Transcript

A preacher known for his lengthy sermons, noticed a man get up and leave during the middle of his message. The man returned just before the conclusion of the service.

Afterwards the preacher asked the man where he had gone. He replied, “I went to get a haircut.” The preacher said, “But, why didn’t you do that before the service?” The gentleman said, “Because I didn’t need one then.”

Stephen gives a lengthy message in Acts 7 and we’ll continue our walk through it in this episode.

It’s clear from this account, how truth, and the truth of God’s Word in particular, cuts to the heart and can infuriate those who resist it. Verse 54 says in this chapter, “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.”

Instead of responding in faith, the Jewish religious reacted with rage to the point that they take Stephen out and kill him. The men who did this were religious people. From all outward appearances, they were seemingly good, moral, upstanding men.

In 2 Timothy 3:8 Paul wrote, Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.”

We have unrealistic expectations if we think that others will rejoice that we are living for the Lord or will applaud our countercultural Biblical convictions. Instead, as believers we should expect to be withstood, resisted, and hated.

The Lord said in John 15: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world…therefore the world hateth you.”

We are in a spiritual battle, and the truth of Christ and God’s Word convicts and cuts at the heart, and it deals with spiritual issues concerning sin, pride, self-righteousness, hardness, and blindness to spiritual need.

We are called to speak the truth in love, but we know it will be met with opposition. But like Stephen, we do it because people need the Lord.

Acts 7:17-34: “But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

“In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months:

“And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

“And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:

“For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

“But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

“Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

“When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,

“Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

“Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.”

Stephen is before the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of religious leaders in Israel. By his message, he is attempting to demonstrate from Israel’s history how they needed to learn from history and accept Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah.

He has given the examples of Abraham and Joseph, now he speaks of Moses. To the Sanhedrin, Moses was their idol. They boasted in him continually. Yet they constantly disobeyed the law that was given to Moses, and notably in this account.

Stephen boldly showed these men, how the Jewish people on two previous occasions in their history, were guilty of rejecting saviors whom God had raised up to deliver them. The first one was Joseph; the second was Moses.

“What was Moses’s experience?” Stephen points out here. Was he received by their forefathers right away? What was his experience? How was he treated?

So Stephen rehearses the record to jog their memories in case they forgot.

God remembered His Word, Stephen says. “The time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham.” That promise is what Stephen had said in verses 6-7:

“That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.”

The time of the promise drew near to bring Abraham’s seed forth from the land they were in bondage and to bring them to the land promised to Abraham.

God then provided a deliverer for His people through whom the promise should be fulfilled. And God’s Word was fulfilled just as He had said.

Likewise, the time of the promised kingdom and the Messiah had drawn near. The One whom God had sent to deliver His people had appeared. But they had rejected Him. So Stephen goes into a description of Moses’s rejection at first as well.

After the family of Jacob moved to Egypt to be near Joseph and have him care for them, they grew, multiplied, prospered, and became content there.

Many years later, however, a Pharaoh came to power who did not know Joseph, and he treated this foreign people in his nation wickedly.

Fearing their growing number and that they could possibly unite with one of Egypt’s enemies to fight against them, the Pharaoh began to oppress the children of Israel. And Israel’s hosts then became their captors, forcing them into slavery and hard labor.

Egypt at that time further treated them wickedly by killing their male babies that were born. The Pharaoh first asked the Hebrew midwives to do it, but when they disobeyed, he commanded his own people to enforce the decree.

Moses’ life was in jeopardy when he was born and he narrowly escaped death at Pharaoh’s hands because God providentially intervened.

The Lord Jesus Christ also escaped death as a child, when King Herod killed the young boys in Bethlehem, ages 2 years old and younger. But God sent an angel to warn Joseph and Mary, and they fled to Egypt for safety.

Moses’s parents defied Pharaoh’s decree and hid him for 3 months after he was born.

Moses was then put in an ark of bulrushes, or a small basket of papyrus reeds, and strategically placed by his mother along the bank of the Nile in the reeds, making it appear that he had drifted down the river by the current.

By God’s providence, Pharaoh’s daughter found him and took him into her home. He was raised as the adopted grandson of Pharaoh and was educated in all the learning and wisdom of the Egyptians. And God used the Egyptians to clothe, feed, educate and prepare the man for leadership who would liberate the children of Israel from their bondage.

Moses never forgot his people. When he was 40 years old, he visited his brethren, the children of Israel, because he believed himself to be Israel’s deliverer.

He wanted to set them free from their hard bondage. Humbly coming from his palace, he visited his people and he saw one of them being harmed and mistreated by an Egyptian. He rose up in defense of him to avenge his mistreatment, and he killed the Egyptian.

He did so supposing “his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not” (v. 25).

And Moses was rejected by those he had come to deliver. The next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting and quarreling, and he tried to make peace between them.

But verse 27 says that the one who did wrong to his neighbor pushed Moses away. And he told him “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us. Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?”

This was the chosen people’s attitude toward their deliverer Moses in their rejection of him. And this was Israel’s attitude toward their Deliverer, Jesus Christ, as well.

Just like Moses, a humble Deliverer came from a throne and visited God’s people. He was mighty in words and deeds, and He made Himself known them and “He supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by His hand would deliver them: but they understood not.”

Instead, Israel sneered at Christ in the same way as they sneered at Moses, “Who made Thee a ruler and a judge over us?” They denied Him and rejected Him.

Exodus teaches that when Moses knew that his killing of the Egyptian was known, he panicked. And when Pharaoh heard about it, he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled as an exile to the land of Midian.

After 40 years, the angel of the Lord, or the God of glory, the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, appeared to Moses “in a flame of fire in a bush.” Moses came near the burning bush. The voice of the Lord told Moses that He is the covenant keeping God: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

He is faithful to the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Lord told him to take off his shoes because it was holy ground. And at the burning bush, the Lord commissioned Moses to liberate His people from Egypt and to lead them to the land He had promised to Abraham.

Don’t let verse 34 miss your notice that God says, “I have seen the affliction of my people…I have heard their groaning.” God is always aware of what we are going through. He knows about and sees the hardship and suffering in our lives. He is always there.

Acts 7:35-43: “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

“He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

“This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

“This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

“To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

“And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

“Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

“Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.”

Stephen shows how Moses, whom Israel had refused, God sent back.

Moses returned in power and the once rejected deliverer who they did not know the first time, was after all the one who delivered them and set them free out of Egypt. And Israel accepted Him the second time.

There’s an obvious correlation here to Jesus Christ. At the Second Coming, the once-rejected Deliverer who they did not know will come back, and Israel will know and accept Him, and He will bring them out of their bondage into the Promised Land one day.

Moses’s life and history foreshadows the life of Christ in many respects. These men in front of Stephen boasted in Moses, but Moses’s life and words point toward the very Deliverer they had rejected.

Stephen says, “This Moses…the same did God send to be…a Deliverer.” Likewise, God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be a Deliverer. And Peter on the day of Pentecost said, “This Jesus hath God raised up” (Acts 2:32) showing He is the only Savior.

Stephen states that Moses the deliverer brought them out “after that he had shewed wonders and signs by the hand of the Angel which appeared to him in the bush.”

Peter, on the day of Pentecost said, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know” (Acts 2:22).

As the message gets more and more pointed, Stephen quotes from Deuteronomy 18:15 in verse 37: “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear.”

The Prophet that Moses spoke of was the Lord Jesus Christ. A Prophet spoke the very Word of God. They were spokesman and mouthpieces of God. Prophets spoke revelation from God by God’s authority.

Still speaking of that Prophet in Deuteronomy 18:18, God said that He “will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”

This is what the Lord said of Himself in John 12:49-50, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”

After feeding the 5000, John 6:14 says, “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth THAT PROPHET that should come into the world.”

That Prophet was to supersede Moses. That Prophet is Jesus Christ. Hebrews 3:3 says of Christ, “For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses.”

The Prophet that Moses prophesied of would be “of your brethren” or of the children of Israel. “Like unto me” Moses said, or a Deliverer. Then Moses added, “Him shall ye hear.”

Peter in his address in Acts 3 quotes this passage from Deuteronomy as well, but adds, “that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” This is what these Jewish leaders were doing, not hearing that Prophet.

These Jewish leaders were guilty of doing again what their fathers had done, rejecting and not hearing the God-sent Deliverer, and they were doing so to their own destruction.

They were committing the same kind of sins as their fathers did, but to an infinitely greater degree because they were rejecting the Son of God. They were in danger of being given up to greater judgment than their ancestors had suffered.

But the lesson does not end here. In verse 38, Stephen speaks of Moses’s authority and leadership to the church or the called-out assembly of the people of God in receiving divine, authoritative revelation and the living oracles of the law at Mt. Sinai.

Yet, in verse 39 Stephen reminds these religious rulers that the fathers rebelled against Moses’s authority and after Israel’s deliverance under Moses “our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt.”

Even after their glorious departure from Egypt, after seeing the incredible signs and wonders in Egypt, and the Red Sea parting before them, they did not obey Moses.

They thrust Moses from them, and amazingly, their hearts turned back to Egypt, though they had been cruelly oppressed there. They didn’t physically go back to Egypt, but their hearts did. And by going back in their hearts to Egypt, they were rejecting and rebelling against the deliverer who brought them out: Moses.

In the same way as their fathers, these leaders had rebelled against Christ’s authority and not obeyed Jesus Christ their Deliverer, and they had thrust Him from them. In their hearts, they were far, far from Him and they had rejected Him.

While Moses was up in the mount receiving the law, the people down at the bottom complained about “this Moses.” They didn’t know or care what had become of him.

Because of their hearts being far from the true God, they asked Aaron to make them false gods. They made a golden calf and danced around it, and offered sacrifices to it. Stephen shows these religious leaders that Israel had always been rebellious.

Then God abandoned them to their own desires, and gave them up to their idolatry.

The Jews had worshiped idols in Egypt, they worshipped idols during their forty years in the wilderness, and after they settled in the Promised Land they gradually adopted the gods of the pagan nations around them.

God repeatedly disciplined His people for idolatry and sent them prophets to warn them, but they would not listen, or change, or turn from this. As Stephen said in verse 52, “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?”

Finally, God allowed them to be carried away as captives into Babylon. Stephen demonstrated the history of God’s chosen people in disregarding His prophets, rebelling against God, and departing from His Word.

Stephen was putting in the minds of these Jewish leaders, the question: Were they doing the same as their fathers by rejecting Christ? Stephen shows how at a certain point in their unbelief, God turned, and gave Israel up. Thus, another question he was placing before them was, “Were they too in danger of being given up by God?”

Acts 7:44-50: “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.

“Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus [Joshua] into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

“But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,

“Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?”

Finally, Stephen brings up the tabernacle of witness that they had in the wilderness, and which their fathers brought into the Promised Land under Joshua.

Stephen answers the accusation that he had spoken against “this Holy Place” or the temple. He traces its history to show his respect for it.

The God of glory’s presence was with Israel in the tabernacle in the wilderness. The God of glory’s presence was with Israel in the Promised Land.

Then from the time of the conquest under Joshua until the time of David, Israel had the tabernacle, a constant symbol and dwelling place for God’s presence among them.

David desired to build a temple for the Lord instead of His presence dwelling in a tent. Solomon his son built that temple and God’s glory filled it.

But over the years, the worship at the temple degenerated and eventually there were idols placed in the temple and God’s glory left it and the Babylonians destroyed it.

And the worship at the rebuilt temple in Stephen’s day had degenerated into mere religious formality, not of the heart. Stephen attempts to make them think bigger, and to get their eyes on the true and the living God.

The Most High does not only dwell in temples made with hands. How can the Creator of the universe be contained in a man-made building? He is everywhere. Stephen was not guilty of speaking against the Holy Place, these leaders were by confining God to it.

Instead with Solomon and Isaiah, Stephen argued that God is greater than any temple.

Listen to the full quote by Isaiah that Stephen is referring to here: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my Word.”

A poor and contrite spirit, one that trembleth at God’s Word is what God was looking for out of these proud religious leaders. But it never happened.

A broken and contrite heart, one who trembles at God’s Word is what God is looking for in you and me too. Because when we come to Him in faith and humility, God can teach us, and He can transform our lives by His grace.