It's been a minute. There's a lot going on in my life and the world, and I have busy other places.
This past Sunday, our text was Acts 6-7, where Stephen answers his accusers by walking them through their own history to point out how often they were an unfaithful lot that constantly refused to listen to God's messengers, the prophets, to the point of persecuting and even killing them (culminating in Jesus).
This highlights their hypocrisy—they cherished the Law and the Temple but had completely failed at the core ethical demands of the Law. They kept repeating the same pattern of resistance to God’s chosen deliverers and to His Spirit. They proved Stephen’s point immediately by killing him.
I did some research on what the prophets they rejected had to say. I think it’s really important that we learn from our spiritual history. (You can read the full sermon notes here.) Then, I did my best to pull Stephen's speech into 21st century United States.
