Acts 6:8-8:3, What’s It Take?

What's it gonna take to get you serious about about something maybe some goal you have

Over a period of years I was slowly gaining weight. Hopefully I'm not doing that again Maybe maybe

I'd lose some now and then depending on how much running I could do Then I had a knee injury which couldn't run for a while for a few months and and other factors then caused me to gain a lot of more weight until I was near 250 pounds

And it was the idea and I realized I'm Was coming if not already there to obesity and that was finally enough

I realized how out of hand my weight had become finally enough to motivate me to get serious

I'd cut off all sugar and start exercising more until I lost 70 pounds in just a few months

Maybe for you, maybe you drift for a while with some weakness. I mean, you know, it's there, but There's some bad habit you want to kick or maybe some good habit

You want to develop but have it yet like personal Bible reading or some relationship problem You want to solve but you just don't get around to it yet Maybe some sin you want to get rid of sort of not but not quite yet You want to keep toying with it a little longer?

Maybe like pornography profanity Then something happens it you reach a tipping point

The scale tips to nearly 250 pounds or you curse someone out or you drink too much and get drunk or you don't just go a few days

Without reading your Bible and praying but then you find you found you you win a few weeks You have a breakdown

Or your spouse threatens to divorce you and you know things have just gotten so bad That you have to do something now and it takes that kind of shock to get you going get you motivated

Is that what it's gonna say? Well here the church has been called to be witnesses remember from the very beginning in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 witnesses for Jesus in Jerusalem and Judea Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth and they have already filled

Jerusalem with their teaching That's what you know, the council told them that you filled it. So they already accomplished the first part.

Well, what about the rest? Big witnesses in Judea and Samaria the uttermost part of the earth.

They have this command when they gonna what are they gonna do it? Their miracles and they're sharing lifestyles attracted people from the surrounding areas

To come to them to come to Jerusalem and hear the gospel and see them one wonders But so far the church hasn't gone out.

Maybe they're just maybe they just think this is too fun There's great joy they're enjoying each other. They're enjoying themselves and so we know why bother it

What change when everything's so perfect? They remember that they should somehow be going out but so far they have it

What's it gonna take? To get them to go out Now I shouldn't exaggerate there.

There's no indication that they have been convicted, you know that somehow Been charged that you know, you need to go out now start start a mission

Plant churches, but then they had just refused to do so no indication of that But there's also no indication that they were planning

They already had the command from Jesus to go and there's no indication They were planning missionary journey journeys that they you know have called some organized start a missions or organization

How are we gonna organize our evangelism start to spread the gospel start churches out of Jerusalem?

They have the Great Commission from Jesus. Now, what's it gonna take to get them to start moving? It takes

Stephen Stephen had already been introduced to us before last week.

He was the first of those of those deacons listed put Luke pause there Stephen a man full of faith and the

Holy Spirit All seven of them were remember they were all of good repute They were full of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom but Stephen is special and he's praised again here in verse 8 as full of grace and Power remember mega grace and mega power

From a few weeks ago. He's full of them And for the first time someone other than the Apostle an apostle is doing signs and wonders

I'm saying he's doing great signs and wonders. He's not an apostle. He's just he's a deacon He's out there.

He's out there among the people the unbelieving people. He's doing these miracles. That's the expression of grace

Greek word is terrorists a products of grace Greek word is charismata

Translated spiritual gifts and power he has them he's making a big splash So some are provoked to oppose him those of what they call the synagogue of the freedmen

Notice the loop says that verse 9 as it was called Like he's suggesting.

Yeah, that's what they called themselves the freedmen, but they're still really slaves slaves of sin

Others rose up and they're all all outside of Israel So they're all probably all Greeks and remember

Stephen himself is one of the Greeks. He's Greek speaking. He's Hellenist He probably Jewish by ancestry, but his culture is

Greek He almost was certainly speaking Greek and so he's having a big impact on the Greek speaking people in Jerusalem provoking some of them to some then some of them who weren't believing to rise up and dispute with him

They thought they could out -debate him they thought they could show from Scripture that he's wrong

Well, that's what the Stephen is saying Did Jesus couldn't possibly be the Christ the anointed one that he

Jesus didn't really fulfill the law? And so we don't really need to put our faith in him to have righteousness attributed to us the they were going to be champions of tradition but in verse 10

They could not withstand the wisdom and The spirit with which he was speaking

He not only out argued them from Scripture he outloved and Out I guess outjoyed them showing with both his doctrine and his character that Jesus has risen.

So These guys disputing with him. They've been shown up both intellectually and spiritually by him so then they resort to slander and eventually violence

They whispered hide Stephen's back, you know to the young hotheads That Stephen is blaspheming.

He's blaspheming. We got to stop this They'd take things He said about Jesus fulfilling the law about Jesus being the true temple where God lives and they twist it to mean that Stephen was saying that Moses what

Moses gave is is void. It's it's meaningless to us It's useless now that Stephen is make since he's making

Jesus to be God then then God he's making God into a mere man Just like us. He's so he's lowering.

God It's blasphemy. It's intolerable. It insults God. We've got to stop it

And with that they stirred up the people says the elders and the scribes the scholars the intellectuals

They got their blood boiling So losing the debates They reported to the leaders in the common folks, but this man is blaspheming you leaders better stop it

They even got some witnesses Maybe they found the same witnesses who made this exact same false claim

If you remember against Jesus just a few months ago before this that Stephen Said what

Jesus had said remember what they said about Jesus that he will destroy this place Jesus said he will destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days and Stephen is saying that Jesus will do that this

Holy Temple this house of God this place where God lives on earth This is God. He lives here. He's saying it'll be destroyed.

That's that's that's just outrageous. We don't need sacrifices anymore Since Jesus made one final sacrifice that Jesus is gonna

Jesus is gonna put them all out of the priest business That's what Stephen is saying. It sounded like horrible sacrilegious stuff

Undermining who they are They're God's people. So it's they're not only sacrilegious. It's unpatriotic

Attacking who attacking what they think makes them special So they arrested him and they hauled him before the same council the

Sanhedrin It had wanted to kill the Apostles before remember they were talked out of it by Gamaliel Stephen is before them now after the false witnesses had twisted his words to make it sound like he was denouncing the temple and insulting

Moses, so they're glaring at him and It says his face was shining like an angel

That's not familiar someone's face shining Like Moses his face shown when he was in the presence of God.

It's kind of ironic Isn't it they're accusing him of blasphemy Moses the prophet whose face shown

So God gives him the same radiant face as God had given Moses You think that would deter them when you but it doesn't they're so hard -hearted that that doesn't affect them the high priest asked him

Are these things so? Stephen speaks and he's given here what's recorded for us the the longest recorded speech in Acts We read the whole thing not amazing and four major parts

That he's dealing with four major epochs in their history from the

Old Testament first Abraham Second Joseph third Moses and then finally the the tabernacle in temple

Is it so Stephen? That you're saying this Jesus will destroy the temple and change everything

He's you know, these Practices given by God. Is it true? Well first Abraham the

God of glory Stephen calls him the end he'll be looking into God's glory he begins

Talking about the God of glory in verse 2 appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia God called

Abraham first from Ur down in sort of southern Iraq modern Iraq up to Herod and then later

God removed him from Herod Notice who's the active one there already from the start? She knows that who's taking all the initiatives

Their story doesn't begin with Abraham went on a search for God Abraham did this or that to try to find

God? No You know if that's what it was they could they could feel proud of themselves for having

Abraham as their ancestor They're children of Abraham. So they're they're like him who? Saw God no, look look who is the active one?

God appeared God called God removed him Abraham had no land in no child.

God spoke to him in verse 6 God said in his offspring would live in a foreign land where they would be enslaved and afflicted for 400 years

But God says I will judge that nation so God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision to set them apart from the nations around them and so in verse 8 therefore

Because as a result of God's Word not a result of Abraham and Sarah's Works like they're conniving with Hagar or anything else they did but because of God's Word Abraham became the father of Isaac because of God's Word Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob became because of God's Word the father of Stephen calls the twelve patriarchs

The point is that the origins of their of their nation were all God's initiative

His calling his removing his speaking and so by speaking creating what he said

It wasn't because of Abraham's desire or effort but because of God's mercy What does it take to make a people for God a?

Holy nation It takes God's initiative God's will God's work

God speaking and acting it all depends on God Second Is Joseph?

And here Stephen starts to develop a theme To show something about who who they are and really who we all are

They're so proud of who they are their ancestry. They are the chosen people. They're holy.

They're special They're better than other people God chose them and he made them special by his Word They're the greatest culture the greatest civilization there.

They're Israel. Is that really what their history shows? the

Patriarchs Jacob's sons were jealous of Joseph This is the same word Luke had used earlier in chapter 5 or 17 to describe the same

What this council that he's been front of? Why they arrested the Apostles you remember they were filled with Jealousy because the

Apostles were getting the attention and respect they were doing miracles They were winning more and more people to believe that Jesus is the way to God not doing religious works at the temple

That's not the way to God and they were jealous of their success the Apostle success of their respect of The monopoly on access to God that they thought they had and now the

Apostles were saying Jesus has They thought if you wanted to get to God you had to go to that temple and through the priest

Through them and think of the power and the money and the position the respect

You get when you have you have Exclusive access to God.

I mean it's not about a monopoly, right? No one do well in business. You got something everyone wants and you have a monopoly on it, man

You're gonna you get you're really gonna be doing well That's what they thought they had everyone wants access to God You had to go through them to get it and the men on this council are jealous of that power that monopoly on God That is now being undermined

Joseph's brothers were likewise jealous of him jealous that he had their father's favor And so they sold him to slave traders going to Egypt.

Stephen is beginning a theme here first subtly like this Gradually building up, you know, who do you think your fathers are?

Here Israel your descendants of people mostly who sold their brother into slavery They they were treacherous

They betrayed the one God had called to lead them That's also a theme here

What do they do with the leaders God calls? What happens over and over again to the leaders

God calls them? But despite what your patriarchs did God was with him in verse 9

Remember Joseph said to them you intended it for evil that God intended it for good

Their history is not the story of them working happily with God Cooperating with God hand -in -hand teammates in God's plan theological term is synergism

That our will and God's will work together. No their history is God working in spite of Their will and their work they will

You intended it for evil Joseph said they will that Joseph be a slave But God was with him

God intended it for good So Jay God gave Joseph favor with favor notice that God does that too not until Joseph kind of earned it

Well, he did too I guess but God gave it to him Ultimately from him in verse 10 the famine brings

Jacob's brothers to Egypt and eventually Joseph real makes himself known to them and summons

Jacob and all his family to Egypt for safety What did take? to save God's people from disaster from destruction

Eternal or earthly does it take them working together with God, you know, does it take synergy?

Apparently not since that's not what they did Indeed they the patriarchs intended what they did for evil but God super intended it for good for the saving of God's people to fulfill his promise to Abraham to keep the offspring alive

God did it despite what they did. What's it take? It takes

God's super intending Well third There's Moses Moses was the one

Stephen's accusers were claiming that that he was blaspheming and some Christians today Kind of have the idea that we should we look back on Moses.

We can treat him and what everything he wrote is Basically, it's all a mistake or at best is

Not relevant to us It's it's a way that God tried something and it did work that it's not for us

So and so we could we can look kind of look down on it But that's not what Stephen or anyone else in the New Testament believes

God made a promise to Abraham to have as many descendants as the stars in the sky to have an offspring who would be

A blessing to the nation's that promise that you think about it famine is coming. So that promise is in danger

Those people are going to be wiped out if something's not done and God knows that and so God arranged to have Joseph sent ahead

To prepare them to have a retreat in Egypt, but after Joseph died came another Pharaoh who did not know Joseph He oppressed them.

He forced me. He forced them to kill their boys So now once again Israel is under threat and so God's promise to Abraham is being threatened and so God into that Environment Moses was born

God brought him about and he was beautiful in God's sight in verse 20 notice how respectfully

Stephen speaks of Moses. He was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter in verse 22 He was instructed in all the wisdom of the

Egyptians and he was mighty and words and deeds Now this is already as a young man

This isn't him like 80 when he's coming after the burning bush This is the young man before in his first 40 years

But when he was 40 years old, he visited his people his brothers in verse 23 And that is

Israel and he defended an Israelite man being beat by the Egyptian. He killed the

Egyptian Why did he do that you think in verse 25 it tells us why he did that He would he supposed

Moses that rhymes that comes from us all Moses supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them

Salvation by his hand God was going to liberate them from Egypt by his hand

And he was expecting his people Israel to see that now at age 40 They should have already that's before the burning bush before the ten plagues before all the signs

Recognized that Moses was the one that God called to lead them out of slavery Joseph's brother should have recognized that he was the one

God called to be their leader to hear

Moses Israel should have recognized him They should have known that he wasn't didn't murder that Egyptian is out of a fit of temper

He was defending his people as God's ordained leader over Israel, but at the end of verse 25, they did not understand

They couldn't recognize God's anointed leader So the next day he broke up a fight between Israelites.

He tried to reconcile them, you know, man, you are brothers Why do you wrong each other but the aggressor just shoved him away exclaiming who made you a ruler and judge over us?

It's a good question. Actually It's the question actually Who?

God did and that's the point Moses was already called to be their leader, but they wouldn't recognize it.

They couldn't see it He had already acted to protect them, but they thought he was just a murderer, you know, just temper but you know

They couldn't see who God had called what's it gonna take for Israel to recognize their

God ordained leader I wonder then Do you recognize who your leader is?

What's it gonna take the lesson of Moses's first 40 years is that Israel will reject their leader that God sends to them a scoff at Him who made you a ruler and judge knows how

Stephen repeats that so we make sure you understand That's what Israel says to them. They were a bit they'll rebel against him.

And so he has to go away The lesson is that people reject God's anointed Savior Steve is not done with Moses.

You know, they say he's blaspheming Moses, but who was it who actually first rejected Moses? Moses is in exile in Midian for 40 years there.

God speaks to him through an angel in the burning bush. He's amazed He's drawn to it and God calls him. I am the

God of your father's Moses trembled at the voice. He didn't dare look The Lord said to him take off the sandals from your feet for the place where you were standing is holy ground

In their minds people he's just even speaking to the temple was supposed to be holy because that's where God was

But here Quoting from Exodus chapter 3 God says that wherever he is in a bush on a mountain in the desert

Wherever he is in a gym and Providence, North Carolina is holy

Holy ground Isn't a building Here's the first hint of the theme that he he'll build on later holy ground is wherever God is and So he's already starting

Stephen is to sew in Into this this fabric of this speech the idea that Israel's history isn't so glorious At least for not what it says about them how they respond to God and now

The raising the question what is the house of God? Where is the presence of God? It's in an ability

This place his accusers call it. How dare he question the value of this place? Saying that Jesus will destroy this temple.

That's just sacrilegious. That's unpatriotic. That's horrible Where is the holy place? here

It's in the middle of nowhere and in a mountain in the desert not even in the promised land But if that's where he it is as long as God is there

Jesus said it was his body a Later Apostle will say that the temple and Christ's body is the church

This Moses in verse 35 now he is called You know to lead them out of Egypt whom they rejected again

They rejected remember they rejected them. They scoffing at him who made you a ruler and judge what's it gonna take for them to recognize

God's given leader a Staff that turns into a snake will that do it signs and wonders parting the

Red Sea They were still questioning his leadership after all that this Moses in verse 37

Said God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers Another Moses is coming

Moses said What's it gonna take? for you to recognize him

Will you reject him to? This Moses, this is the one in verse 38 who received living oracles to give to us oracles teachings

They give life Was he really blaspheming Moses? Do you realize that the

New Testament says that the Old Testament? Gives life. I mean Stephen here just call it living oracles

Christians today think Legalism comes through Moses the grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.

That's half true Legalism comes from part that's wrong. Legalism comes from our thinking that what it takes to have life is me doing

This keeping this rule and by that I will ascend up to God It's not his law is not too much for me the law of Moses and the prophets the

Old Testament show that it is too much for us and they teach

The Christ they teach the Christ is indeed The one who makes us right with God the grace and truth do indeed come through Jesus Christ who the

Old Testament reveals Stephen wasn't blaspheming Moses. He was showing how Moses leads to Christ.

They just thought it was blasphemy Because they didn't believe in Christ What's it take we say

It will take our will and work We don't need a leader. We need a self -help plan.

That's what we think So who is blaspheming Moses in verse 39 our fathers

Stephen says to them our fathers refused to obey him but thrust him aside and In their hearts they returned to Egypt They may have physically left

Egypt because God picked them up and brought them out, but Egypt never left them

They're still there to this day So they made other gods. I mean a golden calf. They've ejected

Moses and the Lord. They kept doing it all the time from Moses Until the time they were hauled off to Babylon about a thousand years

Worshipping all kinds of things the the host of heaven instead of the Lord of hosts

Moloch refund Images they made, you know, whatever What's it gonna take?

To cure them of idolatry Exile in Babylon. Will that do it? But do they then even then do they really stop being idolaters or do they just stop having physical idols?

The themes of their history of rebellion and idolatry of resisting God and of God's presence making holy not a building

They're getting louder and louder in Stephen's speech like a drumbeat

Start softly and can get louder and louder until it reaches a crescendo already

They sold Joseph into slavery to Moses who made you a ruler and judge over us Our fathers refused to obey him the place where you're standing is holy ground

God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven in verse 41

What about their worship? You know, they're so proud of it to speak against the temple was blasphemy So they thought so the fourth part at the tabernacle in the temple

Tabernacle was a big tent the tent of witness They called it it was made just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen

Have you ever read all those chapters from Exodus 25 to 31? On making the tabernacle and read through all that long chapters

About blue and purple and scarlet yarn and bronze clasp and so many cubits for this and you forget how long a cube it is and so many cubits for that and bronze this and gold that and Boards and acacia wood and on and on and you wonder what in the world is all this about?

Can you just give me a picture? That would be nice It means that the tabernacle was dictated by God right down to the colors of the threads

That's what it takes to build the house of God it must be done

God's way David found favor as grace at God's sight at verse 45. He wanted to build a permanent house a temple that was left for Solomon Yet Stephen says quoting from Isaiah 66 the

Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands You can't confine him to a building

Pointing that out. Not only is not blasphemy. It's what God himself said in Isaiah 66

Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool the whole planet. He's gonna rest his feet on it.

What kind of house? Got a house to go to build for me says the Lord or what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things the whole universe? Don't you get it?

You can't build a house big enough to fit him God's house is wherever God is and God was in Jesus and you killed him

You destroyed the house of God and yet God raised it up or him again

What's it gonna take to get through to you? now for the big conclusion in verse 51 you stiff neck people

Stubborn rebellious Resistant you can be told over and over again, but you won't listen uncircumcised at heart and ears in other words

You're just like the nations around you still heathen at heart still death to the truth just like the people around you

It could be said and written as plain as day, but you won't accept it because you're really just like the world

You always resist Guess that you always resist the

Holy Spirit And this isn't just for Jews or just for those people at that time.

This is us Left to ourselves in our natural condition always pulling away from God We're not pliable in his head.

We're not listening. We're dead to God. That's that's the way They were

That's the way we are all but proud people They hate to hear that They despise the way the

Word of God exposes their sins that their dead hearts their rebellion especially gets

Exposes in spite all the hypocrisy the shine they try to put on with their religion the

Word of God Wipes that away and shows what's really there. Hey, they hate that Here which of the which of the prophets did your father's not persecute

Well only the false ones false ones. They paid pretty well the true ones They persecuted and they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, you know, like John the

Baptist the righteous one You have now betrayed Like Joseph was betrayed like Moses was rejected and murdered they murdered him

Crucifixion of Jesus wasn't an oddity. It wasn't an exception after Centuries of refined civilization.

They should have known better. It was a it was of a piece With human history before through all of human history.

It was perfectly consistent with what people had always done And not the worst people, you know, please don't take from this some kind of hateful

Anti -semitic and semitic ideas. Well, those people sure are bad. Unlike us.

We had never do anything like that No, they were the best you understand. They were the best of humanity

They're they're civilized. They're shaped by centuries of hearing and at least outwardly trying to follow

Some of the law they were shaped in their in their habits their culture by God's Word, but still in their hearts

They're still stiff -necked unyielding to God desperately sick and beyond cure slaves of sin dead and sin

Unable to accept the things of the Spirit as we all are without God's grace

You receive the law Stephen says you you hail the law

You you called me a blasphemer for saying Christ fulfilled the law, but you don't keep it that was enough

They were enraged They ground their teeth. They glared at Stephen full of the

Holy Spirit and he gazed into heaven Which opened for him to see that in verse 56.

He said he says behold I see the

Son of Man Jesus's favorite title for himself the one who brings in the kingdom of God on earth.

I I see him Standing at the right hand of God That was too much for them they prove

When they act they prove Stephen right don't they that they are stiff -necked there are heathens at heart

Killing those who are sent by God to tell them the truth They can't tolerate to listen to anymore. And so they they drown him out, but they're yelling

They're screaming and they stop up their ears and they rushed at him as a crazed mob Dragging him outside the city walls where they proceed to stone him

Too full of fury even to even to try to wait to get

Pontius Pilate to do with the legal way What's it take? What's it take to provoke the natural man?

The person who's left dead in his sins But his ego puffed up with self -serving religion religion that tells him that he's one of God's people

Because of ancestry that he was born to the right family the right nation He's a child of the Covenant just by birth or maybe maybe by some ritual

He's had water sprinkled on him and and an incantation pronounced or he repeated the magic prayer after being manipulated

With the right music and the invitation then all it takes to avoid hell and heaven and get heaven

Is to repeat the magic prayer It doesn't matter what you do after that just repeat the magic prayer

What's it take to provoke people? Whose mind is now full of that? So sure themselves with God and now that that's been it's been questioned that's been undermined.

What's it take to provoke such people? Just the truth

What you take to kill someone with stones It's a brutal bloody painful protracted death

One after another they throw fist -sized rocks at him first wounding him and then eventually crushing his skull

You know it takes so long. They even have time to organize a coat check Someone did someone's got to look after their outer garments as they throw rocks at the man with a radiant face who dared show them their sin

They get a young man a disciple of Gamaliel to watch their coach for them. His name was

Saul Stephen is being stoned. He says two things

He calls out to Jesus praying to him because he's praying to him because he's God Lord Jesus received my spirit just like Jesus himself prayed in Luke chapter 23 verse 46

Remember father into your hands. I commit my spirit Eventually He's brought to his knees by more and more flying rocks and he shows that he's full of Christ by praying loudly crying out like Christ Lord do not hold the sin against them

Just like Jesus said About the soldiers crucifying him Father forgive them for they know not what they do and with that The final rocks came crashing down the murderers

Enraged to have their self -righteousness assaulted They they would say that they that they crushed him.

The Bible says that he fell asleep implying

That the promise as all sleep does that you rise again

Better than before What's it take? To get the gospel out

Tertullian said the blood of martyrs is seed it takes seed for a harvest and Stephen was seed

Devout men buried him the church mourned for him. They wailed for him with it. He's their first martyr with a great lamentation and With Stephen's death a great persecution the first great persecution broke out

The Apostles had been beaten once before but rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer now many of them are suffering

And it got so bad many of the disciples. It is they scattered that they fled Jerusalem and They went out into the region around Judea and then the region up north of them to Samaria Of course, they took the gospel with them planting churches wherever they went.

So the gospel got out God worked What that council intended for harm, you know that brutal murder he worked that for good

What's it take to get the gospel out it takes God working even through the suffering of his people and They kept suffering because of that young man watching their coats

Saul infuriated by the idea that God is not confined to temples and not pleased by our rule keeping that we need

Jesus We need the true temple. We he's the final sacrifice and saw Saul committed himself to the extermination of this

Of this movement about him. He went from house to house Remember those houses that the disciples were meeting at Devoting themselves to the

Apostles teaching to sharing the breaking of bread and prayer Well, he raided those houses their house churches and and hauled off the disciples to prison

So more fled the gospel got further out And You know, what's it take?

It takes a new Apostle who's soon to be called. What's it take?

To get the gospel out, you know, where's that possible going to come from it's from someone you would never expect

What's it take to turn a furious Saul into the Apostle to the Gentiles?

What's it take? What's it take for you? to finally believe

It takes a sovereign God God Superintending what people meant for evil to result in good it takes the

Lord Doing what only he can do so Has he done it for you?