Acts #9: Through Jesus, the uselessness of all religious systems (Acts 6,7); Patrice Berger

Acts continued

The last time, we started by stopping at the beginning of chapter 6 of the book of Acts (Check the sidebar for the full text)

A structural problem, the church in danger

We have been able to see that, faced with an internal crisis, the unequal treatment of widows of Greek origin revealed the breathlessness of the organization of the nascent Church.

The executives, that is, the apostles assumed too much responsibility (social assistance) to the detriment of their primary mission, the proclamation, and teaching of the gospel.

With the danger of doing both badly and that finally the gospel will be annihilated in its proclamation as in its expression of life.

Solution

God leads the church to appoint fully reliable gospel assistants to oversee the practical part that was time-consuming for the apostles.

Result

Thus the gospel in all its dimensions was able to continue to express itself and the Church continued to radiate Christ.

Diakonia, “service”

This text also showed us that the same term Diakonia, “service”, was used for the practical service rendered to God, as for the service of proclamation or teaching of the Gospel. Both are a service to God. There is not a service of 1 ^st division and another of the 2^nd division.

Helpers are Grounded in the Gospel

However, assistants appointed for practical service are not necessarily ignorant of the content of the Gospel, how to communicate it around them, and how to witness it.

Previous episodes

You will find the previous episodes on the site of the local church in the section:

• Preaching
  • Series
    • Book of Acts

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The structure of the book reinforces the idea

The structure of the book of Acts puts the spotlight on 2 of the 7 assistants named at the beginning of chapter 6: Stephen and Philip, thus showing the consistency of their understanding of the gospel of the same Spirit who animates them just like the apostles and Jesus Himself and their zeal to communicate the gospel.

long biblical passage

We are therefore going to read the fairly substantial passage concerning Stephen.

Starting point

The starting point of the subject of this section of text is a discussion of Stephen (very likely a Jew of Greek origin) who speaks with his congeners, of the same Greek origin, who found themselves in a synagogue particularly intended for the Jews of Hellenistic origin, that is to say, Greek.

We do not really know if they were people from several synagogues or if these Jews from different origins around the Mediterranean found themselves in the same Synagogue called “freedmen” (whose point of origin is towards Rome . Jewish slaves, eventually freed. It could be them or their children).

Clear origins

But what is certain is that Stephen speaks of the Gospel with Jews of Greek origin or speaking Greek, coming from Rome or being the descendants of those coming from Rome, others coming rather from Africa from the north, the Cyrenians (present-day Libya), and the Alexandrians (Egypt), as well as on the other side, present-day Turkey with Cilicia and ancient Asia: at that time, there were large Jewish communities in these different geographical locations.

The first step toward those far away

In fact, Stephen is one of the first disciples of Jesus to expose the gospel to people who are not completely from Judea or Jerusalem.

Understanding Universal Scope

Above all, Stephen understood the universal reach of the gospel towards all peoples and all nations.

The apostles later

Stephen understands it and communicates it before the full understanding that the apostles will make of it. In particular with the decisive meeting of the apostle Peter and the Roman officer Cornelius. Then after, the apostle Paul (who before his meeting with Jesus was called Saul of Tarsus)

Stephen and Saul?

Tarsus is part of the region of Cilicia. Who knows, maybe Saul heard the gospel for the first time from Stephen?

Saul first mentioned

In any case, we are going to meet Saul for the first time in today’s text, not in the role of apostle but in that of the religious and fanatical fundamentalist, satisfied with the murder of this first martyr and zealous disciple. in the persecution of the followers of Christ.

Similarity of trajectories

Later, in his turn, Saul who became the apostle Paul will announce the Gospel to non-Jews. This ministry would frequently meet with opposition and persecution, and eventually, the apostle Paul would also die as a martyr.

There is here, with Stephen, a precursor of what will be the apostle Paul!

And above all this beautiful mission of announcing the Gospel to all nations. As shown in the verse behind me Acts 1:8. The gospel is progressing…

Text: Acts 6: 9-15

Arrest and execution of Stephen

8 Stephen, full of faith and power, performed wonders and great miraculous signs among the people.

This seems to indicate that he is animated by the same Spirit as the apostles and Jesus himself.

These spectacular aspects are recurrent enough at the beginning of Acts to show the continuity in this inaugural phase of the Church with Jesus, the apostles, and the other disciples.

9 Some members of the synagogue called “the synagogue of the freedmen”,

• Cyrenians,
• of the Alexandrians
• and the Jews of Cilicia

and Asia began to argue with him;

10 but they could not resist the wisdom and the Spirit that inspired his words.

11 Then they bribed men who said,

“We heard him utter blasphemous words towards Moses and towards God.”

12 They stirred up

• the people,
• the elders
• and legal scholars,

then they threw themselves on him,

arrested him and took him to the Sanhedrin.

13 They presented false witnesses who said,

“This man keeps speaking [blasphemous] words against the holy place and against the law; 14We have heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses transmitted to us.”

15 All those who sat in the council looked intently at Stephen;

they saw that his face was like that of an angel.

Acts – Chapter 7

1 The high priest said:

“Is it correct?”

2 Stephen answered:

“My brothers and fathers, listen!

The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, and said to him:

3 Leave your country and your family and go to the land that I will show you.

4 So he left the land of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran.

From there, after the death of his father, God brought him to the country where you now live.

5 He gave him no inheritance in this land, not even a foothold,

but he promised to give possession of it to him, as well as to his descendants after him, even though he had no children.

6 This is what God said:

His descendants will stay in a foreign country;

they will be enslaved and abused for 400 years.

7 However, the nation of which they will be slaves, it is I who will judge it, says God.

After that, they will come out and serve me in this place.

8 Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision;

thus, Abraham had Isaac as a son and circumcised him on the eighth day, Isaac did the same for Jacob, and Jacob for the twelve patriarchs.

9 The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him to be taken to Egypt, but God was with him 10 and delivered him from all his troubles.

He gave him wisdom and grace before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who made him governor of Egypt and of all his house.

11 Then there was a famine throughout all of Egypt and Canaan. The distress was great and our ancestors could not find anything to eat.

12 Jacob heard that there was wheat in Egypt and he sent our ancestors there for the first time.

13 The second time, Joseph was recognized by his brothers and Pharaoh and thus learned of his origin.

14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his family, which consisted of 75 people.

15 Jacob went down to Egypt, where he died, along with our ancestors. 16Their bodies were taken to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

17 The time was drawing near for the fulfillment of the promise which God had made to Abraham, and the people grew and increased in number in Egypt 18 until another king came, who had not known Joseph.

19 This king attacked our people with treachery and mistreated our ancestors to the point of making them abandon their children so that they would not survive.

20 At this time Moses was born, who was beautiful in the eyes of God. He was nurtured for three months by his father 21 and when he was abandoned, the pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her son.

22 Moses was formed with all the wisdom of the Egyptians; he was mighty in word and deed.

23 He was 40 years old when he decided to visit his brothers, the Israelites.

24 He saw one being abused, took up his defense and, to avenge the abused man, struck the Egyptian.

25 His brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance through him, he thought, but they did not.

26 The next day he came among them while some were fighting and he tried to bring peace, saying to them:

‘You are brothers! Why are you hurting each other?’

27 But he who mistreated his neighbor rejected him, saying:

Who made you ruler and judge over us?

28 Do you want to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

29 At this word, Moses fled and went to live in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

30 It was 40 years later that an angel [of the Lord] appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 Seeing this, Moses was amazed at this appearance; as he approached to look, the voice of the Lord was heard:

32 I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses, all trembling, dared not look.

33 The Lord said to him:

Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

34 I saw the suffering of my people who are in Egypt, I heard their groans, and I came down to deliver them.

Now go ahead, I’ll send you to Egypt.

35 This Moses whom they denied, saying, Who made you ruler and judge?

it was he whom God sent as leader and liberator with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.

36 It was he who brought them out of Egypt by performing wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years.

37 It was this Moses who said to the Israelites:[The Lord our] God will cause to arise for you, among your brothers, a prophet like me.

38 It was he who, at the assembly in the wilderness, was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors;

he received oracles of life to transmit them to us.

39 Our ancestors would not obey him, but they rejected him, and in their hearts, they turned to Egypt 40 and said to Aaron,

Make us gods who walk before us! Indeed, this Moses who brought us out of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

41 At that time they made a calf, they offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in what their hands had made. 42So God turned away from them and left them to worship the heavenly bodies, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

Have you offered me victims and sacrifices for 40 years in the desert, community of Israel?

• 43 You Carried Moloc’s Tent
• and the star of your god Remphan,

those pictures you made to adore them!

Also, I will deport you beyond Babylon.

44 In the wilderness, our ancestors had the tent of the testimony; the one who spoke to Moses had ordered him to make it according to the model he had seen.

45 Our ancestors received it and introduced it, under the leadership of Joshua, into the land conquered from the nations that God drove out before them; and it remained there until the days of David.

46 David found favor with God and asked permission to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob,

47 but Solomon built him a temple.

48 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made by hands, as the prophet says:

49 Heaven is my throne,

and the earth my footstool.

What house can you build for me, says the Lord,

or what place can be my place of rest?

50 Was it not my hand that did all this?

51 Refractory men, uncircumcised in heart and ears!

You’re always against the Holy Spirit;

you are just like your ancestors.

52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?

They killed those who foretold the coming of the Just,

and it is he whom you have now arrested and whose murderers you have become,

53 you who received the law from the angels and did not keep it!”

54 Hearing these words,

their hearts were full of rage and they gnashed their teeth against him.

55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 He said:

“I see heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.”

57 So they cried out loudly, covering their ears, and all of them rushed at him together,

58 dragged him outside the city and began to stone him.

The witnesses had laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 They were throwing stones at Stephen, who was praying and saying:

“Lord Jesus, welcome my spirit!”

60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice:

“Lord, do not burden them with this sin!”

After saying this, he fell asleep.

Acts – Chapter 8

1 Saul approved of Stephen’s execution.

On that day a great persecution broke out against the Church in Jerusalem, and all of them, with the exception of the apostles, dispersed to the various regions of Judea and Samaria.

2Pious men buried Stephen and mourned him very much.

3 As for Saul, he sought to destroy the Church:

he entered the houses,

snatched men and women from it and threw them into prison.

The charges against Stephen

Stephen is accused twice by false witnesses who will caricature, exaggerate and interpret his remarks so that they are inaudible to the pious Jews of the time.

They say that Stephen speaks against Moses, against the law and the holy place (the temple of Jerusalem at the time) and that Jesus will change the Jewish customs (which have governed life for centuries).

Texts that refer to it:

blasphemous words toward Moses and toward God (verse 11)

This man keeps speaking [blasphemous] words against the holy place and against the law; 

14We have heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses transmitted to us. (verses 13-14)

Understanding the Work of Jesus

Indeed, Stephen understood the work of Jesus well.

If the Messiah reigns, then the law is over and the man-made temple is no longer needed!

More complete understanding of Stephen

Stephen (of Greek origin) freely shares this observation whereas the apostles (of Jewish origin) are more measured in affirming it and will still have to discuss Jewish customs such as circumcision and meats sacrificed to idols.

The end of the temple was announced by Jesus

Stephen’s statement on the temporal and transient value of the temple is not without foundation because Jesus affirmed that, if it were destroyed, he would rebuild it in 3 days ( Matthew 26:61 and John 2:19). Jesus spoke, in fact, of his death and his resurrection but also signaled, by this, the end of the place (building) for the benefit of the eternal spiritual work that He accomplished.

Inadmissible

Obviously, it is inaudible for the pious Jews of the time!

As an example, think of any major, well-established religion, with iconic holy places associated with it, and go and say with boldness that these revered places are going to be destroyed or are useless because they no longer serve anything, even if it’s true you’re going to get slaughtered!

The whole system of Jewish law called into question

Moreover, Stephen does not speak only of the temple but he is also accused of putting “on the ground” the whole system of religious and also social law which has governed the Hebrews and the Jews for centuries.

Dishonor for the great names in Jewish history

It is not only shocking and inaudible, therefore blasphemous, but it is also a dishonor for the people recognized as the founders, here Moses for example (who received the law at Mount Sinai –Exodus 19 and 20).

Not Stephen’s intention

However, Stephen does not want to shock the people for fun. It builds on what Jesus did, didn’t He “fulfill all” on the cross(John 19:30)? (thus the law, the whole sacrificial system, etc.)

Explanation

And Stephen will expose what supports this truth in the speech which is the longest of the Acts (certainly because it is super important). Five points emerge from his presentation, which will appeal to the references to Jewish identity:

• God
• The cult
• The law
• the covenant
• Jesus.

1. God

He calls him the Eternal “God of glory” (Acts 7:2), emphasizing, in the list of his speech, His love, His goodness, His sovereignty, and His faithfulness towards great figures of the founding history. Hebrews and Jews: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, …

Stephen thus shows that he is not a revisionist who would sweep away all that the “God of Glory” sealed forever in the history of humanity with the Hebrew people.

Rather, he seeks to enlighten them about the real intentions of God and to identify certain facts.

2 The cult

For centuries, the Eternal was not worshiped in a particular place or country – whether for Abraham, Joseph, Moses – or even in a particular building:

• altars made by Abraham (and the other patriarchs),
• portable tabernacle (from Moses to Solomon),
• fixed temple in Jerusalem from Solomon until the deportation and from the return from deportation until its destruction in the year 70).

True worship only performed in the temple in Jerusalem is therefore not a magisterial accusation.

3 The law

God asks us to obey the law. But the Israelites are rather characterized by their disobedience: their refusal to listen to the prophets who invited them to return to law and their refusal to listen to the prophets when they spoke to them of the Messiah, the Israelites are characterized by the murders of several prophets.

Stephen, therefore, has no lessons to receive concerning the law.

4 The Alliance

God made covenants and promises to Abraham, that of a people and that of the territory.

As always, God kept his word but Israel did not do its share of obedience to the Lord in return, if we look closely at the Old Testament, obedience is really the exception in its experience over the centuries. Nothing changes with Stephen, they are still just as impervious to the action of God through his Holy Spirit, whether during Jesus’ ministry or in the face of the evidence that Stephen underlines. In the end, God does His part but they refuse it by their religious blindness and their hardness of heart.

5. Jesus

Without naming Jesus, Stephen draws a parallel between Moses and Christ when speaking of the work of the Messiah:

• Leader and deliverer of the people (Acts 7:35),
• Prophet (Acts 7:37),
• the Just (Acts 7:52).

Another parallel: Joseph and Moses were rejected by their people, the same for Jesus by the Jews.

Yet another parallel: they killed prophets, they betrayed and put Jesus to death.

Synthesis

In the end, through this speech, Stephen shows that the blasphemous accusations and the destruction of the Jewish heritage were not really founded but rather that they were at a moment in history where we understand a continuity, and a fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and expectations.

Closed like an oyster

But what do you want to do? When the heart is hard and when the attachment to traditions is unreasonable and irrational…The phase of fanaticism, of fundamentalism, is expressed against all logic or wisdom.

Stephen-Jesus parallel experience

And it’s the same type of scenario that Jesus lived through and that Stephen will live through in turn.

Just like him:

• wonders and miraculous signs,
• a very clear understanding of God’s accomplishment in Jesus based on what Jehovah has done from the beginning (recorded for us in the Old Testament),
• faced with the rejection of his contemporaries and national brothers,
• the trial before politico-religious leaders,
• false witnesses,
• empty charges,
• anger and “blasphemous” hatred when he reveals his closeness to God,
• asks not to impute the condemnation and the murder to his accusers and executioners,
• Clothing and executioners at the time of execution,
• death.

What we could take away

1 Jesus

Jesus did not forget or try to erase what the Lord did before his ministry. On the contrary, He was the answer to the expectations of this moment, the fulfillment “It is finished” (John 19:30).

2 The Law

Obedience to law and rules will never make us admissible before God:

“ 8 For it is by grace that you are saved, through faith. And it’s not from you, it’s God’s gift. 9 Not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph 2:8-9)  ”

3 No Way Other Than Jesus

There is no means of salvation other than Christ, speaking of Jesus, Peter said:

“  12 There is no salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved . “(Acts 4:12)  “

The law, the temple, the holy city, the pilgrimages, and the spiritual and emblematic characters are useless.

4 God Is Not Locked In

God doesn’t need a container. God is not contained in one place.

48 However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made by hands, as the prophet says”(Acts 7:28).

Old Testament and New Testament Continuity

This text shows us again that there is no boundary between the Old Testament and the New Testament and between the law, the temple, and the age of grace since Jesus but the first part was preparatory and transitory in view of the fulfillment of the second part fulfilled by Christ.

Focus on the first part

Obviously, to still remain solely on the foundations established by the Eternal One in the time of the patriarchs and prophets is a pity, regrettable, and sterile.

It’s like watching the entire preparation of a meal and not sitting down to eat when you are invited!!!

Red alert on attachment to our roots

Again, this text alerts us to our visceral attachment to our roots and what it can lead us to do. The identity attachment of the Jews led to the murder of Jesus and Stephen.

And us, what about our family, cultural, national, cantonal, communal ties, education, religious origins, the importance of honor, our principles, political, philosophical, ideological, and of our lifestyle?

Unfortunately, there is much to fear that we are on the brink of fundamentalism, of fanaticism to defend them, not so much that they would lead us to commit the irreparable (although…). But more commonly, these attachments are in opposition to what God wants to do in our lives. And we are certainly as stubborn as the opponents of Jesus and Stephen on either subject. Let us pray that Jesus will reveal in us all these dogmas, these paradigms, these principles of life which are safes impermeable to the action of God.

The dream of the time of Acts

I may have said it before, but here again, we have this evidence, some believers dream of the life of the Church as in the book of Acts:

• a good big community delirium (live in a community for a year and we’ll talk about it…),
• the dream or the desire to be the instrument of miraculous signs in terms of healing or to be able to speak languages ​​without going through an apprenticeship.
• In general, the cravings stop there!!!

The extraordinary growth of the Church at this particular moment in history is generally not cited as “envy”. This reveals that these “spiritual” desires are quite egocentric.

But what the book of Acts shows us is that the first Christians in this particular time of the inauguration of the Church did not choose the parts that suited them. But some were struck dead for having lied to those responsible, imprisoned for their faith, whipped more than blood, stoned, and so on…

We do not choose the options that we would find interesting or exhilarating?

The book of Acts as a whole tells us about the beginnings, and the inauguration of the Church. Everything is not normative, that is to say, that everything is not like the usual life of all believers since this inauguration. The norm, the habit is described in the epistles which lean on the pedestal that the apostles left under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20) You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. 21 It is in him that the whole building, well-coordinated, rises to be a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are built up with them to form a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Just because the life in Acts isn’t always normative doesn’t mean it has nothing to teach us. Just as the lives of Abraham or Moses are far from normative, they help us understand God and what He wants and what He would like to see in us.

Persecutions still today

Yet many of our brothers and sisters in Christ literally experience some of the aspects of rejection and persecution for their devotion to Christ.

Contributions of this text

to our reflection on life

animism

Animism is the belief in a spirit, a vital force, which animates living beings, and objects but also natural elements, such as stones or the wind, as well as in protective spirits.

Pantheism

Pantheism is a philosophical doctrine that “God is everything”. It is distinguished from monotheism by considering that God is not a personal being distinct from the world but that he is the entirety of the world; this conception is called immanence as opposed to the principle of transcendence of the monotheistic creator God.

Here is an illustration:

animism

            A vital force lives in the tree

Pantheism

            The tree is God, part of God

Bible text of the day

Today’s text reminds us of something important:

However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made by hands, as the prophet says:

Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool.

What house can you build me, says the Lord, or what place can be my resting place?

Was it not my hand that did all this? (Acts 7: 48-50)

God is not content

God is not contained:

• in an object,
• in a place even if it is dedicated to Him,
• in a city or a country,
• in nature: fauna, flora, minerals, etc.  

He is the Creator. He is not on the same plane as what He created.

Animism in all religions

Animism is the main belief of humanity which is found in the majority of beliefs or religions where one finds each time devotion for an object – idol, – a protective talisman, statues, medals, …

• for a place – pilgrimage, holy place, a place with energies, …

Wrong response to omnipresence

Indeed man perceived the omnipresence of God, the fact that God is present everywhere but his response with his fallen faculties was to believe that he could be contained in something. So that gives:

• the idolatry of statues,
• pilgrimages to so-called “holy” places,
• lucky charms, amulets, …

The object becomes God

Soon superstition and belief no longer distinguish between the object or place and the supposed presence of God within. Finally, we no longer really know who is really adored, the object or God…

visceral attachment

The attachment to the object or the place is so important that we are ready to kill to keep it, to preserve it!

Two things :

Domiciliation is satanic

The domiciliation of a spiritual force in an object belongs to demons and occult forces. We see in the Gospels that the demons are looking for a place to live:

• house (Matthew 12: 43-45 )
• pig (Matthew 28-34)
• man for example (Mark 1: 23-26).

What to do?

In conclusion, if we are confronted with a spiritual manifestation linked, or attached to an object or a place, be assured that it is the enemy of God who is deceiving you and not doing you good! In this, all objects linked to a force (real or supposed) have as their best destination that of the trash can, and immediately, because they can rot the life of the believer by a superstition which takes the place of trust in God or by a real occult force which restricts the simple life with Jesus.

Territoriality is idolatrous

Clearly, in the Old Testament, we see that the supposed attribution of divine presence to a place is a conception related to barren pagan deities (1 Kings 20-23 and 28).

The Eternal One is not contained by boundaries. On the other hand, the spiritual world in revolt against God is clearly inferior to Him because they are rebellious creatures and therefore they are not God, cannot be everywhere, and are perhaps territorialized.

Here again, these conceptions that God belongs to a place, a city, or a country are not biblical, they are smoking out from the underworld to destroy humans and lock them into superstition.

Insult to God and human

The other thing is that when we confide in objects, representations, and places and attribute a degree of divinity to them, not only is it an insult to God (and the Old Testament is full of such warnings) but it’s an insult to ourselves, humans, we don’t respect each other!

Because God made “man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27 ), which literally means “in the status of God’s representative on Earth”

The people who must represent God here below are not objects, statues, or places but it is us, humans.

In Christ and with the help of his Spirit, we act as ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5: 20), so when we trust in an object or a place, it is a double insult: to God and to us!