Stephen’s Powerful Sermon

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 22 May 2016

As we come into Acts 7, Stephen is on trial before the Supreme Court of Israel. He stands all alone without a lawyer on his side to defend himself against these four charges of blasphemy. But, he’s not content to only defend himself; he will accuse them. He will indict the Sanhedrin of Israel and it will cost him his life.

The church has been proclaiming that Christ is alive, is the Messiah and is the Savior. And now this knowledge has spread beyond Jesus and beyond 11 apostles throughout the city. It is literally everywhere in Jerusalem, and they have used the temple as their meeting place. The Jews have tried repeatedly to silence these Christians. They have done everything, and now they will kill for that.

But Stephen sees this trial as an opportunity to stand before the highest religious leader’s body in Israel, the Sanhedrin, and speak the truth to them. And then to turn the tables and indict them as the real blasphemers. So, when speaking to Jews, he started with the Old Testament. He builds his entire defense and indictment from Old Testament history.

Stephen defends himself in four categories: God, Moses, the law, and the temple. So, in the opening part of the Acts 7:2, he says, “Hear me, brothers and fathers,” he calls God “the God of glory.” He describes God having appeared to Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, and he goes through the history of God promising Abraham land and a people all through the Abrahamic covenant.

And he reminds them that even their early fathers rejected the leader that God gave them. They rejected Joseph, who was given to them as God’s leader. And thus, the true blasphemers of that era were the forefathers themselves who rejected Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery and even later came and rejected him again. The history of rejection is very much a part of Israel’s forefather’s history.

So in verse 17, as “the time of the promise was approaching.” Coming to the end of the 400 years, that designated time, it is time now to enter the Promised Land. The patriarchs have all died. This is consistent with Hebrews 11:13, “All these died in faith without receiving the promise.” But it was now time for God to bring His promise to pass. They have become a massive community of people, and they pose a serious threat.

“There arose,” verse 18 says, “another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.” He didn’t know how great Joseph was, what an incredible leader he was, what an honorable man he was. And so, he decided to turn them into slaves because he was afraid they would be a threat. Alarmed at the size of them, he used every deceptive means to destroy them.

Verse 19, “It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they wouldn’t survive.” Pharaoh decided the best thing to do to slow their growth down is to murder all their babies. Exodus 1 gives all of this information. Exodus 1:22. “Every son that is born you shall cast into the Nile river.”

But God had another plan. Verses 20-23, “At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God's sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father's house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.”

So when Moses was approaching the age of 40, God moved in his heart. He knew his origins. Moses’ sister had arranged for him to be nursed by his own mother, who certainly made sure he knew about the true God of Israel and where he really came from and who he really belonged to. And now at age 40 he remembers the plight of his people who are being abused by the Pharaoh.

Verse 24, “And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.” In fact, Moses not only killed him; he buried him in the sand. Here was a defender of Israel offering himself as a deliverer to Israel, to alleviate their pain and suffering, and to aid them in their distress. But that was not their reaction.

Verse 25, “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.” So it was the Israel people who didn’t understand God. They have rebelled against God. They have killed the deliverers that God sent to them. They rejected Joseph the first time, and they reject Moses the first time, just as they rejected Jesus the first time. So the charge that he is a blasphemer of Moses was absurd.

And then he turns the table again and indicts Israel of old for doing the very same thing they did with Joseph, being a rejecter of God’s deliverers. Verse 26, “And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers, why do you wrong each other?’” He’s a true deliverer. This is all you could ask out of a leader: somebody who can defeat and bury the enemy and bring peace. But look at their response.

Verse 27-28, “But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’” This is a slave pushing away Moses. Moses is rejected. He had saved a life. He had come as a peacemaker but he is confronted like a criminal. Obviously, he would’ve rather have kept that silent. That’s why he buried the body. Now, it was his own people, who were broadcasting the reality. Moses had no choice.

So in verse 29, “At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.” They didn’t want him as a deliverer. They didn’t want him as a peacemaker. Stephen’s point is this: Israel always is the rejecter. Israel is the blasphemer. Israel again rejects God’s anointed deliverer just as they did in the case of Joseph. And leads up that they rejected the righteous one in verse 51. So Moses leaves and 40 years go by.

Verse 30, “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.” That’s why there were a total of 430 years by the time it was all over. Israel blasphemed Moses, and therefore blasphemed God so, redemption was postponed another 40 years. What had Moses been doing for those 40 years? Well, he met a daughter of Jethro and her name was Zipporah. He married her and he had a family there. And an angel came to him in this occasion of the burning bush in Exodus 3 and re-commissioned him.

“When Moses saw it,” verse 31-34, “he was amazed at the sight; and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 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 come now, I will send you to Egypt.’”

God is always faithful and He will rescue His people. And that place was holy because God was there. Stephen says in verse 35, “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.” They rejected Joseph the first time and he came the second time as the deliverer. They rejected Moses and he came the second time as the deliverer. They rejected Christ the first time and He will return again as the Deliverer.

Verse 36, “This man, Moses, led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years.” Stephen has shown the Jews that they had a consistent pattern of rejecting God’s deliverers. They were priding themselves on their great love of their historic leaders, but their fathers had rejected both Joseph and Moses outright. And Stephen lays the weight of rejection on them.

Verse 37, “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.” They all knew that was a messianic prophecy from Deuteronomy 18:15. Moses was a deliverer from among his own people; so was Jesus. Moses came down from a palace to a role of a slave to rescue slaves; so did Jesus. Moses offered himself and was rejected; so did Jesus.

Moses came back a second time to redeem his people and lead them to the Promised Land, and Jesus will do the same. Stephen, as a believer in Jesus Christ, gave more honor to Moses than anybody did. Stephen answers then, the charge of blasphemy of Moses. He gives accolades to Moses, honor and respect to Moses. But most importantly, he believes in the one of whom Moses spoke.

The third charge was that he was a blasphemer of the law. After they left Egypt, after Moses led them out through the Red Sea, into the wilderness for 40 years, it was there that Moses received the law. Verse 38, “This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.” This was Exodus 19.

What is an oracle? It is a statement from God. Why is it living? Because Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The law that came to Moses on Sinai was a spiritual revelation from heaven. Stephen understood that God is the author, angels are the mediators and Moses was the recipient.

He is saying that the Pentateuch is written by Moses through inspiration, and the truth all comes from God. It is God’s law and it is alive and powerful. He is not a blasphemer of the law. And here comes the indictment of them again in verse 39-40, “Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt. 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

Our forefathers were unwilling to be obedient to Moses, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt. Do they not remember that God parted the sea and drowned the entire Egyptian army? Moses is barely up in the mountain, and they have already forgotten him, and they want to go back to their idolatry. Who are the real blasphemers? It is the people who are disobedient, who turned their hearts toward Egypt.

It was there at the foot of Sinai that they began their idolatrous history. They showed how much they cared for divine law. What did the law command? Exodus 20:3, “You shall have no other Gods before me.” And what did they do? Verse 41, “And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.”

Verse 42, “But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?” Verse 43 sums it up, “You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.”

And finally he answers the indictment that he blasphemed the temple. Starting in verses 44-47, “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. 45 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, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.”

Verse 48, “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says.” And he quotes Isaiah 66:1-2 in verses 49-50, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is the footstool of My feet; what kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord, ‘Or what place is there for My rest? Was it not My hand which made all these things?’”

By the time that Stephen was facing the council, they worshipped the building and not God. Temples are always temporary. First there was a tent, and then there was Solomon’s temple, and then there was Zerubbabel’s temple and then Herod’s temple was built and after it was cursed by Jesus it was soon destroyed. So, Stephen ends up indicting them for having executed the Messiah.

Verse 51-53, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

If a first generation preacher like Stephen, who’s been a believer in Jesus Christ for only a few months, can preach with that kind of courage, may the Lord release on this generation a myriad of Stephens. The new covenant is not Judaism, it is new. God is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, anywhere, by everyone and at any time. Let us pray.