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Lesson 11 : The Stirring Sermon & Senseless Stoning of Stephen (7:1-60)

Lesson 11 : The Stirring Sermon & Senseless Stoning of Stephen (7:1-60). I. Overview of the Passage & Helpful Facts for Further Bible Study. Stephen’s inspired defense closed with a severe and stinging rebuke (7:51-53).

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Lesson 11 : The Stirring Sermon & Senseless Stoning of Stephen (7:1-60)

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  1. Lesson 11:The Stirring Sermon & Senseless Stoning of Stephen (7:1-60)

  2. I. Overview of the Passage & Helpful Facts for Further Bible Study • Stephen’s inspired defense closed with a severe and stinging rebuke (7:51-53). • “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!” (7:51) – stubborn pagans! • “You always resist the Holy Spirit” (7:52). • “You now have become the betrayers and murders” of your own Messiah (7:52). • You “have received the law…and have not kept it” (7:53).

  3. I. Overview of the Passage & Helpful Facts for Further Bible Study • Stephen’s sermon enraged his accusers to violence & an illegal mob execution (7:54-60). • His hearers were “cut to the heart” (sawn asunder with anger like 5:33, not 2:37). • They gnashed at him with their teeth (7:54), cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, rushed at him, cast him out of the city & “were stoning” him (7:57-58). • The 70-member Sanhedrin council led the way. • Young Saul was present, approving of the action and standing guard (7:58).

  4. I. Overview of the Passage & Helpful Facts for Further Bible Study • Stephen’s sermon enraged his accusers to violence & an illegal mob execution (7:54-60). • As the first martyr for the cause of Christ, Stephen was remarkably focused! • He “gazed into heaven” & saw “Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (7:55-56). • He kept on calling on the Lord: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (7:59). • He knelt down in reverence: “Lord, do not charge them with this sin” (7:60). • There are remarkable parallels between events in Stephen’s death & Jesus’ death. • This first killing of a Christian led to “a great persecution against the church” (8:1).

  5. II. • Significant Truths from this Passage for Our Understanding • There is life after death (7:59-60). • When the body dies, the spirit separates from the body and survives (cf. Jas. 2:26). • The spirit of the faithful will be with the Lord (Phil. 1:23) and conscious (Rev. 6:9-11). • By means of His resurrection, Jesus is Lord of both the dead & the living (cf. Ro. 14:9).

  6. III. Practical Points of Application for Our Lives • God is with us at all times and will deliver us out of the troubles and trials of life! • How absurd it is to elevate and serve the work of our own hands over the Almighty God! • In times of trouble, may God help us to look to Jesus and set our sights on things above! • Stephen did not waver in his trust in the Lord! May we not waver in our trust in Him!

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