Stephen’s Speech, Part 2
Download MP3Would open your Bibles to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7, where, we're gonna be looking at once again, Stephen's speech before he is martyred and rather than read through the entire speech that we did last week, we're just gonna look at the last I'm just gonna read the last few verses. So, we'll begin chapter 7 verse 54. Now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him. But he full of the holy spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Joel Brooks:And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of, out of the city and stoned him. And the witness lay down the garment garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Joel Brooks:And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep and Saul approved of his execution. Pray with me. Lord, I pray that what we have just seen and Steven, read and Steven, what we have just sang about will be true for us, that we will rise someday and go to Jesus, where you will embrace us in your arms. Lord, may that be our goal, our future hope.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I ask that you would come in this moment that you would speak clearly from this powerful text. Do not allow me to muddy the waters. Do not let me get in the way, but through your spirit, speak with boldness and clarity and change lives. Lord, I pray that the message that was worth living for and the message that was worth dying for would be presented in such a clear and powerful way that we could not help, but bow before you. So Lord, in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away.
Joel Brooks:The Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. One of my heroes of the faith is a man named, Jim Elliott. He was a missionary, before he was killed, trying to reach the very people, by the people who he was trying to reach.
Joel Brooks:In college, I read through, a book that detailed through his life. Some of you are familiar with it. It was written by his wife, Elizabeth Elliott, called Through Gates of Splendor. It tells of the life of him and his friends as they tried to reach the Auca Indians in Ecuador. And so this day that that book has had a profound impact on me.
Joel Brooks:If, if we had had a boy, we would have named our boy Elliot after Jim Elliot. He's known for a number of famous quotes. If you read through his journals, it's like poetry. One of his quotes will actually sing at the end of the service. It is, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
Joel Brooks:And I remember just chewing on that quote when I was in college and and another one of my favorite quotes of his that is not as well known is this, make sure when it comes time to die, all you have to do is die. Make sure when it comes time to die, all you have to do is die. And, and and I want to live like that. I want to live in such a way that when it comes for my time to die, I don't have to do anything else. There's there's no person I need to pick up the phone and talk to.
Joel Brooks:There's there's nobody I need to see. There's no other things I need to do. There's no other sins that I need to confess. There's no other things I need to And Stephen is a great model of this. As we saw last week, there's when Stephen woke up that morning, he had no idea that later that day he would be stoned to death.
Joel Brooks:He had no idea that's what awaited him. Yet, you see, when his time came, he embraced it. He had no fear and he had zero hesitation. As a matter of fact, he could have easily gotten out of this moment if he had just shut up. But he refused and he gives the longest speech that he would have recorded in the book of Acts.
Joel Brooks:I mean, nobody would have faulted Stephen if he had been quiet because speaking was not his job. He was to wait on tables. The apostles, their job was to speak and to minister, to minister the word. So Stephen was not expected to be a preacher. And yet this man stood up and, and opposed this fear opposition against him.
Joel Brooks:And he boldly proclaimed the gospel and it cost him his life. He was so full of the spirit that he could not remain quiet when this opportunity presented himself. I love the last verse of chapter 6. Gonna look back there. The last verse in chapter 6 and talking about the people who are persecuting him.
Joel Brooks:And it says, and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like that of an angel. Hey, Steve has just been accused of some, of some serious crimes. And false witnesses have been brought forward to testify against him. And yet you look at his countenance. It's like that of an angel.
Joel Brooks:And this is such an odd detail to include in a story like this. This must have really stood out to the people who are watching this. We know that Luke is the one who wrote, he wrote Luke and he wrote acts and he was, he was using eyewitness testimony to record this down. And so it's likely that he got this story and this information from Paul. Because he and Paul later, as we'll see in acts, are going to spend a whole lot of time together.
Joel Brooks:And we know that Paul was there watching this moment. And so I think the apostle Paul at this point, pre converted Paul as he's looking and he's approving on this death and he's looking at Stephen, he sees that blasted face shining. The face of an angel, and he always remembers that. I think that's one of the reasons we have that written here. And you've probably seen that face and a number of Christians, maybe that you know, some spirit filled Christians, they, they have that glow, that radiance, they look angelic.
Joel Brooks:And this this glow is just basically the glow of Jesus all over them that is not dependent upon their circumstance. It doesn't matter if they got up, had a bad hair day, you know, or they or they didn't get the sleep they wanted, or if, they're struggling financially, that doesn't matter. They have this glow in this radiance. I mean, Steven here is on trial for his life and he's beaming, beaming. I mean, it reminds me I've done, I've done a whole lot of weddings over the years, and I have never seen an ugly bride.
Joel Brooks:I have seen ugly dresses. I, I have seen ugly hairdos. I've seen ugly things happen in a wedding, but I've never seen an ugly bride. Because when the bride comes forward and he look it's, there's this glow of absolute, just love radiating from them. And I don't, I don't care what the bride looked like before on that day.
Joel Brooks:They are beautiful. I think you see the same thing here with Stephen. He is, his love for Jesus is, is so deep and passionate. He is the face of an angel. And everyone around noticed.
Joel Brooks:And so, when he begins his defense and he begins preaching this sermon for his life, he's beaming with joy as he gives this message. And when I hear Stephen give his defense, I'm, I'm reminded of these words and Peter, in first Peter chapter 3, he says this, he says, In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord is holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. We're to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Now in this there is a huge assumption made by Peter.
Joel Brooks:It's an enormous assumption. Peter is assuming that you will so treasure Christ, you will so see him as holy in your heart, that this will radiate in such a way that people will begin asking you. What? How do you have such hope? He's assuming people will ask you because of the way you live.
Joel Brooks:And that's a huge assumption. When is the last time you have been asked for the reason for the hope you have? Or have you ever been? Perhaps the reason we are not asked to give an answer for the hope we have is because maybe we are hoping in the same things as the world around us. Perhaps your hope is really not different than the hope of your coworker or your neighbor.
Joel Brooks:And listen to you, you can go to church every single week. You can go to every Beth Moore Bible study there is. You can serve at the homeless shelter every time it is open, and yet you can still share the exact same hope as the world. Okay? Your hope might not be very different from the deeply moral and religious people around you who don't know Jesus.
Joel Brooks:That's what we see here. Stephen here was killed because he attacked the hope of the religious establishment. They had put their hope in the law and their ability to keep it. That was their hope. They had put their hope in the works of their hands, that they could do good works, that they would somehow in the end, there, you know, when their life was weighed out there, there was enough good works to get them into heaven.
Joel Brooks:They had obeyed the law just enough and that was their hope. Stephen speaks against that. He's not a man full of law. He was described earlier as a man full of grace. And last week we saw how Stephen was accused of 2 things.
Joel Brooks:We looked at one last week, how he was accused of destroying the temple, which we said there might have been, or speaking against the temple. And we we said there might have been a little truth to that. This week, we're gonna look at his other accusation, which was, he was accused of speaking against the law and there was no truth in that. Stephen did not at all speak against the law. Stephen understood the law and he understood that no one stands righteous before God because of the law.
Joel Brooks:The law was, was not given as, as steps that we must do in order to reach up to God. That's, that was not the purpose of the law. The law was there to show us our sinfulness and our need for a savior. And he understood that. And to try to to be saved through the law is nothing more than idolatry.
Joel Brooks:And that's what he preaches in this sermon. He carefully crafts this sermon to show that if you are following the law, you are an idolater. Look at chapter 7 verse 38. He says this, this is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with your fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
Joel Brooks:That's the law. 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. And for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
Joel Brooks:So Stephen, he goes back to Moses. He goes back to the time when the law was given in order to demonstrate that from the very beginning, people did not understand the law. I mean, it's astounding. When, when Moses is given the 10 commandments. He left the people down at the base of the mountain for just a bit as he goes to receive the 10 commandments.
Joel Brooks:Just for a little while, he goes up there and God's already delivered the Israelites. He's already done the 10 plagues. He's already parted the Red Sea. He's already brought Moses up to the top of the mountain where there's smoke, there's earthquakes, there's fire. He's obviously doing something up there, and yet even in that time, they say, you know what we need?
Joel Brooks:We need an idol. You know, that's what we need. Let's do something with our hands, so we could bow down to it. Calvin's right when he says that the human heart is a factory for idols. And so that's why Stephen is points out clearly says, they made a calf in those days and they offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
Joel Brooks:And from the very beginning, man has placed their hope and their salvation and what they can do. Stephen moves from Moses to their present day and he says, you know what? Things have not changed any. You guys are still rejoicing at the works of your hands. Exhibit B, the temple.
Joel Brooks:Look at the temple. He drives his sermon home in in verse 48. He says, yet the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me?
Joel Brooks:Says the Lord. And what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things? Stephen is saying, you've turned the temple into another golden calf. It's it's once again, you're placing your hopes, You're placing your salvation in something you've made, and you're celebrating it.
Joel Brooks:God's got I mean, he's gotta be up there thinking, you know, really? Really? Instead of worshiping me, you're you're gonna throw some gold together and and what what is that, a calf? You're gonna bow down to a calf instead of me? You probably guess the temple is like, granted, it's a little bit bigger, it's a little bit better, but come on.
Joel Brooks:It's a building. Worship me. We're not that different though. We can't do anything, any work to earn our salvation. Don't think that, you know, because you go to church every week, Great sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:I know there's football games on right now. You're sacrificing that big sacrifice to be here. Maybe you give 10%, maybe you give 20%. Don't think that saves you. Don't think trying to live a good moral life can be your hope.
Joel Brooks:Before God, we can never rejoice in the work of our hands. What's, what's happening here is Stephen is accusing these people of self worship instead of God worship. When you worship the work of your hands, you're worshiping yourself. And that's not worship. The law was given not to make you trust in what you can do.
Joel Brooks:It was given to make you realize you can't do it and you trust in God. And so these deeply, we see these deeply religious people that Stephen is addressing. They have a much different view of the law than Steven. If you were to ask them, you know, if we if we were to interview them, say, tell me, you know, how are you doing in regards to the law? They would say, great, doing really well, you know, thanks for asking.
Joel Brooks:Yeah, I mean, haven't committed adultery this week, ever actually. I've not murdered anybody. Yeah. I haven't I haven't made an idol, bow down to it. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:I'm really, I'm keeping the 10 commandments. Thank you for asking. That that is what they would think. Because they think it's a work of their hands. It's just something that they could do, something they could check off.
Joel Brooks:But when Jesus taught about the law, he got to the heart of the issue. And so at Jesus's most famous sermon, the the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus walks through the 10 commandments and he says things like, you have heard it said that you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if you lust after a woman, you've committed adultery in your hearts. You see the command to not commit adultery is not about outward conformity. It's about what's going on in here.
Joel Brooks:And then you would go on and say, all right, you've, you've heard it said you shall not murder, But I tell you, if you're angry against your brother, you've committed murder in your heart. Even goes so far as to say, if you, if you just call somebody, Rocca, and Rocca might be translated stupid or fool in your Bible. And really it's the connotation of nobody. So if you look at somebody and think you're a nobody, you are beneath me. Jesus says, You're guilty enough to go to the fires of hell.
Joel Brooks:What God is after is your heart, not the outward conformity of murder. And Jesus is always pointing to the heart. And when we, he points to the heart, we realize that all of us are law breakers. All of us, nobody stands righteous. And actually we're not just law breakers, we're idolaters at the most fundamental level, anytime we break 1 of the 10 commandments, we are committing idolatry.
Joel Brooks:And so if you cheat on your taxes, yes, you are stealing. So you're breaking one of the commandments you're stealing, But at a more fundamental level, you're committing idolatry because that is what drove you to do it. An idol is anything that you base your life on, anything that you really depend on. And what it's saying is that money is your God. Money is what I need and therefore it results in stealing.
Joel Brooks:Or if you're at some social gathering and you're making chit chat with a stranger and, maybe exaggerate about the importance of your job. Or maybe you just kind of slightly exaggerate or, or lie, little white lie about maybe some well-to-do person you know or are friends with. What commandment did he break? Well, you broke lying. You shouldn't bear false witness, but but the sin underneath that sin is idolatry because it's what it's saying is, you're building your life on what other people think about you.
Joel Brooks:That's the most important thing is not what God thinks about you, but what other people think about you, and it drives you to lie. So you're worshiping an idol. And all of us are idolaters. We're all lie breaker or law breakers. We cannot trust the works of our hands to save us.
Joel Brooks:Even the very best, most righteous person you could think of is an idolater. Let me tell you what, when Steven is unpacking this, of anybody who should have realized this, it was the priest or the high priest who he's standing before. If anybody should realize that it should have been them. In Zechariah 3, if you wanna turn there, Zechariah 3 is the last vision we have in the old testament. And it's a vision that all the high priests would be very familiar with because it's a vision of a high priest.
Joel Brooks:And remember, in this day, the high priest is the holiest of the holiest people. The priests were holy, but then you have the high priest who's the holiest over all the the holy priests. So you have Zechariah's 2nd last book in the old testament. And in this vision, Zechariah is, is, he's given this vision where he sees the high priest who at the time's name was Joshua, who is standing before the presence of the Lord. Now, the only time in the old testament, the the only time anybody will ever stand before the presence of the Lord was on the day of atonement or Yom Kippur.
Joel Brooks:That was Israel's most sacred day. It was, it was the day that the Lord, the high priest would meet with the Lord and the Lord would remove their sins. He would postpone their judgment. So that was the day when they would meet or that the high priest would stand in the presence of God. So this vision is of this day.
Joel Brooks:Doctor. Albert Edersheim, who's a scholar on Jewish customs and ancient temple life. He's written a book where he describes a lot of the events that surround this day. And I just want to take some time to walk through all the priests preparation for this day. 7 days before the day of atonement, the high priest would leave his own house and he would go to the temple, and he would reside in a special chamber.
Joel Brooks:He would isolate himself for an entire week, make sure he did not come into contact with anything that could possibly defile him. He could not touch anything dead. He could not, touch a woman who was going through her period. He had to be completely isolated and ceremony pure. He would have all of his meals specially prepared and brought to him.
Joel Brooks:He would practice over and over and over all the sacrifices he had to make, all the prayers that he had to say for this huge day, because there could be no mistake. And he had all the elders and all the priests of Israel there at his disposal, where he could ask them for guidance, ask them if he had any questions, people who could direct him to make sure he got everything right. Because all of Israel is depending on him to get everything right. So we had to know the order of the sacrifices. He had to know every animal had to face in a certain direction before they were to be sacrificed.
Joel Brooks:So we had to know the direction they were to face. The exact words of every prayer. He had to know when to light the incense. How many times should he sprinkle the blood after this sacrifice? Is it 3 times?
Joel Brooks:Is it 7 times? Is it 10 times? Had to be perfect. He would actually, before the elders, he would take an oath, saying he promised to do everything exactly as prescribed and not to deviate from one detail. The night before the day of atonement, he was not to go to sleep, but he was to spend the entire evening in prayer and in confession and reading the scriptures.
Joel Brooks:And then at that, that first light at the day of atonement, the ceremonies would start. And by this time, you have to picture the temple's packed. You have hundreds of thousands of pilgrims coming into Jerusalem to be a part of this moment, to try and and watch this moment. You have all 18 to 20,000 priests at this time. They would have been there in attendance.
Joel Brooks:And you have all the hundreds of thousands packing around the temple to see if they can watch this as well. What's going on? And all these people would also spend their day fasting and praying and looking on and anxiousness to see if God would accept their representative before him. There would be that day, a total of 15 sacrifices. There would be 12 ordinary sacrifices, that were done often in the temple.
Joel Brooks:And then there would be 3 sacrifices particular to the day of atonement. 500 priests would surround the high priest at this time, all dressed in their attire, all assisting him. But when it came time for the sacrifices, the priest had to do them alone. Only him. For the normal sacrifices, he would wear his priestly clothes, which had a lot of gold on them.
Joel Brooks:And and after he made the sacrifice, he would take them off, he would wash his hands, and then he would put on a new outfit. When it was time to enter into the holy of holies, and make the sacrifices there, he would strip down completely and he would take a bath. And because he was representative of all the people, 100 of thousands of people wanted to watch him take a bath. And so they would put a screen around the bathtub where you could see his shadow, you could kind of get a glimpse of what was going on, although you couldn't quite see him clearly because he's your representative. It's gotta be perfect.
Joel Brooks:And so everybody is watching him. After bathing the high priest would he would not put on his priestly clothes this time. This time it would be nothing but pure white linen. There could not be a speck of dust on him at all. He was to be the emblem of perfect purity that day.
Joel Brooks:I mean, on this day, the high priest, so the holiest of the holy, could not get any more pure. And then after this he would enter the Holy of Holies for the very first time, and we we talked a little bit about this last week. There's a thick curtain that surrounds the room and he'd walk in and be dark and be filled with smoke. And the only thing you would kind of see is the the glowing embers of the the coal that's there. The only light in the room.
Joel Brooks:And the high priest would immediately throw incense on these coals. And so the whole room is filled with this really thick incense. Had to be hard to breathe. And here in the darkness, in the midst of the smoke, God's presence would come and meet him at the mercy seat. And so first thing he would do is make a sacrifice of atonement for his sins.
Joel Brooks:So he makes that sacrifice, then he has to leave. He leaves, he he bathes, dresses into a new linen outfit, and he comes back in. Then he makes a sacrifice of atonement for the priest And then he has to leave, undress, take a bath, put on more white linens, go back in. Before he makes a final sacrifice for the atonement of all the people. And it's in this scene here, in this holy of holies, that final sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:This is what Zechariah is seeing in his vision and what he sees here is horrifying. Look at verse 3. It says, Now Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. The word there is excrement. So so despite all this preparation, everything that's happened, the high priest is now before the Lord and he is covered with excrement.
Joel Brooks:And so as Zechariah is seeing this, he's got to be horrified. I mean, there there is no way that this could happen. A speck of dust should not be on him. This this guy should not even have a germ on him, let alone all of this covering him. And what's going on here is the Lord is allowing Zechariah for just a moment.
Joel Brooks:I want you to I want you to see how I see people at their best. The best works of their hands. This is your holiest of all your holy people. This is the priest of all your priests and all the preparation, and this is what he looks like when he comes before me because of the works of his hands. Do you see it?
Joel Brooks:It's gotta be horrifying. And then something else happens in verse 4. Says, and the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you and I will close you with pure vestments. So the Lord removes the the the these clothes that are covered with excrement and he he puts on his own pure white vestments.
Joel Brooks:And and then later he says, somebody called the branch is coming. And in verse 9 it says, when the branch comes, he will remove all of the sins from all of the land in one day. I mean, Zechariah would have been stunned because he knows the one thing you can't get rid of is sin. Every year you have to come before and you have to make another sacrifice, and the next year you have to make another sacrifice, and then another sacrifice has been going on for 100 and 100 of years. It never ends because you can't ever fully get rid of your sin.
Joel Brooks:But here it says it's going to be gone in a single day. And what Steven is getting at in his message is that this has happened through Jesus. Stephen's getting to this point in the very end of his sermon and he doesn't get to finish it. He doesn't get to finish it. But in the very last the very last sentence of his sermon, he lets us know where he's going because he says, you guys did not keep the law that you were given and you killed the righteous one or the only one who did.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is called the righteous one. At the end of the sermon, he did what neither you could do, what neither I could do, what none of the holy priest could do. He lived a perfect life and he kept the law outwardly and inwardly. And it's because of this, and it's through faith in him, and it's only through faith in him and his sacrificial death can we ever be declared righteous as well. That's our hope.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that, Joshua, the the high priest we see in Zechariah, that the word Joshua is the same and, in Hebrew, and in Aramaic, and in Greek. It's the same word for Jesus in all of those. And there's there's some similarities there. Jesus, also the week before the day of atonement, when he was to be killed, the night before he prepared himself by staying up all night and praying, preparing himself for that sacrifice. The similarities, they, they, they end there because Jesus didn't have crowds of people gathering around cheering him on.
Joel Brooks:Instead, all of Jesus's friends deserted him. Jesus didn't get to go have baths and a change of clothes. No, Jesus was stripped of his clothes and he was showered with spit as he went to this sacrifice. And Jesus did not receive the, the acceptance of his heavenly father. Instead, his father forsook him.
Joel Brooks:2nd Corinthians 521 says that, he who knew no sin was made to be sin. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. And this is what Stephen's fighting for here. So what he's preaching for you is saying that this, what we believe sets Christianity apart from every other religion. It sets it apart from what you priests are holding on to so dear.
Joel Brooks:Don't you see, our hope is not in what we do. Because the best that we do appears before God is filthy rags. Our hope is what Christ has done. And so we do not rejoice in the work of our hands. It's idolatry.
Joel Brooks:We rejoice in the work of Jesus, the righteous one. This is the message that Steven lived for us. The message he died for. Let me tell you, it is the message that will set you free to live what we see as that normal, radical life for Jesus that Stephen lived. You know, the real reason more and more, I've just, I've just read this text.
Joel Brooks:You just see the real reason that Stephen had such peace and joy as he is being put on trial, is because he realized that he has already had the ultimate trial. The trial, and he has already been declared righteous through Jesus. And now that he has gone through that trial, who really cares? Who really cares? Now, the only thing that stands between him and eternal joy is just a through, just a few rocks.
Joel Brooks:And he looks up and he sees a son of man standing at the right hand of God, ready to greet him and welcome him into glory. Pray with me. Father god, in this moment through your spirit, show us our idols. Show us the things we hold on to so dearly. The works of our hands, expose them.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray that we would fully trust in the sacrificial death of Jesus, the righteous one. And God, may we see this as a message worth living for and a message worth dying for. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, our present and our coming king. Amen.
