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When Jesus Was Here Among Men
Are You A “Hope So” Church Member or a “Know So” Bible Christian?
The House That David Couldn’t Build – Acts 7:46-60
Summary:
The last type of Christ that Stephen points out is David, who “found favour” with God (7:46) because he was a man after God’s own heart (I Sam. 13:14). David did lots of great things, but Stephen points to the one thing he desired to do but God had Solomon do instead: build Him a temple (7:47).
Why? Well, Stephen says David sought to “find a tabernacle” for Him because he’s quoting Ps. 132:1-5, where “find out” means to invent. God lived in a tent, but David wanted to invent a new kind of dwelling place for Him! This is a type of how the Lord came to Israel the first time in the tent of a human body (cf. II Pe. 1:13,14), but will return in a body that is so much grander, it will be like the difference between the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon.
And He’ll give Israel the kingdom they refused the first time He came. That illustrates the point Stephen’s been making, that just like Israel wasn’t freed from Egyptian bondage during Moses’ first appearance to Israel, but was on his second appearance, so the Jews didn’t get their kingdom during the Lord’s first visit to Israel, but will at His second.
To prove to those unsaved Jews that God didn’t dwell in their temple (Acts 7:48), Stephen quoted Isaiah (v. 49). When God asked, “where is the place of My rest?” He was implying that if He wanted a place to sleep He wouldn’t ask men to build it, He would have made it Himself “in the beginning” (Gen. 1:1) when He “made all things” (Acts 7:50), the all things in heaven and earth (v. 49). Isaiah’s point was that God didn’t dwell in a temple (Isa. 66:1), He dwelt in a “man” (Isa. 66:2), the Lord Jesus (Jo. 10:38).
That was all those unsaved Jews were going to take from Stephen! When he shifted gears and began to indict them (v. 51), it means he must have seen them picking up stones to stone him. “Stiffnecked” (v. 51) means God tells you to do something and your neck is too stubbornly stiff to bow your head and say “Yes, God,” because you turned out of His way (Ex. 32:7-9). Stephen’s use of that word would remind them how God said He’s respond to stiff necks (Ex. 32:9, 10; 33:5)
When he also called them uncircumcised in heart and ears (v. 51), God said He’d punish that too (Jer. 4:4; 6:10, 11). He’s telling the Jewish council that they could expect God’s wrath to fall on them too now that the stoning of Stephen closed their extra year of opportunity to receive the kingdom (Lu. 13:6-9) that Peter offered (Acts 3:19, 20).
Their fathers resisted the Spirit (v. 51) when He spoke to them through Moses (Isa. 63:9,10) and through the prophets (Neh. 9:30). God required the blood of those prophets of that generation (Lu. 11:49, 50) because they’d been given more spiritual light than any generation before it (Mt. 13:17).
The word “disposition” (Acts 7:53) can mean distribution. Stephen is talking about the distributing of the law to Israel with angels (De. 33:2).They “ordained” the law (Gal. 3:19) in the way we ordain men to the ministry, by recommending it.
Gnashing on Stephen with their teeth (Acts 7:54) means they tore into him in wrath (cf. Job 16:9). He responded by telling them about the vision they couldn’t see, that of Christ standing at God’s right hand (7:55, 56). After He ascended, He sat down there (Heb. 10:12) to indicate the work of our redemption was finished. But those unsaved Jews would know that He will rise to judge His enemies (Ps. 110:1), even if “His people” have become His enemies (Isa. 3:13).
The “witnesses” (Acts 7:58) were the false witnesses who they bribed to testify against Stephen (Acts 6:11-14). The Jews were always tearing off their clothes when they were mad (cf.Acts 22:23), and they were murderously mad here.
We see a proof that the Lord was God when Stephen is seen “calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus.” (v. 59). He died as the Lord died, praying for the enemies who were killing him (v. 60 cf. Lu. 23:34). God answered the Lord’s prayer by giving Israel another year. He answered Stephen’s prayer in the sense that the dispensation of the mystery interrupted the judgment the Lord was standing to give. He didn’t answer in that Paul soon wrote “the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost” (I Th. 2:16), and their punishment will still fall in the Tribulation and at the Second Coming that will follow.
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The House That David Couldn’t Build – Acts 7:46-60
The Divine Cure for Heart Trouble
A Perfect Stranger – Acts 7:29-45
Summary:
When Moses killed an Egyptian to save a Hebrew, a fellow Jew said he knew about it (Acts 7:28) so Moses fled and became a stranger to his people (v. 29). That Jewish man refused to let Moses be his peacemaker (v. 23-27), a type of how the Jews refused to let Christ be their peacemaker.
Moses was gone from Israel a long time (v. 30), a type of how Christ would be too. Stephen is pointing out these types to witness about Christ to the Jewish council. But Moses having two sons with a Gentile isn’t a type of God having sons among the Gentiles today, as some say. The dispensation of the mystery was “hid in God” (Eph. 3:9), it wasn’t hid in the types in Scripture. The idea of two sons always spoke of Israel’s need to be born again. God rejected Ishmael and accepted Isaac, and rejected Esau and accepted Jacob, etc.
God sent Moses back to Israel from a burning fire (Acts 7:30), and will send Christ back to them the same way (Dn. 7:9-11). Both men draw near to God to hear His instructions (Acts 7:31). The Lord wouldn’t tremble as the Son of God, but He would as the son of Abraham (v. 32,33). The ground in heaven is as “holy” as the type we see with Moses (v. 33).
God saw and felt the affliction of His people (7:34 cf. Isa. 63:9), and He feels ours too! God sent Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh and their tribulations, and will send Christ back to deliver them from Antichrist and the tribulation. The Moses they rejected became their leader the second time he went to save them (Acts 7:35), just as the Christ they rejected will become their leader the second time He comes to save them. That’s Stephen’s point throughout this chapter (7:13). But first God had to send ten plagues on Pharaoh (7:36)—and He’ll send the same ten plagues on Antichrist!
After talking about all the ways Christ was like Moses, Stephen then reminded the council that Moses predicted God would raise up a prophet like him (7:37)! They found Moses too frightening (Deut. 18:15,16) so God promised them a less scary prophet (v. 17,18). He would speak God’s words just as Moses did though (v. 18 cf. John 8:22; 18:19-21).
The “angel” that was with Moses in Israel’s church (Acts 7:38) was “the angel of God’s presence” (Isa. 63:9 cf. Deut. 23:13,14). He gave them the “lively” or life-giving oracles (v. 38 cf. I Pe. 1:3) the oracles of the Scriptures (cf. Rom. 3:1,2).
Stephen’s hearers couldn’t deny their fathers refused Moses (Acts 7:39) because their Bible said so (Neh. 9:13-17). The Egyptians worshipped idols, so that’s what Stephen meant when he said the hearts of the Jews turned back to Egypt (Acts 7:39) “saying” (v. 40) they should make a calf.
Stephen is warning them of their future in the Tribulation by pointing to their past. They turned to idols (7:41) when Moses was gone too long (Ex. 32:1,23), and they will give up on the Lord’s return too (II Pe. 3:3,4) and turn to idols (Rev. 9:20; 13:11-14). They’ll worship the “devils” (9:20) of “the host of heaven” (Acts 7:42). When men worship idols or the stars, they are actually worshipping the devils they represent.
In Moses’ day, unsaved Jews didn’t worship God with their sacrifices (v. 42), they worshipped Moloch and Chiun (v. 43) in the false “tabernacle” they carried through the wilderness for those false gods (cf. Amos 5:22-26). It remained the tabernacle of rebels like we read about later in Numbers 16:24.
Satan always inspires men to mix the worship of God with the worship of idols (cf. Jud. 17:3), just as the church of Rome does today, for the worship of idols is the worship of Satan and his host. The church of the Antichrist will be a false Judaism like they had in Moses’ day, just as Rome is a false Christianity. God vowed to carry the Jews back to Babylon where idolatry started to cure them of idolatry (Acts 7:43).
Jews in Moses’ day did have a true tabernacle though (7:44). We know the “tabernacle of witness” was God’s tabernacle because He told Aaron to minister there (Num. 18:1,2). Stephen’s point here was that Moses couldn’t bring the Jews into the promised land; it took a man named “Jesus” (Joshua) to do that (Acts 7:45). And Moses couldn’t bring the Jews in Stephen’s day into the promised land of the kingdom of heaven on earth either. It would take a man named Jesus to do that too.
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: A Perfect Stranger – Acts 7:29-45
Full Romans Series (69 Messages)
The file below contains MP3 files of all 69 Romans messages by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam in one compressed folder. Download and extract the files to play them. See the included file ‘index.txt’ for a list of all filenames and message titles.
The Manifold Wisdom and the Manifold Grace of God
The Law’s Condemnation and Solution – Romans 3:19-26
Summary:
The Old Testament Jews were the only ones under “the law” (3:19). So how’d the law shut “every mouth” and find “all the world” guilty? Well, God had already found the Gentiles guilty in Genesis 1-10 and gave them over (Rom. 1:28) at the tower of Babel. Then He created a new nation (Gen. 12:1). Then to prove they were no better than the Gentiles, God gave them a law. When they showed they couldn’t keep it, every mouth was stopped, and all the world was found guilty
To be “justified” (3:20) is what men need if they are not just, which means to do what is right (Ezek. 18:5). None of us have always done what’s right, and God requires the past (Eccl. 3:15). So we need to be made just—justified! The Jews thought they were justified just by having the law, but Paul said no (Rom. 2:13). No one could give a law that men could keep (Gal. 3:21). Saved Jews knew this (Ps. 143:2).
So why’d God give the law? To give men “the knowledge of sin” (3:20) and get them to trust the sacrifices that the law told them to bring rather than trust their own deeds. If a Jew brought a “sacrifice of righteousness” under the law (Deut. 33:19) as God said to (Ps. 4:5), he could be made righteous. “But now” (3:21) “the righteousness of God without the law” was manifested. Today we don’t trust sacrifices of righteousness, we trust the righteous sacrifice that Christ made on the cross! When we do, we’re made righteous (II Cor. 5:21).
But how was this new way of getting righteousness without the law witnessed by the law (3:21)? Well, God told the Jews in the law to circumcise their hearts (Deut. 10:16), i.e., cut off the sins of the flesh. Knowing they couldn’t do that, God promised them in the law that He would do it for them (Deut. 30:6) so they could “live” eternally. The prophets witnessed the same thing (Ezek. 18:31; 36:26).
The law also witnessed that someday men would get righteousness without the law when Moses vailed his face so the Jews wouldn’t see the glory of the law fade or be “abolished” (II Cor. 3:13). Then when the Jews showed they couldn’t keep the old covenant of the law, God promised them a new covenant in the prophets (Jer. 31:31-34). The only way we can get the righteousness without the law that the law and the prophets witnessed is through that covenant (IICor. 3:6).
But for us to trust Christ’s sacrifice, He had to be faithful to make it, which Paul says He was (Rom. 3:22). That’s why Paul wanted to be found in the righteousness that comes “through the faith of Christ” (Phil. 3:9). It used to so that this was only offered to Jews, “but now” it is offered “unto all” (Rom. 3:22). But it only comes “upon all them that believe.” There used to be a big difference between Jews and Gentiles (Deut. 26:4:7,8;18,19), “but now” there “is no difference” (Rom. 3:22 cf. 10:12), “for all have sinned” (Ro. 3:23).
The Jews couldn’t argue with that, for their own Bible said the same thing (Eccl 7:20). “The glory of God” (Ro. 3:23) is that He’s never sinned, and even Jews fall short of that, though someday they will be the glory of God (Isa. 46:13).
“Grace” (Rom. 3:24) means gift (I Pe. 4:10). Under the law, justification was by expensive sacrifices and thrice-yearly trips to Jerusalem, “but now” it is “freely by His grace.” But Paul adds “through the redemption that is in Christ” because it had to be paid for by Christ. To redeem means to buy or purchase (Ps. 74:2). We are His purchase (Eph. 1:13,14).
“Propitiation” (Rom. 3:25) means to appease someone’s wrath by atonement. Christ appeased God’s wrath, but His atonement must be “received” (5:10) “through faith in His blood” (3:25), not faith in the blood of animals. This even propitiated God for the sins of men in the “past” (Rom. 3:25). “Forbearance” means to hold back (Jer. 20:9). God held back His wrath on David’s sin knowing Christ would atone for it.
Throughout the Old Testament, it wasn’t clear how God could be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth” (Rom. 3:26). It looked like He was breaking His own law (Pr. 17:15). But at the cross, God made Christ “wicked” when He put our sins on Him and then condemned the wicked. Then when you believed on Him, He took His righteousness and put it on you and then justified the righteous. But that wasn’t “declared” until Paul (Ro. 3:26)!
Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Law’s Condemnation and Solution – Romans 3:19-26
