New Testament in a Year

⁴⁴ “While they were in the desert, our ancestors had the Tent of Testimony, as God commanded when he directed Moses to make it according to the pattern he had been shown. ⁴⁵ Our ancestors with Joshua brought it with them when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. It remained there until the time of David, ⁴⁶ who found favor with God and desired to provide a dwelling for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ “However, it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸ Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands. As the prophet says,

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. ⁵² Was there ever a prophet whom your fathers did not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. ⁵³ You received the Law through God’s angels, and yet you have not observed it.”

⁵⁴ Stephen’s Martyrdom. When they heard this, they became enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. ⁵⁶ “Look!” he cried. “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

⁵⁷ On hearing these words, they covered their ears, cried out loudly, and rushed en masse against him. ⁵⁸ Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.^[a]

⁵⁹ While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed aloud, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ Then he knelt down and cried out in a clear voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And with these words he fell asleep.