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September 27, 2022

Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.

Reading along with us in Acts? Here’s today’s reading:

Acts 7 (NIV)

Stephen’s Speech to the Sanhedrin
1 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “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 Harran. ‘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 Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.............Continue Reading

Next: Acts 8

Back: Acts 6

This Post Has 9 Comments
  1. The boldness of Stephen to stand before these blind leaders. And give them a lesson in their own history. He must have known what the outcome would be. I envy faith that strong. And to ask forgiveness for them during a stoning. I’d be throwing stones back!! Wonder what effect that had on Saul as he heard those words

  2. How furious the Sanhedrin became when they realized that the point of this history lesson from Stephen was an example of history repeating itself again! The realization that he was sharing all these examples of God’s provision and promises to His people and yet they repeatedly rejected Him as the Sanhedrin were doing again and even to the point of crucifying Jesus!
    No wonder their own realization of this brought them to stone Stephen to try to stop this reality they were facing but Stephen’s plea to God shows the difference between a heart following God and a heart guided by self and ultimately vulnerable to Satan’s evil traps!

  3. What a tremendous message Steven provides here…one of the many great sermons that are given in the book of Acts that show the pattern of starting where the audience is and then creating a bridge to talk about Jesus…specifically His death and resurrection. The consistent strain in the examples that Steven gives here is showing that God always has acted in unexpected ways and particularly in foreign contexts. So the significant way that God has worked to reveal Himself through Jesus and do an amazing work through Him as well is similar to what He did through Abraham, Joseph and Moses. And when Moses says there would be one coming like Him, one has to wonder who He was talking about, and is it wrong to think the One who had taught and done what Jesus did could fit the bill? And if Jesus is the One who was like all the Jewish heroes, the Jewish leaders are like the ones who rejected the Jewish heroes. And Stephen is brash to address their stubborn, hardened hearts. It is sad that their only answer was to kill Him to silence Him. But in response Steven shows the very reason why he was chosen as one of the seven in the last chapter…it is the Holy Spirit who creates responses like this…but Steven still had to choose to follow His direction….

  4. Stephen gives an amazing sermon summarizing the history of Israel and culminating in the modern history that the people are living and have acted out in crucifying Jesus. It says the people were “cut to the heart” which made me recall Acts 2 when people were cut to the heart and responded differently, with repentance.

    Stephen sees heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

  5. I couldn’t stop at Acts 6, had to read Acts 7 as well to get the full story of Stephen. These chapters display the knowledge, strength, wisdom and forgiveness the Holy Spirit can allow a person to have if they are willing. Stephen’s speech is a great summary of how God’s plan of salvation worked starting at Abraham’s life. His story ends the same way Peter’s did in the previous chapters; the Jews killed the Righteous One, Jesus Christ. I don’t think the Sanhedrin would have responded so angrily if they didn’t believe what Stephen said was true. Sometimes the truth hurts and causes people to get very upset when they are called out on it. And Stephen’s life ends when he sees the glory of God and forgives his enemies, just like Jesus did. A great example for all of us.

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