Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 853 | Jase Discovers a Funny New Meaning to an Old Word & the First Social Influencers

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Jase follows a rabbit hole down a path he finds amusing, and Phil reads an excerpt from his new book. The guys establish who the very first “social influencers” were and how Jesus put Satan on notice after his resurrection. They explore the concept of priesthood as it applies to all of God’s children, not just orthodox clergy. In this episode: Acts 6; Isaiah 9, verse 6; Hebrews 2, verse 14; 1 Peter 2, verses 4-9; Revelation 5, verse 10; Ephesians 2, verses 19-21; Mark 14, verse 58; Romans 12, verse 1 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the Unashamed podcast. We're here for our second bite of the apple, Jays. We record two podcasts, so. Second bite of the apple, which made me think our talented producer behind the wall, we were having a conversation about this use of Jesus being the prince. and Savior in the in Peter's dissertation here in Acts chapter 5 well what's crazy is just like the high priest in verse 17 of chapter 5 didn't get the memo that there's a new high priest Jesus did give the memo to the evil one that he's now the prince with a capital P because remember in john 1430

Jesus referred to the evil one as the prince of this world. Right. Did the producer, Maddie, did she come up with? Does she? Well, we just had a conversation. And I think I said, well, you know, Jesus, I said the Bible also refers to the evil one as the prince of this world. But he's got a little P. Yeah.

And Jesus is a capital P. Isaiah 9.6. I knew there was one where, for to us, a child is born. a son is given wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace that's a capital p yeah referring to jesus as well so the whole world is under the control of e one this first jump five so we know he roams and filled with fury you know revelation but jesus has bound him yeah Hebrews 2 14 by his death he freed those who were held captive by their slavery of the fear of death.

And you remember whenever Jesus and Satan were interacting in that temptation setting out in the wilderness, I mean, Satan basically said to Jesus, I'm in charge of this world. Remember he took him up? They looked over to all the kingdoms. He says, you know, they all answered to me. And Jesus didn't refute that.

He just said, I serve no one but God. So we know he's over in the sense of the big thing, He didn't dispute that Satan is powerful here and has an impact on every kingdom. Which is what we talked about last podcast, that these apostles filled with the Holy Spirit, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, have become influencers in society in this world. Yeah.

And they're basically declaring that Jesus is prince, the pioneer, he's the captain, he's Lord, he's the king of kings. He's exalted to the right hand of God, and things have changed. Yep. The whole idea of the priesthood has changed, which is going to be our next section, which I found an obscure verse in Acts chapter 6 that caused me to do some research that really a really kind of chuckly bit of information come out, as in ha-ha. but I would call this, they're functioning in Acts chapter 6, and you can kind of set up the setting here.

But what they're doing is what I believe Peter referred to in 1 Peter 2 as their being, they're functioning, and I'm saying disciples of Jesus, fill with the Holy Spirit, people who serve, they're functioning as a royal priesthood. Where's that at? 1 Peter 2.9, I want to say. Yep. Should I read that? Yeah.

First Peter 2.9. People belonging to God. Yeah, just think about that. But you are a chosen people, 1st Peter 2.9, you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful, light. Who are those people? But it's the same people he referred to in 1st Peter 2, 4, and 5 just to give you the context. As you come to him, the living stone, remember the cornerstone? But he's a living stone. He's alive. That's why he's better than miracles. Rejected by men but chosen by God and

precious to him, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy, well, there it is again, priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because that's what a priest did, right? They offered sacrifice on behalf of the people. Yeah, they did. Under the old system. Right. And by the way, another one that says it is Revelation 510, you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.

I believe that's happening now via the Holy Spirit. Yeah, you think about why is it, why does it matter what you're saying? Because what we've done in the Western church, and I hate to just throw bombs of criticism, but I think this is a fair criticism. Go ahead and do it, Zach. We'll back you up. And if you step over the line, I got a boo button and a cricket button. Which I did get a. You got cheers at the end of the last podcast.

Which I thought that was crickets at first. I was like, why are you putting the cricket button on me? But then I heard it was the cheers. But now in the Western Church, there has been a movement to shift responsibility, our priestly responsibility. and really are God-given dominion over to professional clergy and pastors. And that doesn't seem to be the vein of what's happening, what you read in First Peter. We are a priesthood. We're the priest.

We're the people. And even when you think about like this idea that you have this pastor that gets a vision from God and then he disseminates it to the people, when you read even at the end of First Peter in chapter 5 when he talks about, talks about the structure of the church and how God has ordained elders to govern over church. When he mentioned, he does mention like a lead elder or lead pastor or in my translation. It's called a chief, a chief elder. But you know he's talking about when he says the chief elder? He says when the chief elder comes, when he appears, when the chief shepherd appears,

you receive the unfading crown of glory. He's talking about Jesus. And so I said, why I bring that up? Because when you started talking about the prince of the world, which is Satan versus the capital P prince, you know, the prince of peace, which is Jesus. And you mentioned the temptation of the devil when he took him up and offered him the kingdoms of the world. I went and read this. And so listen to this. This is at the temptation of Christ in Luke 4 or 5.

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms. So he's offering kingdom, all the kingdoms of the world. in a moment of time. And he said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me,

and I will give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. And of course, Jesus answered him, I'm only going to worship the Lord God. But think about what he's offering him here. He's offering Jesus authority. He said,

what changed. Here's what changed. The resurrection. That's what changed. Because at the end of Matthew, you whenever Jesus has given the great commission. You know what he says? You know how he begins it?

All authority. All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. So what Satan offered him, which he really didn't even have to offer him, Christ in the end, when he was vindicated at his resurrection, God, the Father, gave him all authority, all heaven. So I think what, when you listen, if you can listen to this vein throughout the entire book of Acts, you pray here and everything we're saying about miracles, about everything, Our point is, and I think it's the point of Acts, is that the authority is in Christ,

and then we get to participate in His kingdom through the giving of the Holy Spirit. I mean, that is what's happening here. But we have a priestly responsibility to be partakers in the kingdom. We can't outsource our kingdom responsibilities. Someone just wrote a book, and you might know one of them, Gordon and myself. Yeah, I know him. Yeah, I know both of them. That's Zach's dad for the way out of this book.

Could be wrong, but we doubt it. Jesus, Lord of all, high priest, our seal, greatest sacrifice, unable to lie, our escape hatch into eternity, the great I am, the greatest intercessor ever, author of our sacrifice. Salvation, Son of God, Savior, light of the world, authority over Satan, head of the church, liberator from sin, peacemaker between us and the father, greatest friend you could ever have. And that's just a little bit of this, you say. So to your point, it's available if the human race would just stop for a moment and say, Yeah, he's a vote. Whoa. Yeah.

Whoa, whoa. Man, is there anything he isn't? Yeah. I think here's the problem. I think I discovered the problem. So if you went into a room and you said, a room of believers and said, hey, we're all priests. Well, if I was a new Christian, I would go look up on the Internet, especially in our technological world. If I was a young guy, I'm not young.

so I wouldn't do this. I mean, where you already go is the Bible and try to figure out what that means. But if you go to the internet and look it up, then I did just for funsies. Here's what you'll find. Two definitions.

I could only find two definitions. The definition that Zach just gave was not there, which is very unfortunate. You would think a believer would put the definition of, but nope. You have two definitions. So I'll give you the first one. The first definition of priests, if you go on the Internet,

and this originated in England. It is a mallet used, and let me just clarify for I read this, if you're a vegetarian or you get squeamish, cover your ears for 15 seconds before I give this definition, even though this is real. It is a mallet used to kill fish. And they had beside it, you know, they're giving them their last rites. You can't make this up.

That's what a priest is in England. It's a little hammer that when you catch a fish, you knock it in the head. All right. Our vegetarians are back. Now go read Genesis 9 in the next section, which is okay. There's nothing wrong with being a vegetarian. It's more for us. Don't y'all think that's interesting?

I never had heard that before. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought first it was an attempt to be funny, but no, that's what it is. Somebody said, yeah, I got my priests here. So the second definition, and our producer put it up for us, is an Anglican or Catholic or Orthodox person of authority. They've been ordained.

They administer. certain sacred rights and sacraments. And it's usually a man. That's the two definitions. So when you say, well, we're priests, we're... So you're either killing fish. You're either killing fish so they don't, you know, flop in the boat. I don't know what that is.

Yeah. Or you're some kind of authority figure. Jack just said, Jesus said, all authority. on heaven and earth has been given to me. But the third definition, which we read, which is probably most people, oh, we're priests, because it seems to be a boring job of rules and rights given, you know, when you're dying. What do we say?

Activations. Call a priest. You know, it's almost like a joke. Like, oh, my heart's. We'll call the priest. Not a lot of variety. What's he going to do? You're dying.

Not a lot of veracity in your clothing choices. He's going to pray. It's a black, you wear a black suit. You got the white collar. And, no, I'm not, you know, I'm sure these men could be functioning as priests. Sure. In the biblical definition. So I think what happened here is if you go over the priestly dude,

which they're all laid out in the Old Testament somewhere. But, and I don't know, maybe you can name a few. They offered sacrifices for the people, but animal sacrifices for the sins. But did that in actuality take away their sin? Nope. No, it just kicked the can on down the road. Yep.

They actually were in charge of doing what were fixed to read in Act 6. They would take care. You got to remember this culture was pretty brutal. I mean, a lot of the cultural views when you look up, you know, this Jewish history, as in, you know, like something very graphic and barbaric, but this is just the way it was back then. Some fathers would choose to, if they had a daughter instead of a son, they would just get rid of the, just get rid of the baby and just go on about their business, which is like, what? and so here comes Peter and the other apostles full of the Holy Spirit. They're literally changing the culture. And they're acting and functioning like priest,

the bridges between God and men. Isn't that what a priest is? Yeah. Through sacrifice, service. The reason I made such a big deal about this is because there's an obscure verse here. I had never mentioned and never seen in my, 40 years of following Jesus and reading the Bible, when you read in Acts chapter 6, and I'll read it,

and we'll just get the context of the story, in those days, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the 12 gathered all the disciples together and said, It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be, and I love this phrase, full of the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the work.

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. I don't think you can have one without the other, which is another point we'll get to. And also all these other men,

Philip Procoris, how do you say the next one? Nakanner. Timon. Timon. Parmenus and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. So he was a Gentile that it converted to being a Jew. Yeah.

Now he was a Christian. Isn't that something? They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them, which I think is a key phrase here, because the apostles were able. They had these miraculous gifts given to them by the spirit. and they were able to pass that on. One of the prerequisites of that was being the eyewitnesses. Yep.

So the word of God spread, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly. Now, what's this last little statement? And a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. That's the one thing I'd never seen. So I thought, huh why did these priests under the old law find what the disciples and the apostles were doing why did they find that intriguing why was that a draw because that's what they were doing under a system that couldn't really produce anything worthwhile as in eternal life uh you know

Jesus at the right hand to God, this heaven. There's a new order of business, and they're seeing regular, ordinary men, filled with Holy Spirit, that they couldn't deny because they were doing miracles, and then the Declaration of Jesus, because the power is in the gospel. That was appealing to them.

And I believe their priestly duties, they saw something in the priesthood of God, the royal priesthood that was way more appealing. And I think that's why they came around. One of the good questions, I've asked this about, like, this idea of what is a priest? And you had mentioned earlier, but you get the image of, you know, the guy, like a Catholic priest or a priest in the Orthodox Church. We grew up, we didn't grow up in a, we didn't have that. You know, we grew up Protestants and more than Protestants.

And we grew up in the restoration movement, which was very deconsolidated in the power structure, which I love. I think that part of it was great. But it helped me understand the role of a priest. Just think about the role of a priest in like an Orthodox church. They partake in the, we call it the Lord's Supper at our church or the communion. They call it the Eucharist. What they believe, though, is that you take these elements and the priest gives them to you. You can only get them from the priest.

So he gives you the wine and the bread. and then you ingest that, and they teach something called transubstantiation, which means it actually turns in the body of Christ and the actual blood of Christ. We believe they're elements and symbols, but it helped me understand the idea about what the role of a priest is. His role is to give you these things, and then they turn into life, actual life. See, what is the role of a priest then? If I'm a priest, what is my role?

If I'm part of a priest to the believers, is to take the world in, around me and then and then to transform that back into life and back into praise to God. And so you start to see how that aligns with our role as participating under God's kingdom rule and under his reign and rule. We take our little kingdom as priests. We bring it in under God's kingdom. And then everything that we're doing in the in the world is to transform it into life and transform it into blessing and praise back to him and adoration back to him instead of us coming to a professional clergy and getting our worship on. You know, we come and we consume worship.

And then we live, we live our, we just live our regular lives. There's no power in that. The real power is in transformation that we go out into the world and everywhere we go, we're beachheads of his presence. I mean, that's the real power. And that's the call for us as believers is we can't, we can't abdicate that responsibility or transfer it to somebody else. God's like, no, you're the priest.

You are the priest, you, because you house the Holy Spirit. Not only are you the priest, you're also the temple because you're built on the priest is the Lord himself. That's exactly right. So you got Jesus as high priest, and then we're a priest under him. You got Jesus as cornerstone, and then we're stones built upon him. So you start to see the whole thing, you start to unfolding now, and all of that system of the Old Testament was actually a, of,

foreshadowing and pointing to what he was going to do. But none of that's possible without the Holy Spirit coming and living in people. Thus, we're in the book of Acts talking about the Acts of the Holy Spirit. No, that's good. And I hadn't really thought about Jason in the context here that that priests would be drawn to the sort of functionary idea of serving other people because that is what they did. just so you know the setup was you had the tribes you know the 12 tribes and the levitical tribe the levies they were the priest and that passes down all the way from Aaron in terms of their lineage and their history and so the idea was all the other tribes basically put forth money and sustenance for that

particular tribe because they were the ones doing the functionary work of the temple and before that the tabernacle. So that was the setup. But they were used to being the servants in those settings because that's what they did. They took those sacrifices. They took a percentage of it, you know, for the Levittical priesthood and the rest of it they sacrificed for God. So I never thought about it being in this context, sort of the idea of just, you know, serving

widows and making sure people got enough food deed. I mean, that would have been a draw for them that I hadn't really put into that perspective, but I think you're right. Well, I think that's why. in here because when you think about the priests had the authority to do what they helped society through the law because they had all these laws for every kind of societal situation on the face of the earth but in that they did help people i mean they were the law was intended to have them function as a society that on what was best they uh they offered the sacrifices they uh they in of themselves

were the chosen people of God. So they function like a kingdom. And they were in charge, which is why you have so many people pushing back here. Because when you start looking at it on the other side, even the temple, what was happening into the temple? Well, they were real careful about how the operation of the temple and who could go in and who was running the show.

Well, here comes Jesus. He says, I got all authority. what I'm offering truly helped society. And he proved that with overcoming demons, healing the sick, those steeped in sin, offering grace to, raising the dead. What he's doing in fulfillment of the law, which brought Jesus, because at the end of the day, all the law did was show us that we were doomed. and they were administering it.

No wonder they were griping and grumpy. What did Jesus do about the temple? He's like, I'm the temple. I'm the king. I'm the new king. I mean, all these things, he was the fulfillment, the sacrifice. He gave his life for the entire world.

So I think they recognize that, that, oh, they're sharing this Jesus. He is the fulfillment of all they say. if you really want to help people, because we spend so much time talking about the ones who persecuted the apostles. But there were, in this case, a large number of priests who, what they do, they surrendered to the Lord. And they, even though they were still priests, they had now made their priesthood duties in reaction to the high priests, which Hebrews 4 talks about Jesus being our high priest. And I just thought it was really interesting.

It's so interesting. I always wonder this, because I've heard people critique us. I've heard people critique other people, and they critique their expounding on the Gospels in a way that's like, oh, well, they're not, you know, they're not seminary trained, or, oh, they're just this, or they're that, or what is their qualification? And this typically comes from academia. And I think about what we're saying here. like, what is my credential to be a priest and to speak the truth of God? It is not my, that I have scholarship. You know, it's not that I have an MDF or a PhD. I mean, it can't possibly be that. It is that I am called to be a priest by God himself. And you even see this, like even in this kind of vein, you see it in Acts 4 whenever they saw the boldness of Peter and Jean. and 413, what does it say?

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they had recognized that they had been with Jesus. He said, oh, what is, so what is the credentialing? You've been with Jesus. And now they were with Jesus, like, in a different way than we're with Jesus. But I don't understand. I really feel like what the church needs and what is we need. We need the priesthood of believers to wake up and to say,

now I'm going to take responsibility for what God has called me to do, and I'm going to engage in my priestly duties. And I am a priest. Whether you're educated or not, it's not bad to be educated. Well, you give people Jesus, that is the priestly definition. It is a person who's been redeemed by Jesus, who's been influenced by the Holy Spirit, who then gives people Jesus, which turns out of it.

them into influencers, which is what a priest does. They were influencing the heaven and earth, God and man relationship by taking care of people. Well, and then what it has done is it expanded out of an idea that you had to have a certain pedigree to your point earlier, Zach, as being of the Levitical tribe, because this was the lineage that it had to be, because you were trained from birth, this was going to be your role. Now any of us can be priests because we've been called to Jesus. I mean, didn't we read that in 1st Peter 2.5? He said, you, because you've come to the living stone, you're being,

you're like living stones being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. That's it. Think of Romans 12. In view of God's mercy, offer your body. as living sacrifices. This is your spiritual act of worship. Yeah.

That is a priest. Which, to our point on this idea of the temple and borders and kingdoms and all of that, you say, well, how could Daniel prophesy that there was going to be a kingdom set up in this time period that couldn't be shaken or destroyed? I mean, surely someone could just go in there and stamp it out. Well, that's the problem. You can't stamp out the kingdom if the outpost of that kingdom. You don't know who needs to be stamped.

You don't know. I mean, it's like, what do you do? It's like, yeah, we got the control of this system. It's not a system. It's an organic thing that's going. And when you see it in that way, you're like, man, like this thing is so viral and so powerful. I mean, the entire world was turned upside down by a group. of uneducated rogue fishermen and tax collectors.

And I mean, this was not the people who you would have thought would have brought in God's kingdom. You would have, no one would have ever suspected this. Most people don't believe it to this day. Yeah. And it's even here. And look at the, look at the context on the backdrop by which we're having the discussions about the priesthood, which, because you just mentioned some priests were being now ushered in to the kingdom. The setting here is that because of the way someone came into Judaism, in this new era, in this new life in the kingdom of God, they were being looked past.

Remember the dispute here, the problem was is that if you weren't a true Jew, but you came in as a proselytite, a Grecian Jew, that you didn't get help because you were secondary. So what was happening was they were beginning to replicate some of the very things that they were coming out of and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit through the apostles that then became these seven men that became these servants. The idea was is that, no, we're not going to do that. In this, the pedigree in the background is all of us in Christ. We don't have these hierarchies anymore. We don't have these old systems. It doesn't matter whether you're from the Libbyical priesthood.

So that would have been a draw to these people. And Jason, we mentioned there when we read the names a minute ago, the apostles in their wisdom even appointed one of those men to be one of those who had converted out of, you know, being a Greek into Judaism. And so we're hurtling towards Acts 10, which is when it's going to open up to everybody. But we still hadn't gotten there yet. We're still working through the process. And as you were saying that, I was thinking about the fact that if you're hearing that and you said, man, and those guys had it figured out, though, man, they, I mean, they were, they were. Unschooled ordinary men, but that their character was right, and they had the right hearts, and they were, they were postured in the right place to do this. Keep in mind, one of these guys, Peter, there's a whole thing in Galatians about this guy who ended up discriminating against people who were not of Jewish origin.

And Paul said, I had to rebuke him to his face. So I love that because it's like, man, I don't have the credentials. And you're like, yeah, neither did Peter. Neither did Paul. None of these guys had the credentials. None of them had the, they brought nothing to the table. So your, your, your priestly, um, anointing, uh, is not based on anything that you've done. It's not based on you, you didn't bring the credentials to the table.

The credentials is that God's spirit lives in you because of the finished work of Christ. That's your credentials. Which is why in this setting, you have priests converting priests. Yeah. Flawed priest converting flawed priest. And Jesus, the royal priesthood is better than their law-based priesthood. That's what was happening here. Yep.

So in the greater point, to illustrate what everything we've said, you're fixed to see a living illustration of exactly what we've described, and it was the man called Stephen. Because when it gets to verse 8, it says, now Stephen, a man. full of God's grace and power. So if you do the math, if he was part of the royal priesthood of Jesus, do the math so far what it said. What does a priest look like?

He's full of faith. He's full of the spirit. He's full of grace. And he's full of power. That's why this priesthood is better than any priesthood that you could ever come up with. And by that, we mean how to help people. I just think that's fascinating. It is.

And look, they were also bold. Yeah. So you got five character traits there. One being the spirit, I guess, and the other four flowing out of it. They're full of their spirit. They're under the influence of the spirit because they've surrendered to Jesus. And they have faith. They're full of grace.

they're bold and they're full of wisdom. Yeah. And when you think about when you deal with people, wisdom is an underrated thing. Because you get in situations like this and you're trying to figure out what's best are we going to do. How do we, you know,

there's a situation where people get in trouble or need help in every conceivable form you can think of. In fact, anybody who does a lot of serving in people, you see from person to person circumstances change and what do you need you need wisdom you need grace you need power and you need faith but you're not getting that unless you have the holy spirit of god so that's just how it starts and then it says they did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people so they're showing that they're from god pointing people to jesus opposition arose however

and then here you have another irony because the opposition arose, look, from members of the synagogue of the freed men. So I looked this up. These were Jews who had been held as Roman slaves. So that just shows you about freedom. They've exchanged one prison for another. And it's because of their own sin because now they're free and they're in opposition to the people who are truly free because I know there's one interesting thing about the Spirit. Second Corinthians 3, I think, says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And that's true freedom in Christ.

Yeah. And you know the place where the Spirit of the Lord is now? Here? Us? And people. Exactly. So think about what Steve. I love this.

We're not going to get into this fully in this podcast, but this is, we're getting into like, in my opinion, one of my, I mean, this whole, this whole Stephen thing just,

you're ready to respond. We hadn't even got. Yes. I'm trying not to go. Let me make this point. Let me make this point, just give you an overview in this vein, because you got priests converting priests,

and now you have free men in Christ, being attacked, by the freedman. Something's not making sense here. And that's why I said the last podcast is really what it's about. Jesus has trailblazed. He has founded, authored, captain, he's the prince of a new life on earth. Because he was exalted, things have changed.

Your idea of freedom has changed, your idea of, well, was the other point we just said. Oh, a priest has changed. Your idea of helping people has changed. Everything's changed. And it's changed for the better. Your idea of a temple has changed. Your idea of the kingdom has changed.

Your idea of the temple has changed. It's a complete, that's why the book of access sometimes it's called the upside down kingdom. But when Stephen gets into discussion with these guys, it says here in my translation, they could not, first 10, they couldn't withstand the wisdom

and the spirit which he was, which he was speaking. So you're talking about that power that you talked about because people think, oh, that what's the power? Is that like some kind of, like lightning bolts or whatever?

This isn't some kind of magic show. We're talking about real power. Well, and it said wisdom too, which goes back to the, they couldn't stand up, my version says, stand up to the eternal intelligence or wisdom

that was coming from the spirit. Yeah, they couldn't handle it. And as you say, well, what was he saying that was so provocative? And look down at verse 13. We'll read a sermon next time, but listen. Read verse 13. What do they accuse him of?

He was attacking the place, the holy places. That's where I was headed to the same place. So I never had made that connection with Jesus's predictions about the destruction of the temple. Remember in John chapter 2 when he said, you destroy this temple and I'll raise it up three days? And they said, it's taking 46 years to build this temple. You're not going to. Well, here's Stephen echoing this. Just to read the whole thing, I think we should.

Before we read that verse, we skipped 11, and I think it's important to read that. Because you've got to remember, as priests and under the system of Judaism, their champion was Moses. Acts 611. 6-11 says, then they secretly persuaded some men to say, we have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God. Who did they put first there, by the way? You noticed that? Exactly. First Moses.

Oh, and then God. Because they were not recognizing when Jesus, all the times he said, look, these scriptures, remember in John 5 where he said, you believe the scriptures, but you don't understand that the scriptures are talking about me. all the law and Moses and the prophets were pointing people to me. So then verse 12, so they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedron. They produced false witnesses, which their eyewitnesses, and now they produce false witnesses who testified. This fellow never stops speaking against this. holy place. Well, where are they at? They're at the temple. They're standing at the temple.

And against the law. But then he doubles down, or they do, by saying this, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us. Well, I mean, all those predictions when you were scratching your head, listening to the podcast said, well, he's talking about the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Remember when he said, not one stone will be left on another? It says it half a dozen times in Matthew,

Mark, Luke, and John. He was predicting that. I have become the new temple. And, oh, by the way, get ready. Judgment is coming. You'll see Jesus coming, you know, in judgment as this symbolic language is showing. And what happened in AD 70?

After that, well, Stephen is echoing the same thing. this is what I was talking to my buddy about. He was like, ooh, that's a good point. Why would he be saying that? Why would he be prophesying about an event that was fixing to happen that hadn't happened yet, which is the destruction of that temple where they were standing? And then it happened, how many years later?

About 35, 40. Yeah. The whole place came down. And guess what? It's never been rebuilt. Is that just a coincidence? A big coincidence. But here's what's fascinating to me with this priest idea and just as an introduction to Stephen's speech.

Well, hold on. Before you, before you got that, I got just one point, Mark 1458, because this is Jesus here. Think about the accusation they just made against Stephen. That's what they said to Jesus. And some stood up, well, let me back up there, for many bore false witness against them, almost parallel to what we just read. false witness, but their testimony did not agree. And some stood up and bore false witness against him saying, we heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another one not made with hands.

The accusation of what they said to Jesus, and eventually, that's what got him killed, by the way, that was kind of the, what was the big thing they were going after? As they said, Jesus said that he would destroy the temple. and now they're saying that Stephen is saying the same thing. But if you go back and read what Jesus actually said in John 2, he never said he'd destroy the temple. He said, you destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it.

He never said he would destroy the temple. He said, destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days. And he was speaking about his body. So I just think it's interesting. There is this consistency of if you want to get killed, for Jesus, then start talking about anything about that temple, and that will get you in some serious hot water. You got Jesus in hot water, got Stephen in hot water,

and then eventually got Paul in hot water. Yeah, and just to reiterate what he's saying, later on, Paul would write to the Ephesians in chapter 2 in verse 21. In him, well, I have to back up because I just can't help it. verse 19, it says, you're no longer foreigners, aliens, but your fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,

built on the foundation of the apostles, the prophets with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, just like 1st Peter 2 says. In him, the whole body is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God, God lives by His Holy Spirit.

I mean, that is putting all the pieces of what we're saying together in a nice little compact three-verse period. And then, look, as Zach said, if you want to get killed, start talking about the temple in those times. But if you want to hear a sermon in verse 15 of chapter 6, look for this. If you want to hear one of the greatest sermons ever preached, which is in Acts chapter 7, but look for this. Because all who were sitting in the Sanhedron looked intently at Stephen. And they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. If you see a guy fixed to get up and his face just starts glowing, boy, put your seatbelt on. So we'll get into that next time.

But I just wanted to make this, put a button on this, because when he, in this idea of a priest speaking about, a new priesthood and talking about a new temple and a new kingdom. When he gets to the end, you know what got him so riled up in verse 51 of his sermon, which we'll cover next time, he says, you stiff-necked people, after the sermon, which basically says everything in the Old Testament and all the scriptures pointed to Jesus. That's it in a nutshell. You are just like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit.

they're resisting this grace, this faith, this wisdom, and this power that has been poured out by God. And he's filled up with it. And then it says, was there ever a prophet your fathers didn't persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one. And now you have betrayed and murdered him, which I know that made him angry. But guess what else made them angry? you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it now you want to make somebody mad because they have put in those priests as they functioned they have put all their eggs in keeping that law the Torah and he said you can't even obey it yourself which is our point that's why Jesus came that's the sermon he was preaching so then what happens when they heard this they were furious and they they gnash their teeth. But Stephen, here's this phrase again, full of the Holy Spirit. He was

being influenced by, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God, which is what a priest does. He says, look, heaven is open for business. Jesus is at the right hand of God. It's not as far as you thought it was because he's seeing it. So it tells you it's not a time and space issue. It's just more of a dimension. He's there. He's real. He's at the right hand of God. And so what happened then? He literally became a living sacrifice, which is what a priest does, which Romans 12, you know, First Peter said, offer spiritual sacrifices. He literally became a living sacrifice as a priest, and he was the one on the altar. Because when they, at this,

they covered their ears yelling at the top of their voices. They rushed him, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him. And meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, which is why a lot of scholars believe he was part of the freed men that we started this off, that's where they get that idea. Because they were in such opposition to him. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my

spirit, which is the same thing that Jesus had echoed. Then he fell on his knees, cried out, and then I just think this is what really the spirit of God does when you're full of faith and full of power and full of God's grace.

Because then he asked forgiveness for those who were killing him. Lord, do not hold the sin against them. When he said this, he fell asleep, and Saul was giving approval to his death. So, we'll flesh out on the next podcast a lot in there because, man, there's so much stuff. I want to get through that sermon. That I want to talk about, too, even the backdrop. Because just remember this, this is the first man after Jesus' death to die like Jesus did.

And because of his conviction. And he did it in a lot of the same way with the forget. give us and all that. So we'll get into this and the next podcast on Unashamed. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blazed.com slash Unashamed.