Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Stephen

"When Stephen reached this point, ...... When he connected Christ with the prophecies and spoke as he did of the temple, the priest, pretending to be horror-stricken, rent his robe.
To Stephen this act was a signal that his voice would soon be silenced forever.
He saw the resistance that met his words and knew that he was giving his last testimony. Although in the midst of his sermon, he abruptly concluded it.

Suddenly breaking away from the train of history that he was following, and turning upon his infuriated judges, he cried: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One;
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it."

At this, priests and rulers were beside themselves with anger. Acting more like beasts of prey than human beings, they rushed upon Stephen, gnashing their teeth. In the cruel faces about him the prisoner read his fate; but he did not waver. For him the fear of death was gone. For him the enraged priests and the excited mob had no terror. The scene before him faded from his vision."
Acts of the Apostles p.100 E.G.W. / Acts 7:51-53


But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
And said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man
standing on the right hand of God.
Acts 7:55,56