The Hidden Rescue Plan

Acts 7.17-38             Acts 7. 39-60
The hidden Rescue plan

1. God's hidden rescue plan is clouded by troubles.
2. God's hidden rescue plan is performed secretly
3. God's hidden rescue plan is entirely His own doing
4. God's hidden rescue plan is rejected by His people
In looking at this great history lesson from Stephen in Acts 7, we saw last week that God's promises prevail even though at times things look like they fail.

Certainly the promise given to Abraham in Genesis 15.5 seemed highly unlikely from a human point of view. Yet this is whole point, seen in the coming of Moses. Gods rescue plan is hidden.

The Lord is meek and often withdraws his hand from His people who resist His Holy Spirit, at work in His saving process. Stephen builds on this theme of the resistance and rejection by God's people to  the Lord's fulfillment of his saving plan.

Over and again this saving plan goes on behind the scenes and the courses of events in the life of Moses.

It is a secret plan of God.

It is carried out entirely by God and in spite of severe opposition, resistance and rejection of God's messenger Moses.

This familiar pattern of Gods salvation work being accomplished in the midst of severe resistance by God's own people is repeated in Stephens day.

Stephen in his punchline gives a hardball message to his audience:

"You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit. (Acts 7.51).

As we come to the Lord's Table, as the Lord's people it is good and right for us to acknowledge our own sinful rebellion to the Deliverer whom God has sent to us - The Righteous  One.

Rather than reproaching this message we are called to embrace it because in so doing our hearts are cleansed and we rediscover that this One we all have rejected is the One whom God has made to be the absolute rescuer of us from sin, death, condemnation and guilt. In Christ we find cleansing.

When Jesus took the cup at the last Supper (Matthew 26.27,28) He gave it them saying "Drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."