The Hardest Things to Say (Acts 7:23-53, Jeff Kliewer)

Faithful Wounds, Hard Truth, and Speaking in Love

Probably Caiaphas who asked him, are these things so? When charges were brought against him. So he is speaking to the high priest of Israel. He's not afraid to say hard things even in the presence of Caiaphas.

Proverbs chapter 27 verse six, make note of it. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Who would you rather have on your team, Peter or Judas? Judas was quick to offer a kiss in that garden that night.

Profuse were his kisses, yet faithful were the wounds of a friend. There were times when Peter thought Jesus was wrong.

You know that?

There were times when he actually rebuked Jesus and said, no Lord, it won't be so. And Jesus said, get behind me Satan. Jesus of course was in the right, but Peter at least was speaking from his heart, speaking what he thought was true.

And in the end, Peter would be restored to Jesus and would grow because of his errors and some of his fallings. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Jesus himself, although depicted differently in the media as being rather soft, Jesus himself was willing to say hard things.

Read, if you have the time, the 23rd chapter of the book of Matthew, where he calls Pharisees a brood of vipers, where he speaks very harshly to some who needed to hear that truth. Now, not everything that we say is a wound.

In fact, it shouldn't be often that we have to speak direct and hard things to other people. Hebrews chapter five, verse 14 is very important at this point. Because Hebrews 5 .14 tells us that as we grow in the word of righteousness, we grow in our ability to discern and our powers of discernment are trained.

We are able to distinguish between good and evil and our discernment increases. Our powers need to increase. Our powers of discernment. To know when something encouraging needs to be said, when something soft and gentle needs to be said, or when it is that a harder truth needs to be spoken.

And even when we come to that point in time where something difficult needs to be said, it's very important how we say it. Ephesians chapter four, verse 15 does tell us to speak the truth. But don't miss, speak it in love.

Speaking the truth in love, that's how we are built up as a team, as a body. Paul was famous for being rather direct in how he communicated. In Galatians chapter four, verse 16, he asked the question, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Stephen’s Truth-Telling Defense Before the Sanhedrin

Stephen's sermon is truth-telling. Absolute truth-telling. But it's not only a defense of himself. Here's the big idea today. The main thing I want us to see as we look at Acts chapter seven, it is a defense where Stephen will give a defense of the truth.

He will give a defense of the truth,.

But that's not all he's doing here. He will also offer a correction to those who need to hear a hard truth. He's very direct in this sermon.

But over all of it,.

The sphere in which all of this is operating is the presentation of Jesus Christ as a savior who can justify the guilty. So what I'm telling you is that that Stephen has three purposes in mind. One, he's defending himself because he's being charged with some terrible crimes.

What were they, do you remember? He never stopped speaking against God and against Moses. He never stops talking against this holy place, referring to the temple, and he speaks against the law,.

The law of Moses.

He is charged with capital crimes. His life is on the line. And the high priest says, are these things so? So the first thing he needs to do is defend himself. He is defending himself in this sermon, but that's not all.

Consider this. There would be an easier way for Stephen to defend himself. If that's all he intended to do. We don't have 53 verses of self-defense. He is defending himself, but an easier way to do that would be to speak cordially, to say nothing hard, to simply affirm the things that are true about the temple and about Moses and about God, about the law.

He doesn't stop there. He goes on with a higher purpose, and he actually accuses the leaders of Israel of resisting the Holy Spirit and being obstinate, of being unrepentant. He does that in order to present the good news, because you cannot come to believe in Jesus Christ unless you come to an end of yourself.

That wound from a friend that shows you the bad news that you are a sinner in need of a savior is what brings you to the foot of the cross. Without the bad news that we are lost in our sin, we cannot have the good news that there's a remedy, that there's a savior.

So this is what Stephen is doing. Last week we left off at verse 22, so let me just quickly review what we've said. Stephen, in verse two, begins his defense with a bottom-up approach, a worldview building from the God of glory.

He begins with the God of glory. Somebody mentioned to me this morning that there was an illustration I gave last week that's just sticking in his head. From last week, I mentioned when a local pastor was invited to Cherry Hill East, and at Cherry Hill East he was able to give a presentation about the things he believed, but the way he began was with the God of glory, and he explained the difference of his starting point.

His starting point is that the God of glory is on his throne, and that God speaks. Now, the worldview of most people is that everybody has their own little throne, so he drew little thrones on the chalkboard all over the place, but he put the God of glory on a huge throne above them all, and this God is able to speak and say what is true.

That's what Stephen is doing here. He begins his sermon with the God of glory who speaks, and he then begins to build a worldview from that starting point. In verse two, what God has said. In verse nine, he shows that even though God speaks, many people, probably most people, reject what God has to say, just like they rejected Joseph.

When he received revelation from God, he was rejected, verse nine. There will be three rejections, and this comes up now in verse 23. Chapter seven, verse nine, verse 25, and verse 39 are three rejections.

Although we have a God who speaks, most people do not want to hear. They don't have ears to hear. They don't have eyes to see. They don't have hearts that are open to revelation. Rather, they want to be a little God on a little throne telling the world and themselves the way it is.

Peter will have, I'm sorry, Stephen will have none of it. He builds a worldview based on the God who speaks. Verse 23, let's continue where we left off last week. He's telling us about Moses now, how he was beautiful in God's eyes.

He's full of wisdom.

He is the promised ruler, the judge that God is raising up, but look at verse 23 through 29. When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed 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 were 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? And at this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

So here is the second rejection. Stephen is building an argument and here he's laying the groundwork for what he is about to accuse the religious leaders of doing. He's showing that this is a pattern.

This is something that we see happening. Just as they rejected Joseph and sold him into slavery when he came with the revelations of God, now Moses comes as the deliverer that God has hand-selected to be the ruler and the judge.

And what does Israel do?

They reject him.

Verse 25, they do not understand. They do not accept his rule and his authority. And on the following day, verse 26, he appeared to them and basically they drive him out of town.

They run him out of town.

Verse 29, he ends up in Midian. Now I like the beginning of verse 30 because it reminds me that God's perspective of things is very different from mine. My entire life is in those first six words. And for God, it's a passing of time, like a snap of a finger.

Look, now when 40 years had passed, now put yourself in Moses' shoes. He is living in the wilderness for 40 years as a rejected prophet of God. But in God's scheme of things, when 40 years had passed, sufficient time.

There's not a hurry here with God. God knows his timing. Living in the middle of our lives, we feel differently. But God is in control and he's not in a rush. He's the God from eternity past to eternity future.

So he's made a ground for accusation. Now we're seeing another element of his defense. 30 through 34, when 40 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, 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 send you to Egypt. When Moses was off in the wilderness, he was standing on holy ground when he was in the presence of God. You see the charge that the Jews were levying against him was that he never ceases to speak against this holy place.

They understood the holiness of their place, of their promised land, of Jerusalem, the capital and of the temple, the place built for God's glory. They understood that that's what was holy. But what Stephen understands, it's not a place, it's not that you come to church on a Sunday and sit in a pew that can make you holy.

There's nothing holy about this building, nor was there anything holy in the temple itself, but it was the God who made the temple that makes it holy. And notice, Stephen tells the story, I think for a reason, because what made that ground holy is the God who was there.

He wasn't even in the promised land, but it was God. And notice, when Stephen saw that strange sight, a burning bush that was not consumed, and he was taken in by the sight, he looked at the burning bush, but he had to turn away as he approached God.

As he took the shoes off his feet, he couldn't even look at God. "'This is the one to whom I will look,' says God. "'The one who is humble and contrite of heart "'and who trembles at my word.'". Stephen trembled at God's word.

That's why he knew it the way he did. He honored God's word, he loved his word. Moses, in the presence of God, could not dare to look, but God, although if we were face-to-face with the Father, we would drop dead apart from the righteousness of Christ.

Yet, he says, look, look into my word, tremble before my word. He gives us revelation, he gives us the word. So I tell you, in verse 32, Moses trembles and he does not dare to look. In Isaiah 66, verse two, we're told, the one to whom God looks, the one who trembles at his word.

What's Stephen doing here in these verses? He's defending himself, he's saying that he's not against the holy place itself, he's for the God who made the holy place, the God who makes things holy. God alone is holy.

Now, 35 to 37, why does he bring this up? I told you last week that this is the part I was super excited about, preaching this week. Verses 35 to 37. 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 40 years.

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. Before I comment on that, if anybody could turn the air down just a little bit, I feel a little hot.

Thank you, sir. Verses 35 to 37. Present Jesus as the greater Moses. Everything that Stephen is doing here is to present Jesus as the redeemer, the ruler, the judge, the king. Stephen is not merely defending himself, although that's part of what he has to do.

He's not out to condemn because the sphere of what he's doing is the preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ. And here's how he does it. He demonstrates that it is Jesus Christ who fulfills Deuteronomy 18.

Jesus is the promised prophet, the greater prophet. So turn with me. This is extremely important. Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 to 20. Here is Stephen's gospel. Stephen's gospel is that Jesus is the king, the ruler.

He is the fulfillment of this promise in Deuteronomy 18. When you got it, say I got it. All right, Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 and following. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.

It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die.

The Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him.

In verses 19 to 22, we learn about false prophets who say things that will come true but they don't happen and that's how you know they're a false prophet. That's how you can identify Joseph Smith or Muhammad or other false prophets because the things that they said would come true do not come true.

False prophecies. But what would the Israelites write about in verse 17? They are right in what they have spoken. Here's the context. Moses is the mediator between God and man, between the Israelites and a holy God.

He goes and speaks to God and God gives him living oracles and he comes down and speaks to them. There was a time when God shook a mountain and it was covered with thick darkness and he spoke a booming voice and it was so terrifying to the people of God.

They said don't let it happen anymore lest we die.

They needed a mediator.

They needed a Moses who could go and go face to face with God and come bring the living oracles of God. Brothers and sisters, we need a mediator.

We need Jesus.

We need one who is like Moses who can go between us and God. The promise of Deuteronomy 18, 15 is there is coming another Moses.

This is important.

Someone who is like Moses but greater than Moses. If you'll turn with me back to Acts chapter seven, Stephen will make mention of a few things. And if we had time, I would love to take this study deeper.

Maybe we'll have a chance to talk about it at a Sunday school class or just over dinner or something one day. The parallels between Moses and Jesus are astonishing. Their unusual birth, the fact that they were taken out of Egypt, out of Egypt I have called my son Jesus was brought down to Egypt and brought out of Egypt.

40 day fast. The body of Moses was never discovered. It was taken away as a picture of Jesus not staying dead but rising from the dead. There are a number of parallels but here's just four quick ones that I see in this text because we don't have time to explore the whole range.

I one time did a study of it and I think there's 20 or 25 that are just blatant amazing comparisons between Moses and Jesus. But the first one I want you to see is that he's a prophet. Deuteronomy 18, 15, the important verse to make note of.

Jesus is this promised prophet. What does a prophet do? A prophet speaks for God. Moses received the living oracles. We saw earlier in Acts chapter seven. He received a word from God. That law that came from God, we call that the old covenant.

It was all the rules and regulations and the ceremonial and the moral laws of God by which Israel could relate to God. The old covenant set Israel apart as a nation, a particular people that belong to God and they were blessed when they obeyed those things and they were cursed when they disobeyed them.

Here's the problem.

They couldn't keep them. And each law that they were given exposed that their hearts were wicked. They were not able to keep the law of Moses. And so what the law of Moses turned around and did, like a mirror, it showed the people how sinful they really are.

The old covenant governed the relationship of God and his people. But it could not save. It could only point forward to the new covenant. You see, it's great that Israel had Moses and Moses did bring true revelation and the law is good, but the new covenant is better.

It's a new and better covenant, according to Hebrews.

Why?

Because in the new covenant, Jesus gives his body and he gives his blood. And in the giving of his body and blood as a sacrifice, our sins are taken away. And in that transaction where we become a new creation in Christ, his Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us like a fountain of living water.

And the spirit living inside of us is actually able to change our hearts and our desires. And we can keep the law from the heart in spirit and in truth under the new covenant. The spirit gives us the power to overcome.

The new covenant, Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, promise there initiated by Jesus is a better covenant. So here's the point. Moses is a prophet and he brings the old covenant, but there's coming a greater Moses whose name is Jesus Christ who brings the new and better covenant.

That's one thing. The second thing you notice in the text here is the miracles that are worked. God sent a ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him. This man led them out performing what?

Wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea. Never had the world seen something like this. The God of Israel sending plagues upon the nation of Egypt. Powerful things happening until finally the death of the firstborn and the Israelites are brought out safely by the hand of God, by an outstretched hand of God.

The Torah, the first five books, the Pentateuch ends this way. In chapter 34, the last three verses says that there's never been a prophet like Moses. There's never been someone who can part the waters of the Red Sea and the people can walk through on dry land.

There's never been plagues like this from heaven to bring a people out. The miracles that Moses did were profound and the world had never seen it before and the Pentateuch ends that way, Deuteronomy 34.

Just abruptly ends that way. Kind of like the end of Malachi ends with John the Baptist and just strangely you're waiting for the forerunner until this man from Galilee performs a miracle at Cana at a wedding.

And this, the first of many signs he did. And this man can not only part a Red Sea, he can walk on water and he can raise dead people and open blind eyes and open deaf ears and raise the dead, not just physically but spiritually giving them a new heart, a greater Moses.

Jesus did miracles greater than Moses. That's the comparison that Stephen is showing. He's pointing out the miracles, the signs and wonders that Moses did. They point to a greater Moses, Deuteronomy 18, 15 to 20.

Third, he's a ruler and a judge. You must listen to everything he says according to Deuteronomy 18. Those who rebelled against Moses, they were snake bit. Remember the rebellions when people would rise up over him, even his own brother and sister at times tried to take that authority.

But no, Moses was the ruler and the judge. In the same way, Jesus comes into the world as a ruler and a judge. He speaks and we must listen to everything he has to say. And finally, he's a redeemer, he's a redeemer.

See that word, Acts chapter seven. Who made you a ruler and judge? This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer. Moses was a redeemer of Israel. They were caught in physical slavery, slaves under the harsh taskmasters of Pharaoh.

And by the blood of a Passover lamb, they were delivered. They were redeemed by God and brought out finally after 40 years into the promised land. We have a greater Moses, we have a redeemer who spiritually brings us out of our deadness and our slavery to sin and into that promised land which is eternal life, beginning here and now and lasting for all eternity.

There is a redeemer. Ah, wonderful old hymn. If I had a singing voice, you could let, I would sing it right now for you. But I don't have a singing voice. I can just tell you, there is a redeemer, his name is Jesus, he's greater than Moses.

His blood was put on a cross to atone for sins. Come to him and you'll find him to be a perfect savior. This is what Stephen is doing. His intention is greater than self-defense or self-preservation.

His intention is to preach the good news. We're gonna wrap this up in a minute and I wanna tell you, Christians who hear this word are very bold, very bold to speak about a redeemer who's greater than Moses.

Very bold to evangelize and to say hard things to people in the world who don't want to hear it by any means. But notice the boldness of Stephen. It gets stronger here at the end. 38 through 43. Here is the next rejection that we talked about.

And again, Stephen is laying the groundwork for what he's about to say, which is a very harsh accusation. Follow along, 38 to 43. 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, revelation from God to give to us. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt. Again, the fathers are turning away. They're not receiving.

As Moses was rejected, Jesus will be rejected is what Stephen's about to say. 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 don't know what's become of him.

Oh, so quick to reject 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 me slain beasts and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness? Oh, house of Israel. You took up the tent of Molech and the star of your God, Raphan, the images you made to worship.

And I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. These living oracles, the hope of the Jews, the law of Moses, their hope of being right with God, they're the chosen people and they are righteous. It's the very thing that condemns them.

Just like their fathers rejected Moses and his law,.

So do they.

We don't have time to press this point, but read on your own Romans chapter three. It speaks to Jew and Gentile alike about the human condition. It's not a pretty picture, is it? For those familiar with it.

Their throats are open graves. The tongues are like the poison of asps. Their hearts are wicked. The law is unable to save them. And this is the point Stephen is pressing. In a minute here, he'll make the accusation itself at verse 51.

But finally, he brings his defense to a crescendo. Remember the three things he's doing? He's defending himself. He's accusing them with the word of God, piercing through their hardheartedness. And then he's, number three, presenting Christ, which we just talked about.

Jesus as the greater Moses. Here he brings that defense to a crescendo. He'll use the Psalms and Isaiah to do it. Verse 44 to 50. 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.

What's he doing?

He's recounting, he's building the worldview. He's recounting the story. They come to the promised land. David has it in his heart to build a temple. It's not actually David because he's a man of bloodshed.

To do it rather, it's Solomon who's gonna actually build it. But here's where Stephen just drives home the argument. Verse 48. 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? He quotes from Psalm 11 for Isaiah 66, verse one, which we mentioned verse two earlier.

Did not my hands make all these things? Stephen is pointing out, I am not against the temple. I'm for the God who made it. I'm not against this holy place. I just know there's a God who's greater that can't be boxed in this temple.

You can't put him in this little box and say that's his home and he rests there. He's the God who makes the temple holy. That's his self-defense and now he could stop. He's made a good point.

They'll probably let him go.

Okay, we get where you're coming from. You can go home now and unfortunately, that's where most of us stop. We're happy to coexist, right? We don't want to say something hard to a coworker or a family member who's lost and dying in their sins.

We want to stop there and let that be well enough. I think Stephen could have got off from these charges. There's enough public opinion. There's thousands of believers at this point watching what's happening, but here is where he gets himself in trouble.

He takes that ground that he's been building all along, the rejection of the Israelites, and now listen to what he says. Brothers and sisters, we have to learn from this. This is the word of God.

This is courage. This is courage and we need it.

Look at verse 51 to 53. 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 receive the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. Well, next week we're gonna be talking about persecution.

We're gonna be talking about martyrdom. We're going to be talking about being willing to suffer for the sake of the name, because for those of you who know the story, this is the first Christian martyr.

This does not end well for Stephen, but what can we take away from this sermon? What can we take away from what Stephen has done here? I wanna remind you of a couple verses. Proverbs 27, six, faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Those words hurt, but they were true. And they were spirit-inspired. We learned earlier, his face was like the face of an angel when he said it. He was not speaking out of malice in his heart. He was speaking the truth in love.

Even though it was very direct, as direct as Jesus was, as direct as Paul was in Galatians 2, 11 to 14,.

This is biblical.

But Ephesians 4, 15, we do speak the truth in love. Proverbs 18, 17. A judgment will sound right until another comes to examine it. The accusations sound right until another, Stephen, comes and makes a defense.

Hebrews 5, 14, this is why it's so important that we grow in the knowledge of the word, to be able to discern what is true, to be able to hear the word of God. We learned from Deuteronomy 18, 15, that Jesus is a greater Moses.

This is the gospel you have to preach. Take that tool with you into the marketplace, into the world. Deuteronomy 34, nine to 12, the miracle worker has come. So in closing, I want to encourage myself, because I need to hear this, I want to encourage you to be willing to say hard things.

A wound from a friend is better than a kiss from an enemy. If you love a person, if you truly love them, be willing to speak the truth. Be willing to say hard things. Do it always in a spirit of love.

Do it with discernment, understanding the difference between what needs to be said and what at times doesn't need to be said. The greatest coaches aren't out there just rebuking everybody for every little thing.

The great coaches understand what their team needs to succeed. But guys, what we have here, it's so much more important than the crimson tide.

Or the Huskies.

This is life and death stuff that we deal with. Learn the truth and be willing to say the truth. Not just in here, but in the world. No one will come to believe in Christ until they come to an end of themselves.

You may have to tell them hard things and they will hate you for it. They may stone you for it, but that's true love. So let's be courageous with the truth that we have. Let's be courageous to tell the truth.

Let's pray. Worship team, if you'll come up. Father, thank you for the example of Stephen. I pray that we would learn from it. From this example, Lord, we would learn to be bold with the gospel. That we would preach good news, be heralds of a good gospel, of a God who saves, who mediates between guilty people like us and a holy God.

Put good news on our tongues. But within that sphere, give us the courage to preach repentance, a turning away from sin, the need for a savior. Lord God, give us courage to speak the truth. I pray that you would release an army from this place today.

An army of love.

Loving enough to go and tell the truth to the world. That some of them will believe and be saved. Send us out in the power of the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and worship.