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 Defense
1The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ 4Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. 5But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. 6But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and #Or worshipserve Me in this place.’ 8And 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.
9“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, 10and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. 14Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. 15And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. 16From there they were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17“But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, 18until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 19It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive. 20It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. 21And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. 22Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. 23But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. 24And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian. 25And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’ 27But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? 28You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ 29At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
30“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush. 31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, there came the voice of the Lord: 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look. 33But the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. 34I have certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groans, and I have come down to rescue them; come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’
35“This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. 36This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.’ 38This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you. 39Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ 41At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel? 43You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I also will remove you beyond Babylon.’
44“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. 45And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David. 46David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the #The earliest mss read house instead of God; the Septuagint reads GodGod of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. 48However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
49‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is the footstool of My feet;
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My repose?
50Was it not My hand which made all these things?’
51“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
Stephen Put to Death
54Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 55But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. 58When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
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