Text: Acts 6:7-15<\/p>\n
I. As the numbers of the disciples grew, it began to attract members of the priesthood.<\/p>\n A. This was, perhaps, the greatest insult to the Jewish mind – that a priest would\nactually leave Judaism for another religion.\n
B. Notice it wasn’t one or two, but a great many of the priests who left.<\/p>\n
II. Stephen was a notable member of the church<\/p>\n
A. He performed many signs among the people.<\/p>\n B. When men from the Synagogue of Freemen rose up to debate Stephen they were\nutterly unable to defeat his logic and wisdom\n 1. I gather the Synagogue of Freemen is much like the Catholic’s Jesuit sect,\na society of scholars who defend their religion\n
2. The list of places show that they were mostly composed of non-local Jews.<\/p>\n C. Since they were not able to win against Stephen by reason, they began to spread\nrumors that Stephen said blasphemous things about Moses and God.\n
1. I Corinthians 3:19-20 – God catches the wise in their own craftiness<\/p>\n
2. II Corinthians 10:3-5 – The power of the gospel to wage war<\/p>\n 3. This is probably the most common tactic I have seen men use. If you can’t\nwin by reason then attack the character of your opponent.\n D. They raised a mob against Stephen and he was dragged before the Jewish Council\nto be tried.\n 1. False witnesses stood up and charged Stephen of speaking against the\ntemple and the Law.\n 2. In particular, they stated Stephen said Jesus would destroy the temple and\nchange Jewish law.\n
a. Actually both statements are true, though taken out of context.<\/p>\n b. Jesus did say he would return in judgment against Jerusalem and\nthat the city, along with the temple, would be destroyed (Matthew\n23:34-24:2)\n c. Jesus’ death did bring in a new order and law – Hebrews 8:7-9;\n9:15-17\n E. As they looked on Stephen to see his reaction to the charges, they did not see a\nman cowering in fear. Instead his face appeared to shine like an angel\n
1. A phrase used to denote wisdom and confidence – II Samuel 14:17; 19:27<\/p>\n
2. Stephen was calm and confident<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tActs of the Apostles\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Trial of Stephen Text: Acts 6:7-15 I. As the numbers of the disciples grew, it began to attract members of the priesthood. A. This was, perhaps, the greatest insult to the Jewish mind – that a priest would actually leave Judaism for another religion. B. Notice it wasn’t one or two, but a great many of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10021,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10132","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/the-death-of-stephen-and-the-persecution-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":0},"title":"The Death of Stephen and the Persecution of the Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Death of Stephen and the Persecution of the Church Text: Acts 7:51-8:4 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stephen, the defendant, charges his judges of resisting the will of God \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They acted no differently than their ancestors \u2013 proof would be their killing of Jesus \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Few prophets of God ever escaped being killed by them\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":1},"title":"Acts of the Apostles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Acts of the Apostles by Jeffrey W. Hamilton October 2001 Outline Study of the book of Acts. This series is currently incomplete. Lesson 1 Introduction and the Ascension of Jesus\u00a0(Acts 1:1-11) Replacing Judas\u00a0(Acts 1:12-26) Lesson 2 Baptism by the Holy Spirit\u00a0(Acts 2:1-13) Peter's First Sermon\u00a0(Acts 2:14-36) The Establishment of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10139,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/stephens-defense-the-rejection-of-moses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":2},"title":"Stephen\u2019s Defense – The Rejection of Moses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen\u2019s Defense - The Rejection of Moses Text: Acts 7:20-41 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Stephen moves to the era of Moses in his recounting of Israel\u2019s history \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Moses is a particularly important figure in the Jewish mind as he was the founder of their religion II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even in Moses\u2019 birth, God found him to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10169,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/the-church-in-antioch\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":3},"title":"The Church in Antioch","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Church in Antioch Text: Acts 11:19-30 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The text of Acts now switches to focus on Saul, who later is known as Paul. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The persecution that started with the death of Stephen has scattered Christians beyond the boundaries of Israel. They have gone to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0However, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10128,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/growing-pains\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":4},"title":"Growing Pains","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing Pains Text: Acts 6:1-7 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The church took care of its own needy by members giving of their property - Acts 4:34-35 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet, as the church continued its momentous growth, complaints arose that the distributions were not fair and even-handed. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In particular it was claimed that the widows who were\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10136,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/acts-of-the-apostles\/stephens-defense-early-history-of-israel\/","url_meta":{"origin":10132,"position":5},"title":"Stephen\u2019s Defense – Early History of Israel","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Stephen\u2019s Defense - Early History of Israel Text: Acts 7:1-19 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The history of the Jewish Nation \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It started when God appeared to a man in Mesopotamia when he still lived in Ur. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God told Abraham to leave his family behind to see a land God would give to him. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0From\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10132\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}