Bible Reading Plan – Day 301

₁₇Then the High Priest and all his companions, members of the local party of the Sadducees, became extremely jealous of the apostles; so they decided to take action. ₁₈They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. ₁₉But that night an angel of the Lord opened the prison gates, led the apostles out, and said to them, ₂₀“Go and stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new life.” ₂₁The apostles obeyed, and at dawn they entered the Temple and started teaching.

The High Priest and his companions called together all the Jewish elders for a full meeting of the Council; then they sent orders to the prison to have the apostles brought before them. ₂₂But when the officials arrived, they did not find the apostles in prison, so they returned to the Council and reported, ₂₃“When we arrived at the jail, we found it locked up tight and all the guards on watch at the gates; but when we opened the gates, we found no one inside!” ₂₄When the chief priests and the officer in charge of the temple guards heard this, they wondered what had happened to the apostles. ₂₅Then a man came in and said to them, “Listen! The men you put in prison are in the Temple teaching the people!” ₂₆So the officer went off with his men and brought the apostles back. They did not use force, however, because they were afraid that the people might stone them.

₂₇They brought the apostles in, made them stand before the Council, and the High Priest questioned them. ₂₈“We gave you strict orders not to teach in the name of this man,” he said; “but see what you have done! You have spread your teaching all over Jerusalem, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”

₂₉Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God, not men. ₃₀The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from death, after you had killed him by nailing him to a cross. ₃₁God raised him to his right-hand side as Leader and Saviour, to give the people of Israel the opportunity to repent and have their sins forgiven. ₃₂We are witnesses to these things — we and the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to those who obey him.”

₃₃When the members of the Council heard this, they were so furious that they wanted to have the apostles put to death. ₃₄But one of them, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was a teacher of the Law and was highly respected by all the people, stood up in the Council. He ordered the apostles to be taken out for a while, ₃₅and then he said to the Council, “Fellow-Israelites, be careful what you do to these men. ₃₆You remember that Theudas appeared some time ago, claiming to be somebody great, and about 400 men joined him. But he was killed, all his followers were scattered, and his movement died out. ₃₇After that, Judas the Galilean appeared during the time of the census; he drew a crowd after him, but he also was killed, and all his followers were scattered. ₃₈And so in this case, I tell you, do not take any action against these men. Leave them alone! If what they have planned and done is of human origin, it will disappear, ₃₉but if it comes from God, you cannot possibly defeat them. You could find yourselves fighting against God!”

The Council followed Gamaliel's advice. ₄₀They called the apostles in, had them whipped, and ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus; and then they set them free. ₄₁As the apostles left the Council, they were happy, because God had considered them worthy to suffer disgrace for the sake of Jesus. ₄₂And every day in the Temple and in people's homes they continued to teach and preach the Good News about Jesus the Messiah.

₁Some time later, as the number of disciples kept growing, there was a quarrel between the Greek-speaking Jews and the native Jews. The Greek-speaking Jews claimed that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of funds. ₂So the twelve apostles called the whole group of believers together and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the preaching of God's word in order to handle finances. ₃So then, brothers and sisters, choose seven men among you who are known to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and we will put them in charge of this matter. ₄We ourselves, then, will give our full time to prayer and the work of preaching.”

₅The whole group was pleased with the apostles' proposal, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a Gentile from Antioch who had earlier been converted to Judaism. ₆The group presented them to the apostles, who prayed and placed their hands on them.

₇And so the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew larger and larger, and a great number of priests accepted the faith.

₈Stephen, a man richly blessed by God and full of power, performed great miracles and wonders among the people. ₉But he was opposed by some men who were members of the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), which included Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. They and other Jews from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia started arguing with Stephen. ₁₀But the Spirit gave Stephen such wisdom that when he spoke, they could not refute him. ₁₁So they bribed some men to say, “We heard him speaking against Moses and against God!” ₁₂In this way they stirred up the people, the elders, and the teachers of the Law. They seized Stephen and took him before the Council. ₁₃Then they brought in some men to tell lies about him. “This man,” they said, “is always talking against our sacred Temple and the Law of Moses. ₁₄We heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will tear down the Temple and change all the customs which have come down to us from Moses!” ₁₅All those sitting in the Council fixed their eyes on Stephen and saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.

₁The High Priest asked Stephen, “Is this true?”

₂Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! Before our ancestor Abraham had gone to live in Haran, the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia ₃and said to him, ‘Leave your family and country and go to the land that I will show you.’ ₄And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God made him move to this land where you now live. ₅God did not then give Abraham any part of it as his own, not even a square metre of ground, but God promised to give it to him, and that it would belong to him and to his descendants. At the time God made this promise, Abraham had no children. ₆This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for 400 years. ₇But I will pass judgement on the people that they will serve, and afterwards your descendants will come out of that country and will worship me in this place.’ ₈Then God gave Abraham the ceremony of circumcision as a sign of the covenant. So Abraham circumcised Isaac a week after he was born; Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons, the famous ancestors of our race.

₉“Jacob's sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him ₁₀and brought him safely through all his troubles. When Joseph appeared before the king of Egypt, God gave him a pleasing manner and wisdom, and the king made Joseph governor over the country and the royal household. ₁₁Then there was a famine all over Egypt and Canaan, which caused much suffering. Our ancestors could not find any food, ₁₂and when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, on their first visit there. ₁₃On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and the king of Egypt came to know about Joseph's family. ₁₄So Joseph sent a message to his father Jacob, telling him and the whole family, 75 people in all, to come to Egypt. ₁₅Then Jacob went to Egypt, where he and his sons died. ₁₆Their bodies were taken to Shechem, where they were buried in the grave which Abraham had bought from the clan of Hamor for a sum of money.

₁₇“When the time drew near for God to keep the promise he had made to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had grown much larger. ₁₈At last a king who did not know about Joseph began to rule in Egypt. ₁₉He tricked our ancestors and was cruel to them, forcing them to put their babies out of their homes, so that they would die. ₂₀It was at this time that Moses was born, a very beautiful child. He was cared for at home for three months, ₂₁and when he was put out of his home, the king's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ₂₂He was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man in words and deeds.

₂₃“When Moses was forty years old, he decided to find out how his fellow-Israelites were being treated. ₂₄He saw one of them being ill-treated by an Egyptian, so he went to his help and took revenge on the Egyptian by killing him. ₂₅(He thought that his own people would understand that God was going to use him to set them free, but they did not understand.) ₂₆The next day he saw two Israelites fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. ‘Listen, men,’ he said, ‘you are fellow-Israelites; why are you fighting like this?’ ₂₇But the one who was ill-treating the other pushed Moses aside. ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?’ he asked. ₂₈‘Do you want to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ ₂₉When Moses heard this, he fled from Egypt and went to live in the land of Midian. There he 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. ₃₁Moses was amazed by what he saw, and went near the bush to get a better look. But he heard the Lord's voice: ₃₂‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and dared not look. ₃₃The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ₃₄I have seen the cruel suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans, and I have come down to set them free. Come now; I will send you to Egypt.’

₃₅“Moses is the one who was rejected by the people of Israel. ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?’ they asked. He is the one whom God sent to rule the people and set them free with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush. ₃₆He led the people out of Egypt, performing miracles and wonders in Egypt and at the Red Sea and for forty years in the desert. ₃₇Moses is the one who said to the people of Israel, ‘God will send you a prophet, just as he sent me, and he will be one of your own people.’ ₃₈He is the one who was with the people of Israel assembled in the desert; he was there with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and he received God's living messages to pass on to us.

₃₉“But our ancestors refused to obey him; they pushed him aside and wished that they could go back to Egypt. ₄₀So they said to Aaron, ‘Make us some gods who will lead us. We do not know what has happened to that man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’ ₄₁It was then that they made an idol in the shape of a bull, offered sacrifice to it, and had a feast in honour of what they themselves had made. ₄₂So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

₄₄“Our ancestors had the Tent of God's presence with them in the desert. It had been made as God had told Moses to make it, according to the pattern that Moses had been shown. ₄₅Later on, our ancestors who received the tent from their fathers carried it with them when they went with Joshua and took over the land from the nations that God drove out as they advanced. And it stayed there until the time of David. ₄₆He won God's favour and asked God to allow him to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. ₄₇But it was Solomon who built him a house.

₄₈“But the Most High God does not live in houses built by human hands; as the prophet says:

₅₁“How stubborn you are!” Stephen went on to say. “How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit! ₅₂Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God's messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. ₅₃You are the ones who received God's law, that was handed down by angels — yet you have not obeyed it!”

₅₄As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. ₅₅But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God's glory and Jesus standing at the right-hand side of God. ₅₆“Look!” he said. “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right-hand side of God!”

₅₇With a loud cry the members of the Council covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, ₅₈threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul. ₅₉They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ₆₀He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!” He said this and died.