God's Power to Save

Thank you, Brianne, for reading our sermon text today. Happy New Year, everyone. Happy New Year, everyone. We are at the end of the year. It's a good time to evaluate. How have I lived my life? It's the beginning of the year. What kind of change do I need to have in my life? We normally walk through books of the Bible, so as we gather Sunday and every Sunday after Sunday, we take a book and we seek to hear what God has to say throughout that book. So we're in the middle of Acts, as you just heard. On certain occasions, like Christmas and Easter, the Christian calendar, we'll take a break from those books, but today is not one of those days. And if we were to take a break and think, what is a New Year's passage? I'm pretty sure this isn't the one we would choose. Who wants to have the New Year's resolution that this year I want to be falsely accused? Siri has run amok among us. This year, who wanted the resolution to say, this year I want to be falsely accused, called to respond with boldness, and then stoned for the faithfulness? However, if we actually look at what is being addressed in this passage, it's something that really needs to challenge us all every single day. There's something here that really is a resolution that we need to think about every day, and it's this. How do I hinder my worship by trying to control God and limit Him with my idolatry? This passage is about worship. It's contrasting true worship of the true holy God with idolatry. A desire to try to control and limit and tame God. This is the primary point of the passage. The Israelites, those who are in charge of the temple, those who are bringing charges against Stephen, they're upset because he is causing problems with their created form of worship. He is hindering their desire of preference. So the challenge for us this morning is this. Are we in control of how we worship and when we worship? Is our worship marked by obedience or preference? You see, as we look at the passage, we're going to see that obedient worship results in seeing the glory of God. When we focus on our preference of worship, we end up being casual and comfortable in our relationship with the God as we wish. Something we have to realize about ourselves. We are consumers. Just think about that. We think like consumers. We see different things and we say, well, I like this and I don't like that. I'm going to take this and I'm not going to take that. When it comes to worship, we don't get to approach it that way. What God says is true. What God says is authoritative. So this morning, instead of Happy New Year, really the greeting we all need to have is, He's risen. He's risen. Jesus Christ has been crushed for our iniquity. He's risen from the grave. He now leads us into a true and better worship. We must follow Him. The majority of our text is in Acts 7. This is the first sermon not preached by Peter in Acts. This is the longest sermon we have recorded in Acts. We see the first martyr. It's Stephen, who is one of the men who had just been chosen to serve tables. And this is a turning point in Acts. It's significant, and that's why I want us to go all the way to chapter 8, verse 3. It's a significant turning point because, as Jesus told them, you're going to be in Judea, and then you're going to go up to Samaria, then you're going to the ends of the earth. This is the turning point where they're going to go out from Judea. God uses this event to move the church, to scatter them, to spread the fame of Christ everywhere. It's a long text, as you heard, so let me just kind of break it down as simply as I can to help us kind of wrap our head around what's going on. The sermon, this text, it has a beginning and an end and a middle. The beginning is chapter 6, verse 8 through 7, 1. That's the context, it's the circumstances. Stephen is challenged because he's preaching Christ. There's an end. That's chapter 7, verse 54 through 8, 3. That is Stephen being stoned for proclaiming the truth about Jesus Christ. In the middle, there is a long sermon. Now what Stephen should have been giving at this point is a long defense. He should be defending his actions, but instead he gives them a history lesson. Those who have been entrusted with the oracles of God, he gives them a history lesson. And so tonight, or today, we actually get to trace the finger of God throughout history. He starts with Abraham, the first man called by promise who became a pilgrim. He then goes to Joseph, The one who goes down into Egypt as one of the brothers of the sons of Israel. He then turns to Moses. The one who goes on his own pilgrimage into Midian and then comes back to Egypt to redeem God's people out of slavery. And then Joshua, the one who leads Israel back into the promised land. And history ends with Solomon building a temple. So it's a history lesson. Here's what God's been doing throughout history. His people have always been pilgrims. There's also a theological lesson. As I hope you'll see, verse 48 is a climactic point of the sermon. He's helping them to see, don't you understand that the God who created all the things that we have with his hands, he doesn't dwell in a house that we made with our hands. It's bigger than that. We do not tame or control God with a place. There's another theological lesson that needs to penetrate our hearts. The pattern of the people that God gave his word to was to reject him. They're pilgriming people, and they're people who regularly have rejected God and his leaders. These are two themes that intertwine. God is not bound to a particular place. His people are pilgrims. And Israel has a pattern of resisting and rejecting God. Let's get into the text. Chapter 6, beginning in verse 8. We see Stephen here described full of grace and power. I believe Luke is wanting to connect Stephen in that what he's doing here is apostle-like. He's not an apostle. He did not witness the ministry of Jesus Christ, as far as we know. But what we see here is he's doing the same things the apostles are doing. He's being bold in proclamation. He's performing wonders and signs. And he's drawing a crowd of agitators. The freedmen, these are most likely Jews who were formerly slaves of Rome. We don't know these other groups necessarily and exactly who they are. But they all come and they challenge Stephen. They challenge him in what he's proclaiming and what he's doing. And look at verse 10. But they could not withstand his wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. This is fulfilling what Jesus Christ told the apostles. When you're challenged publicly, I'm going to give you my Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is going to give you wisdom, and they will not be able to stand against you. So those who had tried to challenge Stephen, they couldn't beat him, and so verse 11, they do what's next. They tried to stir up others. Look at verse 11. They secretly instigated men. We've heard him speak blasphemous things against Moses and God, and he's spoken against the holy place and the law. We've heard that he said Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place. challenge the customs that Moses has delivered to us. The instigators, they're trying to twist Stephen's words because most likely Stephen is saying something similar to this. The temple was temporary as a place of worship. Moses was a prophet that had authority, but now the one who was promised to be like Moses and better than Moses, he has come. Notice verse 15. There's this wonderful biblical irony. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was the face of an angel. Most likely what's taking place is that his face turns to a light of glory. Who else's face turned to a light of glory in scripture? The one they're saying is challenging Moses, he actually ends up appearing like Moses, because he's giving the same message Moses gave. Somebody's gonna come after. There's somebody who's coming after Moses who's going to be full of grace, full of power, Jesus Christ, the Savior. They challenge him, they continue to withstand him. And here we have Stephen, he's going to respond. The high priest asks, are these things so? Stephen addresses them. He begins with Abraham. He addresses them in a kind way. Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Moses when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Iran. Notice here, Stephen, he's not going to give a defense. He's going to give a history lesson. He's going to focus on the different stages of God's plan where he first got up Moses, the first receiver of the promise. The first one who's called out. The first man to receive the promise. You can go back and look at Genesis 12 and look at this. He's the first one to receive the command, go out. from your land. He takes Moses out of his security, away from his family, puts him into a new place and says, here's the promised land. But here's the thing, the promised land, I'm going to not let your people settle here yet. I'm going to take them out of here. The point is that you will be sojourners. Look at verse 6. God spoke to this fact that his offspring would be sojourners. They're a pilgriming people. Then Moses receives a sign of circumcision to remind him what God has said is true. Now, Stephen begins with Abraham and this is important because Abraham is important. Now I need to back up here for a second. To say Abraham is important is an understatement. This is the first man to receive the promise of this kind that's going to begin to set apart the people from which God is going to bring the Savior. What God has done right here with Abraham is say, here's the bloodline, here's the race, here's the nation from which the one Savior is going to come. It's the beginning of God resolving the problem that we have, and that is that we reject God. That's why that declaration of Jesus in John 8 is so important. It's not having a bloodline connected to Abraham that saves you. It's having faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, the Savior, from that bloodline that saves you. It's His blood, Jesus Christ, that washes us. If you're not a believer this morning, that's what you need to hear. We all reject God. And God has been making promises to restore us from that rejection. And God has sent His own Son so that that blood could be shed that could actually forgive us and wash us and restore us. We cannot boast in who we are, where we've come from, or what we've done. We can only boast in the blood of Jesus Christ. Moving quickly, because we have a lot of text, Abraham is the first one to receive the promise. Abraham had a son. His name was Isaac. That son had a son named Jacob. And Jacob had his name changed. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Jacob becomes Israel. Basic history of the Old Testament. Israel then had 12 sons. You're welcome for the illustration. One of those sons is Joseph. He's the 11th son. Ten of the other sons get jealous with him and sell him into slavery, which drags him down into Egypt, just as God did. Then God uses a famine, just as He planned, to bring all of Israel into Egypt so that they would have food, so that they would have water, so that they would have protection, so that they would multiply. Seventy-five go down, a multitude comes out. It's an amazing story here how God uses the evil of the patriarchs to take His people into a land so that they will multiply and grow. So God takes Abraham out of his own land, puts him in the promised land, God sends Joseph and the rest of Israel out of that promised land and into Egypt, and then we come to the longest section of the sermon of Stephen, Moses. First, 17 through 22, we see how Egypt tried to stop the Israelites from multiplying so fast. They were committing infanticide. They were wanting to kill all the firstborn sons of Israel. And Moses was one of those, but God saved Moses. He saved him out of that evil plan. And then we see in verse 22, he was mighty in words and deeds. God has called him, saved him, and equipped him for a mighty work. And what is that? Well, 23 through 34 is a second stage of Moses' life. Moses is not without his problems. He has his own controversy. He sees two of his own kinsmen being abused, and he strikes an Egyptian and kills him. He comes back out, he sees two of his kinsmen arguing, and he tries to intercede, and he's accused of murder. And so he has his own sojourn. He flees into Midian. And God calls him out by having this burning bush, says, take off your sandals, I am the holy God, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, verse 32. Verse 34 is the most significant verse. Let's look at what it says. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt. Notice the emphasis on the action. I've heard. I've seen. I'm coming. This is not the way my people are supposed to live. I'm coming to deliver them. I'm sending you. So Moses goes back, verse 35. There's a lot more to the story. You should read it in Exodus. And this Moses whom they rejected, Who made you ruler and judge? Well, God did. They reject Moses, therefore they're rejecting God. They reject Moses, and remember, as we walked through this a few years ago, as we walked through Exodus, at every step of the way, every time it got harder, Israel would say, Moses, stop. We'd rather have the comforts of slavery than to be redeemed by the holy God. At the Red Sea, where there are not enough graves, Moses, they don't trust God. And then we have the climactic idolatry, the rejection of God, recited in verse 41. This is an amazing scene. Moses is on top of the mountain. God has his thunder and lightning so that his holiness is demonstrated. Moses is up there receiving instruction for how to worship the Israelites. They get tired of waiting. So they start making a calf out of the gold God gave them from Egypt. They decide they're going to make something with their own hands and they're going to rejoice in it. This is idolatry. This is saying we don't like that holy God who is fearful, that we're afraid of approaching. We don't like the holy God who's taking too long to tell us instructions on how to worship him. We're going to figure out how to do it with our own hands. You know the saddest part of that golden calf is they name it Yahweh and they give him credit for saving them out of Egypt. This is how Israel continually rejects God. 42 and 43 mention how He's going to discipline them more later, by sending them into Babylon. But here we see the sad, and quite frankly, this has to be a scary story for us. They're called to live by faith and follow Him. These folks, they saw the miracles. They saw the different plagues. They saw how God completely destroyed the greatest nation at that time. They saw how God, in the midst of them being challenged and attacked at the Red Sea, part of the waters, they heard God's thundering holiness, and they still rejected Him. They continue to say, it would have been better if we just stayed in Egypt. The problem These Israelites have, that he's referring to back in Moses, in Moses' time, the same problem the Israelites have in the book of Acts. They want to worship God in a way that makes them feel most comfortable. That they want to have a special privileged position that still puts them in control of how they're going to worship. Next, verse 44, we go to Joshua. And it's important to see here, it starts with Abraham. Abraham's the first one called. He goes into a new land. Joseph takes him into Egypt. Moses takes him out of Egypt, not back into the promised land. That's where Joshua comes in. Joshua is the one who actually takes Israel back into the promised land. And there they remove the other nations. And then we jump ahead quickly to David, verse 45. who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. Verse 47, but it was Solomon who built a house for God. We see here how he's walked through the significant history of God calling people out, taking them to Egypt, bringing them back to the promised land, and it's all focused here at the temple. Verse 47, 48, this is the turning point of the entire sermon. We need to realize the weight of this. He's just talked about the golden calf. Now he brings in the temple. And notice what he says at verse 47. It was Solomon who built a house for him. Verse 48. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands. He's correcting them. You see, if he had entered the sermon at verse 47, he wouldn't have gotten stoned. He would have said, yeah, exactly. All of worship ends right here at the temple. This is the high point of worship. Solomon built a temple, here we are, we're at the temple. This is where God dwells. No. God gave you permission. God gave Solomon permission to build that house. But this is not where God dwells. These four walls are not limiting to what God is doing in history and you're missing the point if you think the temple is the end and ultimate worship. Joshua is confronting them for how they have turned the temple into a golden calf. They have taken that good thing from God where he said, I'll meet you here. I'll meet you here. He doesn't dwell there. He can't be contained by something our hands built. The problem is Israel wants to say, we built this house, God dwells here, we have some control over God. He's our God, He's not their God. Verse 48, He doesn't dwell in houses made by hands. Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? What is the place of my rest? Did not my hands make all things? When you see here, idolaters, they take God's good gifts and they mess them up. We change what God does for our own well-being. Verse 40 is this great climactic ending that puts his finger right on the problem. The Israelites think they have control over God because they have him in their temple. Now notice, in case they haven't gotten the point yet, Stephen gets very pointed. You stiff-necked people. You don't bow down and worship. You don't have the posture of deference and humility. You're stiff-necked. You refuse, you resist, you reject. You uncircumcise in hardened ears. You're hardened. You don't listen. You're not receiving the Word of God. You always resist the Holy Spirit. That's strong language. In marriage counseling, I always say, avoid using the words always and never. Typically it's someone in trouble, because it's rarely always and never, but here it's clear. You always, You're always rejecting God. You have a hard heart. You have a stiff neck. You're not listening. You're not following the Holy Spirit. You're opposed to the Holy Spirit. Further, as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, Jesus Christ. whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels, you didn't keep it. Notice those final words there in verse 53. There's two great blessings that the nation of Israel has. One, they're going to be the bloodline and the race from which the Savior comes. There's a huge blessing and a benefit and a privilege of the holy people of the nation of Israel the ethnic people of Israel The second one is this they've been given the oracles of God What a blessing they have been given the oracles of God that is a blessing and a gift. It's a privilege And it was their responsibility to It is a blessing and a privilege to have the Word of God. It is our responsibility to keep it. We can never take for granted that wonderful gift that we have. Everyone in front of, everyone has one in front of you or in your hand. What a privilege it is to have the words of God. So that we can know Him. We can know what He expects. We can know how He desires we worship. We can know how He designed us to worship. We don't have to be creative. We can be faithful. It's our responsibility to keep these words. Receiving God's Word is a privilege. Keeping it is our responsibility. Let's look at their response. Verse 53. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged. If they were given the Holy Spirit, they would have responded in a different way, but they only have their sin that resists and rejects God. They're enraged, and they ground their teeth at them. It's a physical demonstration of hatred of God. You can see it. Listen to the contrast. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit. Now some of you are new, I want to remind you, Luke uses words for sight to draw our attention to important moments in Acts. This is an important moment in Acts. But Stephen, who's not enraged, who's on trial under false accusation, but has just proclaimed the great clarity of the gospel, he being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven, and he saw the glory of God. And Jesus, God's Son, standing at the right hand of God. Stephen's reward for faithful, obedient worship is that he saw the glory of God. Stephen's reward. Stephen now gets to see the glory of God because he's been worshiping God according to what God has said. And he gets to see Jesus. And notice here, Jesus is standing. He's standing as a judge because Stephen is not being judged for his own sake. Stephen's being judged on account of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is standing as a judge who is going to have righteous and just vengeance. That's why Stephen's not scared. He is not scared in the midst of suffering. He's not scared in the midst of this persecution. He's not scared to lose his life because the one he has placed his faith in is at the right hand of God and he's standing saying, justice is mine, Stephen. Trust me. I have come to my father. I've made a place for you. Come home. I will have vengeance. The other thing that's interesting here is remember what Stephen preached. Heaven is God's throne in verse 49. Here, Jesus is confirming for him that that message is true. Where is God? He's not in the temple, is he? He's in the heaven. The heavens have been opened up, and so it's now confirmed what Stephen is declaring is true. God's glory is in the heavens. Jesus is at his right hand in the heavens. They crowd with a loud voice, stop their ears, and rush to gather at him. Verse 58, we see the introduction of Saul. Verse 59, and as they were stoning Stephen, he called out. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And falling to his knees, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he said this, he fell asleep. Stephen's just like his master, isn't he? As Jesus was on the cross, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Stephen is a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. He's obedient. He sounds just like Jesus because he's trusted Jesus and he obeys Jesus. In the midst of what we would consider the worst possible moment, being stoned to death, he's saying, God, the great God of grace who saved me, be gracious. The consequence of this, there arose a great day. The church is scattered. This is a turning point in Acts. This is a great turning point in Acts because the first man has died in proclaiming Christ. And now we're going to go from Judea, we're going to go out to Samaria. We're going to see an Ethiopian saved soon. The nations are going to come to Christ. We're going to see the Gentiles coming to Christ. God uses this to show God is in heaven. God desires all people from all over the earth to come and worship him. He's not just worried about this one nation and this one people. That's what this introduction of Saul, who we're gonna see radically transformed in just a few weeks. While I had many applications, I want to focus on only one application. I believe what we need to be challenged with today is the sin that is highlighted the most in this passage, God's people worship with obedience. That the sin that's highlighted is that we too often worship rejecting God. We're actually gonna call that idolatry. We are too often wrapped up in our idolatry, and idolatry is being challenged first and foremost in this passage. God's people worship with obedience. And the first thing we need to see here is that the folks who are attacking Stephen, They were sincere. Having something sincerely felt or believed doesn't make it worship. These are very sincere, zealous men. That doesn't make it real worship. What they've done is they've rejected God's word and they've preferred their customs. Stephen is truly worshiping because he's heard God, he's believed God, he's kept his word. Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. The problem with Israel as they were being delivered from Egypt, they didn't love God, and we know that because they did not keep his commandments. The problem with Israel and Mount Sinai is that they did not love God because they did not keep his commandments. The problem with the Israelites who are zealous about Moses and zealous for the temple, those are good things that God gave us. is that they do not love God because they have not kept His commandments. Our problem is that we do not love God when we do not keep His commandments. What's amazing is that God doesn't love us when we love Him. God doesn't love us because we love Him, is a better way of saying it. God's love is in no way dependent upon our loving Him. God simply says, I'm going to love you, and that's a commitment He makes and He keeps. And when God says He loves you, He's going to send His Son to die for you, to wash away your sin, to wash away your filth, and then He's gonna rise again and give you new life. And God never stops loving His people. And He never stops calling us to repent of our sin and repent of our idolatry and to come to more faithful worship because that's when we get to experience more of His love. What we see here is that the Israelites, they did not hear, they did not believe, they didn't obey. So what I want us to challenge us today as we think about our own lives is how do we keep ourselves from idolatry? How do we keep ourselves from idolatry? Because this is what our hearts naturally do. A great theologian described our hearts as idol factories. We so easily take something that God gave us that's good and then we twist it for our own purposes. See, idolatry is using God to get what we desire. Worship is desiring to use all He has given us to delight in Him. Those are very important definitions. Idolatry is using God to get what we desire. Think about your prayer life. God, I really think I need this this year. God, I love you, and so you should give me these desires. Worship is this. Worship is desiring to use all He has given us to delight in Him. That prayer says, God, thank you. Thank you for this gift. How can I use it for your glory? Our false worship is not making images of our own hands. We're way more progressive than that in our idolatry. Our idolatry is insisting that what we think has to be approved by God. Our idolatry is insisting that what God should give us is what we deserve. Our idolatry is telling God when, where, and how He can speak into our lives. Our idolatry is telling God, no, you can't say that to me. This is an area of my life you cannot speak to. Idolatry is seeking to tame God so we can glorify our sin. Idolatry is seeking to tame God so we can glorify our sin. Worship seeks for our sin to be tamed so that we can glorify God. See, here's what we do, and I'm saying we. We treat our desires as if they're authoritative and inspired, and treat God's Word as if they're suggestions. Worship says when God speaks, it's authoritative and true, and it trumps whatever we might think to already be true. We sang a song earlier, In My Heart. Here I am to worship. There's a treason that poisoned all my love. There's something in my heart that constantly wants to twist what I have been given and to use it in a way that is not God-glorifying. Then here I am to worship, tie me to the cross. This is where I can find the forgiveness I need to fight against that sin. As we conclude, I want to address something that I've heard in, well, one time would be too many. Two times too many is too many this month for sure. Members of the church have come and they've come broken to talk to me. And they've said, I don't know if I should go to church someday. I don't want to defile the body. And that breaks my heart. And so I want to correct this here because I need to be very clear, a repentant brother or sister who's coming to confess sin and seek forgiveness and seek reconciliation, you're not defiling the body, you're an active member of the body who's actually helping us be the body. There are blemishes in the body, according to Jude. They're unrepentant sinners. There are those who call strife and quarreling and divisions. There are those who can be blemishes on what calls a love feast. But if you're coming broken, if you're coming broken, you're not being a blemish, you're coming. And God is saying, if you're broken, the table's set for me to show you how much I love you. If you're broken, I'm here to show you, you are my beloved child. I have committed to love you. My Son has died on the cross for your sins, to forgive you. I will restore you, reconcile you. If sin corrupts the body gathered, this room should be empty because none of us should be here. But we come as a broken people, believing in Jesus Christ, to rejoice together according to what he's commanded, that we're united in our faith in the one who loves us, forgives us, and frees us. So this morning, we're not making any New Year's resolutions. We're going to do what Christ commanded. We're going to look to the Lord's Supper, and we're going to hear, this is for those who believe in me. My body's been crushed for you. My blood has been poured for you. Consider the body, is what he says. How are you living in worship according to my word? How are you clinging to the cross for forgiveness? As we desire to live according to Christ's word, we will worship him. That's the beauty of it, folks. We will worship. When we worship according to Christ and His commandments, we get to see His glory. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for this long history lesson from Stephen that shows how your plan is sure, how your plan is perfect, how you have been working to a definite end, and that is our salvation for your glory. Father, forgive us. We're impatient. We don't like how long you take sometimes. Forgive us. We take your gifts and we don't glorify you with them. We don't thank you often enough. We don't cling to the cross. where we know our identity has been changed, where we know forgiveness is sure, where we know love is perfect. Father, help us to see that our sins have been removed as far as the east is from the west. Help us to see that there is now no guilt that hinders us and keeps us from you. We get to worship because Christ was slain and he is risen. Help us to rejoice in that. In His holy name we pray, amen.