37
Acts
Introduction:
Stephen
was on trial before the Sanhedrin Council.
He had been accused
of speaking against Moses. In our text last Sunday Stephen voiced his
respect
for Moses and showed that the Jewish
forefathers had once rejected Moses.
Before Moses fled into the wilderness they
had rejected him saying, “Who made
thee a ruler and a judge over us.?”
Stephen
shows that after Moses returned 40 years later and showed great
miracles proving that God had made him a
ruler over them. But even after he
delivered them out of
again.
They rejected him at
reject him.
I.
Moses rejected at Mt. Sinai
V.
38, “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the
angel which spake to him in the
the lively oracles to give unto us.” The word, church, here does not refer to a
New Testament church, but rather to the
assembly of Hebrew people camped at Mt.
Sinai.
Therefore,
the time referred to here was when the children of
camped at
Commandments from God. God had already spoken the Ten Commandments
orally to
the Children of
commandments written in tables of stone by
the hand of God, Himself. Moses was
in the mountain for a period of forty
days. It was during this forty day
period
that God also gave Moses instructions for
building the tabernacle.
During
this time, the people got impatient with Moses because he was gone
longer than they had expected him to be
gone and in their hearts they rejected
him as their leader.
V. 39, “To whom our fathers would not
obey, but thrust [him] from them, and in
their hearts turned back again into
Moses at this time that they were rejecting
him, because he was up in
But in their hearts they rejected
him. They were ready to get a new leader
who
would lead them back to
lead them back.
They
even persuaded Aaron, the brother of Moses, to join them in their
rebellion against Moses. They persuaded him to build them a god which
they
could see and which they would
worship. V. 40-41, “Saying unto Aaron,
Make us
gods to go before us: for [as for] this
Moses, which brought us out of the land
of
days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol,
and rejoiced in the works of their
own hands.” They were not only rejecting Moses, but in
effect, they were
rejecting the God who had placed Moses
over them to be their leader.
II. A continued rejection of Moses and God even
after the golden
calf incident
Stephen
does not mention it here, but later when they got tired of eating
manna they rejected Moses. They wanted to fire Moses and get them a
leader who
would lead them back to
onions to eat.
Again at Kadesh-barnea after the spies who
went into
report about giants living in
with someone who would lead them back to
Moses.
Even
after Moses was dead and gone, the forefathers continued to reject
him.
They rejected him by rejecting his teachings and turning to worship idol
gods.
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
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
It
was their rejection of Moses and his teachings concerning the law of
God that caused them to worship idol
gods. They worshipped the god
Moloch.
Moloch was a god which they had learned to
worship in
worshipped him in the heathen nations
around burned some of their children in
fire to Moloch. This was most certainly contrary to what
Moses had taught them.
The children of
Moses before they could worship
Moloch.
Another false God which they worshipped was
the false god, Ramphan, known
to us today as Saturn. This was the worship of a heavenly body. This, too, was
contrary to what Moses had taught the
people of
Moses in order to worship Ramphan.
What
I want you to see is that even while the Children of
Moses in the wilderness many of them
continued to reject him. Openly they
continued to go along with him and with
the group as they traveled, but in their
hearts they rejected him and his teachings
and in their hearts and secretly in
their tents worshipped idol gods.
Furthermore,
after they went into
forefathers who continued to reject Moses
and his teachings. That is what
caused the people of
kingdom was carried away into captivity to
the Assyrians and the southern
kingdom, Juda, was carried away into
captivity to
III.
What Stephen was trying to accomplish in this part of his speech
Stephen
had originally set out to show his great respect for God, for
Moses, for the law of God given through
Moses and for the
wanted to show that such great respect for
them would not allow him to speak
disrespectfully about either of them. He would not speak disrespectfully about
God.
He would not speak disrespectfully about the Moses. He would not speak
disrespectfully about the law. He would not speak disrespectfully about the
law.
He would not speak disrespectfully about the temple.
That
was his original purpose. But it seems
that by this time Stephen had
lost his patience with his accusers and he
had stopped trying to defend himself
and that his chief objective now was to
defend the gospel of Jesus Christ. He
wanted them to know that it was not
himself who had rejected Moses, but rather
it was the Jewish forefathers who had
rejected him and had set the pattern for
rejecting Moses, rejecting the Law of
Moses, rejecting the temple of God and of
rejecting God, Himself.
Back
in verse 37 Stephen stated that Moses had foretold of the coming of
the Christ and that Moses had called upon
the people of Israel to accept the
Christ.
Stephen was convinced that when the Jewish leaders rejected the Christ
that this was also an evidence that they
had rejected Moses. If they had heeded
the teachings of Moses, they would have
accepted the Christ which Moses had said
would come.
Stephen
wanted the members of the Sanhedrin Council to see the error of
their ways and to repent. Stephen wanted them to accept the Christ and
be
saved.
VI.
One of the main objectives for us as Christians
We,
as human beings, have a great tendency to look out for our own well
being.
We are inclined to look out for Number One. We are inclined to look out
for self in material things. We are inclined to look out for Number One in
our
physical well being. We are inclined to look out for Number One in
pleasure and
enjoyment.
But
we need to be a lot more concerned about the spiritual well being of
others than about our own material well
being. It is to our shame that we pray
a lot more for our own material well being
than we do about lost souls. It is
to our shame that we spend more time and
energy working for our own material
well being than we do trying to win lost
souls to Jesus. It is to our shame
that we spend more money on our own
personal pleasure than we do to spread the
gospel to the lost.
Moses
cared what would happen to the children of Israel. Stephen cared
what would happen to the unsaved people of
Israel. May we really care what will
happen to our children, to our
grandchildren, to our neighbor’s children, and to
the unsaved whoever they may be. Our main objective as Christians should be to
serve God, to win lost souls, to teach
Bible truth and to live right in the
sight of God.
Conclusion:
I
call upon each Christian present to join me in earnest prayer for the
unsaved.
I
call upon you to pray for God to use me
and to use you to win lost
souls to Christ that they might be
saved.
I
call upon you who are unsaved to turn to Jesus Christ for the salvation
of your soul. Your soul is important.
I
call upon you Christians who are in need of a church home to seek the
Lord’s will about whether or not you
should place your membership here and get
to work for God.