this stinging verdict as he points his finger at the Sanhedrin representing the leadership of Israel who had rejected Jesus Christ and he will basically talk to them about their current rejection of the true Messiah.

Now let's just start reading. Verse 2, and he said, Hear me, brethren and fathers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Iran and said to him, Depart from your country and your relatives and come into the land which I will show you. Then he departed from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Iran and from there after his father died, God removed him into this country in which you are now living. And he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground and yet even when he had no child he promised that he would give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him. Now you need to understand the reason he is pointing out Abraham as the initial starting point, as all these men considered themselves the offspring of Abraham.

Truly they were being Jews. But yet they were proud of being his offspring and Stephen will basically point out that they have missed the point of their relationship to Abraham. It is the point of faith.

Abraham was a man of faith. That's the point that they should have been copying in their own lives as they followed God but they wouldn't. Verse 6, But God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be aliens in a foreign land and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years in whatever nation to which they shall be in bondage.

I myself will judge, said God, and after that they will come out and serve me in this place. Verse 8, And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt and yet God was with him.

Now you can imagine here the Sanhedrin was getting a little fidgety. Stephen is pointing out that the forefathers had gotten rid of Joseph because of their jealousy and the envious relationship that Joseph had with the father. And it's interesting when you consider the fact that Mark chapter 15 verse 10 tells us that the chief priests delivered over Jesus because of their envy.

They were jealous as it were of his relationship to the father. And so they delivered him up because of envy. Verse 10, And rescued him from all his afflictions, God did this for Joseph, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he made him governor over Egypt and all his household. Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction with it.

And our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt he sent our fathers there the first time. And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers and Joseph's family was introduced or disclosed to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, 25 persons and all. And Jacob went down to Egypt and there passed away he and our fathers.

And from there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor and Shechem. But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose or abandon their infants and they would not survive.

Now by the way Stephen will introduce Israel's second redeemer or deliverer, verse 20. And it was at this time that Moses was born. And he was lovely in the sight of God and he was nurtured three months in his father's home. And after he had been exposed Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.

And Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians and he was a man of power in words and deeds, literally in the writings and in the actions of this great kingdom of Egypt. But when he was approaching the age of 40 it entered his mind to visit his brethren the sons of Israel. And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. Now notice this verse. And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together and he tried to reconcile them in peace saying men you are brethren why do you injure one another? But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away saying who made you a ruler and judge over us? You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday do you? And at this remark Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian where he became the father of two sons and after 40 years had passed an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning thorn bush and when Moses saw it he began to marvel at the sight and as he approached to look more closely there came the voice of the Lord. I am the God of your fathers the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

And Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. But the Lord said to him take off the sandals from your feet for the place on which you are standing as holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groans and I have come down to deliver them. Come now and I will send you to Egypt. This Moses whom they disowned saying who made you a ruler and judge is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of an angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. Now remember stop here for a moment. Moses or Stephen is supposedly accused of blaspheming Moses.

But far from it here. He is equating Moses with the Messiah. Moses he is saying is a type of Christ. Both were sent from God. Both were rejected by the nation.

Both were sent away as it were. Both were disobeyed by Israel. And yet Christ in the greater fulfilling sense indeed was the deliverer of Israel. So Stephen isn't blaspheming Moses here. He is saying that Moses is the forerunner of the divine Messiah and how he was treated is how you have treated the true Messiah. He is elevating Moses.

By the way I don't want you to miss this there is so much in this sermon but this one point stood out to me. In fact it is mentioned about Joseph the first and second time he appeared. I want to make the point here that Moses the Old Testament type of Christ when he first came to his people they rejected him. Where did he go? He went away for 40 years. And what did he do while he was away? He married a Gentile bride and had children. The second time he came to the people they accepted him so to speak as their deliverer. So now as the type of Christ, Christ first came and he was rejected by the nation.

He went away and what is he now doing? He is calling to himself a Gentile bride. When he comes the second time he will be received by the nation as they look on him whom they have pierced.

Let's continue verse 36. This man led them out performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.

This is the one who was in the congregation of the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai. And he was with our fathers and he received living oracles to pass on to you. And our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him. Now notice this phrase here. But repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. I came to that phrase and I had to stop.

What an insightful phrase. Their feet are following Moses throughout in the wilderness with Moses. Their bodies are there. Their minds are there. But that innermost part of their being, their heart was back in Egypt. I had to ask myself the question, where's your heart?

A question I ask you. Well, your feet are in church. Your bodies are here. Your lips have sung and your minds have prayed. But only you know.

Where's your heart? So they said to Aaron, verse 40, make for us gods who will go before us. In other words, let's make a religion that fits our lifestyle as we'd like to live it.

For this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what happened to him. And at that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol. And here's another interesting phrase. And we're rejoicing in the works of their hands. This happens to be the description, by the way, of every false religion under the heavens. False religions basically worship and praise the works of their hands.

I talk to people over and over and over again who don't know the truth of God's salvation through Christ. And the answers I receive are usually something that my hands have done for him that hopefully will gain merit in the heaven. The religious systems of this world are magnificent, beautiful, awe-inspiring.

They're the works of human hands. I usually don't share with you things I do during the week, but I wanted to share with you how thrilling it was this past Wednesday to be in a home. A couple had been visiting our church a few times, both raised to respect God and religion. And we were able at their kitchen table to go through the word and show them that salvation is free because Jesus Christ did all the work.

And what a thrill to hold hands around that table as this couple placed their faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Well, God turned away from these religionists, verse 42, and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven. You want to go ahead and worship the stars?

Have at it. As it is written in the books of the prophets, it was not to me that you offered victims and sacrifices. Forty years in the wilderness was it, O house of Israel. You also took along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of the god Ramphah, the images which you were made to worship them.

They had these idols in their back pockets. Oh yeah, we'll offer sacrifices to God, but I've got my star right back here and I'll pull that out when I want to worship and have my other tabernacle. I will also remove you from beyond Babylon. Verse 44, Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness just as he spoke to Moses, directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen, and having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers until the time of David. And David found favor in God's sight and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built the house for him. However, now here's where Stephen is going to correct the theology of the Sanhedrinists. He's been preaching along, going through the history of Israel, now he says, Now however, a little application to make here. However, as he draws the net, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?

Or what place is there for my rest or repose? Was it not my hand which made all these things? Now remember, Stephen has been accused of blaspheming the temple. The truth is, Stephen is simply putting the temple in its proper place. He's repeating the prophet's declaration here that God isn't all that impressed with buildings, anyhow made with hands.

Can you really confine him to mortar and stone? The Jewish leaders, however, and all the people have long since, for 400 years, so revered the temple that they had really begun to worship it with its ritual, its incense, its sacrifice, its system. They had developed this ritual and this religion to such a fine point that they would stand back and with glory acknowledge the temple. Don't ever say anything against the temple.

And Stephen says, Oh, we got to put that in his proper place. Where does God really reside? You see, they had so revered the temple that they missed the person who came into the temple that day a few years earlier and said to them, I am the light of the world.

Because they wanted to follow their dead religion, they missed the living redeemer, ultimately putting him on a cross. Well, we would never reduce God to living in a building, would we? Well, if you've come here this morning, because this is where you meet God, this is where you sing about him, talk to him, pray to him, learn of him, but Monday through next Saturday you won't have anything to do with acknowledging him.

You've done exactly the same thing. To you, this is where God lives and you come for an hour to meet him. You have made of him an idol and this is temple. Stephen is clearing up the theological fog that creeps in and has over centuries.

And the New Testament epistles will clearly teach the truth that to us in this New Testament dispensation of grace, this building as wonderful as it is, as dedicated as it is to the glory of God, as filled as it is with people who want to worship him and sing to him, to be nurtured, to learn, to be instructed to fellowship and all those things as wonderful as it is to see more and more people just kind of plowing their way in here. This is not the temple of God. This is not his house.

You are. You are the temple of God. You don't come here to meet him. You come here to collectively with those of us who know him, worship him. You brought him with you. Well, of course they didn't like that kind of speeching because he didn't revere the sacred ground nearby this temple courtroom.

But by now Stephen's kind of got the thing moving so he goes on to continue delivering the verdict. Now you'll notice a change in verse 51 from our fathers. Now he's going to say, uh-uh, your fathers. Notice verse 51. You men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit.

You are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who had previously announced the coming of the righteous one whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

You who received the law as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it. Now in that sweeping statement, Stephen turns that courtroom around. He is no longer on trial. They are. He is no longer guilty of blaspheming the law. They are. He is no longer guilty of speaking against the true temple. They are. He is no longer disobeying God. They are.

He basically in this sweeping statement says to these Sanhedrinist men, you are guilty. When they heard this, verse 54, they were cut to the quick. Literally they were sawn in two. And they began gnashing their teeth at him.

What are they doing? Well this is the last bit of self-control that these leaders of a now deceased religious system can muster. But they are so infuriated at this man and the truth they know he is speaking. All they can do is kind of grind their teeth at him.

They are filled with anger. Stephen is filled with the Holy Spirit, verse 55, being full of the Holy Spirit. He gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God in Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Only a few men in the Bible have been allowed to see beyond the veil.

You say, well wait a second, God is a spirit. How can he have a right hand? Well when you read the verse like that you need to understand you are reading an idiomatic expression that basically says Jesus is standing in the place at the right arm, at the right hand.

That is the place of divine authority. You say, well I also thought that Jesus sat down at the right hand or at the place of authority. Well the verses that talk about him being seated are referring to the fact that he has completed the work of redemption. He said it is finished. He went up as he ascended and he sat down. There is nothing more to do as it relates to the redemption of mankind.

It is finished. He sat down. But he hadn't been seated for 2,000 years. Here he is standing and as it were welcoming the first martyr home.

That isn't all. He said, behold, verse 56, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Now why did he say that? Well all he is doing is now making an unmistakable link between who he has been preaching about and Jesus Christ. The Son of Man is a title that Jesus Christ used over and over and over and over again about himself. It was that messianic title. He is saying that he is in fact God in the flesh. Christ is not only standing in the place of divine authority, ladies and gentlemen, Stephen is saying that Jesus Christ is divine authority. He is not merely representing God, he is revealed God. And he says, you crucified him. But he isn't dead.

He is alive, standing as the revealed expression of the triune God. And that was too much for them. They cried out, verse 57, with a loud voice and covered their ears and they rushed upon him with one impulse.

That word rushed was used of the swine that rushed into the sea. They, like one angry mob, came upon him and verse 58, when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And having said this, he fell asleep. Wonderful biblical expression of the body as it were, falling asleep, awaiting the resurrection. The spirit, other verses, tell us immediately goes to be with the one who at this point has his arms wide open to welcome Stephen home. His death provided a powerful example to all believers. If you look at chapter 8, verse 3, it reads, but Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house and dragging off men and women.

He would put them in prison. You see, that started this intense persecution. But Stephen would be the example to those that would be dragged into prison, that would be executed, that would be martyred, that would be fed to lions, that would be hung and crucified. Like the man I read who recently was boiled to death in a Muslim country for his faith in Christ, they looked to Stephen as it were who modeled for them how to die for your faith. Many of you have heard the story about the five missionary men who went to reach the Alka Indians, Jim Elliott, probably the most well known, Nate Saint, another man, along with three others 45 years ago.

Instead of being received by the natives, they were killed by the natives. Their death launched thousands of people into full-time missionary service because of their testimony. Make no mistake, the martyrdom of Elliott and Saint and the others was witnessed by the hosts of heaven. They followed in the footsteps of the first martyr. Stephen became an example to those who were called by God to die for their faith, but I want to give you one more thing. Stephen also becomes an example to those who were called to live for their faith. In the Greek language of the New Testament, the word for martyr is the word martus. Only four times in the New Testament is it used of someone dying for their faith. The other 161 times it is used to refer, and it is translated with the word witness, or to the testimony and the testifying of the witness, which leads me to this last point. Jesus Christ has called some to die for their faith. For the most part, he has called us to live for our faith. Living martyrs.

Imagine that. Those are people who have executed their primary desire for self-satisfaction, self-promotion, self-pleasure, and they have sacrificed it forever unto the Lord and they deal with it and they struggle with it daily as they seek to be a living martyr and follow the exhortation of the apostle who said, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, who follow that motto for me to live is Christ. Until the day when he calls us home and we hear our redeemer who is universally rejected, though received by us as the true God incarnate, and we hear him say, well done, good faithful servant.

Live for that as a living martyr. You've tuned into wisdom for the heart with Steven Davey. We've gone back to a series that Steven preached many years ago from the book of Acts. The series is called the harvest begins. If you've missed any of the lessons in this series so far, and you want to get caught up, you'll find them posted to our website, wisdomonline.org.

Today's lesson is entitled like father, like son. In addition to being the president of wisdom international, Steven is also the president of Shepherds Theological Seminary in Cary, North Carolina. If you know someone interested in pursuing graduate level theological training, encourage them to consider Shepherds Seminary. You can learn more at wisdomonline.org forward slash STS. If you'd like to get a message to Steven, his email address is steven at wisdomonline.org. I'm Scott Wiley and for Steven and all of us here, thanks for listening. Join us again for more wisdom for the heart. Transcribed by https://otter.ai