The Acts of the Apostles 30

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense VI

Acts 7:44-50.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 8, 2023.

This is the sixth part of Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, Israel's high court at the time.  Stephen has reminded them of Abram's call, the Patriarchs, the first attempt of Moses to deliver Israel, God' sending of Moses back to deliver them, the events and prophecy of Moses in the wilderness, and now today, the tabernacle of witness.  The tabernacle is with them in the wilderness, but Stephen's point is significant enough to be broken out as its own point.  He is calling them to remember the Tabernacle of Witness.

Our church buildings are not simply houses of worship.  We sometimes use words without thinking through the full import of what they put across.  However, sometimes words and phrases are used to diffuse the truth of what God is doing in His Church.  We have seen in this Republic the tendency over the years to lump churches into the same boat as synagogues, mosques, scientology centers, wards, etc., with the phrase houses of worship.  Our laws are written equating all of these things, but they are not equal.  There is an intended spiritual sleight of speech that is being used to pigeon-hole Christians.

It would be more correct to call our church a house of the Lord, a house of Jesus, of Yeshua, of Yahweh.  It is a place that belongs to the God who created the universe, and to His Son, the Lord Jesus, God's Anointed Savior.

However, even this misses the greater point that we will talk about today, which is the point of the New Covenant, the New Testament.  It is not about the building, but about the people who gather there.  Everyone who has truly put their faith in Jesus has become a house of Yahweh, the place where His Spirit rests.  More than this, we are being built together into a greater house of Yahweh as a corporate tabernacle.

Think about how this would impact the Israelites of the first century A.D.  This place that was geographically located, and was restricted with laws that gave only the high priest access to the place of God's presence, would now be located within the hearts of believers, of me!  That which I had always been taught to treat as holy and sacred is now me.  I have become a special place where God wants to rest and commune.  Furthermore, the body of true believers are pictured by the apostle Peter as individual, living stones being mortared together by the Holy Spirit in order to create a group of people within whom the Spirit of God dwells.  There is something special, holy, sacred, and incredible about God's Church and their gatherings that the world cannot copy.  There is something special, holy sacred, and incredible about you when you put your faith in Jesus.

In fact, just as Leah and Rachel "built up the house of Israel," so the Church of Yahweh is built up as we walk in spiritual intimacy with God and birth new lives into the Kingdom of God.

No, we are not merely a house those worshiping the works of our hands and the desires of our hearts.  We belong to the King of kings and the Lord of lords over everything in the heavens and on the earth!

Let's look at our passage.

Remember the tabernacle of witness (vs. 44-50)

Stephen calls them to remember the tabernacle that was built in the wilderness.  The tabernacle was a portable tent structure that served as the place of sacrifice and meeting with God. 

The Bible uses several terms of the tabernacle. The first word, mishkan, simply means a dwelling place and is a reference to God dwelling within it.  The other word, ohel, also means dwelling, but at its root is the concept of skins, as in animal skins.  It most often is better translated as tent, even though it came to be used of even permanent structures as Israel transitioned from being a camping society (forty years in the wilderness) to a more established people.  The tabernacle was a tent-like structure with several layers of animal skins sheltering the Holy place, and the Holies of Holies.

Stephen uses the phrase Tabernacle of Witness, which in the Old Testament would actually be the Tent of Witness.  Incidentally, another phrase that is used is the Tabernacle of Meeting.  The word translated as meeting is hard to translate.  It refers to special appointed times, and was used of the feasts of the Lord, both as calendar dates to observe and as prophecies about special appointed times that they symbolized.  However, Stephen emphasizes the word "witness."  The tabernacle was not just the dwelling place of the God of Israel, but also represented His witness, His testimony to Israel and the world.  This word is used of the stone tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain.  He was told to place the Testimony, the Witness, into the ark of the covenant.  The ark was also referred to as the Ark of the Testimony, which was placed within the Tabernacle of Testimony.

The interesting thing about a witness, or testimony, is that it can have a warning aspect to it.  God's law and words to Israel were both a witness of the good that they should do and how God would respond, and a witness of the evil that would come upon them if they did not follow God.  Moses tells them, testifies on God's behalf, that they would be unfaithful to God and that God would kick them out of the land.  Yet, He would later restore them back to the land.  The testimony is a double-edged sword.

So, we should recognize that the testimony is that testimony that God has given of Himself, and it is connected to the place where He dwells.

Stephen points out that God appointed them to build the tabernacle, instructed Moses in how it was to be constructed, and lastly, accompanied those instructions with a visual.  Moses was God's mediator and would relay all of these instruction to them.

Stephen emphasizes in verse 44 that the Tabernacle was built "according to the pattern that he [Moses] had seen."  This comes from Exodus 25:40 where God reminds Moses to follow exactly the pattern that God had "shown him" on Mt. Sinai.

We get this picture in the Bible, and here, of God as a Master Builder.  I know that groups like the Freemasons make a big deal out of God as an Architect, but they are merely ripping off God's true nature for their own fleshly gain.  God is the builder of all creation, and He did not use random mutations to create it all.  When Chuckie Darwin introduced his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Yes, that is the full title), he believed that the cell would be confirmed as simply a box, like a Lego® brick.  He also mentioned that this theory required all things to be reducible.  You should be able to show how complex things like the eyeball could "evolve" from less complex things that originally had other purposes.  There would be a clear path of reducing an organism from a high level back to a single-celled level and even further.  Of course, over time science discovered that the cell is more complex than a modern city.  In fact, one protein is so complex that the odds of even the smallest of them being created through random mutations are astronomical, and that is just one aspect.  Another problem is that most mechanisms within different species are so complex that we find irreducible complexity.  Several things are useless in and of themselves, but work together to accomplish a particular function.

Though I have taken some time to show the weakness of the Theory of Evolution, it is weak particularly because of the master building, master engineering, that God has done in the creation.  Like any builder, God considered all that He would make in its design, but also in whether it would be worth it or not.  In eternity past, God determined it was worth it.  Remember, the next time you feel that life isn't worth it, that God has said it is worth it, has said that your life is worth it!  Can you trust Him?  He's got this!

God is the builder of David's dynasty, and Jesus is the builder of the Church and the New Jerusalem, its dwelling place for all eternity.  Hebrews 8:5 explains to us that the tabernacle was a copy, a shadow, of the heavenly dwelling of God.  So, God had shown Moses a pattern.  I don't think He showed him blueprints, but most likely gave him a glimpse of the heavenly tabernacle.    We will deal with this point more in a bit, but humans were also built, or fit, to be a dwelling place for God as a replica of the heavenly tabernacle. 

God is the builder of history.  He is the One who tears down and builds up.  No nation rises up or falls, but at God's command.  We will all serve Him.  We will either serve him in righteousness, worthy of reward, or serve His purposes through our wickedness, worthy of destruction.

Stephen then reminds them in verse 45 that the tabernacle was brought into the Promised Land and used up through the days of David, whom God used to conquer all the land that God was giving them.

This tabernacle was more than just a symbol, or a metaphor, for God's presence.  God's presence was actually localized there.  The cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night would actually come down upon the tabernacle and could be seen by the people.  This visible presence seems to move to inside of the temple at some point.  Eventually, the prophets would speak of the Spirit of God leaving the temple and it becoming ichabod, without [God's] glory.

This is in contrast to the temples of the nations surrounding Israel and those in Canaan that they had come to dispossess.  Those temples were ornate and probably made the tent structure that Israel had seem unimpressive.  However, they were mere fictions and wishful thinking that had been taught to them by fallen spiritual beings.  God did not inhabit their temples, and if anything was there, it was a worthless fallen entity that was powerless to help them against the One True God.

It is as if God sees what the nations are trying to do and decides to authorize Israel to make a true tabernacle for Him.  I am not saying that God is reactive because He would have seen this coming and already planned to work it into His purposes.  In fact, we should note the God who created the whole universe, seen and unseen, humbled Himself to be localized in some way in a tent structure in the wilderness with the people of Israel.  This building of dead skins represents when we die to our fleshly nature and become a dwelling place of His Holy Spirit.  It is not the thing that God is wanting, but is only a stepping stone, a prototype that helps us to see.

It was perhaps looking at the temples of the surrounding nations that led David to want to build a permanent structure for God, a temple.  Or, it could have simply been recognizing that he was dwelling in a palace that he had built for himself.  Why don't I build a better place for God?  David then tells the prophet Nathan what is in his heart.  Nathan knows that God is blessing David, so he tells David to go ahead with it without asking the Lord.  Before Nathan even leaves the palace, God pulls him up short and tells him to go back and tell David that it wasn't his job to build God a house.  However, his son Solomon would do it.

In 1 Chronicles 22:8, David explains that he had too much blood on his hands from taking the land.  God did not want the violence of force associated with His dwelling place.  This does not mean that David shouldn't have done what he did.  David fought the battles of the Lord.  Yet, there is more to this than just David's bloody hands.

In 2 Samuel 7, God actually responds to David with the question, "Will you build a house for Me to dwell in?"  Think of it.  A man building a house for the One who built the Galaxies, and the atomic nucleus, whose wisdom and being is truly beyond our comprehension.  God reminds David that He has dwelt in a tent from Egypt to David's day (400+ years).  Hmm, I wonder where God dwelled before the tabernacle?  The tabernacle was not built because God was homeless.  It was built to point to a greater Truth.

Instead, God promises to build David a house (a dynasty) and his son will build him a temple.  This first temple would be built by Solomon.  Yet, Solomon fell away from the Lord towards the end of his life.  Also, the first temple itself, which was supposed to be God's "permanent house," was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians (really by God) because Israel continued its idolatry in the face of God.  When they came back into the land later, a second temple would be built, which was in existence during the days of Jesus.  This permanent temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.  God's permanent houses are doing so well.

Solomon and the first temple were a fulfillment of God's promise to David, but they were a falling-short fulfillment that served as a shadow of the true Son of David who would build the true temple of God.  The destruction of the former two temples points to a better permanent home for God.  Jesus is the perfect Son of David who comes forth to build the perfect temple to God.  In fact, Jesus laid the foundation for the third temple while the second temple still stood (for only 40 more years).  The third temple is the True Church of Jesus Christ.  It is a physical temple in that humans have bodies, but it is spiritual in that God dwells in our hearts and minds.  Even this follows the previous template.  Our mortal bodies cannot be the permanent home of God's presence, but He humbles himself as He did in the wilderness and takes up residence within us.  The permanent Temple will also be "built" by Jesus as he resurrects the saints with glorified bodies that are incorruptible.

This brings us to our last point.  God is too great to be limited to a mere building on earth.  Stephen quotes from Isaiah 66 to drive this point home.  This greatness of God is a developing theme throughout the Old Testament.  At first the ark is spoken of as a throne of Yahweh.  The mercy seat had cherubim wings to serve as a kind of backrest.  Yahweh is spoken of as dwelling between the wings and above the mercy seat, sitting upon an earthly throne.  Later, the ark is referred to as God's footstool (Psalm 132:7-8).  Notice that God is getting bigger.  In Truth, God is not getting bigger, but He is incrementally expanding their understanding of just how great He truly is.  The Isaiah 66 passage expands this to the point where the whole earth is God's footstool and the heavens are His throne.  In fact, even the heavens fall short of the full glory of God.  All creation is truly His footstool.

Do you not see that God is not in need of us to build Him a house.  He is already building a permanent house out of us.  We do need to lean into this process and cooperate with God.  Instead of focusing on how nice our building is, we should focus on what kind of dwelling place we are for God.  Am I a shabby, dilapidated temple?  Am I a temple that has been devoid of the word of God like it was in the days of Josiah (2 Kings 22)?  God's time with Israel was a humbling of Himself and yet it was a real thing.  Through unbelief, they missed out on the fullness of what it could have been and ended up losing it altogether (as a nation). 

We too are in danger of hearing this truth and falling short.  In 2 Corinthians 3:16, Paul says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"  Perhaps, you find yourself saying, "Well, I don't feel like God's dwelling in me."  Really?  Where in the Bible does it say it is only true if you "feel it."  That would be like a husband not following through in the actions of faithfulness because he just isn't feeling it.  "I know God said we would become one, but I'm just not feeling it.  I want a divorce."  We judge ourselves by our own words.  Jesus didn't go to the cross because he was "feeling it."  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly!  Love has feelings, but it must never let feelings drive its actions.  It is not even duty that drives love.  It truly is love itself that becomes the driving force behind the actions of love; God is love.

You cannot make yourself a temple of God, but you can cooperate and lean into the work that God is doing, even if you don't feel it.  Walk by faith and trust God to do the dwelling.  Jesus laid the foundation for your spiritual life and the Church as a whole.  He leads us like a master builder in our personal life and in the experience of your local church up to the Church as a whole.  God knows what He is doing so we simply need to trust Him!

You are His desired place of rest for eternity.  Yes, much of life calls for trust and faith in Jesus.  Like a marriage, we come to Christ and embrace his love by faith.  We don't know what all we will face in this life, but we will face it with him for better or worse.  Of course, he promises to work all of the "worse" stuff to our good.  What a deal; what a Lord; what a Savior!  His desire to dwell in you, and within us all, should lead us to turn to Him with all of our hearts.  We are His home, and He is ours!

Defense VI

The Acts of the Apostles 27

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense III

Acts 7:17-29.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 11, 2022.

Stephen is still before the Sanhedrin of Israel, and he continues his walk down memory lane.  Though the council may find this insulting, it is important to know where you come from.  The history of a people is important because it has the kernel of why God has allowed the people to rise among the nations.

Remember, Israel was not one of the original nations that were created at the Tower of Babel (see Genesis 10).  To use phraseology from the Apostle Paul, we could say that Israel is like a nation “untimely born.”  None of those original nations exist today, though we all come from them. 

Israel was created by God for His purposes.  Stephen is reminding them of why they are a nation in the first place, and the purpose of God.  It is the How and Why of their existence.

It is also important to understand the truth about that history.  We know this quite well today as we see a struggle in our own culture over our origin story and how it should be understood.  We should not be shocked by this because Israel clearly had people of its own who did not buy the origin story of the Exodus.

As Stephen tells the story, we see that it is full of God’s Spirit trying to lead Israel, and yet only a remnant truly believing and following Him.  The others are resistant and even rebellious.

Do we not know that God has allowed these united States of America to rise up for a particular purpose?  It should not fill us with arrogance, but rather a humble attitude that asks, “God what are you doing, and what would you have us do?”  In a way, God has general purpose in all of the nations, but He does raise up certain nations at certain times for certain purposes, and Israel had a huge role to play in bring salvation to all of the other nations.

May God help us to hear Stephen’s appeal to believe God, and follow Jesus, rather than rejecting The One whom God has sent to save us from our sins.

Let’s get into the passage.

Remember the call of God upon Moses (vs 17-29)

Stephen fast-forwards from Joseph to Moses.  Just as God had a call upon the people of Israel, He also had a purpose in Moses.  Moses is as important to Israel as Abraham.  Abraham is seen as the Father of the faith, a friend of God.  Moses is the one who goes up Mt. Sinai and brings The Law down for Israel.  He is the mediator of God’s covenant with Israel.

By this time, the first generation of tribal patriarchs had passed away.  Israel was coming to the end of the 400 years that they had spent in Egypt.  During this time, they had flourished and multiplied in the best area of Egypt, numbering in the millions now.  This draws the ire of a new Pharaoh who “did not know Joseph,” at least he did not care about this history.  He could only see that there was a large group of foreigners in his land and he felt threatened by this.

We are not told how Israel was pressed into slavery, only that Pharaoh dealt “shrewdly” with Israel.  The word basically means “wisely,” but in this negative context, it would have the sense of craftily. 

How do you subjugate a free people?  This part is skipped over in the narrative, but something happened.  Brilliant minds have worked on this problem many different times throughout history.  However, in our day and age, it has become a science.  It is the science of subjugating large groups of people to become cattle and sheep for the pleasure of the elite.  It is a betrayal of humanity by other humans.

Pharaoh thought that subjugation and slavery would slow down the growth of the Israelites, but it did not work.  They continued to flourish and multiply under the harsh conditions.  This is a big problem for Pharaoh so he then commands that the midwives kill the male children.  When the midwives refused to do so, then the command is that the people are to expose their male babies, or pay the price.  It is important to see how God’s blessing upon the Israelites was a problem for Pharaoh. 

Of course, this brings up the hard question.  How can you talk about God’s blessing when they were in slavery?  This is the point.  God’s blessing was upon Israel all the time that they were in Egypt, not just when they left.

It is interesting how God moves in the light of our trials and difficulties in life.  I do not believe that God made Pharaoh make Israel slaves.  However, God knew that it would happen. 

Logically, there are three possible sources to our trial:  God is actively causing it, or God is letting us experience the results of our sin, or God is letting us experience the sin of people or spiritual entities.  No matter what the source of our trial, God is committed to helping those who turn to Him, even sinners who are repentant.  He will work it to your good if you will just trust Him, and wait upon Him in faith.

Here we might complain that God is letting it last too long and going to a point where children are being put to death.  How could he do that?  So, when should God step in?  If He steps in before any sin happens then we will complain when someone is judged, and God states that they were “going to sin grossly.”  If He steps in after a little sin, but nothing big, we will still feel that He is over-reacting when He sends someone into the Lake of Fire.  God in His wisdom allows us to experience the effects of our sin and the sinful choices of others.  None of us should leave this earth with the Pollyannaish notion that humans are basically good.  We have far too much evidence to the contrary.  We are the ones who chose the knowledge of good and evil, and God allows things to play out to the degree that He does so that we will understand the true nature of our sin, and His love.

The truth is that we do not like waiting upon the Lord.  We think that His timing is generally too late.  In fact, if you think that God finally turned things to the good on the day Israel left Egypt, then you are not paying attention to what He is teaching us in His Word.  The very difficulties that Israel went through in slavery would prepare them to hear God’s Word later when He tells them not to oppress the stranger in their midst.  They were not to have two sets of laws, one for Israelites and one for foreigners.  Of course, Israelites would have privileges that foreigners did not, but they should not be mistreated because they are foreigners.

God’s timing is always perfect for His purposes.  The reason we do not think it is perfect is because we are focused on our own purposes.  My purposes basically are not to have anything in my life that would challenge me to be like Jesus!  That would be things like difficulty, trial, rejection, and unbelievers in my face.  Part of the trial is to surrender to God’s wisdom and trust, to let Him help you become like Him.  Do you believe that the difficult things in your life were to prepare you to grasp and understand God’s Word?  At least the potential is there, if you will leave your purposes on the ground and go after His.  He loves you too much to give you a “perfect” life where nothing bad ever happens.  In fact, the perfect life is one where bad things happen because they teach us about God’s love that went to the cross while we were still sinners.

This does not mean that everything is easy now that I know He is working it for my good.  When a person wants to become stronger and begins lifting weights, they soon realize that the benefits that they are seeking can only be had by going through the pain of lifting, “No pain, no gain!”  We will discipline ourselves (okay, some people will) in order to gain physical strength, which only profits a little.  What pain are you willing to go through in order to be spiritually fit, like the Lord Jesus was?  No pain, no gain.  I do not just mean pain of being hurt and persecuted.  I also mean the pain of saying, “No!” to the lusts and desires of my lazy flesh, in order to obtain something greater spiritually.

What does it mean to be like Jesus?  For me, I see 4 important character traits.  I need to become a man of the Spirit of God, rather than my flesh, a man of the Word of God, a man of prayer, and a man living out the righteousness of Jesus.  Once you receive a clear vision of Jesus hanging on the cross for your sins, you really do not need any more evidence that God loves you and will do whatever it takes to bring you to Himself, the very definition of the ultimate good!

Did you notice in this story that it looked to Israel like God was not doing anything when He was preparing their deliverance.  We sometimes act as if we have the omniscient view.  Perhaps we have been reading too many novels, or watching too many movies.  Who am I, and what do I know?  Not only is God’s timing perfect, but He is always working in ways that we cannot see. 

I do not know about you, but God does not send me status updates on how He is bringing my situation to the good, like Amazon.  To the Israelites, it looked like God was not doing anything about their situation.

Yet, God was actually using the very commands of Pharaoh to bring about their deliverance.  Just think of it.  The mother of Moses does not have the heart to kill him, so she puts him in a basket on the Nile River.  She technically obeys the command of Pharaoh.  Exposure was the most common way of taking the life of a child.  Only in extremely barbaric places would they strike, burn, and actively kill a child.  She casts her son on the water, and entrusts him into the hands of God.  She may have had some direction from God.  She may have intended Pharaoh’s daughter to find the baby, but she had no guarantees of what would happen. 

God had a purpose for Moses that did not include being eaten by a crocodile, or found by an Egyptian who would kill him.  God made sure that Moses ended up in the hands of the one person who could protect him from Pharaoh.  I can hear her now.  “O, daddy, can I keep it?  Can I, huh?”  Pharaoh ends up bankrolling and training Israel’s deliverer.  Of course, we know that Moses does not deliver Israel.  God does, but He often uses people in what He does (the righteous and the wicked).  God was preparing their deliverance when it looked like He was doing nothing.  Thus, waiting on the Lord is a wise thing to do as well as being righteous.  Have you ever thought that it is wicked not to trust God who has shown Himself to be more than faithful, and more than able?

Waiting on the Lord requires faith.  I cannot always see what He is doing, but I know that He is working all things to the good of those who love Him.

Another part that we balk on is this.  God allows things to happen that we think He should not.  Yet, now we are back to the issue of over-reaction.  When God’s plagues start falling on Pharaoh from the God of Israel, he will not be able to feign innocence.  His wickedness towards Israel was far worse than anything God righteously did to him.  The problem of sin, and what it leads to, is serious and personal.

The Old Testament does not record the age of Moses when he decided to check on his people, but Stephen gives us the traditional view that Moses was 40.  For some reason, it comes into his heart to check on his people.  Of course, he knows that he is not an Egyptian, but a Hebrew that was spared by Pharaoh’s daughter.  I believe that it is God who puts it on his heart, even though Israel is not ready to be delivered yet. 

Moses sees that they are not just working hard, but being harshly treated.  Moses kills one of the taskmasters who was mercilessly beating a Hebrew slave and hides him in the sand.  Even this was part of “preparing their deliverer.”  On the next day, he sees to Hebrews fighting with each other, and he tries to help them reconcile.  Think of it.  You are in a trial of slavery as a people and you are fighting with your own people.  You are mistreating your own people.  And, we wonder how the enemy is able to keep us in slavery.  He only needs to keep you divided and fighting one another.  Moses means well, but the bitterness of servitude has embittered the hearts of many Israelites, particularly this one.  His acidic response hits Moses like a sucker-punch. 

Listen.  The enemy knows how to cut you off at the knees.  If God puts something in your heart and you go to do it, just know that he will be winding up to give you as many low-blows as he can (and he is good at it).    This incident is symbolic of all of Israel.  They are not ready to be delivered yet, though they would have said that they were.  They had bigger problems than a Pharaoh and his taskmasters.  They had gigantic spiritual problems that had built up strongholds in their hearts.  The rejection of Moses is symbolized in the question, “Who made you ruler and judge over us?” 

God was already stirring the heart of Moses for the plight of his people, but neither he nor they were ready yet.  Somethings need to simmer before they are ready.  Imagine every day you cry out about your situation, wanting relief, and yet at the same time you are lashing out in anger at the very thing or person God is wanting to use to help you. 

Moses would have to come back in 40 years, which is interesting.  They would have to wait another 40 years because of their rejection of him.  A similar thing happens when they get to the promise land.  They refuse to fight the giants at first, and so they go back into the wilderness for 40 more years.

Let me close this by comparing Moses with Jesus. We see many parallels between Moses and Jesus, though no human can perfectly picture Jesus.  In fact, this is our job, to image Jesus to the world around us. 

Let us first look at ways that Moses is not like Jesus.  We might note that Jesus did not kill anybody when he came to Israel.  He laid his own life down that they might be set free from sin and death. 

Also, Jesus dwelled among his people in their servitude under the Romans.  Whereas, Moses was in the palaces of Pharaoh.

Lastly, Jesus did not flee away, but ascended into heaven and sits at the Father’s right hand waiting for the day when it is time to make his enemies his footstool.

All this said, there are some striking parallels.  Jesus did spend time in the halls of heaven before he came down, became a kinsman to Israel through the incarnation, and experienced what his people were going through.

Jesus was also rejected the first time he came to Israel.  “Who made you judge and ruler over us?”  Of course, the answer to this is God the Father did.  Peter prophesied before Israel in Acts 2 saying, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 

Jesus then goes away from Israel and ends up taking a Gentile bride.  To be fair there are Jews who are a part of this bride, and even the foundation of it.  Yet, the Church has a very Gentile flavor to it.  Yet, Jesu will come again, after a long period of time, and deliver all of God’s people.

This world cries out for a savior, but at the same time it rejects the One that God has given, Jesus.  Just as the cry of oppression from Israel’s slavery was heard by God, so the cry of sinners suffering under sin is heard by God today.  How tragic that God has done everything, but believe for us.  Yet, we still say that He is not good enough.  Jesus is not good enough.  We double down on trying to be our own saviors.

Israel was not saved by its own faithfulness from Egypt.  They were saved by the faithfulness of God.  May God help us not to look at our circumstances and become stuck in the quagmire of despondency.  Rather, let us look up in faith and know that our God is even now working these things for our good.  Perhaps He even has some great things He would do right now, if we would only dare to believe!

Defense III audio

The Acts of the Apostles 18

Subtitle: Lying to the Holy Spirit II

Acts 5:7-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 18, 2022.

Last week, we dealt with the death of Ananias, and today we will deal with the death of his wife, Sapphira.

Ananias is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Hananiah.  It means ‘the favor of Yahweh,” or “the grace of Yahweh.”  Sapphira’s name is a reference to the sapphire gem.

Though one could think of their names as ironic in this story, it is more likely that they serve to emphasize the tragedy of their lives and their fall into judgment.  God was pouring out the greatest grace and favor that the world had ever seen in the work of Jesus.  He followed this up with the amazing gift of pouring out the Holy Spirit upon those who believed in Jesus.  How tragic to fall short of the grace of God.

Similarly, Sapphira’s name should remind us of God’s ultimate goal for believers, which is spoken of in the Old Testament.  Daniel 12:2-3 says that the righteous who are resurrected will “shine like the brightness of the firmament,” and “like the stars forever and ever.”  This imagery of shining stars is used in the Bible for spiritual beings.  It also is connected to gems.  Read Malachi 3:15-18.  God speaks of a day in which He declares that the righteous will become His.  “’They shall be Mine,’ says the LORD of Hosts, ‘on the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.’”

This story is a tragedy of the highest level.  May God hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Let’s get into our passage.

His wife follows him in his sin

It might seem strange to us that Ananias is buried without his wife’s knowledge, but it would have been similar to her husband being in the morgue.  In those days, a family would typically have a tomb that had a platform in the middle.  The dead body would be laid on the platform and allowed to decompose over the course of a year.  Later the bones would be gathered up into a bone box called an ossuary and deposited within one of several niches that would be in the walls.  Whole families would be buried in the same tomb this way.  Also, It would be necessary to deal with a body right away due to the heat.

Verse 2 tells us that Sapphira knew what her husband was doing.  We should pause and discuss the difficulty of having a spouse who is pursuing sin.  Many Christians have had to deal with being married to unbelieving spouses.  In fact, the Apostle Paul encourages such to stay married as long as the unbelieving spouse is open to it because you never know how God may use it to save their soul.  It can be more nuanced if you have a “believing” spouse who is serving their flesh rather than Jesus.  Regardless, Sapphira had a choice to make.  She could refuse to stand with her husband in this sin, or she could join him in it.  Sadly, she chooses to join him in his sin.

Don’t get me wrong.  There is no reason to make Sapphira to be the instigator, or innocent bystander.  Perhaps she was like Jezebel goading Ahab on in worship of Baal.  Maybe she was not.  All spouses should recognize that their life deeply affects their spouse for good or for bad.

It is three hours after the death of Ananias that Sapphira shows up.  It would stand to reason that she is looking for him, wondering why he is taking so long.  She gets there minutes before the men who have buried her husband make it back to the place where Peter is. 

It is at this point that Peter questions Sapphira about the value of the property sold.  It would be easy to blame Peter here.  Couldn’t he have led with the fact that her husband had lied and had been struck dead by God?  Yes, he could have.  However, Peter questions her to see if she is in on it.  I mentioned last week that I don’t believe Peter knew up front that Ananias was going to die.  Otherwise, we would expect him to pronounce something so, like he does here with Sapphira.  God had made it shockingly clear to Peter that this was to be taken seriously, and Peter is only taking this seriously.  How bad has this wickedness spread?

Tragically, Sapphira lies to Peter, and therefore, lies to the Holy Spirit as well.  Peter rebukes her for her sin, and adds some further light to why this is taken so seriously.  Sapphira will fall down dead and breathe her last as her husband did.

The first part of this rebuke is in reference to the Holy Spirit.  Sapphira had agreed with Ananias to “test” the Holy Spirit.  The Greek term it translates is often used of the devil tempting us.  It typically means to test so as to make someone fail.  A test can be a good thing that measures your progress and helps you to see where you need to improve.  In general, teachers are not actually trying to fail their students, but they do have a duty to make sure that the kids are learning the material.  This will ensure that the student is able to get more work on the failed problems.

The plot of Ananias and Sapphira is not devised to strengthen the Church, Peter, or God.  They hope to get the social reputation of donating all the proceeds of their sale without having to do it.  Their lie is selfish, and somehow, they believe that God won’t do anything about it.  This begs a lot of questions.  Were they actually saved, or only going along with the group because amazing things were happening?  Did they actually believe God was behind these things, or did they somehow believe it was more like magic, the involvement of an impersonal force?  Of course, we cannot know.

I believe that America is testing the Holy Spirit today, and has been for a long time.  We have been coasting on the grace that prior generations have won for us, but now, the judgment of God is in our land.  Everywhere around us, we see the crumbling culture.  The principle of death is being breathed into the land through every action of sin.  Yet, there is still hope.  We can see the turmoil and repent. 

In fact, God generally sends his judgment in increasing waves.  This makes me wonder if Ananias and Sapphira hadn’t had some warnings from God earlier.

Peter tells Sapphira that the same men who were coming in the door from burying her husband will now bury her.  She then dies as Peter has prophesied.  No leader should ever dare to utter this kind of statement unless it is really from God.  As I said, God had made it clear that He wasn’t letting this pass.

Whether I am judged by God on the spot or after 80 years of this life, the testimony of Scripture is that Jesus is a righteous judge.  He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  You cannot fool God.

Yet, none of us can be good enough to merit grace in that hour.  I don’t believe that God wants us to be unsure of that day.  1 John 5:13 states that we can know that we have eternal life.  Still, there is a tension between being confident of our salvation, and yet not letting that become an excuse for sin.  The saved person will fight their own sin.  There will be losses and wins in that battle, but the Lord will deliver them from them all.  This tension can be described as a tension between being afraid of God and having a healthy fear of the Lord.

Luke mentions twice that fear came upon everyone who heard about the story (vs 5, 11).  For Christians, it would be the fear of the Lord that wisely fights against sin in their life.  For unbelievers, it is more than likely a fear of the unknown.  It would be a fear of not knowing what is really going on among those people.

Just because this is the Age of Grace does not mean that God is no longer making judgments.  If we eat up His grace and spend it on our lusts, instead of putting our faith upon Jesus, working to become like him, then we will pay with our life.  We will receive eternal life or eternal death, eternal glory or eternal shame.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  It teaches us to stop asking how close to the cliff we can hang out without falling.  The whole point is to want to be close to Jesus, to have intimate communion with him.  I fear the holiness of God too much to try and lie to Him.

Of course, any time we tell Jesus that we love him, we are somewhat like Peter was in John 21.  My words may be greater than my flesh can back up right now, but Lord you know my heart.  You know that my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak.  God is gracious and is not looking for an excuse to take you out.  That tells me something drastically wrong was going on inside of Ananias and Sapphira.  I should not try to look like anything more than a sinner being set free from my sins as Jesus helps me.

Now, let’s come full circle on God’s love for us.  Remember, God is not willing that anyone perish, but that all come to repentance and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  More than that, God wants for you to be the recipient of His grace and favor.  He wants you to be at His side shining like the stars.  In fact, a beautiful thing about gems is that they don’t have internal light.  At His side, we will not only be gems, but the most dazzling light of God will be shining through us.  What a day that will be!

Lying to the Holy Spirit II audio

The Acts of the Apostles 17

Subtitle: Lying to the Holy Spirit I

Acts 5:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 11, 2022.

What a horrible thought it is to lie to the Spirit of God.  What a horrible thought it is that a sin might be judged by God on the spot by striking a person dead.  It sounds like it must be something in the Old Testament, but today’s story is here in the New Testament at the beginning of the Church. 

These are the things that God would have us contemplate today.  Furthermore, they are the things that should convince us that God is not playing games, and that this day of grace that we are in is still deadly serious.

I think that we might be surprised at who did not survive if God were to strike dead every single person who was lying to the Holy Spirit in the American Church.  Through the prophet Moses, God warns “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23 NKJV). 

Of course, it is rare for God to strike people dead on the spot for even gross sin in this life, but the question is not when will it happen.  The question is will He strike me with eternal death.  Whether during this life, or when you stand before Jesus the judge after death, if you have not been living for Christ, then it won’t matter much that He gave you more time.

Let’s get into our passage.

Ananias becomes a cautionary example (vs 1-6)

Last week, we looked at Barnabas and how he was an encouraging example, or an exemplar, for believers.  It is not by accident that the very next story is a cautionary example about a person doing something similar to what Barnabas did, but lying to the Holy Spirit about it.

We all can think of examples in our lives of people to emulate and others to avoid.  However, you may not have someone that is at the level of an apostle like Barnabas, or on the other side, at the level of Ananias and Sapphira for bad.  Ultimately, this lesson teaches us that following Jesus is not a game that we can play.  Of course, Jesus is the perfect encouraging example.  However, people like Peter, John, Barnabas, and Paul show us that we can rise above our sin and weakness through Christ. 

Of course, to do so, we must take our sin seriously, and we must take Christ’s salvation seriously.  There is a tendency for us to think of the Church Age as a time of grace in which sin is no longer a big deal.  It is all covered by the death of Jesus, hurrah!  Yet, the writer of Hebrews warns us in chapter ten that if a person was put to death without mercy under the Law of Moses if two or three witnesses testified, then an even worse punishment awaits those who trample the Son of God underfoot, treating his blood of the new covenant as a common thing, and insulting the Spirit of Grace (28-29). 

Luke leaves out many details that we would like to know.  However, it is apparent that Ananias sells a plot of land of some sort and then donates the money to the church.  From Peter’s reaction, we can know that in some way Ananias has made it known that he is donating all the proceeds of the sale.  This could have been a legal stipulation in the sale document itself, or it could have simply been a public declaration before the church and, or, its leaders.

In verse 2, the phrase ‘kept back’ has a connotation of embezzlement, which lets us know in advance that he is doing something wrong.  The point of the story is not for us to judge for ourselves the scenario.  We don’t have all of the facts to do so.  The point of the story is to caution us against a severe sin.  Notice the difference.  Luke is not trying to put us in the judgment seat.  He is trying to keep us out of the defendant seat.

When Ananias brings the money to the Apostle Peter, he is rebuked on the spot for his sin.  How did Peter know?  He knew by the help of the Holy Spirit.  In terms of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we would say that Peter was given a word of knowledge by the Spirit.

Of course, any leader in any group could covet such near omniscience.  Thus, tyrants will do openly to get information on everyone what cults do openly, but with more seduction in getting the information.  Such leaders will build networks and systems of gathering information on all of your secrets so that they can use it against you in order to further their power.  Woe to those who would pervert the Church of Jesus for their own empowerment and glory.

Yet, this is not what Peter is doing.  This is something that is pure and clean and comes from the pure and clean Spirit of God.  Peter rebukes Ananias, and it is a fearful day for those who are sinning.  Yet, rebuke also opens the door for repentance.  Thus, it is a strange day in which things can go in vastly different directions.  I will either repent and be cleansed, or refuse and be hardened even more.

When we look at the specifics of the rebuke, Peter twice refers to his sin as, vs 3, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit,” and vs 4, “You have not lied to men, but to God.”  Of course, he did lie to men, but his sin is far worse than that.  He is lying to God Himself.

How has he lied to God?  First, he has lied to leaders whom he knows to be full of the Holy Spirit.  He has lied to a body of believers who are Spirit-filled.  Interesting question here, had Ananias been filled with the Holy Spirit?  Is it possible that a person could be filled with the Holy Spirit, but then lie to the Holy Spirit?  We don’t know specifically with this case.  However, King Saul had the Holy Spirit come upon him and he prophesied.  Yet, he later turned to the witch of Endor for occultic help because his rebellions against God’s Spirit had caused God to leave him.

Peter mentions Satan.  Satan is at work here, and Peter knows about Satan stirring your baser notions in order to get you to resist what God is doing.  Listen friend, don’t play fast and lose with the things of God.  It won’t be worth it in the end.  Even if you get away with it for all of your life, you will regret it when you stand before Jesus.  Just as Israel drew near God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him, so can we.  In fact, all of life is a challenge asking us if our worship and strong talk was all lies.  From time to time, Jesus challenges us, “Will you too go away?

In verse 4, Peter describes just how needless this sin was.  It was his property.  No one forced him to sell it.  After the sale, it was his money to do with as he would.  No one forced him to declare that he would give all of the money to the church.  Why didn’t he just make it clear that he would only give part of the proceeds?

Let’s say it was a plot of land that was worth $10,000 USD.  If he simply gave 10%, it would have been a $1,000, which is a significant donation.  Even $100 would be helpful to people.  In fact, any gift you give for the work of Jesus is significant, whether $1 or $10,000, because it is given to God.  It is holy.  The widow only gave a mite, and yet our Lord said it was greater than those who gave bags of Gold.  God does not judge value as we do.

Jesus does not force people to give to his mission.  You are free to give what you want.  But, the case of Ananias shows that, though we are free from constraints by the Lord, we are not nearly as free from sin in our hearts.  Ananias was free to give in relation to God, but his sin held him in bondage and led him to the slaughter.  Sin had taken root in his heart somewhere along the line, much like Judas before him.

And that is where the problem lies, in his heart.  In verse 3, Peter says, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie,” and in verse 4, “Why have you conceived this thing in your heart.” 

Peter is not saying that Satan made Ananias sin.  Satan can’t make anybody sin.  In fact, you are quite capable of being tempted by your own flesh without his help.  However, he is a real influence, a real interloper, nonetheless.

It is one thing for a temptation to “fill” our heart or mind.  This is being a fallen human being in a fallen world.  However, you can keep from playing with that temptation.  Notice the use of the word “conceived” by Peter.  This should bring to mind the picture that James gives us in James 1:14-15.  “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.”

Notice the progression.  It begins with the temptation within our heart and mind.  If we do not nip it in the bud in that moment (bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ), we will then be dragged away and enticed by our own desires.  It is not Satan dragging us off.  It is our own desires.  At some point your desires conceive.  You have given yourself over to do the sin.  You first want to do it, and then you plan to do it.  Eventually conception leads to birth.  This sin will come out into the world through words and deeds.  They may be hidden and done in secret, but into the world the little sin babies will be hatched.  And, when sin has grown to full maturity, it brings forth death.

We must guard our hearts!  O, how our hearts are laden down with impure desires that only serious warriors will rise up against and slay by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, you actually have to take possession of your heart before you can then guard it.  This picture can be seen through Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.  Picture the Promised Land as your own soul.  When you get saved, your life is full of many gigantic strongholds of sin.  You look like a Lilliputian compared to them, and you are!  However, God has promised to give you victory if you will attack the strongholds relying on His help.  Too many Christians have settled for a small plot of victory, and have allowed the enemy quarter in their own hearts and mind.  Such activity will not last us because the Holy Spirit is always calling us to rise up and fight!

After Peter’s rebuke, we are told that Ananias falls down and breathes his last.  He dies on the spot.  There is no sense that Peter knew that this was going to happen.  Though God revealed the sin of Ananias, that is not reason to automatically believe he knew death was coming.

So, why was God so harsh?  Perhaps, He determined that it was important at the onset of this group to make it clear that, even when God is being gracious, He is not to be mocked.  Every man is a liar and the judgments of Jesus are righteous and true.  We can be assured that sin has take deep root in the heart of Ananias, and he is boldly lying in the face of the powerful working of God through the Apostles.  It is hard to understand how he could be so bold, but such is sin.  It blinds us to our true condition and danger.

Our theology can so promote grace that we no longer have people who are afraid to sin.  In general, you do not have to fear that God will strike you dead for sinning today, but in the words of Johnny Cash, “Sooner or later, God‘ll cut you down.”  Sin that is not fought by the help of God’s Spirit will breathe death into your life and the life of people around you.  It is not just a matter of your eternal destiny.  It is also a matter of whether you are a source of sin and death in this life, or a source of life that comes from the Spirit of God.

God’s desire is for you to fight the sin that He reveals in your life.  His word shows us what sin is, and His Spirit helps us to see it in our life.  In short, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, and points us to the righteousness of Jesus.  Yes, we are to believe in Jesus for salvation, but we are also to continue believing in Jesus for taking possession of our soul, sanctification.  The Holy Spirit really can strengthen you and help you to get victory over strongholds of sin in your life, but He won’t repent for you.  He won’t get you out of your bed in the morning and force you to pray for strength.

The problem is not that God is mean and scary.  The problem is that we don’t take God serious enough to take sin serious enough.  Imagine that your sin is so horrible that God Himself had to become a man in order to pay the price for it.  Yes, it is easy to imagine that Hitler’s sin is so bad that it would take that, but not mine (of course, we would never say those words).  To the degree that you think sin is not a big deal is to the degree that you diminish the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  However, the more you see the glory and majesty of the righteousness of Christ, then the more you see the depths of shame and dishonor our sinful ways are towards God and one another.

Christian, we must become convinced that sin is breathing death into our life and the lives of the people we love.  We must desire to destroy its hold on our hearts, and we must learn to lean on Jesus for victory in the way that David did when standing against Goliath.

We have to stop here today.  We will pick up with the story next week.   Until then, I pray that the love of God will convince us to cast off any dalliance we may have with sin, and to turn our eyes unto Him.  Only He can give us victory against sin, the world, and the devil!

Lying to the Holy Spirit audio