"A History of Persecutions" Sermon: Acts 7:1-53

“A History of Persecutions”
[Acts 7:1-53]
September 20, 2009 Second Reformed Church

Last week we saw Stephen, one of the first deacons, hauled before the Sanhedrin of the Jews to answer accusations, made by false witnesses, that he had blasphemed the Law of God and God Himself, that he had spoken against the Temple and the Law of God, and that he had taught that “this Jesus” would destroy the Temple and change God’s Law. And we ended by considering the fact that Stephen’s face shone with the Glory of God signifying that the message that he taught was from God – it was approved by God – and the Jews were in the wrong.

After these accusations were made against Stephen, the high priest turned to him, as we heard in this morning’s reading, and demanded, “Are these things so?” And how did Stephen answer? He answered by relating the history of the persecutions of God’s people.

Stephen went through the major history of the Israel of God up to his day and showed them that every time God did something for the Israel of God, a persecution followed. And then God would do something again, and a persecution would follow.

Stephen began at the beginning of the nation, with God blessing Abraham and choosing him to be the father of the nation of Israel. God chose Abraham and told him to leave his homeland and his family and his religion and follow Him to Canaan. But God gave Abraham himself nothing in the land, but the promise that it would belong to his offspring. And God promised him persecution – that his offspring would be taken out of Canaan to a land that they didn’t know and they would be slaves there for 400 years – as they were in Egypt, as we will remember.

But God promised to judge Egypt and save His people and to bring them back to Canaan where they would worship God as God. And God made a covenant with Abraham, and Abraham and his descendants were marked with the sign of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac, who was circumcised on the eighth day, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs, including Joseph.

But the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and persecuted him and sold him off into Egypt. But God went with Joseph and blessed him and gave him favor in Egypt and raised him up to be second in command over all of that nation.

But a famine came – which Joseph and the Egyptians had been warned about by God, so they had saved grain – and people from all over the world came to Egypt to buy grain – including Joseph’s brothers, who did not recognize him. So he sent them home the first time them came, and the second time he revealed who he was to them. And Jacob and his family – seventy-five persons – moved down to Egypt and lived there and multiplied and became a great people.

But Pharaoh died and Joseph died, and the new Pharaoh didn’t know Joseph – he just knew that there was this large and powerful people living in Egypt, who might try to overthrow him and take his kingdom away. So the Pharaoh persecuted them and had the sons of Israel put to death.

But God saved Moses, who was placed in a basket and found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who took him for her own. And Moses was raised as Pharaoh’s son, and he was instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he became mighty in word and deed.

But when Moses was forty years old, he interceded between an Egyptian and an Israelite who was being beaten, and he killed the Egyptian. But rather than see this as a sign that Moses had been sent of God to deliver Israel from her bondage, the Israelites persecuted him – denounced him and God’s call on him – and asked if he would kill them for disobedience. So Moses fled into the wilderness.

But God blessed Moses and gave him two sons, and when Moses was eighty years old, God met Moses in the burning bush and called him to go to Egypt to set God’s people free. God told Moses that God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to take his shoes off, because he was standing on holy ground. And God made him ruler and redeemer of Israel from Egypt, and God did many wonders and signs through him for the next forty years as Moses brought them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the wilderness, where he met God on Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments and the Law of God, which he delivered to the people.

But the people of Israel rebelled against Moses and persecuted him and thrust him aside, wailing that they would rather be back in Egypt with the cucumbers and garlic to eat. And they called on Aaron, Moses’ brother, to make them an idol – a visible god – that they could worship – and a golden calf jumped out of the fire and they worshiped it and bowed down to it. So God turned them over to their own devices and let them worship the sun and moon and stars.

The prophet Amos tells us that they worshiped the god, Moloch, who called for children and babies to be burned alive – “purified,” they called it – in the fire of his altar. They worshiped the god, Rephan, the Babylonian sun god. And because they committed these sins, God promised that the day would come when He would send His people into exile in Babylon – which we know did occur.

But, in the meantime, Israel came to repent of their sins, and God gave them the gift of the tabernacle – a moveable sanctuary – where God Himself would descend and meet with His people. And it when with them under the leadership of Joshua, and God went with them as well and blessed them and drove out all the nations of Canaan before them. Then, in the days of David the King, he asked God if he might build a temple for God, but God gave that work to David’s son, Solomon.

But God does not dwell in houses made by human hands – although He meets with us and ministers to us in the sanctuary, God is not a man that He can be “housed.” Isaiah records God explaining that Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool, so there is no place – no building – in which God may rest or lay His Head. For God is the maker of everything that is.

So Stephen went through this history of persecutions, the sin of Israel, and God’s blessings and forgiveness – the covenant God made with His people. And we can imagine the members of the Sanhedrin listening and shaking their heads, “yes.” “Our people were chosen by God and blessed by God, but outsiders have continued to cause us trouble – one after another. Those people have persecuted us. Those people have tried to put us down. Those people have tried to interfere with God’s Plan.”

The Sanhedrin was patting itself on the back for being the protector of Israel, the friend of God, those who stood up for and protected the Law of God – keeping it pure and unsullied by sinners. Stephen had recounted their history to them in such a way that they had been lulled into a false confidence that exposed their very hypocrisy.

Stephen said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Stephen said, “You stubborn, incorrigible people. You may be physically circumcised, but you are not part of the covenant – your heart is stone and you are deaf to the Word of God and the workings of the Holy Spirit. It was not ‘those people’ that sinned against God and His blessings – it was you and your fathers. It was your fathers, not ‘those people,’ who killed the prophets that God sent to us for our good. They killed John the Baptist in our own days – the one whom God sent to announce the coming of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, the Savior God promised – the One you betrayed and now have murdered. You hypocrites! You pride yourselves on having received the Law from God, but you do not keep it.”

There is a wonderful book by Steven J. Lawson called, When All Hell Breaks Loose, You May Be Doing Something Right. In it, Lawson looks at the life of Job, who we will remember suffered in every way without ever knowing why he suffered, and Lawson explains that sometimes, if we do everything right, all the things that God wants us to do, if we keep from sinning, that may be the very time that “all Hell breaks loose.” In other words, suffering can be a sign of our doing what’s right.

We see that in Stephen’s recalling the history of the persecutions of the Israel of God. Understand, Stephen is not saying – and I am not saying – that Abraham and Moses and others were sinless – we know they were sinners, just like us. We could understand if they and we were receiving punishment and suffering for our sins. What may be hard to understand is why we would suffer for doing what is right – what God has told us to do.

Remember again Jesus’ words, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If you keep my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates the Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause’” (John 15:18-25, ESV).

Let us understand, then, that since Jesus was persecuted for doing what is right, we will be persecuted for following Him. One of the promises of the Christian life is that if you follow Jesus, you will suffer, because the same type of people who hated Jesus for doing His Father’s Will will hate us for doing His Will.

Yet, we ought not to lose hope or stop following God – we ought not give in to the devil’s roaring. Remember what Peter said, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood through out the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen” ( I Peter 5:8-11, ESV).

Let us not be dismayed by what happens to us while we do all those things that God has put before us – including telling others about Him and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because if we believe in Jesus Christ Alone for our salvation, He promises to bring us healthy and whole into His Kingdom.

A passage that I take great hope in as someone who is chronically ill, that
we should also hope in as we face those who are violent against the Gospel, is II Corinthians 4:16-18: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (ESV).

Let us not be afraid to tell others about Jesus. Let us not be afraid of what others might do to us. Let us find our purpose and joy in following God through the strength of the Holy Spirit. And let us look forward with great expectation for the day when our bodies are restored and perfected, like Jesus’.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we don’t like to have people angry with us, and we certainly don’t want people to make us suffer. Even so, help us to stand for the Truth and to speak Your Gospel – to do all those things You have commanded us – to live lives that are examples of Who You are and Your Worthiness. And keep our hope centered on Jesus – the Author and Finisher of our faith. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.