PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

The sermon begins in chapter 7, but the set up begins in chapter 6. One point to emphasize is that the detractors could not “compete” with Stephen’s wisdom, and the Spirit by which he spoke (6.10). Looking at the text, we have combined together the wisdom of a good and godly man with the inspiration from a good God. Today we can imitate this by using good sense when we teach and preach, along with quoting God’s word.

In Stephen’s sermon we can see his wisdom:

• He begins by finding common ground. Most of what he says up front will be agreed to by his curious audience.
• He lays a foundation for Jesus without mentioning Jesus:
  • Abraham came to a foreign land; Jesus left heaven.
  • Abraham didn’t receive his inheritance while alive; Jesus didn’t either.
  • Israel was enslaved by Egyptians; Jesus taught sin enslaves us.
  • Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him; the Jewish leaders were of Jesus.
  • Joseph was rescued and exalted; Jesus was rescued through resurrection and exalted.
  • Joseph provided food during the famine; Jesus was the bread of life.
  • Joseph was finally revealed to his brothers; Jesus is being revealed to His.
  • Joseph invited his family to live with Him; Jesus invites His.
  • Jacob was buried in a tomb; Jesus was too but was resurrected.
  • A king arose who did not recognize Joseph; the Jewish leaders did not recognize Jesus.
  • Israelites did not recognize deliverance through Moses; many Jews did not recognize deliverance through Jesus.
  • Israelites mistreated Israelites; Jesus was a Jew mistreated by Jews.
  • Israelites did not want Moses as their judge; Jewish leaders did not want Jesus.
  • Moses taught a prophet like him would arise; but the Jewish teachers rejected the Prophet sent.
• There is shift in Joseph’s teaching from the comfortable to the uncomfortable as the Jewish listeners had to rehear their own stubborn history.
• Stephen in his sermon shows that Jesus and Jews of His time basically were reliving their entire history.
• Then Stephen turns from implication to insinuation. That leads to his death which also imitates the death of Jesus.

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This entry was posted by PHall on Friday, January 8th, 2016 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Acts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.