Sorry about the delay. We lost power this week for several days :)
Acts 7:1-8. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 27, 2022.
Stephen has been arrested and put in front of the Sanhedrin. They have charged with multiple counts of blasphemy.
This chapter is Stephen’s answer, or defense, before the court. It will take a while to get through this chapter, but Stephen is pretty much making the same argument through a multitude of examples from the history of Israel. He is simply obeying God like Abraham did, like Joseph, like Moses, and like all the prophets. They, however, are resisting the Holy Spirit just like the tribal patriarchs, the Israelites in the days of Moses, and all of those who persecuted the prophets.
This whole chapter begs the question, “Just who is on trial here?” Or, we might ask it this way. Stephen knows that he is on trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin, but he also realizes that they are all on trial before the God of heaven. If anyone is being blasphemous here, it is the council who continually sits in the seat of Moses, contravening the truth of God.
Let’s get into our passage.
The high priest asks Stephen what he has to say in regards to the charges against him. Stephen starts with reminding them of the patriarch Abraham. He is extremely important to Israel, the father of the faith. God’s covenant with Israel was an extension of a prior covenant, or a greater Promise, that God had made with Abraham, their forefather.
Clearly, these men have not forgotten about Abraham per se. Rather, they have forgotten what is most important about Abraham, and how that should impact their activity. The most important thing about Abraham is found in Genesis 15:6, “He believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” So, how was this belief, this faith, of Abraham displayed in his life?
First, God had called Abraham to leave Ur and to travel to the place that God would show him. When you read Genesis 12, it appears that God speaks to Abraham while he is in Haran (a town on the Turkish side of the border with Syria). Ur is a city much further south between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. We would call this Iraq today. Historically it is also called Babylonia, Chaldea, Sumer, and Mesopotamia. Yet, in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.” God seems to date His call upon Abraham back to his time in Ur. This was the traditional understanding in the first century AD as well.
Abram displayed his faith by leaving his home country and heading out on the road. He first moved into Northern Aram, Syria. There he lived until his father died, and then he moved south into Canaan.
It is not clear how to read this. Was Abraham disobeying to stop in Haran? Of course, God said that He would show Abraham, as in, Abraham did not know the destination yet. It is quite possible that God first moved Abraham out of Ur, and then later told him to head south into Canaan. There is no hint in the Bible that Abraham’s stop in Haran was a moment of wavering faith, so we should not try to force it into that narrative. Stephen’s language is “He [God] moved him [Abraham] to this land in which you now dwell.” (Acts 7:4 NKJV). I believe it is best to see this as God leading Abraham in a staged fashion.
Ultimately, Abraham is depicted as one who believed God. He believed God to the degree that he held nothing of his family and ancestors sacred. He let it all go in order to follow God. Imagine God speaking to you such a thing today. Of course, God’s calling is not always about geography as it was with Abraham. However, it is always about the things that make us comfortable and shroud the truth of God to us. Abraham needed to leave Mesopotamia, and eventually Haran, if he wanted to fully know God. We too will have to let go of things in order to fully know God and walk in the inheritance that He has for us.
Once Abraham was in Canaan, God promised the land to his descendants. Abraham lived as a nomad in the deserted areas between the cities and towns of Canaan. Thus, Stephen says that he did not have an inheritance. Abraham lives the rest of his life in a land that he has no inheritance in and has faith in God’s promise that it would be given to his descendants.
There are two facts that add to the amount of faith that Abraham displays. First, Abraham was 75 years old when he left Haran and 99 years old when Sarah became pregnant. So, this whole time he believed that God would help him, even though he did not have any offspring. Yes, even back then, Sarah was considered past child-bearing years.
In fact, this is what led to the whole Hagar fiasco. Sarah’s lack of faith led Abraham to also stumble in trusting God. Yet, that stumbling was not without recovery. God help us as spouses to be careful in this area. We do not want to be a stumbling block to our mate.
All of us will have difficulty walking in faith with God without stumbling. We must be quick to admit our fault when the Lord holds us accountable, and we must be quick to repent and turn back to the proper path. In Abraham’s case, repentance would not erase the effects of his lack of faith. God can redeem these things, even though they will add difficulty to our path. Abraham learned a valuable lesson about waiting upon the Lord. God always has a better plan than we can make for Him.
The second fact that adds to the amount of faith Abraham had is that God revealed to him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land and not return to take up this promise for 400 years. God makes some awesome promises to Abraham about judging that nation, and giving Canaan into their hands, but why let them become slaves in the first place. Also, it would be such a long time down the road. Can you imagine God calling you to a place in which you have no inheritance and dwelling as a nomad all your life, and it won’t truly “pay-off” for your descendants until 400 years down the road?
Knowing the future is not all that it is cracked up to be. God in His mercy reveals enough of the future that we can have confidence, yet not so much that we would be overwhelmed. Of course, people lose confidence in God every day, and feel overwhelmed with life. However, this is not a lack of God’s grace, but a lack of my faith.
Following God is never easy. It always calls us to live a life of faith and pass the torch on to the next generation. Abraham’s life seems grand in the telling of it, but it was quite domestic in the overall living of it. Long periods of time can grind a weak faith into powder. However, that same time can increase our faith little upon little, layer upon layer. Abraham’s journey to a life of great faith was a series of days in which he kept trusting God.
Stephen then touches on something that Israel took great pride in. They were the circumcised as opposed to the uncircumcised Gentiles. In Genesis 15, God cuts a covenant with Abraham, but it is in Genesis 17 that God reconfirms His covenant and gives Abraham a task. He must circumcise himself and his offspring. This circumcision is a sign, a symbol, or a token, of the covenant that God was making with Abraham.
Now, the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3 makes a big deal about the fact that this covenant with Abraham is technically a Promise, whereas the covenant at Sinai had a great number of requirements that Israel had to do. Yes, Abraham needed to walk before God in blamelessness and circumcise his offspring, but Israel would receive a whole set of laws that involved stuff beyond the moral realm of right and wrong. This covenant of Sinai and its laws become the works of the Law versus the fruit of the Spirit shown in Abraham’s life.
May God give us a heart like Abraham’s that was not afraid to follow God into new places that we have never seen. You will stumble along the way, but He will be faithful. He will always show you your fault, and He will always point out the door of repentance. Let’s walk through that door into life every day!