#14 Acts 7: selection When God Is Your God

Introduction What offense causes you anger? Why did the religious leaders kill Stephen, the first martyr? Why are some Muslims so angry? Why do Jews reject Jesus out of hand? Video clip: “An Israeli in search of adventure …” Why do boys fight in the playground? Introduction

WHEN WE REJECT THE UNACCEPTABLE GOD What did Stephen say that so infuriated the Jewish authorities? The Jewish land is no longer central (the inheritance is the whole world) The Jewish people are no longer central to God’s plan (God is calling everyone) The Jewish temple is no longer relevant (Messiah is the new temple, the new building blocks are the disciples of Jesus) WHEN WE REJECT THE UNACCEPTABLE GOD

2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me 2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ 4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran.

5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 8 … And Abraham became the father of Isaac and ….  Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

17 “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.  21 Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 29 … Moses… he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

30 “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.  33 “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ 35 “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’  37 “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’

44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. 47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

49 “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool 49 “‘Heaven is my throne,     and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.     Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?’

The Jewish land is no longer central (the inheritance is the whole world) The Jewish people are no longer central to God’s plan (God is calling everyone) The Jewish temple is no longer relevant (Messiah is the new temple, the new building blocks are disciples of Jesus)

WHEN WE RECEIVE THE UNACCEPTABLE GOD There will be something about the God of the Bible you find unacceptable. WHEN WE RECEIVE THE UNACCEPTABLE GOD

Ezekiel 8 9 And he said to me, “Go in and see the wicked and detestable things they are doing here.” 10 So I went in and looked, and I saw portrayed all over the walls all kinds of crawling things and unclean animals and all the idols of Israel. 11 In front of them stood seventy elders of Israel, …. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and I saw women sitting there, mourning the god Tammuz. 15 He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see things that are even more detestable than this.”

16 He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east.

Three examples of what might make God unacceptable to you When God says your country comes after his kingdom When God says your race / family comes after his people When God says your church comes after his Church

What happens when you receive the unacceptable God

Conclusion Is God Your God? The Deflection of unknowability The Deflection of social commitment The Deflection of ritual / religiosity The Deflection of the idols Conclusion