Well good morning to everyone.

We kind of have a different kind of message this morning. This chapter 7 kind of hangs together as one unit, but it's very long. So I contemplated breaking it up and doing several messages and looking at the Old Testament passages, but I decided just to take it in one message, which is very unusual to take this many verses. So we're just going to kind of work through it and see what it says and really try and understand Stephen's point, his message to these Jewish leaders, and also an application for us. 

So we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 7 this morning, and it's really a message we've been seeing, a conviction, an indictment of the Jewish leaders because they had rejected and killed their Messiah. I'd like to begin this morning by asking you to turn to Mark chapter 12, please. Mark chapter 12, and we're going to look at a parable that Jesus spoke that really is illustrative of what Stephen is preaching in chapter 7. 

Mark 12 verse 1 says, "...then he began to speak to them in parables. A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat, and built a tower. And he leased it to the vinedressers and went into a far country. Now at vintage time he sent a servant to the vinedressers that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. And again he sent another, and him they killed, and many others beating some and killing some. Therefore, still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, they will respect my son. But those vinedressers said among themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours. So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this scripture? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes." 

Jesus spoke this parable about the nation Israel and her rejection of the prophets of God and even of his own Savior Son. We come to a most fascinating text this morning in Acts chapter 7 in the Sermon of Stephen before the council. We will see that Stephen really does not present a defense of himself as much as he becomes the prosecutor of Israel and the men who sit before him as his judges. 

It is a bold and thorough speech concerning the history of the nation of Israel and her rejection of God and His chosen deliverers. Stephen will show that he is not a blasphemer of Moses or of the law or of the temple, but rather that he believes that God prescribed the temple and gave the law and that He provided deliverers for Israel throughout her history from Joseph to Moses to now Jesus Christ. 

The problem has been that throughout all of her history from the brothers of Joseph to the congregation in the wilderness to the present time and those Jewish leaders who sat before Stephen this day, they had always rejected God and His chosen men. They had always been a stiff-necked people unwilling to bow. 

Let's look at verse 51. We're going to spend a lot of time reading verses in this chapter today, but let's begin at verse 51. Stephen says you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. 

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth, but he being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, look I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord and they cast him out of the city and they stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul and they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord do not charge them with this sin and when he had said this he fell asleep. 

I've given you four points on your outline this morning. First we're going to see God's promise through Abraham. Second, God's provision in Joseph. Third, God's plan for Moses including the law and the tabernacle and fourth, God's propitiation in Christ. 

Well at the end of chapter 6 we saw the false accusations against Stephen. There had been a debate between Stephen and the leaders of the Hellenistic Jewish synagogues and they could not resist Stephen or his arguments concerning Jesus being the Christ. They could not refute him so they set out to attack him personally and they bribed false witnesses to bring accusations against him just as they had against Jesus. The charges were that he blasphemed Moses and God and spoke blasphemy against the temple and the law. 

At the beginning of chapter 7 we see the high priest asked Stephen, are these things so? And Stephen begins an amazing sermon that extends all the way down to the end of the chapter. It is partially defense but primarily it is a conviction of Israel for continually rejecting God and His provision for them, culminating in the murder of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

Let's look at God's promise through Abraham first in the first verses of this amazing chapter. Verse 1, it says, then the high priest said, are these things so? And he said, brethren and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran and said to him, get out of your country and from your relatives and come to a land that I will show you. 

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. 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. But God spoke in this way, that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land and that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them four hundred years. 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. 

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. We see that Stephen focuses in on the specific part of the promise to Abraham which was the land. You remember when God came to Abraham, it's recorded in Genesis chapter 12, it says he came to Abraham and told him to get up and get out of his country away from his relatives to a far land that he would show him. To a land, he said, I will show you. He said, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 

This is a critical moment in God's salvation plan. He makes these unconditional promises to Abraham of a land, of a nation, of a blessing to all nations through his seed. And Paul tells us in Galatians 3 that that seed of Abraham, the blessing to all nations, is Jesus Christ. But Stephen is talking to a very Jewish audience here, a very proudly Jewish audience. They saw Abraham as their father as we see in so many passages including in the New Testament. They considered themselves to be sons of Abraham and heirs to the land that God promised. So Stephen really hones in on the land portion of the promise, further explaining that Abraham never inherited that promise, but he believed God and he took it by faith and it was his descendants after 400 years in bondage in Egypt who would inherit the land and live in it. 

And ultimately the promise will be fulfilled when Jesus comes back and gives the kingdom to Israel. And bringing up the promise to Abraham, Stephen starts at the very beginning of the nation of Israel. It began with Isaac and Jacob and his 12 sons, the patriarchs of Israel. And that's why Stephen brings this up. He's recounting the history of Israel from the very beginning with the promise of Abraham. 

So we see God's promise to Abraham and next we see God's provision in Joseph. Look at verse 9 of our text. It says, "...and the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to the Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives to him, seventy-five people. So Jacob went down to Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers. And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. When the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt." 

Stephen is really preaching to the choir at this point. He's talking to a proud Jewish bunch of religious leaders who tied themselves to the promise of Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to the 12 patriarchs of their nation. You can imagine that they were enjoying listening to this history being recounted of their great nation and how it began. In the next verses concerning Joseph, we begin to see Stephen's method come to light. He has a point in what he's doing. In verse 9 it says, "...and the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him." God was with him and gave him favor. He delivered him out of all his troubles. 

The twelve sons of Jacob are the patriarchs to which the Jews tied themselves so closely. They saw them as their fathers. And what we see here is that it was these very men who sold Joseph into slavery, who persecuted God's chosen vessel. But notice it says that God was with him, that God delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh. 

I want you to kind of just tuck that under your hat because we're going to see where Stephen is going as we move along through his sermon here. The fathers sold Joseph into slavery, but God was with him. And next we see that Joseph, God's chosen man, is a type of Christ and that he was a deliverer of Israel out of famine. You remember the story, God gave Joseph great favor so that he became second to Pharaoh and ruled in the land. And he did this by giving Pharaoh a dream. Do you remember that dream? He gave it to Pharaoh and he allowed Joseph to interpret it. 

And the dream was interpreted as seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe famine. And a great famine came. But as you know, Joseph had prepared Egypt for this time and had plenty of grain. And when Jacob heard this, he sent his sons down to Egypt to get grain for their families. And we see something interesting in this account in Genesis 42. Turn to that passage with me, please. Genesis chapter 42. We'll begin in verse 1. 

Genesis 42, 1. When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, why do you look at one another? And he said, indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die. So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, lest some calamity befall him. And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. 

Now Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. Remember, this fulfills Joseph's dreams from when he was young. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, where do you come from? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. 

It's amazing to think about these stories, these historical accounts, and how God has orchestrated all of these details, working even in the evil place of the patriarchs to sell their brother into slavery. Remember, Joseph said, what you meant for evil, God meant for good. He's working through all these things. God had made Joseph a type of Christ, a deliverer of his brethren, Israel. 

And notice that the first time that he met with his brothers, they did not recognize him, they did not receive him, they did not see who he was. These details are all integral to Stephen's message to the Jewish leaders before him on the council. The patriarchs, their fathers, had sold Joseph into slavery and had not known God's deliverer in Egypt. They rejected him, but it says that God was with him. 

This is so similar to the messages we have seen from Peter to the Jews throughout the book of Acts, where he repeatedly said, you killed him, but God raised him. You were against him, but God was with him. God provided a deliverer, you rejected him, you did not know him, you did not see him. Joseph was God's chosen man to deliver Jacob and his sons out of the famine, but they did not recognize him, they did not receive him at the first coming. 

Next in Stephen's sermon, we see God's plan for Moses, the next deliverer of Israel. And this passage runs all the way from verse 17 down to verse 50. So be patient and follow along. Acts 7, 17, But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose who did not know Joseph. This man dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers, making them expose their babies so that they might not live. 

At this time Moses was born and was well pleasing to God, and he was brought up in his father's house for three months. But when he was set out, Pharaoh's daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. 

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed and struck down the Egyptians. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. And the next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, "'Men, you are brethren. Why do you wrong one another?' But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, "'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?' Then at this saying Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian where he had two sons. 

And when forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in the bush in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight, and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, "'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. Then the Lord said to him, "'Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.'" 

This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, "'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, "'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear.' This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us, whom your fathers would not obey but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, "'Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 

Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, "'Did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rimfan, images which you made to worship, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'" 

Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen, which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David, who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the god of Jacob. But Solomon built him a house. However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Has my hand not made all these things? 

Well, in verses 17 to 18, we see the reference to the promise again, the promise made to Abraham of the land. And it says, when the time was drawing near and the Hebrews were multiplying the land, at this time, a horrible thing happened. A pharaoh rose who did not know Joseph. This was the beginning of bondage in Egypt for Israel. The multitude of Hebrews living in Egypt became slaves. They were placed in bondage that would last 400 years. Verse 19 refers to the king's plan to reduce the number of Hebrew males so that they might not overtake Egypt. And he ordered that all the male children born to the Hebrew women should be thrown into the river to die. 

And you know the story of God's plan for Moses. He was thrown into the river, but he was put in a little boat. And by providence, he floated up to the daughter of Pharaoh, and she took him and raised him as her own in the palace of Pharaoh. And Moses was educated in the Egyptian system, and he was mighty in words and deeds. 

Now this is interesting because Stephen is accomplishing a dual purpose here in these verses. He's defending himself against the charge that he blasphemed Moses by showing that he believed that Moses was chosen by God. He honored and esteemed Moses and believed all that they believed about him. 

And he's also continuing his purpose of showing how Israel was again rejecting God's chosen man and deliverer out of the land of Egypt. We see in verse 23 that Moses at the age of 40 decided to go and visit his brethren, and upon doing so, he saw an Egyptian man abusing the Hebrews, so he killed him. Verse 25 says, He supposed that the Hebrews knew that God would deliver them by His hand, but they did not understand. And the next day, it says, he went out and saw two of his brethren fighting, and he pled with them to stop, for they were brethren. 

And the man pushed him away and said, Who made you a judge and a ruler over us? God had chosen Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt, but they rejected him the first time that he came to them. And so Moses had to spend 40 years out in Midian as a shepherd until God appeared to him in the burning bush. 

Stephen emphasizes in those verses, like verse 35, that they again rejected Moses. He's the one that God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer, but they rejected him. God sent Moses back to Egypt, and through many signs and wonders, He delivered His people out of Egypt and toward the land that He had promised. 

And notice that Stephen says in verse 37, Moses predicted a prophet would arise like him. A prophet would arise like him. Studying this sermon of Stephen reminds me so much of the book of Hebrews. The audience listening to his words would have readily understood what he was saying and the message he was conveying through the recounting of Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. They would have caught all the details. They would have seen the implications as he was teaching and preaching. 

It's somewhat difficult for us to follow because of our ignorance of the Old Testament. But these guys lived and died in the laws and the prophets. This was their history. This was their pride. This was their joy. This was their life. And the message would have been creeping in on their minds as Stephen spoke. That the history of their people from the patriarchs on down and the rejection of God's deliverers and chosen vessels to accomplish His will. 

We see that over and over. It was always only a remnant that believed. And Israel as a whole was always and consistently a stiff-necked people against God, against His plans, against His purposes. Stephen continues driving this home in verse 37 of our text. It says, This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him you shall hear. 

A prophet like me, Moses said. Moses was a type of Christ as well in so many ways. And they understood that the promise, the prophet, referred to the Messiah. In Mark 6.15, speaking of Jesus, it says, Others said it is Elijah and others said it is the prophet. In John 1.21, speaking to John the Baptist, they asked him, What then, are you Elijah? He said, I am not. And they said, Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. In John 6.14 and 7.40, the people say of Jesus, Truly this is the prophet who is to come into the world. They understand that the prophet that was promised through Moses referred to the Messiah. 

They had proclaimed Jesus to be that prophet in the course of his ministry. Stephen is building his case against the Jewish council. But he's not done. In the next verses, he exalts Moses again in the law that was given by God on Mount Sinai, showing that he has no intention to blaspheme either one. And notice what he says in verse 38. He says, This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us. 

Verse 39. Whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts, they turned back to Egypt. This Moses whom our fathers would not obey, but rejected. Again, Israel turns from God and his deliverer to idols. And we see this through the next several verses. 

And finally, down through verse 50, Stephen brings up the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple as being from God. He believed that God gave the pattern to Moses and told him how to build it. He believed the tabernacle was built by God. But he points out that Solomon himself said that God cannot be contained in the temple. And this, my friends, is exactly what Israel and the leaders to whom he spoke were trying to do. They were trying to put God in their box. To contain him in their temple, in their system, in their religion. 

But my friends, God is interested in mercy and not sacrifice. God sent deliverers and prophets again and again. And what did Israel always do? They rejected them. They killed them. They would not obey them. They would not believe God and trust him. This was their history and Stephen was laying it out for them, piece by piece. 

And the culmination is in our last point, in our last verses this morning. God's propitiation in Christ, the final deliverer of God, the Messiah, Jesus, the Christ. Look at verse 51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. 

What an indictment against these Jews, who rested their hope on the law and the fact that they were sons of Abraham. And verse 54 says, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. And they drug him outside the city and they stoned him to death. They'd brought false accusations against Stephen, but they could not resist his words. They could not win the debate because Stephen told the truth according to God's Word. 

Here he lays out for them their entire history since the promise made to Abraham. They had rejected Joseph. They had rejected Moses. They had received the law but failed to obey it. They had persecuted and killed the prophets of God. They threw Jeremiah in a pit and then they stoned him. They sawed Isaiah in half. They killed them all. And finally, they had betrayed and murdered the Son of God, their Messiah, the Just One. And in this, had fully and finally rejected God, these leaders of Israel to whom now Stephen spoke. 

He was God's propitiation, His full satisfactory payment for sins, and He was their only hope of deliverance, but as they always had, they rejected and killed Him. This was the indictment, and it was true, and it was irrefutable. It was just as Jesus had foretold in the parable that we started with this morning. And as Jesus explained in Matthew 23, 37, listen to this verse, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 

This is always the problem for man, my friends. It is not that God is not willing. It is not that Jesus is not willing. God has stretched out His hands all through history to a stiff-necked, disobedient, and unwilling people. He is willing. He is able to save by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. 

Israel as a whole was not willing. The Jewish leaders were not willing. And because of Stephen's cutting, truth-speaking testimony, which they could not refute, which they could not argue against, they were filled with rage, and they took him and killed him, stoned him outside the city. They were not willing to turn to Jesus in simple faith. 

And what a lesson this is for us today. What an example Stephen is to us in his boldness in speaking truth and using the Scriptures to exalt Christ and bring the clear gospel message. And how clear it is that the problem is not the revelation. The problem is not evidence. The problem is not the message. The problem is not the skill of the presenter, because Stephen was more skilled than Saul. 

And certainly the problem is not God's unwillingness to save every man. The problem is the heart of man and his unwillingness to receive the Word and believe Jesus. It's our job, my brothers and sisters, to bring this truth to men, to speak the truth in love. And the question for every man is, are you willing? Are you willing to turn from your religion, from your own self-righteousness, from your own way, and are you willing to turn to Jesus in simple faith and trust to be delivered from sin and death and hell? 

This is why Jesus came, to seek and to save the lost, to bring deliverance. This is what the apostles and the disciples were doing in the book of Acts. They were simply going out and preaching this truth, preaching this message at every opportunity, even as they're brought before councils and stoned to death. 

And my friends, this is why we are here, to bring this good news to every creature, no matter the cost. For Stephen and countless others to come after him, it was martyrdom. We have not yet suffered unto bloodshed. The day will come when Jesus comes again, when Israel will look on the one whom they pierced and they will believe Him, and all Israel will be saved, and the promise to Abraham will find its ultimate fulfillment. 

But in this day, in this church age, God is working through us. And we are to go out as His ambassadors, having received the word of reconciliation, and we're to preach that word. We're to share that word boldly, clearly, like Paul and Stephen did, so that every man, Jew or Gentile, might believe and be saved. They picked up stones, it says in John 10, to stone Jesus. But that last verse says, but many believed on Him there. That's our joy, that's our privilege, the many, my friends, that are willing to believe. And we have good news for them. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for Your Word. Every part of Your Word that's valuable and instructive, examples for us, we thank You for Stephen and his boldness and clarity, his effectiveness in his short ministry, his willingness to give himself, even his life, for the Gospel, Lord. We thank You that You've given to us that truth message that we might go out and preach, that men might believe and be saved for their salvation, for our encouragement, but most of all, for Your glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.