Through The Bible - Acts 7:37 - 8:3 - Part 3

Brett Meador: And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador notes with the church's first martyr Stephen came the beginning of persecution. "Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him." This is where the story of Stephen ends right here in verse three of chapter eight. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church. In Acts chapter seven, Stephen exposed Israel's long history of rejecting God and turning to idols. But rather than repent, the religious leaders responded with anger. As their outrage culminates in the stoning of Stephen, we're introduced to Saul, responsible for the persecution against the early church before becoming the apostle Paul. Let's join Pastor Brett Meador for today's word.
Brett Meador: Stephen is technically on trial before the Sanhedrin, but really Stephen is turning the tables. It's really the Sanhedrin who are actually on trial. In verse 44, he says, "Our fathers had the Tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen." "Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him an house." Now, the word Jesus here in verse 45, don't be confused. That's the Greek way of saying the Old Testament name Joshua. The Greek would be Yeshua, which we say Jesus. But this is not the Jesus of Nazareth. This is Joshua of the Old Testament. So that's what it's saying in verse 45, which our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua, Yeshua, into the possession of the Gentiles. That's what he's talking about. And then David went to want to build a house for the Lord, but he desired to build it. Remember, David was a man of blood. And finally God told Nathan, "You've got to go tell David not to build it. You gave him your blessing. Do all that's in your heart, David," Nathan the prophet said. David's like, "Cool, I get to build the temple." And then the Lord said, "Nathan, you've got to go and eat your words. Go tell David you can't build the temple." So what did David do when he found out he couldn't build the temple? Anybody remember? He started killing people, lots of people. Now, you say that's horrible, Brett. Well, it was the Canaanitish people that were supposed to be killed. And David slew and huffed and cut down and killed. And he went and wiped out all these pagan nations because they were enemies of Israel. They were surrounding Israel and they were constantly attacking Israel. So David says, "Well, if I can't build a temple for God, I think I'll just go do what I'm good at." And by the way, in doing that, he collected all the materials that they needed to build the temple. So it's like he didn't complain about what he couldn't do. He did what he could. That's always a good thing. But did God ever want a temple to be built? There's an interesting question. You might say, well, yes. I'm not convinced of that. Now, we know that there's going to be a temple built in the tribulation period, then there's going to be a millennial temple built. But this temple, the rebuilding of the temple, it makes me wonder sometimes. In fact, let's keep reading in verse 48. It says, "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?" You see, Stephen's a true Bible scholar. I love this. He's preaching the Old Testament to those people that should know the Old Testament. But he's making a case. What's the case? Remember, they said, "You are speaking against the law of Moses and you're speaking against the holy temple of God." And Stephen's saying, "Oh yeah, you think your temple's holy? God didn't even need a temple. You guys are all into your temple." He actually is kind of speaking against the temple now, but he's doing it on good grounds because he's quoting from the Old Testament. Let me show you where he's quoting from because this is amazing when you put it all together and see how much the Lord said stuff like this. Look at what Second Chronicles 2:6 says. It says, "But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? Who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?" The psalmist wrote about it in Psalm 11:4. "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." Isaiah 66:1 and 2, "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." What's God saying? Heaven is his throne, earth is his footstool. He's big, giant. It's not like you can put God in a little tiny box in Jerusalem. So false accusation, Stephen, you spoke against the temple of God. He's blasphemed the temple, is kind of the way they would have said it. But Stephen's response? God doesn't even care about you and your stupid temple. Do you realize how that would drive them nuts? But he's actually scripturally correct. Was God even dwelling in that temple? Does anybody know? Was God really ever in that temple? Well, as it turns out, initially, if you take it for Zerubbabel's temple, not Herod the Great, which was a remodel, but Zerubbabel's temple is an interesting thing. In Ezekiel chapter 10, we actually see something crazy happen. Do you remember? We saw the glory of God depart from the temple. It's a crazy story where suddenly the cherubim and the wheels all start whirring up and the children of Israel saw the glory of God leave the temple and go up over the Malikedron up over the Mount of Olives, and it was gone. And the glory never returned to the temple until when did the temple get its glory back? Anybody want to say? Right, when Jesus came and walked on the temple mount when he was 12 years old and came with his parents. That's when suddenly God's glory returned. And then what did they do ultimately to the glory of God that came back to the temple? This is what Stephen's talking about. They crucified him and said, "We will not have this man rule over us." The glory of God, if you track it throughout history, it comes and goes from the temple, but it's gone. And it's been gone for a long time. And the moment they had the glory back with Jesus, they despised him and rejected him. So it was really just a spiritual empty building that was a religious place. And Stephen is just calling them out on that. This might just be the thing that made the Jews the maddest when Stephen started talking like this. I'm sad to say that's actually happening more and more around the world, which is a sign of the times. The Bible talks about in the last days there'll be a falling away and apostasia is the word there in the Greek. So sad, Stephen's calling them out big time. Well, verse 51, it says, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." Tell us what you really think, Stephen. Like you think this is getting him in hot water? He's talking to the Sanhedrin. This would be like you standing before the Supreme Court saying you're just a bunch of hypocrites here. That's what he's saying. And to say you're uncircumcised to a Jew, do you realize how insulting that is to a Jew? You're uncircumcised in your heart and you're uncircumcised. The idea of ears that the things that they believe and think and the things that they hear are uncircumcised and ungodly. And why do you resist the Holy Ghost? They're outwardly Jews thinking they're very religious, but Stephen's calling them out saying, "Man, you guys are dead. You guys are spiritually dead." They're still flesh and still far from the Lord. It reminds me of what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7:22 when he said, "Many will come to me in that day saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Didn't we cast out demons or devils in thy name, done many wonderful works?" And remember Jesus said, "I will profess them I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity." These Jews thought they were religiously dialed in. They thought they were the best of the best, the Sanhedrin. But Stephen is saying, "Nope, you guys." And by the way, Stephen's on good ground because Jesus said the same exact stuff. Stephen's repeating what Jesus said to these guys. "You do always resist the Holy Ghost," he said. And we could talk about Matthew 12 and the whole blasphemy of the Holy Ghost and what that means, but it's really ultimately rejecting Christ, which is not where you want to be. How do you know if you've rejected Christ and committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Well, if you're still alive, there's still hope for you. Even though he's calling them uncircumcised and resisting the Holy Ghost, have they committed the unpardonable sin at this point? Well, something I want to ask you, is there anybody in this Sanhedrin that is going to become a Christian after this sermon? Yeah, there is one. We'll talk about that in a minute. But that's the point. If you're still alive, you still have a chance to repent and accept and believe. Some people worry, "I think I committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I'm really worried about that." If you're saying that, you haven't committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. You won't know that you've committed that unless you're actually dead and you died in your sin without repentance. That's when you know you've committed that sin. So this is what we're going to see here. There's one in this group who voted to kill Stephen. I'll show you that in a minute, but we're going to see him eventually accept and believe Jesus. Verse 52, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?" Now he's going back to that same old argument. "All these prophets that God sent, you've persecuted them. And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One." Who's the Just One in this story? Jesus. "Of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Man, you guys went against the Just One, Jesus, the one the prophets foretold and spoke about. How did the Jews treat the prophets? Well, remember Jeremiah, who was, I'd say, one of the greatest of the prophets, and I'll tell you why because Jesus quoted him more than any other prophet. Jesus liked Jeremiah. Not one person listened to Jeremiah in 42 years of ministry. But Jesus liked Jeremiah. They hated him and told him to stop speaking the word of the Lord. They threw him in a dungeon waist deep in mud. Can you imagine? That's where they threw him. We don't know biblically how Jeremiah died. Historically, however, church tradition and history says he ended up in Egypt and was killed for continually speaking the word of the Lord. The Jews killed him in Egypt when they ran and fled. Isaiah the prophet, one of the great prophets, a lot of the Bible is a huge book of the Bible, the book of Isaiah. We don't know biblically how he was killed, but we know actually the Talmud talks about it, tradition of the Jews. Under the orders of Manasseh, they stuck him in a hollowed-out tree stump. Like there was a tree stump that was hollow in the middle. They stuck him in there and then they sawed the tree down with a saw with his body in it. That's how they treated the prophets of the Lord, the Old Testament prophets. So Stephen's saying, "Are you kidding? You guys think you're holy, but you've rejected all of them. You've persecuted all of them. You've been given the law and you're not even keeping it." The issue Stephen's saying, it's not reviling the holy temple. It's resisting the Holy Spirit. It's not blaspheming the law. You are breaking the law. That's what Stephen is challenging these guys. And what is their response? Remorse? Repentance? Well, let's take a look. Verse 54, "When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." What is gnashing on him with their teeth? I used to think, man, they're starting to chew on poor Stephen. Like ugh, that's gross. Well, but gamey. I don't know. But no, that's not what it's saying. The word gnashed is interesting. The Greek word is *brucho*. And the word *brucho* means to grind or grate teeth. In fact, there's another related word that's linked to this word that is like growling or scowling, grinding with your teeth in anger. That's the word here used. So they're grinding their teeth like, "I hate this guy. Kill him." They're so furious. That's what we're depicting here. So verse 55, "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." Now, this is where the story gets kind of amazing. So they're mad, they're furious, and suddenly Stephen's like, "I see the glory of God." Now, remember what he just told them. The glory of God had departed from Jerusalem. The glory had departed from the temple. And he was indicting them for that. And I want to remind you, he started with the glory of God there in the very first part of this chapter, verse two, he said, "Men and brethren," this is how he started his sermon, "Men and brethren, fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham." He starts with the glory of God, tells how the glory left them long ago because they were all rebellious, sinful Jews. And now he says, "You guys don't have the glory in the temple, but I see the glory right now." This is going to make them gnashier, angrier. This is going to make them furious. So we see Stephen talking about the glory of God. He starts with it and ends it right here with teaching, sharing. By the way, I would say the glory of God, when you're teaching the glorious word of God, if you've ever done that, if any of you have ever taught a Bible study or taught scripture, one of the things is you do start to see the glory of God more and more when you're teaching. It's like there's something that happens where the more you teach, the more you realize, man, what we're talking about here is so true. And you find your heart almost swell with, "Ah, this is just so awesome to have the word of God." I wish everybody could get the sensation of what it feels like to teach the Bible because you find yourself getting excited about things that you weren't even excited about before because there's something about that. Stephen's getting what I think happens often when you teach the word of God. You get kind of caught up in his glory. So he ends up talking about the glory and experiencing the glory. The more you share about it, the more you go into it and you're excited. Now, there's another interesting note here. Jesus is seen here, and what's his posture? Every time you see Jesus in the Bible up in heaven, he's seated upon the throne. We usually see him sitting at the throne. But in this case, singularly, this is where we see Jesus standing. Any thoughts of why? Well, as it turns out, scholars and Bible theologians, they debate and they have no idea for sure. Why do we see Jesus standing? And here's the two biggest answers you'll get if you compare most of the commentators. And some tators are more common than others. But the commentaries that I've read, there's two big ones. And one has to do with Jewish tradition. In the Jewish tradition, all the witnesses would stand with the person being condemned. So some would argue that Jesus is standing as a witness for Stephen. That's one of the arguments that's made of why we see Jesus unusually standing by the throne. The second possible answer that you hear people say is Jesus is standing because he's welcoming Stephen home because we know what's about to happen. Stephen's seeing heaven opened up and they're going to kill him. And as he sees heaven, he sees Jesus, perhaps, welcoming him home to heaven. This could be, who knows, a snapshot of what we see when we get to heaven, Jesus standing welcoming us home. I don't know. You can do your own study on that, but it is unique that it says standing here. Well, verse 57, when Stephen said that and saw that, "they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord." These are like three-year-olds. They're plugging their ears, "We don't want to hear it anymore. La-la-la-la-la." They're plugging their ears thinking that we just don't want to hear this. It's funny how wrong you can be and be so adamant and so sure that you're correct. Boy, I see that today and it's a little bit like the abortion issue we talked about. There's people screaming right now, gnashing their teeth at that issue. And can I just say, if you're screaming and gnashing your teeth, you're probably on the wrong side of things. But we can think we're so correct. I'm pretty sure these guys thought they were right. But Stephen was right. They're the ones who killed Jesus and thought they were doing the right thing. Now they're killing Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and they're plugging their ears and they're saying, "We don't want anything to do with this." Sad. A lot of people in the world today have become so stubborn they're plugging their ears. It's hard to have good conversations with people anymore. They're too busy gritting their teeth and plugging their ears because they just don't want to hear it. That's the condition we see here. Well, verse 58 says that they cast him out of the city. If you know the story and where they were and all this, the Damascus Gate is very likely the gate that they threw him out of. And that's where they would stone him. It says they cast him out of the gate, out of the city, and stoned him. "And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." And verse one of chapter eight, "Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison." This is where the story of Stephen ends right here in verse three of chapter eight. Kind of interesting, we saw Stephen emulating Christ. How was he? Dying for his faith, just like Jesus laid down his life. Saying the same words of Jesus, "receive my spirit," just like Jesus. He said, "lay not their sin to their charge," just like Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." So he's forgiving like Jesus. I love how Stephen is a very Christ-like example here. But notice our mystery character that comes in, this guy Saul, mentioned in verse 58. And some of us, when you colored this in Sunday school, you colored a young boy. And there's a reason why they do that, but he probably wasn't a young boy. He was probably a young man. And there's a bunch of reasons for that. I want to show you why he was not just a child or even a teenager. He was, here's some interesting stuff, he was probably a married guy. Paul married? Paul said, "I would that you be single like all of us." Well, could Paul have been married before? Well, here's what scholars believe. Saul was old enough to be hunting down Christians and bringing them to prison. This is a turning point for the church. Christians are now scattering, running for their lives. Why was Saul so involved? Well, here's the clue, and it's a single word, the word consenting. Did you see verse one of chapter eight? "And Saul was consenting unto his death." The Greek word is *suneudokeo*, which means to be pleased together with, to approve together, to cast a vote in favor of, to applaud, to agree to, to feel gratification and to be pleased. This is the word, the Greek word *suneudokeo*, which is a loaded word that means that probably Saul, when he consented, he consented with a vote. Now, this is where you kind of start to say, wait, why did Saul have a vote here? Most scholars believe because he was part of the Sanhedrin. He was part of the Sanhedrin. He wasn't throwing the rocks, but he was there consenting with a vote to stone him to death. We do know certain things about Paul that the Bible tells us. Saul, I should say. Saul was a son of a Pharisee. So his family, that was a family business, by the way. If you were born of a Pharisee, you were going to be a Pharisee. Saul would later as Paul say, "I was a Pharisee of all Pharisees." And also, Paul was the guy who was schooled by a guy named Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the head honcho of Pharisee training. It would be like if you're being trained by a Gamaliel, you're being trained for the top level, the top tier of the Sanhedrin. So here in Acts chapter eight, we'll pick it up further and we're going to see, this is where we start to get into the story of Saul pretty soon becoming Paul, which is an exciting and pretty fun part of the Bible. I love Stephen. He's young, but he's effective. Timothy, First Timothy 4:12, "Don't despise your youth, but be an example of the believers." This is what Stephen was. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was a deacon in the church. He was doing miracles and he was a guy that was gleaning from the word, but he was a student of the word and so he preached the word with effectiveness. And he was a faithful servant to the very end. Stephen is a great model. I hope as we've studied this guy, even though he only gets basically a chapter and a half here, that he might be a life-changing biblical character for all of us. So may the Lord give us ears to hear in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador notes with the church's first martyr Stephen came the beginning of persecution. Having learned of the bold ministry of the martyred Stephen from Acts chapter six and seven, Pastor Brett Meador notes scripture's introduction of Paul as the gospel continues to be proclaimed to all the world. And there's so much more to come as our study of the book of Acts continues in today's word. And Pastor Brett will actually close our time together in prayer in just a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. Our vision on Today's Word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful verse-by-verse study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link locations. Well, before we go, Pastor Brett Meador will lead us in a closing word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Lord, as we close our Bibles, my prayer is that you would just remind us of who Stephen was, that we would learn from this young guy who was so bold in his faith. He was willing to speak the truth with power and with authority. Oh Lord, we see how people are plugging their ears and gnashing their teeth today about things that are true. Give us the same boldness Stephen had. I pray that we'd speak boldly but also in love. Show us that perfect balance of gracious words but truthful words. Help us to speak grace and truth. Lord, I pray that in this dark day that we live, but Lord, I'm thankful that you don't leave us in a wounded state, but you're one that heals the brokenhearted. You're the one who delivers us from our depression and our fears and our failures. Would you do that, Lord? I pray that those that are plagued by that, that you'd do a healing work. Forgive us for our sins and our rejecting of truth, Lord. But I pray that our lights would shine. May we glow even as Stephen glowed in this story. So as we go our way, bless each person, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will look at an incredible God-ordained circumstance where Philip suddenly finds himself in the desert sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with a traveling Ethiopian. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.