WWUTT 1056 The Speech of Stephen?

The prophets in the Old Testament were persecuted by the people whom they addressed.

Jesus was persecuted by his own people whom he came to, and we likewise will be persecuted for his name, when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts, and we are up to the speech of Stephen today in Acts chapter 7.

I'm going to go ahead and read through the entire speech. This is 60 verses here, Acts 7, starting in verse 1.

And the high priest said, Are these things so? And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me.

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

Go out from your land and from your kindred, and go into the land that I will show you.

Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died,

God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet 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.

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.

But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.

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, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.

But God was with him and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction. And our fathers could find no food.

But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.

And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy -five persons in all.

And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamer in Shechem.

But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know

Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive.

At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, and when he was exposed,

Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the

Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them wronged, he defended the opposed man and avenged him by striking down the

Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.

And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying,

Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other? But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying,

Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the

Egyptian yesterday? At this resort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire in a bush.

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the

Lord, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.

And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him,

Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them.

And now come, I will send you to Egypt. This Moses, whom they rejected, saying,

Who made you a ruler and a judge, this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the

Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the

Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers.

He received living oracles to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make for us gods who will go before us.

As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets,

Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices during the forty years in the wilderness,

O house of Israel? You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god

Raphon, the images that you made to worship, and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.

Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

Our fathers, in turn, brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.

So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the god of Jacob.

But it was Solomon who built a house for him, yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.

As the prophet says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things? You stiff -necked people, uncircumcised in 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 announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.

Now when they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And Stephen said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

And when he had said this, he fell asleep."

There you have it. That's the speech of Stephen and, of course, the aftermath of it as well, as the people responded to what it was that he was saying.

And keep in mind here, as Stephen is speaking, his face is glowing. His face is glowing like an angel.

That's what we had at the end of chapter 6 and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel, much like Moses' face probably was when he came down off of Mount Sinai and his face was glowing.

This of course is because the blessing of God is upon Stephen to speak in the way that he does, to testify in the gospel in their presence, so that when they reject him, they understand or that others observing would understand that what these people were rejecting was truly a sign from God.

It was truly the word of God himself speaking through Stephen, recalling their history, going all the way back to Abraham and up through Moses and talking about how the people had always rejected these messengers from God.

Even Joseph, his brothers, the patriarchs, all rejected Joseph, though he was a prophet of God.

Remember, Joseph was talking about dreams that he had and interpreting those dreams and his brothers hated him for it.

They hated him because Jacob loved him more than all the rest of the brothers and showered him with gifts.

And yet this dreamer was always talking about how his brothers were going to bow to him one day.

Of course, that really did happen when Joseph became a king in Egypt and God did through him what had been prophesied even by Joseph himself.

Yet the people, in this case, the patriarchs, the fathers of Israel, did not receive what it was that he prophesied.

There was always persecution of those who were appointed as prophets, even when Moses had not yet been called as a prophet.

But nevertheless, he chose to associate himself with his brothers. In the book of Hebrews, it talks about how

Moses had given up the fleeting pleasures of sin that Egypt had offered him, and he chose instead to be associated with his brothers, his kinsmen, the

Israelites, and also to bear the reproaches of Christ. Moses chose to do that, though Christ wouldn't come until much later.

But Moses prophesied about Christ in Deuteronomy 18, and Stephen mentions that here, that there is another who is going to come who is like me and you must listen to him.

But the people rejected him also. And Stephen points that out as well.

You stiff -necked people, uncircumcised in 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 announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, capital

R, capital O, Jesus Christ, whom you have now betrayed and murdered.

You who receive the law is delivered by angels and did not keep it. It was by angels that the word of God was delivered to us.

The message of the gospel, even in the first place, was delivered by angels. Before the word came from John the

Baptist and then spoken by Christ and then appointed to his apostles, it was angels that first preached the gospel.

He had the gospel proclaimed to the shepherds in the field. The angel that appeared to them, saying, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you. You will find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And then a chorus of the heavenly host joining the angel and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill to men.

This was the announcement of the gospel. A Savior has been born who is

Christ the Lord. And as it was first attested by angels, so it is now been attested by the prophets and the apostles of God.

Hebrews chapter two talks about that as well, being verified even by great and miraculous signs that were performed by the prophets and the apostles.

You knew that a person was speaking the voice of God, what God had told them to say when they perform some miraculous sign that was very clearly supernatural and could not have been done by man.

You know, even Christ's proclamation of his own gospel before his coming was an attestation by angels.

You had the mention of the of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush.

And it mentions here that was specifically the Lord. So back in Acts chapter seven, verse thirty one,

Stephen says, When Moses saw the bush, he was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the

Lord. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.

And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who were in Egypt and have heard their groaning and I have come down to deliver them.

And now come, I will send you to Egypt. This is God speaking here. Stephen is even verifying it was the voice of God that Moses heard from the burning bush.

But look at how he refers to the voice that spoke from the bush a little bit later in the very next verse.

This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, Who made you ruler and a judge? This man

God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Even if you go to Exodus chapter three and you read about this, it says that the angel of the Lord spoke to Moses from the bush.

Stephen says here it is God who speaks to him from the bush. So which is it? Was it the voice of God or was it the voice of an angel?

Well, it was the voice of the son of God. It was Jesus Christ before his incarnation. So he wasn't called

Christ. But the angel of the Lord is the son of God. That word angel is not necessarily limited to just that heavenly chorus of beings who live in God's heaven with him.

Angel can also be a word to describe some great and powerful spirit presence that is beyond what we are as mortal men, as as physical beings, as well.

If you if you've ever seen Star Trek, the motion picture, right, the very first Star Trek film where you have the oh, the little cyborg messenger of Veger that keeps referring to the humans as carbon units.

Right. OK, so we're carbon units. Angels are heavenly, incredible creatures that frighten us to see them.

The angel appears to Daniel. He's terrified. Angel appears to Mary says, do not be afraid.

And it's like the two things that angels say whenever they appear to somebody is either fear not or get up.

You know, that's what that's the way angels address somebody because they're angelic being because they're heavenly beings.

They're terrifying. But an angel is not just limited. That title or that word, that descriptor is angel is not just limited to the the servants, the heavenly servants who serve those who will inherit salvation.

That's how they're described at the end of Hebrews chapter one. But an angel can also be to describe the angel of the

Lord, the great. Heavenly presence of God that manifests himself in such a way that won't kill us, it's like a veiled glory, still glorious, which is why it's referred to as an angel.

That presence is called an angel, but it's not quite the full on presence of God, for that would be too much for us to stand.

So as God, through the sun speaks to Moses, through the burning bush, he's referred to as the angel of the

Lord. And even Stephen here makes both designations that it is God speaking to Moses and it's also an angel speaking from the bush.

The angel that stopped Abraham's hand from striking down Isaac referred to himself in the first person as being

God. And he was the angel of the Lord. So oftentimes I don't know that I would necessarily go as far as to say that every time you see a mention of the angel of the

Lord in the Old Testament, it is always the son of God. Can't say I've done enough extensive study on it to be able to go ahead and just say, hey, anytime you see the angel of the

Lord, it's always the son of God. But I would say it's a pretty fair assumption to make.

But this is the son of God being referred to as the angel of the Lord because he's not yet become incarnate.

So he has no other name but Yahweh. He shares the name with the father and with the

Holy Spirit and has not yet come as the son to point to the father, but nevertheless is the

Lord, the Lord of hosts. He is Yahweh as the father is Yahweh. When you when you see

God raining down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis, it says

Yahweh rained down fire from Yahweh. So it's the son raining down fire from the father or vice versa.

But the persons of God share that great name. I am. I am that I am

Yahweh. This is the name of God. And so the person of the

Trinity that speaks and is heard that even reveals himself in the case of Isaiah, seeing

God in his holy habitation and believing that he was undone because he had seen the holy

Lord, these theophanies or these presentations of God to mortal man.

This is Christ. It is the pre -incarnate Christ that shows himself. No one has ever seen the father, as we read at the start of John.

But God, who is at the father's side, has made the father known. And that is our

Lord Jesus Christ. This is the speech of Stephen. This is Stephen laying out for the people that are persecuting him.

Well, you persecuted the prophets. You've persecuted the son of God himself. So, of course, you're going to persecute me.

And the people are enraged at what he has said, and they drag him out and they stone him to death.

And yet look at the mercy by which he calls upon God to show to these people.

He says, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep, just as Jesus from the cross said,

Father, please forgive them, for they know not what they do. Jesus, in Matthew chapter five, verses 11 and 12, says,

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

My friends, I've been on the receiving end of this before falsely accused of things for which

I was not guilty. And yet I must rejoice and be glad in this, even when it comes from the mouth of a person who would have previously called themselves my friend, even when someone betrays me and persecutes me and utters all kinds of evil against me falsely.

I must rejoice and be glad in the Lord Christ to share in these persecutions with him, for so he was also betrayed and his friends abandoned him.

Just as this has happened to our Lord, we must understand it will happen to us who follow the

Lord. But we must entrust ourselves to him who judges justly the instruction we have in first Peter to not taking these matters into our own hands, but entrusting ourselves to God, being obedient unto him, rejoicing in him and continuing to walk in his name in faithfulness, in the pursuit of righteousness into which we have been called, not trying to or seeking to take revenge on anybody else, but entrusting ourselves to God.

These trials that we go through, they are meant to perfect us. They are meant to make us more like Christ, as it says in Romans 8, 29.

So may we continue to submit ourselves unto the Lord. He is taking care of us.

He will deliver us and he is making us into even more faithful servants today than we were yesterday.

Amen. Let us conclude with prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this magnificent speech, a terrific history lesson that we see

Stephen trace throughout the scriptures times in which God has sent messengers to his people and they were persecuted by the people.

So we have a witness that has been given to us that if we come speaking the word of God, there are going to be people who will hate us just for the godliness that we are pursuing and let us not hold it against them, but show mercy and grace toward them.

Lord, forgive them for they do not know what they do and instead entrust ourselves to God being obedient to him and rejoicing that we would be counted worthy to suffer persecution for the name.

Help us to represent the name of Christ well in all that we say and do in this life and make us more like Christ.

Do so for us today that we may walk in holiness and righteousness and that the joy of the

Lord will be our strength. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. This is a protection of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.