Sunday, March 26, 2023 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. O God, You have given us a promise, and You have sworn it by Your own name, for there was no greater name by which to swear, to give us the confidence of our salvation in Your Son Jesus Christ, our anchor, our anchor that goes into the very

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Holy of Holies, behind the veil. Lord, we thank

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You that no matter what happens in this life, nothing and no one is able to pry us from Your hand, that nothing is able to pry us loose from Your Son's hand, that even when we are so weak and bewildered that we don't know how to pray, by Your Spirit You hear us, and not even death can sever us from Your love.

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So we give You praise for this great hope that we have, this great salvation that You have given to us, through Your Son Jesus Christ.

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And I pray here this morning as we read Your Word and as we rejoice together and have this meal together, that You would be pleased, that our hearts would rejoice by Your grace.

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We pray all these things in the name of Jesus, the one with whom You are well pleased. Amen. I invite you to open your

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Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7.

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We're going to begin reading in verse 1. We continue looking at Stephen, a servant of Christ.

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We are told that he is full of wisdom, full of faith, that he is full of the

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Holy Spirit, full of power, and he is on trial.

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He has been falsely accused of blaspheming God and blaspheming

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Moses, of speaking against the temple and against the

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Scriptures. He is seen as an enemy to the people of God.

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But this argument has been running for a long time.

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The apostles also were arrested and put on trial, even beaten for saying similar things, for preaching that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Moses' writings and the fulfillment of the temple.

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So Stephen is on trial because he was simply stating what the apostles had said, and they were simply stating what

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Christ Himself had said. And the apostles and Stephen, filled with the

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Holy Spirit, were preaching the truth. And that's why he was on trial.

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The Sanhedrin did not interpret the law and the prophets and their writings in the same way that Jesus, His apostles, and Stephen did.

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They found it offensive, and thus they arrested Stephen. False accusations were leveled against him that he was a blasphemer.

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But, of course, this is not the case. Why did

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Stephen say what he said about the writings of Moses?

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Why did he say what he said about the temple? I mean, is this just simply the difference of opinion?

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How often have we been told in our lives, well, there's more than one interpretation of that passage, this passage, the

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Bible. As if argument is now over, the fact that various interpretations of the

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Bible exist means what? There's no point in continuing the discussion because, in some fashion, everybody's wrong.

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Conversation over. Why do people say that? Why do people say that as a way to walk away from the conversation?

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Because arguments about doctrine are uncomfortable. I don't know if you've noticed that.

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If you were hooked up to a blood pressure machine and a pulse ox sensor, when you were caught unawares and suddenly you found yourself in a doctrinal debate, the doctors may be worried for your health.

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It is not something we'd necessarily like to do. R .C. Sproul was at a convention one time, a conference, and during a

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Q &A session, someone sent a question up to the front about, Don't you think we should just stop arguing about doctrinal differences?

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And this was before he got on oxygen and got really grumpy. And he said,

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If you and I disagree about doctrine, that's a bad thing. But we can't kill truth in the streets for the sake of peace.

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There is a right way to interpret the Scriptures. We know that because Jesus said so, and he modeled it, and he taught it, and it's on display throughout the biblical text.

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And what it comes down to here in Acts is a fight over the temple. There's been a temple showdown ever since chapter 3.

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Chapters 3 and 4 and 5 are all about a showdown at the temple. And here,

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Stephen is on trial for saying things against the temple. The question is the question that is often asked,

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What does it take for man to dwell with God in peace? Where is it that communion can be found with God?

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And the Sanhedrin is saying, It has to be at the temple, and it has to be done through the sacrifices. It has to be done through the ceremonies that have been handed down to us through Moses.

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And Stephen is saying, All those things were well and good in their own way, but they were shadows of the substance who is

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Christ, and he has arrived. And so the question is about the presence of God.

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Where may we commune with God? And so if somebody has a wrong interpretation of the

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Bible, they may have the whole Bible. They may have the whole Bible memorized, but if they don't have the biblical way of interpreting the

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Bible, well, then they don't have anything. Jesus said to the Pharisees, to the Sadducees, to the scribes, those who knew the

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Bible best, He said, You search the Scriptures because in them you think you can find eternal life, but it is these that testify of me.

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So they had the Scriptures, but they didn't have the light by which to read the Scriptures. You can have an encyclopedia of all knowledge compiled in all of history, but if you're stuck with that encyclopedia in a dark room with no light, you'll never know what it says.

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You have to have the light of Christ so that you may understand the

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Scriptures. This is what is at stake. This is why Stephen is on trial. So I'm going to read verses 1 through 8 for us this morning.

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I invite you to stand with me as we read, as we look upon the courage of Stephen as he begins to address the charges against him.

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This is the word of the Lord. Then the high priest said, Are these things so? And he said,

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Brethren and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.

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And said to him, Get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you.

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Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, he moved him to this land in which you now dwell.

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And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when

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Abraham had no child, he promised to give it to him for a possession and to his descendants after him.

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But God spoke in this way, that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them 400 years.

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And the nation to whom they will be in bondage, I will judge, said God. And after that, they shall come out and serve me in this place.

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Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day.

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And Isaac begot Jacob and Jacob begot the 12 patriarchs. This is the word of the

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Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. Stephen begins telling the

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Sanhedrin what they already know. They knew this story by heart.

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They learned this story when they were learning the Bible at their mother's knee.

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Even before they ever went to synagogue and sat before the rabbi to hear the readings of the scripture on a regular basis, they knew this story.

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And so Stephen is telling them something that they already know.

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They have this story, but have they understood it, the significance of it?

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After all, Stephen is on trial for proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, the reality that Jesus Christ has come and he's building a new covenant temple wherein living stones are being assembled.

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And the Holy Spirit, God himself, is indwelling the new covenant temple. And his presence is not to be found in the gold and silver -covered stone box up the hill.

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That since the new covenant has come, the old is now obsolete and ready to pass away.

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That the gospel had long been proclaimed to the Jews, even as far back as Abraham himself.

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And so now is the time. Today is the day of salvation to turn away from the shadows and embrace the substance.

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And Stephen, as a Hellenist, one who grew up abroad and knows the Greek language well, was proclaiming these truths to other

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Hellenists who took offense at what he was saying. Now, he wasn't introducing

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Greek philosophy into the argument. He wasn't preaching some sort of heresy.

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He was simply preaching the truths of Scripture with an unveiled face as he saw

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Christ in the Scriptures. This was considered to be a threat.

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The patriarchs. He preaches about the patriarchs in the beginning of his sermon. He moves on to Moses.

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A lot about Moses in this sermon here in chapter 7, if you've read it already. If you can read it for yourself, there's a lot here.

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Then he preaches about the temple. Think about these themes, how critical they are to a

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Jew, to somebody living in Israel at this time. The patriarchs, Moses, and the temple. These are very important themes.

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These are basic realities to the identity of this people, their history in their everyday life.

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They think about the patriarchs. They think about their claim upon the land in which they live. They think about Moses and all that he wrote.

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They think about the temple and how their worship is centered there. And that's what Stephen preaches about.

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What is he going to say about it all? He's going to say they have their significance in Jesus of Nazareth, who is the

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Christ, the Son of the living God. The fact that he came, that he died, that he rose again and ascended to the right hand of the

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Father means that he is the significance of all these things. That's a big change.

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Many were upset about what he was preaching. Stephen is addressed by the high priest.

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Stephen is charged of blasphemy. He is charged of blaspheming God and blaspheming Moses. And the high priest says to Stephen, are these things so?

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And Stephen begins to make a defense, but he's not defending himself. He doesn't replay the back and forth of the doctrinal disagreement that happened in the marketplace.

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He doesn't say, well, I said this first, and then they said that, and then I said this, and then they lied about me. He doesn't go into a defense of Stephen.

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He goes into a defense of the faith. He's on trial for the sake of Christ, and therefore he makes a defense of the faith and proclaims

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Christ. And he starts with the patriarchs.

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Notice how he addresses them. He said, brethren and fathers. That's a very respectful way of addressing those who are accusing you of blasphemy.

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Obviously, he's being as harmless as a dove here, perhaps turning the other cheek when struck, showing kindness and love to those who would be his enemies.

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But he's also being as wise as a serpent, because he says, brethren and fathers.

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That's interesting. Why did he say that? Because later on, he's going to talk about how the fathers treated their brother. Joseph. Brethren and fathers.

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Let's talk about how the fathers treated their brother. He's going to get to Joseph here in a little bit. Before he does, he talks about Abraham.

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He talks about Abraham and Christ. Can't really understand the patriarchs without thinking about Jesus Christ, and you can't really understand

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Abraham without thinking about Christ. And he begins to talk about Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

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So, if you want to, you can turn over to Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, because that's where Stephen begins his sermon.

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And he talks about how Abraham had lived in Mesopotamia. He lived in Ur of the

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Chaldeans. He lived in the land of Babylon. Joshua says that Abraham was an idolater.

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When God called him out of that land. So, where does

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God show up? Wow, God shows up in Mesopotamia? His audience probably thought

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God never showed up anywhere except the physical temple. Where else would God ever show up except that one particular place that we own and run and guard?

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No, God showed up in Mesopotamia and talked to Abraham and led him through Haran and into a new country.

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Said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you.

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Now, look at Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3. Now, the Lord had said to Abraham, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land

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I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing.

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I will bless those who bless you to the kids in Tag. Hey, Tag kids, are you ready?

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What are the ingredients of God's kingdom? You ready to do this? Don't be embarrassed. Ready? God's people in God's place blessed under God's rule.

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That's right. And that's what happened, isn't it? God called Abram and Sarai, who didn't have any descendants at all, and called them to a new place to give them their land, to give them a place to live, and promised them a people, promised them descendants who would come from them, eventually he would say, as numerous as the stars in the heavens.

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And he said, you're going to come to this place and I will bless you, as Abram turned his attention away from the idols and began to serve the one true

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God. Now, why does Stephen turn the attention here? Why is this a good place to start?

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Well, all of the concerns in Genesis 1 through 11 are answered here. What are the concerns of Genesis 1 through 11?

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Well, there was Adam, made in God's image, and he and Eve were made for one another, made in the likeness of God, made in God's image, and they were given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

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And then they sinned and rebelled against God and were exiled away from the

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Garden of Eden. They lost the initial gift of land to them. But here,

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Abram and Sarai are being called to a land that God will give them so that they would be fruitful, that they would multiply, that they would be abundant in this land.

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In Genesis 1 through 11, we hear about the sin of the people and how ultimately they broke apart at the

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Tower of Babel into a table of nations and they were separated by the confusion of their languages.

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But how will God bring about His promised blessings upon the people of the earth if they are all speaking different languages?

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What about all these different families of the earth? Well, He answers that in His promise to Abram.

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And you, in your seed, in your offspring, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

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They were all separated. They were all judged. But then now, through your seed, all will be blessed.

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Of course, the pressing question is the matter of death. In the day that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died spiritually, relationally.

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They died and their bodies began to decay until they died physically. And now there was the judgment of eternal death upon the horizon.

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But there was a promise that God made. A promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

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So what of this seed? What of this seed? Well, God comes to Abram and Sarai who are barren, who don't have any children, who are looking at their oncoming deaths and growing worried and concerned about that.

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And He promises them offspring, a seed through whom the

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Messiah would come. This is a great place to start the story. It's a great place because God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, 1 -3 is about Christ.

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It's about Christ. For all those who read the Old Testament with unveiled face, they understood this.

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Galatians 3, 7 -9. Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

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There was this controversy between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. We have

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Abraham as our father, and He said, actually, Satan is your father. Those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.

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Now, listen to this very interesting passage of Scripture. Verse 8, Galatians 3. And the

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Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

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Gentiles, the nations, by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand.

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So the Word of God preaches the gospel to Abraham, saying,

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In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the believing

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Abraham faith, and who have faith in Christ. So you see, Genesis 12, 1 -3 is about Christ.

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Those who bless Christ are blessed. Those who curse Christ are cursed.

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So, Stephen is preaching this passage. His audience knows it. He knows it.

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And he's preaching it as pertains to Jesus Christ, and they're thinking it has nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth.

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Same Scripture, two different interpretations. But that doesn't mean that they're both valid, or that the meaning of the

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Scripture can't possibly be known, because there are various interpretations. So Stephen is preaching, and he points to Abraham, because he wants to talk about God's presence.

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God's presence. Notice he says, in verse 2, that the God of glory appeared to our Father when

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He was in Mesopotamia. In verse 6, he says, God spoke in this way. God showed up and spoke to Abraham again.

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In verse 8, it says, Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. What is

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Stephen doing? He's just walking through major events in Abraham's life. And when we go to Genesis 15, 17, 18, and the following,

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God just keeps showing up in Abraham's life. The Word of the

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Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Genesis 1, 15. Who's the

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Word of the Lord? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1, 14,

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And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

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Before the Incarnation, God the Son, Christ, shows up to talk to Abraham.

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When He's doubting, when He's worried, when He says, I have no heir but Eleazar, where are these descendants that you promised me?

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And the Word of the Lord who had come to Abraham in a vision says, Well, come on, let's go outside. And He takes

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Abraham outside of the tent and says, Look up there. See the stars of the heavens.

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So shall your descendants be. And Abraham believed, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

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So this is a great place to start, to talk about Abraham, to show that God shows up where God shows up.

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But it's not random, because God shows up and focuses

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His special presence on His covenant servants and His covenant signs.

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So when you read Psalm 139, we read that God is omnipresent,

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He's everywhere present. You cannot hide from the presence of God. It doesn't matter if you go to the highest peak or the lowest valley.

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It doesn't matter if you explore the entire world. And even if you die, you do not escape the presence of God.

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He is omnipresent. Well, then why is it so significant about the presence of God showing up?

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And why are we even worried about where the presence of God is? Jesus was talking to the

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Samaritan woman, and she was saying to Him, Some say this mountain, some say that mountain. Who knows?

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Various interpretations. And Jesus says, No. An hour is coming, and now is, when those who want to worship

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God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So we are to be concerned about the presence of God.

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There is something special. Psalm 100 speaks of the special presence of God. Verse 1 says,

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Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing.

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I thought He was omnipresent. Hang on. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is

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He who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates.

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We heard, Come before His presence. And then we hear, Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

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What is the psalmist saying? Hey, all nations everywhere, worship the one true God. Come into His special presence at the temple.

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At the temple. So why is

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Stephen now saying, You don't have to go up to the temple to enter into His presence.

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Because as Jesus put it, Something greater than the temple is here.

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Something greater than the temple is here. Now, Stephen is talking about how it is that God shows up in His special presence,

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His special grace and favor, His welcoming presence to His worshipers, that His presence is focused on and through covenant servants and signs, but all of these have been fulfilled in Christ.

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So now God has sent forth His Holy Spirit in the new covenant to fill His new covenant temple made of living stones, those who have been made alive by faith in Christ.

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And so Stephen is preaching the good news of this kingdom. And the people who are the tenants of the vineyard are very angry and jealous and want him to be quiet.

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But Stephen begins with Abraham because he wants to show how God showed up with Abraham, even called him

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His friend. There was no temple or tabernacle back then, but God was showing His favorable presence to and through His covenant servant.

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God made a lot of promises to Abraham, hard -to -believe promises. A whole land that He never inherited a square inch of.

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It was never given to Him. He bought a burial plot, but it wasn't like God said, Here, the whole land is now yours to rule.

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I mean, Stephen points it out. A big promise. Here, here's a whole land, but he never got it.

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And then God promised, A multitude of nations will descend from you.

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And Abraham begot Isaac after a long time.

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It was hard to believe the promises. It took so long. But finally, he got his one son, Isaac.

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But still, you know, comparing the one son with the stars, that's kind of hard to believe.

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But he did believe. And how was Abraham's faith strengthened? God just kept showing up and showing up and showing up and showing up over and over and over again.

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And what we find, is that God's presence,

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God's presence encouraged Abraham's faith to believe.

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When Abraham communed with God, his faith was strengthened.

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God gave him assurance by his presence. I find it significant that Stephen is under fire.

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He's surrounded by people who hate him, who have lied about him. What does he begin to preach about?

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God's presence. He's got promises he's holding on to as well.

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And he begins by talking about the presence of God being where God chooses to be for his covenant people.

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And that's how he ends as well. In Acts 7, near the end of the sermon,

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Stephen didn't exactly give an altar call, but the moment of response was one in which they actually did kill him.

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Now he says in verse 51, this is when he gets to application, You stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the

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Holy Spirit, you resist the presence of God. As your fathers did, so do you.

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And they begin to gnash at him with their teeth, verse 54, but look at verse 55. Look at where Stephen's attention is.

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

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Look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Next time somebody says,

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The word Trinity is not in the Bible, well, let's look at Stephen's sermon.

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The glory of God, Christ at the right hand, the Holy Spirit giving him this vision, how comforted is

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Stephen at the moment of his martyrdom because of the presence of God.

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God knows our frame. He knows that we will doubt.

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He knows that we will be discouraged. He knows it's difficult for us to hold fast to the promises in difficult times.

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But He also promised us, Christ promised us He would not leave us orphans. He would not leave us on our own to try to work it out by ourselves.

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He promised us another comforter. And I want you to listen to this and I want you to understand how this relates to our time of communion today.

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So Stephen is not the only disciple to be hated. Jesus says in John 15 verse 18,

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If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own.

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Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

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If you're confused about who the world might be, just keep reading. He'll identify them. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

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If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

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But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake. Stephen's on trial for the sake of Jesus' name.

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And Christians are hated because of Christ. Because they do not know

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Him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.

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So who's the world he's talking about? Those he came to and spoke to.

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He's talking about the system of rebellion against God that is being manifest in the life of the

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Jews currently, the Jewish religious leadership. He who hates me hates my father also.

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If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my father.

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But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.

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And if they hated Christ without a cause, they will hate his followers without a cause. And that's what

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Stephen is experiencing. Jesus said it would happen, so it is. Well, I want you to listen to verse 26.

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This is very important. But when the helper comes, the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost. Here is the outflowing of the new covenant.

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But when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the

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Father, He will testify of me. All Scripture is

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God -breathed. Holy men born by the Holy Spirit wrote the words that God intended.

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It was Christ in the Spirit testifying of these things to the prophets, things in which angels long to look.

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When we hold the Scriptures, we hold the results of the

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Spirit of truth at work through the lives of holy men whom the

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Father chose to speak of. Who? Christ. He will testify of me.

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Jesus said that He would send forth a Comforter who would be with us when we were put on trial, when we were accused of things.

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So if we were ever brought before synagogues and before kings, we should not worry, we should not fear, but have comfort.

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That the Holy Spirit would give us in that hour what we needed to say. And what will we say? He will testify of me.

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Jesus said He will bring to your mind all the things that I have taught you. He will testify of me.

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You see, there is a proper way to interpret the Scriptures. And this is the work of the

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Holy Spirit to give us the right understanding of the Scriptures because it's about Christ.

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But also, the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that we are comforted by the very presence of God.

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Comforted by the very presence of God. This is why, this is why when we make a defense of the faith, we do so by the power of the

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Holy Spirit. What will happen? One, we are encouraged to trust God's promises because of God's presence with us.

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And simultaneously, we will be testifying of Christ. This is the position that God has given to us to stand in.

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And He has given us this meal. He has given us this supper. As we look at the meal, as we consider the person and work of Jesus Christ, we are comforted, we are reminded of His presence with us by His Holy Spirit.

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We know that this is not a meal that we take individually, but together.

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This is not a meal that we take as a church isolated from God. But we take this meal together in fellowship with God.

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We are communing together with our Lord by His Spirit. And as we do, let us be comforted by His presence that all of the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen.

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Let's pray. Father, we thank You for this day. Please bless us as we rejoice together in this meal.

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Strengthen our faith. And may we testify of Christ. We pray these things in His name.