BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

When Jesus told his disciples that following him would include bearing their own crosses and suffering with him in death, Stephen really took those words to heart. The end of Acts 6 left us with a scene eerily familiar to Jesus’ own painful experience. Stephen is teaching God’s truth and performing Jesus-style sign acts before the people. But the religious experts get mad and weave lies into false charges that support a dark murder plot.

Accused and facing death as Acts 7 opens, Stephen speaks—not to defend himself or his actions, but to teach everyone the truth about Jesus. His speech retells crucial moments from the Hebrew Bible story, highlighting the way Israel often mistakenly worked against the very God who was trying to save them. He wants them to see that the same thing is happening here. They are mistaking God’s good work as bad.

When Stephen finishes, the enraged leaders drag him outside the city and stone him to death. Stephen’s death recalls the murder of the prophet Zechariah. Before Zechariah’s brutal death, he cried out for vengeance: “Yahweh, see and avenge!” (2 Chron. 24:20-22). Instead of calling for divine vengeance, Stephen pleads with God to show mercy toward his murderers (Acts 7:60). His prayer echoes Jesus’ compassionate forgiveness for his own murderers, whom he prays for while they’re killing him (Luke 23:34). Stephen, often called the first Christian martyr, follows in Jesus’ footsteps.

A young man named Saul witnesses and approves of Stephen’s killing. Emboldened, he begins traveling door to door throughout Jerusalem, leading a campaign to imprison Jesus’ followers. Watch today’s video to see more about Saul, who starts rough but experiences a unique kind of transformation.

Because of the persecution Saul leads, many Jesus followers scatter from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria—following the same progression Jesus talked about in Acts 1:8. Philip travels to Samaria, the land of outsiders, proclaiming Jesus and performing miracles.

Reflection Questions

• Look back over John 4. What do you learn from this story about the relationship between Jews (descended from the Southern Kingdom) and Samaritans (descended from the Northern Kingdom) in the apostles’ day? How might Philip’s successful ministry in Samaria have surprised the early church? What might this event reveal about the church and God’s promise to restore Israel in Ezekiel 37:15-28?
• Take a moment to review the Torah’s regulations about who was excluded from serving and worshiping in God’s sacred space (Lev. 21:16-23 and Deut. 23:1-6). How does the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch show the expansion of God’s royal priesthood to outsiders in the early church?