Acts 6-8

1In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

2So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, “It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

3Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will assign this responsibility to them

4and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

5This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

6They presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

7So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith.

8Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

9But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They disputed with Stephen,

10but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.

11Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.”

12So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,

13where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

14For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

15All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

1Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

2And Stephen declared: “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,

3and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’

4So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living.

5He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.

6God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

7‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’

8Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

9Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

10and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.

11Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food.

12When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit.

13On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.

14Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all.

15So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died.

16Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver.

17As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number.

18Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt.

19He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.

20At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.

21When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.

22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

23When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

24And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him.

25He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not.

26The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

27But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?

28Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

29At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.

30After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

31When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:

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.

33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

34I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

35This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.

37This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’

38He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

39But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

40They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

41At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.

42But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

43You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

44Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.

45And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,

46who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

47But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.

48However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. 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 place of repose be?

50Has not My hand made all these things?’

51You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

52Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

53you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.”

54On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.

55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into 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.”

57At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him.

58They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

60Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

1And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

2God-fearing men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him.

3But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

4Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

5Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.

6The crowds all paid close attention to Philip’s message and to the signs they saw him perform.

7With loud shrieks, unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, and many of the paralyzed and lame were healed.

8So there was great joy in that city.

9Prior to that time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and astounded the people of Samaria. He claimed to be someone great,

10and all the people, from the least to the greatest, heeded his words and said, “This man is the divine power called the Great Power.”

11They paid close attention to him because he had astounded them for a long time with his sorcery.

12But when they believed Philip as he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

13Even Simon himself believed and was baptized. He followed Philip closely and was astounded by the great signs and miracles he observed.

14When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

15On their arrival, they prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

16For the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

17Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.

19“Give me this power as well,” he said, “so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

20But Peter replied, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

21You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God.

22Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for the intent of your heart.

23For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and captive to iniquity.”

24Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

25And after Peter and John had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages.

26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”

27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the entire treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship,

28and on his return was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet.

29The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that chariot and stay by it.”

30So Philip ran up 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 guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32The 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.

33In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”

34“Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”

35Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

36As they traveled along the road and came to some water, the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is there to prevent me from being baptized?”

37Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but went on his way rejoicing.

40But Philip appeared at Azotus and traveled through that region, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.