God's Truth: Still Fresh after Four Thousand Years
Acts 7:1-8
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - Sept. 15, 2013
BACKGROUND:
*In Acts 6-8, God gives us the story of a Christian named Stephen. This New Testament believer was one of the heroes of the early church. Stephen was chosen to be one of the first deacons. Acts 6:3 tells us that these men were "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom." They had a tremendous impact for the Kingdom of God.
*Acts 6:7-8 gives this report:
7. Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
8. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
*For these reasons, Stephen was arrested by the religious rulers in Jerusalem, and put on trial for his life before the "Council" or "Sanhedrin." It was the Supreme Court of Israel, but it was a kangaroo court in this case. Acts 6:13-14 reports that these corrupt judges:
13. . . also set up false witnesses who said, "This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
14. for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.''
*Stephen was falsely and illegally accused of blasphemy. But here in Acts 7, he began to make a remarkable defense for the cause of Jesus Christ.
*The High Court thought that Stephen was the only person on trial that day, but by His Holy Spirit, God spoke through Stephen to put that Court on trial. The stinging indictment from God comes down near the end of chapter 7. But Stephen began his defense by giving those religious experts a history lesson on the nation of Israel.
*With this background in mind, would you please stand in honor of God's Word, as we read Acts 7:1-8:
1. Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?''
2. And he said, "Men and brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3. and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'
4. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
6. But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would sojourn in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.
7. 'And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.'
8. Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs."
INTRODUCTION:
*There is no doubt that Stephen was a great hero of our faith, and greatly to be admired. But does his trial have a message for us today? The answer is certainly yes.
1. And tonight's Scripture speaks to us first about godly wisdom.
*As Stephen began to give those religious experts a history lesson on the nation of Israel, he reminds us that we can never go wrong by following the Lord. This is the godly wisdom we need.
*The charges against Stephen had just been laid out, and starting in vs. 1:
1. Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?''
2. And he said, "Men and brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3. and said to him, 'Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.'
4. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell."
*Sometimes we wonder what the Lord wants us to do, but He will give us the wisdom we need. And sometimes we have to wait on His guidance, but the Lord will guide us. And on the most important issues of life, the Lord will guide us as clearly as He guided Abraham in vs. 3: "Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you."
*We can trust the Lord to guide us too. And we always need to follow the advice Christ's mother gave to the servant in John 2:5: "Whatever Jesus tells you to do, do it."
*For most of us, life is like it was for Abraham in vs. 4. He started on his journey of following the Lord, but got less than halfway before he stopped. Please listen to it again in vs. 4: "Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell."
*For most believers, progress in our walk with Christ is also a stop-and-start thing. Sometimes it's one step forward and two steps back. But it doesn't have to be that way! May God help us to get in the fast lane of following Jesus! The road may be difficult at times, but we will never be sorry for following the Lord.
*Robert Tuttle once heard this testimony from a young doctor: "Several years ago, I felt that I wanted to be a Christian. I prayed and told Christ that I needed him, and he could have my life, but with this and this and this reservation. Nothing happened. I was so miserable that I went back to Christ, and I said, 'Okay, Christ, you can have all of me but one thing: I won't preach on the street.' Again, nothing happened. In despair, I went back a final time and said, 'All right, Christ, I can't live without you, I hold nothing back. I'll even preach on the street.'"
*Then with joy that young doctor said: "It came! It came! New life surged into me. By grace, I became more than an efficient technician in medical skills. Now, I could minister healing to the whole person. It was a new life; a new practice of medicine. And you know," he said, "that has been six years ago. And Christ hasn't asked me to preach on the street yet." (1)
*Jesus may never ask him to preach on the street. But even if the Lord does call that doctor to preach on the street, we can never go wrong by following God. That's the lesson of Godly wisdom.
2. But this Scripture also speaks to us about God's world.
*We sing, "This Is My Father's World," and it surely is. As David said in Psalm 24:1-2:
1. . . The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.
2. For He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters.
*Then in Psalm 50:9-12 we hear God speak to the wicked of the Children of Israel, and the Lord said:
9. I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds.
10. For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.
11. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
12. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.
*This is our Heavenly Father's world, so He can use it however He sees fit. And in vs. 4-5, we see one of the key decisions God made about His world. Here Stephen said:
4. "Then he (i.e. Abraham) came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5. And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him."
*This Scripture highlights the greatest geo-political issue facing the world today. What about the Jews? Where do they belong? Does the Land of Israel belong to the Jews? The answer is absolutely, yes! The title deed of their ownership was ordained by God in Heaven, and recorded by the Holy Spirit here in the Word of God.
*Verse 5 tells us that God promised to give that land to Abraham for a possession, and to his descendants after him. That's why anybody working against the Jews is working against God! That's also why the Jews are a miracle people.
*The Temple of Jesus' day was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, just as the Lord had prophesied. The historian Josephus estimated that over a million people were killed. And most of the other Jews were scattered around the world. No other group of people has ever survived such a defeat in war. All others have been assimilated by the countries where they settled. But God miraculously maintained the identity of His people, even though many evil men like Hitler have been determined to destroy them.
*Radical Islamists are trying to do the same thing today. They will fail, because they are not just fighting the Jews. They are fighting against God Himself. Israel belongs to the Jews. That's the lesson for us today about God's world.
3. But this Scripture also speaks to us about God's Word.
*And the lesson is that we should never give up on the Word of God.
*Stephen gives us this great lesson in vs. 5-7, where he said:
5. "And God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abraham had no child, He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
6. But God spoke in this way: that his descendants would sojourn in a foreign land, and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years.
7. 'And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I will judge,' said God, 'and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.'"
*Even when Abraham had no child, God promised to give the land to him and to his descendants after him. The promise was delayed for over 400 years as the Children of Israel went down to Egypt. But God said: "After that they shall come out and serve Me in this place." God kept all of His promises to Abraham, and He will surely keep His promises to us.
*Sometimes the promises of God seem too good to be true. That's the way it seemed to Abraham's wife, Sarah. In Genesis 18:9-12, the Lord and two angels went to visit Abraham. And the Bible says:
9. Then they said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?'' And he said, "Here, in the tent.''
10. And He said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.'' And Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.
11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?''
*Here Sarah laughed in her heart with disbelief that she and her 99-year-old husband could have a baby. And this was crucial, because it didn't just concern her own son. It concerned the promise of the coming Messiah, who would die on the cross for our sins.
*Sarah laughed at the promise. But in Genesis 18:14, God said: "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.''
*Sometimes the promises of God may seem too good to be true. That's the way it seemed to Sarah. And that's the way it must have seemed to the Children of Israel when they were trapped in Egyptian bondage. But we must not think God's promises are too good to be true.
*For example, in Jeremiah 33:3, God gave us this promise: "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." In Matthew 21:22, Jesus said: "And all things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." And in John 14:14, Jesus said: "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
*We must not think God's promises are too good to be true. Mike Hays told about a Christian friend of his who worked after school with kids from Hoover Middle School in Oklahoma City. One day, this lady shared the story of Jesus with the kids. She told how He died on the cross for our sins, so that we could be forgiven. She told how Jesus rose from the dead, and how God promises to save anyone who trusts in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
*After she told the story the lady asked, "Do you believe it?" And one young girl replied, "I believe it. -- But I can hardly believe it." Well, God's promises may seem too good to be true. But they are true! So we must believe them anyway! (2)
*We should never give up on the promises of God, even when we seem disqualified, like a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman having a new baby. We should never give up on the promises of God, even when they seem diverted and delayed, as the Jews were stuck in Egypt for 400 years. We should never give up on the Word of God. That's the lesson for us today about God's Word.
4. But this Scripture also speaks to us about God's work.
*In vs. 8, Stephen tells us that God gave Abraham "the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs."
*We cannot understand Stephen's testimony in vs. 8 without learning a little about Old Testament covenants and circumcision. First: We must know that Old Testament covenants were matters of life and death. And God described the process to us in Genesis 15.
*Please listen to Genesis 15:5-18. There God brought Abram outside and said:
5. . . "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.'' And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be.''
6. And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
7. Then He said to him, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.''
8. And he said, "Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?''
9. So He said to him, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.''
10. Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
11. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
13. Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
14. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.
16. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.''
17. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there was a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.
18. On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates."
*This all sounds very strange to us, but Rodney Buchanan explained that "a covenant is not just a mutual agreement between two people, like a contract. It was a binding agreement that the parties involved committed themselves to under pain of death.
*The common practice of making a covenant in that time was to take a few animals, and cut them in half from head to tail. The halves were then placed in such a way as to form a path between them. The parties making a covenant with each other would walk the path between the pieces, and in effect say, 'If I break this covenant, so may this also be done to me.'
*But the important thing about the Lord's covenant with Abram is that only God walked the covenant path between the animals. In Genesis 15:17, the Bible says, "When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch [representing the presence of God] appeared and passed between the pieces." (3)
*Abram is never said to have walked between the pieces. And the reason why is because Abraham could not keep his part of the covenant. Only God went through the pieces, because the Lord knew that Abraham could not keep his part of the covenant. And the Lord knew that He was going to suffer that death, not only for Abraham but also for you and me. This is what Jesus Christ did when He died on the cross for our sins. He took the death that we deserved.
*God Himself did all of the work necessary for us to be saved. That's why in Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul tells Christians:
8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9. not of works, lest anyone should boast.
*The covenant of circumcision Stephen mentioned in vs. 8 was also a reminder to Abraham that he could not bring forth an heir; he could not bring forth the Messiah without the miraculous work of God in his life.
*The covenant of circumcision is found in Genesis 17, where God's Word begins by saying:
1. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
2. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.''
3. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying:
4. As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
5. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
6. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
7. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.
8. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.''
9. And God said to Abraham: "As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
10. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised;
11. and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you."
*In these verses, the Lord commanded Abraham to give a sign of God's covenant, and that sign of the covenant was circumcision. In response to this command, Abraham made sure that every man in his household was circumcised. Every Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, and on that day a boy received his name. Jesus was circumcised.
*Circumcision: We still do it today as a matter of custom and personal hygiene. But it seems like such an odd thing to do.
*John Phillips said it was "a symbol of the cross of Jesus Christ, because it cut across all that Abraham was by natural birth. For Abraham it was a sharp, unforgettable, painful, admission that he was unable to produce by natural means the kind of life that God desires. It was an agonizing realization that only through Christ can a person expect to bear real fruit for God." (4)
*Here's what I get out of it. Abraham's circumcision was saying to God:
-"Lord that part of me that most defines me physically as a man, I give that to you.
-Lord I give you my hopes for a family, for children, for grandchildren.
-Lord I give you my hope for the future.
-Lord I am willing to be different from natural men.
-I want to be a spiritual man set apart for you."
*At the same time, we must understand that circumcision had no saving power. God's Word makes this clear several places in the New Testament. Abraham was saved by grace through faith in the promise of the coming Messiah Jesus Christ. God's Word made this truth clear in Romans 4:3, where Paul wrote: For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.''
*Then in Romans 4:9-11, Paul asked:
9. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
11. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.
*Through the cross of Jesus Christ, God is willing to make an everlasting covenant with us, where our sins are covered, forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. At the same time, we are given His righteousness and eternal life! What a great lesson for us about God's work.
CONCLUSION:
*Dr. Howard Thurman served as a missionary in India. One time a poor boy from one of the villages heard him preach. The boy was an untouchable, the lowest caste in India, the poorest of the poor, with no hope of moving up in life.
*After Dr. & Mrs. Thurman went to bed that night there was a quiet knock on their door. Opening the door, they saw this boy standing there. And the boy said, "I listened to you today and I want to ask you: Can you give hope to a nobody?" (5)
*The answer is yes! Jesus Christ can give hope to anybody! Jesus can turn a nobody into a child of God! Our hope was planned in eternity past before God made the world. It was promised to Abraham 2,000 years before Christ was born. It was fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross and rose again. And it will last forever.
*What great lessons for us! Glory to God! Would you please bow for prayer.
(1) Sermons.com sermon "Amazing Grace" by Robert Tuttle - Romans 3:21-28
(2) SermonCentral sermon "Strength for the Weary" by Mike Hays - Hebrews 12:12-17
(3) "Christmas and Covenant" by Rodney Buchanan - Luke 1:68-79 - 12/10/06
(4) "Exploring Genesis" by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids – Genesis 17:9
(5) "Living Illustrations" by J. B. Fowler, Jr. - p. 89 - Source: SermonCentral sermon "What's So Special About God's Love" by Leland Patrick - 1 John 4:7-21
