Let’s open up our Bibles together to the book of Acts. Our passage today is Acts 7:1–53, which is essentially just a sermon. It’s Stephen’s sermon to the Pharisees and Sadducees in the Sanhedrin. 

In last week’s passage, we saw the saintly Stephen get arrested and intimidated for his commitment to Christ. That was followed by false accusations against him. And instead of defending himself in Acts 7, Stephen does kind of like the Apostle Peter. He doesn’t defend himself. He just preaches a sermon. And as someone who writes sermons for a living, I’ve got to tell you, this is fantastic, hard-hitting, Christ-exalting sermonizing in Acts 7. 

Several years ago, I heard that the British playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once called Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 boring. I find that interesting. Because when I was in college I read some stuff written by George Bernard Shaw. And the word that I would use for some of it is “boring.” I guess it depends on what you’re passionate about.

If you, like me, are passionate about God’s Word, and passionate about OT history, which Stephen gives us a summary of here, this is not boring. This is a fascinating account of God’s repeated interaction with his stiff-necked people. 

If you were to ask, “What’s this sermon about?” or “Why does he recount all of this Israelite history?” Well, Stephen gives you a clear declaration of that in verse 51. 

51 “You stiff-necked people… you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 

What does it mean to be stiff-necked? I’ve entitled this message “A Sermon to Stiffnecks.” What exactly is a stiff-necked person? Well, this is OT language. It’s the Jewish equivalent to what we in the Gentile world might call pigheadedness. It’s a farmer’s metaphor for obstinacy. It describes an ox or a another beast of burden that refuses to respond to the prodding of its master, and instead stiffens its neck. And when an animal did this, its master couldn’t guide it where it needed to go. 

When a person is described as “stiff-necked” in the Scriptures, it means that they refuse to follow the guidance of the Lord. They refuse to go where God directs them. Just as an object lesson, everyone tense up your neck for a moment. You can sense what the word means, even as you do that yourself. This is a symbol of rebellion. It’s a gesture of stubbornness. “I’m not going to do what you tell me to do, Lord. I refuse to relent. I refuse to be led.”

The place in the OT where this “stiff-necked” terminology is most prominent is in Exodus when the Israelites make a golden calf and reject the Lord’s leadership over them. That’s why Stephen emphasizes that incident in his recounting of Jewish history. And then at the end of his sermon he says,

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, 

Stephen is saying there, “You might be circumcised in the flesh, but your metaphysical heart (the center of your will) is uncircumcised. All you have is heartless religiosity! All you have is ritual and legalism. There’s no sincerity in your faith.”

you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 

“You are just like them. You’re doing exactly what they did.” It’s funny because Stephen totally turns the tables on these religious leaders here. Stephen is the one accused of wrongdoing, but you wouldn’t know it from his sermon in Acts 7. He’s the one accusing them. 

When I was a kid, the best clapback on the playground when someone called you a name was the following: “I know you are, but what am I?” Someone calls you a thief or a punk or a jerk, and you just say, “I know you are but what am I?” Best comeback ever!

Well Stephen’s sermon is a very sophisticated form of “I know you are but what am I?” The Jewish leaders accuse Stephen of opposing God and opposing the Word. And Stephen says, “No, No! You are the ones opposing God. You are the ones resisting the Holy Spirit and rebelling against God, just like your fathers did before you.”   

As your fathers did, so do you.

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Let’s take a closer look at Stephen’s sermon and then we’ll talk application. Stephen’s sermon has five sections. Write this down as the first. Stephen starts with father Abraham and the glory of God. 

1) Abraham and the glory of God (7:1–8)

In verse one, the high priest (Annas or Caiaphas?) speaks. 

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 

In other words, “Are the accusations against you true, Stephen? Do you plead guilty or not guilty?” “Did you blaspheme God? Did you speak against Moses and the temple? Are you connected to this insurrectionist, Jesus of Nazareth, who said he would destroy this temple and change our customs?” Stephen is given a chance to defend himself here. But like Peter before him, he cares little about defending himself. He cares more about preaching the truth. And just like Peter, Stephen’s going to go back to the OT to defend his position. In Stephen’s case he goes all the way back to father Abraham. 

Look at verse 2. 

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,

In other words, “God’s glory is not localized in Jerusalem or in the temple. God appeared in his glory to Abraham even when he was in Mesopotamia.” There’s a subtle rebuke here in Stephen’s words. You can’t restrict the power and the presence of God to Jerusalem or the temple. 

Look at verse 3.

3 and [God] said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. 

 Haran was not quite the promised land. It was just outside of Canaan. 

And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 

So Abraham had no temple, and no inheritance in his lifetime. He lived according to the promises of God. He believed God, and he built his life on God’s promises.

Look at verse 6.

6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others [Egypt], who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 

Now Abraham was a man of faith, and he is commended by God for his faith. But Abraham wasn’t perfect. He had feet of clay, and his mistakes bleed all over the pages of the OT. Abraham was never stiff-necked towards the Lord. But he is halfhearted at times in his obedience. 

One of the threads that we see here throughout Stephen’s message is that God is slow to anger. God has forgiven and provided for stiff-necked sinners over and over again. And I think that’s part of Stephen’s message to these religious leaders in Jerusalem. “You are stiff-necked and have screwed up royally by crucifying Jesus and defying God’s plan for redemption. But even now you can be forgiven if you repent.” God is even gracious and forgiving to stiffnecks like you and me in our own day.  

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Now, here’s the second movement in Stephen’s sermon. Now he’s going to address Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph and his stiff-necked brothers. 

2) Joseph and his stiff-necked brothers (7:9–16)

Notice what Stephen says about Joseph and his brothers in verse 9.

 9 “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt;

God had a plan for Joseph. God was going to make him into a great leader. God even revealed to Joseph through dreams, when he was a kid, that he would be a great leader for his people. But Joseph’s stiff-necked brothers resisted the will of God and “jealous of Joseph,” they sold him into slavery. 

But “God was with [Joseph],” Stephen says. 

God was with him 10 and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 

Now watch how Stephen presents Joseph as a deliverer to his family. What man intended for evil, God meant for good (see Gen 50:20). And there’s some typology that Stephen is pointing out here… if you are attentive to what he’s saying. 

Look at verse 11. 

11 Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit. 13 And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all. 15 And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers, 16 and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

God used Joseph’s precarious situation to bring about salvation for his father Jacob and his lousy brothers. Both God and Joseph were merciful to Joseph’s brothers who deserved death for their actions. They rejected and betrayed Joseph, yet Joseph, in return, saved their lives. Who does that remind you of? Who else did something like that?

John Macarthur writes this, “As Joseph was able to deliver his sinful brothers from physical death, so Jesus delivers His brothers from spiritual death.” There’s no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what Stephen is doing by mentioning Joseph. He is creating a parallel between Joseph and Jesus and Joseph’s lousy brothers and the lousy religious leaders of Israel in his day. Preach it, Stephen! 

Stephen isn’t really defending himself in this speech. He’s turning the tables on these religious leaders and subtly accusing them. He’s subtle at this point anyway… his subtlety is going to diminish later!

Look, here’s something you need to know. We’re all stiff-necked sinners. We were born that way. We were born with stubborn rebelliousness flowing in our veins. It’s part of our inheritance from Adam and Eve when they fell in the Garden of Eden. And so when we hear Stephen’s message we shouldn’t laugh at these stiff-necked Sadducees and Pharisees. Nor should we despise them for their rebellion. They are us. And we are them. But thanks to God, who is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, we have been provided this great opportunity for salvation. 

And part of what Stephen is saying here is, “Stop resisting the Holy Spirit. Repent of your sins. Repent and embrace Christ as your Savior.” 

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Speaking of stiff-necked rebellion, write this down as #3. This third section deals with Moses and Israel’s rejection of him as a rescuer. 

3) Moses rejected as rescuer (7:17–43)

Now before we get into the details of Stephen’s sermon concerning Moses, let me just point out a few facts about this section of the sermon. First of all, notice the structure. Stephen structures his comments about Moses around the three forty-year periods of Moses’s life. There was his first forty years in Egypt (7:17–22). Then his next forty years in Midian (7:23–29). And then his final forty years leading the people out of Egypt and into the promised land (7:30–43). 

Notice too that approximately half of Stephen’s sermon deals with Moses. Why so much focus on Moses? Well, probably because the Hellenistic Jews accused Stephen of speaking against Moses (see 6:11). This is Stephen’s way of saying, “I know Moses. I know Moses better than you do! And I’m speaking the truth about him.” 

Also Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, which were the only books the Sadducees held as Scripture. So it makes sense for Stephen to focus his attention on their hero and the author of their books. 

Another key point in the life of Moses is that he never entered the promised land. He never came to Jerusalem, and he never saw the temple. He, instead, wandered in the wilderness while God manifested his presence in the tabernacle. Once again, Stephen is subtly emphasizing that God is not localized in Jerusalem or in a temple. In fact, almost the entirety of this sermon deals with events that take place outside of the boundaries of the promised land. Stephen, as a Hellenistic Jew, has a better understanding of Jesus’s mission to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (1:8), than even the apostles do at this time! 

So, Moses. “You wanna talk Moses, religious leaders! Let’s talk Moses.” Look at verse 17.

17 “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt 18 until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. 19 He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. 20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. 

Not beautiful in the sense that Moses had high cheek bones and flowing locks like a baby Fabio or something. No, Moses was strong in features and in temperament. And he was a man who was uniquely gifted to lead the Israelites out of Israel. 

He should have been killed in his infancy by Pharaoh’s decree. But here’s the irony. Not only was he spared from Pharaoh’s decree, but he was spared by Pharaoh’s own daughter. So Pharaoh raised in his house the very child who would later smite his people, the Egyptians, and liberate the Israelites. God has a unique way of going about his plan.

Look at the middle of verse 20.

And [Moses] was brought up for three months in his father’s house, 21 and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 

If you remember, Moses thought he was a bad speaker. He begged the Lord not to let him speak, and to speak through his brother Aaron instead (Exod 4:10–17). But Moses, through God’s help, eventually found his voice. And Stephen rightly calls him “mighty in words and deeds.” And he wasn’t just mighty in the spoken word. He was also mighty in the written Word.

Well Moses, at age forty, tries to liberate his people. But look what happens. Look at verse 23. Stephen gives us more detail here than even Moses gave us himself in the Pentateuch.  

23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. 26 And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ 27 But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

In other words, they rejected their rescuer. God sent Joseph to rescue them; they rejected him. God sent Moses to rescue them; they rejected him. They are a stiff-necked people. We are a stiff-necked people. God sent Jesus to rescue Jews and Gentiles both. And we reject him. 

But God has a plan even in that rejection. Moses goes down to Midian and spends forty years there. 

29 At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 

He conceivably has all but forgotten his Israelite brothers. And that’s when Yahweh shows up on Mount Sinai.

30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 

Again notice that God is not localized in the temple. God can appear and make holy ground out of a mountain in Midian! God is not a genie in a lamp. He is God of the Universe, not just the God of Jerusalem. You can’t put God in a box!  

Look at verse 34.

34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’

Now notice again the curious way that God works. Look what Stephen highlights here in verse 35.

35 “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Stephen calls Moses, “both ruler and redeemer!” Here’s what Stephen is preaching to the Sanhedrin. I don’t know if they are picking up what he’s laying down. He’s telling them, “Your forefathers rejected Joseph, and God made him a deliverer. Your forefathers rejected Moses, and God made him a redeemer. You rejected Jesus. But God has made him “the Deliverer” and “the Redeemer” of his people. Quit fighting against God! Quit kicking against the goads like your forefathers. Loosen your stiff necks and embrace Christ as Savior.” 

They accused Stephen by saying, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God” (6:7). But Stephen says, “O no, I’m not! You are rejecting Moses! Just like your forefathers did in Egypt.”

Look what Stephen says in verse 36. He’s not taking his foot off the gas.

36 This man [Moses] led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’ 

This is a quote from Deuteronomy 18:15. In other words, Stephen is saying, “Moses knew that someday God would raise up a Messiah, an even-greater Moses, Jesus Christ. Yet you have rejected him. You are the ones opposing Moses, not me.” 

38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us. 

Listen to this for a moment. Let me describe someone and you tell me who it is. If I were to tell you, “There was a Jewish man sent by God to rescue his people. He did signs and wonders. He spoke for God and received living oracles to give to them. He was a mediator between God and man. But his own people rejected him.” Who am I talking about? 

If you said, “Moses,” you are correct. If you said, “Jesus,” you are correct. Why? Because Moses himself said, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.” Moses was a type of the mediator/rescuer to come in Jesus. And Jesus is the true and better Moses. 

Look at verse 39. Here’s where the stiffnecks come in.

39 Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 41 And they made a calf in those days, 

The Israelites got restless when Moses was meeting with God on Mount Sinai. And in their restless agitated state, they created an idol with their own hands. Calf worship was an essential aspect of Egyptian religion. And so as the Israelites started pining after Egypt… and as they remembered the good old days when they were slaves in Egypt eating leeks and cucumbers… they resorted to Egyptian paganism.

41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away 

That’s a terrifying statement right there, by the way. “God turned away.” See Romans 1 for more on that. You would much rather have God chasten or correct you, than turn away. 

42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 

Moloch was the despicable God of the Ammonites (1 Kgs 11:7). Pagan nations offered up child sacrifices to the false god Moloch (Lev 18:21; 20:2–5; 2 Kgs 23:10).

Stephen, who knows his Bible well, quotes the prophet Amos here. Amos indicted the Israelites 700 years after the Exodus for their stiff necks. Amos tells them, “You are just as stiff-necked as your forefathers in the wilderness.” And Stephen, more than 700 years after Amos, is saying in his day, “You are just as stiff-necked as your forefathers in the wilderness and your forefathers in the days of Amos before they were taken into exile in Babylon.” “You were stiff-necked 1,400 years ago. You were stiff-necked 700 years ago. You’re still stiff-necked today.”

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So that’s Stephen’s take on Moses. As part of his “defense” he tells the Sanhedrin that the stiff-necked Israelites rejected their rescuer, Moses. But he also emphasizes this… write this down as #4.

4) God doesn’t dwell in houses (7:44–50)

Stephen says in verse 44,

44 “Our fathers had the tent of witness [The tabernacle] in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.  

What’s Stephen doing here? He’s summarizing hundreds of years of Israelite history in a few sentences. And he’s focusing on the “house” that Solomon built for God. This was the other part of their accusation against him. They said that he had spoken against Moses and against the temple (6:13–14). Stephen has dealt with Moses. Now he’s transitioning to the temple. “You wanna talk temple, religious leaders, let’s talk about the temple. There was no temple until Solomon!”

And even so, look at verse 48.

48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, 

By the way, there’s a subtle dig here at the religious leaders in verse 48. Look how verse 48 parallels verse 41. Do you see that? In verse 41 it says, 

41… they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands…

In verse 48, Stephen says about the temple,

48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands

Implicitly, Stephen is saying, “You religious leaders have turned the temple into a kind of golden calf. You have reduced God to a building and a ritual. You have perverted this great thing, the temple, that God had created to meet with his people and foreshadow the coming of Christ… you have perverted it into a superstitious, ritualistic, idolatrous good-luck charm for the Jewish people.” It was a talisman for these Jewish leaders, and they were the witch-doctors who thought they could manipulate God.  

And Stephen has to remind them from the prophet Isaiah, “God is not restricted to a building.”  

as the prophet says, 49 “ ‘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? 50 Did not my hand make all these things?’ 

“Forget what your hands have made. What did my hand make,” says God. The accusation against Stephen was that he had spoken against the temple and defamed this great house of worship for God. And Stephen’s defense, which is really more of a counter-accusation, is “No, you’ve defamed the temple. You’ve defamed this good thing that God has given us, by turning it into an idol. Your superstition has kept you from seeing that Christ is the fulfillment of all those temple sacrifices. The temple will be destroyed, but Christ will be forever.”

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Now, here’s where Stephen brings it all home. How’s Stephen going to land this plane? How’s he going to connect these dots in his sermon? Well, here’s how he does it. He shows them the pattern of stiff-necked rebellion that they are part of.

5) The pattern of stiff-necked rebellion (7:51–53)

When I used to read this sermon, I used to think that verse 51 came out of left field. Like Stephen was just having a nice little chat with the Sanhedrin and giving them a history lesson… but then Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde, and he goes berserk on them in verse 51: “You stiff-necked people!”  

I don’t read this sermon this way anymore. This sermon has been escalating from the beginning. Stephen has been taking subtle shots at the religious leaders since the beginning. He’s condemning them for their superstitious affection for the temple. He’s comparing them to the stiff-necked patriarchs of old. And he’s criticizing the way that they think they can control God and localize him in Jerusalem. 

Now I see Stephen, as a skilled preacher, who has slowly but confidently started to intensify his tone all throughout the message. He started by saying, “Brothers and fathers, hear me” (7:2). He ends by saying,

51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 

“Uncircumcised in heart and ears” is the language of the prophet Jeremiah (see Jer 4:4, 6:10, 9:26). That was Jeremiah’s indictment on the people, before they were taken captive to Babylon.

Speaking of the prophets, Stephen says in verse 52.

52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.” 

Notice Stephen doesn’t mention Jesus by name. That’s curious to me. He simply calls him “the Righteous One,” which is a famous messianic title from Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53:11 says that the righteous one, the servant, makes “many to be accounted righteous” and bears “their iniquities.” 

Verse 53 intensifies the indictment against the Jewish leaders. They had the law delivered to them. Rabbinic tradition suggested that God used angels to deliver the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. And yet, they who should have known better did not abide it. 

This is the same kind of indictment that Jesus used. “Have you not read,” said Jesus repeatedly (e.g., Matt 12:3, 19:4; 22:31; Mark 12:10, 26; Luke 6:3). Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). Jesus said, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46).

It’s interesting to me here how many parallels there are between Stephen and Jesus. They were accused of the same kinds of things. They stood before the same leaders in the Sanhedrin. They met similar fates. But there is one striking difference between Stephen and Jesus. When Jesus was accused, he gave no answer. Isaiah 53 prophesied this: “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” When Jesus did speak, he spoke briefly… to Pontius Pilate for example (see John 18:33–38). He certainly didn’t preach.

But Stephen, on the other hand, was not silent. Isaiah 53 wasn’t about him. It was about his Savior. So when he gets his one shot to preach to hardhearted, stiff-necked religious leaders in the Sanhedrin, he doesn’t waste that opportunity. He preaches his heart out. He preaches, in fact, the longest sermon in the book of Acts! And he probably would have preached more. But he was rudely and angrily interrupted. 

Sometimes we preach Christ and people get saved. Some times we preach Christ and people hate us for it. Sometimes we are the aroma of Christ to those who are being saved. Sometimes we are the aroma of death to those who are perishing. Sometimes people preach, like Peter in Acts 2, and 3,000 people get saved (2:41). Sometimes people preach, like Stephen in Acts 7, and … well… we’ll find out next time. 

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But before we’re done, let me close with two applications. Write these down. Let me ask you two difficult questions in response to this text. These are diagnostic questions for your spiritual life. Here’s the first. 

1) What stiffens your neck?

What hardens your heart? What causes you to stubbornly resist God’s leading in your life? Could it be, maybe, unanswered prayer? “God, I’ve been asking for this for months for years, and I’m not doing anything until I get an answer from you.” What if the answer is “no?” 

What causes you to stubbornly resist God? Is it a pet sin? Or is it unforgiveness? Is it an unhealthy relationship? Or could it be an unwillingness to give up your sense of your independence? “God I’ll do anything you ask me to do, except that! God I’ll give you everything I am. I’ll serve you with my whole heart. But I won’t give you that. I won’t give you my sexuality, my financial stability, my pursuit of personal gratification or my [fill in the blank].” 

For me, I can remember distinct periods in my life where God was really pressing me to surrender everything I was to his lordship. And it was a battle for me. And I remember as a kid giving God ownership of my soul and my eternal state, but I don’t think I really relented and gave God everything I was until probably age 18 or 19. And that’s when I felt a real sensation where my neck started to relax and was no longer stiff and rigid and unyielding. And I’ll just tell you, that was a great feeling. The tension just melted away, and I experienced a great sense of relief as I submitted to God’s lordship over my life. 

Have you experienced that before? What stiffens your neck? What keeps you from wholeheartedly surrendering everything over to the Lord? I just want you to know that having a stiff-neck and a hard-heart, that’s no way to live. And you don’t have to live like that. And I believe that God is going to make things uncomfortable for you until you do relent and turn everything over to his control. He loves you enough to not let you be at ease until you release everything to his control.  

And here’s a second diagnostic question for you. 

2) What is your golden calf and what is your temple? 

What is that thing that you inappropriately worship and bow down to? What is that thing that you devote countless time, energy, and affection to instead of God? It could be something good, like the temple. Or it could be something that is pure evil, like the golden calf.

Here are some common “golden calves” in our own day. These are evil things that we idolize: 1) illicit sex, 2) greed, 3) control, 4) envy, 5) gluttony, 6) selfish gratification, 7) addictive substances, 8) lust, etc. Some people in our country become addicted to substances and the ultimate objective in their life is to get that next high. They idolize what’s killing them and they live and die tragically trying to gratify the deep desires of their soul with a sorry sinful substitute. That story is repeated again and again in our country every day.   

But for most of us in this room, it’s not the golden calves that trip us up. It’s not blatant evil that enslaves us. Satan’s more subtle than that. It’s usually those things that are good, like the temple, that steal our time, energy, and affections and become idols that compete with God. 

So what’s your temple? What’s your superstition? What’s that thing in your life, that good gift that God has given you that seduces you away from God and becomes an idol competing with him? 1) money, 2) food, 3) sex (even sex in the context of marriage), 4) art, 5) music, 6) marriage (or the possibility of marriage), 7) parenting (or the possibility of parenting), 8) your children, 9) your church, 10) your career, 11) your pursuit of happiness, 12) your legacy, 13) people’s perception of you, 14) your reputation, etc. I could go on and on. John Calvin called the human heart an idol-making factory. I could mention a million more possibilities and still not hit on those one or two things that grip your heart and cause you to take your eyes off God as the only thing that is worthy of our worship. Only you know what that thing is. Only you know and God knows where your idolatry problem lies.

All I want to say is this. When we put God’s good gifts above God, we put those things at risk. When we put ourselves or some need that we think we have above God, we put ourselves at risk. And that’s why we need to identify these “potential idols” and make sure that we don’t elevate them to a place of deity. 

So what’s your temple? What’s something that you need to confess before the Lord as a competing entity with God? Don’t repeat the mistake of these Jewish Leaders in Acts 7. Don’t be so focused on “the temple” that you miss Christ. 

Bow together in a word of prayer, and then we can sing together.