Sunday, April 16, 2023 AM

Lord, together in prayer, Heavenly Father, I thank you for gathering us together today.

I thank you for the love that you have shown us in your Son, Jesus Christ, that you have poured out your love in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit, who is from you, given to us because of Christ.

I pray that you would fill us with your spirit today as we look at your Word, that there would be a resounding

Amen by your grace, an Amen in our hearts of your will, which is declared from heaven, that you would give us a clear view of your

Son, Jesus Christ, that as we rejoice in him, that you would do your work in us, that you would be magnified and glorified.

Lord, this is our hope. We look to you for grace, asking for these mercies for the sake of your

Son, Jesus Christ, in whom you are well -pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7, and we are going to be looking at verses 17 through 37.

Acts This is what Stephen, beloved

Stephen of the church, does as he is put on trial because of Christ, and he defends the faith before his accusers.

He exemplifies Christian courage.

He exemplifies Christian courage. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 13 through 14,

Paul gives instructions to the saints in Corinth, and he says, watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.

Older translations get to the heart of the Greek word, play the man. Let all that you do be done with love.

What is Stephen doing in Acts 7 except watching and standing fast in the faith, and being brave, and playing the man, and everything that he does, he does in the name of love.

Love for Christ and love for his neighbor. This is Christian courage, and we are to consider the description of Stephen's stand in Acts 7 as a prescription for how we are to defend the faith.

That when we are accused of heinous things because we have been with Jesus, when we are accused of being an enemy of our society, how shall we respond?

I invite you to stand with me as I read the Word of God. Acts chapter 7 will begin in verse 17.

This is the word of the Lord by his Holy Spirit and his servant Luke. But when the time of the promise drew near which

God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt until another king arose who did not know

Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live.

At this time Moses was born and was well -pleasing to God, and he was brought up in his father's house for three months.

But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.

And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds.

Now when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the

Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.

And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, Men, you are brethren.

Why do you wrong one another? But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying,

Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. In Mark Twain's unforgettable book,

Tom Sawyer, Tom met the new boy in town, and they were opposites in every regard.

And they loathed each other because of their differences. And there was going to be a fight.

But before the fight. As they began to size one another up and recognize that they were in absolute conflict with each other, they began to cite their authorities.

They each began to speak of the size and the ferocity of their older brothers.

How their older brother could whip the other older brother with one hand tied behind his back, so on and so forth.

How strong and mighty and indefeatable their older brothers were.

And of course, they were both completely imaginary. And it was only when money was on the line that the fight ensued.

In conflict, folks tend to cite their authority in the matter. I don't know if you've been on social media at all.

But in this cultural space of conflict, people cite their authorities.

Well, I think you're wrong because. Well, I think I'm right because. And they'll cite various authorities, but we could classify most of them by man -corporate, man -expert, and man -autonomous.

Man -corporate. Everybody knows this. It's been a long time since we've lived in a culture who thought that way.

Everybody thinks different now. Man -corporate. Man -expert.

Well, so -and -so has a lot of expertise. He's got lots of initials after his name.

He has lots of credentials. Or this person has had specialized experience that nobody else in this forum could even claim.

So, obviously, what they have to say is far more weighty than anything anybody else says.

Man -expert. Or man -autonomous. Well, I don't feel that that's right.

Myself. Autonomous. A law unto myself. I don't feel that that is correct. Not in my experience.

So, these are the common authorities that people cite when there is a kind of conflict. They're citing man -corporate, man -expert, man -autonomous.

Christians will often, we will find ourselves in such disagreements, in such arguments, in such conflicts.

And if we were to say something in the name of Christ, if we were to say something in agreement with the Scripture, then someone's going to cite probably man -corporate, man -expert, or man - autonomous to try to argue against the

Word of God. Saying, well, it can't be that because of all these other things.

And you wouldn't even want to live in a world. You know, what a horrible world it would be to live in is if everything in the

Bible were followed. They envisioned just a terrible, terrible set of circumstances if that were so.

It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes. In my family growing up, the only game my whole family played together was

Scrabble. My mom would not play any board game with the family except for Scrabble because she was good at it.

And Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite comic strip. So when there was a Calvin and Hobbes strip about Scrabble, I'm all in.

Calvin is playing Scrabble with his imaginary stuffed friend, Hobbes the tiger, and he plays a word full of consonants, no vowels.

All eight letters come off his little bar, puts it all there on the Scrabble.

Triple word score. And Hobbes says, what's that? What's... And Calvin says, it's a worm from New Guinea.

Everybody knows that. Hobbes says, I'm looking it up in the dictionary.

Ooh. Calvin scowls at Hobbes, says, you do that.

I'm looking up the word you played with all the X's and J's. Hobbes reluctantly gives in and says, what's your score for...

Calvin smiling says, 357. They together decide we will live in chaos rather than both submit ourselves to an external written authority.

Interesting, huh? How do we respond? In other words, someone makes their boast in,

I'm in the majority, everybody agrees with me, or at least the loud ones do. Someone boasts in, oh, there's an expert out there and he agrees with me, therefore, this is true.

Someone boasts in, I've had more experience than you or a specialized experience and or this contrasts with my feelings, therefore.

What are we to boast in? What is to be our weighty argument? Thus says the

Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this.

This will be our weight that anchors everything. This will be our light by which we see everything, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me.

God, the definition, God, the gravity, God, the clarity, God, the light, that he understands and knows me, that I am the

Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these

I delight, declares the Lord, knowing

God. And how do we know God? By Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.

And the Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit through all the scriptures, and the

Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit throughout all the scriptures, and by Christ we know

God. So it warms my heart, and I am greatly encouraged as one of the elders of this flock, when

I hear you say things like, but the Bible says...

right on. But we've been given the scriptures, so, therefore, here is the truth of the matter.

Here is the basis for what we believe in. What I want to talk to you about today, as we see an example from Acts 7, is something a little bit more high level, and something that you encounter probably all the time.

The follow -up response to that claim is, well, that's just your interpretation of the scripture.

There's lots of interpretations of the scripture. It's impossible to know to which one. A bit more narrow of an objection than, well, all the religions say they're the right ones, so none of them are right.

By the implementation of some logical fallacies and outright lies, a picture is painted in which all

Christians completely disagree about everything in the Bible, so nothing could be known because this is an unclear word.

That's not true. That's not true. Amongst born -again

Christians, those who have the Holy Spirit, those who love Jesus and follow Him, do you know how much massive amounts of agreement there is about the

Bible? There is. But we live in a culture that wants to problematize objective truth by any means necessary.

But there is massive agreement about the Word of God amongst born -again Christians. Massive agreement.

And it is just as he said it would be because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, but the

Bible also says that you can interpret the Bible wrongly. There are such things as false teachers, false prophets, those who twist the words of God for their own gain, whatever that gain might be.

So yes, indeed, it's true that there are erroneous interpretations of the Scriptures, but that does not mean thereby that there is no true interpretation of the

Scriptures. Now what happens in Acts 7 is so instructive for us, and here's the value of it, and I want you to know it from the beginning.

Not only is Stephen put on trial, charged with blasphemy against God because he spoke against the temple, but he is charged with blasphemy against Moses because he spoke against the customs of the law.

And so they put him on trial because they say, you are against our authority, we cite

Moses as our authority, you're against him, therefore you're an enemy of our society.

Follow so far? What Stephen does not do is then say, well you do your

Moses thing, we'll do our Jesus thing, and we'll be happy if we just leave each other alone. Like a good conservative libertarian.

He doesn't say that. He says, how about that Moses thing?

Let's go deep into Moses. Let's talk about Moses. Let's get down to the very basics of Moses.

Let's look all the way very closely at Moses, and I think what you're going to find is that Moses bows the knee to Christ.

And not only is that the proper way to interpret Scripture is through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ, because we're told that's the way you do it in the

Bible itself. So we can answer the question about why there's different interpretations. But also, it's the way we are to approach every single other authority claim in any kind of confrontation that we have as we stand for Christ and defend the faith.

If anyone cites any other authority by which to stand against the truth of God's Word, and you find yourself having to defend the faith, whatever that authority is, say, what about that authority?

Let's get into it. The Scriptures tell us that God reconciles all things to Christ by the blood of his cross.

He has been given a name which is above every name. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, which means he is the authority above all other authorities, and that in him all things consist, and that all of wisdom and knowledge are treasured up in Christ, and the riches of Christ are unsearchable.

So the Scriptures tell us that any authority properly examined ultimately must rest upon the authority of Christ, otherwise it's nonsensical and refuting.

Let's look at the example of Stephen and how he responds.

He has shown his accusers about the patriarchs in Christ, now he will talk about the lawgiver in Christ.

The Sanhedrin, of course, being made of majority Sadducees, are very, very fond of Moses, and of course the

Pharisees and the scribes are as well. The charge is that Stephen is against Moses, he is against the law, he is against the

Scriptures, that he is interpreting them wrongly, he's against the established authority of his culture, the established authority of his community, he's against the established authority of the religion.

These are serious charges. These are very serious charges. How does

Stephen answer? As he begins to tell the story of Moses, he says, you think

I'm against Moses? Let's talk about Moses. As he begins to tell the story of Moses, he includes for them not just details about Moses, but about the people with whom

Moses interacted. And this is very interesting. First thing he acknowledges is that the people of Moses were repressed, oppressed, they were under tyranny.

How do we know? Verse 17, but when the time of the promise drew near, what promise? That God would bring up his people out of a foreign land after four hundred and thirty years.

When the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose who did not know

Joseph. If he didn't know Joseph, it means he doesn't remember the providence of God, he doesn't remember the goodness of God, he doesn't remember how it was that his nation became so blessed amongst all the other nations because of the wisdom of Joseph.

He doesn't remember how it was that they were blessed. And so begins tyranny. This man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live.

How do you know if there's tyranny abroad, murder of infants?

How do you know oppression is abroad, the murder of the innocent? At this time

Moses was born and was well -pleasing to God. And he was brought up in his father's house for three months.

Now, so we see that there was a problem in Israel, that Moses was born into a situation that God had designed for Moses to play a prominent part in redeeming the people of Israel and bringing them up out of slavery, out of bondage, out of oppression.

The apparent problem with Israel was that they were being oppressed, they were being subjugated and enslaved, and they were under tyranny.

That was the presenting problem of Israel. What do they need? They need to get out of bondage, they need to get out of slavery.

What was the pressing problem of the audience of Stephen in his day? Foreign occupying

Gentiles, the Romans, were oppressing them.

That was the problem. They wanted a Messiah who would deliver them from the Romans. That was the apparent pressing problem of Israel during Moses.

It's the apparent pressing problem in the days of Stephen. But what's the actual problem?

What's the actual issue? Don't you remember? Moses, used of God, God did mighty miracles with the hand of Moses and his brother

Aaron, and the people of Israel are brought up out of Egypt, and they get out into the wilderness, and they're heading for the promised land.

And what's the condition of Israel? The entire first generation dies in rebellion to God.

They got the Jew out of Egypt, they couldn't get Egypt out of the Jew. They got the

Israelite out of slavery, but they couldn't get the slavery out of the Israelite. Moses could not do that.

Moses could not, Moses could make sure that they were circumcised in the flesh, but he couldn't make sure that they were circumcised in the heart.

What happened? They died in rebellion against God in the wilderness.

What's the actual problem of Stephen's audience? Not the Romans, not the

Romans. It's their hearts. Verse 51, when Stephen makes his application at the end, you stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears.

You always resist the Holy Spirit, notice, as your fathers did, so do you.

That's the real problem. The apparent problem of Israel, ancient and Israel present, was that they were under the oppression of a foreign enemy, and they think

Moses is going to help. Moses did not deliver ancient Israel from their sins.

How is Moses going to deliver present Israel from their sins? They need a Savior that is greater than Moses, and Gabriel told

Joseph to name the child Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.

That's what they needed. They needed deliverance from their sins. Otherwise, they could be delivered from the oppression of the

Romans and die and go to hell, so who cares? Priorities.

And then comes the rest. Also, the problem was, of course, they were rebellious.

They didn't understand. Notice in verse 25, Moses supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.

And what did they do when he tried to break up the fight? He pushed them away. He said, who made you a ruler and judge over us?

He says they did not understand what means God had appropriated for their deliverance.

They did not want God's chosen servant as their ruler and judge.

Sound familiar? Jesus told a parable in Luke 19 .14, describing his generation, but his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us.

You see, so they were rebellious.

They've got Stephen on trial for rejecting Moses. They've got Stephen on trial for rejecting

Moses. Jesus, in another parable, Luke 16, 29 -31,

Abraham's talking to the rich man in hell. Abraham said to him about the rich man's brothers, he's concerned for them that they might end up in the same place, and he said to him, they have

Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, Moses and the prophets. But he said, no, father

Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, if they do not hear

Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead. They have

Moses and the prophets, they memorize Moses and the prophets, they read Moses and the prophets, the scribes write out

Moses and the prophets, the Sanhedrin were experts on Moses and the prophets, the rabbis quoted rabbis who quoted rabbis all about Moses and the prophets, but they did not hear

Moses and the prophets, for you have to be given ears to hear.

So they were in need of redemption, they were in need of deliverance, but only through God's chosen servant, the children of Israel, ancient rejected

God's chosen servant, although he was the very one God had selected to be their help.

Now notice in verse 34 of Acts 7, Stephen is finishing up the story, God is speaking to Moses at the burning bush,

God says to Moses, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who were in Egypt, I have heard their groaning and I've come down to deliver them, and now come

I will send you to Egypt. Notice how Stephen talks about this moment, he says to his audience, this

Moses whom they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and a judge, notice, is the one

God sent to be a hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

You see, he brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the

Red Sea in the wilderness 40 years. Did not Jesus of Nazareth, was he not the one whom God had chosen?

Had not God made clear that this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased? Did not Jesus of Nazareth come and preach that he was the

Christ and by signs and wonders proved himself? And did they not reject him and said his blood be upon us and our children?

But is not Jesus of Nazareth the one whom God appointed to deliver them? So God's people,

Israel, stood in need, the same needs, in Moses' day as in Stephen's day.

They were still in the same situation. They still had the very same needs, which meant

Moses wasn't the answer. They had

Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses, even to the present day, they had

Moses all this time, but Moses did not deliver them from their sins.

And Moses didn't change their hearts from rebellious to responsive. And Moses did not redeem them.

So Moses is not the answer. You see? Who's the answer? The one to whom all of God's servants pointed,

Jesus Christ, God's servant. And we see that Moses was pleasing to God.

Moses was pleasing to God. In verse 20, at this time,

Moses was born during the time that they were trying to kill the infants. And he was well pleasing to God.

We read in Exodus 2 that he was a beautiful and lively, precious baby.

And Jochebed, his mother, was unwilling to follow through on the state mandate and kill him.

However, she couldn't keep him hidden as three -month -olds discover their lungs in a new and fresh way.

And so she hid him in a basket that floated, put him in among the bulrushes and sent

Miriam to keep watch on him. And how did God make arrangements?

Pharaoh's own daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.

How hopeless a situation when the snake -wearing Pharaoh sets his eyes on the woman of Israel to devour her child, the great serpent to devour the

Messiah of long promise. How hopeless it all looks, except for the fact that God's in charge.

And he has, get this, the daughter of the monster who ordered the death of the infants.

His daughter reverses the whole policy. See? God's the one in charge.

And Moses was pleasing to God's sight. Now, how many times does God say this of his servant?

His servant who is a relational, mediating servant, the one who is especially highlighted in the scriptures concerning the image of God, concerning the covenants that God makes with man.

What did God say after he made Adam? Everything was very good.

Noah found favor in God's eyes. God looked upon Abraham's obedience and faith on the mount where he tried to offer

Isaac upon the altar. And he says, I have seen now that you believe in me and you and you are willing to trust me.

What kind of favor did he show upon Joseph? We know what he says about Moses here.

And what about Israel, the image of God corporate as humanity is supposed to operate as a whole according to God's covenant?

What do you say about Israel? Deuteronomy 32, verse 10. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness.

He encircled him. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.

Israel, his servant, his servant that you read about in Isaiah, was pleasing to the eye of God, the apple of his eye.

And then the king, the king who stands in for all the people of Israel, who stands as Israel in one person, the king says,

Psalm 17, 8, keep me as the apple of your eye.

Hide me under the shadow of your wings. And then quickly look over here.

There's Jesus of Nazareth being baptized by John in the Jordan.

And look, the dove descending. And in the shadow of the wings of God, he looks upon his son.

The father says, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. What does he say of his chosen servant?

He is pleased in him. He is pleased in him. What a startling, terrifying thing to think about being displeased with Christ, to hating

Christ, to wanting to silence anyone talking about Christ, to wanting to flee from the light of Christ.

God's chosen servant is pleasing to him. Is he pleasing to you?

Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ, the son of the living God. He has been attested to by signs and wonders.

He has been proclaimed by all of the scriptures. God's servant is pleasing to him and purposed by him for his saving purposes, purposed by him for salvation.

Notice in verses 23 through 34, the description about Moses. Stephen is preaching to his audience.

He says, now when he was 40 years old, again, they know the story by heart. They're probably pretty irritated that he's going through all the details again.

Like, come on, come on, come on, get to the point. You know, he's going to get to the point. Now, when he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptian.

For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, men, you are brethren.

Why do you wrong one another? But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday? Then at the same, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian where he had two sons.

And when the 40 years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.

When Moses saw, he marveled at the sight, and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying,

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses trembled and dared not look.

Then the Lord said to him, take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of my people who were in Egypt.

I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And come now, I will send you to Egypt.

God put it into Moses's heart long before the burning bush to be a deliverer. But then he clarifies his own power to save and deliver by using

Moses and gives him direction. God exhorted Moses, and he equipped Moses to do this work.

God specifically fashioned and prepared Moses for the task.

And just how clear is this whole scenario in the mind of the

Sanhedrin. What they've accused Stephen of is that he has blasphemed

Moses because he's speaking against the customs, the customs. But they, in focusing on the customs of Moses and the laws of Moses and the interpretations of Moses, have forgotten the story of Moses.

They've forgotten what God was up to in preparing Moses and using

Moses in a very specific way. They're focusing on the rules and have no concept of how things were brought about in history to declare the goodness of God in his promised redemption.

God purposes his servants for particular ways in which to glorify himself by declaring his son.

In John chapter 1 verse 14, we hear, The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the

Father, full of grace and truth. Verse 17 says, The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

Again, we boast in God. How do we know God except through Jesus Christ, whom he has sent?

And the Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit through all the scriptures. So we have received grace and truth through Jesus Christ.

In John 18 verse 37, Pilate has Christ on trial and he says to him, Are you a king then?

Jesus answered, You say rightly that I am a king. Listen, for this cause I was born and for this cause

I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. I should bear witness to the truth.

Not Michael Durham preaching at Sunnyside Baptist, right?

Not you and your personal experience. Not Mr. Expert somewhere with three degrees.

Christ bears witness to the truth. He said it. He said it. I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father except by me. And then he says, Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.

What did Jesus say to the Jewish religious leaders who opposed him?

He said, My sheep know my voice and they follow me. You do not hear me.

You do not follow me because you are not of my sheep. So we see that just like Moses was pleasing to God, but in a greater way,

Christ is. Just as God had fashioned and purposed Moses for good reasons and for a blessing to his people, so also

God has a purpose in his son, Jesus Christ, but a greater one. Here's Moses, but here's

Christ. Now notice the payoff for all of this. Verses 35 through 37.

Notice how Stephen makes his point so clear. He says, You have charged me with blaspheming

Moses because I preach Christ, because I praise Christ. You say that I'm against Moses.

I think this is important to hear even as Christians. Sometimes we don't know how to relate to Moses as well.

Listen to what he says. This Moses, verse 35, this Moses whom they rejected saying,

Who made you a ruler and a judge is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer 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 the wilderness for 40 years.

Here's the payoff for focusing on Moses. Verse 37. This is that Moses, the very same

Moses, who said to the children of Israel, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.

Watch what he says. Him you shall hear.

What just happened? How can

Stephen be preaching against Moses and blaspheming

Moses when Moses was the one who said, Someone else is coming, a prophet like me from among his brethren, and he's the one whom you ought to listen to?

Moses was not doing anything different than John the Baptist when he said, I must decrease, he must increase.

Moses isn't saying anything different than God said about his son on the Mount of Transfiguration when he obscured all other visions so that only

Christ himself alone was seen by his disciples, not Moses, not Elijah, just Christ alone.

And God said, Him you shall hear. The payoff for focusing on Moses is not that we can build an elaborate system of laws and customs, that we can try to find some way to celebrate feasts and wear fancy garments.

It's not so that we can try to figure out some new complicated, convoluted way of following laws.

That is not the payoff for paying attention to Moses. 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. There's a new authority in town.

There's a new sheriff in town. He's way better than Moses. He's the fulfillment of the law. He's the new authority to whom we must bow the knee.

Look at the context from which Moses speaks, Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 through 19. Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 through 19.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear, according to all you desire.

Watch this. According to all you desire to the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying when the

Sinai covenant was being made, what did the people say? Let me not hear again the voice of the

Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die. They stood in view of the unmediated holiness of God.

No one else ever stood closer to the edge of hell without falling in than Israel did at Sinai.

As they see the holiness of God burning the mountain, they say, we need a mediator. Moses, you go up there.

We don't want to get anywhere close to it. And what does God say? Verse 17. The Lord said to me, what they have spoken is good.

It's good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren.

I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name,

I will require it of him. Sanhedrin knew that that passage by heart.

The scribes had written it over and over again. And here is Stephen. Who is Stephen?

He's just a guy born again, filled with the spirit, full of wisdom and power by the grace of God.

Not even from around this area. He's a Hellenist, speaks Greek, doesn't know how to speak Hebrew. No credentials.

But he stands here making a defense for the faith against those who are saying to him, well, you're just interpreting the scripture wrong.

You're no expert. You have no authority. And you're against all of the cultural authorities of our day.

Who are you, Stephen? And he said he doesn't even defend himself.

He doesn't talk about himself. He talks about his Savior, Jesus Christ. And he says, if you want to talk about Moses, let's talk about Moses.

Moses proclaimed Christ. God will raise up a prophet like me from your brethren.

Him you shall hear. And he's saying that to the Sanhedrin, you must hear him. You must hear

Christ. You must hear the Messiah. This is the one whom Moses proclaimed.

So let us make our boast in God's chosen servant. How does that manifest in our lives?

Well, social media is, well, what did the writer of Ecclesiastes say?

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and posting on social media. But okay, if you're in that space, defend

Christ. But what about your loved ones? What about your neighbors? What about your co -workers?

What about those who disagree and say, no, I think, I feel, this expert over here, how do you defend the faith?

How do you stand for Christ in those situations? Especially when you're being pointed at and saying, well, you know, you're what's wrong with society.

Now, you're a problem. You're an enemy to everything that is good, true, and beautiful. How do you respond?

Well, if they hate the Christ of you, don't defend yourself. Defend Christ and stand and speak his name and boast in him.

If they say, you disagree with my authority, I cite my authority. Take whatever authority that is.

Think about what they're saying. Are they declaring some proof from the created order?

Well, who's the creator? Are they declaring some man somewhere who has authority? Well, who is king of all kings?

Whatever they're claiming, whatever their authority is, say, let's talk about that authority and let's see on what basis that authority has any legitimacy whatsoever.

And just boast and boast and boast and boast of Jesus Christ, his unsearchable riches, his unfathomable glory, his endless reign.

That is how we may defend the faith and play the man. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the time that you have given to us. I pray that it has been encouraging and a blessing to all that are here.

I pray that you would help us to have courage. I pray that you would help us to defend the faith by glorifying and recognizing the supremacy of Jesus Christ.