Opposition Towards a Rescuer who was Family...

This week, we are looking at a story that is recorded for us in the book of Acts that reveals a pivot point in the lives of these early followers of Jesus as they engaged in the co:mission that they had been given. Yesterday, we saw that a man named Stephen was arrested and charged with attempting to destroy the Temple and the Jewish Religious system that the Law imposed. Today, we will see Stephen respond to these charges by preaching a sermon to the most powerful people in the Jewish nation. So let’s look at this sermon together, beginning in Acts 7:2:

And he said, "Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, 'LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY AND YOUR RELATIVES, AND COME INTO THE LAND THAT I WILL SHOW YOU.' "Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. "But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS DESCENDANTS AFTER HIM. "But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS. "'AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY WILL BE IN BONDAGE I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,' said God, 'AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.' "And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Stephen begins his sermon by reminding the council that God had made a promise to Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish people. And in the very first letter that is recorded for us in our Bibles, called the book of Genesis, we read that God appeared to Abraham and made a promise that he and his descendants, who became the Jewish people, would have a special relationship with Him. God also revealed to Abraham that the Jewish people would spend time in slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt.

God then explained to Abraham that He would demonstrate the fact that He was a promise maker and a promise keeper in two significant ways. First, God would send the Jewish people a deliverer, a rescuer to bring them out of slavery.
Second, God gave the Jewish people the covenant sign of circumcision. Circumcision was a covenant sign that identified the Jewish people as being God’s people.

Circumcision was an outward sign was done in order to demonstrate an inward commitment and relationship to God. Circumcision was a religious act that was required to be performed under the Law so that you would be able to be identified as being right with God as part of the Jewish religious system. Stephen then reminded the council that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all identified themselves with God and with God’s promises. Stephen then continues his sermon by reminding them of the story of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose descendants formed the Jewish nation:

"The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household. "Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. "But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. "On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was disclosed to Pharaoh. "Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. "And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. "From there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Now most of us have probably heard of the story of Joseph, which is found in Genesis 37-50. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob who would later form the Jewish nation. And Joseph was the son who had a dream where God revealed to him that he would be the deliverer and leader of the Jewish people. Stephen reminds the council that Joseph’s brothers, out of jealousy of Joseph being Jacob’s favorite son and because of the dream that he had been given by God, responded by throwing him into a pit and selling him into slavery.

After being falsely accused of rape and being thrown in prison; after being all but forgotten by his family and by those who he had helped while in slavery and in prison for thirteen years, Joseph rises to be second in command of all of Egypt and is used by God to deliver the Egyptian nation and the Jewish people from starvation at the hands of a devastating famine.

Stephen’s point is that in spite of the fact that Joseph’s brothers rejected Joseph as their deliverer, in spite of their act of selfishness and rebellion against the deliverer that God had provided them; God used that selfishness and rebellion to position Joseph in a position to deliver the Jewish people from certain death. Stephen then reminds the council of another person who played a prominent role in the history of the Jewish people.

We will meet that person tomorrow...