36
Acts 7:35-50 THE COMING OF JESUS PREDICTED BY MOSES
Introduction:
In
our previous text Moses saw a Hebrew man being beaten by an Egyptian.
Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him
in the sand. The next day he saw two
Hebrew men in a fight. He broke up the fight and shamed them for
fighting. One
of the Hebrews asked, “Who made you a
ruler and a judge over us?” He also
asked, “Will you kill me like you killed
the Egyptian yesterday?”
Upon
learning that his deed was known, Moses fled from
the wilderness where he married and became
a shepherd, tending the sheep of his
father-in-law.
While
tending sheep Moses saw a bush burning on the side of
When the bush keep burning instead of
burning up, Moses went up the side of the
mountain to get a closer look.
It
was there from the bush that God spoke to him and called him to return
to
I.
Moses, rejected by the father but chosen by the Lord
V.
35, “This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a
judge? the same did God send [to be] a
ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the
angel which appeared to him in the
bush.” I want you to note the plural
pronoun, “they.” Stephen said that “they” refused Moses. It was not just the
one Hebrew man who spoke to Moses and
said, “Who made thee a ruler and a judge
over us?”
It was apparently all the other Hebrews who had gathered around to
watch when the fight broke out. The Hebrew people, as a whole did not
appreciate Moses breaking up the
fight. As far as they were concerned
Moses was
sticking his nose in where he had no
business.
But
what they did not know was that God had chosen Moses to be a ruler and
a judge over them. Yea, more than a judge. He had chosen Moses to be a ruler
and a deliverer. God had chosen Moses to deliver them from
their bondage to the
Egyptians.
Even
after Moses fled into the wilderness and spent forty years in the
wilderness and apparently, had abandoned
all hope that he would deliver the
Hebrews from bondage, God still had not
changed His mind. God had called Moses
to do the job and forty years later He
still wanted Moses to do the job. So God
Himself came down to earth and spoke to
Moses from a burning bush and instructed
him to return to
II.
The wonders and signs which Moses performed
V.
36, “He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in
the land of
Stephen said that Moses performed wonders
and signs. To be technical, all that
Moses did was to obey the instructions
which God gave him. God gave the
instructions, Moses did as God commanded
and God, Himself, performed the wonder.
The
first miracles which Moses performed in
Hebrew people that God had sent him to be
their leader and deliverer. Then
Moses called for the plagues to be brought
upon the Egyptians. It was a mighty
display of power. All Moses had to do was to call for the
plague and the plague
came according to the word of Moses. The purpose of these miracles was to
convince the Pharaoh that he should let God’s
people to.
The
miracles continued even after they left
banks of the
parted and let the children of
crossed and the Egyptian army began to
cross, Moses called for the waters of the
drinking water at one stopping place was
too bitter to drink, Moses put a tree
in the water and the water was made
sweet.
At
another camping site there was no water at all and Moses struck a rock
and an abundance of water came out of the
rock. When the food supply ran out
Moses called for God to send food and God
supplied them manna from heaven. When
the people got tired of eating manna Moses
spoke to God and God sent quail into
their camp by the hundreds and
thousands. So far as I know there is
noting said
in Scripture about Moses speaking and
calling for the clothes not to wear out,
but the Scripture does record the fact
that for forty years their shoes nor
their clothes did wear out. God showed by all these wonders and signs
that He
had called Moses to be the leader and the
deliverer for the children of Israel.
Moses,
the man whom the children of Israel had rejected refusing to have
him to be a ruler and a judge over them
was the very man whom God had chosen to
be their deliverer.
III.
The prediction which Moses made about another leader like himself
V.
37, “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up
unto you of your brethren, like unto
me; him shall ye hear.” Moses, the man whom the forefathers had
rejected, but
whom God had chose to be their deliverer
spoke y inspiration of God and
predicted that God would raise up another
leader like unto himself. This is a
prediction which Moses had recorded back
in Deuteronomy 18:15. Moses was
talking about the coming of the
Christ. He was predicting that the
Christ would
come and that the Christ would be a
prophet like unto himself.
I
will not take the time to go into a detailed account of the many
similarities between the life and ministry
of Moses and the life and ministry of
Jesus. But it is important that we get fixed in our
minds that Moses, himself,
had predicted that they would be
alike. Moses was rejected and then forty
years
later became their ruler. It is interesting to note that both Moses and
Jesus
were rejected by the children of
Israel.
IV.
Moses, rejected again by the forefathers
V.
38, “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the
angel which spake to him in the mount
Sina, and [with] our fathers: who received
the lively oracles to give unto us.” Stephen here is talking again about
Moses.
He is not here talking about the prophet
who would be like Moses. Rather he
speaks about Moses to whom the “lively
oracles” were given at Mt. Sinai and who
passed on down the “lively oracles” to the
children of Israel.
While
we are here on this verse, let me very briefly focus upon the
“church in the wilderness.” This is not at all intended to indicate that
there
was a church which resembled a New
Testament church in Old Testament times.
The
word, church, as used here simply speaks
of the large congregation of Israelites
who were camped in the wilderness.
The
oracles of God, the law of God, had been given to Moses while he was
up in the top of Mt. Sinai in the
wilderness. But even after Moses had led
them
out of the land of Egypt and had brought
them safely to Mt. Sinai and even while
Moses was up in Mt. Sinai receiving the
law of God on the two tables of stone,
the children of Israel down at the foot of
the mountain were once again
rejecting Moses as their leader. V. 39-41, “To whom our fathers would not
obey,
but thrust [him] from them, and in their
hearts turned back again into Egypt,
Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go
before us: for [as for] this Moses, which
brought us out of the land of Egypt, we
wot not what is become of him. And they
made a calf in those days, and offered
sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in
the works of their own hands.” While Moses was up in the mountain receiving
the
Ten Commandments from God and receiving
instructions from God for the building
of the tabernacle, the Jewish forefather
were down at the foot of the mountain
rebelling against Moses the leader whom
God had chosen for them. They persuaded
Aaron to make them a golden calf to
worship and in their hearts they rejected
Moses as their leader and laid plans to
return back to Egypt.
V.
42-43, “Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of
heaven; as it is written in the book of
the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have
ye offered to me slain beasts and
sacrifices [by the space of] forty years in
the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and
the star of your
god Remphan, figures which ye made to
worship them: and I will carry you away
beyond Babylon.” Even after their experience of worshipping
the golden calf,
many of the people among the children of
Israel continued to worship idol gods.
They worshipped the false god, Moloch and
the star god Remphan, believed to be a
star or planet now known as Saturn. They worshipped them and made figures or
statues of them to which they bowed
down. They did this in the wilderness
after
God had miraculously delivered them form
bondage in Egypt.
V. 44, “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.” They did go ahead and build the tabernacle as
God
instructed them through Moses to do. But they did not altogether discard their
idol worship. They pretended to worship God openly at the
tabernacle of the
Lord, but secretly in their tents they
worshipped their idol gods.
Even
when they entered into Canaan’s land they carried with them their
idol worship. Not all of them worshipped idols. Not even a majority of them
worshipped idols. But there were some of them who did. V. 45, “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.”
There
is one word in this verse that requires some special attention in
order to grasp the meaning of the verse.
That word is “Jesus.” You may or
may
not already know, but the Old Testament
word, Joshua, is the same as the New
Testament word, Jesus. The man who is actually spoken of in this
verse is the
Old Testament “Joshua,” who led the
children of Israel into Canaan’s land.
But
the New Testament spelling of his name is
“Jesus” and that can be confusing to
us.
What
is actually being said in the verse is that even when the children of
Israel went into Canaan’s land, which at
that time was occupied by Gentiles,
they had with them a sizable number of
people who were worshipping idol gods.
The fathers drove out the Gentiles who
were worshipping idol gods, but some of
the Hebrew people who moved in to take the
land also worshipped idols.
Let
me repeat: Not all of the children of
Israel worshipped idols. The
majority did not worship idols. The majority found favor in the eyes of
God.
The old tabernacle had served its purpose
well as they traveled in the
wilderness, but the tabernacle finally
wore out and needed to be replaced.
David wanted to build a great temple in
which God would be worshipped, but
Solomon, his son , was the one who built
it. V. 46-50, “Who found favour before
God, and desired to find a tabernacle for
the God of Jacob.
But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples
made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Heaven [is] my throne, and 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?”
V.
Stephen’s defense of himself
Let
me remind you that Stephen at this time is on trial before the
Sanhedrin Council. The officials of the Jewish synagogues in
Jerusalem had
arrested him and brought him before the
Sanhedrin Council or Sanhedrin Court.
The leaders of the synagogues had charged
Stephen with four things. They had
charged him with speaking against God,
against Moses, against the law of Moses
and against the temple of God.
Stephen
has already spoken in his defense concerning the charge that he
had spoken against God. He had only praise for God. In this text he is
defending himself against the remaining
three charges. He strongly asserts that
Moses was a God called leader who had done
the work that God had called him to
do.
Moses had delivered the children of Israel from bondage. He had been the
mediator between God and the children
Israel in establishing a covenant between
God and Israel. He had also been the mediator through whom
God had given the
Ten Commandments and the many other laws
which are related to the ten
commandments. He had led in the building of the tabernacle
which also set the
pattern for the building of the temple
which followed and he had led in the
building of the tabernacle which also set
the pattern for the building of the
temple which followed and he had led in
the establishment of the worship
services at the tabernacle.
Thus, he had nothing but good things to say about
Moses, about the law of Moses, about the
tabernacle and about the temple which
followed.
He proclaimed the law which Moses had written to be the very oracles
of God.
Yet
in his remarks about the temple Stephen had proclaimed, and rightly
so, that no earthly building could limit
the presence of God to one building.
God is a Spirit being who fills the heaven
and the earth and most surely cannot
be limited to the four walls of any
building no matter how fine a structure that
building may be.
It
was not Stephen who had spoken against Moses.
It was some of the
Jewish forefathers who had spoken against
Moses and had rebelled against him and
rejected him.
VI.
One greater than Moses
Moses
indeed was a great man and had done a great work. He had delivered
the children of Israel from Egyptian
bondage. He had established the Law
Covenant between God and the nation of
Israel. He established a new system of
religious worship. He built the tabernacle which was the
forerunner of the
Jewish temple.
But
in spite of the greatness of Moses and the great work that he did
Moses himself foretold that there would
come another like him and that one is
far greater than Moses. Moses brought the Old Law Covenant. The word,
covenant, means “testament.” Therefore, Moses brought the Old
Testament. He
did not write all of the books of the Old
Testament, but he was the mediator who
brought the Law Covenant with Israel which
formed the basis of all the Old
Testament books. But Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New
Testament. He did
not personally write any of the New
Testament books, but He is the One who,
through the Holy Spirit, inspired the
writing of all the New Testament books.
In fact, He, through the Holy Spirit,
inspired the writing of all the Bible.
But
my point here is not really the writing of the books of the Bible.
The point that I am making is that Jesus
was the Mediator of a better covenant
than the Law Covenant. Moses delivered the children of Israel from
bondage to
the Egyptians, but Jesus Christ delivers
men from bondage to sin. In John 1:17
we read, “fore the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ.”
The law which Moses brought to man could never save anybody. It was
never intended to save anybody. In Galatians 2:21 the Apostle Paul said,
“...for if righteousness come by the law,
then Christ is dead in vain.” If men
could have been saved by keeping the law,
there would have been no need for
Christ to die on the cross. If men could be saved by keeping the law,
then God
the Father would have never put His Son
Jesus Christ through the horrible
torment that He went through on the
cross.
The
New Covenant or New Testament was a better covenant because it
provided a better sacrifice for the sin of
men than the Old Law Covenant
provided.
The Law Covenant provided the blood of animals to be shed at the
brazen altar in the tabernacle or
temple. The Scripture says that the
blood of
those animals could never take away
sin. They served their purpose by
picturing
or illustrating the blood that can take
away sin. It is said in the Book of
First John that the blood of Jesus Christ
can cleanse the sinner of every sin.
Conclusion:
The
Jewish leaders thought Stephen had rejected Moses and the law. He
hadn’t.
But on the other hand, they had rejected the Christ whom Moses had
foretold would come. They had rejected Him who is the Son of
God. They had
rejected Him who is the Savior.
Man
can make that same mistake today. Jesus
said, “Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heaven laden and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in
heart and ye shall find rest unto
your souls.”
Jesus
promised “...rest unto your souls” by taking away all your guilt of
sin.
Please do not reject Jesus as did the Jewish leaders. Trust in Him and
come to Him by faith and find rest unto
your souls.