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[Music]
0:50
This is Undaunted Life A Man's Podcast.
0:53
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:56
Welcome back to The Forging Table.
0:58
The mission of Undaunted Life is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges,
1:02
spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
1:04
At The Forging Table, you'll see a group of regular guys forging spiritual resilience
1:07
by digging into God's Word.
1:08
We're welcoming all of you to come along on that journey with us.
1:10
A couple of OGs in the room today.
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We've got Eric Browning and Matt.
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I don't know how I'm going to refer to you today because if I refer to Matt,
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it's going to be a little bit of an issue because you're right next to Matt Chandler.
1:18
So what would you suggest that I do?
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Want me to call you by your middle name or something like that?
1:22
I mean, you could just call me your ass bar.
1:24
Okay, grass bar.
1:25
G-man.
1:25
Grass.
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G-man works.
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G-man.
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G-man, I'm not going to do that.
1:29
I would not be confused by that.
1:32
Okay, because I've been calling you, Chandler, and you, Matt,
1:34
but then I've just been referring to you both as Matt since you got here.
1:37
So we'll just going to work our way through it as we work our way through Act 7.
1:41
And guys, I've been very excited to dig into Act 7.
1:43
I mean, last week, we kind of teed it up as this is Stephen's speech.
1:48
And these are the last recorded words that we have from him before spoiler alert.
1:52
He gets killed at the end of this chapter.
1:54
So we'll certainly get there.
1:55
Yeah, sorry to anybody who was not paying attention to me telling you
1:58
to read through Act 7, just ruin the end of the movie.
2:01
But if you look for something, I'll put in the same context I did last week.
2:06
For a guy that did not grow up in church,
2:08
there are some Old Testament things that aren't just like old hat for me.
2:12
They're not just quick reference, didn't go to VBS, didn't go to a Wanna,
2:16
didn't have a kid's Bible.
2:17
And so I'm learning a lot of those things as an adult.
2:20
I'm trying to ingrain the narrative of the Old Testament into my brain.
2:24
And this is kind of like a highlight reel or like a mixtape of like all those great things.
2:28
And so I don't want to belabor it any further.
2:30
So what we're going to do is we're just going to start working our way
2:32
through Stephen's speech.
2:33
So Matt Grassmeyer, sorry.
2:35
Messed that right from the beginning.
2:36
We're not going to fail.
2:37
I'm sorry, Joby.
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Don't tell Terry.
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Here we go.
2:39
Let's go Act 7 versus one through eight.
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And the High Priest said, are these things so?
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And Stephen said, brothers and fathers hear me.
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The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia.
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Before he lived in Huron and said to him, go out from your land and from your kindred
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and go into the land that I will show you.
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Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Huron.
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And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
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Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length.
3:13
But promise to give it to him as a possession and his offspring after him,
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though he had no child.
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And God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be surgeonors in a land belonging to others
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who would enslave them and afflict them 400 years.
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But I will judge the nation that they serve said God.
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And after that, they shall come out and worship me in this place.
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And he gave him the covenant of the circumcision.
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And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day.
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And Isaac became the father of Jacob.
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And Jacob of the 12 patriarchs.
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So we'll probably be appropriate with all this and we don't normally like default,
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but obviously you've spent a lot of time in these texts, Matt, and you've kind of gone through
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and preached a lot of these things.
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And so we're going to read some sections today and we'll kind of figure out how this goes for
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those of you listening or watching along.
4:05
And then we're just going to kind of default to you here to kind of bring some nuggets out as we
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also go through our notes.
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So in that first section there, just go ahead, hit it.
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Well, what he's doing is I think a thing that anyone listening right now who's evangelical in 2024
4:20
needs to realize and understand when they read their Bible, which is the Bible is one story,
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not 66 different stories.
4:29
And so there's a the amount of unity in the scripture is what is what one of the things
4:37
that we looked at to go, yeah, this book is divine.
4:39
It is not it's written over a period of 1500 years by 40 different men plus with three different
4:48
languages and they're all telling the same story.
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Now, this is important because you'll get into some of these Old Testament passages
4:55
and they will not make sense if you don't put them in the story.
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And so Stephen's doing an exceptional job by starting off reminding them that God has been
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with them since the beginning, he's highlighting God's presence in his people's lives.
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And he's starting with where it started with Abraham, where Abraham was.
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He's reminding them that they were not a people until God made them a people.
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So it's hard for us.
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Maybe it's not if you live someplace like New York or some major city that has a large kind of
5:25
Hasidic Jewish population.
5:27
But this was a people with an immense amount of pride in both keeping the law and how the law
5:33
made them different than everybody around them.
5:35
Even this group of people that's listening to these sermons, they're like the alphas
5:40
of this belief system.
5:41
They are different than the nations.
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They are better than the nations in the God, the only God, the true God in a very polytheistic
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environment, the one true God has chosen them.
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And so he starts this brilliant preaching because he starts with what they already believe
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and know, and he takes them right back to the beginning.
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That the God of glory, he's setting God in contrast to all the other little g-gods.
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Like these guys are amening this sermon at this point as he reminds them where they're from.
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We're different than the nations.
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God came to us.
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God made us his people.
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And God gave us this land.
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And that's his argumentation in this first block.
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He's, I mean, just kind of like detailed stuff that he's pointing out.
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He's quoting Genesis's number here, not Exodus's number here.
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So Exodus, what we read in Exodus, the people of God were in, they were enslaved for 430 years.
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That's what we read in Exodus when they're coming out, they're 430 years in.
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But God tells Abraham that it'll be 400 years.
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So this whole sermon's going to follow the Septuagint, the Hebrew scripture's written in Greek.
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And he's coming big numbers.
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He's staying up high throughout this whole sermon, or he's going to do that.
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And he's trying to lay the foundation at the beginning that he knows they agree with.
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He has not taken any shots at this point.
7:14
And so is he using that as a rhetorical device because of the time period where these types of
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sermons would be more well accepted if you did that?
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I think even sermons now are well received if you start to where everybody is and then
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work your way to the point of confrontation.
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And so Paul does this in, I mean, you'll, you'll cover this, I don't know, in several more weeks,
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when you're up in, you know, Paul's in Athens.
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And where does he begin?
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Hey, I noticed that you were a very religious people.
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I spent time walking around your city and I saw an altar to the unknown God.
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Would you, would you perceive an ignorance?
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I know.
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So he's like, Hey, I saw this guy.
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Let me tell you about him.
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So he's not now he's going to, he's going to [inaudible] everybody off there too.
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But, but this is just good preaching.
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Good preaching just begins with let's agree upon some things up front here.
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And then let me show you how God fulfills in fullness what you've built on.
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And that, that's the whole first section of the, not a single person in this room
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is frustrated at this moment.
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They're actually like, Oh, wait, maybe this guy is legit.
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Right.
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So you don't, you don't think they really came into this speech with,
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with the level of animosity that they knew where this was going, that they, that they,
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I mean, I get the sense that they probably had in mind that this doesn't go our way.
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Like it's going to go crazy.
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But I feel like it got just out of hand at the, at the end as we get to the end of this chapter.
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And there was just like a lot of people operating on kind of like mob justice logic.
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There's no quick, well, define mom justice.
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That's a new one for me.
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Mob justice mob.
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I thought you said mom justice.
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Mom, mom, mom.
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Some of you got good words.
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Dad dismissed the justice.
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I think mom justice might be worse than mob justice.
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But yeah, talking about more like mob justice to where it's like,
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Hey, this wasn't the plan.
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Cause if that was a plan, they probably don't even let him open his mouth.
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It might even be, it might even be that he was, he so effectively set them up that when it
9:13
finally dropped, they were filled with rage because I'm, I'm just saying at this point,
9:19
there's nothing but amens coming from the crowd.
9:21
Like they're, they're, they might even be a little disoriented.
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I don't know.
9:24
Maybe this guy isn't as guilty as we thought.
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Maybe that's kind of, that's kind of what I got out of that to you.
9:29
Right.
9:29
It wasn't, you know, it's this, like it always is, it's a small group of people according to
9:34
the text that are creating these lies that are kind of whipping people into a frenzy.
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And now he's got an audience of elite.
9:42
And he's starting with stuff that they would just heartily agree to.
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You see this strategy is not because he could ease.
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I was just reading the end of six.
9:52
You could easily be like, wait, wait, wait, wait, you know, and start defending himself.
9:55
Yeah, you got it all wrong.
9:56
Right.
9:56
Right.
9:56
It's not, it's not.
9:57
I didn't say that or else, you know, it wasn't anything like that.
10:00
It was immediately, he had a different, a wholly different strategy.
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It was to defend the truth and to appeal to their mind and their history and their heritage
10:09
and the move forward.
10:09
And he could have, he could have just right out of the gate and like,
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you killed him just like our fathers did trust the prophets.
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Just like he could have started there, but he didn't start there.
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He, he's legitimately trying to win them.
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Yeah.
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So then he can then say there is no excuse, you know, you know, there's no excuse.
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No, it's like, I have disabuse you of this previous notion.
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That's right.
10:31
Let's move forward.
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So Eric, I'm going to draw out me teeing you up so that you can get a sip of that delicious
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jocko hydrate because now I need you to move on to verses nine through 16.
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This is probably one of my favorite portions of, of his speech here.
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And I'll say why here in a second, but go and hit it.
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And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him
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and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh.
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King of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over the house, over his household.
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Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan in great affliction,
11:09
and our fathers could not find food.
11:11
But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.
11:19
And on the second visit, Joseph made known himself, made himself known to his brothers,
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and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.
11:26
And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, 75 persons in all.
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And Jacob went down into Egypt and he died.
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He and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had
11:41
bought for a sum of silver for the sons of Hamor and Shechem.
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So for this entire chapter, I feel like.
11:49
Is that our first phone call or the history of the forging table, Eric?
11:55
I totally try to turn it on.
11:57
Goodness gracious.
11:58
That's an interesting ringtone.
12:00
That one is that's personalized.
12:04
And I know that's my wife when it comes on, and it's extremely obnoxious and loud.
12:09
Has nothing to do with her personality.
12:10
I'm just going to say, okay, can you let your daddy's working?
12:13
Like because I know that's how y'all talk.
12:17
Daddy's working, baby.
12:18
That's better than me.
12:19
That's like 10 star jimies.
12:20
Yeah, that's like a sorry, Joby branding on that.
12:25
Probably should take some slashes.
12:27
It's all good.
12:27
It's all good.
12:28
So yeah, we won't give you your 39 lashes.
12:30
I wish you finished reading.
12:31
Yeah, that's true.
12:32
Yeah, you had fast reading.
12:33
So good time, Mrs. Browning.
12:34
But I loved the way the moody commentary helped me understand the narrative of chapter seven.
12:41
One quick thing from the moody commentary, and then I'll tee you up, Matt,
12:45
is so Stephen with this story, we can't know this, but that he might be hitting the fact that
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Joseph wasn't recognized by his brothers until he came for a second time.
12:56
That's right.
12:57
And then much like how Jesus won't be recognized as the ruler of Israel until he comes back a
13:02
second time.
13:02
Yeah.
13:02
And I never considered that.
13:04
How many times have I heard the story of Joseph and never attached it right from the beginning
13:09
to the story of Jesus and to the overall narrative of the Bible?
13:11
Yeah, so much foreshadowing.
13:12
Yeah.
13:12
Yeah, and he's now we're getting into his first little dig of this sermon because the
13:19
patriarchs, right?
13:20
Joseph's brother.
13:21
These are the patriarchs of Israel.
13:25
We're jealous of Joseph.
13:30
That's the story.
13:30
That's the story they knew.
13:31
So now he's got his first little dig.
13:34
You know, now he's being the one accused.
13:37
And what were the Sadducees from last week?
13:40
What was their motivation?
13:42
Jealousy at the crowds that had gathered at that.
13:46
So he's now putting himself in, in a way, for the first time, making a little dig that,
13:55
hey, this is we've been here before.
13:57
We've been here before, like Joseph and like this had to come back a second time.
14:04
He's beginning to now use, it's Judo, man, he's using their story now to begin to put pressure
14:16
on what they're doing in this exact moment.
14:18
Yeah, I mean, it's an important thing that, again, missing out on the Old Testament stories,
14:24
I'm so trying to get into the details because the details aren't old hat that I missed narrative
14:30
because sometimes it's kind of hard to pull yourself away from the details of a tour to see
14:33
the arc.
14:34
And so I'm really bad about watching movies.
14:36
And then I'll go to IMDB later and then you have the section that says plot holes
14:40
or problems with plot.
14:42
And I'm like, I didn't see any of these because I was so ingrained in what was happening
14:46
like in that exact moment and like how rough that would be.
14:49
Any other commentary from you guys on 9 through 16 or we can keep plugging along.
14:53
All right, let's hit it.
14:54
Mr. Grassmeyer, if you will hit 17 through 29.
15:01
As the time of the promise drew near which God had granted to Abraham,
15:05
the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until they're arose over Egypt,
15:09
another king who did not know Joseph.
15:11
He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that
15:17
they would not be kept alive.
15:19
At this time, Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight.
15:23
And he was brought up for three months in his father's house.
15:26
And when he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
15:31
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.
15:34
And he was mighty in his words and deeds.
15:37
When he was 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
15:43
And seeing one of them being wrong, he defended the oppressed man and
15:46
avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.
15:48
He supposed that his brother would understand that God was giving
15:53
them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.
15:56
And on the following day, he appeared to them as they were
15:59
quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, "Men, you are brothers.
16:03
Why do you wrong each other?"
16:04
But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying,
16:08
"Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
16:11
Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?"
16:14
At this retort, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian,
16:18
where he became the father of two sons.
16:20
So an important section here, we're getting into Moses.
16:23
Perhaps the most famous, the Old Testament characters,
16:26
and certainly would be very familiar to this audience.
16:28
So he goes right into Moses here, man.
16:30
He's going into Moses, but there's some more shots being taken here,
16:35
like especially in verse 25, where you get this idea that
16:40
he supposed, like when Moses kills the first Egyptian,
16:43
he thinks that his brothers will get this.
16:46
They will understand.
16:46
So again, he's subversively beginning to sow these things in,
16:50
where clearly, the Jews did not understand Jesus as the suffering servant.
16:59
And even that great passage that so many people go to,
17:02
"Who do you say that I am?"
17:03
And Peter nails it, he nails it.
17:08
But then there are these six words that follow his pronouncement
17:12
that this is the Messiah, where Jesus says that the Son of Man,
17:15
which can mean just the Son of a Man,
17:18
or it could be Daniel's reference of the Messiah, must suffer.
17:23
And so everybody's super hard on Peter,
17:26
but they had no framework for this.
17:29
We have framework, because we're on the other side of the cross,
17:31
in the resurrection.
17:34
But they like to them that the Son of Man must suffer.
17:36
No, no, no.
17:37
He's the king.
17:38
The Messiah means king.
17:40
He's Christ.
17:41
He's not suffering.
17:42
He's come to make the nation suffer, not to suffer.
17:45
And so Joseph's doing this real brilliant, kind of subversive thing here,
17:51
when he does, when he says he supposed that his brothers would understand.
17:54
And of course they didn't, and here we are again.
17:57
You would think that our brothers would understand this, and they don't.
18:01
And another little jab is in Luke 24.
18:04
Jesus is described exactly in the same way that he just described Moses.
18:09
Mighty in word and deed.
18:11
It's in Luke 24, I think, 2426 somewhere in there.
18:15
So this is one of those, like I said, it's just such a brilliant sermon.
18:19
He's saying things subversively to get to his crescendo.
18:25
And these are two of the examples here.
18:27
Jesus is, he's the greater Moses.
18:29
He's mighty in word and deed.
18:30
And Moses thought his brothers would get it.
18:32
Like he thought, like you should get, I'm trying to deliver you.
18:36
Don't you see I'm for you?
18:37
I just killed this guy who was oppressing you.
18:40
So does this get into, and I don't want to get too far off,
18:42
because there's so much to cover here in Acts 7.
18:44
But when people talk about how wisdom is not gained via effort,
18:49
it is a gift, like wisdom is a gift, because there's a lot of people that are smart,
18:51
intellectually, they have a high IQ naturally, which is even, you know,
18:55
if you say that out loud, it's kind of hard for people to swallow.
18:59
But, you know, if faith is a gift given by God, not just attained by us through our mighty,
19:05
like mental, like effort or something like that,
19:08
is that kind of what we're seeing here to where it's like,
19:10
guys, you should have saw this, but you just weren't given sight.
19:14
Like you couldn't have seen it.
19:15
But he's putting on the weight on them. Right, that's what I'm seeing.
19:19
And Jesus does this a lot.
19:21
Do you know the law and not get this?
19:23
I mean, Jesus says something similar to this repeatedly to these guys.
19:27
See the apostles all the time.
19:28
How do you, not even the apostles, specifically the Pharisees and Sadducees,
19:31
with their questions?
19:33
He's like, wait, you're a teacher of the law, and you don't know this.
19:37
You know Moses, and you don't know this.
19:39
And so, again, Stephen's even taking some preaching cues from Jesus here.
19:44
Because Jesus, not uncommonly outright says this.
19:49
Stephen's still being subversive.
19:50
Jesus is just outright like, wait, you're a teacher of the law,
19:53
and you have to ask me this question.
19:55
You're a teacher of the law, and still you don't get this.
19:56
And this is subversive.
20:00
He knows they know Moses, he knows they know the story of Moses.
20:04
And so what he does is like, hey, when Moses did that,
20:06
he thought his brothers would get it, and they didn't get it.
20:09
They didn't see it, they didn't know.
20:11
And so, again, I think he's working towards his crescendo,
20:15
and he's starting to just pick at the ground a little bit
20:18
before he drops the hammer.
20:20
Yeah, this should give us pause, too, because we obviously
20:24
have the advantage of being able to look back and see all of it.
20:27
We see all of redemptive history that's laid out in the Bible.
20:30
And we can say, oh, yeah, that easily, I don't know how they couldn't see that,
20:34
but they're so seeped in this culture.
20:35
And like you're saying, Matt, they don't know, or they refuse to get it,
20:42
but I mean, earlier in Acts, even his disciples were like, okay,
20:46
you're gonna restore the kingdom of Israel, right?
20:50
He's like, you guys have literally been hanging with me for 40 days,
20:55
and that's your question.
20:57
So when I say it should give us pause and it should convict us,
20:59
we should be able to see these things and have that cut our heart, too.
21:05
And we should see ourselves, or we could see ourselves,
21:10
as people who are kind of stubborn to this thing, too.
21:14
And when somebody brings some truth to us, we should reflect and maybe sometimes think,
21:21
okay, what does this guy try to say?
21:22
What does God try to tell me here?
21:23
I think about Eric, if you're doing physical therapy for somebody,
21:30
and they come in with something they looked up on Google,
21:33
on the way there when they should have been paying attention to driving,
21:36
and they're trying to tell you what they should be doing.
21:39
I'm just curious, 'cause I've talked to coaches before,
21:41
like, good buddy of mine is a very high level wrestling coach,
21:44
shout out to Hardell Moore.
21:46
And he'll have these dads that have never wrestled,
21:48
scream at their kids in the middle of a match, what to do.
21:51
And Hardell isn't the type of guy that's gonna get into a scream match with a dad.
21:54
He stands up from his chair, and he just stands behind it and just crosses his arms.
21:59
And then the dad gets mad, like, why aren't you coaching?
22:01
It's like, sounds like you're coaching, here's the chair.
22:03
And he's not like, hey, I was a multi-time All-American at Oakland State,
22:08
the, you know, Grace Wrestling program in the world, blah, blah.
22:10
He has to do all that. Just goes, here you go, dad.
22:12
Have a seat. So it's like, it almost feels a little bit like that.
22:14
Like, you're coming into my office and telling me how to do my job?
22:16
Sure. Yeah, I've learned a lot of grace in my office.
22:20
I think you have to get that all the time, man.
22:22
I think I'd lose some patience.
22:24
If I did what that guy does.
22:26
Patience and patience, both.
22:27
Well, yeah. I had a scenario happen like that.
22:30
When I was a, I was coaching high school soccer up at OCS,
22:33
and I had a dad who'd never played soccer before,
22:35
and we lost a penalty kick shootout. And he just came and chastised me.
22:40
Like, you, you guys are terrible at penalty kicks.
22:42
And my son is the best penalty kick ticker.
22:44
Why didn't he take the, and I was like, you know what?
22:46
Why don't you, you know, you work with your son and get in here.
22:49
I told him he's not going to work on penalties with us at all.
22:51
Yeah.
22:52
So he's going to go, when we do penalty kicks,
22:54
he's just going to sit out because you're working with him.
22:56
All right.
22:56
And I promise he will be in the next penalty kick shootout.
22:59
Guess who missed in the next penalty kick shootout?
23:01
Shank Apotamis.
23:02
I'm just asking this.
23:04
And I just, it was, it was one of those.
23:05
Yeah.
23:06
Yeah.
23:06
That's right.
23:07
Yeah, that's exactly how that goes.
23:08
I wouldn't miss, I think this is what you were saying, Matt,
23:11
is super important.
23:12
If I think about, I've been a Christian for 33 years,
23:17
and the number of times in those 33 years,
23:22
I have been completely confident of what I thought the Bible said,
23:27
and how I thought God worked, and where the mystery was,
23:31
and where the mystery wasn't,
23:32
only to either in further study or through an experience
23:38
that I've had been forced to see the scriptures anew.
23:43
I mean, this is where I think some guys I know,
23:49
as they've gotten older, they've gotten harder and crustier and meaner,
23:53
rather than having some sense of flexibility that,
23:59
you know what?
24:00
Maybe I didn't have it all down in my 30s.
24:02
Maybe I didn't have it all down in my 40s.
24:04
You know, maybe there were some things and some complexities
24:06
that I couldn't see as a younger man that I can see now.
24:10
And I think they're really throughout our following of King Jesus.
24:15
There has to be a continual fight for humility and curiosity.
24:21
Right.
24:22
And this is why, man, I'll run in circles
24:23
that I know make certain people nervous for me.
24:25
But, man, I'm just curious.
24:27
Help me understand it.
24:28
Tell me what you're seeing from the text. What do you do with this?
24:32
Help me navigate this.
24:33
I feel like I'm a better preacher and minister,
24:37
not because I've stayed with my tribe,
24:38
and we've just all shouted at each other what's right and true,
24:42
but that I've been willing to go,
24:44
okay, it's clear to me that this person seems to love Jesus very, very much.
24:50
Sometimes in ways that I kind of go, man,
24:52
I wish I loved him a little bit more like that.
24:54
And what I want to be is curious with my mind fully intact.
24:59
And so I have met guys that have helped me grow in some areas
25:05
and nuance some areas of my doctrine over my 33 years of following Jesus Christ.
25:12
And guys who take the Bible just as seriously as I take it,
25:16
and nobody's coming pure to the book.
25:20
Everybody's bringing their background to bear.
25:22
They're bringing what they first heard to bear.
25:24
Nobody's coming clean to the book.
25:26
Well, in the crustier you get over time,
25:28
the least intellectually honest you become.
25:30
Oh, there's an end.
25:31
Yeah.
25:31
Because you become beholden to the ideology and not to capital T truth,
25:35
because you should constantly be on the quest for truth,
25:37
and you don't technically ever arrive in every category.
25:40
Well, and then you get scared of your tribe.
25:42
Sure.
25:43
I mean, then you get scared of your tribe.
25:44
And so when the Holy Spirit starts to go,
25:47
you're just about a degree off here.
25:51
But now you can't say that because you built your whole world around this tribe
25:55
that's either angry or never angry.
25:57
And you can't move now because you're beholden to the tribe
26:02
that you've given your allegiance to.
26:04
And I don't want to be, I don't want to be put in a tribe.
26:06
I want to be a little bit confusing.
26:07
I want the fringes a little worried and agitated at me.
26:13
I think I feel safest there because that should mean
26:18
I'm walking in some humility and some curiosity.
26:20
Not just blank, open-minded.
26:23
Ooh, I had this experience.
26:24
So that must mean everything I believed about the nature and character of God changes.
26:28
That's never happened to me.
26:29
But there have been nuances of my doctrine that the Lord's like,
26:35
and you're about two clicks too far on this.
26:37
Well, I think you're, if we look at the comments on anything you post on Instagram,
26:40
I think you are making quite a few people mad, no matter what, just by existing.
26:44
Just the dispeas right now, bro.
26:45
The dispeas are after me right now.
26:46
I think that's a good distinguish,
26:48
distinguishment that you made too though, Matt, is like there are some
26:51
doctrinal issues that you should never change.
26:55
Right.
26:55
That's right.
26:55
God is a true cornerstone.
26:56
That's right.
26:57
There are some cornerstone things of our faith.
26:58
Yeah, we're certainly not talking.
26:59
Like, yeah, I'm glad you said it because like there are some things you just can't,
27:02
you can't move on.
27:03
And if you do, like, okay.
27:04
Yeah, we've left Orthodox Christian teaching.
27:07
But yeah, there are some things that if we don't have a posture of curiosity or humility,
27:14
we're going to be humbled at some point and we risk, like, pushing people away or hardening
27:21
our own heart and then allowing God to harden our heart too.
27:25
Yeah, for sure.
27:25
Yeah, it's completely yoke.
27:27
I think the word argument or arguing has gotten a bad rap.
27:31
It's okay to argue.
27:33
And I think we should all know how to go about that because arguing brings forth truth and then
27:38
being able to receive, you know, push back or whatnot, being able to receive that thing
27:45
is also important too.
27:46
So if you're always what you said, you're kind of like, I'm open.
27:50
Yeah, we can talk.
27:51
Yeah, right.
27:51
Then you're remaining just enough humble that you can continue to grow.
27:55
Yeah, at the village, we call it robust dialogue.
27:58
And it's never, and I think if somebody's, if a man's listening, where men struggle with this
28:04
is that they will, they will take a push on an idea as a push on them.
28:10
Right, it's like a personal attack.
28:12
Yeah, we're not, we're not, we're talking about the tax.
28:14
Well, so stuff we talked about with identity.
28:16
So it's like, no, I'm, I'm any, I'm any part of the LGBTQ plus, you know,
28:20
array of chosen identities.
28:22
And it's like, no, no, you're not attacking what I choose to do with my genitalia.
28:25
You're attacking who I am as a person whom you say I'm wired by God to be.
28:29
Yeah, it's like, well, no, I didn't say that.
28:31
But like, I think the other thing that is important about robust dialogue
28:34
and kind of bringing together y'all's two ideas as we move forward.
28:37
I remember, I can't remember when did we have our big dust up when it was Adam Smith and Ryan
28:42
Horn and I think Zach, I was just in the corner, you know, laughing at everybody.
28:46
But like there was a decent sized dust up.
28:49
And right after Joby listened to the episode, he goes,
28:51
It was January of this year.
28:53
Okay. I can't remember.
28:53
Were we still Matthew, we had to have been still Matthew 26, I think.
28:57
I think you're right.
28:58
And so we're going through this and then we have this pretty good sized dust up.
29:03
And Joby text me afterwards.
29:05
He goes, that's it.
29:06
Yeah.
29:06
What y'all just did.
29:07
Because y'all had as brothers, you had some very robust dialogue about this.
29:13
And no one left having changed their mind.
29:15
But everyone left feeling as if they had probably gotten their points out.
29:18
And then we just, you know, kept the thing going and finished and it was fine.
29:22
And, you know, Ryan got a little hot under the collar,
29:24
but he just needed to basically go take a few laps and then he came back and he was fine.
29:27
But that's not modeled anywhere because as you're scrolling TikTok and Instagram
29:32
and Twitter and all these other different things,
29:34
you're only getting the level 10 reactions to people disagreeing about everything.
29:39
You're not really getting those people that are having a robust dialogue
29:42
about something that they have completely divergent opinions on.
29:44
So we're kind of losing that in modernity.
29:47
Let's keep Act seven going.
29:48
Eric, if you will hit versus 30 through 38, please.
29:54
Now, when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him, the wilderness of Mount Sinai,
29:58
in a flame of fire in a bush, when Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.
30:03
And as he drew near to look, there came a voice of the Lord.
30:07
"I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob.
30:13
And Moses trembled and did not dare look.
30:17
Then the Lord said to him, take off the sandals from your feet,
30:21
the place where you are standing is holy ground.
30:23
I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt,
30:28
and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to my people who are in Egypt.
30:32
Oop, I have come down to deliver them, and now come, and I will send you to Egypt."
30:37
This Moses, whom they rejected saying, "Who made you a ruler and a judge?
30:42
This man, God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush."
30:49
This man led them out performing wonders in signs in Egypt, and at the Red Sea,
30:54
and in the wilderness for 40 years.
30:55
This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, "God will raise up for you a prophet like me
31:02
from your brothers. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness
31:06
with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers.
31:11
He received living oracles to give to us."
31:14
So, masterful.
31:15
Real quick, certainly masterful.
31:18
When you look at something like this, I'm always looking for the turn.
31:21
There are subtle turns, and then there are hammer turns, where people just absolutely pull the rug
31:27
off from underneath you, as opposed to just sliding it out from under your chair.
31:30
Is this the subtle turn in the sermon? Because that's why I'm saying it.
31:34
Yeah, we're getting there.
31:34
They're not amending anymore. They're furrowed brow.
31:41
Is he taking this? Because now he's saying he hadn't said it outright yet, but he's saying, "Hey,
31:48
Moses said there was someone greater coming, a prophet like him," and then he talked about,
31:53
"So now, this is your first illusion that Jesus is all, that he's prophet, priest, king.
31:57
He's the whole package, because it's a prophet like Moses, but what did he say about Moses,
32:02
that Moses was those other two things. He was priest and a kind of king, a ruler,
32:07
and now you've got a prophet like him that he said was coming, and then you've got these views
32:15
of theophany, as we would see it, an angel that's handing the law. We know he got the law from God,
32:21
but we see in Galatians, and we see even in Exodus, and some in Deuteronomy, but I think it's mainly
32:27
in Exodus, that this theophany of the angel of the Lord, not an angel of the Lord, that's involved
32:35
in this, and so there's a prophet like him, so all that he is, we've got prophet, priest, and king
32:41
coming, and there was one that was with the congregation in, he was with the people in
32:48
the congregation, Echlesia, the gathering of God's people in the wilderness, so he's starting to set
32:56
them up that Jesus is the one, this one you killed, you killed the one that was with us in the
33:03
wilderness, you killed the one that handed the law to Moses, you not only reject the law and you
33:08
reject Moses, which is what he's about to say, you not only rejected both of those, you're doing
33:12
that same crap again. So do the Jews, Matt, have, do they have a sense of Christophany where there's
33:18
like, when they're looking at their, their Old Testament texts, or the prophets, or things like
33:22
that, do they even have a category for them? They would have, they would call it a theophany at
33:27
that time, so God being among us, but they're not Trinitarian at all. And so they know
33:34
the son of man, but they think the son of man is David, somebody like David, human who's going to
33:41
rule the world and the nations are going to come in, become Jews basically. Speaking of David,
33:47
are we David? Is anybody? I think I'm on record. I think I'm on record.
33:56
Okay, yeah, yeah, I think we've heard before that. Anyway, you can continue. I was just curious.
34:01
No, I didn't have anything else to say. No, they would not have had Christophany's. They would have
34:05
Theophanes, Melchizedek, and they're not seeing any of that as the person of Jesus. They don't have,
34:12
they don't have like a category for the hypostatic union, fully God, fully man. None of that's there
34:20
yet. All that's going to be worked out by those who follow Jesus. They're going to work those
34:26
things through. And so the confusion, even that was within the disciples when they were like,
34:31
well, are you the coming king? Are you the one that we've heard about? It's like for us and believers,
34:35
all that stopped with Jesus. But what you're saying, just as a clarification is that,
34:41
even to this day, they are still waiting on that concrete king to come who has not come.
34:46
Yeah. They were just taking some red heifers over there, right? This year. From Texas? Yeah,
34:52
earlier this year. No smoke, but those red heifers were from Texas. Yeah, that's fine.
34:56
That's where the best come from, right? Yeah, that's what I mean. I would make that argument.
34:58
It's the rumor. I think it's interesting that he, you know, what he does with Moses kind of foreshadowing
35:04
to what and how God, you know, kind of works this in. I mean, we're going to see it in some
35:07
verses where Moses goes and sees the angel in the bush. And then obviously Moses's face reflects
35:15
God's glory. I think it's just really cool how God kind of plays these things into the story.
35:19
Yeah. And we're going to get into that. But it's just like that's setting us that's setting up
35:23
something right here that I think is really cool to see. Yeah. Well, let's go ahead and keep going
35:26
with it. So Matt, Grasmire, if you will hit 39 through 43, our fathers refuse to obey him,
35:33
but thrust him aside and in their hearts, they turn to Egypt saying to Aaron, make for us gods
35:39
who will go before us. As for this Moses who let us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what
35:46
has become of him. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were
35:51
rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and gave them over to worship the
35:58
host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the prophets, did you bring to me slain beasts
36:04
and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness, O house of Israel, you took up the tent of Moloch
36:11
and the star of your God, Revan, the images that you made to worship. And I will send you
36:16
into exile beyond Babylon. And in the reference there to Moloch, that's, I mean, that's the God
36:22
of child sacrifice. We see that that we still have that even today. So thank you Planned Parenthood
36:26
for continuing to sacrifice babies to the altar of forgiveness, not forgiveness whoops to convenience.
36:33
And so we're going to keep going with this a little bit. I did want to read this section from
36:37
Moody. Again, I thought the Moody commentary did a great job of breaking this up. But in 39 through
36:41
43, it says this contrary to their opinion of themselves as the true guardians of the Torah,
36:46
they actually had a history of rebellion against God. They made a golden calf and sacrifice to
36:50
God's like Moloch and to Revan or Revan, whatever. As did their forefathers who rejected Moses,
36:56
the Jewish leaders in Stephen's day rejected the Messiah of Israel. And so again, he's going to
37:02
talk about the stiffness of their necks before too long. But it's like, man, there's nothing
37:07
worse, I think, than someone who's incredibly cock sure and wrong. Because it's like they're
37:12
so sure of themselves, but then they just don't have a category for that they could possibly ever
37:15
be wrong about anything. It's very, very annoying. Yeah. Well, and again, he's, we broke it up in
37:22
two different readings. But you know, this little section again, this Moses, whom you rejected,
37:27
saying who made you ruler over us. So remember, this whole trial is about the fact that he is
37:33
telling them that the traditions, he's trying to replace the traditions of Moses. And he's like,
37:39
you didn't, you're all hot and bothered about Moses, but you ain't following Moses. You never
37:44
followed Moses either. Not only did you reject him saying who made you ruler over us,
37:48
but then you turn right around and went back to Egypt. So God sent you a deliverer,
37:52
you rejected that deliverer, and then you went back to your bondage. This is like the dark
37:58
part of history that nobody likes to talk about. And Stevens, we're like, there's, there's not even
38:03
for a brow anymore. There's, oh, hell no, like this. He is already trampling all over their pride,
38:11
their supposed expertise, because everyone listening knows he's right.
38:17
Right. Well, let's let the trampling of their pride continue, Eric. Let's go 44 through 50.
38:22
Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness just as he who spoke to Moses directed
38:27
him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in
38:33
with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was
38:38
until the days of David who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place
38:43
for the God of Jacob, but it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the most high does not dwell
38:49
in houses made by hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and earth is my foot still.
38:55
What kind of house will you build for me says the Lord or what is the place of my rest?
39:01
Did not my hand make all these things? The hammer is about to drop here in just a second,
39:07
but he's, he's quoting directly from Isaiah 66, which everyone in the audience would have known,
39:12
very likely known by heart. So let's talk a little bit about why this section is important as well.
39:16
One of the big, one of the big little throwaway phrases here, again, if you don't know kind of
39:20
the arc story here, is this idea of the tent of witness, which is in the middle of the tabernacle,
39:28
it holds the ark of the covenant. It's the full unfettered presence of God. And we're going to see
39:34
the same tent of witnesses in the book of Revelation when God begins to judge the world. Some of the
39:41
bowls of God's wrath come out of this tent. And this is that he's alluding to here. The fact that
39:50
they have repeatedly rejected the presence of God, that their history is not one. And this is just
39:57
true in the Old Testament. All the prophets are doing this. The word of the Lord comes to fill
40:03
in the blank, anybody but Jonah. And those words are always a reminder of the covenant Israel entered
40:10
into how they've repeatedly broken that covenant. The promise that God will keep his word concerning
40:16
them to keep them, but also to give them over to what they want if they keep going that way.
40:23
And all of that is repeatedly a rejection of the presence of God and preferring lesser gods,
40:31
little g-gods. And so him bringing up the tent of meeting here is a hit below the belt.
40:39
Because he's like, God continually offers you his presence through the prophets, through the
40:44
men he sends you, through the law, and you have done nothing but rejected. Our whole history is
40:50
rejection. Now, where are they hearing this? They're occupied by Rome. And Rome was brutal
40:58
to this little section of the world. They just were weary of them. They didn't understand them.
41:02
They despised the juice. And so Stephen here, he's in now. There's no conclusion that's going
41:10
to end. Well, I think right here is where it's now a mob where he brings up the tent of meeting.
41:15
You don't want the presence of God. This whole thing's a sham. This is full of crap.
41:20
You ain't trying to try me. You're trying to say something's true about you that's not true about
41:25
you. I mean, let's just go ahead and throw the hammer down and we'll talk about it in its entirety.
41:31
So Matt, if you'll grasp, if you will hit 51 through 53.
41:34
You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as
41:42
your fathers did. So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed
41:48
those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and
41:53
murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. Now, I have been
42:00
reliably informed that if you use inflammatory language in any way, shape or form, if you use
42:06
judgmental language, and certainly if you point at people and call them out for things that you're
42:10
center that you have violated every rule of decorum, you have certainly violated the 11th
42:14
amendment of thou shalt be nice no matter what the circumstances would allow you to be able to do.
42:19
This is about as inflammatory and as bold a language as you will see, including the language
42:26
of Jesus that we see in the gospels that precede the acts of the apostles. And so, I mean,
42:31
obviously, Matt, you have kind of a fire brand preaching style and things like that. And sometimes
42:38
when you bring up inflammatory topics, you got a lot of people that are cheering and love what
42:41
you're saying. And then other times when you hit on other topics that maybe aren't everyone's pet
42:46
topic. It's not you don't get as good of a reception. That's true. But I just want to talk about in
42:50
general about the fact that we live in a time and place where if you come at darkness,
42:56
or sin or demonic activity in the world with any type of vim and verve, you're automatically
43:03
castigated as just this horribly terrible person. That's just a meanie mean pants.
43:08
Yeah, a lot of times it's not what you said. It's how you said it. It's like a bingo card you
43:13
can get that you know, yeah, I know that's true, but yeah, I wish you would have said it differently.
43:19
But here's what's crazy. Stephen said it differently four different ways before he got to this point.
43:23
Right. I mean, he's tried to repeatedly go, hey, remember Abraham? You guys remember that? Yeah,
43:28
you screwed that up, didn't you? Yeah. Oh, okay. What about Moses? Oh, remember that time?
43:35
You were there. Remember that time you guys rejected him said, who are you? And then you like
43:40
worshiped and served Egyptian gods who God had just beat down right before your eyes and let
43:45
you run back to them. And then, oh, yeah, remember David and Solomon? Oh, yeah, remember that guys?
43:51
When, I mean, he just, and I don't, I don't, again, I'm not going to read myself into the text,
43:57
but there's a point where you just get so like, I mean, oh my gosh, they're not hearing me. Yeah.
44:04
So then you're not subversive anymore. You're not trying to be sweet anymore. And you just
44:09
go in and that's what you just saw. So if you take the whole sermon, he starts trying to
44:15
subversively hope. And this might be a lesson for some preachers listening. There's a time that you
44:21
just have to say it. And that especially in our culture, sometimes nuance or being subversive,
44:28
it's not picked up. It's not because people aren't deep thinkers anymore. They're not thinking
44:33
about subtleties at all. No, no. And so there's a time you just have to say it. And, and Stephen
44:39
gets to the point where he's like, I'm, and I'm getting this is conjecture. It's not, you don't
44:43
see it in the text, but you watch his argument build. And then he finally seems like he's tired
44:47
of trying to make the argument. So he just brings it to a crescendo and it's like, you did this,
44:52
just like your father's did, just like your father's fathers did, just like you always do,
44:56
talking about them as a people. This is what you do. And obviously, like,
45:00
this is not a commercial for being default abrasive. No, that's not the sermon either.
45:06
Right. And that's certainly not what you see. But you know, as I'm reading through and as I'm
45:09
seeing at a table, like Matt and Eric, you both got you guys, Grassmeyer and Eric, you both have
45:14
similar personalities in terms where I feel like both of you are direct, but very rarely harsher
45:19
abrasive. And so we certainly haven't been so with me or with people that I've seen you interact
45:22
with, who knows what you're like behind closed doors. But like that, that's the thing that's
45:26
interesting for me is because for me, I'm looking at this passage as somebody who's default abrasive,
45:31
and I get to this part and I start cheering, I start drawing exclamation points and I'm like,
45:34
wait a minute. Yeah, you need to concentrate on the first part of this. Right. This is not my
45:39
license to in same thing. Like when I read about Jesus overturning the tables in the temple,
45:43
which again, we see happened twice technically in scripture and not just once. That does not
45:48
mean that every room you go into that you have a problem with a user star rearranging furniture
45:52
and driving people out of the space. But I'm just curious for you guys as you kind of read through
45:56
all this with y'all's temperaments, when you get to a section like this, like, you know,
46:00
what do you think about that in terms of how Steven ends this whole shindig?
46:04
Well, I think it's kind of like being a parent and got the store. Well, yeah, no, no, I know where
46:09
you're going. The story of Israel is essentially the humanity growing up. And there are different
46:14
phases that God uses to grow his people up. And then the prophets are a great example of, okay,
46:18
you guys, you guys are like, should know, like we've been doing this for a long time. I'm having
46:23
people come just tell you directly. Hey, you're opposed to my will, you're outside of the box
46:28
that I've given you. And I'm going to tell you that harshly. You don't say that to a four-year-old,
46:33
but a 17-year-old. And I'm not there yet. I've got a nine-in-a-four-year-old.
46:36
I've got the 18-year-old. You do say that straight down.
46:39
Yeah. As a child, as a son of a father and mother who kind of did that in a good way,
46:47
like I'm kind of looking forward to, I'm not looking forward, like, oh, I can't wait. But like,
46:51
I'm looking down the road of like, okay, this is kind of, I mean, this is redemptive history. So
46:56
he's kind of going through the ebbs and flows that God uses. And he literally uses the language
47:00
of God, like, you stiff-neck people. I mean, God says that several times in the Old Testament.
47:05
And then I can just imagine those guys, when he says, "Uncircumcised," I wonder if they just,
47:10
they didn't even hear him say harden ears on "Uncircumcised." We are circumcised. Like,
47:15
right. I mean, and purposely so. And so I think there is a little bit of parenting
47:20
that is seen here in Stephen, kind of showing how you should interact with people.
47:25
Yeah. And you know, I just write down keywords here. I don't look at that and go,
47:30
"Oh, man, he's been a little bit harsh. I'm with you." And if you were in my home long enough,
47:35
you would see that when I deal with, I mean, all my kids are different. Like, my little girl,
47:40
I can literally just look at her and be like, "I'm disappointed." And she's the sweetest little thing
47:43
in the world. But my oldest is not that way, and I have to be more direct. But what I wrote down
47:50
and you were talking is like, Stephen knows his identity. Yeah, he does. And because of that,
47:56
he is confident. And because of his confidence and through the work of the Holy Spirit, he has
48:02
conviction. And through that conviction, then he can put forth courage. I mean, and he had that
48:08
courage to go stand in front of those guys and be very, very direct. And that's how I feel like,
48:13
in my parenting, is that when I know something, I've experienced it. I've had maybe I've fallen
48:19
in that experience, but then I've been redeemed through it. I can come out the other sign and
48:24
come at it with it. I don't want you to make the same mistake. And so I'm going to be very direct
48:29
in how I explain this to you. Now, when they're young, you don't want them to hurt themselves.
48:34
When they're old, I don't want them to hurt themselves, but it's a totally different kind of
48:37
conversation, right? Yeah. And one of the things I want to, especially if you're listening to this
48:42
now, I want to remind you, Stephen is not an apostle. He's a deacon. His primary gift is not
48:51
teaching. And so I'm highlighting that because when the apostles and the crowd in Jerusalem see
48:58
Stephen, they think, man, this guy'd make a great deacon. This guy should be able to handle this
49:03
disagreement between the Hellenist Jews and the Hebrew Jews. And yet, this is a man who has
49:11
obviously dedicated himself to knowing the Word of God. And so he's not the blue-check charismatic
49:17
on tour preaching the Bible, God. He's a guy that serves in his church, and he knows the
49:24
Word of God, and he's been equipped by it. And he's so confident in it that this is what comes out
49:30
when he's drug in front of a mob. He's ready. I want to slam this home just a little bit because
49:35
you probably get this way more than I do, but I certainly get it. I get people that'll send me
49:39
a message like, hey, I'm having an argument with my 16-year-old daughter about pro-life stuff.
49:45
Will you have that argument for me? Or hey, you see something wrong in somebody else, and so as
49:51
opposed to talking to them, you buy them a book. And so you want the author of the book to speak
49:55
to them about that particular topic. And so it's like, look, you have to give an apology or apology
50:02
of the faith that is within you, for what you carry. That's not my job. Now, I'm in these
50:09
arguments all day, every day I may be able to help you. Like if you're a theologian or a pastor,
50:13
or something like that, perhaps you can give biblical scaffolding to the argument that is
50:18
occurring or something like that. But again, this is just one of the things where when the moment
50:22
arose, and he had to rise to the occasion, he did so. And because he had prepared, I constantly
50:29
talk about making deposits. I always talk about physically, because that makes sense. You can't go
50:34
from couch to Murph. You can go from couch to 5k. You can even go from couch to marathon.
50:39
You just don't stop until 26.2 miles get behind you right now. But you can't couch to Murph.
50:45
You can't go from having never done a pull up to doing 100 with weight on your back,
50:48
in addition to everything else. And this is the same thing. How many spiritual deposits and faith
50:54
deposits had Stephen made to where he got up in front of these people, and he just said this stuff
50:59
right out of his soul. And Kudos, you're listening to this right now. So I know you're on the journey.
51:03
I wanted to just pause and go, keep going, brother. Just keep, get you a good study Bible,
51:08
get you a journal, write yourself clear, wrestle with the text. You might be hearing something
51:15
one of us is saying, and you're like, "Golly, how'd they know that?" And we know that because
51:20
we're doing this stuff. This isn't the forging table great. I've been reading my Bible for 33
51:27
years. And actually, I started reading it before I became a Christian. So it builds on itself
51:32
over time. You're not late. Just keep going. Don't lose heart. Just keep listening to things
51:38
like this. But make sure on top of this, you've got a regular time set aside every day. I'm not
51:43
talking about frigging quiet time. That sounds like you're being punished. I'm saying, go to your
51:47
quieter. Pick a book of the Bible. Start working your way through it. If you need commentaries,
51:53
get a commentary. But I just recommend a really good study Bible. The ESV study Bible is one of
51:58
my favorites, just exceptional. I'm not getting paid to say that unless CrossFit, you guys want
52:02
to throw me some chatter about it. Yeah, throws no, but like at this table, ESV study Bible right
52:06
there. John MacArthur study Bible right there. Reformation study Bible right there. Like boom.
52:10
Grab a good study Bible. Slowly work your way through it. Yeah, this isn't how to study the Bible,
52:16
but I just wanted to encourage you, brothers, you can do this and you should do this.
52:20
Amen. I think this is also a call to us as members of the body of Christ. It's like, as a deacon,
52:27
I think a lot of times people think a deacon, okay, they set chairs up like they're kind of there.
52:32
They're kind of just doing some stuff. They're good at maybe some organizational stuff, but like
52:35
clearly, Stephen is gifted in preaching. And I really love one of the biggest things I've learned
52:41
from R.C. Sproul, who's just a he's a hero of the mind is knowing the difference between
52:48
distinction and separation is crucial because like you can distinguish Deacon from an apostle,
52:54
but you can't separate him from the call of God. Because he's a deacon, he has the same call that
53:00
we all do. The whole church should preach the whole gospel to the whole world and you can't
53:05
separate that. So this should convict us to go and I'm saying this to me just as much as I would
53:10
be to anybody else. Like we can't shudder from the reality that as we're in the world, we will be
53:17
called to preach truth and sometimes in ways that make us uncomfortable. So get ready to be uncomfortable.
53:25
Right. And I don't know that we know who Stephen's father is, but I wonder if Stephen's father
53:30
had read Deuteronomy 6 and 4 says, "Hero Israel, the Lord our God, Lord is one. You shall love the
53:37
Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. And these words I can
53:40
man you should be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and talk to them
53:44
when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way and when you lie down when you rise.
53:48
Now, if I go down to the almost the last verse, it says, "And when your sons ask you, where is that?"
53:55
Yes. Verse 20, "When your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of these testimonies
54:01
and these statutes and the rules of the Lord God has commanded, then you say to your son
54:06
and then you go exactly with what Stephen just said." Right? Yeah. And so not because I said so.
54:14
Exactly. And I wrote down the phrase, "Family folklore." We should have stories that we tell
54:21
just about our family and our upbringing. Not tall tales, but not big fish, but just stories.
54:27
That's how this was passed on. We should have the same thing in our household. One of the things
54:34
that I never heard from my father was his testimony. And I just think that's an
54:38
absolute essential thing that we should all of our kids and our family members should know where
54:43
we stand with Christ and how we got to that point. And catechism is not a 15th century idea.
54:48
No, that's right. No, catechism is happening right there. Just to follow up on that idea.
54:53
You should be able to walk your children through the time you were in the valley of the shadow of
54:59
death and how the Lord sustained you through that. Because when I was going through the valley of
55:04
shadow of death earlier this year, how many times have I read Psalm 23? If I had played high school
55:09
football, I would have quoted the Lord's prayer a billion times. I would have done all these different
55:13
things, but you never see the valley of the shadow of death for yourself until you're in it, right?
55:19
You can see someone else that's in the valley, but only when you're there and you see that God's not
55:24
God, God's not gone rather. God is not gone from you. His presence has not left you,
55:30
but that he is guiding you through because there's a storm, but he has you by the hand and he is
55:35
leading you through the storm. But much like Peter walking out to Jesus on the water, if you lose
55:40
sight of the hand that's trying to save you, and you get too focused on the storm, you might just
55:45
miss out entirely. That's exactly right. And so let's go ahead and get into this last section.
55:50
I've got one more thought on that. And just from a very practical standpoint,
55:55
I find that with my oldest kids that the best conversations often start with my experience
56:03
with the Lord and not with let's talk about such and such. You're just talking about your
56:08
girlfriend, and this thing. It's more like when I was your age, and then we give them that, it
56:13
opens and softens because they go, "Oh, you're human. You're not just my dad that's trying to make
56:18
me do the right thing." Especially if you're leading with weakness and vulnerability, not
56:21
strength, and stupid like you. Well, the same thing is true. When you're a kid,
56:28
you just assume adults are really, really smart, and then you become one and you're like, "Oh, we're
56:31
not." I'm included in the category of morons, and that's just the things. Your kids will notice that
56:37
as they continue to get older as well. So getting into this last section of Act 7,
56:41
I'm actually going to read verse 54. So gentlemen, let's relax over here.
56:46
You're holding out. You're stealing my rib. That's okay. Guys, just relax. Keep your own ribbons.
56:52
All right, I'm going to read verse 54. Now, when they heard these things, they were enraged,
56:56
and they ground their teeth at him. So let me explain this first to people who are well-adjusted.
57:04
Some of you just, you've never been that flustered. When you're in traffic and
57:09
someone cuts you off, you go, "Oh, man, I bet they needed to get where they needed to go a lot
57:12
faster than me. No big deal grace for them." You're just that person. I've never had that
57:18
countenance. I've never had that level of patience. It is a miracle when those things happen.
57:22
This is complete, all-consuming, out-of-control rage. When we see Jesus when he arrived at the
57:31
tomb where Lazarus had been buried, it says that he snorted with anger, right? If you've
57:39
never been there because it's not in your countenance, it's not in your personality,
57:43
this is where you can't even bring words to mind to say only noises, and the noises are
57:49
like you're just short-circuiting. It's like the little guy from Home Alone,
57:55
where he's like, "It's that level. This is apoplexy." For a lot of you guys, again,
58:04
if you read the text with no personality, and you're like, "Now then they heard these things,
58:10
they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at them," and you're thinking, "Ugh,
58:13
I don't like what you're saying. No, that's not what's happening here. This is murderous rage
58:19
that most of us luckily have never and will never experience at all. But, Eric, if you will go
58:24
ahead and take it from there, go 55 through the end of the chapter, please." But he, full of the
58:29
Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
58:35
and he said, "Behold, I see that heaven's opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of
58:40
God," but they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
58:46
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their garments
58:53
at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out,
58:59
"Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit." And falling to his knees, he cried out with a loud voice,
59:04
"Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
59:09
So, so many things. Even just hearing you read that out loud, I'm getting a little bit upset,
59:15
just like thinking about the scene. So I just want to point out a few things, and then we will
59:18
certainly dig in. The way that Saul is introduced here by Luke, this is like movie villain stuff,
59:25
where you see like just the back half of Shredder walking through the sewer before you actually see
59:32
the whole thing, right? Like that's, he's just dropping Saul into the story here, and he plays
59:37
obviously an incredibly prominent part as we move our way entirely through. Before we get into
59:42
process of stoning and what this means is him for the first martyr, I have a question that I might
59:47
be reading into a little bit too much. But when it says in verse 56, "Behold, I see the heavens opened
59:52
up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God," not sitting, standing. That's one of the
59:58
things that I'm listening to. Is there significance there, or am I just like reading in the text? Yeah,
1:00:01
I'm not sure if there is or isn't. There certainly is in the sentence because this is Jewish eschatology.
1:00:08
This is the end of all things. The Son of Man with God, raining and ruling over all things.
1:00:16
And so a parting shot, if we want to look at it this way, is he's looking up and saying,
1:00:22
"I see the thing that you're so desperate for," and they plug their ears and rush him.
1:00:28
And so he's just, you kill him, he's resurrected. He just dropped the hammer. I mean, the mob explodes.
1:00:36
They rush at him, and he lifts up his head and says, "I see the Son of Man standing next to
1:00:42
the Father," and that's a shot. It's the thing that you say you're so desperate for,
1:00:48
that you're coming to kill me for over. I see it. You don't see it, but I see it. So now go back
1:00:53
into a sermon on three occasions in the sermons. He's like, "We thought our brothers would see it,
1:00:58
and they couldn't see it. We thought our people could see it, and they couldn't see it. We thought
1:01:01
our people would get it, and they don't get it." He's been here the whole time.
1:01:03
And he's got this one last, "I see it. You don't see it for him on this Son of Man standing next to
1:01:10
the Father." I haven't thought through the sitting standing because it's usually sitting because it's
1:01:14
right now. This is something that I dug into a little bit, like most of the time when Jesus is
1:01:18
referenced in this way, it is as him seated next to the right hand of power, next to the right
1:01:23
hand of the Most High, and right hand of the Father, here in a standing. And obviously,
1:01:29
some of this is speculation, but some of the commentaries that I read were he's standing in
1:01:35
solidarity with Stephen. He's standing as his Sproul puts it as he's standing as his advocate.
1:01:43
He's our advocate to the Father. And that's a very interesting thing that he's not seated.
1:01:49
He's actually standing. And I think that's pretty cool. It looks like he's welcoming you.
1:01:53
Yeah. Good job. So, again, we can't, I guess, know for sure. This is kind of where I went with
1:02:00
standing. There's a different level of attention when you're standing watching something than when
1:02:05
you're seated, a different level of comfort when you're standing. But you're also more prepared
1:02:11
to react and respond when you are standing. And again, I don't want to read something into the
1:02:15
text that's not there. So, I'll pull a channel and say, "Here's the Bible. I'm going to walk over
1:02:19
here and make a few comments." So, that's kind of where my head went, where he is standing at
1:02:23
attention watching what's happening. This could be an argument against the match or the watchmaker
1:02:30
theory. God is a God who created the world and he just stepped back. To stand is to actively
1:02:36
participate. Christ is actively participating in our everyday lives. And I don't think we should
1:02:44
miss that. He's continually praying for us as well. Yeah. It says that as well.
1:02:48
Well, and I think the thing that we see here as well is again, that's why that's why things
1:02:54
again. I know people hate the chosen. Where are you at on the chosen? I like the chosen. Okay,
1:02:58
like chosen. So, I've said this a lot. So, if you've heard me say this a lot, but I know there's
1:03:02
there's new people. Yeah, shut your mouth. There's new people coming to the show on a weekly basis.
1:03:06
And we're so thankful for you guys coming to the show. So, some of you will have endured this story
1:03:09
a lot. But how many times had I heard about or just buzz through the story of the woman of the
1:03:14
problem of blood? Yeah. And then like again, even right now, just thinking about the story,
1:03:18
it's like making me upset because that was a three episode arc of the chosen during season three.
1:03:24
And it never landed with me. Oh, the woman with the problem of blood. I bet that was uncomfortable.
1:03:30
No, this one was on her period for over a decade. She was richly unclean for over a decade. She had
1:03:35
lost her standing in society, her entire family. And she knew if I could just get to the corner of
1:03:40
his garment that I will be saved. And it's like, that's more faith than I have ever shown in just
1:03:46
about any scenario whatsoever. And it was because the chosen slowed that down for me that I was able
1:03:52
to land. The same thing is true in a macabre way with the stoning of Stephen. Guys, I've seen videos
1:03:59
of people being stoned to death. Okay. Like just I've exposed myself some dark content, some stuff I
1:04:04
wish I hadn't have seen. But this is not a slow process when someone is stoned to death.
1:04:09
Because I think when I was a kid, I thought of a stone as like, okay, they got a really big stone
1:04:14
and they like lifted it up on a pulley system and then put the person under it and dropped it on
1:04:18
their head. And then, you know, you just, you know, like a pimple, you just head pops and you're gone.
1:04:21
It's like, no, everyone grabs a rock. And they just start chucking it at you.
1:04:26
Some of them hold on to the rocks and they're beating you with the rock to death. Because again,
1:04:32
I just think like how long would the death take if someone people are just throwing, you know,
1:04:37
hand-sized rocks at you? But no, some of these people are literally trying to bash your brains.
1:04:41
And this was not we are trying to maximize the time of your suffering. But just inherent in the
1:04:46
act is the suffering will be prolonged and incredibly big. Yeah, the act in principle is not a quick
1:04:51
thing. One thing that I got out of here was, okay, so they're angry enough to disobey their own laws.
1:04:58
I mean, they're like proving the point of his sermon. We are literally not going to waste any more
1:05:04
time. We're going to stone this guy. And I really like what Spurgeon says about this. He's talking
1:05:09
about Stephen Sermon. He says, he takes the sharp knife of the word and rips up the sins of the
1:05:14
people laying open the inward parts of their hearts and the secrets of their soul to the point
1:05:20
that they are gnashing their teeth. They're so angry that they're disobeying their own laws so
1:05:24
they can just let's just get this over with. This guy needs to go. Right. We got to get him out of
1:05:28
the gene pool. Yeah. And then go ahead. I've got, yeah, just I was thinking about the whole Jesus
1:05:33
standing. This is maybe a silly example, but I remember this video. It's pretty old now. I think
1:05:38
it was originally on YouTube. It was this commentary about leadership and they were showing like the
1:05:43
side of this hill and people watching a concert and then just randomly this guy gets up and just
1:05:49
starts dancing. Yeah. And they're, you know, and they're like, you know, this is how leadership
1:05:53
starts. He starts with the first guy. Nobody was going to do anything until there was a first guy.
1:05:58
And you see this guy just dancing awkwardly does not care. He's just doing his thing. Like, how
1:06:03
was he experiencing? Can you give us an idea like how? I'm not going to do that. Okay. Fair enough.
1:06:07
It was not twerking. I can run for that. But that's not what I was asking for either.
1:06:11
Really goofy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, two or three people after about 10 or 15 seconds, join them.
1:06:18
And then, you know, 20 seconds later, a few more people join them. And then it just becomes like
1:06:22
this flash mob and then just everybody's in. And I almost just think about Jesus standing up and
1:06:27
being like, bro, you're the first to do this, but you're setting the tone for everyone after that.
1:06:35
And I'm proud of that. I don't think you could be a youth pastor in the early,
1:06:39
or maybe the late 90s and early 2000s, unless you showed that video, showed that video.
1:06:44
So the thing that's also very important here is all the core layers. And again,
1:06:49
this was was moody. Moody was great for me with this one. The core layers between what Stephen
1:06:53
said and did during this period and what Jesus said and did. So Stephen, you know, Lord Jesus,
1:06:57
received my spirit. And then in Luke 23, it's father into your hands, I commit my spirit.
1:07:02
Stephen, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Luke 23, 34, father, forgive them for they know,
1:07:07
not what they do. Having said this, he fell asleep. Jesus, Luke 23, 46, having said this,
1:07:13
he breathed his last. And so it's like, we've all, if we've maybe seen, seen it live, or we've heard
1:07:21
of stories of people that go courageously and happily to their deaths. Now, in our modern context,
1:07:27
that is typically in a hospital room, surrounded by friends and family, or at home, surrounded by
1:07:33
friends and family. And then, you know, they all have kind of the same story. It's like, well,
1:07:37
you know, we all said our goodbye to grandpa, and then, you know, grandpa, he was just gone. You know,
1:07:41
we have those stories. But I think about the first, second and third century martyrs and these people
1:07:47
that pagan scholars, Jewish historians, Roman, you know, philosophers, they're, they're marking
1:07:54
and remarking about these, these followers of the way, these, these Christians, these weirdos,
1:08:01
they know they're being taken to the Colosseum to be torn apart by animals. They know they're
1:08:06
about to be little on fire so that, you know, the emperor can have a party at night. And they're
1:08:11
like singing these songs, these songs of praise and hope and love and sacrifice. And they would
1:08:19
probably like to have it another way. I don't think anybody wants to be torn apart by a wild animal,
1:08:23
but they're just like, hey, man, to live as Christ today's game. Like, what are you going to do to me?
1:08:28
I read a quote just along these lines. It's actually in the book, but he, it's a book by one of my
1:08:34
favorite theologians. Well, it's probably overstated. But he said nothing reveals how we can pedantic
1:08:41
the work of the enemy is like the joyful singing of God's people in his face.
1:08:46
And that a great call is so gracious.
1:08:49
Was that neat? Oh, yeah. That's right. I mean, so guys, there's so much here to act seven,
1:08:54
but I just want to echo something as we, as we leave this section, Matt Chandler, what you said
1:08:59
earlier about, um, for guys, we don't want you guys to look at the forging tables if we're not
1:09:06
just like you. Now, Matt, you're not like on any of us. So you're like special. You have like
1:09:09
your own category of special. So, you know, good for you. But for the rest of the simpletons down here,
1:09:14
right? We are just regular dudes, but I say that tongue in cheek because guess what,
1:09:20
you've got a king's table of regular dudes that could give a crap about how many books you sold
1:09:24
last week. And so guys, you need a group of guys around you that could give a crap less about how
1:09:29
many books you sold last week, how many downloads your podcast got, what, you know, accolades you got
1:09:33
at work, the fact that you had the best quarter, last quarter at work, or those same things in the
1:09:38
opposite and in the reverse. Yeah. This is about getting dudes around a table. And as opposed to
1:09:43
just doing dude stuff, watching the fights, you know, talking about this fancy football draft,
1:09:48
any of that type of stuff, which is fine. I'm not anti any of those things. But you're all in the
1:09:52
word on your own. And however way you do that, whatever translation of the Bible that even though
1:09:57
the message, you know, don't do that. That's not a translation. That's garbage. But like you got
1:10:00
your own translation of the Bible. Some of you are big commentary people. Some of you are meditators,
1:10:05
some of you are just like, I'm going to listen to this text at nauseam for the next week until we
1:10:10
get together. But then get together at a table. I don't care what you call it and start bouncing
1:10:15
ideas off. And also we didn't do this initially with the forging table and I wish we would have.
1:10:19
So what's wrong with you, OGs? Why didn't you correct me from the beginning? We used to not
1:10:22
actually just read the text, like we would read sections here and there and then we would kind of
1:10:26
flow and talk about it. But just reading the text out loud, because what's the quote to where it's
1:10:32
like, if you want to hear God speak, read his word, if you want to hear him speak audibly, read it out
1:10:35
loud. It's like there's something different. Eric, I've read the Stephen story a lot over the
1:10:40
last couple of weeks. Hearing you read it out loud just hit me different. The Holy Spirit is
1:10:44
delivering that to my psyche and to my subconscious in a different way, just hearing you read it out
1:10:49
loud. So that is my commercial to all of you. Find a forging table. We've got resources for you. So
1:10:55
here in the show notes, Crossway, they put together a five book set for you guys to start your own
1:11:00
forging table. There is a study Bible in there that's an ESV men's study Bible. It's absolutely
1:11:05
fantastic. There's a few other books that will help you as you dig in and go through. We also have
1:11:09
the Logos Bible software that we are affiliated with guys. It's the most powerful Bible software
1:11:13
you could possibly imagine. So if you get into a situation like this, this is not a tool that is
1:11:19
only there to help you impress your friends. But by golly, if you get it, you're going to learn
1:11:22
some stuff where if you say you're going to impress your friends and all that will be in there. But
1:11:25
guys, I really enjoyed our discussion of Act seven, but we are going to have to leave it there. But
1:11:29
everybody listen to this. Make sure you are read through Acts eight, Matt, you will be with us next week
1:11:34
as we go through with Max eight. So we're so glad you've been here with us for the last several weeks.
1:11:38
But that is all for now. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost.
1:11:42
Add on to the life or mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges
1:11:45
spiritual mental and physical resilience. I've already talked about the crossway forging table
1:11:49
starter set. We talked about the Logos Bible software. But if you haven't heard me talk about
1:11:53
before, we are a donation based ministry. Almost everything that we get the majority of how we're
1:11:57
able to keep the lights on and continue to equipment around the globe to push back darkness is because
1:12:01
we have dudes just like you giving a little bit of their money to us so that we can continue our
1:12:06
operation. So please consider doing so. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're
1:12:10
listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review. If you want
1:12:14
to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, shoot me an email to info at undaunted.life. That's
1:12:20
I N F O at undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website
1:12:24
for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
1:12:28
Just go to www dot undaunted.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing
1:12:33
us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
1:12:37
which is off their self titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.
1:12:42
I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness,
1:12:46
keep forging spiritual, mental and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:13:16
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