Please excuse me for retelling this little anecdote, but it has a point:
In my first year of Bible school, I was required to be in a speech class.
It was a tradition that this freshman class ended in a speech contest with the best speeches being given before a plenary session of the Baptist Bible Fellowship.
My first speech in that class was not very good – in fact it was a total disaster.
But by the end of the semester, I was one of the two boys chosen to represent our class in competition against the other two speech classes.
So one night in May I stood before 5,000 or 6,000 students, faculty and preachers from all across the country, and I addressed the assembled leadership of the Baptist Bible Fellowship
The judges of that contest were five of the biggest-named preachers of the BBF.
I think that I did reasonably well with a speech of my own design; but I didn’t win.
And furthermore, his style was a precise reflection of Bill Dowell, the president of the school, and one of the judges.
Other than a younger voice and much smaller body that winner could have been Bill Dowell himself.
His gestures were Bill Dowell; his inflection was Bill Dowell; and his speech was clearly a sermon.
Every man has his own style of communication, and his own style of sermon.
Like it or not, there is not another pastor in all the world who preaches like me.
And that may be one reason that visitors come – and visitors go.
After thirty-years of preaching I couldn’t preach a message like Stephen’s to save my life.
Two weeks ago when we took an overview of Stephen’s defense, I hope that you noticed that when we came to verse 51, there was a marked change in tone and thrust.
For several minutes Stephen had been reminding the learned elders of Israel about their history.
If it wasn’t exactly boring, it was at least very familiar to everyone who was present.
And then all of a sudden like the first, brilliant lightning bolt on an unsuspecting corn field, Stephen brought new and very harsh words crashing down upon his audience.
I have found three explanations for this day-to-night change.
Some critics say that Stephen could see that his hearers were getting angry or bored, and if he didn’t change his tune very quickly he wasn’t going to get to finish his song.
Other say that Luke edited Stephen’s sermon.
They say that the missing section brought the message higher and higher and prepared his hearers for the charge of resisting the Holy Spirit.
There would be no point in quoting the introduction without sharing the reason for the introduction and setting up the punch-line.
I think that it was just that Stephen’s preaching style was different from mine and most other preachers.
I think that he intended to soothe and calm the scribes, priests and lawyers and then when they weren’t really paying attention to slap them across their collective faces.
It may not have been my style, but it was certainly effective.
Stephen was charged with blasphemy against God, the law and the temple, and he answered those charges.
And then just about everything that he said after talking about Abraham was an illustration of his own charges against his accusers.
They were stiff-necked, wicked-hearted and resistant to the Spirit of God.
Although Stephen’s sermon was cut off, it wasn’t after his introduction, it came after his charges and before he could make his planned application.
In thinking about Stephen’s charges, let’s note the UNTAMED hearts and the UNHEARD message before coming to his UNPREACHED point.
And please remember that I’m not bringing you this message today, in order to feed your mind.
Because although some of the details have changed, the general principles apply to modern Americans as much as to the Jews of Stephen’s day.
This message is entitled: Stephen’s Charges Against Israel (AND US).
What does he mean when he declares that the leaders of Israel were stiff-necked?
Well, it certainly wasn’t a medical term.
Maybe that was just a temporary, or one-time thing, because we slept in a funny position.
And then for some of us it’s not a temporary or one time problem.
This is a very common Old Testament phrase, and it relates to an ox or some other animal which refused to wear its yoke and to pull the plow or the wagon.
Moses and the Lord often used these words to describe the rebellious children of Israel.
Listen to just one passage from Isaiah:
For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
I have even from the beginning declared it to thee.”
How well does this term apply to us and to the millions of Americans around us?
Why is the house of God forsaken? Because of the stiff necks of those who profess to be Christians.
And why do some of you refuse to be baptized? Belay your excuses, it’s because you are stiff-necked.
Why do so many professing Christians not tithe? Same reason.
Why is the teaching, preaching and study of the Word of God so hated? Because of stubborn hearts.
Remember that these people to whom Stephen was addressing had sat before the Christians before.
Some had heard the Pentecostal sermon; others had heard Peter as he stood before the Beautiful Gate.
Then Peter and John had been arrested and forced to stand before this same council, declaring that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
Then again in Acts 5 the entire body of the Apostles were called before the Sanhedrin again.
And these same priest and rabbis, senators and lawyers were cut to the heart by the message of God.
There was only one way that they could reject and resist what they were hearing – they had bowed their necks and refused the yoke.
Stephen charged them with UNCIRCUMCISED hearts.
This too is not a new charge, even though Peter might not have used those words so far in Acts.
When God was reiterating the law, this is the way that He put it in Leviticus 26:
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.”
But the outward symbols of religion don’t necessarily mean the presence of true fellowship with God.
As Leviticus puts it, a circumcised heart is a humble heart:
How many people come to THIS church but whose hearts are uncircumcised?
They aren’t as dedicated to the Lord as the Lord is dedicated to them.
The third charge that Stephen leveled against his accusers was that they resisted the Holy Ghost.
This was the theme of the much of the previous 50 verses.
But what is it to resist the Holy Spirit?
There is a sense in which it is impossible to resist or reject the Lord.
But obviously, that is not the aspect to which Stephen refers.
“Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”
The word “disposition” is found only one time in the entire New Testament, and it’s somewhat mysterious.
I am told that the root meaning of the Greek word speaks about arrangement, order and rank.
But there are some experts who think that is has something to do with order in the sense of ordination.
Clearly, when Moses climbed to the top of Mt. Sinai, it was not to have a meeting with God’s angels.
It was Jehovah who gave to Israel the law, and one copy was even written with the finger of the Lord.
And in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus is frequently called THE Angel of the Lord.
That is a lie right out of the mouth of Satan himself, and Paul fought the idea ferociously.
In the midst of one of his arguments Paul said to the Galatians:
“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.”
And I’m sure that if you had a chance to talk with the Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel,
If Saul or any of the others who were present at this meeting talked to you,
They would almost universally SAY that were striving to keep the law of the Lord.
The traditions and customs of the Jews had provided them with a thousand ways to circumvent the dictates of the law.
The Lord Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, pointed out that even when they obeyed the letter of the law they denied and broke the spirit of the law.
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, it him it is sin.”
And “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Solomon, the wisest of all the men of his generation testified, “there is no man that sinneth not.”
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
The millions of couples who are living together as man and wife who aren’t man and wife, don’t want to hear that they aren’t keeping God’s law.
The millions of women giving birth to babies outside of marriage, don’t want to be told that they are sinners and breaking the law given by the disposition of angels.
But they were resisting the Holy Ghost by not keeping the law, and by rejecting the PROPHETS.
Throughout the Old Testament, the fathers and grand-fathers of the men facing Stephen had either turned their backs or literally killed the men sent by God to call them back to righteousness.
And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t from their nation, but it broke Stephen’s heart to think about what his fathers had done.
But the rulers of Israel in Stephen’s day were behaving just the same way that the rulers behaved in the days of Jeremiah and so many other servants of the Lord.
What can more clearly prove the charge that they were constantly resisting the Holy Ghost.
They stoned the men to who prophesied of His coming, and they delivered Him to the Romans for crucifixion when He finally did come.
We see that Stephen’s message before the council was essentially the same as that of Peter and the rest of the Apostles.
But Stephen wasn’t very careful about what he said, except to make sure that it was the truth.
The charge of blasphemy which had already been leveled against him, was a capital crime.
But I feel confident that if Stephen had a chance to finish what he was saying it would have been something like the conclusion to Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”
“Save yourselves from the leadership and influence of this perverse and crooked bunch of false teachers.”
If Stephen had been given a chance to finish his sermon he might have ended with Peter’s words in Acts 3:
“And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.”
This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Some are truly and actually children of God, but still you are grieving and resisting the Spirit.
What is it in your case?
What exhortation of God are you refusing?
But like those men, you refuse to hear it.
You may think that you’re too smart for that kind of gospel.
You may think that you’re too good or righteous for that kind of salvation.
But you are not, for “there is none righteous no not one.”
You need to bow before Him, repent before Him, and to love and trust Him.
Don’t deceive yourself into thinking that you’ll have your Damascus road experience somewhere down the road.
You have no guarantee of that.