Ananias and Sapphira Die

5 But a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sold some land. ² He kept back part of the money for himself; his wife knew about this and agreed to it. But he brought the rest of the money and gave it to the apostles. ³ Peter said, “Ananias, why did you let Satan rule your thoughts to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep for yourself part of the money you received for the land? ⁴ Before you sold the land, it belonged to you. And even after you sold it, you could have used the money any way you wanted. Why did you think of doing this? You lied to God, not to us!” ^5-6 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. Some young men came in, wrapped up his body, carried it out, and buried it. And everyone who heard about this was filled with fear.

⁷ About three hours later his wife came in, but she did not know what had happened. ⁸ Peter said to her, “Tell me, was the money you got for your field this much?”

Sapphira answered, “Yes, that was the price.”

⁹ Peter said to her, “Why did you and your husband agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” ¹⁰ At that moment Sapphira fell down by his feet and died. When the young men came in and saw that she was dead, they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹ The whole church and all the others who heard about these things were filled with fear.

The Apostles Heal Many

¹² The apostles did many signs and miracles among the people. And they would all meet together on Solomon’s Porch. ¹³ None of the others dared to join them, but all the people respected them. ¹⁴ More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to the group of believers. ¹⁵ The people placed their sick on beds and mats in the streets, hoping that when Peter passed by at least his shadow might fall on them. ¹⁶ Crowds came from all the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those who were bothered by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

Leaders Try to Stop the Apostles

¹⁷ The high priest and all his friends (a group called the Sadducees) became very jealous. ¹⁸ They took the apostles and put them in jail. ¹⁹ But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and led the apostles outside. The angel said, ²⁰ “Go stand in the Temple and tell the people everything about this new life.” ²¹ When the apostles heard this, they obeyed and went into the Temple early in the morning and continued teaching.

When the high priest and his friends arrived, they called a meeting of the leaders and all the important elders. They sent some men to the jail to bring the apostles to them. ²² But, upon arriving, the officers could not find the apostles. So they went back and reported to the leaders. ²³ They said, “The jail was closed and locked, and the guards were standing at the doors. But when we opened the doors, the jail was empty!” ²⁴ Hearing this, the captain of the Temple guards and the leading priests were confused and wondered what was happening.

²⁵ Then someone came and told them, “Listen! The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then the captain and his men went out and brought the apostles back. But the soldiers did not use force, because they were afraid the people would stone them to death.

²⁷ The soldiers brought the apostles to the meeting and made them stand before the leaders. The high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in that name. But look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying to make us responsible for this man’s death.”

²⁹ Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God, not human authority! ³⁰ You killed Jesus by hanging him on a cross. But God, the God of our ancestors, raised Jesus up from the dead! ³¹ Jesus is the One whom God raised to be on his right side, as Leader and Savior. Through him, all people could change their hearts and lives and have their sins forgiven. ³² We saw all these things happen. The Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all who obey him, also proves these things are true.”

³³ When the leaders heard this, they became angry and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But a Pharisee named Gamaliel stood up in the meeting. He was a teacher of the law, and all the people respected him. He ordered the apostles to leave the meeting for a little while. ³⁵ Then he said, “People of Israel, be careful what you are planning to do to these men. ³⁶ Remember when Theudas appeared? He said he was a great man, and about four hundred men joined him. But he was killed, and all his followers were scattered; they were able to do nothing. ³⁷ Later, a man named Judas came from Galilee at the time of the registration.^[a] He also led a group of followers and was killed, and all his followers were scattered. ³⁸ And so now I tell you: Stay away from these men, and leave them alone. If their plan comes from human authority, it will fail. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You might even be fighting against God himself!”

The leaders agreed with what Gamaliel said. ⁴⁰ They called the apostles in, beat them, and told them not to speak in the name of Jesus again. Then they let them go free. ⁴¹ The apostles left the meeting full of joy because they were given the honor of suffering disgrace for Jesus. ⁴² Every day in the Temple and in people’s homes they continued teaching the people and telling the Good News—that Jesus is the Christ.

Stephen’s Speech

7 The high priest said to Stephen, “Are these things true?”

² Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor, in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran. ³ God said to Abraham, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and go to the land I will show you.’^{[a] 4} So Abraham left the country of Chaldea and went to live in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God sent him to this place where you now live. ⁵ God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that he would give this land to him and his descendants, even before Abraham had a child. ⁶ This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves and will mistreat them for four hundred years. ⁷ But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land and will worship me in this place.’^{[b] 8} God made an agreement with Abraham, the sign of which was circumcision. And so when Abraham had his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob did the same for his sons, the twelve ancestors^[c] of our people.

⁹ “Jacob’s sons became jealous of Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰ and saved him from all his troubles. The king of Egypt liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom God gave him. The king made him governor of Egypt and put him in charge of all the people in his palace.

¹¹ “Then all the land of Egypt and Canaan became so dry that nothing would grow, and the people suffered very much. Jacob’s sons, our ancestors, could not find anything to eat. ¹² But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons there. This was their first trip to Egypt. ¹³ When they went there a second time, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph’s family. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent messengers to invite Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt along with all his relatives (seventy-five persons altogether). ¹⁵ So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and his sons died. ¹⁶ Later their bodies were moved to Shechem and put in a grave there. (It was the same grave Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.)

¹⁷ “The promise God made to Abraham was soon to come true, and the number of people in Egypt grew large. ¹⁸ Then a new king, who did not know who Joseph was, began to rule Egypt. ¹⁹ This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors, forcing them to leave their babies outside to die. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and he was very beautiful. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter adopted him and raised him as if he were her own son. ²² The Egyptians taught Moses everything they knew, and he was a powerful man in what he said and did.

²³ “When Moses was about forty years old, he thought it would be good to visit his own people, the people of Israel. ²⁴ Moses saw an Egyptian mistreating one of his people, so he defended the Israelite and punished the Egyptian by killing him. ²⁵ Moses thought his own people would understand that God was using him to save them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day when Moses saw two men of Israel fighting, he tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you hurting each other?’ ²⁷ The man who was hurting the other pushed Moses away and said, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[d] 29} When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt and went to live in the land of Midian where he was a stranger. While Moses lived in Midian, he had two sons.

³⁰ “Forty years later an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush as he was in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When Moses saw this, he was amazed and went near to look closer. Moses heard the Lord’s voice say, ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’^[e] Moses began to shake with fear and was afraid to look. ³³ The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. ³⁴ I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt. I have heard their cries and have come down to save them. And now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’^[f]

³⁵ “This Moses was the same man the two men of Israel rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’^[g] Moses is the same man God sent to be a ruler and savior, with the help of the angel that Moses saw in the burning bush. ³⁶ So Moses led the people out of Egypt. He worked miracles and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and then in the desert for forty years. ³⁷ This is the same Moses that said to the people of Israel, ‘God will give you a prophet like me, who is one of your own people.’^{[h] 38} This is the Moses who was with the gathering of the Israelites in the desert. He was with the angel that spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and he was with our ancestors. He received commands from God that give life, and he gave those commands to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors did not want to obey Moses. They rejected him and wanted to go back to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don’t know what has happened to him.’^{[i] 41} So the people made an idol that looked like a calf. Then they brought sacrifices to it and were proud of what they had made with their own hands. ⁴² But God turned against them and did not try to stop them from worshiping the sun, moon, and stars. This is what is written in the book of the prophets: God says,

⁴⁴ “The Holy Tent where God spoke to our ancestors was with them in the desert. God told Moses how to make this Tent, and he made it like the plan God showed him. ⁴⁵ Later, Joshua led our ancestors to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in, and God forced the other people out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same Tent they had received from their ancestors. They kept it until the time of David, ⁴⁶ who pleased God and asked God to let him build a house for him, the God of Jacob.^{[j] 47} But Solomon was the one who built the Temple.

⁴⁸ “But the Most High does not live in houses that people build with their hands. As the prophet says:

⁵¹ Stephen continued speaking: “You stubborn people! You have not given your hearts to God, nor will you listen to him! You are always against what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you, just as your ancestors were. ⁵² Your ancestors tried to hurt every prophet who ever lived. Those prophets said long ago that the One who is good would come, but your ancestors killed them. And now you have turned against and killed the One who is good. ⁵³ You received the law of Moses, which God gave you through his angels, but you haven’t obeyed it.”

Stephen Is Killed

⁵⁴ When the leaders heard this, they became furious. They were so mad they were grinding their teeth at Stephen. ⁵⁵ But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God’s right side. ⁵⁶ He said, “Look! I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at God’s right side.”

⁵⁷ Then they shouted loudly and covered their ears and all ran at Stephen. ⁵⁸ They took him out of the city and began to throw stones at him to kill him. And those who told lies against Stephen left their coats with a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹ While they were throwing stones, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ He fell on his knees and cried in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After Stephen said this, he died.