Study Desk

The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn't know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God

When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: "O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—

After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren't lying to us but to God!"

But Peter and the apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than any human authority.

The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.

Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven.

We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him."

But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!"

The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.

So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, "We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.

So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, "We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God."

This was Stephen's reply: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.

God told him, ‘Leave your native land and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.'

So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.

"But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants—even though he had no children yet.

God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land, where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,' God said, ‘and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.'

"God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation.

"These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him