Henry: Welcome to immerse, the daily bible reading experience.
Day thirteen.
Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing
miracles and signs among the people.
But one day some men from the synagogue of freed slaves, as it was
called, started to debate with him.
They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Saia, and the province of Asia.
None of them could stand against the wisdom and the
spirit with which Steven spoke.
So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen saying we heard him
blaspheme Moses and even God, this roused the people, the elders and
the teachers of religious law.
So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high counsel.
The lying witnesses said, this man is always speaking against the holy
temple and against the law of Moses.
We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy
the temple and change the customs.
Moses handed down to us.
At this point, everyone in the high counsel stared at Stephen because his
face became as bright as an angels.
Then the high priest asked, Stephen, are these accusations true?
This was Steven's reply.
Brothers and fathers, listen to me.
Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia.
Before he settled in Heron, 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 Calians and lived in Heron 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 12 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 and rescued him from all his troubles.
And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom so that Pharaoh appointed
him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.
But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan.
There was great misery and our ancestors ran out of food.
Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his
sons our ancestors to buy some.
The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers
and they were introduced to Pharaoh.
Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob and all his relatives to come to Egypt.
75 persons in all.
So Jacob went to Egypt.
He died there, as did our ancestors.
Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb.
Abraham had bought for a certain price from Hay Moore's sons in Shechem.
As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number
of our people in Egypt greatly increased.
But then a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.
This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents
to abandon their newborn babies so they would die at that time.
Moses was born a beautiful child in God's eyes.
His parents cared for him at home for three months.
When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him
and raised him as her own son.
Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was
powerful in both speech and action.
One day when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his
relatives, the people of Israel.
He saw an Egyptian mistreating, an Israelite, so Moses came to the man's
defense and veed him killing the Egyptian.
Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him
to rescue them, but they didn't.
The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting.
He tried to be a peacemaker men.
He said, you are brothers.
Why are you fighting each other?
But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside, who made
you a ruler and judge over us.
He asked, are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?
When Moses heard that he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of
Midian there, his two sons were born.
40 years later in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to
Moses in the flame of a burning bush.
When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.
As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him.
I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look.
Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals, for you
are standing on holy ground.
I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.
I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them.
Now go for, I am sending you back to Egypt.
So God sent back the same man his people had previously
rejected when they demanded.
Who made you a ruler and judge over us.
Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush.
God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior.
By means of many wonders and miraculous signs.
He led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea and through the wilderness.
For 40 years.
Moses himself told the people of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet
like me, from among your own people.
Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God's people in the wilderness.
When the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai and there, Moses received
life-giving words to pass on to us.
But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses.
They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.
They told Aaron, make us some gods who can lead us for, we don't know what has become
of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt.
So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and
celebrated over this thing they had made.
Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the
stars of heaven as their gods.
In the book of the Prophets, it is written.
Was it to me?
You were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those 40
years in the wilderness, Israel?
No.
You carried your pagan gods, the shrine of Molech, the star of your God, rehan,
and the images you made to worship them.
So I will send, send you into exile as far away as Babylon.
Our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness.
It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses.
Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations,
that God drove out of this land.
The tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory, and it stayed
there until the time of King David.
David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a
permanent temple for the God of Jacob.
But it was Solomon who actually built it.
However, the most high doesn't live in temples made by human hands.
As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
Could you build me a temple as good as that?
Ask the Lord, could you build me such a resting place?
Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth?
You stubborn people.
You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth.
Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?
That's what your ancestors did, and so do you name one prophet.
Your ancestors didn't persecute.
They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one, the
Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered.
You deliberately disobeyed God's law even though you received
it from the hands of angels.
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they
shook their fists at him in rage.
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory
of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand, and
he told them, look, I see the heavens opened, and the son of man standing in
the place of honor at God's right hand.
Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting.
They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.
His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young
man named Saul as they stoned him.
Stephen prayed.
Lord Jesus received my spirit.
He fell to his knees shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin.
And with that, he died.
Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely
with the killing of Stephen.
A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in
Jerusalem, and all the believers, except the apostles were scattered through
the regions of Judea and Samaria.
Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning, but Saul was
going everywhere to destroy the church.
He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them
into prison, but the believers who were scattered preached the good
news about Jesus wherever they went.
Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people
there about the Messiah crowds listened intently to Philip because
they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did.
Many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims and many who
had been paralyzed or lame were healed.
So there was great joy in that city.
A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years.
Amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great.
Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as the great one.
The power of God.
They listened closely to him because for a long time he had
astounded them with his magic.
But now the people believed Philip's message of good news
concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.
As a result, many men and women were baptized.
Then Simon himself believed and was baptized.
He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs
and great miracles Philip performed.
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's
message, they sent Peter and John there.
As soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers
to receive the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them for they had only been
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and
they received the Holy Spirit.
When Simon saw that the spirit was given, when the Apostles laid
their hands on people, he offered the money to buy this power.
Let me have this power too.
He exclaimed so that when I lay my hands on people, they
will receive the Holy Spirit.
But Peter replied, may your money be destroyed with you for
thinking God's gift can be bought.
You can have no part in this.
For your heart is not right with God.
Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord.
Perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts.
For I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.
Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed that these terrible things
you've said won't happen to me.
After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and
John returned to Jerusalem and they stopped in many Samaritan villages
along the way to preach the good news.
As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, go south down the desert
road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.
So he started out and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under the Kande, the Queen of Ethiopia.
The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now
returning, seated in his carriage.
He was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
The Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage.
Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah.
Philip asked, do you understand what you are reading?
The man replied, how can I, unless someone instructs me, and he urged Philip to come
up into the carriage and sit with him.
The passage of scripture he had been reading was this.
He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before the
shearers, he did not open his mouth.
He was humiliated and received no justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.
The eunuch asked Philip, tell me, was the prophet talking
about himself or someone else?
So beginning with this same scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus.
As they wrote along, they came to some water and the eunuch
said, look, there's some water.
Why can't I be baptized?
He ordered the carriage to stop and they went down into the
water and Philip baptized him.
When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.
The eunuch never saw him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
Meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Ottis.
He preached the good news there and in every town along the
way until he came to Cesarea.
Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was
eager to kill the Lord's followers, so he went to the high priest.
He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for
their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there.
He wanted to bring them both men and women back to Jerusalem in chains.
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven
suddenly shone down around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Who are you Lord?
Saul asked and the voice replied, I am Jesus the one You are persecuting.
Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.
The men with Saul stood speechless for, they heard the sound of
someone's voice, but saw no one.
Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he was blind.
So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus.
He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Now, there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord spoke to him in a vision calling Ananias, yes Lord.
He replied.
The Lord said, go over to straight street to the house of Judas when you get there.
Ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.
He is praying to me right now.
I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying
hands on him so he can see again.
But Lord exclaimed Ananias, I've heard many people talk about the terrible
things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem, and he is authorized
by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.
But the Lord said, go for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to
the Gentiles and to kings as well as to the people of Israel, and I will show him
how much he must suffer for my namesake.
So Ananias went and found Saul.
He laid his hands on him and said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who
appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight
and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Instantly something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he regained his sight.
Then he got up and was baptized Afterward, he ate some food
and regained his strength.
Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.
Immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogue,
saying he is indeed the son of God.
All who heard him were amazed.
Isn't this the same man who caused such devastation among
Jesus followers in Jerusalem?
They asked, and didn't He come here to arrest them and take them
in chains to the leading priests?
Saul's preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in
Damascus couldn't refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
After a while, some of the Jews plotted together to kill him.
They were watching for him day and night at this city gate so they could murder
him, but Saul was told about their plot.
So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket
through an opening in the city wall.
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers,
but they were all afraid of him.
They did not believe he had truly become a believer.
Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had
seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul.
He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.
So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them
preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.
He debated with some Greek speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him.
When the believers heard about this, they took him down to Cesarea and
sent him away to Tarsus, his hometown.
The church then had peace throughout Judea.
Galilee and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in
the fear of the Lord and with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.
It also grew in numbers.
This concludes today's Immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.