Acts 7:59-60 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.

When the world fights back against the Gospel, the church should not respond by:

- ______________ from the world.

- ______________ the message.

- ______________.

Instead the church:

- ______________ faithful.

- ______________ Christ.

Scripture Readings
Acts 6:1-8,7:51-60
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

Take It With You!

Here we will offer thoughts and meditations on the message to help us as we contemplate and discuss and wrestle with what we are hearing.

Not many years before [Stephen's trial], another prisoner had stood at the bar before the same court, charged with almost the same offenses. But when the hostile evidence broke down, the high priest put that prisoner on his oath to tell them plainly if He was indeed the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One. "I am," said He: "and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, and coming with clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). No more was required; Jesus was found guilty of blasphemy and condemned to death. And now Stephen in the same place was making the same claim on Jesus' behalf as He had made for Himself: he was claiming, in fact, that the words of Jesus had not been blasphemous and false but words of sober truth which had received their vindication and fulfillment from God. Unless the judges were prepared to admit that their former decision was tragically mistaken, they had no logical option but to find Stephen guilty of blasphemy as well.

FF Bruce, The Book of Acts: The New International Commentary on the New Testament Series