Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 854 | Phil Rescued a Stranded Boater on the Ice & Jase Argues with a Lawyer — And Wins!

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Phil’s rescue of a stranded hunter on an icy river leads to a years-long friendship, and Jase’s argument with a lawyer leads him to Jesus. The guys get an overview of the sermon to the Sanhedrin that led to Stephen’s untimely demise, as well as an ironic introduction to Saul who would later become Paul. Al gives out homework for listeners to study before the next episode! In this episode: Acts 7; John 2, verses 13-20; Ephesians 2, verses 11-15 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. We're trying to get all our grip together here. Chase has brought multiple notebooks. Does that mean you have a lot to say, or do you have, you're just searching because you brought two notebooks today? I'm at a stage of my life where I can't remember things. Oh, yeah. Dad, are you there? Wait.

Oh, ho. Oh, well, Phil. You have a fan. I discovered you're only new. Your number one fan yesterday confronted me at the building. And where we meet. Yeah, where we meet. That's a better depiction because the kingdom and the church is the body of Christ.

It's a movement out in the world. That's right. According to the Book of Acts. A few met with Zach yesterday. A few met with us. Yeah. If you met all over the world. We had a place we met.

Yep. So I go in, I sit down. We were at the, I don't know what you want to call it. We were. At our instrumental service? Instrumental service. We have an instrumental service and an acopella service. Yeah.

I'm with the tax collectors and centers. But yeah, the instrumental service has most of our recovery houses and our CR crowd. So these people have gotten their left drugs and their own, their own Jesus. And it is a, it is inspiring to be in there. I love it. I like to be excited about Jesus. So, but as soon as I sat down. sister, who I've known for years, she leaned over and she said, I'm with Phil.

You need to just stick to the Bible on the podcast. She said, I'm not a fan of the cold open, I see. You got you one, Dad. She said, I fast forward through all the nonsense. But once we y'all get to the Bible, it's amazing. It's awesome. Stick to that. I was like, who was the person that told you that's curious?

The Tara Formerly Jeolibois Yeah The Cajun Tara Foster She married Curley Curley who was brought to the Lord

Curley was a He was one of those early refugees Dad you first saw Curley When he was trying to get up Cypress Creek A great story Do you remember that story? He was paddling a boat

During an ice storm And Phil was like Where are you headed You know he's breaking Breaking the ice. The ice was about a foot tick. Going duck hunting. I said, these boys are going to die.

Yeah. Yeah, that's usually one of those. If you took a picture of it, it'd be this is the last picture ever taken of this bear. But, Phil, I think your instinct was right. I spoke last night. Al, you preached yesterday. Well, we had quite the... Yeah, we had the...

In Dad Talk class, we had the trifecta going here. Sorry, my voice is... Well, just I'm apologizing now. Because last night I was with a group of men. They have a house church, men and women, kids, but the women were all at a retreat. So they had all the men. And so Gary Glenn, who is another fellow that we picked up along the way.

Or young teenagers like curlers. Another scavenger. There you go. That's a good word for it. He asked me to speak, and it was at his house. Well, I didn't realize, I didn't remember any role that I played in him coming to the Lord. It's like I have trouble remembering things. But to introduce me, he said, he said one of the most profound things that got my attention that led me to Christ.

Of course, I'm thinking I have no memory or whatever he's supposed to say. You were hoping it was something good. You know, it was a strange thing, but it reminds me of feel, you know, seeing a guy breaking ice with a paddle with no, motor fixed to try to track a mile up the creek to where you can duck on. I mean, that's a death threat. Because when you're thinking about Jesus and spiritual things, I know what you thought in that moment.

You thought, this person needs rescuing. So who was the guy's name that got up and gave a pretty good speech? Ian had a couple of times yesterday. That's the one that we were riding along on an airplane. And he was. That's Clay. Clay McConnell. Yeah.

Connell. You've told that. story a few times. Yeah, I know, but I mean, you know, it just comes up from time to time. Yeah. I started trying to convert him, and then he gave me the information at the end of my little dissertation. He said, I just graduated from a religious school. I'm a licensed preacher now. And I said, oh, good. Well, that's good, my man. So we talk, you know, I share Jesus. with him 12 to 15 years later. Which, by the way, if you ever come down there, that tells you by dad, the guy just graduated

from the seminary and dad shared Jesus with him. So just keep that in mind. Don't be offended. Well, I didn't think about it after that. I said, but that would be a good thing for him to know, you know. Exactly. Well, this was a similar. What I didn't know was that he had everything, but the gospel presented to him.

He came to a closer walk. I went. And 12 years later, I'll be. looked at that. I saw him back and toward the back. I said, well, that's that guy I sat down there with. The plane. I had the Wednesday night deal. So about the third time, he came walking up there and he told me, he said, remember that when we sat down on that airplane? Yeah. I said, yeah, that's right. You were the one of. He said, I should have stopped. I should have stopped right there. He said, but I just want to let you know. I get it now. I get what I. He married one of the sisters there at our church, and that brought him back.

And then now he's one of our leaders at our church. He's an amazing man. He's a great guy. So back to Gary Glenn. So when we were in a duck blind one day, and he said, you know, I was arguing with you all, because he came from a different branch of the, I don't even know what you call it, of the Christian movement, I guess, a different denomination. And Gary Glenn, he's a lawyer.

So he loves to argue. And back there at that stage of my life, I did too. But so he was arguing about something in the religious world. We're in a duck blind. And, but he said, you said something in the middle of the argument. Because you said, you know, I don't know you that well. You might be out there cutting up or whatever. But always remember this.

I'm always going to treat you like a brother. And he said when you said that, it was just my heart's, sank because I thought, I ain't a follower of Jesus. I'm just arguing about religion. There's nothing in my life that looks like Jesus. And he said, it just, it was just something about you saying, no matter what happens, you know, we're having a religious discussion. And he was just saying, I was just given an illusion that I was, that I was a disciple of Jesus. So it was a real interesting thing. So you convicted him by kind of pulling him in. But he was convicted because he really wasn't.

Exactly. I think in the context, he was getting hot, you know, about whatever he was discussing. And I was like, look, just always remember, I'm going to love you. That's right. Like a brother, no matter what, because I was disagreeing with him, whatever we were talking about. But, and then, you know, made a little something about we're all following Jesus here and just, let's get back to duck hunting here. But somewhere in there, it was just the right timing to hear. And he's like, who?

I got to do something. I've changed my life. But it's funny that both of those illustrations you both just talked about was everything we just looked at in the book of Luke. It was religious people arguing religious topics that didn't know Jesus. Yep. I mean, wasn't that the whole book of Luke? I mean, he was arguing with people who were religious people

who liked to argue about religious things, but they didn't recognize who Jesus was. So, yeah. That's what just infuriates me. Not infuriate. That may be too strong a word. It just, you know, it's upsetting about people who gripe about things like the chosen. Because last night I spoke, and then I got up and said,

I don't want to be unsociable when it's over, but my wife wants to go watch the last two episodes of Season 4 at the theater. And so I love y'all, but I live with her. So see you. So I tore off going to the theater. But I'm just saying, because you watch that and you're like, here people, and I know the people that put this on, they love Jesus. They're planting seeds in our world. Look around at the world.

There's so much that's terrible about it. You got a group of people out there that are planting a seed that, look at this as an alternative, making you think about Jesus. Yeah. I mean, go there. And then you, you know, you hear somebody, like, oh, you know, I don't like that, that shows. It reminded me of the Tara Jolabois conversation. Just stick with the Bible, you know, forget all the illustrations. I would say now that she'll hear this because we threw her under the bus, but since you fast forward,

you're going to miss this, Tara. So maybe one of your friends will tell you we were ripping you in the cold open. I bet she stayed around for that. I bet she did. I bet she did. Tara, did you stay around? To me text. It's sitting, Zach, a text if you say.

But my point is, I'm sitting there. If you go to the movie theater, I would say over 90% of what you're fixed to see should make you vomit. Yeah. And you get to watch this. It was just amazing. I'm like, we're making a difference in the world. Well, look, and we've all been in production, too. I mean, Zach just made a movie.

And, you know, we know how hard it is to produce things that are well done, that are well-outed. that are well-acted, that look good, that fit, you know, and for something to be so well done and really so imaginative about the people around Jesus, yeah, I mean, just, you know, stretch a little bit, let you know, let the flex, give a little bit of flex and, you know, just some what-ifs, but, you know, you're right. I can't see trashing it, but I run into people the same way. Oh, yeah. Well, the church is filled with flawed people. That's what God uses. But we love you as a brother and a sister. Well, I was just going to say something.

I've said this before, but when you're the body of Christ and it's filled with flawed people who have been forgiven, make sure that you're the persecuted and not the persecutor when it comes to believers. That could be assured. Make sure you're the persecuted, not the persecutor. Yeah. So I'm just trying to say that when I meet with the brothers, you know, every once in a while, if you see me doing this, I'm dodging rocks. There's a rock being thrown here and there.

But I'd rather be on that side of it than the guy that every time somebody walks in or does some project about Jesus that I'm chunking rocks at it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I have to say, the hardest part about being, when I was being full-time ministry and being paid to be in it, was many times facing my own church members over something we were about to do or had just done. And that's, you know, to your point,

as you really probably shouldn't be that way. No, that shouldn't be your heaviest burden. It's having to deal with your own. Peter had a lot of, his approach was, when he made his little speech there in Acts 3, you handed him Jesus over to be killed. You disowned him before Pilate that we had decided to let it go. You disowned the holy and righteous one

and ask that a murderer be released to you. You kill the author of life, but God raising from the dead, and we are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing. It's what's that God be here, as you now see. He says, look, I know you acted in ignorance.

as did your leaders. So he's putting it on them. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all of the prophets saying that the Christ would suffer, repent in, and turn to God. So that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

and that you may sin the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. So he gave quite the speech. in that Acts chapter three that we've coming on. Where are you going to stay in three for a while? Now we're going to move up to six, which is where we left off. Well, I gave you the segue to seven by the don't be the rock thrower, but you didn't catch.

I got it, Jay's. I actually caught it. But to Phil's point, it is, I mean, when you think about Peter and the transformation that happened. Yep. I mean, you have a tendency. If you look at those guys and when they were following Jesus, most people that are doing all the rock throwing today,

they would have given up on Peter a long time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He denied Jesus three times. They never would have given him a shot. You're right, you know. So that's my point. And he was leading the charge.

Well, it goes back to what I said about Gary Glenn. You know, we were having an argument, a discussion, and I took the higher road in the argument, but it made him stop and think, well, I'm not even really following Jesus. Why am I, you know, by the way, he has a great mind. Great mind and great heart. And what he's doing, it was at his house. I mean, look, fast forward 30 years. Look at the man. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he's a warrior for the Lord. So what I'm saying, we're all at different. stages on this journey, you know, especially the new Christians. But just to reiterate what I said about the chosen, I mean, anything we can do to get Jesus

out in the world, just to make the world a better place so we can drive down the road, bringing up those qualities and characteristics of God, man, we are to be shouting from the mountains saying, well done. At least realize we're on the same team. Let's take our first break. We left off at the end of Acts chapter 6. Terry, you can join us now because we're going to the Bible. The glow, the glow.

Yeah, the glow. The glow is where we left out. So Stephen, and I want to make one point that I didn't get to make the other day because it was hard to break him because there was so much good stuff lying around. Stephen is introduced in Acts chapter 6. He's one of the seven that are chosen to do. take care of the Grecian and Hebraic Jews because there's a conflict that's happened because the Grecian Jews are being overlooked because of their background. So it's kind of the first time,

and Zach brought this up, I think, in the last podcast, that you start to see this sort of prejudice that's going to kind of plague the early church, and Peter's even been a part of that. But what I thought was interesting that we didn't mention when Stephen is introduced, because it says about him in verse five of six, he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Now, the other guy has got mentioned, but he kind of got, he's obviously a little unique because he gets a little extra mention from Luke. And then when we get down to verse eight, he's full of God's grace and power and did miracles.

There's you a four-point sermon. There's a four-point sermon about what he was, what do you want to be full of, you know? Yeah. A lot of people are. And I know this, it's hard to be full of the spirit if you're not full of faith. That's exactly right. And this is where it starts. I was going to make the point that I did in the other day that here's what's interesting

to me because this, and this who had a lot of people I think to listen to the podcast. So you remember the disciple, the apostles, the reason they said they turned it over to these seven is because they didn't think they need to be spending their time taking care of this problem, waiting on tables, was the way that Luke puts it, rather than, you know, doing the ministry the Word of God. In other words, they felt like their ministry was to be teaching because they were with Jesus. They were witnesses. And that doesn't downgrade anybody that's waiting on tables. It just shows you this is what they were doing. But here's what I find interesting. We're about to get into Stephen's sermon today, which I would argue is the most passionate, powerful sermon in the entire Bible. And

that's by any of the writers, including Paul or anybody else. This sermon stacks up against any sermon. And this was a guy who was picked, tapped on the shoulder to wait on some tables. And this is where he winds up in the first martyr and the first guy that, I mean, just lays into this sermon and gets people so angry that they killed him over it. So a lot of you guys out there and gals that are listening, sometimes you think, well, you know, I'm not like pastor so-and-so, or I don't have this or I don't have that. And somehow you're less than. this guy was tapped on the shoulder to wait on some tables and take care of some widows. And he winds up getting called upon because of the circumstance to preach one of the greatest

sermons in the whole Bible and give his life for the cause of the kingdom. And he started the spread because from here the persecution comes in. So my thing is, sometimes you feel like you're not worthy. You're worthy. And you don't know exactly what God's got in mind for you. So when you're just wondering, because you got this little ministry at the church, I'm not sure what we're doing here. You may be about to be tapped on to do something huge for the kingdom.

You don't have to be the pastor or somebody else to do that. So it struck me later to see Stephen's beginning was pretty humble. I mean, he wasn't worthy to be an apostle in the ministry of the word, and yet he's fixing to turn around and give one of the greatest sermons in the Bible. And I'm glad you brought that up. And in the context, you remember back in Acts 1, where he said, start here, go to Samaria and, eventually the ends of the earth

Judea and Samaria. You remember that? That was the plan. Yeah. And that's what's happening as we go through Act. And he's the trigger that gets it going. That's right. And to your point, when we get to Axe, we'll see that. But I do think it's nice to look at this from 30,000 feet.

Well, when this scatter happened, I just noticed this from reading ahead. It says everyone was scattered in chapter 8 in verse 2 except the apostles so they they stayed but the rest of them were scattered throughout judea and samaria and then when you get to verse 4 those who had been scattered well this is no longer the apostles they preach the word wherever they went so it wasn't like i think you're right and i looked that word up preach because i thought because when we think somebody preach we think what

you did yesterday right when you look up the word it was basically announcing the good news. Reclaim, yeah. They were. The word kind of looks like evangelist, the Greek word. Yeah. And so it's like you're proclaiming the good news of Jesus. And so I've always said, I think everyone who understands that they're in Jesus

has the ability to speak that in some way. But the part there is Luke recorded. So the word of God spread. I think that was the... Well, that's the point. Yeah. But a lot of times it takes people in unusual circumstances or situations to be that person. Well, and I think you've got to say this.

You know, that's why Romans 116, I guess our theme verse for our podcast here, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. But it says, you know, it's the power of God for the salvation. first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. And so there was a tendency or a temptation since this originated in Israel to just stay there. And so even in this chapter 6 that you brought up, you got a conflict between those Jews who are, have begun to have the Greek culture in their life with the ones that are holding to the original culture. but God wanted this to go first through the Jew to all the ends of the earth.

Everybody's going to be in. So you're actually seeing that unfold literally in the book of Acts, how it happened. The word spread the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests, which is a good lick, became obedient to the faith. Yeah, which we talked about that.

It's working what he said. So just think about it. So like Acts 8, you're going to see an African, the Ethiopian eunuch, come to the Lord. Acts 9, you're going to see a Jew who was terrorizing the church and Paul. But then Acts 10, you're going to see a European, the centurion, which is the breakthrough to the Gentiles. I mean, just thinking three chapters, you're going through different countries. Oh, it's expanding.

That's right. It's literally doing what Jesus said. the last thing. And you fast forward 2,000 years and you see why this worked. Yep. You mentioned the last podcast you ended with that passage out of Ephesians too. I mean, you go back to Ephesians, or you were talking about the temple and the cornerstone of the temple and were living stones being built up into this holy temple. But the point of that, it really is a multi-ethnic kingdom that was prophesied in the Old Testament. repeatedly. So the Book of Acts is a fulfillment of a lot of Isaiah's prophecy about different,

all people groups, nations, all coming up to worship this God who made everything. Then that kind of climaxes in the Book of Acts in chapter 17 when he says that all, God created all men and decided the exact times and places that they would live so that he would seek them out and perhaps find them, though it's not far from each one of us. So, like, that picture is that he has created humans and spread us across the entire globe. But the call is to all come back and come up this mountain of Zion to worship the one true God. And so you're seeing that unfold even in Stephen's speech here. I mean, Stephen, if you go through this sermon, which we're going to,

one thing you're going to see is there is a heavy emphasis that Stephen puts on a place. And I think it's intentional. He's talking about land. He's talking about places. And then what he's essentially, the case he's essentially making is God doesn't live in your places. He's not confound to your places. God is he's everywhere and he's drawn all men in. And it was enough to get him killed, which I was thinking the good title for the sermon is the sermon to get you killed. This is it. Jason and I were taught in school about the suitcase sermon. And this was the first suitcase sermon, but it was a trip to cross over to the other side. This was a coffin sermon. A coffin sermon. Because we learned in preaching school that sometimes you might preach a sermon that you might as well just go ahead and pack those bags because you may be moving on to the next stop. Yeah.

But that's what this was, but in a much bigger way. But this goes back to remember when Jesus said in Matthew 28, because when Zach said that about this would spread through every ethnic nation, when you go back to Matthew 28 and Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth, speaking to the Ephesians 2 19 through 21 you brought up, has been given to me, go make disciples of all nations. When you look up the Greek word, it's ethna. ethne the same idea of what he said ethnic yeah baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the

holy spirit i mean just think about that verse where we're at reading this is what's happening it's going to all nations and you're seeing the work of the father and the son the holy spirit you're seeing all these these terms the spirit of christ and you know jesus exalted bodily as a man but we're the body of christ sons and daughters of god you get into that in act 17 you know he's like we're god's offspring you're seeing how this is working out in what he said so if i were naming this sermon zach i would say when you get the glow then you're ready to go because that's exactly what happens to him. Well, I have a theory.

And I would spell that G-L-E-A-U-X. Yeah, with a cage. Yeah, when you get the glow, you're ready to go. Well, I could be wrong about this, but I thought that verse is such a weird verse when it says they saw that he had the face. It was like the face of an angel. But the first thing I thought when I read that was, well, how would you know what an angel look like? They were pretty terrifying.

When Luke was on a human face. You know, when Luke wrote this, but then I thought, well, and I thought, you know, Stephen's speech is so long. But you got to remember that when you get to the end of this, there was Saul, who would later be converted. And so I think Saul, who became Paul, told Luke about what happened here. Yeah. Oh, he did.

And Paul was real, because you remember there's an angel that comes and stands beside him somewhere here in Acts that we'll get to. Paul, it was literally standing beside him. So I was like, well, he would have known what an angel looked like because he had one standing right beside him. So maybe that's why he told Luke, you know, I get it. This is all via the Holy Spirit as they're writing this down. Sure. But he would actually know what the face of an angel looked like. Well, you would think, I mean, you know Paul was great.

moved by the experience because, I mean, I would argue that Acts 17, which we've mentioned twice in this podcast already, you should go read it if you have a chance. Act 17, when Paul goes into the Ariopagus, which Phil actually, we stood on and listened to Phil quote the entire Act 17 sermon on Mars Hill. And I did, I was there too, not with y'all. And my wife did the same thing. And we actually got a response from some guy. I had people crying.

I mean, remember Dad? People were crying. They thought Dad was just some guy. I think they thought he was John the Babbers reincarnated or something. Because they didn't see our cameras and he was just up quoting it and people were crying. Remember Dad? They were tears. Well, this guy from Russia when Missy was was quoting that, he wasn't crying.

He was a rock thrower. He was hot. Not literally. But he came there to fight. And so, but she handled that way. I've shared that story before. We were with old Larry Bowles. Larry Bowles.

But I think it's interesting, though, that Paul, when Paul's up there, and by the way, this is, this is, the irony here is thick because Paul, when he was Saul, was the Jew of all Jews, the Pharisee of all Pharisees. He was a zealot. I mean, this guy, I mean, he believed, he said he persecuted the church with a good conscience. So when he was killing Christians, he's like, man, I feel good about this. Like, I feel like I'm doing the work of the Lord. And it's so ironic and it's God's irony that that's the guy that he says, you're going to be the one to take the gospel to the Gentiles, which you mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, Romans 116.

And you said that first. It's the gospel is the power of salvation, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. And Paul, the whole book of Romans is Paul is bringing the gospel. to the Gentile. So he goes into Gentile territory. He goes into their version of the ivory tower, the academia ivory tower, the philosophers would get together and discuss all the latest ideas. And so he went into their intelligentsia while they were discussing all these different philosophies. And Paul brings the gospel. And when Paul brings the gospel, the way he introduces it is he says that the Lord

God does not live in temples built by man's hand, which is almost the exact same phrase that he heard Stephen say to a Jewish crowd of Pharisees and Jewish zealots. That's what he told them. He goes through this sermon and he talks about all these places. And when he gets to the end of it, he's like, you basically you put your hope in a place. And God's not in a place. He doesn't live in temples that are built by man's hand. that guy Saul gives the order to kill Stephen.

The gospel then goes out and spreads to the areas that Jesus told him to go anyways, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. That's what it happened, by the way, after the persecution broke out as a result of this moment. And so then Paul, Saul gets converted and becomes Paul. And then when he goes back into the Gentile world, he gets the same message that Stephen gave that he heard and that caused Saul to give the order to kill him. I just, the irony there is so thick. No, that's a good point.

Did I hear intelligentsia? Yeah. Intelligencia. Is that a word? It's a word, is it? Well, let me give you something else that has intelligentsia leanings. So the passage that we referred to in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22, which we keep bringing up, the context of that in verse 11 says,

of chapter two, Ephesians. Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumstized by those who call themselves the circumcision in verse 12, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ,

for he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. What's so awesome about that is that you're either, because a lot of people, People say, what's a Jew? Well, that's somebody from Israel. What's a Gentile?

Somebody that's not from Israel. Everyone else. But it's amazing that this was God's plan, but he's basically destroying that wall. It's all prejudice. It's everything that separates people he brought together in Jesus. Yeah. Which I think is awesome. It's pretty powerful.

Let's take another break. So to your point, Zay, Jace mentioned this, I think in the last podcast, that some scholars think maybe that the synagogue of the freedmen, which were these Jews, could have... Who were under Roman... They had been freed from Rome... They were Roman slaves who had been freed. Right.

They called themselves the free men. I made the point that they, even though they had been set free, they were still prisoners. That's right. because they weren't embracing who Jesus is. Right. And there's some conjecture that maybe Saul had been a part of this group or connected to them. Because they're hot about this. Right.

There's definitely a lot of anger here. So here's what's interesting. So this will get us into the speech. And I guess I'll just give you kind of an overview of it. And then we decide how much if we're going to read the whole thing or what. Because it's long. So the question, so Stephen's glowing. It looks like an angel, according to Luke.

And by way of Paul, I think Joshua. probably right. The high priest asked him, so here now where this sounds to me so much like what happened to Jesus, here's the high priest. And he says, are these charges true? I'm glad you stop there because you got to remember what the charges were, which is in verse 11, I think. Are they in 11? It's when it starts. They secretly persuaded. 6.11? Yeah, 611. Yeah, 6.11. Yeah, they secretly persuaded some men say we heard we heard stephen speak words of blasphemy against moses and god so that's the first two accusations and then it says there's another one verse 13 verse 13 says they produce false witnesses who testified

this fellow never stopped speaking against the holy place the temple temple and against the law So they're your accusations. They say that he's blaspheming against Moses and against God, which would mean the God of Israel only using the old law system and priestly system. I mean, I'm just giving an overview of that. And he's speaking against the temple because they're talking about wanting to tear it down. Right. and the law.

I mean, because that's why I read that in Ephesians, too, because I knew we were fixed to get to this. And it is first for the Jews. So having an understanding of that is important, and it's warranted. And he's fixing to say, okay, in response to, are these charges true? So really, it's not a sermon. It's a testimony. It's a testimony.

A defense, yeah. It's like a courtroom setting. That's right. Just like Jesus was. I mean, the man's on trial literally for his life. Yeah. Yeah, I would, and I would also add, we mentioned this in the last podcast, but I think, but like, to set this up right here, the accusation that they're making against him is not true.

Yeah. It's Trump. It's Trump. Yeah. It's the same accusation that they made against Jesus when they killed him. They said, you said that you would destroy this temple and raise it up in three days. And I want to read what Jesus. actually said, because I think it is extremely important for us to understand it and to understand

who's the actual one that's destroying the temple, which is his body. The Passover, the Jews was at hand. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. This is in John 2. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the overturns all that. And then he basically says, zeal for your house will consume me. So he's having this moment in the temple.

and he sees what they've done to the temple, and he's like, this is not the intention of the temple. This is not why God instructed Solomon to build the temple, what you guys have done to it? So the Jews said to him, what sign do you show us for doing these things? Verse 19 of chapter 2. Jesus answered them, destroy this temple,

and in three days, I will raise it up. So he never said he would destroy the temple. He said to them, you destroy this temple, and then in three days, I'll raise it up. The Jews said to him, it's taken us 46 years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days. Verse 21 says, but he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remember that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

So when Jesus actually says this, he's telling them, you kill me, you destroy my body, and God's going to raise it up in three days. They had changed it to say that Jesus was the one that. was going to be doing the destroying. It's the same accusation that they brought against Stephen in this moment is that he was saying that somehow that the side of Christ was going to destroy the temple. That was never said anywhere in Scripture. It was them that were going to destroy the ultimate temple. So I think that's important for us to keep in mind as we move in to Stephen's response. And then he's about to burn the whole thing down here. But I think it's important for us to understand that.

You're right, Seth, because in verse, 14, which Jason Reed, it said in the second part of that accusation, for we have heard this man say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us. Well, could it be, though, just to give you an alternative option, could it be that some of the language about the temple being destroyed in AD, some of the predictions, they might be applying some of those, you're just assuming that they might have heard those. Remember when he said there won't be one stone left on another? Yeah. Could be. Yeah. That's right. But I don't, but when he said that, though, he was speaking to his disciples. I don't think he was speaking to the Pharisees at the

Olivet. Well, he wasn't, but that word gets around. You know what I mean? I'm just saying I'm positive that somebody has heard about some of those predictions. He's talking about one day this this whole thing's coming down. So I think it's both. I would say it's what you said about Jesus. I agree 100%. You know, talking about they would destroy his temple. But I also think some of those prophecies that Jesus was saying, you know, Matthew 24, maybe.

Yeah, Matthew 24, Luke 23. Luke 23. But in both of the cases of when the accusation came against Jesus, the same accusation came against Jesus at the end of his life. life, it says that they made, it actually says they made these up. They said these were, they made these up. Um, and it was like a, it was a scandal. They were, they were, they were taken. They were taken. What I mean, it's just hard to keep that a secret, but I'm saying they were, they were acting like, they were, they were using it from a state view. But in both, yeah, but in both

of the instances of Jesus, of the accusation against Jesus and the accusation against Stephen, it does say that they were they were false witnesses who said these things. That's right. And they stirred them up. Oh, of course. I mean, and that's the weird thing about it. You brought up about irony, Zach. This is definitely 2.0. I mean, this is like Jesus, they asked him the same questions. He gave them answers. Now he's been killed, which in their minds he was done away with, but now they're claiming he was resurrected. So they can't stamp this out. And to the point that Gamal made before, If this thing is of God, we can't stop it anyway. What I thought was interesting was there was two possible answers that Stephen could have to this question.

Are these charges true? He had two options. He had one word, which was no, because they're not true, because they've been trumped up. Or he has 1,287 words. That's the NIV rendering of what he's going to say to answer that question. So he took the longer version and he answered. So when he starts saying it, it's so funny because the question was, are these things true? 1,287 words later, they're screaming to the top of their lungs and they want to kill him.

Well, what I'm just trying to say, though, even though they're saying he's blasphemeant, well, he's not blasphemeanor, that's not true. and he's talking about the temple being destroyed well the temple is going to be destroyed it will be so but he wasn't saying he was starting a riot and and fixing to do that so so that's not true so what i'm saying is what he says is still going to get him killed even though he's saying no and all he does is give them their own history i mean it's the biggest jewish history less than ever Well, that's my point. He's not going to say anything that they don't already know. That's why people avoid this chapter because they're like, well, what was all the fuss about?

Why did they get so upset? Because he didn't agree with the application of what happened in their Jewish history. And I'll just cut to the chase. Jesus said the same thing in Luke 24. all those things that Moses and the prophets, all those things that were discussed, those were about me. I fulfilled them. Remember the law? I'm going to fulfill the law.

Well, that's the big hubbubble blue. Hubbubble blue. That didn't get a crazy. Hang on, hang on, that's right. To be fair. To be fair, the hubbubaboo. I should get an applause. I took a common word.

I think he meant the hubbub. Hubbub is a word, but hubbub of blue. So that's my point. They miss Jesus as the fulfillment of this. Well, he's going to drop, Jay's three, what I call Jesus Nuggets, in his speech. Well, let's read those. I like that. So let me give you the big picture of it, because we're almost out of time,

because we're probably going to get into this the next podcast. And then I'll tell you where the Jesus' Nuggets are, and then we can flesh them out on the next. Do that, so everybody in between that time, which for us will be five minutes, for you'll be days. It's the magic of television and the Internet. Because you'll get lost in that you'll start reading the sermon. You're like, well, this is like turned into an Old Testament history.

So go back and read Act 7. The homework is after the podcast is ever, read at Susset. And I'm going to give you a big outline right now, so you'll be able to. if you want to write this down or just remember that. And I'm going to tell you where the Jesus nuggets are. And then we're going to flesh him out. So he starts in verse two, and he goes through verse eight,

and he basically covers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And these are what we call the patriarchs. I mean, these are the... And there was a promise. There was a promise. So this was based on a promise. All these Jews are waiting on that promise to be fulfilled. Stephen's kind of insinuating that maybe Jesus is part of the fulfillment of that promise.

So the first Jesus, Nugget is in verse 5. And so that's where you're going to see that. I'll read. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at the time Abraham had no child. Now, that's a little nugget there because if we read Galatians 4 when we get here, we're going to see that this promise was about Jesus. All right. So that's 2 through 8. Versus 9 through 19, he's going to go from Joseph, which is one of Jacob's. sons, all the way until these kings of Egypt, which we know later the Hixos kings, these new leaders of Egypt rose up. So that's going to take you through that period of history. And there's a lot of good stuff in there, too. In verse 20 through verse 43, he's going to pick up there in Egypt and go to Moses, which is obviously huge.

Because that was one of the accusations that's the best fame of Moses. So he brings up Moses. He brings up Moses. He brings up the burning bush, the Exodus, the law at Sinai, the rebellion in the desert. He's going to cover all these. And here's your second Jesus nugget. It's in verse 37. It says, this is that Moses who told the Israelites, God will send you a prophet like me from your own people.

So just keep that nugget in mind. Which is the second time they brought this up. They brought it up in Acts 3 also. That's exactly right. So we'll talk about it. other nuggets. So these are the things that got him kill was these nuggets. Verse 44, he's going to pick up from there through 47, and this will interest use that because he's going to bring in the first idea of tabernacle, and this idea that somehow the

presence of God was going to be traveling with them, and there was going to be a system or a provision for sin, even though we know later it didn't take care of sin. It was a provision. So we see that introduced. He goes to Joshua. He goes to Canaan, the conquest of the land that was promised to Abraham. And here's a biggie. He talks about the establishment of a kingdom because he brings David into it, an eternal covenant,

a kingdom, and a temple, which was just a permanent version of a tabernacle that was in Israel. Well, that's going to come up in these verses. And then here's your third Jesus nugget is verses 48 through 50.

And this takes you to Acts 17 and everything you've already talked about. Zagas, this is the truth that's always been there, it really never was about the tabernacle or the temple. It was something bigger than that. So that was another thing. I think you ought to read 48 when it said, however, the most high does not live in temples made by men.

As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? Yeah. So that's, which is a prophecy out of Isaiah 66. I mean, that's, well, are we out of time? Yeah, we're out of time. So let me give you the last two. And then the conclusion, because every good sermon has a conclusion,

and that's in 51 through 53. And we were trying to make a mad, glad, or sad. Well, he made him mad. And then 54 through 60 is their response to his sermon. And it is quite the response. So that's your outline for Act 7. Read that. We come back on the next podcast.

We're going to flesh it out because there's some really good stuff in there. And we're going to see really what got him killed was this pointing to Jesus. Any other comments? Y'all good? I think that's good. All right, good. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. 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 Blaze TV at blazedtv.com slash unashamed.