Gospel Confronts…
Dear Foothills Community Church Family,
I’m grateful to Caryn Shoemaker for continuing our teaching series “Living Our Mission.” This week she will bring a powerful message focused on Acts 7. I encourage you to prayerfully read Acts 7 in preparation.
As we live and share the Gospel, we will see how it confronts pride, elitism, and privilege. The Israelites celebrated at least five privileges that set them apart from other nations. Unfortunately, these privileges led many to a spirit of pride, along with an attitude of spiritual elitism, especially among the Pharisees and Sadducees. We can summarize their privileges this way:
LAND. The Israelites received the promise of land from God.
LEADERS. They looked up to the patriarchs and to Moses, David, Solomon, and other leaders.
LOCATION. They worshipped God at one specific place—the Temple. Before this, they worshipped at the Tabernacle.
LORD. They enjoyed a special covenant relationship with Yahweh.
LAW. They lifted up the Law of Moses.
In Acts 7, we see Stephen masterfully retell the history of God’s people, drawing a line from Abraham to the present day. He quotes extensively from the Old Testament to show how far they had fallen. Stephen’s sermon is the longest recorded in the Book of Acts. He proves that he is not a blasphemer—rather the Jewish leaders blasphemed God by their attitudes and behavior.
Stephen showed how the Christian message is not only fully consistent with the Old Testament but fulfills it. His sermon makes clear that the ground of the Gospel is cultivated in the Old Testament.
A quick summary of how Stephen deconstructed their pride, spiritual elitism, and sense of national privilege:
God revealed himself outside the land of Israel. “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran” (Acts 7:2-8).
God’s people have always rejected their leaders. After recounting the experience Moses had at the burning bush, Stephen points out how God sent Moses as a deliverer in verse 34. In verse 35 we see how the people responded when they rejected Moses: “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’” God’s people persistently rejected the deliverers God sent to them.
God is to be revered in all locations. Stephen quotes from Isaiah 66:1-2: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?” The Jewish leaders were locked into the Temple as the only place where God was to be worshipped. Stephen reminds them the whole universe is the dwelling of God.
Stephen began his sermon standing on trial before the Sanhedrin and by the end the Sanhedrin was on trial before Stephen. The prisoner has become the prosecutor! He tells them: You have always resisted the Lord (verse 51) and you have rebelled against the Law (verse 53). They became extremely angry (enraged), closed their ears, rushed together at Stephen, threw him out of the city and stoned him.
While being stoned to death, Stephen prayerfully made two requests of God: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
When he had said this, he fell asleep. Our word “cemetery” means the place to lie down and sleep. In Greek it’s translated literally as The Sleeping Place. Jesus said about Lazarus after he died: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him” (John 11:11). Jesus later made this promise in John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Yes, the Gospel of Christ is uniquely powerful, liberating, and life-giving! Our mission is to live it and share it!
Your Pastor Duff
