Acts 7; Acts 8:1-40
1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges
true?" 2 To 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. 5 He
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. 6 God 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. 7 But 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.' 8 Then
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 10 and 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. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain
in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On
their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned
about Joseph's family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his
father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then
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. 18 Then another king, who
knew nothing about Joseph, became ruler of Egypt. 19 He 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. 21 When he was placed
outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses
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. 24 He saw one of them being
mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing
the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would
realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. 26 The
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?28 Do
you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' 29 When
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. 31 When 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. 34 I 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. 36 He 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.' 38 He 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. 40 They 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!' 41 That 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. 42 But 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?43 You 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. 45 Having
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, 46 who enjoyed God's favor
and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But
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?50 Has
not my hand made all these things?' 51 "You stiff-necked
people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You
always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was 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-- 53 you
who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not
obeyed it." 54 When they heard this, they were furious
and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But 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." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at
the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged
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. 59 While they
were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 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.
1 And Saul was there, giving approval to his death. On that
day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all
except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2Godly
men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul
began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and
women and put them in prison. 4 Those who had been scattered
preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a
city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 When the
crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close
attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came
out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So
there was great joy in that city. 9 Now for some time a man
named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of
Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the
people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, "This
man is the divine power known as the Great Power." 11 They
followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. 12 But
when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God
and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon
himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere,
astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. 14 When the
apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they
sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed
for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because
the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and
John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 When
Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, he
offered them money 19 and said, "Give me also this
ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy
Spirit." 20 Peter answered: "May your money perish
with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You
have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before
God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord.
Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For
I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin." 24 Then
Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may
happen to me." 25 When they had testified and proclaimed
the word of the Lord, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the
gospel in many Samaritan villages. 26Now an angel of the Lord said
to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from
Jerusalem to Gaza." 27 So he started out, and on his way
he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury
of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and
on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the
prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot
and stay near it." 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot
and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you
are reading?" Philip asked. 31 "How can I," he
said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to
come up and sit with him. 32 The eunuch was reading this
passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a
lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In
his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth."34 The eunuch asked
Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or
someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very
passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As
they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said,
"Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" 38 And
he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down
into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up
out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the
eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip,
however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the
towns until he reached Caesarea.
