The Present Power of a Promise Believed

“Listening to Stephen Preach About Abraham”

(Acts 7:2-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 24, 2011)

… The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. 5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ 8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Why would we listen to a man like Stephen? Isn't anything from 2000 years ago passé? Stephen did not live in a world of seemingly boundless technology or of transcontinental communication and mobility, a world where an idea can no longer be contained. What can we learn from Him?

Like all the true Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles, Stephen had been in the presence of the God of heaven. Heaven's truths are never passé. They come from God. Did we create the earth? Do we have the end and the beginning of all things in our hands? We need a voice from a place of certainty. This is what listening to Stephen can do for us. He speaks for Jesus Christ on some very important matters. We have an opportunity in these verses to hear heaven's commentary on Abraham. Stephen lived 2000 years ago, and Abraham lived 4000 years ago. But heaven's understanding of Abraham was very important then, and it is still of critical importance now. There can be no message of more abiding significance than one spoken by the God of heavenly glory through His true servant.

… The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.

Out of all the people on the face of the earth 4000 years ago, the God of glory chose an unknown man named Abraham who would be a critical figure for three modern religious communities. Two of those traditions were represented by Stephen and his adversaries in Acts 6-7; the third would not exist for another 700 years. God appeared to Abraham and He directed Him. This personal communication between God and man was critical not only for Abraham, but for all who would seek to follow the God of Abraham.

When God spoke to His servant 4000 years ago and made a promise to him. Abraham was in one place in the Middle East, and the Lord was directing him to another. God intended to show Abraham a land. Abraham followed the voice of the Lord. He went out. Stephen's first point: 1. Abraham had God's direction and promise.

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

Stephen recounts then the coming of Abraham into the land, and the Lord's promise to give this land to Abraham and to his offspring after him. Yet Abraham had no offspring yet, and he did not yet have any inheritance in the land yet, “not even a foot's length.” Now we have two points from Stephen: 1. Abraham had God's direction and promise. 2. That was all that he had.

Stephen then continues with the specifics of what God said to Abraham in Genesis 15, which was a remarkable word of God regarding events that would take place more than four centuries after Abraham's death.

And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’

The Lord told Abraham the story of the book of Exodus. As yet Abraham had no offspring, but he would one day. They would not seem like much at first, but in the face of horrible persecution from men, they would eventually show how reliable God's word to Abraham was. The Lord told Abraham that the pathway to partaking the promise would include slavery and much affliction. He told him the time frame, and how He would judge the nation that enslaved them. He also told Him that His offspring would come out of Egypt and worship God “in this place.”

This was an astounding prediction, given that Abraham did not yet have one child or one foot of land in what would be Israel. But at the time that Stephen spoke these words, and even today, we are able to see that the Word of the Lord is utterly reliable, even when it would appear impossible on so many levels. By the time that God brought Israel out of Egypt about 1500 years before Christ, there were over 600,000 adult male Jews. Today, even after the horror of the Holocaust, experts estimate that there are over 13 million Jews throughout the world.

God was faithful to His promise to Abraham. Though Abraham had no offspring and no land, by the time that Stephen preached this sermon, millions of descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in the land that God showed to Abraham and they had spread abroad through many trials to other lands in preparation for the Lord's greatest gift to the Jews and to the world, Jesus.

8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

Not only was the Lord's word reliable, but he sealed it with a covenantal sign, circumcision, God's visible encouragement to Abraham of the Lord's knowledge of Abraham, and the Lord's claim upon him and his offspring. See 2 Timothy 2:19. The fulfillment of the promise started slowly with Isaac and then Jacob and then the twelve patriarchs. But those twelve would become tribes, and people well beyond the sons of Abraham would one day count themselves as children of the great old man through faith in Jesus Christ.

Stephen's points from the life of Abraham: 1. Abraham had God's direction and promise. 2. That was all that he had. 3. That was enough. Stephen is working toward a conclusion: True followers of the God of Israel will hear His promise and move out in obedience.

This is the way of true religion. The promise of God has come in Christ. He is the Word from heaven. He believed the word of the Father, and He moved in a direction that looked like nothing but sadness, but led to heavenly glory for millions. The Jews in Jerusalem who received Him may have appeared to be an unlikely group to move the world, but we can now testify to the fact that they rocked the cosmos. Abraham did not look like much. But the God of heaven spoke to him and he received the promise of God. Stephen carried the message of Christ on his face, on his lips, in his life, and then in his death. God used him well. He will use you if you will hear Him. You can bear a message with your life, a message from heaven. It is a word that cannot be contained.

1. What details of the lives of the patriarchs does Stephen recount?

2. How does suffering fit into the life of God's faithful servants?

3. How did God prepare Israel for His best promises?

4. How was circumcision a covenant?

OT Passage: Genesis 15