Acts 7			“The Law and the Temple”				July 15, 2007


Some people have said that Stephen’s sermon calls attention to people who have stood out
	and have challenged the status quo (Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David),
	and so therefore we should challenge the status quo!

But that is not Stephen’s point.
	Stephen is not challenging anyone to change anything.
	What Stephen is saying to the Jews of Jerusalem in his day – 
		and therefore what we should hear Stephen proclaiming to us – 
		is that Jesus is the one who has challenged the status quo,
			and you need to follow him!

Stephen had been accused of teaching that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the temple
	and change the customs that Moses had established.
The temple and the law were at the heart of Jewish religion and culture.
	Everything revolved around them.
So these were serious charges.
	Stephen responds by retelling the story of Israel in a way 
       that shows how Israel’s story is a story waiting for a conclusion – 
and that Jesus is the conclusion to Israel’s story!

In your bulletin I’ve given you an outline of the passage 
       that may help you understand the structure of Stephen’s sermon.
 Stephen tells the story of Israel in terms of God’s promises
	and Israel’s failure to believe and obey God’s promises.

Stephen’s sermon alternates between reminders of God’s faithfulness to his promises,
		(the numbered sections of the outline),
	and reminders of Israel’s failures (the lettered sections of the outline).

1. Abraham and the Promise of God (7:2-8)
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham…
	The charge against Stephen was that he was challenging the temple and the law.
	In response he goes back before the temple and the law – back to the promise
		which God made to Abraham.

God had promised that while Abraham’s seed would be enslaved for four hundred years,
	yet he would give to Abraham’s offspring the land of Canaan.
And as a sign of this promise, he gave him “the covenant of circumcision.” (7:8)
	So the main focus of part one of Stephen’s sermon is the promise of the land.
	Verses 3-7 all focus the promise that while Abraham would not inherit the land,
		and his offspring would be enslaved for four hundred years,
			nonetheless Abraham’s seed would worship God in the land.

Throughout his sermon, Stephen chooses some things to emphasize and others to pass over.
	The speed with which he moves from Abraham to Joseph is instructive:
	And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day,
		and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

	Stephen wants to focus on Joseph and his brothers – 
		because this is the first clear instance of how Israel failed to believe God.

a. Joseph and the Jealousy of His Brothers (7:9-16)
And so in verses 9-16 he retells the story of Joseph.
	Joseph’s brothers were jealous and so they sold him into Egypt.
	The focus of the story remains on the promise of the land:
		Egypt is named six times in seven verses – 
		in other words, Israel is headed in the wrong direction – out of the land!
	But God delivered the patriarchs in spite of their jealousy and betrayal of Joseph – 
		indeed, it was not only in spite of their jealousy, but through their jealousy!

	God uses even the rebellion of Israel for their own salvation.
	
And so this section ends with Jacob buried in the tomb of Abraham,
	as a sign of hope – Israel has a future!

2. Moses and the Time of the Promise (7:17-22)
Verses 17-22 then starts a second cycle.
	Now the time of the promise is drawing near.
	God had told Abraham that he would bring his people out of Egypt –
		and now God was bringing this to pass.
	So Stephen recounts the episode of the Pharaoh who did not know Joseph,
		and how Pharaoh’s wickedness was undone by his own daughter!
	Stephen uses the word “exposed” to refer to the slaughter of the children.
	In Exodus 1 Pharaoh commands the Egyptians to cast the sons of Israel into the Nile.
	The practice in the Roman world was to expose female infants,
		 but allow sons to live.
	So Stephen uses a term that would have been quite familiar to his hearers.
	
b. Moses and the Failure of Israel to Understand (7:23-29)
The time of the promise was drawing near – 
	but Stephen points out that even at the beginning of Israel’s redemption,
	Israel did not understand.
And in verses 23-29 we hear of the first episode of Israel’s unbelief.

While we do not know how Moses knew that he was a Hebrew,
	plainly he did.
And Moses also had some sense of his calling.
	He supposed that his brothers would understand 
        that God was giving them salvation by his hand, 
        but they did not understand.
In one sense this obscure episode in Exodus 2 might seem minor,
	but Stephen uses it to point out that even before the Exodus,
	Israel did not understand what God was doing in redemptive history.

God is constantly doing surprising things – unexpected things – 
	so why are you surprised at what God has done in Jesus?


3. Moses and the Fulfillment of the Promise (7:30-34)
Verses 30-34 then recount the calling of Moses at Mount Sinai.
	The time had come for the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
	I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them.
	And now come, I will send you to Egypt.

c. Moses and the Refusal of Israel to Obey (7:35-43)
Stephen speeds through the history of the Exodus, focusing on Israel’s refusal to listen to Moses
	in verses 35-43.
This Moses, whom they rejected, saying ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’
	--this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer 
        by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 
This man led them out, performing wonders and signs 
        in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

Stephen highlights the similarities between Moses and Jesus,
	even reminding them that 
		This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,
			God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
	Moses told you that another prophet would arise who would be “like” Moses.
	So why are you surprised when what Moses said would happen actually happens?

But then again, Stephen points out that what happened to Jesus happened to Moses first:
	He received living oracles to give to us.
	Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, 
        and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron, 
        ‘Make for us gods who will go before us.’

In verses 41-43 Stephen draws parallels between the wilderness and the era of the Kings:
	First, he refers to the golden calf (v41),
		and then points out that God gave them over to worship the host of heaven (v42),
		but then cites Amos 5:25-27,
			which also connects the wilderness rebellion 
       with the rebellion of Israel in the days of the Kings.
	Aaron had made a golden calf in the wilderness.
	Then Jeroboam made golden calves at Bethel and Dan after the days of Solomon.
	The result in both cases was destruction, exile, and death.
		The first was 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 
       where the whole wilderness generation died.
		The second was the exile of the Northern Kingdom –
			an exile that in Stephen’s day still existed – 
			since the Samaritans were the descendants of Jeroboam’s kingdom.
	Indeed, it will only be in Acts 8 – the very next chapter –
		that the Samaritans will be restored to the people of God.

But remember the charge:
	Stephen had been accused of speaking against the temple.
	Stephen is not helping himself here.
		After all, he is hinting (and in a few minutes he will be more explicit)
			that the Jews in Jerusalem are no different from Israel in the wilderness,
			or the calf-worshiping Israelites of Jeroboam’s day!
	

4. David and Solomon and the House of God (7:44-50)
But before he gets there,
	Stephen recounts one final step in Israel’s history.
	In the first section, he spoke of the promise to Abraham.
	In the second two sections, he spoke of the fulfillment of that promise through Moses.
	Now in his final section he speaks explicitly of the tabernacle and temple.

You see, Stephen’s sermon is all about the temple.
	The promise of the land was a promise of a place where God would meet with his people:
		Verse 7 – “they shall come out and worship me in this place.”
	The whole story that Stephen is telling 
       is a story of how God is preparing a place where he can meet with his people.
	And the rebellion of Israel is their failure to understand – and their failure to worship.

Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, 
        just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, 
        according to the pattern that he had seen.
Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua 
        when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.
So it was until the days of David, 
        who found favor in the sight of God 
        and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says:
	Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
	What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
		or what is the place of my rest?
	Did not my hand make all these things? (44-50)

So Stephen says that God’s promise was a place where the Seed of Abraham could worship him.
And God gave Moses a pattern – which was brought to earthly perfection by Solomon –
	but even Solomon’s temple cannot be viewed as the ultimate dwelling place of God.

So far, Stephen would have had all the best Jewish theologians on his side.
	When Stephen quotes Isaiah 66 “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool” 
		he would have heard Saul of Tarsus saying, “Amen, preach it brother!”
	The Jews all agreed that the temple was simply the place where God’s name dwelt.
	They all knew very well that God himself does not dwell in houses made by hands!

There is really nothing in Stephen’s sermon so far that would have been objectionable!
	

d. You Murdered the Righteous One! (7:51-53)
But each recounting of Israel’s history 
	has been echoed with a recounting of Israel’s rebellion.
And Stephen concludes the last thousand years of Israel’s history in verses 51-53
	with a comment on Israel’s rebellion in his own day:

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.
	Stephen had earlier reminded them of the covenant of circumcision.
	Circumcision was given to Abraham as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith 
       (Rom 4:11).
	Stephen says that his hearers may have been circumcised outwardly,
		but they lack Abraham’s faith.
	Their hearts and ears are not circumcised.

Even as the history of Israel has found its fulfillment in Jesus,
	so also the history of the rebellion of Israel has found its fulfillment.

As your fathers did, so do you!
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute?
And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One,
	whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
	you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it!

Stephen has demonstrated the pattern:
	God’s redeemers and prophets have always been persecuted by their own people,
		from Joseph and Moses through the Prophets.
	Whenever God does something new in redemptive history
		it is always the religious leaders who oppose it!

It will not do to accuse Stephen of speaking against the temple and the customs of Moses,
	because in their own day, the law and the temple were the new thing that God was doing.

Conclusion: The Son of Man Standing at the Right Hand of God
Today we face a bewildering array of religious options.
	Everyone is telling us about the “new thing” that God is doing.
	
I remember one speaker saying that the greatest revival in the history of the church
	was just around the corner,
	and that we needed to orient our whole lives and ministries around it.

I don’t know if the greatest revival in the history of the church is just around the corner or not!

But I do know that whether it comes or not,
       I am not supposed to orient my life and ministry around it.

Because Stephen offers me a far grander vision!
	When faced with the opposition and rage of the council,
		Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God,
			and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

We’ve been watching the Holy Spirit throughout the book of Acts.
	Whenever the Holy Spirit shows up, people begin to testify of Jesus.
Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit.
	And by the power of the Holy Spirit Stephen sees what all of us should long to see:
		Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
	And by the power of the Holy Spirit Stephen speaks to us of what he saw:
		Behold, I see the heavens opened,
			and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

You see, this is the new work of God.
	It may have happened nearly 2,000 years ago,
		but it is still just as new and fresh 
       as it was that day when Stephen gazed into heaven.
	Stephen’s point is that the earthly temple 
       is not the point.
	So any movement, any teaching, any message 
       that tries to get you to focus on some earthly agenda,
       	is not the message of the kingdom of God!

The message of Stephen is that Jesus stands at the right hand of the Father.
	Now this is a message with immense implications for all earthly life!
	Because all earthly life is now to be lived in the light of the glory of God 
       revealed in the face of Jesus.
	As that same Saul of Tarsus who witnessed Stephen’s death will say years later:
		If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
			where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
		Set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth.
		For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3)

Your identity—your purpose—your meaning in life is all bound up with this Jesus.

And that is what we see demonstrated before us in the baptism of Sydney Tienne Oosterhoff today…
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