Date︰May 13, 2018
Venue︰Tsim Sha Tsui Baptist Church
Title︰Stephen: Spiritual Power, Beautiful Life & Deacth
Passage︰Acts 7:1-3 & 7:51-60
- Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
- To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of gloryappeared 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.’
- “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
- Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—
- you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
- When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
- 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.
- “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
- At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
- dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- 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.