Book of Common Prayer
44 “Our ancestors had the ‘tent of meeting’ in the desert. God had commanded Moses to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. 45 Our ancestors in their turn brought it in when, with Joshua, they dispossessed the nations whom God drove out before our ancestors, and it was there until the time of David. 46 David found favor with God, and requested permission to establish a Tabernacle for the house of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built him a house.
48 “The Most High, however, does not live in shrines made by human hands. The prophet put it like this:
49 Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool!
What sort of house will you build me, says the Lord,
or what place will you give me to rest in?
50 My own hand made all these, did it not?
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are uncircumcised! You always resist the holy spirit, just as your ancestors did before you! 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? And you killed those who announced in advance the coming of the Righteous One—and now you have betrayed him and murdered him. 53 You received the law at the command of angels, but you didn’t keep it!”
The stoning of Stephen
54 What Stephen said was a blow right to the heart. When they heard it, they gnashed their teeth against him. 55 He, however, was filled with the holy spirit, and looked steadily up into heaven. There he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand.
56 “Look!” he said. “I can see heaven opened, and the son of man standing at God’s right hand!”
57 But they yelled at him at the tops of their voices, blocked their ears and made a concerted dash at him. 58 They bundled him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 So they stoned Stephen.
“Lord Jesus,” he cried out, “receive my spirit.”
60 Then he knelt down and shouted at the top of his voice, “Lord, don’t let this sin stand against them.”
Once he had said this, he fell asleep.
8 Now Saul was giving his consent to Stephen’s death.
That very day a great persecution was started against the church in Jerusalem. Everyone except the apostles was scattered through the lands of Judaea and Samaria.
The coming judgment
19 So Jesus made this response to them.
“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “The son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the father doing. Whatever the father does, the son does too, and in the same way. 20 The father loves the son, you see, and shows him all the things that he’s doing. Yes: he will show him even greater things than these, and that’ll amaze you! 21 For, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, in the same way the son gives life to anyone he chooses.
22 “The father doesn’t judge anyone, you see; he has handed over all judgment to the son, 23 so that everyone should honor the son just as they honor the father. Anyone who doesn’t honor the son doesn’t honor the father who sent him.
24 “I’m telling you the solemn truth: anyone who hears my word, and believes in the one who sent me, has the life of God’s coming age. Such a person won’t come into judgment; they will have passed out of death into life. 25 I’m telling you the solemn truth: the time is coming—in fact, it’s here already!—when the dead will hear the voice of God’s son, and those who hear it will live. 26 You see, just as the father has life in himself, in the same way he has given the son the privilege of having life in himself. 27 He has even given him authority to pass judgment, because he is the son of man.
28 “Don’t be surprised at this. The time is coming, you see, when everyone in the tombs will hear his voice. 29 They will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.