Uncustomary grace

Acts 6:8-15 says, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
[9] Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
[10] And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
[11] Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
[12] And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,
[13] And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
[14] For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
[15] And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”

Jordan explains, “Folks, that’s flat the truth. Jesus Christ did say the temple would be destroyed. Matthew 24. Jesus Christ is going to change the customs of Moses. Matthew 15 and Mark 7. The customs of Moses is just another title for the tradition of the elders. The customs and traditions that had been applied ONTO what Moses had taught them.

“You know, they got this thing today about holiday traditions and customs and how the big thing now is you need to have traditions in your family--a family tradition to hold your family together and all that kind of stuff. That’s not what Moses gave; he gave commandments. No cultural orientation to it.

“You know what they do with Stephen? They want to hang him. Watch him preach to them. Acts 7.

“He’s going at them now. He takes them back to Abraham and then he reminds them about Joseph. He said, ‘You know with Joseph, you didn’t accept him the first time, but the second time he was the deliverer.’

“ ‘Moses the first time, you remember Moses, he thought he delivered you, the second time he was the deliverer.’ He’s making the parallel between Christ coming the first time rejected, the second time delivering them.

“But then Stephen starts talking about the temple and says some things in this passage that are weird. In fact, there’s things here that I’ve never heard anybody talk about on any kind of a scale about what Israel was doing!

“For example, verse 40-41: ‘Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.’

“He said, ‘You guys have been apostate from the wilderness back there!’

“In the wilderness, while they’re going around out there with that golden calf and the six-pointed star of David, they call it today, the star of Moloch your god, I mean these were religious symbols, people.’

“Religious symbols that are even used today in Israel on their flag. The six-pointed star of David and all that kind of business. They actually carried around with them in the wilderness a tabernacle to worship that god in.

“I don’t know if you ever thought about it, or ever noticed it, when you study Exodus and Amos and Acts, but they actually had an alternative meeting place in the wilderness. They had the tabernacle that God through Moses gave to them.

“Verse 44: ‘Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.’

“Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;
[46] Who found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

“When it says ‘Jesus’ that’s really Joshua. It’s called Jesus because Joshua in Hebrew is the name Jesus in Greek and the reason it’s translated that way is because all of that stuff back there is a type of the Second Coming.

“They bring that tabernacle God built into the land, but there’s also another tabernacle out there. The one in verse 44: ‘You took up the tabernacle of Moloch your God.’ I mean, they’ve got this alternative religion working out here in Israel. There’s a mixed multitude.

“There’s a bunch of apostates out there with the Baal worship going on right there in the nation, and instead of the nation going and stamping it out and destroying it like they should of, they tolerated it and they assimilated it and they partook of it.

“That’s where that verse back there talks about ‘wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing.’ That’s a quote out of Isaiah that says, ‘Don’t be a part of that false religious system in your midst!’ and that thing just goes right on; it corrupts Samaria . . .

“You go back there in I Kings 12 and you see what happened to Samaria. He set up the golden calves up there, set up the gods, and that tabernacle of Moloch.

“Christ said that’s going to infect Jerusalem itself so that the temple in Jerusalem isn’t going to be safe. Now watch what he says starting in verse 47: ‘But Solomon built him an house.
[48] Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
[49] Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?
[50] Hath not my hand made all these things?
[51] Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.’

“You see, folks, when he comes to the temple, it’s part of his message. ‘You’re not going to worship anymore in the temple!’ Well, what are you going to do?!

‘Ye stiff-necked resist. And what do they do? They try to kill him. And what does Stephen do?  He looks up steadfast into heaven and sees Christ standing at the right hand of God.

“You know where you are? You’re in Zechariah 12:13. When the Lord stands up to judge. And you know what he does in Zechariah 3? You know the first people He goes and judges are the priests?! The unclean priesthood. Listen, they knew why they were killing Stephen! They knew exactly what he’s saying.

“He’s saying that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. ‘Jesus Christ is up there; you’ve polluted the temple. God Almighty isn’t dwelling in that temple.’

“You remember what Jesus told them back there in Matthew 23? He said, ‘Behold, your house is left desolate.’ Prior to that it was, ‘You made my house a den of thieves.’ Now it’s your house. He left. That thing in Matthew 23’s beautiful. Jesus Christ stands there in the temple and says, ‘I’m leaving and you aren’t going to see me again until you see me coming in the clouds of glory.’

“You know what He’s saying to them and they understood it and they hated Him for it! He’s saying to them, ‘I’m God Almighty and I’m leaving and God Almighty isn’t going to have any presence in this temple of yours until I come back.’ Malachi 3:1. And they knew exactly what he was saying. He was claiming to be the Shekinah glory of God, the presence of God, and He walked out and said, ‘I’ll leave your house desolate. Empty!’

“When He died at Calvary, God the Father reached down and rent that veil of that temple from top to bottom. You know why He did that? He did it to show the people there that there wasn’t any more presence of God on the cherubim in the holiest of holies; that it was empty and God had left. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

“Now, when you get over there to Hebrews, the book is written to some people who don’t have anywhere to go! They don’t have a temple; they know they got one coming, they’re looking for a city whose builder and maker is God but isn’t there yet .

“All of the warnings in Hebrews are designed to tell those people that temple up there is apostate, it’s in the hands of the wicked one; the ultimate manifestation of Baal worship is the Antichrist; the idol shepherd.

“Hebrews is written to warn them, ‘Don’t go back there!’ but more than that to motivate them to go on to where they ought to go.”