Teaching Elder, Duke Shelley, continues teaching from the book of Acts, Chapter 7 verses 44 through 60.

1. The Acts of the Apostles
Acts 7:44-60

2. • 44 "Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in
the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses
directed him to make it according to the pattern
which he had seen. 45 "And having received it in
their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua
upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove
out before our fathers, until the time of David.

3. • Exodus 25:40 "See that you make them after the
pattern for them, which was shown to you on the
mountain.

4. • 46 "David found favor in God's sight, and asked
that he might find a dwelling place for the God of
Jacob. 47 "But it was Solomon who built a house
for Him.

5. • 1 Chronicles 28:2-3 Then King David rose to his feet
and said, "Listen to me, my brethren and my
people; I had intended to build a permanent home
for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the
footstool of our God. So I had made preparations
to build it. 3 "But God said to me, 'You shall not
build a house for My name because you are a man
of war and have shed blood.'

6. • 2 Samuel 7:12-13 "When your days are complete
and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up
your descendant after you, who will come forth
from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 "He
shall build a house for My name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

7. • 48 "However, the Most High does not dwell in
houses made by human hands; as the prophet
says: 49 'HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS
THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF
HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?' says the Lord,
'OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REPOSE? 50
'WAS IT NOT MY HAND WHICH MADE ALL THESE
THINGS?'

8. • 1 Kings 8:27 "But will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven
cannot contain You, how much less this house
which I have built!

9. • 51 "You men who are stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears are always
resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your
fathers did.

10. • 51 "You men who are stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears are always
resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your
fathers did.
• Exodus 32:9 The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen
this people, and behold, they are an obstinate
people.

11. • 52 "Which one of the prophets did your fathers
not persecute?

12. • 52 "Which one of the prophets did your fathers
not persecute?
• Luke 11:47-51 "Woe to you! For you build the
tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers
who killed them. 48 "So you are witnesses and
approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was
they who killed them, and you build their tombs.

13. • 49 "For this reason also the wisdom of God said, 'I
will send to them prophets and apostles, and some
of them they will kill and some they will persecute,
50 so that the blood of all the prophets, shed
since the foundation of the world, may be charged
against this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel
to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between
the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it
shall be charged against this generation.'

14. • They killed those who had previously announced
the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers
and murderers you have now become; 53 you
who received the law as ordained by angels, and
yet did not keep it."

15. • They killed those who had previously announced
the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers
and murderers you have now become; 53 you
who received the law as ordained by angels, and
yet did not keep it."
• Matthew 23:2-3 "The scribes and the Pharisees
have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3
therefore all that they tell you, do and observe,
but do not do according to their deeds; for they
say things and do not do them.

16. • 54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to
the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at
him.

17. • Hebrews 3:7-11 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit
says, "TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, 8 DO NOT
HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED
ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS
WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me,
AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. 10
"THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS
GENERATION, AND SAID, 'THEY ALWAYS GO
ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT
KNOW MY WAYS'; 11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH,
'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'"

18. • Matthew 13:41-42 "The Son of Man will send forth
His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom
all stumbling blocks, and those who commit
lawlessness, 42 and will throw them into the
furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.

19. • 55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed
intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and
Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56 and he
said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and
covered their ears and rushed at him with one
impulse.

20. • “Christians must boldly communicate Christ in all
circumstances, knowing that the Holy Spirit will
grant them the grace to face the consequences
triumphantly and with joy and peace.”
• Lloyd Ogilvie

21. • Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great
a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay
aside every encumbrance and the sin which so
easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance
the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for
the joy set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and has sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God.

22. • Matthew 26:63-64 But Jesus kept silent. And the
high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living
God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ,
the Son of God." 64 Jesus *said to him, "You have
said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter
you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE
RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE
CLOUDS OF HEAVEN."

23. • 58 When they had driven him out of the city, they
began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside
their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on
the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"
60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a
loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against
them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.

24. • “The charge which was found proved against
Stephen—speaking against the temple—probably
belonged to the category of offenses against the
temple for which the Roman administration, as an
exceptional concession, allowed the Jewish
authorities to carry out the death sentence
without reference to the governor.” FF Bruce

25. • Leviticus 24:14 "Bring the one who has cursed
outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay
their hands on his head; then let all the
congregation stone him.

26. • Leviticus 24:14 "Bring the one who has cursed
outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay
their hands on his head; then let all the
congregation stone him.
• Leviticus 24:16 'Moreover, the one who
blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be
put to death; all the congregation shall certainly
stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he
blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

27. • “When the trial is finished, the man convicted is
brought out to be stoned.… When ten cubits from
the place of stoning they say to him, ‘Confess; for
it is the custom of all about to be put to death to
make confession, and every one who confesses has
a share in the age to come.’

28. • Four cubits from the place of stoning the criminal
is stripped… The drop from the place of stoning
was twice the height of a man. One of the
witnesses pushes the criminal from behind, so that
he falls face downward. He is then turned over on
his back. If he dies from this fall, that is sufficient.
If not, the second witness takes the stone and
drops it on his heart. If this causes death, that is
sufficient; if not, he is stoned by all the
congregation of Israel.” FF Bruce

29. • 2 Corinthians 5:8 I say, and prefer rather to be
absent from the body and to be at home with the
Lord.

30. • 2 Corinthians 5:8 I say, and prefer rather to be
absent from the body and to be at home with the
Lord.
• 8:1 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him
to death.

31. • Acts 22:20 'And when the blood of Your witness
Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by
approving, and watching out for the coats of those
who were slaying him.

32. • Acts 22:20 'And when the blood of Your witness
Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by
approving, and watching out for the coats of those
who were slaying him.
• John 15:20 "Remember the word that I said to you,
'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if
they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

33. • John 16:2 "They will make you outcasts from the
synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone
who kills you to think that he is offering service to
God.

34. • John 16:2 "They will make you outcasts from the
synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone
who kills you to think that he is offering service to
God.
• Acts 11:19 So then those who were scattered
because of the persecution that occurred in
connection with Stephen made their way to
Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the
word to no one except to Jews alone.

35. • 2 Some devout men buried Stephen, and made
loud lamentation over him. And on that day a
great persecution began against the church in
Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout
the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the
apostles.

36. • 2 Some devout men buried Stephen, and made
loud lamentation over him.
• 3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering
house after house, and dragging off men and
women, he would put them in prison.

37. • “A zealot for the ancestral traditions of his nation,
he saw that the new faith menaced those
traditions. Drastic action was called for: these
people, he thought, were not merely misguided
enthusiasts whose sincere embracing of error
called for patient enlightenment; they were
deliberate impostors, proclaiming that God had
raised from the tomb to be Lord and Messiah a
man whose manner of death was sufficient to
show that the divine curse rested on him.”
• FF Bruce