20A Recounting God's Grace

Isaiah’s promise — “Behold, I am doing a new thing” — frames a sermon that presses the church to see salvation and blessing as wholly God’s work. The narrative centers on Acts 7 and Stephen’s long defense before the Sanhedrin, where he retells Israel’s history to show that God, not human merit or institutions, is always the mover. From Abraham’s call in Ur to the promise of offspring, land, and deliverance, every turning point is presented with God as the subject: He appeared, He promised, He moved, He judged, and He provided worship. Stephen’s aim is not to exonerate himself but to indict a people clinging to past privileges who have grown hard of heart and thus resist the Spirit’s new work in Jesus.

Abraham’s story is emphasized to disrupt assumptions that lineage, law, temple, or ritual automatically equate to divine favor. God calls and promises before any sign, covenant, or possession is evident; Abraham is uncircumcised, childless, and a sojourner when the promise arrives. That divine initiative underscores that blessings are gratuitous and that worship rightly belongs to Gift and Giver, not to human entitlement. Stephen argues that the historical pattern — God choosing the lowly, the people rebelling, and God yet accomplishing deliverance — culminates in Christ, who completes the promise and reshapes true worship.

The address moves from theological history to pastoral application: recounting grace guards against pride, cultivates humility, and steadies the church amid threats to worship and freedom. The exhortation calls believers to remember their own former low estate, to reject a posture that treats blessings as owed, and to welcome God’s new work even when it unsettles cherished forms. Ultimately, the narrative insists that God’s faithfulness spans generations and that true boasting belongs only to the Lord, who is the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Salvation is God's initiative Every step of redemption begins with God taking action; humans respond but do not originate the plan. Remembering divine initiative reframes gratitude, removes grounds for boasting, and humbles those tempted to claim credit for spiritual fruit. This truth guards against merit-based spirituality and anchors hope in God’s faithfulness, not human performance. [03:06]
• 2. Recount God's grace regularly Deliberate recollection of where God found one broken, lost, or ignorant reshapes present affections and decisions. Recounting grace arrests the slow drift toward entitlement and softens the heart when institutions or comforts are challenged. Such memory becomes a spiritual discipline that preserves dependence and fuels courageous faithfulness. [02:34]
• 3. Beware hard hearts resisting God Spiritual hardness often masquerades as zeal for tradition or institutional purity while actually resisting the Spirit’s movement. When attachments to forms harden into defenses, they can blind communities to Christ’s completion of promises and to fresh work of God. Regular self-examination prevents righteous-seeming anger from becoming rebellion against God’s purposes. [26:17]
• 4. Worship now through Christ True worship is not primarily about place, ritual, or ancestry but about meeting God in the grace fulfilled in Jesus. The law and temple pointed forward; Christ now grounds worship “in spirit and truth,” calling people from ceremonial security to living faith. Embracing this does not discard history but interprets it through the Gospel’s completion. [23:23]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:15] - Theme: God is doing a new work
• [01:20] - Remember: don't look back wrongly
• [03:06] - Thesis: Salvation is God's initiative
• [03:33] - Introducing Stephen
• [05:01] - Stephen's purpose and verdict
• [07:36] - Abraham's call and response
• [11:50] - God as the acting subject
• [19:18] - Promise of deliverance & posterity
• [23:23] - New worship centered in Christ
• [27:09] - Recount grace; final exhortation
• [28:30] - Closing: Boast in the Lord

Bible reading

Acts 7:2-8 (ESV)
And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (ESV)
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Observation questions

1. In Acts 7:2-8, who is the primary actor initiating all the events? What specific action words (verbs) does Stephen use to describe God’s work in Abraham’s life? ([08:55])
2. Stephen points out that when God first appeared to Abraham, he had no land, no child, and was not yet circumcised. What is the significance of God making His promises to Abraham *before* he had any of the things that later defined the Jewish people? ([09:58])
3. According to Acts 7:6-7, what future events did God reveal to Abraham long before they happened? What does this tell us about God’s faithfulness across many generations? ([20:37])

Interpretation questions

1. Stephen’s speech was a response to accusations that he spoke against the temple and the law. How does retelling Abraham’s story in this way—emphasizing God’s initiative before the law or temple existed—serve as both a defense for Stephen and an indictment of his accusers?
2. A central idea is that "you are not the hero of your story. God is the hero of your story." ([18:39]) How does Stephen’s version of Abraham’s life support this? Why do you think he focused on God's actions rather than on Abraham's great acts of faith, which other New Testament writers highlight? ([17:40])
3. Stephen’s audience clung to their heritage, the law, and the temple as proof of God’s favor. How does Stephen’s message challenge the human tendency to believe that God’s blessings are somehow "owed to us" or deserved because of our background or religious activity? ([12:37])
4. At the end of his speech, Stephen accuses the religious leaders of being "uncircumcised in heart and ears" and resisting the Holy Spirit ([26:17]). How can a deep reverence for tradition and religious forms sometimes become a barrier that prevents people from seeing and embracing the "new thing" God is doing?

Application questions

1. It is human nature to begin seeing blessings as something we deserve or earned. When have you been tempted to feel entitled to God’s grace or blessings (like salvation, health, or freedom to worship), rather than receiving them with humility and gratitude? ([14:10])
2. We are encouraged to regularly "recount God's grace" to remember the low place we came from. ([02:34]) Take a moment to share with the group a part of your own story—where you were when God called you. How does remembering that "low place" change your perspective on your life today?
3. Stephen’s audience had hard hearts that resisted the Holy Spirit, even while they believed they were being zealous for God. In what areas of your life might you be "clutching onto things" so tightly that you could miss what God is doing? Are there any "new things" God might be doing in your life, your family, or our church that feel unsettling or unfamiliar? ([27:09])
4. The promise to Abraham included that his descendants would "worship me in this place." ([21:51]) We now know that true worship is centered not on a physical place but on Jesus Christ. How does this truth change the way you approach our weekly gathering for worship? Does it free you from focusing too much on the outward forms and more on Christ himself?
5. The final exhortation was to "boast in the Lord." ([29:24]) What does it practically look like to boast in the Lord instead of in our own wisdom, strength, or righteousness? Can you share an example from this past week where you had an opportunity to give God the glory for something in your life?