The Call Of Abraham Series

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM

Text: Acts 7:1-8

Introduction

1. How many of us remember the old Sunday school song “Father Abraham?” The song goes like this “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. So, let’s just praise the Lord!”

2. Abraham is known as the “Father of Faith,” and the Israelites were proud of being his descendants. Unfortunately, they did not follow in his footsteps.

3. This speech by Stephen before the high council points out that the nation of Israel was nothing like Abraham.

4. Read Acts 7:1-8.

Proposition: We are Abraham’s children only if we obey God in faith like he did.

Transition: The first thing we learn about Abraham is…

I. A Call of Obedience (1-3).

A. Our Ancestor Abraham

1. This chapter is a speech given by Stephen before the high council.

a. It is the first speech by a non-apostle and the longest recorded speech in the Book of Acts.

b. Although it is seen as Stephen’s defense before the council, it is an accusation of Israel’s lack of faith and disobedience toward God.

2. It begins with, “Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?”

a. The high priest at this time was Caiaphas, who was also the man who had questioned and condemned Jesus and had also questioned the apostles.

b. Here he gives Stephen an opportunity to answer the accusations that were brought against him.

3. Luke tells us in vv. 2-3, “This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. 3 God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’”

a. Stephen begins by showing the relationship between Israel and God.

b. Of course, the relationship between God and Israel begins with Abraham.

c. He says, “our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham.”

d. Whenever we see a reference to “our glorious God” it is always an indication that God appeared to someone in all his glory.

e. So, God appeared to Abraham in all his heavenly majesty.

f. Here’s the thing, God didn’t appear to him in the promised land, rather he appeared to him in a Mesopotamia which was a pagan land.

g. The Jews of Jesus, and now Stephen’s day believed that God only speaks to them in the land of Israel.

h. Stephen’s point here is that God is not just the God of the Jews, and God can be worshipped in other places than Jerusalem.

i. Jesus came not just for the Jews but for the entire world.

4. Next, Stephen talks about Abraham’s obedience toward God. God told him to leave his home and his family to go to a land I’ll show you.

a. Now I’d like to think that if God told us to leave and go somewhere else we would do it, but we would want to ask the Lord, “so where am I going?”

b. However, Abraham didn’t do that, he just got up and went.

c. It says in Gen. 12:4, “So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.”

d. The idea here is that Abraham didn’t question God, he simply obeyed.

e. Notice something else, he was 75 years old! He was no spring chicken when God asked him to do what he was asking. But Abraham never questions God, he just obeys.

f. The point that Stephen is making is that the Jews were so proud of being descendants of Abraham, but they were nothing like him.

g. He obeyed, even when he didn’t understand, but they were stubborn and hard-hearted.

h. He even sent them the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus, but they rejected and crucified him.

B. Living in Obedience

1. "One word stands out from all others as the key to knowing God, to having His peace and assurance in your life--it is obedience." (Eric Liddell)

a. Elisabeth Elliot tells the story of when she and her brother Tom were small children. Their mother would let Tom play with paper bags that she had saved if he put them away afterwards. One day she walked into the kitchen to find them strewn all over the floor.

b. Tom was in another room at the piano with his father singing hymns. When their mother called him to the kitchen to tidy up, he protested, "But Mum, I want to sing Jesus loves me this I know."

c. His father, seated next to him, backed up the boys' mother by saying: "It's no good singing God's praise if you're disobedient. To obey is better than sacrifice." (From a sermon by Gordon Curley, In his father's footsteps, 11/18/2010)