Today we’re covering Acts 7, the story of the first Christian martyr. We were going to ask the question, “Do Christians still get stoned?" (haha), but instead we want to take this story to another place.
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What do you do when the truth challenges tradition?
- We all do it: we grew up believing one thing, handed down through the generations
- Often difficult to rethink these things, ingrained
- Many times it had good roots, a tradition based on truth
- But the tradition veered off course, gets legalistic
- Became more man-made, and pretty soon the truth it was based on is no longer in sight.
- Example: religious traditions
- Not drinking alcohol
- dressing up for church
- Example: irreligious traditions
- Drinking alcohol
- Football on Sundays (missing church)
- Boating on weekends
To be clear: there are times when truth aligns with tradition
- We’re certainly not saying that tradition always loses, or that new should always replace old
- In fact, these days we need to embrace traditional family values, like:
- Marriage is one man, one woman, for life
- God made man and woman; gender is not fluid
- All human life is precious to God, including the unborn
- One more: Sex should be saved for marriage
- The key is to know where to find the truth, and then align with it
- In the examples above, old-fashioned tradition aligns with the truth
- We find it clearly in the Bible
- These are truths that should not change with each new generation
- But there are other examples where tradition actually misses the truth
- You think that by following the tradition you’re following God
- BC it’s what your parents did
- And it’s what their parents did
- But when you trace it back, somewhere it got disconnected from the truth
- So now everyone’s doing it for tradition’s sake
- And these kinds of people can be INTENSE
Today we’ll see an alarming example of truth vs. tradition
- The Jewish religious leaders grilling Stephen
- He’s challenging their traditions as he teaches about Jesus
- They think he’s missing the point bc they’re steeped in tradition
- But ironically they’re the ones missing out on the truth
- We’ll see their response to the truth-teller
- They reject the message and kill the messenger
- It’s a warning to us when we’re challenged…
Let’s get to the text:
The Setup
Acts 6:8-10 (NLT) 8 Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. 9 But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. 10 None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.
- Reminder from last week: Stephen wasn’t just a behind the scenes servant!
- Truth is available to anyone
- Not just the traditionally elite
- This is how Christianity started, and it’s still true today!
Acts 6:11-15 (NLT) 11 So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” 12 This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council. 13 The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses. 14 We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” 15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.
- Point: when you’re more committed to tradition than truth, you’re willing to lie about it!
- Irony: this undermines the very Moses tradition they were supposedly committed to
- “Thou shalt not bear false testimony”
- Gut check: are you willing to be brutally honest about the traditions you’re elevating over truth?
- Back to my example: I didn’t want to be wrong about alcohol
- Tempted to bend the truth, gaslight myself
Acts 7:(NLT) 1 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?”
- Pay attention to how Stephen responds to this question.
- Remember, they’re false accusations. But Stephen doesn’t care!
- He’s not insecure. He knows the truth. He doesn’t even defend himself.
- He was raised in the same tradition as these guys. But then he met Jesus and everything changed.
- Instead of defending against these accusations, he shares the gospel with these guys!!
- Makes me think of Olympic opening ceremony scandal
- So many Christians offended by scandal
- And they should be!
- But what’s your response?
- “God will not be mocked! Paris must burn!”
- Stephen’s response was to share the gospel
- Care more about the people who offended him
Acts 7:2-4 (NLT) 2 This was Stephen’s reply: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. 3 God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ 4 So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.
- Remember the accusations: “Stephen says Jesus wants to change the customs Moses handed down to us…”
- But Stephen starts the story well before the Law - goes to father Abraham
- Wants to show God’s heart for his people, the very context for the Law (they forgot)
- The point: Truth goes to the heart of God’s Word. It doesn’t cherry pick verses and take things out of context.
Then Stephen continues with the history lesson
- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon…
- This must have been so offensive to the spiritual leaders! How dare he instruct them?!
- They were the experts on history and tradition! But his point is that they were missing the key all along. This is easy to do when we get so focused on tradition and lose sight of the truth.
- John 5:39-40 (NLT) 39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.”
Acts 7:37-39 (NLT) 37 “Moses himself told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people.’ … 39 “But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.
- There it is. He’s showing them their place in the story. They’re not the good guys. They’re the ones who are failing to listen (shema) to Moses. (The very accusation against him.)
- Q. Why did they refuse to listen to Moses?
- Comfort zone
Acts 7:51-53 (NLT) 51 “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! 52 Name one prophet your ancestors didn’t persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One—the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. 53 You deliberately disobeyed God’s law, even though you received it from the hands of angels.”
- What a moment! He’s calling out the religious leaders
- How will they respond?
Acts 7:54 (NLT) 54 The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage…. 57 Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him 58 and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Acts 7:59 As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
- Shows his heart for them.
Q. What do you do when the truth challenges tradition?
- Their response to the truth-teller:
- eliminate the source of discomfort
- reject the message and kill the messenger
- It’s a warning to us when we’re challenged…
- What we should do:
- Go to God’s Word, the source of truth
- Embrace the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable
- The HS convicts, not us.
- And the HS allows us to respond when truth challenges tradition.