Stephen's Apology
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
After charges against Stephen had been placed, the High Priest with a show of honor, said, "Are these things so?" Stephen then stood forth and made his own answer. This answer is found in Acts 7:1-60. We cannot complete our study of the Apology of Stephen in one sermon, but we will cover as much ground as we can.
This sermon, or apology, or defense, which Stephen gave not only recounts Jewish history from Abraham to Moses; but it is replete with quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures. We have seen Stephen as a man of faith and power, of wisdom and spirit, and as a man with a shining face; now we see him as a man versed in the Word of God. He knew how to open up the inspired Truth of God. He knew how to use its message to lay bare the hearts of the false men who heard his words.
I. STEPHEN'S APPEAL TO ABRAHAM (Acts 7:2-7)
Abraham was the one character that was the boast of the Jews. They delighted in saying, "We have Abraham to our father." They loved to say, "Abraham is our father." Christ answered, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill Me, a Man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham." Christ admitted that they were Abraham's seed, but He said plainly, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do."
Let us follow Stephen as he linked the memories concerning Abraham with his appeal to the "Men, brethren, and fathers."
1. "The God of Glory appeared unto our father Abraham." That was a wonderful day when God came to Abraham. He came as the God of glory. He came to Abraham with commission and promise. He came with a blessing and as a benefactor. He came to make unto Himself, through Abraham a special people, loved and honored above all the peoples of the earth.
Stephen is paving the way for his final comparison. The God of glory also appeared to the Jews in Stephen's day. He came in the Person of His Son. The Son had declared the Father, and told Him out to the Jews. The Son had done the will of the Father, spoken the words of the Father, and wrought the works of the Father; yet the Jews had spurned Him and had nailed Him to the tree.
2. The God of Glory came to Abraham with a command. The command with which God spoke to Abraham carried with it a call to come out of one country and into another. In speaking of this Stephen was doing two things:
(1) He was getting back to the beginnings of the nation. Israel was always proud of the fact that her calling had been in Abraham. She banked much upon the grand patriarch who left Mesopotamia to go forth into a land that God was to reveal. Sons of Abraham were favored sons. Abraham had been a friend of God. Unto him God had been wont to reveal His plans. God talked face to face with Abraham.
Abraham was a man favored of God, and loved of Heaven; Abraham was a man of undaunted faith and of peerless character, and he was the head of their nation. Israel felt that through him she had inherited all of her blessings. She was safely hidden in the bosom of Jehovah, simply because she was the posterity of Abraham. She was secure, no matter how far she might depart from the ways of the Lord, because she had obtained by inheritance a position of favor and of grace.
As Stephen began his apology he granted that the Jews around him were the children of Abraham. He said that Abraham was their father. He said more he said that in Abraham Israel had become inheritors of the land wherein they dwelt. They were Abraham's seed, and "to Abraham * * and to his seed" the promise had come.
Stephen granted that Israel's claims were true, but he was paving the way to say something very potent concerning her claims.
Israel had not known the day of her visitation. She was Abraham's seed but she was not able to enter into Abraham's promised heritage.
(2) He was getting back to the goodness of God in the call of Abraham. God had called Abraham to get out, that He might lead him in. This is what Stephen was setting forth. He expressed the great purposes of God in this act of love; purposes not linked up in Abraham alone, but purposes that included Abraham's seed for many generations down the line.
God gave Abraham His pledge of blessing. That pledge, however, never came upon Abraham directly, not in its fullest meaning. Abraham lived and died a stranger in the land that he should after receive as an inheritance. Abraham, with all of the blessings promised his seed, through his faith and faithfulness, never even anticipated his personal inheritance in the land he counted himself a stranger and a pilgrim down here, and he journeyed, looking for a city whose Builder and Maker is God.
This is what Stephen preached. This is what Stephen saw. But the Children of Israel saw it not,
3. The God of Glory came to Abraham when, as yet, he had no child. There is something majestic about this recital of Stephen's. Stephen is relating how God led Abraham wholly out on faith. Abraham heard the command of God to go out, and he went out not knowing whither he went. He heard the promise of God that his seed should possess a land, yet he, himself, never set his foot upon his possessions to claim them; he heard that he should have a possession in connection with a Seed that should be born of his sons, when as yet he had no son. Let me read Stephen's words. Speaking of Abraham, Stephen said:
"And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
"And God spake on this wise. That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage and entreat them evil four hundred years.
"And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
"And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs" (Acts 7:5-8).
In all of this Abraham believed God. How matchless was his faith! How far-flung was the grip of his faith? He had a faith that made the impossible possible; he had a faith that made distant centuries, near at hand. His faith looked past his own enfeebled body, and loins too old to have a son; past the barrenness of Sarah's womb, and her old age, and its helplessness concerning motherhood, and he saw Isaac born.
He had a faith that passed beyond the sphere of his own earth life; beyond the period in which his seed should dwell in a strange land; beyond all of the tyranny of Pharaoh, and the years of servitude in Egypt beyond all, and through all, he saw God's promises made real.
Was not Stephen driving all of this home to the Jews? They claimed Abraham to their father; but they possessed nothing of Abraham's faith in God. They boasted in their being Abraham's seed, but they had naught of Abraham's vision that made the unseen, seen; and, that gave substance to the things hoped for.
O glorious faith! We build upon the promises of God. We shall yet stand with Christ in glory; and, looking back we shall yet say, "There hath not failed one word of all His good promise."
O glorious faith! We walk under thy banner. We claim all that God hath spoken to us. We trust Him. We cling to His Truth. We write, "Yea, and Amen," over all that He has written.
O glorious faith! O God-given, and God-honoring faith! Be thou our portion from this time forth and for evermore.
Thank God! Stephen, a man full of faith and of power, was chosen of God to speak with majestic sway upon the faith of faithful Abraham.
II. STEPHEN SHOWED HOW TIME WROUGHT OUT THE PRONOUNCEMENTS OF GOD (Acts 7:8-16)
How marvelous it all is! Known unto God are all His works from the foundation of the world. In all the long swing of time there has never been a surprise event before God.
Man may not foretell, save by guesses, as he imagines the future by the conduct of the past. God foreknew, and therefore He foretold whenever He desired to do so.
To Abraham, before Isaac was born, and when his birth lay beyond any human possibility, God outlined to Abraham many things:
1. He told him that he should have a son and heir, to be born of Sarah who was past age.
2. He told him that his seed should be as the stars of the heaven for multitude.
3. He told him that his seed should be a stranger in a land that was not theirs for four hundred years.
4. He told him that his seed should possess the land from the river of Egypt, unto the great river Euphrates.
5. He told him of the coming of a Seed, Christ, who should redeem His people.
The above are a very small part of the things that God foretold, but these are the things that fall under the line of Stephen's message. It is familiar to us all. The envy of Joseph's brethren, their selling him into Egypt, and his exaltation to authority in Egypt, wrought out, step by step, God's purposes with His people. The dearth that came into the land, with Pharaoh's dream, and Joseph's words of wisdom and advise all played their part. The gathering in of the grain and its being stored by Joseph had its place. The famine that caused Jacob to send his sons down to Egypt to buy corn, with Joseph's making himself known to his brethren, marked progression in the plans of God, The final arrival of Jacob, with his sons, and his sons' sons; and their occupancy of the land of Goshen completed the first stage of the fulfillment of God's purposes.
Why the Lord did all of these things, we may not fully know.
III. STEPHEN SHOWED HOW GOD FIRST VERIFIED HIS PROMISE TO THE SEED OF ABRAHAM POSSESSING THE LAND (Acts 7:17)
Let us give attention to Acts 7:17 "But when THE TIME of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt."
One feels like taking the shoes off from his feet. He is walking upon holy ground. In the simple story which Stephen told, there was plainly seen the stately steppings of God, as He moved to fulfill that which He had long since promised to Abraham. Let us mark the links in the chain of events:
1. There was the multiplying of the people numerically. Canaan was a large land, capable of sustaining millions, of people. So great an extent of land would have been useless to a few scattered families. Thus, before the land was turned over to the seed of Abraham, their need of the land was assured.
When Moses finally left Egypt, with Israel, they numbered in men alone, six hundred thousand souls.
2. There was the subtilty of the new Pharaoh.
"Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
"The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live" (Acts 7:18-19).
The Pharaoh that knew not Joseph, became afraid of the fast increasing numbers and power of the Children of Israel. He saw his throne and kingdom menaced thereby, so he instituted a system of slaughter, by which the male sons born to Israel would be killed.
Israel began to cry to God by reason of their affliction. Yet, in all of this, God was only making Israel ready in heart to leave Egypt, that He might give unto her a land like unto the garden of the Lord.
"Sweet are the uses of adversity."
The nation that had sorrows and afflictions were forced to look to God for relief.
IV. THUS STEPHEN WENT ON AND TOLD IN DETAIL
1. Of the birth of Moses the deliverer (Acts 7:20-21).
2. Of Moses and his rejection by Israel (Acts 7:23-28).
3. Of Moses' forty years in Midian (Acts 7:29-30).
4. Of how God met him at the burning bush (Acts 7:31-34).
5. Of how Moses whom they refused became their deliverer (Acts 7:35-36).
With these five statements made, we have set before you the gist of Stephen's sermon, concerning Moses. We do not know but that you have already anticipated what we are about to say. Personally, we are of the opinion that Stephen had something like this in mind, and that the Jews who heard him, quickly caught the meaning of his words. Let us see the analogy between the people and Moses on the one hand, and the people and Christ on the other.
V. SOME STRIKING ANALOGIES
1. Israel today is scattered among the nations. Of old, Israel was in Egypt, now they are everywhere, sifted as corn is sifted in a sieve. God, however, has never forgotten them; although they have forgotten Him days without number.
2. Israel today is being dealt with subtilely by the nations. Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph persecuted Israel until their cry came to the ears of God, by the reason of their affliction. Once more Israel was in trouble, but God heard their cries. From among the nations, their affliction came before the Almighty.
3. Christ was born the destined deliverer of His people. At the birth of Moses, the destined deliverer had come. At the birth of Christ, the destined Deliverer had also come. We remember how the aged Simeon, taking the infant Christ in his arms, said, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, * * for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people." Then, turning to Mary, Simeon said, "Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against."
4. Christ was rejected of His brethren. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Just as Moses was rejected the first time, so also was Christ. Once more the Children of Israel failed to discern the things which belonged to their peace. She took Christ, her Saviour, and nailed Him to the tree.
5. Christ was rejected of men and is now an exile from his own house. After Moses was rejected he was a stranger forty years in the land of Midian. During that time Israel's sorrows increased. Dark days grew darker; her groans grew louder. During the eighteen hundred years that Christ, a stranger to Israel, has dwelt at the Father's right hand, the sorrows of His people have again increased. At this very hour the cup of her anguish is coming to the full.
6. Christ will come to Israel the second time. Moses saw the burning bush, burning, but never consumed. The Children of Israel still live on. Their trials and troubles have not decreased them in number, nor have they overwhelmed them away forever. When Moses went the second time, the people accepted him. So will Christ yet come to be received by His own.
We have but briefly brought before you the story which Stephen was relating to Israel, We have seen how history was prophecy. In the story concerning Israel's treatment of Moses, we have been reading the story of Israel's treatment of Christ, This comparison angered Israel beyond all bounds. In our next sermon, we will consider all of this.
Just now, we wish only to remind you that the trend of events which marked the rise and fall of Israel, with her final deliverance from Pharaoh and her entrance, afterward, into the land of Canaan, is a foreshadowing of Israel's final deliverance.
VI. STEPHEN GAVE A TWOFOLD COMPARISON (Acts 7:37-41)
1. There is a comparison between Moses and Christ. In the Book of Hebrews we read of "Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house." Later we read, "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a son over His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
2, There is a comparison between the fathers of Moses' day, and the fathers of Christ's day. Mark Stephen's charge:
(1) "Our fathers would not obey," The story of Israel's refusal to obey Moses, is a long one. There was Moses' first appearance and their repudiation of him. Then, there followed the return, after forty years, and the sad experiences during the forty further years of wilderness journey-ings. Never did they manifest a perfect heart toward Moses.
(2) "Our fathers * * thrust him from them." This was fulfilled in many ways, during the ministry of Moses a period that stretched through the years. Time and again rebellion broke loose and the people sought to repudiate their leader. As Stephen spoke, the wrath of the people began to rise. They knew well that Stephen was likening them to their fathers. They had done to Christ, just what the fathers had done to Moses. They had refused to obey, and they had thrust Christ from them.
(3) "Our fathers * * in their hearts turned back again into Egypt." They longed for the melons, and the garlic. This seems impossible, yet it was so. They went so far as to prefer the fleshpots of Egypt to the angel's food that God rained down from heaven. We are amazed that any people would long for Egyptian bondage, and for cruel taskmasters, and for abject servitude, to the liberty and joy of God's presence and power. Yet so it was; and so it is.
The Israelites of Christ's day denied Him, and chose Barabbas. They were goaded by the Roman yoke; yet, they chose that yoke, with all that Roman tyranny stood for, to the deliverance of Christ. He who healed their sick, raised their dead, and fed them with the Heavenly Bread, was repudiated. The people set their faces against their Deliverer.
Let us not be too harsh against the Israel of Christ's day. It is the same in our day. Men still love darkness rather than light. Men have life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before them today, and the masses chose death and the curse. Christ, the Giver of every good and perfect gift is still rejected, while men enroll under the flag of Satan, the greatest of all tyrants.
(4) "Our fathers * * made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto an idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands." To what depths did the people fall. They gave themselves over to worship the host of heaven; yea, they took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of their god, Remphan. All of this outreaches the seeming possibilities of sin. How could a people who had known what they had known, and who had felt what they had felt, go to such depths of dental of God. Turning against God's servant, they soon turned against God.
We can only concede what God hath spoken, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Let us remember also, that what is true of Israel is true of the Gentiles. There is no difference for all have sinned. Are we better than they; or they, better than we? Not at all. God hath concluded all under sin. The whole world stands with their mouth shut before God, the just Judge.
Thus did Stephen charge the sins of the sons, his contemporaries, by outlining before them the sins of their fathers. And the people needed no interpreter to comprehend his message.
What Stephen said, was in line with what Paul later said. Paul spoke of the Israelites of old, of their lusting after evil things; of their being idolaters; of their committing fornication; of their tempting Christ, and of their murmuring; then he said, "These things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." What do the words of Paul imply? That Israel was no more wicked than we. That we are no better, by nature, than she. God have mercy on us all.
The Jews to whom Stephen spoke boasted in Moses, but Stephen told them they, in their treatment of Christ, were the same as their fathers had been in their treatment of Moses.
The Jews of Stephen's day knew of the sins of their fathers. They knew how God had made a covenant with their fathers, and how their fathers had refused to walk therein. They knew how their fathers had tempted God in their heart, by asking meat in their lust. They knew how their fathers had spoken against God, saying, "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" They had not believed God, nor trusted in His salvation; yea, "they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy."
As Stephen spoke he was shooting darts of conviction into the hearts of the people. We need not wonder that hearts full of envy and deceit and of every evil work were resentful. Men do not care to have their wickedness exposed. This leads us to Stephen's next great charge:
VII. A TERRIBLE CONSUMMATION (Acts 7:42-43)
There are two things which Stephen said God did. Both of these things befell the Israelites of old as the consummation of their own folly, the reward of their own sins God did them both.
1. God gave them up. How solemn, how startling are the words, "Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven!" It has always been so. It will always be so. God does not force men to worship Him. All day long He pleads. He sends messengers to call men from their evil way. He ofttimes chastens those He loves. But when His people refuse His call, He must finally give them up.
We remember how Christ said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Then what? Here are the Lord's own words, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." What Christ said, in brief, was this: "I would"; "Ye would not"; "I could not." Then the Lord gave Israel her own way. God gave them up.
What was true of Israel was also true of the Gentiles of old. The Gentiles "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up."
The Gentiles "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator"; "Wherefore God also gave them tip."
The Gentiles, "Did not like to retain God in their knowledge," even so, "God gave them over."
Israel was broken off, as a branch of an olive tree is broken. Let the Church also fear, lest she also be broken off.
What horrors He in the words "God also gave them up." Let the man who spurns the Saviour's love, beware! God may say, "Cut (him) down; why cumbereth (he) the ground."
2. God carried them to Babylon. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar felt that he was worthy of praise for his victory over Israel. He took the city, carried away its wealth and its people. He even took the golden and silver vessels that were in the Temple of God. Yet, Nebuchadnezzar's victory was no more than the permissive will of God. The fact is that God was using the wrath of man to praise him. He was using Babylon's king as a whip in His hand, to whip a disobedient and a gainsaying people.
It was something akin to this, that God spoke to the Corinthians, when He said, "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
It was something akin to this that Christ had in mind when He said to Peter, "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat."
Let saints, as well as sinners, remember that the way of the transgressor is hard. With sinners eternity holds the lake of fire. With saints the present day brings chastisement.
There are some who may feel that God is too severe in His judgments. Stephen, therefore, returns for a moment to the consideration of Israel's blessings and favors, given her of God.