Worlds Apart (Acts 7:1-22, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Through your word, open our ears to hear the truth. Lord, form our worldview through the study of your word.

00:11

We pray that this chapter, these verses in the book of Acts, would not just be archaic, they would not just be ancient, they would not just be irrelevant, but they would be the most important thing to us today.

00:25

I pray that right now you would focus our minds and our attention upon your word.

00:32

Speak, oh Lord, but Lord, give us the ears to hear. In Jesus' name, amen. Picture a young man, in fact, picture him as a boy, a six -year -old, in Sunday school classes in North Carolina.

00:49

He's growing up and his worldview is being formed. He goes to youth group and that fire for the

00:56

Lord Jesus Christ gets stronger. As he grows and goes off to college, that fire becomes a raging flame and the joy of the

01:06

Lord overtakes his life. Not long after graduating, he becomes a missionary.

01:13

He leaves the comfort of his home in North Carolina and everything that he knows, all of his people, and he goes to the distant land of Turkey.

01:25

He arrives in Izmir and begins to learn the language, spends time meeting people and knowing people, begins to evangelize, and a church is born in Izmir called

01:38

Resurrection Fellowship. The fire continues to burn and for years he continues to preach and now he's having success on the mission field and the church is growing.

01:50

The Turkish government takes notice and begins to try to silence him. Unable to do so, they resort to arresting him.

01:59

This just in from Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice. The young man, now a grown man, is

02:09

Andrew Brunson. The ACLJ writes, it's unthinkable.

02:16

Pastor Andrew is being returned to a horrible prison. The first day of American Pastor Andrew Brunson's trial was filled with secret witnesses for the prosecution.

02:28

Their testimony was broadcast into the courtroom via video with their voices and appearances altered.

02:34

In the US, such devious tactics would have been thrown out of court, but not in Turkey. Then at the conclusion of a grueling, nearly 13 -hour -long day of trial, the judge refused to release

02:47

Pastor Andrew, but worse, he ordered Pastor Andrew be thrown back into the first prison he had been in, a notoriously overcrowded and grim prison.

02:57

Then the Turkish court delayed the trial until May 7th. While his case has taken a bleak turn, these next three weeks are very critical.

03:08

We have to turn up the pressure. Pastor Andrew is innocent. He's on trial for Christianization, for his faith.

03:17

We're directly involved in dealing with his legal defense in Turkey. We are obtaining statements from nearly a dozen witnesses in defense of Pastor Andrew from across the globe.

03:26

We're fighting on Capitol Hill and at the UN, but without your voice now, this innocent pastor could very well spend the rest of his life in a

03:35

Turkish prison. I want to appeal to you, family. Go to the website, ACLJ, before this day is out, and just sign the petition.

03:44

It seems like a small thing to do, but you know, another hundred people that sign it is a bit more pressure on the international scene to release

03:52

Pastor Andrew Brunson. Here in America, we don't face the same kind of persecution that others face around the world.

04:01

However, we are often misrepresented. We are often accused of things.

04:08

And of course, there's the shame messages that we hear, where when we proclaim the word of God and take a stand upon the word, we are labeled bigots and intolerant.

04:19

And there is, of course, that social pressure for us to be quiet, but we don't face the same kind of pressure that Andrew Brunson is facing in Turkey.

04:28

However, it's maybe around the corner, I pray that things turn, but just this last week, in the state of California, the government schools and the lawmakers of the land decided that parents are no longer allowed to opt their own children out of the indoctrination that the schools put them through with regard to sexual orientation and sexual education.

04:54

They're no longer allowed to opt their kids out. Now, in the ruling that the California government put forward, they said, it is okay for you to talk to your own kids at home.

05:06

Well, thank you, thank you, government, that we're allowed to talk to our own kids at home and tell them what we think and what we believe.

05:14

But now, it's no longer allowed to opt your kids out. What will that result in?

05:19

Maybe a young man will say, I'm not going to listen to this and be kicked out of school.

05:25

Maybe there'll be a court case. Maybe the pressure on parents in this country will actually get more intense.

05:32

I pray not. I pray that this remains the land of the free. But who knows what the future holds?

05:39

Our text today is about a young man named Steven. And I picture this young guy growing up in a good

05:46

Jewish home, hearing the Torah, learning the

05:52

Torah, probably memorizing large passages of Torah. And then, when the gospel begins to be preached in Jerusalem, something lights inside of him and he believes the good news of Jesus Christ.

06:04

He finds himself on trial for his faith, falsely accused. And yet, standing there with a worldview built upon the scriptures, a foundation so strong, he stands up not crying, not afraid, not cowering, not silent, but bold and humble.

06:28

His face like an angel, declaring the word of God to the very people who are falsely accusing him.

06:36

It's an amazing story. Turn with me. Acts chapter seven, verse one and following.

06:45

Here's what I want us to see in the text today. Steven's worldview and that of his accusers were irreconcilably different.

06:55

They were coming from different places. Now, they had the same foundation of God and the scriptures, but somewhere, their worldview departed from one another.

07:05

And they saw the world very differently. It had a lot to do with the heart condition of the two.

07:13

Steven had a very different heart from the people that were accusing him. And the reality was that given those irreconcilable differences, there was bound to be a clash.

07:26

The clash of worldviews was inevitable. It must come, and it did come.

07:35

Nowadays, we should expect similar clashes. We should expect that our worldview really will clash with those who are coming from a completely different place.

07:48

And in a sense, we should expect the same result. If you jump ahead to the end of chapter seven, it's not pretty what happens.

07:57

That may be the case with us, but nevertheless, we learn from Steven's example.

08:04

We learn how to stand strong. We learn how to build a Christian worldview from the ground up and to represent that even to our own accusers.

08:16

Now, the Jews at this time who are accusing Steven are viewing the world very differently, very much through a racialist lens.

08:25

They are looking at the Jewish people as the promised people of God and everybody else as dogs.

08:33

Gentile dogs, they use the term. They saw that they were in the promised land, the chosen people in a chosen land.

08:45

They had the law of Moses, and those who did not have the law of Moses were completely cut off from God, without hope and without God in the world.

08:53

There were semblances of truth in what they believed. But their lens was distorted.

09:02

Their worldview was off kilter, and it runs headlong into Steven's worldview.

09:09

So let's pick up in the text, chapter seven, verse one. We're gonna go through 22 today.

09:18

The sermon is the longest in the book of Acts. Steven will preach through verse 53.

09:24

We'll take that in two weeks. But notice, and the high priest said, are these things so?

09:35

To know what the issue is here, we have to take a couple steps back into chapter six and recall what the problem is.

09:42

In chapter six, Steven is appointed as a deacon, but before long, he's out preaching the gospel in the streets, and opposition comes against him.

09:52

He is disputing with these people, and is so mighty in word and deed that they cannot stand up against his wisdom.

10:05

If you notice in verse 10, they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

10:12

Now, an interesting dynamic is happening here. The synagogues who are joining forces against Steven have a star player, somebody who was trained by Gamaliel himself, the great scholar of the

10:30

Sanhedrin. Trained by Gamaliel. He was a brilliant man, and though young, was already noteworthy among all of his peers.

10:41

Standing out, had memorized huge portions of Torah, probably the whole thing.

10:47

A brilliant young scholar, and yet, he is being outwitted, outdone by Steven.

10:56

If you look at verse nine, we're still in chapter six before we dive in. Some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen, of the

11:05

Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia, that would include

11:11

Tarsus. The young man is Saul of Tarsus, and very much of what we read in chapter seven is the formation of Paul.

11:24

From Saul of Tarsus, who opposes the gospel message, unable to refute the words of Steven, the seeds are being sown in his rebellious heart, until Christ gives him that new birth, and he becomes the great apostle,

11:40

Paul. So this is the scene. There's a dispute, a theological dispute, about who

11:46

Jesus is, and Paul is very much opposing Steven, and yet, cannot withstand his wisdom.

11:53

In chapter seven, Steven is now dragged before the high priest, and the council, and the high priest said, are these things so?

12:05

What things? That's the question we have to answer. What things? What is he being charged with?

12:10

Look back a couple verses. 13, this man never ceases to speak words against this holy place, and the law.

12:18

So two specific charges. One, he's anti -temple, anti -Promised Land. Number two, he's anti -law.

12:28

Steven is being misrepresented in those terms. In a similar way, brothers and sisters, expect to be misrepresented when you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

12:43

When you proclaim the very word of God that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the

12:49

Father but by him, the representation that will be made of you is that you are anti -love.

12:58

When you say that the biblical morality described in the law is, in fact, the law of God, and anything that's outside of that biblical morality is, in fact, sin, you will be called intolerant, and judgmental, and hateful.

13:17

But this is love, the one who lays down his life for his friends. This is love, and greater man has none than this, to lay down his life for his friends.

13:30

The message of Jesus is loving. It is the definition of loving. Yet, we will be misrepresented as intolerant, and cold, and hateful.

13:40

We preach a message of freedom, freedom from the power of sin, and the penalty of sin that hangs over all of mankind, freedom from the very presence of sin, when one day we will stand in the glory of heaven, in the very presence of God.

13:56

That is freedom, to no longer have a desire for sin, to be set free entirely for eternity to worship the king of kings.

14:06

And yet, we'll be told that we are pressing our religious views on others, and not respecting a woman's right to choose.

14:17

We will be called intolerant, and restrictive of human freedom, when in fact, it's love and freedom that we preach.

14:27

The problem here is misrepresentation. Stephen is preaching the truth of Jesus Christ, yet he's being told that he is anti -temple, and anti -law.

14:39

Continue on, how then does he answer? Verse two, and Stephen said, no, end of sermon.

14:53

That would be a short way to do it, and then I would be done. But in fact, he preaches now for 52 more verses.

15:01

He stands up boldly, and recites, and builds a worldview from the ground up.

15:08

But notice before he launches in, brothers and fathers, hear me.

15:15

What I love about that introduction is it shows a grace, and a respectfulness in the way that he speaks.

15:21

These are people who are falsely accusing him of some pretty terrible things. In fact, things that could be punishable by death.

15:28

He knows the threat that he is under, and yet he's so calm, so composed.

15:34

Look at verse 15, when they look at him, and they say, of the previous chapter, verse 15 of chapter six, they see that his face is like the face of an angel.

15:45

And he speaks so gently, brothers, fathers, hear me.

15:53

This is the kind of confidence that we need. It's a humility that comes from knowing whose you are.

16:03

To know that you are representing the king of kings, and he has your back, there is nothing to fear.

16:09

If the God of angel armies is on our side, what have we to fear? What does

16:15

Andrew Brunson have to fear, even in a Turkish prison? When the

16:20

God of all the universe is on his side, rather than Brunson is on God's side.

16:27

What do we have to fear? Be confident as you stand for Christ. In conversation, you don't need to shout.

16:35

You don't need to yell, you don't need to argue. In fact, brothers and sisters, we don't argue. We destroy arguments.

16:43

Like Paul says, we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.

16:51

This is not a fair fight. This is not equal fighters in a boxing ring. This is a people who stand upon the very truth of the word of God, an unbreakable foundation, and we have nothing to fear.

17:04

Recognize who we are in Christ. Recognize that we're not speaking our mere opinions like everybody else in the world.

17:12

We are speaking the very words of God, and these words are rock solid. No one can break them.

17:19

People try to break the 10 commandments, but find out that they break themselves against the law of God.

17:25

Those tablets are strong. Those tablets are unbreakable. So it is with the word of God.

17:32

That's the confidence I love in Stephen. Even though he's accused falsely, he's so calm.

17:42

He's so confident in his God that he can speak gracefully and respectfully.

17:48

That's how we carry out apologetics, by the way. Yes, theological dispute is part of what we're called to do.

17:55

Read it right here. These are religious disputes. Both have the foundation of God and the scriptures.

18:02

There is an arguing of sorts, but it's not a petulant, angry kind of arguing.

18:09

Stephen is representing the truth confidently. Move on. The second part of verse two.

18:15

Here is the foundation of what we believe. Here's the starting point of our worldview. This is huge.

18:22

Look where Stephen starts his argument. The God of glory.

18:30

The bedrock foundation of our worldview is God himself. We are a God -centered people.

18:38

We begin with God. And this is a God who speaks.

18:44

Notice, the God of glory appeared. He revealed himself to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Heron and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.

18:59

Our worldview begins with a God who speaks. And this is where we diverge from most people in the world.

19:06

And it's an irreconcilable difference. We begin with a God who speaks.

19:13

There is a God who reveals truth absolutely to his people. He has spoken and that's what the

19:19

Bible is, the very speech of God. Most people in a secular worldview start with themselves on the throne.

19:28

I'm mentored by and spend time with a pastor in this area, Pastor Mark from Fellowship.

19:36

I learned from him. And a couple weeks ago, he told a story that really resonated with me and I think would be helpful to us to hear.

19:44

He was invited to Cherry Hill East to share what evangelicals believe.

19:51

There were also invited an imam, a rabbi, a Catholic priest, and other religious leaders.

19:58

Each one had a time and a class to spend with this particular group of students.

20:04

Now, the students noted that although there were differences of theology, the opinions of all the others were the same regarding the social issues of the day.

20:15

Whereas Pastor Mark had a completely different view from everybody else. In fact, when

20:22

Pastor Mark was introduced to the class, the student who introduced him said, we have today with us an evangelical.

20:31

Evangelical. Now, you may not know what that is, and I had never met one, but this is a real evangelical, quite a treat for us.

20:38

Mark said he felt like a zoo animal of some exotic, you know, description.

20:45

We've never seen one of these before. But when he got up to speak, he recognized the difference in starting point, the difference of worldview.

20:54

And so he built from the ground up, this is what he did. He went to the chalkboard and he began to draw thrones, small thrones all across the bottom of the chalkboard.

21:07

And he spoke about how sitting on this throne is each one of you and each person. And each person declares what they believe to be true.

21:16

They have their private truth. And it would be wrong for any one of these rulers on the throne to criticize or to say that their view is superior to another, because each one has their own throne.

21:31

He said that this is the starting point of secular humanist worldview. That each person determines truth for themselves.

21:39

It's private, it's not absolute and outside of them. Rather, it comes from within. It's whatever a person believes to be true is good for them.

21:47

That's the worldview that most people start from. And then he came back to the chalkboard after explaining this, and he drew a giant throne on top.

21:55

And he said, this is my worldview. That there is one God on a throne.

22:02

And he is king of all and he has spoken. And so my place is not on a throne, but under his throne.

22:10

And what he says is what I believe. This is how I know what is true. And this forms my thinking.

22:17

And he said, because we start at different places, if you believe according to a different worldview, you might hate what

22:24

I have to say. You might think that I'm hateful for saying it. But I want you to understand that God is on his throne.

22:32

Starts with God who speaks. And that's what Stephen does in this text.

22:37

He begins with the God who speaks and begins to build his worldview up from there.

22:42

So now, verses four to eight, what he will do is he will speak to the specific charge that he's anti -temple.

22:50

He's anti -this place. Remember the two charges. Stephen, you're anti -temple, you're anti -law.

22:59

He's gonna take on the first one here. But do it by building up from the ground up a worldview and show where the difference came into play.

23:07

Verse four, talking about Abraham. Then he went out from the land of the

23:13

Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

23:21

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.

23:32

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 400 years.

23:43

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

23:50

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day.

23:58

And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the 12 patriarchs.

24:05

Now, it's kind of a strange defense that Stephen is making. He's not exactly cutting to the chase.

24:12

He's not exactly groveling and pleading innocence. Rather, he's up to something.

24:20

He's starting from the ground up, the God who speaks, and now he's building the common ground that they share with one another.

24:28

That Abraham had come to the place that God had shown him. He's building up a worldview from that basis.

24:37

And then he gets to verse nine. And this is where the refutation is actually beginning.

24:44

This is the first of three rejections that Stephen will make note of.

24:51

Here we have in verse nine, the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt.

24:59

At the end of the chapter, the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, and the

25:05

Israelites who rejected Moses when he came to them as a young man and was dismissed for 40 years before he came back as their ruler and their deliverer.

25:17

And then in the wilderness when the Israelites rejected Moses, one, two, three examples of rejection of the deliverer.

25:28

You see, Stephen's up to something. He will show them from their history that the

25:34

Israelite fathers always reject their deliverers. They always go astray.

25:42

And as Stephen preaches Jesus, it's not unexpected that they're rejecting him too.

25:48

What's Stephen up to? Evangelism, witnessing. He's not trying to get off of the charges.

25:58

He's not concerned for that at all. He's still in the mode of telling the truth about Jesus, wanting them to hear and believe, and he's using the scripture to do it.

26:08

That's why it takes him so long to get to his point. Here in verse nine, he's laying the groundwork and they can just say amen to what he's saying, but at the end he'll turn and apply this to them, the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph.

26:24

You religious leaders, jealous of Jesus? You're rejecting the

26:32

Messiah that was sent to you. You sold him into Egypt, but God was with him.

26:40

Continuing on now, that phrase that picks up halfway through verse nine, circle it in your

26:47

Bible, highlight it, underline it, but God, but God is the story of the

26:56

Bible. You see, we are a sinful people that go astray, but God.

27:02

Steps into history, becomes one of us, lays down his life on that cross to redeem a people for himself.

27:09

But God, we are the ones who are dead in our trespasses and sins, and we follow the course of this world and the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, but God, being rich in mercy, steps in to rescue us.

27:24

But God, Romans 3, 21, Ephesians chapter two, verse four,

27:30

I believe it is. This but God, but God, he steps in to rescue, and here again,

27:36

Joseph sold out into slavery, but God, and now we'll read about four or five verses, 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.

27:55

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

28:03

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

28:10

Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh, and Joseph sent and summoned

28:16

Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, 75 persons in all. This is like Old Testament survey 101.

28:26

He's just reviewing the Old Testament, but it's stirring up in the listener these emotions, remembering

28:33

Joseph, how when his brothers came to him, he had to dismiss himself, and he cried, and he came back composed, and they went home, and then before long, he identifies himself, and then they go get the father,

28:48

Jacob, and bring him down to Egypt, and there, this father that Joseph has been separated from for all these years is in his presence again, the favored son, and Joseph goes and gets

29:01

Ephraim and Manasseh, his two son, born in Egypt, and brings him and introduces them to their grandfather, and the light of Jacob's eyes is just ignited, and the listener is remembering the story.

29:18

This is what we need to be able to do, to have a worldview, and to build this up in ourselves and in our children, to see how all of this ties together as a story, a meta -narrative, that's bigger than us, that's all about Jesus.

29:37

Stephen was raised right. Where did he get this knowledge? How is it that the apostle

29:44

Paul cannot refute his wisdom? How is it that he can stand with composure and recite these things like he's reading a book?

29:54

It's in him. It's his worldview. It's how he thinks. This young man is in the word, and the word is in him.

30:06

From his youth on up, like Timothy, 2 Timothy 3 .15, how from infancy you have known the scriptures that are able to make you wise unto salvation.

30:18

We need to be built up in this worldview. That's what he's doing here, and now he's circling back around to the charge.

30:26

Remember the charge? Anti -temple, anti -promise thing. The promise land. And he points out, verse 15 and 16, 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 Hamor in Shechem.

30:52

Shechem. The promise land. Quick lesson about Shechem. Shechem is where Abraham stood when the promise was given in Genesis 12, verse seven.

31:06

When Abraham is called out of Ur of the Chaldeans, and his father settles in Haran, and then they come into the promise land, and that promise is reaffirmed to him that he's gonna get a land and have an inheritance, and that through his offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

31:24

That was affirmed in Shechem. As Abraham was passing through. And by the way, if the promise was only for Jews, only for Israelites, then why is the promise in the first place that through you, all the nations will be blessed?

31:47

Stephen's remembering the fullness of the promise. But another thing about Shechem.

31:54

Abraham moves on and settles, and then there's the division of the land with Lot, and he dies and passes it on to his son

32:01

Isaac, and then Jacob settles in Shechem. And it's in Shechem that Joseph is sold into slavery.

32:12

The rejection happened in Shechem. He's kicked out of the promise land.

32:19

And then eventually they return where the bones are laid. Their bones are brought and laid in Shechem. So the promise land is important.

32:26

It's important to God. But fast forward 1 ,000 years after that, 1 ,500 years from when

32:33

Moses had come back. And there's a woman sitting at Jacob's well in John chapter four, a

32:43

Samaritan woman in Sychar, which is right next to Shechem. And a prophet approaches her and begins to speak with her, although it's against the custom of the day.

32:56

And that person is Jesus Christ. And the woman knows that there's something unique about him and says, tell me,

33:02

Jesus, is it this place, Mount Gerizim, which is coming right up from Shechem, or is it where the

33:09

Jews say in Jerusalem? What's the holy place? What's the significant place? The issue is place.

33:19

If you notice in the text, he's accused of speaking against this holy place.

33:25

Verse seven of chapter seven, they will come and worship me in this place. Circle the word place throughout this.

33:31

That's what's being discussed. But here's the answer of Jesus to the Samaritan woman.

33:38

It's not on this mountain or on that mountain, but God desires those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

33:49

You see, the worldview of the Jews had gotten twisted. They thought it was all about this place.

33:55

And this place is important. It's where Abraham was and Jacob was and all of their history. And it belongs to them as their land, but it's not the most important thing.

34:03

They're missing the spirit for the sake of their tradition. They had invested all meaning in the place and in the law and in the outer rituals, but they're missing the spirit and truth of the law.

34:14

All of it, the land, the law, all of it, Moses himself points to Jesus.

34:21

It's all about him. And they're sidetracked and distracted and confused.

34:30

So he tells the story of Shechem. And next week, I'm excited to preach because the second part, he gets into Moses and how

34:38

Jesus is the greater Moses. And the parallels between Moses and Jesus are so amazing.

34:44

Jesus is the greater Moses, the greater prophet. We'll see that in the second half of Stephen's argument.

34:50

But here, he reminds them of Shechem, but he's following the

34:56

Messiah who's greater than place. Verse 17 and following. We're almost done.

35:03

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

35:16

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

35:26

What God has spoken, what he foretold, must happen. His speaking of it shows that it's been decreed.

35:35

Look back at verse six. 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 400 years.

35:49

Now in verse 17, it's happening exactly as God foretold.

35:59

The promise is coming true. The circumstances that you see happening, the time of promise is drawing near.

36:06

The people are increasing, multiplying. Another king comes dealing shrewdly. At that time, verse 20,

36:15

Moses was born. All of this was

36:20

God's plan. We learn from the scriptures that what God has spoken, he has decreed and it will come to pass.

36:28

Why do I wanna stress that? Because the scriptures will be fulfilled because God is in control of all things.

36:38

He has a purpose. There is a movement afoot in evangelicalism called openness theology.

36:45

The claim of these theologians is that God only has a strong knowledge of possibilities and can inject himself, but he can't control human free will so he's not able to know for certain what the future holds.

37:02

The scary thing is one of the leaders of it, Clark Pinnock, was once considered an evangelical theologian.

37:08

Here's how he describes his new theology. He says, decisions not yet made do not exist anywhere to be known even by God.

37:20

They are potential yet to be realized, but not yet actual. God can predict a great deal of what we will choose to do, but not all of it because some of it remains hidden in the mystery of human freedom.

37:34

The God of the Bible displays an openness to the future, i .e. ignorance of the future that the traditional view of omniscience simply cannot accommodate.

37:48

As the time of the promise drew near, according to our text, it was certain to happen as God had spoken, that they would be enslaved for 100 years, then they would be delivered and brought back into the promised land.

38:02

It was just as God had said. In Jeremiah 1 .5, speaking about Jeremiah, God says,

38:08

I knew you before I formed you in the womb. I consecrated you before you emerged from the womb.

38:15

I have given you as a prophet to the nations. What if when

38:21

Jeremiah was a teenager, he decided to rebel? And he decided to hate the

38:28

God of Israel. And in his human freedom, he decided to make the God of Scripture a liar.

38:35

And rather than being a prophet, he chose to be a false prophet and preach that you can make idols with your hands and bow down and worship them.

38:44

What would prevent him from doing that? According to openness theology, nothing. But according to the

38:51

Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures, he decrees what will come to pass. His purposes will be accomplished and none can thwart him and none can stay his hand.

39:05

Acts 2 .23, what even happened to Jesus Christ happened by God's fixed purpose and foreknowledge.

39:14

I wanna linger here for just a moment so you understand the importance of this teaching. By God's fixed purpose and foreknowledge, the same article that connects those two nouns, purpose and foreknowledge, mean that they are interconnected thoughts.

39:31

You see it again in Isaiah 46, nine and 10. I am God, there is none like me.

39:37

I declare the outcome from the beginning and from antiquity things which have not yet been done.

39:43

Saying, my purpose will be established and I will do all my good pleasure.

39:50

Here's what I'm saying. God has a will, he has a purpose that he is accomplishing and the events that he has foretold in prophecy are proof that he is in control.

40:04

This is a God who's sovereign over all things, including the suffering that's coming to the people of Israel under wicked kings of Egypt.

40:11

What's happening in your life right now? What struggle seems too great for you to endure?

40:19

It has been decreed by the God you love and he's working all of these things together for the good of those who love him, those who are called according to his purpose.

40:29

You can trust the God who will bring you through trials but bring you out on the other side. These Israelites are oppressed and they're hurting and there's wicked kings that are forcing them into worse and worse conditions, labor so heavy it's breaking their backs and yet it's the very purpose and promise of God being fulfilled.

40:54

Trust the God who is in control. Even in a situation like Stephen found himself, when you're being misrepresented, trust the

41:04

God who's in control. When you're on trial, trust the God who's in control.

41:10

Finally, verses 20 to 22 and we're done. I know it's a little hot in here today so I know

41:16

I gotta let you guys out in just a second but just catch your breath, finish strong. At this time

41:22

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

41:31

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

41:36

Egyptians and he was mighty in his words and deeds. Here we have

41:44

Stephen beginning to address the second charge that he's anti -Moses, anti -God, anti -the law.

41:51

He calls Moses beautiful in God's sight. He's not against him. Stephen is not against Moses.

41:58

He calls him mighty in his words and deeds. He is for Moses and for the law but all of these things point to a greater

42:07

Moses, Jesus Christ. We'll pick that up next week. So how do we apply this? Listen, understand that we do have foundational differences between those who don't think like we do.

42:20

How do we think? We think from a God -centered worldview that begins with a God who speaks and what he says in his word is true and so we build upon that everything that we think and believe.

42:31

That's the foundation and we build the structure from God's word into our worldview and that's how we think.

42:38

Now listen, that worldview will clash in the world. We are worlds apart because they don't have the same presuppositions that we have.

42:48

They don't have the same heart condition that we have because we have been born again. So there's a struggle that's coming.

42:55

What you see in the text is par for the course. Stephen clashing with a world that doesn't have the same worldview.

43:06

Expect that to happen but grow strong and mighty in this worldview. Confident in your

43:12

God who's in control and whatever happens in your life, recognize. He is in control and you can trust him.

43:20

Learn to be gracious in how you speak. Kind when speaking to those who disagree with you but strong and built up in the faith and build up the next generation as well.

43:33

So let's close in a word of prayer. I'm just gonna ask you each one in your own heart to just pray for the same kind of spirit that Stephen had.

43:43

Pray to have that kind of passion for the word of God that you're immersed in it and with the humility and a grace and a respectfulness, you're able to speak to those who would shame you or attack you, that you remain confident in him.

44:03

If the worship team can come on up and we'll pray. God, thank you for the example of Stephen.

44:11

Lord, I can picture myself in that and I don't know, I might be trembling. I might cry.

44:18

I might completely fold under pressure. I have no confidence in my own abilities, my own strengths, my own courage but I thank you for what

44:34

I see in this text and it is that the God of the universe is able to take over a life and to grant us strength and power to withstand.

44:51

I thank you for the example of Stephen and so I ask, Lord, that you would fill each one of us with that kind of spirit.

44:58

Help us, Lord, to be strong in your word for it to form our worldview, that we would be built up in this most holy faith.

45:07

And Lord, fill us with your Holy Spirit to have this kind of boldness, to continue preaching. The world would call it arguing.

45:16

The text calls it disputing. I pray that we would not be shamed into silence but that we would be vocal to preach that Jesus is the

45:27

Christ. Thank you for the example of Stephen, Lord, make us more like him even as Stephen is so much like Christ.