Acts Study | 6.5.20 | 7:30-38

Today we continue in our study through the book of Acts by looking at 7:30-38.

Teaching Notes

VERSES 28-30: Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? (29)  Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons. (30)  And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. Here we see another forty years of Moses' life on the backside of the desert.

VERSES 31-32: When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, (32)  Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. (33)  Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. (34)  I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt. (35)  This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. (36)  He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. Notice how Stephen shows how the nation rejected the very one that God had sent to deliver them? So too, they were doing the same thing with Jesus! And yet, just like with Moses, Jesus came to lead them, not out of physical bondage, but out of spiritual bondage with wonders and signs just like Moses did so many years ago. Again, Stephen is not just telling a story for no reason. 

VERSE 37: This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. Stephen is still referring back to Deu_18:15 to show them that Jesus was the fulfillment of these verses. 

VERSE 38: This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: Again, the verse is still referring to Moses who was the church in the wilderness when they nation received the Law. 

Notice also that Moses was in the church in the wilderness. Randy White at this point mentions that "there is a two-fold mistake often made by the use of the word church in this verse." Covenant theology uses this word to “prove” that “the church” has always existed, and thus mixes Israel with the church. Dispensational theology of the “normative” variety, that would be most evangelicals, ignores this verse when they argue that Matthew 16:18 is a prophecy about the church as we know it, or that Acts 2:47 or Acts 5:11 speaks of the church as we know it. The verses are obviously referring to ANOTHER church! We will discuss it further next time.