Here is a teaching on chapter 6 & 7 of the book of Acts. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters going forward, join our group here. Once you get added into that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and you'll see all of the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
First I want to say a quick prayer... Lord I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please give us knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we're reading and wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. Lord I pray that you speak truth over the lives of these people reading this, and I pray that they get out of this exactly what it is that you want them to, that they take the truth that they have learned today, they implement it, and they spread the gospel to others. Lord please lead, guide, and direct us through every aspect of our lives. I love you with my whole heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.
So this Bible study is going to be a little bit different because I'm not going to read every single verse like I normally would and then discuss them. I'm going to skip over some of the verses and I'm still going to discuss them, but I'm not going to read everything on here. So first I'm just going to start at verse one of chapter six of the book of Acts.
Acts Chapter 6:
1 "In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith."
Alright, so I'm going to stop right there and discuss these verses with you guys here. So the 12 apostles knew that they needed to focus on prayer and the ministry of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. So they decided to choose seven men to do the daily distribution of food because these Grecian Jews had been complaining that their widows were being overlooked. So they chose these seven men to do the distribution of food, the word of God spread, and the number of disciples rapidly increased.
8 "Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedman (as it was called)-- Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God." 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against the holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us." 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel."
So Stephen was one of the seven that they chose to do the distribution of food and it says that he was full of God's grace and power. Some of these Jews began to argue with him, but they couldn't stand against his wisdom because he spoke by the Holy Spirit, he had godly wisdom, and there was no way that they could stand up against the godly wisdom and the Holy Spirit that was within him. So we see in verses 11-14, where these Jews had secretly persuaded some men to speak falsely about Stephen and say that he spoke words of blasphemy against Moses and God. They had the people come and they seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin, which is the assembly or council, and they had these false witnesses testify about Stephen. In verse 15 we see that the people sitting in the assembly looked at Stephen and his face was that of an angel.
Acts Chapter 7:
I'm going to start reading chapter seven, but this chapter is the one where I'm not going to put all of the verses. I'm just going to read some of these because it is a very long chapter and a lot of these verses you guys can go back and read if you want, but I'm just going to read some of the verses here and discuss all of this chapter with you guys. So I'm just going to put verse one and then I'm going to discuss some things with you guys here.
1 Then the high priest asked him, "Are these charges true?"
So with Stephen's reply he talked about different prophets and people in the Old Testament that were persecuted. He talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Aaron, and all their forefathers. Stephen told these people that they were just like their fathers and that they always resist the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to read a lot of these verses here because they're all from the Old Testament and these are not things that I really need to explain. We can see from Stephen's reply in all of these verses that he had knowledge and wisdom and he was very well versed in knowing the Old Testament. But he also spoke by the power of the Holy Spirit unlike a lot of these Jews that could tell you all about the Old Testament, but that didn't believe in Jesus. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, but he also had wisdom and spoke of all these things and said that these people are just like their forefathers that we see in the Old Testament where they were resisting the Holy Spirit. I'm going to skip all the way to verse 51 where Stephen says:
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."
So in verses 51-53, Stephen is telling them they always resist the Holy Spirit just like their fathers. Their fathers even killed those that predicted the coming of the Righteous One. They killed the prophets and people that were talking about Jesus Christ and him coming, because we see all throughout the Old Testament that it's just pointing to Jesus Christ and that he's going to come and save the world. A lot of those stories in the Old Testament are all pointing to Jesus Christ. The prophets were speaking about the Righteous One that's going to come and save the world, but a lot of these Jews that had hatred in their heart persecuted these prophets and that's what Stephen's talking about here. Then Stephen says, "And now you have betrayed and murdered him" (which is Jesus Christ.) He's talking about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and how he came to save the world, but these people murdered him and decided to have a murderer released to them instead of Jesus (who was innocent and came to save the world and lived a sinless life).
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."
So those are all the verses of chapter seven of the book of Acts, but I'm going to discuss these verses with you guys here. So these Jews were furious whenever they heard Stephen talking about all of the prophets that were persecuted from the Old Testament, how they resisted the Holy Spirit, and all of that and they gnashed their teeth at him. Stephen looked up at heaven and saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. In verse 56 we see that he told them he sees heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (which the Son of Man is Jesus Christ). These Jews were covering their ears and yelling at the top of their voices. So they didn't want to hear anything that Stephen had to say, they were resisting the Holy Spirit, they had hatred in their hearts, they were stubborn, and they didn't want to hear anything about Jesus Christ or him being the savior or the Son of Man. These Jews were just full of hatred and wickedness and they just didn't want anyone to speak in the name of Jesus, because a lot of people were following these apostles and believing in them and it was making these Jews jealous. In verses 58-59 these people stoned Stephen and while this was happening, witnesses were laying their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. We'll see further on in our Bible studies about Saul and all of that.
So in verses 59-60, while these people were stoning Stephen he prayed that the Lord Jesus will receive his Spirit and not to hold the sins against these people. So even though these people have hatred in their heart and they're stoning him, Stephen still doesn't want their sins to be held against them. That just shows how Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus forgives us of all of our sins, no matter what we do, no matter how bad it is, he shows us mercy, love, and grace. Whenever we are led by the Holy Spirit and we let the Holy Spirit guide us, we're also going to portray the fruit of the spirit and we're not going to have hate for anyone, even if they have hate for us, or if they're doing wrong to us, we're still going to want the best for them, and that's what we see here in these verses. Then Stephen fell asleep. So they stoned Stephen to death and Saul was there giving approval to his death.
Acts Ch 6 & 7 Study Guide
Why did the apostles choose seven men to distribute the food?
In verses 11-14 of chapter 6, why did these Jews secretly persuade some men to falsely testify against Stephen?
What was Stephen speaking of in verse 52?
What was Stephen full of?
In verse 57, why do you think these Jews were covering their ears and yelling?
What does what Stephen said in verse 60 show about him and about how we should be?
What is your biggest takeaway from this Bible study?
All of these verses with these chapters just go to show that whenever we are full of the Holy Spirit and we have knowledge and wisdom from God, people are not always going to want to listen to us. People that have stubborn hearts and have hate in their heart are going to try and do things to persecute us and they may even get other people in with them to try to get people not to believe what we're saying. But we have to stand firm in our faith, always let the Holy Spirit guide us, ask God to reveal the fruit of the spirit in our hearts, and portray that to other people. Even if other people don't like us or they're being mean to us, we have to always act in the fruit of the spirit, let the Holy Spirit guide us, and want the best for everyone. We know as believers of Jesus Christ that when it's our time to go that we're going to be going to heaven and Jesus has already overcome the world. So there's nothing in this world that can change us from having eternal life and there's nothing in this world that we can't endure. It's our duty to spread the gospel and let other people know about Jesus Christ so that they may be saved and go to heaven also.
So I hope whatever it is that God wanted to speak into your life today, that you were able to get that from this Bible study. If you want to go through and read the verses that I didn't read, I didn't read verses 2-50 of chapter 7 of the book of Acts. So if you want to go through and read all of those verses you can. Next week we're going to go into chapter 8 of the book of Acts so make sure you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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