Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Sermon
1“Is this true? ” # Lit “Are these things so?” the high priest asked.
2“Brothers and fathers,” he said, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, # Gn 11:31; 15:7; Ps 29:3; Ac 22:1; 1Co 2:8 3and said to him:
Get out of your country
and away from your relatives,
and come to the land
that I will show you. # Gn 12:1 # Gn 12:1
4“Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land you now live in. # Gn 11:31; 12:4-5 5He didn’t give him an inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, but He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, # Gn 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; Gl 3:16; Heb 8:8-9 even though he was childless. 6God spoke in this way:
His descendants would be strangers
in a foreign country,
and they would enslave
and oppress them 400 years.
7I will judge the nation
that they will serve as slaves, God said.
After this, they will come out
and worship Me in this place. # Gn 15:13-14; Ex 3:12; 12:40 # Gn 15:13-14
8Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised # Gn 17:9-11; 21:2-4 him on the eighth day; Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the 12 patriarchs. # Gn 25:26; 29:31; 30:5; 35:23
The Patriarchs in Egypt
9“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him # Gn 37:11,28; 39:2,21; 45:4; Ps 105:17 10and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household. # Gn 41:37-43; 42:6; Ps 105:21 11Then a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan, # Gn 41:54; 42:5 and our ancestors could find no food. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors the first time. 13The second time, Joseph was revealed to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14Joseph then invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, 75 people in all, # Gn 45:1-4,9-10,16,27; 46:26-27; Ex 1:5; Dt 10:22 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there, # Gn 46:5; 49:33; Ex 1:6 16were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. # Gn 23:16; 33:19; 50:13; Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32
Moses, a Rejected Savior
17“As the time was drawing near to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt # Gn 15:13; Ex 1:7; Ps 105:24 18until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt. # Other mss omit over Egypt 19He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them leave their infants outside, so they wouldn’t survive. # A common pagan practice of population control by leaving infants outside to die # Ex 1:8-10,22; Ps 105:25 20At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home three months, 21and when he was left outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son. # Ex 2:2-10; Heb 11:23 22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions. # 1Kg 4:30; Is 19:11; Lk 24:19
23“As he was approaching the age of 40, he decided # Lit 40, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the Israelites. 24When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25He assumed his brothers would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’ # Ex 2:11-14; Heb 11:24-26
27“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed him # Moses away, saying:
Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday? # Ex 2:14; Lk 12:14; Ac 7:35 # Ex 2:14
29“At this disclosure, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. # Ex 2:15,22; 18:3-4 30After 40 years had passed, an angel # Other mss add of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: 32I am the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. # Ex 3:6; Mt 22:32; Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37 # Ex 3:6,15 So Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
33“Then the Lord said to him:
Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have observed the oppression of My people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to rescue them. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt. # Ex 3:5,7-8,10 # Ex 3:5,7-8,10
35“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge? # Ex 2:14 — this one God sent as a ruler and a redeemer by means of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. # Ex 14:19; Nm 20:16 36This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, # Ex 12:41; 33:1; Heb 8:9 at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness 40 years. # Ex 14:21; 16:35; Nm 14:33; Ps 95:10; Ac 13:18
Israel’s Rebellion against God
37“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God # Other mss read ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. # Dt 18:15; Ac 3:22 # Dt 18:15 38He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors. # Ex 19:17; Is 63:9; Ac 7:53 He received living oracles to give to us. # Dt 5:27; 32:47; Jn 1:17; Rm 3:2; Heb 4:12; 5:12; 1Pt 4:11 39Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him away, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. # Ex 16:3; Nm 11:4; 14:3-4; Ezk 20:8,24 40They told Aaron:
Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him. # Ex 32:1,23 # Ex 32:1,23
41They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made. # Dt 9:16; Ps 106:19-20; Rv 9:20 42Then God turned away # Jos 24:20; Is 63:10 and gave them up to worship # Dt 4:19; 2Kg 21:3; Jr 19:13; Zph 1:5 the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
House of Israel, did you bring Me offerings and sacrifices
40 years in the wilderness?
43No, you took up the tent of Moloch # Canaanite or Phoenician sky or sun god
and the star of your god Rephan, # Perhaps an Assyrian star god — the planet Saturn
the images that you made to worship.
So I will deport you beyond Babylon! # 1Kg 11:7; Am 5:25-27; Ac 7:36 # Am 5:25-27
God’s Real Tabernacle
44“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. # Ex 25:8-9,40; 38:21; Heb 8:5 45Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers, # Jos 3:14; 18:1; 23:9; 24:18; Ps 44:2 until the days of David. 46He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God # Other mss read house of Jacob. # 2Sm 7:1,8; 1Ch 22:7; Ps 89:19; 132:5 47But it was Solomon who built Him a house. # 1Kg 6:1-2; 8:17-20; 2Ch 3:1 48However, the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says: # 1Kg 8:27; 2Ch 2:6
49Heaven is My throne,
and earth My footstool.
What sort of house will you build for Me?
says the Lord,
or what is My resting place?
50Did not My hand make all these things? # Is 66:1-2; Mt 5:34-35 # Is 66:1-2
Resisting the Holy Spirit
51“You stiff-necked # Ex 32:9; Dt 10:16; Heb 3:13 people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! # Lv 26:41; Jr 4:4; 6:10; 9:26 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you. 52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? # 2Ch 36:16; Mt 5:12; 21:35; 23:31,37; 1Th 2:15 They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers # Ac 3:14; 5:28 you have now become. 53You received the law under the direction of angels # Ac 7:38; Gl 3:19; Heb 2:2 and yet have not kept it.”
The First Christian Martyr
54When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts # Or were cut to the quick and gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God’s glory, with # Lit and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, # Jn 12:41; Ac 6:5 and he said, 56“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! ” # Mt 3:16; Jn 1:51
57Then they screamed at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. 58They threw him out of the city and began to stone # Lv 24:14-16; Dt 13:9; Heb 13:12 him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. # Ac 8:1; 22:20 59They were stoning Stephen as he called out: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! ” # Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46; Ac 9:14 60Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, # Mt 5:44; Lk 22:41; 23:34; Ac 9:40 “Lord, do not charge them with this sin! ” And saying this, he fell asleep. # Jn 11:11; 1Co 11:30; 1Th 4:13-15
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Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Speech
1The high priest said to Stephen, “Is all this true?” 2Stephen answered, “My Jewish fathers and brothers, listen to me. Our great and glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor, when he was in Mesopotamia. This was before he lived in Haran. 3God said to him, ‘Leave your country and your people, and go to the country I will show you.’#Quote from Gen. 12:1.
4“So Abraham left the country of Chaldea.#7:4 Chaldea Or “Babylonia,” a land in the southern part of Mesopotamia. See verse 2. He went to live in Haran. After his father died, God sent him to this place, where you live now. 5But God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that in the future he would give Abraham this land for himself and for his children. This was before Abraham had any children.
6“This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in another country. They will be strangers. The people there will make them slaves and mistreat them for 400 years. 7But I will punish the nation that made them slaves.’#Quote from Gen. 15:13-14. And God also said, ‘After those things happen, your people will come out of that country. Then they will worship me here in this place.’#Quote from Gen. 15:14; Ex. 3:12.
8“God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had a son, he circumcised him when he was eight days old. His son’s name was Isaac. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, who became the twelve great ancestors of our people.
9“These ancestors of ours became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him 10and saved him from all his troubles. Pharaoh was the king of Egypt then. He liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom God gave him. Pharaoh gave Joseph the job of being a governor of Egypt. He even let him rule over all the people in Pharaoh’s house. 11But all the land of Egypt and of Canaan became dry. It became so dry that food could not grow, and the people suffered very much. Our people could not find anything to eat.
12“But Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt. So he sent our people there. This was their first trip to Egypt. 13Then they went there a second time. This time Joseph told his brothers who he was. And Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14Then Joseph sent some men to tell Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt. He also invited all his relatives, a total of 75 people. 15So Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our other ancestors lived there until they died. 16Later, their bodies were moved to Shechem, where they were put in a tomb. It was the same tomb that Abraham had bought in Shechem from the sons of Hamor. He paid them with silver.
17“The number of our people in Egypt grew. There were more and more of our people there. The promise that God made to Abraham was soon to come true. 18Then a different king began to rule Egypt, one who knew nothing about Joseph. 19This king tricked our people. He treated them badly, making them leave their children outside to die.
20“This was the time when Moses was born. He was a very beautiful child, and for three months his parents took care of him at home. 21When they put him outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him. She raised him as her own son. 22The Egyptians taught Moses everything they knew. He was powerful in all he said and did.
23“When Moses was about 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the people of Israel. 24He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he defended him. Moses hit the Egyptian to pay him back for hurting the man. He hit him so hard that it killed him. 25Moses thought that his people would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand.
26“The next day, Moses saw two of his own people fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you trying to hurt each other?’ 27The man who was hurting the other one pushed Moses away and said to him, ‘Did anyone say you could be our ruler and judge? 28Will you kill me just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’#Quote from Ex. 2:14. 29When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian, where he was a stranger. During the time he lived there, he had two sons.
30“Forty years later Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai. An angel appeared to him in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw this, he was amazed. He went near to look closer at it. He heard a voice; it was the Lord’s. 32The Lord said, ‘I am the same God your ancestors had—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’#Quote from Ex. 3:6. Moses began to shake with fear. He was afraid to look at the bush.
33“The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, because the place where you are now standing is holy ground. 34I have seen my people suffer much in Egypt. I have heard my people crying and have come down to save them. Come now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’#Quote from Ex. 3:5-10.
35“This Moses was the one his people said they did not want. They said, ‘Did anyone say you could be our ruler and judge?’#Quote from Ex. 2:14. But he is the one God sent to be a ruler and savior. God sent him with the help of an angel, the one Moses saw in the burning bush. 36So Moses led the people out of Egypt. He worked wonders and miraculous signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and then in the desert for 40 years.
37“This is the same Moses who said these words to the people of Israel: ‘God will give you a prophet. That prophet will come from among your own people. He will be like me.’#Quote from Deut. 18:15. 38This same Moses was with the gathering of God’s people in the desert. He was with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and he was with our ancestors. He received life-giving words from God to give to us.
39“But our ancestors did not want to obey Moses. They rejected him. They wanted to go back to Egypt again. 40They said to Aaron, ‘Moses led us out of the country of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him. So make some gods to go before us and lead us.’#Quote from Ex. 32:1. 41So the people made an idol that looked like a calf. Then they brought sacrifices to it. They were very happy with what they had made with their own hands. 42But God turned against them and let them continue worshiping the army of false gods in the sky. This is what God says in the book that contains what the prophets wrote:
‘People of Israel, you did not bring me blood offerings and sacrifices
in the desert for 40 years;
43You carried with you the tent for worshiping Moloch
and the image of the star of your god Rephan.
These were the idols you made to worship.
So I will send you away beyond Babylon.’ Amos 5:25-27
44“The Holy Tent#7:44 Holy Tent Literally, “Tent of the Testimony.” See “Holy Tent” in the Word List. was with our ancestors in the desert. God told Moses how to make this tent. He made it like the plan that God showed him. 45Later, Joshua led our ancestors to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in and God made the other people go out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same tent. Our people received this tent from their fathers, and our people kept it until the time of David. 46God was very pleased with David. He asked God to let him build a Temple for the people of Jacob.#7:46 for the people of Jacob Some Greek copies have “for the God of Jacob.” 47But Solomon was the one who built the Temple.
48“But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands. This is what the prophet#7:48 prophet Isaiah, who spoke for God about 740–700 B.C. writes:
49‘The Lord says, Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is where I rest my feet.
So do you think you can build a house for me?
Do I need a place to rest?
50Remember, I made all these things!’” Isaiah 66:1-2
51Then Stephen said, “You stubborn Jewish leaders! You refuse to give your hearts to God or even listen to him. You are always against what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. That’s how your ancestors were, and you are just like them! 52They persecuted every prophet who ever lived. They even killed those who long ago said that the Righteous One would come. And now you have turned against that Righteous One and killed him. 53You are the people who received God’s law, which he gave you through his angels. But you don’t obey it!”
Stephen Is Killed
54When those in the council meeting heard this, they became very angry. They were so mad they were grinding their teeth at him. 55But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up into heaven and saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing at God’s right side. 56Stephen said, “Look! I see heaven open. And I see the Son of Man standing at God’s right side.”
57Everyone there started shouting loudly, covering their ears with their hands. Together they all ran at Stephen. 58They took him out of the city and began throwing stones at him. The men who told lies against Stephen gave their coats to a young man named Saul. 59As they were throwing the stones at him, Stephen was praying. He said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60He fell on his knees and shouted, “Lord, don’t blame them for this sin!” These were his last words before he died.
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