Acts
Chapter 6:v7 - Chapter 7:v60
Acts 6: v 7-21
7So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in
Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Stephen Seized
8Now Stephen, a man full of
God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the
Freedmen (as it was called)–Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of
Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10but
they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
11Then
they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak words of
blasphemy against Moses and against God.”
12So they
stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and
brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13They produced false
witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place
and against the law. 14For we have heard him say that this
Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to
us.”
15All who
were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was
like the face of an angel.
Acts 7: v 1-60
Stephen's Speech to the Sanhedrin
1
Then the high priest asked
him, “Are these charges true?”
2To this he
replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father
Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said,
‘and go to the land I will show you.’
4“So
he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God
sent him to this land where you are now living. 5He gave him
no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his
descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no
child. 6God spoke to him in this way: ‘Your descendants
will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated
four hundred years. 7But I will punish the nation they serve
as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and
worship me in this place.’ 8Then he gave Abraham the
covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight
days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father
of the twelve patriarchs.
9“Because
the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was
with him 10and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave
Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made
him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11“Then
a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not
find food. 12When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt,
he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13On their second
visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. 14After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole
family, seventyfive in all. 15Then Jacob went down to Egypt,
where he and our fathers died. 16Their bodies were brought
back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at
Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17“As
the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in
Egypt greatly increased. 18Then another king, who knew
nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19He dealt
treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by forcing them to throw out
their newborn babies so that they would die.
20“At
that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.For three months he was cared for
in his father's house. 21When he was placed outside,
Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22Moses
was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
23“When
Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. 24He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went
to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25Moses
thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they
did not. 26The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who
were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do
you want to hurt each other?’
27“But
the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you
ruler and judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me as you
killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29When Moses heard this,
he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.
30“After
forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the
desert near Mount Sinai. 31When he saw this, he was amazed at
the sight. As he went over to look more closely, he heard the Lord's voice: 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33“Then
the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is
holy ground. 34I have indeed seen the oppression of my people
in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I
will send you back to Egypt.’
35“This
is the same Moses whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and
judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel
who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out of Egypt
and did wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the
desert.
37“This
is that Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will send you a prophet like me from your
own people.’ 38He was in the assembly in the desert,
with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received
living words to pass on to us.
39“But
our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned
back to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will
go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt–we don't know what has
happened to him!’ 41That was the time they made an idol
in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and held a celebration in honor of
what their hands had made. 42But God turned away and gave
them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies. This agrees with what is written in the
book of the prophets:
“ ‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?
43You have lifted up the shrine of Molech
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send
you into exile’ beyond Babylon.
44“Our
forefathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It had been made
as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45Having
received the tabernacle, our fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they took the
land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of
David, 46who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might
provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47But it was
Solomon who built the house for him.
48“However,
the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says:
49“ ‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will
you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
50Has not my hand made all these things?’
51“You
stiffnecked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers:
You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52Was there ever a prophet
your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the
Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him– 53you
who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed
it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
54When they heard this, they
were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen,
full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing
at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said,
“I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57At
this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at
him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.
Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While
they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold
this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
