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 28

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense IV

Acts 7:30-36.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 18, 2022.

We have been looking at Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin, although he is actually on offense here.  Last week, he reminded them about the rejection of Moses. 

Today, we are going to be reminded of the fact that God later sends Moses back to Egypt to serve as His representative.  He would be used first to deliver Israel from their bondage, and second to bring them to their promised inheritance.

Deliverance in God is not just about getting out of trials and difficulties.  We cannot say, “God get me out of this difficulty,” and then, “I’ll take it from here,” after He delivers us.  God is a deliverer, but He is not AAA.  Of course, if the AAA guy tries to tell you how to live your life, you will remind him that you are only paying for him to tow your vehicle to the shop.  However, with God, there is always a positive thing that God is bringing us towards when He delivers us out of difficult things.

Let’s look at our passage.

Remember that the rejected Moses came back to lead them out of Egypt (vs. 30-36)

Stephen calls to their attention that the rejected Moses is sent back to Egypt to lead Israel out of slavery.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why he would be pointing this out in light of the events surrounding Jesus. (The backdrop to this found in Exodus 3-4).

We last saw Moses hightailing it out of Egypt because Pharaoh has put his picture on the Top 10 Most Wanted List in all of Egypt’s post offices (just kidding about the picture).  At 40 years of age, Moses flees from Egypt into the Sinai and then keeps going into what we would call northwest Saudi Arabia, the land of Midian in those days.

The Midianites came from a man named Midian.  He was the offspring of Abraham and his marriage with Keturah, whom he had married after Sarah had died.  The several sons that he had with her were given gifts and sent eastward so that they would not interfere with God’s promise to give the land to Isaac.

Moses meets a “priest of Midian” named Reuel, and also called Jethro.  He marries one of Jethro’s daughters and has two children.  It is 40 years later (Moses would then be 80) that God shows up to call him back to Egypt. 

This part of the life of Moses is skipped over very quickly.  In fact, this happens a lot in the Bible.  Sometimes Christians can wonder why God doesn’t do something supernatural everyday in their life, but we forget that even biblical prophets sometimes felt the same way (see Habakkuk 3:2).  God does do amazing supernatural things from time to time, but He also is with us in the in between times of routine.  It is there that we live out the faithfulness of trusting Him.

In fact, human beings were not created to be in a frenetic state of excitement all of the time.  It would kill us.  So, we serve God greatly during the times of routine, even if it doesn’t seem to be something great to us.

This brings up another issue.  If the only thing you ever do is marry and raise a family to replace yourself in the next generation with the torch of faith, then that is a great thing.  Think of how many people have failed to do this, and have even caused the fall of people from believing God.  We can be very poor at seeing what is really great.

We don’t really know where Moses received his understanding of God.  Was it all from the bush forward, and directly from God?  Or, is it possible that this priest of Midian, his father-in-law, still held to the faith of Abraham his ancestor?  There is no way to know.

Let us notice that the call of God upon Moses began long before he could show himself faithful to God.  God did not spare the child in the basket because his faith was so strong.  Yet, there comes this time as an adult where God comes knocking, and Moses is going to need to respond with faith.  It looks like Moses was a little shaky in his faith.  At one point, he even tells God that the plan is great, but that He should do it with someone else.  So, what is the key to responding in faith when God comes knocking?  The key is to live a life of faith during the routine times.  It may seem like God isn’t doing anything, but nothing in our life goes to waste with God.

The forty years of being trained in the wisdom of Egypt in the house of Pharaoh and the forty years of learning to be a husband, father, and shepherd in the desolate wilderness would be important parts of God’s preparation in the life of Moses.  Don’t get me wrong.  Everything you are going through is important for you right now, but it is also preparatory.  We are not generally told why God allows us to go through what we do, but God will not waste it in the end.  God often uses the routine times to build in us the greatest thing that we can have and that is faith in Him.  So, let’s be faithful today.

At 80 years of age, Moses has a spectacular event.  The Angel of the Lord appears to him in the middle of the wilderness in a burning bush.  It is clear that he is not intending to go back to Egypt, but God has different plans.  Don’t you just love it when God has plans other than what you have?

It is not a burning bush that draws his attention.  I have read that bushes on fire are a common thing in that area.  However, this bush is not being consumed by the fire.  This is what causes Moses to go over and see what is up with this bush.  It is then that he finds out that this is no normal bush and it is no normal fire.  It is the Angel of the Lord.

This picture of a natural thing on fire by God and yet not consumed is an important one.  It is a good picture of how God made human beings.  Our God is a consuming fire, and yet, He created us to be filled with Him and yet not be destroyed.  Of course, our fallen, mortal state does need to be resurrected in order for us to be perfectly fit to dwell in the presence of God.  However, even in our mortal state, God has made us to be capable of being filled with His presence and displaying His glory without dying.  Two things operate together to make this possible.  First, there is His work of mitigating, or moderating, His powerful glory.  However, there is also our faith in Him.  God is to be feared because He does not suffer fools.  However, the believer who trusts in Him does not need to fear that God’s presence will consume him.

This also connects to the Day of Pentecost.  The 120 believers had tongues that looked like fire come down and set above their heads.  They each became a bush on fire from the presence of God, and yet not consumed.  Quite the opposite, they become a source of life.  They are not a big Redwood, or a Cedar of Lebanon, but rather just a simple bush on fire of God.

The cross itself is the most ignoble tree of the earth, and yet the Son of God hung on that cross as the fire of God’s wrath came down upon him.  The cross is a place of consuming and Jesus did die.  Yet, he was not destroyed because He is the Lord of life.

This angel speaking from the bush is no normal angel.  It is the Angel of the Lord.  This passage in Exodus is one of the classic passages of demonstrating that this angel is unique from all of the others.  Though he is an angel (messenger), he speaks as if he is God.  In another place, God refers to this unique angel as having His Presence within him and having His Name upon Him.  Some scholars of Israel before the first century would even refer to this as being a Visible Yahweh versus the Invisible Yahweh.  It was a way of God accommodating Himself so that people could see and interact with Him.  Of course, this Angel of the Lord could only be the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regardless, the Angel tells Moses to remove his sandals because he is on holy ground.  The idea of sacred space is huge in the Old Testament.  You don’t just walk into sacred space without making sure you have permission and do it in the proper way.  To us moderns, it may appear that God is creating arbitrary barriers to approaching Him, but it is anything but arbitrary.  We are taught to be very careful how we treat holy things, things set apart for God’s purposes, as opposed to the common things that are for our own purposes.  Christ makes us holy and shows us how to humbly approach God the Father in prayer.  This space is not holy because of its coordinates on the earth.  It was holy because God was there.

This brings up another issue.  What are God’s holy things?  Do you not know that you were made to be a holy, sacred space, for God?  Do I treat my life as a common thing to do whatever I want, or do I recognize that I am a holy person set apart for His purposes, and so I should be careful what I do?  How many Christians tell themselves that fornication isn’t so bad because many people are doing far worse in this world.  Yet, this excuse will not stand us in good stead.  We should not fool ourselves that God won’t care.  The only way to fix this is through repentance and faith in Jesus.  This can cleanse us so that we can go forward.  When the temple was defiled, you couldn’t just say, “Oops!” and then just continue on with sacrifices.  They would have to stop and cleanse the temple before they could resume service to God.  For Christians, we must listen to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, instead of grieving Him, and repent before the Lord while putting our trust in the way that Jesus shows us to live, in Him period.

The Lord also let’s Moses know who is talking to him, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses hides for fear of dying from seeing God, but God instead reveals to Moses a new name for Himself.  He is to be called Yahweh, The Being One.  In the past, He is the Being One; in the present, He is the Being One; in the future, He will still be The Being One.  All things that exist find their source in The Being One.

Following this, the Angel has a message of deliverance for Israel.  Three phrases are given by Stephen to represent God’s message:  I have seen their oppression; I have heard their groaning; and, I have come down to rescue them.

Have you ever doubted that God saw your difficulties and heard your cries?  Have you doubted because He didn’t come down and rescue you in the past?  This is part of the faith that we are called to have.  Imagine how many Israelites died in slavery before this moment.  A generation passed away in liberty and then finally a generation will see deliverance.  Is this fair?

We don’t always understand the timing of God, but know this: He always sees and hears, even if He doesn’t come down to rescue.  Death itself is a type of rescue that takes the righteous into the presence of God.  I doubt that in the Resurrection those who experienced deliverance in Egypt will grouse over those who didn’t.  This kind of thing becomes irrelevant in light of eternity because they all had to have faith, whether waiting for deliverance, or being delivered. 

So, why does God wait for deliverance?  First, it calls for us to learn humility, which is an essential part of imaging God.  Some would emphasize that none of us deserve deliverance, but I think this misses the point.  There are things that we need to learn and experience before we are delivered.  This is true as individuals, or as a nation, or as a world.  God’s timing optimizes His grace with our ability to learn.  God sees you and He has a day of deliverance for you regardless of how your trial goes.  In fact, the cross itself is God declaring, “I see you; I hear you; and I have come down to save you!”  In some ways, Moses is a type of Christ, but in this burning bush episode, he is a type of us coming to the cross and receiving a revelation of who God is.  There as the wrath of God burns upon the Son of God, He tells us that He sees us and hears us and will save us.  Yet, this burning God/man is asking you to participate in His deliverance of others!

Did God need Moses to deliver Israel?  Why is God in Midian convincing Moses to go to Egypt?  God technically doesn’t need us in the sense of our abilities, but He does need us in the sense that He created us to bear His image.  No father needs their son to come and work with them.  The boy isn’t good at it and often gets in the way.  But, a father also needs, or wants badly, for his son to grow up and become a man like He is.  Of course, we will never be Gods like our Father is, but we can participate in His divine nature as Sons of God.  God often waits because it is the only way we will ever learn to become like Him, and He calls us to join Him in the deliverance of others (as well as ourselves) because He wants us to learn to become like Him!

Stephen emphasizes that God sends Israel a deliverer that they had rejected, “the Moses whom they disowned.”  If they wanted to be delivered, then they would have to get behind Moses and follow him.  There would not be another.

Moses would become a savior and a ruler over them because God chose him.  However much Moses had been trained to lead, it is not he who would do the heavy lifting of saving Israel and bringing them to the promise land.  God would do the great wonders and signs.  Whereas, Moses is His representative.  Even surviving in the desert is not mainly at the ability of Moses, but the provision of God.  The ruling of Moses is mainly him explaining the laws that God had legislated.  The ruling, and saving, of Israel by Moses is overshadowed by the Angel of the Lord, the true Savior and Ruler of Israel.  Moses was simply a mediator.

This is the tension that exists between being called of God and yet not to do it in our own wisdom, strength, reason, etc.  Sure, our past is preparatory, but not always for us to do what we think.  Many times, our training helps us understand that God is working due to the contrast.  Ultimately, we must be prayerfully making decisions and asking God for wisdom. 

Are not our people in slavery today under the Pharaoh of this world?  Can we not hear the Holy Spirit saying that He sees, hears, and has come down?  Who among us will choose to labor with God?  Perhaps today, He is intersecting your life and calling you to come with Him to work for the souls who are held in bondage to sin in this world.

Defense IV audio

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 26

Subtitle: Stephen's Defense II

Acts 7:9-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 04, 2022.

Stephen is addressing the Sanhedrin in defense of the charges of blasphemy that are against him.  This is no true defense before the court, unless you see Stephen making his defense to the heavenly court. 

When you have a defense lawyer today, they work every angle in order to get you out of the charges.  This is not what Stephen is doing.  There is a time to use the law and lawyers to defend yourself.  However, there are times that call for standing up and witnessing for Christ, and this is the choice Stephen makes.

Last week, we looked at Stephen reminding them of the call of Abraham, and how he responded to God.  In today’s passage, Stephen moves forward to Joseph.  The family of Jacob was messy.  You might say that all families can be messy.  You probably were not raised in a family that had children from four different wives.  Stephen reminds them of God’s call upon Joseph, and how the envy of the tribal patriarchs was used to accomplish God’s will.

Let’s get into our passage.

Remember Joseph and the tribal patriarchs (vs 9-16)

As with Abraham, Joseph will be highlighted for his faith in God, especially in God’s promises, despite numerous difficulties.

Stephen points out that the brothers of Joseph were envious of him.  The patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel were spread out in their ages.  Genesis does not give the years of their births, but we know that Joseph is the eleventh son, and that the twelfth son, Benjamin, is his full brother.  They were both birthed by Rachel.  An interesting note, Benjamin is the only one of the boys that was born in Canaan, Bethlehem specifically.

So, what was driving this envy of Joseph by his older brothers?  First, we have the issue of these four wives.  Jacob only wanted to marry Rachel, but he was tricked by Laban into marrying her older sister Leah.  Jacob worked for Laban for another seven years to pay the bride price for Rachel.  Leah was stuck married to a man who did not want to marry her and loved her sister.  This developed a rivalry between these two sisters where Leah was able to produce four sons for Jacob, and Rachel none. 

This drove Rachel to deploy the “Sarah Tactic.”  She gave her maidservant, Bilhah, to Jacob in order to have children by proxy.  Bilhah would be considered a second-tier wife, and her children would be considered Rachel’s legally.  This, of course, is not as satisfying as having children, but Rachel gets a couple of “points on the board” out of it.  Leah then deploys the same tactic with her maidservant, Zilpah, who also has two children (this time considered Leah’s).  Notice that Jacob is in a tight pinch.  He was tricked into marrying Leah.  Then, how could he say, “No,” to the love of his life who could not have children, and was sorely distressed?  Also, how could he say, “No,” to Leah once he acquiesced to Rachel?  Long story not quite as long, Leah births six sons for Jacob, with another two by her maidservant, Zilpah, for a total of eight.  Whereas, Rachel had two sons- she died birthing the second-, with another two by her maidservant, Bilhah, for a total of four.

Such rivalry between mothers has a way of impacting the children who grow up hearing it and witnessing it.

Secondly, Jacob clearly favored Joseph over the rest of the boys.  He loved him more than the others.

As if this was not enough, we are told of an incident when Joseph was seventeen.  He told his dad about some bad things that his brothers were either saying or doing.  The passage is quite vague as to what the “evil” was.  I am sure they saw him as a tattle tale from that time forward.

Lastly, God saw the hatred of the brothers toward Joseph, and chose Joseph to save his family.  Joseph received two dreams that did not take a great interpreter of dreams to interpret.  Each dream depicted the brothers all bowing down to Joseph.  This seems to be the last straw.  The ten brothers (minus little Benjamin) lie to their father about Joseph being killed by a wild beast, when they had sold him to slave-traders on their way to Egypt.  Okay, we can give Reuben a pass on this one, so the nine brothers.

Let us note that God will use the envy of these older brothers to position Joseph exactly where he needs to be in order to save his family from a famine that will come later.

God had a plan and a purpose for every one of them.  However, God blessed Joseph even though it came with a lot of heartache.  Stephen emphasizes that God was with Joseph and gave him favor.  It sounds so spiritual and awesome.  But remember, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers.  Imagine the sense of rejection that went deep into his heart.  Imagine watching the hills as you are drug into Egypt, hoping that your father will come to rescue you.  Yet, it never happened.  These things stung and did not feel like the favor of God.

It started to get better when he was purchased by Potiphar.  God blesses him and he is put in charge of the whole household.  Then, Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of trying to rape her.  Joseph is thrown into the royal prison.  There he interprets dreams for Pharoah’s baker and butler.  He asks the butler to remember him when he is restored, and yet, the butler forgets about him for several more years.

Psalm 105:19 gives us an interesting commentary on this situation. “Until the time that his word came to pass, the Word of the LORD tested him.”  Sometimes, we romanticize the idea of God being with us and calling us to great things.  We may imagine a few things going wrong, but then they will be quickly fixed when we pray.  However, the patriarchs and the prophets went through many difficult things, even though they were truly blessed and called by God. 

Can we trust God?  Can we believe that He is working all things to the good for us, and for others?  It takes a long time, but Joseph eventually ends up as second only to Pharaoh, in charge of storing up the grain of Egypt for the coming seven years of famine.  This was all because God gave Pharaoh a dream about seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.  God also gave Joseph the interpretation of the dream.  This greatly impressed Pharaoh. 

Yes, the good times had come, but it was through much pain and sorrow.  Would my faith in God survive such experience?  I pray that it would, just like Joseph’s faith in God persevered to the end.

Stephen then reminds us that the famine was severe enough that it affected Jacob’s family in Canaan.  Jacob then sends the ten brothers down to Egypt to buy grain, which sets up an interesting interaction.

The ten brothers do not recognize Joseph in his Egyptian garb, years later, and not expecting him to be 2^nd in command of Egypt.  Joseph then tests them to see if they have treated his younger brother, Benjamin, in a manner comparable to how they had treated him.

It is clear to Joseph that the brothers are sorry for their treatment of him, and have not harmed Benjamin.  He reveals himself to them and has his family brought into Egypt to live without fear of the famine.  Joseph would care for them.

This raises a question.  Why would Jacob go into Egypt knowing that God had told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land?  In Genesis 46:3, God tells Jacob not to be afraid to go down to Egypt.  God promised to bring his offspring back to the land of Canaan and give them possession of it.  Jacob was able to move to Egypt because he had learned to trust God, even when it might lead to a difficult experience.

Again, Stephen is using the history of Israel and its patriarchs to highlight the importance of faith in God, versus resisting the Holy Spirit.  How important it is to surrender our lives to God.  Of course, we pray for God to help us and deliver us, but we are content with any development because we know that He is always working it towards a good end.  Yet, every generation of Israel had people who resisted the Holy Spirit, just as we have today.

May we hear what God is saying to His Church today, here in these united States of America.  Too many Christians are resisting the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We need to learn to let go of the tradition of men that we have been taught, and cling to the Word of God that we can see with our eyes, and the Spirit of God Whom we can know intimately if we seek Him with all of our heart.  Let’s seek him today!

Defense II