A Shot to the Temple

In boxing and ultimate fighting, there is nothing as devastating as a shot to the temple.  A well-placed punch to the side of the forehead usually crumples your opponent into unconscious heap.  

Knock out.  Lights out.  

Here, Stephen concludes his testimony before the ruling Jewish council with a shot to the temple (Acts 7:44-53).  He reminds the Sanhedrin of their misplaced worship of the man-made temple.  

It was a knockout punch.

Stephen wraps up his Spirit-filled, sermon-on-the-fly before the Sanhedrin.  He's walked through the OT describing how Almighty God worked in and through an unending parade of misfits, murderers and malcontents to bring about salvation through Messiah Jesus (Acts 7:2-43).

They have originally charged Steve with slandering and blaspheming God, Moses, and the holy temple (Acts 6:11-14).  The high priest demanded that he answer these charges (i.e. "How do you plead?").  

Finally, in these verses, the church's soon-to-be first martyr answers his accusers.

Stephen once again reminds the council of the history of the temple.  He recalls, "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness" (v44).  

Before the temple was the tabernacle.  Instead of a brick and mortar building, God camped in a tent among His people.  This was just the way He wanted it (Ex 25:8-9, 40).  

He commanded Moses EXACTLY how to put together this one of a kind, portable sanctuary-on-the-go.  God's Tent contained the Ark of the Covenant, the great reminder of God's everlasting promise to His people.

Moses built the tabernacle because God told Him to.  This is God at work.

Steve goes on to remind the Sanhedrin of the critical role the tabernacle played as God's people came rolling into the Promised Land.  

Joshua was God's handpicked successor to Moses.  He led the charge into this land of milk and honey.  

Notice the specific phrasing of the sentence.  "They dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers" (v45).  

The children of Israel played an active role, but it is God who drove out those living in the land (Josh 18:1; 23:9).

Just as God instructed Moses to build His tent, He also was the One who drove out the enemies of His people as they conquered the land.

Next, Steve recalls "the days of David" (v45-46).  He reminds his hostile audience that the great king was nothing until God showered him with grace.  

The phrase "found favor in the sight of God" can just as easily be translated as David "found grace in the sight of God."  That’s because the Greek word translated here is χαρις/charis, which can mean grace, kindness, mercy, goodwill, favor.  

God used King David only because He blessed him.  David did nothing on his own.  This no doubt includes the gracious promise the Lord made to David that one day his Descendant would sit on the throne of Israel forever (2Sam 7).  

That's what scholars call the Davidic Covenant.  Jesus is that direct Descendant and the fulfillment of that promise.

So let's recap.  God was the One who commanded Moses to build the tabernacle.  God was the One who drove out Israel's enemies in the Promised Land.  God was the One who placed David under His waterfall of blessing.  See a trend?

King David badly wanted to build Yahweh a permanent temple.  Instead, God chose his son Solomon for the project (v47).  The Scripture goes into great detail about this massive undertaking (1Ki 6; 8:17-21; 1Chr 22:7-10).

There's just one problem about temple building.  "The Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands" (v48).  

Solomon understood this irony of constructing a man-made temple for an uncontainable God.  

"Who is able to build Him a house, since heaven, even cannot contain Him?  Who am I to build a house for Him, except as a place to make offerings before Him?" (2Chr 2:6).

Stephen understood what Solomon did.  The temple might be great, but God is greater!  

He quotes Isaiah 66:1-2, where God Himself mocks the idea of trying to limit His presence to brick and mortar.  This is the same thing that Jesus shared with the Samaritan woman.  

Christ Himself announces that the time "is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth," not in any kind of a building (Jn 4:21-24).

Stephen finishes his sermon by swinging haymakers.  He accuses his accusers of being "stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit" (v51).  POW!!  

He says they have rejected God just like their fathers before them.  Israel was following in their fathers' sinful footsteps.  BANG!!

Stephen said that their fathers made sure they persecuted every prophet that God sent (v52).  They killed every last one of God's messengers who had announced "the coming of the Righteous One."  They batted 1.000.  CRUNCH!!

Steve has them on the ropes and goes for the knockout.  He finishes this wicked (and TRUTHFUL!) combination by accusing them of murdering Messiah.  KAPOW!!!!!!!

A shot to the temple.  From a standpoint of salvation, the Sanhedrin was out cold.  Stone cold.  All thanks to Stephen's Spirit-filled shot to the temple.

©2011

Jay Jennings 

The Big Mo

 Full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen continues to use his trial before the Sanhedrin as a God given opportunity to tell them that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah (Acts 7:17-44).  

He has told the council how Almighty God sovereignly used goofballs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs and Joseph as players in His divine plan of salvation.

Don't miss two VERY important points.  First, the Old Testament is about Jesus.  All of it.  Second, God is the Hero of the story.  Not the human agents he uses.

Stephen then tells the very familiar story of Moses.  He reminds the council how the clock counted down to "the time of the promise" (v17).  

This is the promise God made to Abraham (Acts 7:5; Gen 17:8; 48:4), what we now call the Abrahamic Covenant.  

As the second hand moves closer to God's fulfillment of His covenant, something amazing happens.  "The people increased and multiplied in Egypt” (v17).  God’s chosen people explode in number.  

Again, this was all part of God's promise to Abe.  The Israelites apparently grew from about 76 people (Acts 7:14) to upwards of a million in their 430 years in Egypt.

There was one big problem for God's people.  There was a new king in town, one "who did not know Joseph" (v18).  This new monarch saw these people as a threat and decided to do a little ethnic cleansing (v19).

This was the scene into which Moses was born.  "And he was beautiful in God's sight” (v20).  Did you know that our heavenly Dad sees each follower of Jesus the very same way?

Steve describes the amazing story of God's hand on this Prince of Egypt.  Set afloat on the Nile to avoid infanticide.  Rescued by Pharaoh's daughter and raised in royalty (v21).  As a result, the Big Mo has life by the tail.  

That will soon change.  At age 40, Moses murders an Egyptian slave driver for abusing an Israelite (v24).  He believed this was the first step in his liberation of his native people (v25).  

But instead of hailing Moses as the leader of the rebellion, the Israelites saw him as a killer (v27-28).  The would-be liberator turned fugitive and headed to Midian (v29).

Fast forward 40 years and we see Moses stumbling onto a burning bush (v30-31).  It turned out to be God's angel (probably pre-incarnate Christ).  

The voice from the flame states, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob" (v32).  

God Himself has heard the cries of His people in Egypt, "and I have come down to deliver them" (v34).  And He's going to use Moses to do it!  

Once again, God uses jacked up people in jaw-dropping ways.  Moses is in a long line of losers the Lord loves.  

This is what Paul meant when he wrote, "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1Cor 1:27-30).  

Remember, God is the Hero of the story.  Not the Big Mo.

God uses this not-so-mighty Mo as "ruler and redeemer" to His people (v35).  Stephen tells how Moses performed "wonders and signs" just like the apostles in the early church (v36).  

Moses is what theologians call a "type" of Christ.  He exhibits certain characteristics, qualities and behaviors that give us a hint of the One who is to come.  

Moses himself says, "God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers" (v37; Dt 18:15).  Scripture clearly tells us that Mo is talking about Jesus.

After God uses Moses to lead His people from bondage, the Israelites then stun their leader with one of the most ridiculous moments of mutiny in all of history (v38-41).  

While Mo was on the mountain with God receiving the "living oracles" (God's Word is truly living and active according to Hebrews 4:12), they molded a golden cow and began to worship it.  

Stephen describes God's reaction to their rebellion.  It is frightening.  "But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven" (v42).  

This same God was with Joseph (Acts 7:9) rejects the people He graciously chose.  And when He "gave them over” (v42), this is an example of what is called the Passive Wrath of God.  

That means the Lord doesn't punish them directly.  He allows them to suffer the consequences of their disobedience.  This is His way of letting them have their way.  It's God's use of boundaries.

Steve then quotes the prophet Amos.  Through Amos, God warns His people that their rejection and idolatry will have dire consequences.  

"I will send you into exile beyond Babylon” (v42-43; Am 5:25-27).  In other words, He will actively punish them if they continue in their rebellion.  

We have seen how our gracious God has used a series of messed up men in His plan of salvation.  

Now the very people He has chosen and through whom He will raise up His Messiah have fully rejected Him.  His chastisement of them is for their own good.  And ultimately, it is for our good.  

Stephen tells the council that just as they have rejected Jesus, the people rejected God.  He is the Hero of the story. 

©2011

Jay Jennings

An Average Joe

Stephen continues his amazing sermon before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:9-16.  The high priest has basically asked him how he pleads to the charge of blasphemy (Acts 7:1).  

Instead of answering the question, Steve begins by flipping open the Bible and proving to the council that Jesus is indeed the long-awaited Messiah that God promised throughout the Old Testament.  

In other words, Steve says the entire OT is about Jesus!

We must not get sidetracked when we study the OT.  These are not a series of moral stories about great men and women who are to be emulated.  Not at all.  They are not the heroes of the story.  

This is God's story!  He is the Hero!  Through the OT, He shows us how He consistently does amazing things through the lives of jacked up, stiff necked, sinful people.  

God is the Hero of the story! 

Steve first tells the story of how God graciously interacted with Abraham, his son Isaac, grandson Jacob and his great grandchildren, "the twelve patriarchs" (Acts 7:2-8).  

Again, don’t take the bait and see these men as great examples.  This is messed up bunch that God graciously used.  

Abraham lied about his wife to save his own skin, not once, but twice.  Isaac was the head of horribly dysfunctional family.  Jacob was a conniving backstabber who schemes to get his brother's birthright.

At this point, I would strongly encourage a reading of Genesis 37, 39-49.  This is the story of Joseph that Steve is about to relate.

This leads us to the twelve patriarchs.  Surely the dozen sons of Jacob were the pillars upon which the nation of Israel stands.  These twelve men are so famous and respected that the twelve tribes take their names from them.  

But there's just one problem with all of that.  It's not true.  Jake's boys put the funk in dysfunction.  These so-called twelve patriarchs are probably better understood as the Dirty Dozen.  

Stephen tells us that "the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt" (v9).  Not exactly the behavior you'd expect from the founding fathers of your faith.

The reason this shouldn't surprise us is that the twelve patriarchs aren't the heroes of the story.  And neither is their brother Joseph.  

Sure, he is less culpable but he's brought some of this on himself with all this immature talk that his brothers and parents would bow down before him (Gen 37:6-11).  Talk about a cocky kid brother!

Joseph is just, well, an average Joe.  There's just one thing different about the boy.  "But God was with him" (v9).  An average Joe accompanied by our awesome Jehovah.  God's great big hand is strongly on little Joe as he rolls into Egypt.  

The presence of God in someone’s life means nothing but lifestyles of the rich and famous, right?  Wrong.  

It’s not long before Joe is wrongly convicted of raping his boss’ wife and tossed into prison for decades.  But he was able to stand strong because "God was with him” (v9).

Joe didn't use any great skill or wisdom to break out of prison.  Nope.  This was God at work.  

Don't forget, God is the Hero of Joe's story.  It's God that "rescued him out of all his afflictions" (v10).  

But this amazing comeback story of our average Joe doesn't stop there.  God then "gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt” (v10).  From the prison cell to the throne room.  Talk about a turnaround!

God eventually places Joseph as number two in authority of the Egyptian government under Pharaoh.  Our sovereign Lord then brings Joe's family to town looking for food during a famine.  Eventually, Jacob and the entire fam pack up and move to Egypt.

God is not only the Hero of average Joe's story, He's the Hero of the Old Testament.  He's the Hero of the entire Bible.  And He's the Hero of my story.  Hopefully, He's the Hero of your story.        

The story of Joseph reminds us that any average Joe that God chooses to use will do great things.  Because He is the Hero of the story.

©2011

Jay Jennings

Stephen Goes into OT

 If you're a sports fan, you know that overtime is crunch time.  OT is where it all happens.  It's at the end of the game where victory is decided.  

In the Bible, the OT is certainly crunch time and where victory is decided.  But there's one big difference, the OT (Old Testament) comes FIRST.

Here Stephen goes into the OT to explain to the Sanhedrin that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah that God has promised (Acts 7:1-8).  He walks through the OT to show them that all of God's interaction with their forefathers was all about Jesus.

We must never forget that the Old Testament is NOT about great heroes.  It's NOT about wonderful examples of morality.  

There is only one Hero of the story in the OT.  Jesus.  The OT is part of a grand narrative about Christ.  The OT is filled with shadows, types, promises and prophecies about Jesus.  

Some call it the Meta Narrative.  That simply means the Big Story.  

Whatever we read in the OT, we must see in light of Jesus.  We must read it in light of how God uses an endless list of sinful, jacked up people to fulfill His promise of salvation through His Son.

The OT is crunch time.  The OT is where the game is decided.  The only difference is that in the Bible, the OT happens FIRST!

 

Stephen's Jewish enemies drag him before the ruling council.  The proceedings begin with the high priest asking our man Steve, "Are these things so?" (v1).  This is the equivalent of the judge asking the defendant, "How do you plead?"

Well, Steve doesn't exactly answer his question.  Rather, he uses it as an opportunity to preach a sermon.  He basicly opens the Old Testament to its first book and begins walking through God's story, explaining that Jesus is Messiah.  

This is a reminder that we must "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1Pet 3:15).  

Are you and I ready?  We need to be.  Maybe not to preach a sermon, but to share the good news of Jesus.

Let's remember how Luke describes Stephen.  The apostles appointed him for service along with six other dudes (Acts 6:5).  These men were to be "men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom" (Acts 6:3).  

Steve shows that he’s "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5).  Once he starts serving, he’s "full of grace and power" as well as "doing great wonders and signs" (Acts 6:8).  

When the Jewish leaders confront him and try to debate him, they’re frustrated by his "wisdom and the Spirit" (Acts 6:10).  No wonder.  With God’s Spirit giving him the words and wisdom, they don’t stand a chance.

The only way they could ever beat Stephen was to cheat.  Just like they did with Jesus, his opponents cook up people willing to commit perjury in order to get him out of the picture (Acts 6:11-13).

Stephen begins his impromptu message by flipping back to the opening pages of the OT.  He tells his Jewish brethren how "the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham" (v2).

Let's be clear about one thing.  Steve is NOT sharing a series of stories about characters from the OT.  He's sharing ONE story about GOD!  

Watch how the One moving the story along, the One making everything happen is actually Almighty God.  He's the One appearing (v2), calling, showing (v3), removing (v4), giving, promising (v5), speaking (v6), judging and afflicting (v7).  

Stephen walks his listeners through the story of Abraham in Genesis (Gen 12:1-4; 17:7-8; 48:4; 15:13-14; 17:10-14).  

This is a not-so-subtle reminder that the first book of the Bible is not a story full of legends and fairy tales.  

It is history.  Or rather His Story.  It is the beginning of the story of God's gracious interaction with His creation.

Heroes are made in OT.  And God is THE Hero of the OT.   

©2011

Jay Jennings