Lechem Panim #150 "The God of Glory” (Acts 7) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome again to Lechem Panim. In recent weeks we have been taking a look at the life and ministry of Stephen, one of the men chosen by the apostles to help wait on tables. And yet (as we have seen) God was also using him to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel and to perform miraculous signs and wonders that confirmed his message. Yet when he started proclaiming the Gospel in some of the synagogues, he was met by violent opposition. At the end of chapter 6 (6:13-14) Stephen is accused by a group of men from various Hellenistic synagogues of threatening God’s temple and rejecting the Law of Moses (the Torah). And these are very serious accusations; and are the same ones (interestingly) that had been leveled against Jesus Himself. And so it seems that the men of these synagogues apparently are so threatened by Stephen, that they are after his very life.

Stephen’s Apologia— Now our chapter today (chapter 7) is really quite an amazing chapter; because in it we have Stephen’s apologia (his defense) of both himself and of the Gospel. Now I don’t think Stephen was so interested in preserving his own life as much as much as he was interested in defending what it was that Christianity was really teaching. Christianity wasn’t about throwing out the law of Moses or those things that had been at the heart of the Jewish faith, but rather was a fulfillment of all of those things. And we see this in his apologia (his defense) here in our passage today, which he roots in the Old Testament scriptures themselves; particularly in the Law of Moses, whom his accusers are saying he is rejecting. And it is significant to note that this address is the longest of any address in the book of Acts; and it is a summary of the Old Testament, particularly of the lives and ministries of some of Israel’s greatest leaders. We have Abraham in verses 2-8; we have Joseph in verses 9-17; we have Moses in verses 18-44; Joshua in verse 45; and David and Solomon in verses 46-50. And the reason that Stephen brings up these men is both to defend himself against the indictments made against him by his accusers, but also to indict the religious leaders themselves (and Israel as a whole) for rejecting the Messiah. Stephen shows in a very powerful way how there was a pattern of behavior in Israel; a destructive pattern that had caused them serious problems throughout the entirety of their history, and which would ultimately lead to their downfall if they did not repent; and that pattern of behavior is seen in that Israel had this tendency to always resist the will of God and even persecute those whom God was using as His instruments through whom he was moving His salvation plan forward. All of these leaders Stephen mentions dealt with rejection by the Jewish people. And Stephen very clearly says that the Jewish leaders are practicing that same behavior. Now this is remarkable because while it is supposed to be Stephen on trial, like when Peter and the apostles had stood trial, Stephen (the defendant) turns the tables on them and becomes the prosecuting attorney!

Temple-Focus— And in his prosecution; his indictment, we see two major overarching themes. The first is of course Israel’s rejection of God’s messengers. And that theme is climaxed in their rejection of the Messiah. But then you have another theme; and that is in relation to God’s sovereignty and His glory. Notice the title Stephen uses when talking about God. It says in…

Acts 7:2 (ESV)— 2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

The God of Glory— He calls God by this title The God of glory. And then in verse 55 it says that as he is gazing into heaven he saw the glory of God. And keep in mind that this whole time he is there, standing before the Sanhedrin on trial, his very face is radiating with that same glory, as it says his face was like that of an angel. There is so much emphasis in this passage on the glory of God. Why is that? Well, it’s because Israel was unique in that they were a people who had been hand-chosen by God to have His glory as part of their inheritance. And Paul really hones in on this in Romans 9:4 when he says of the Jewish people…

Romans 9:4 (ESV)— 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

Their Privilege Lost— Now remember that though Israel had had the privilege of having in their midst the very glory of God, the glory of God left them, first from the tabernacle (which we read about in 1 Sam. 4:19–22) and then later from the temple (which we read about in Ezek. 10:4,18). And so the tabernacle and temple became places void of the glory of the presence of God when they were supposed to be places filled with the glory of God. And rather than the seeking the glory of God, we find (especially when we come to the New Testament) that the Sadducees had made the temple (not God) the focal point of their religion. Everything had become about the temple; a temple that was ultimately a man-made thing. Now God wanted to bring His glory back, but (interestingly) not to the temple. No, He wanted to reveal Himself in a much more intimate and personal way than that; and so He reveals His glory in the person of His Son Jesus Christ (John 1:14), who became man in order to bring God’s glory into the very flesh of our humanity. That is how personal God gets with us. And the writer of Hebrews really wants his listeners to catch the awesomeness of that, which is why the book opens with his saying of Jesus in…

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)— 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

At God’s Right Hand— So in Jesus the glory of God is revealed. And Stephen sees that glory at the end of chapter 7 as he is being stoned; executed at the hands of these religious leaders. And (as the author of Hebrews says) Jesus is at the right hand of God; and that is how Stephen sees Him. But notice that (unlike the passage in Hebrews) Jesus isn’t sitting. No, look again. It says in…

Acts 7:55 (ESV)— 55 But he {(Stephen)}, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Jesus Standing— So Jesus isn’t sitting; he’s standing. Do you know why? It is most likely because it was customary during that time (as it still is today), when you were making a defense before a judge, to stand. You stand when you are presenting your case. And so what is Jesus doing? He’s standing for Stephen. How beautiful is that! Remember, Jesus had promised all the way back in…

Matthew 10:32-33 (ESV)— 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus Stands for Us— Here we find Stephen standing for Jesus. And as he’s doing that, we get a glimpse into what happens also in our day to day lives when we choose to stand for Jesus. Jesus stands for us! He stands for us before our accusers; and He stands for us before the Father and bears testimony that yes we are His. Now we might still face persecution and death (which Stephen does at the close of this chapter); but ultimately when we get to heaven we will know that we are welcome because Jesus will have already stood for us.

The Glorious Plan— Now one more thing needs to be highlighted about Stephen’s summation of Israel’s history. And that is that from the beginning, we see that God had a glorious plan for the salvation of the world; a plan that He faithfully worked out in and through His people and (eventually) in and through His Son Jesus.

God’s Plan Not Thwarted— And you know what? God hasn’t changed; neither has His promises. God has a plan for your life and for my life as well. And let me tell you, that plan isn’t thwarted by our persecution or our trials. Whatever those are in your life, God foresaw them; and He has a plan to reveal His glory to you in those persecutions and trials and to actually use them to further his plan, which (if you are faithful to Him) will lead ultimately to your salvation.

    I want to point out something that I think we know, but we often forget. And that is that in the story of Joseph, after God had revealed through Joseph’s dreams that he would rule over his brothers, his brothers subsequently sold him into slavery to nullify that promise of God. But how does the story end? Were they able to thwart God’s plan? No; in fact they only helped to further it. And that was one of the reasons Joseph was able to forgive them; because he recognized how God used even their sin against him to further His plan and to save an empire and the surrounding countries from utter ruin. At the time of the Exodus, Pharaoh couldn’t stop God’s plan either. He tried to resist as well, but instead his resistance only served to make the deliverance of God’s people all the more fruitful, as Israel consequently gained favor in the eyes of the humbled Egyptians, who gave them whatever they asked for; and thus they were able to plunder the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36); and it was that plundering of the Egyptians that may have furnished them with much of the necessary materials they would need to build the Tabernacle. In the New Testament, Herod also set himself to resist God in his attempt to kill the Jesus, the Messiah, the true King of the Jews; but ended up only fulfilling many of the prophecies God had given through his prophets hundreds of year prior about the Messiah and the events in and surrounding His birth. Pilate couldn’t thwart God’s plan either; even when he sentenced Jesus to death; again, that only fulfilled God’s plan. And even the Israelites themselves who stood up against God’s chosen leaders all throughout Israel’s history could not thwart God’s plan. God’s Messiah came and His gift of salvation has been made available to all through the very cross they condemned Jesus to death on. And so what God’s Word is revealing to us in our passage today is that in the days ahead, no matter what the future holds, we know that God’s plan is not going to be thwarted.

Personal Faith— And if you grasp nothing else from our time together today, at the very least walk away with the knowledge that God is in control over all thing’s and wants you to live in a relationship of faith and trust in Him. If we can do that, the story of God’s salvation will be our story as well. Let’s embrace Him in faith in and through His Son Jesus today. Amen.