Dearly beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come this morning to the end of Stephen's speech. The last verse of it sums up not just Stephen's position, but Luke's, and thus the New Testament's as well. Hence my contention this morning that Stephen's final verdict on the Sanhedrin is theologically and historically correct, but incomplete: Judaism is fundamentally defined as the religion that received the genuine law of God, and historically has broken that law. However: "Law-breakers" is not the final word on Judaism, for the Son of Man came to save sinners. Thank God for that, for all human beings, Jew and Gentile alike, need salvation. But the fate of Judaism stands as a warning for us Gentile Christians. After all, the path of least resistance for the Christian Church is to follow Israel into the legalism which fails to keep the law. So let's look this morning at Stephen's verdict — what it is, why it's true, and how it drives us toward the Son of Man who came to seek and save that which was lost.
