PROCLAMATION
“And they stoned
Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And
he kneeled down, and cried with a loud
voice, ‘Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’ And when he had said
this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:59-60 (KJV)
EXPLANATION
These are the acts of
the apostles of Jesus, The Christ, as written by Luke, the physician, under the
influence of The Holy Spirit of God. After being arrested for teaching
and speaking about Jesus, The Christ, (Acts 6:12) Stephen spoke before the
Sanhedrin council. He recounted for them the life of Abraham, the father
of the faithful, from the time when God appeared to Him and told him to leave
his home country and go to the land that He would show him. (Acts 7:1-7)
He continued and told them about the lives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. (Acts
7:8-19) He told them about the birth and life of Moses, (Acts 7:20-44)
and then he told them about Joshua, David, and Solomon. (Acts 7:45-47) He
ended by calling them “stiff-necked people” just like their ancestors and then
said that they murdered Christ. (Acts 7:51-53) The members of the
Sanhedrin were furious with him. They dragged him out of the city and
began to stone him. (Acts 7:54-58) It was as they were stoning him that
he prayed the above prayer. (Acts 7:59-60)
APPLICATION
Jesus, The Christ,
taught us that we should love our enemies. (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27 and Luke
6:35) Some of us, although we are Christians, are not there yet and we
are still working on this. However, Stephen was a man full of God’s
grace. (Acts 6:8) He followed the teachings of Christ, (Matthew 5:44) even
to the point of praying for his enemies while they were stoning him to death. (Acts
7:59-60) We need to understand that if we choose to follow and speak up
for Christ, the people of the world are not going to like us and may even hate
us. However, He said, “Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My
sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven …” (Matthew 5:11-12)
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