Acts 07 Round Two: The First Christian Martyr

What would you say if you knew your next words might be your last? We walk through Acts 7 with Stephen, a servant chosen for tables who becomes a witness before tribunals. Starting with Abraham and moving through Joseph, Moses, the tabernacle, and the temple, we trace how God keeps His promises even when His people resist Him. The story builds to a sharp turn—Stephen’s Spirit-filled rebuke of stubborn hearts—and then lifts our eyes with him to a breathtaking vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Along the way, we unpack why Stephen tells Israel’s history: not to score points, but to show a faithful God pursuing a forgetful people. We explore the tension between sacred spaces and the presence that makes them holy, the danger of rituals without obedience, and the hope that shines through rejection and exile. Stephen’s final words echo Christ’s mercy—Lord, do not hold this sin against them—while his final vision reframes our fears: the Son of Man stands with authority and compassion.

This conversation is for anyone facing quieter but real tests of courage—family pushback, workplace pressure, friendships strained by conviction. We offer practical encouragement for knowing the story, staying open to the Holy Spirit, and speaking truth without surrendering grace. Stephen’s death looks like loss, yet it seeds a future where the gospel reaches Saul, cities, and the world. If you need courage, clarity, and a fresh vision of Christ’s nearness, this chapter will meet you right where you live.

If this helped you see Scripture with new clarity, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What truth do you need courage to speak today?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Big Question
• 0:49 Support, Reviews, And Community Prompt
• 1:30 Acts So Far: Power And Rising Opposition
• 3:25 Stephen Chosen And Put On Trial
• 4:45 Stephen Recounts Israel’s Story
• 10:55 Moses, Idolatry, And The Tabernacle
• 13:45 God Beyond Temples And The Turning Point
• 14:35 Stephen’s Rebuke And The Council’s Rage
• 15:50 Vision Of Jesus And The Stoning
• 17:10 Saul’s Presence And Stephen’s Prayer
• 18:10 Modern Courage And Practical Encouragement
• 19:20 Prayer, Charge, And Closing Promise

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 7. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be the first Christian Martyr. I want to ask you a question as we get ready to get started. If you knew you were about to die, what would your last words be? Have you ever really thought about that? I I kind of hope you haven't because it's kind of a dark thought. But at the same time, think about it. If you knew the chances were your let your next words were going to be your last, what would you say? Well, we're going to get into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to this video on YouTube. Make sure if you are watching or listening to this as a podcast, leave us a five-star review. And I would love for you to go to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook and let us know what that would be. If you were to have one statement right before you died, I don't I don't know. You can romanticize it however you want to or whatever, about to jump out of an airplane. But if you knew you were about to die, what would your last statement be? And I just want to hear about it. And if you don't do the Facebook thing, I'd love to know in the comments of the YouTube video what would be your last words. And that's what we're getting into. We're about to talk about the final words of an amazing man of God. But before that, let me catch you up with what's going on. The Bible said in Acts chapter one, Jesus, just before he goes back to the Father, he said, Don't worry, stay here in Jerusalem, but you're going to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and then you're going to be my witnesses throughout the known world. And that's what the book of Acts is all about. The doctor-turned investigative journalist, Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke, is writing again to this guy named Theopolis, and he is chronicling the first 30, 35 years of this brand new church. And what's amazing is, is in the Gospel of Luke, he was acting as a spectator. But in the book of Acts, he is actually a participant in what God is doing. And so Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, just wait right here, something amazing is about to happen. Acts 2, the Holy Spirit descends upon the church and fills all of them and then fills them full of power and starts giving them and empowering them with the ability to do the work of ministry. And so they begin to speak in other languages because there's a whole lot of different people in Jerusalem. Then he the Holy Spirit fills Peter with boldness and he preaches to 3,000 people and they give their life to Christ. And then just continually, these miracles are happening so that it would provide opportunities to share the gospel. And the church is growing and growing and growing. But something else is growing too, and that is opposition. The religious leaders, the Jewish leaders, they're beginning to get more and more frustrated with these apostles and these different ones who are spreading the gospel. The tensions are rising, they're rising, even to the point that in the last chapter, the apostles got flogged. That's 39 lashes and told to stop talking about this Jesus. But instead of going away and saying, okay, guys, this we got to stop this, instead of that, they worshiped and they said, Thank you, Lord, for counting us worthy of carrying not only the gospel but the suffering that goes with it. Well, obviously, this is leading to a bad place because these Jewish leaders are willing to go as far as it takes to stop these people from doing this. And so in the last chapter, we realize the church has just grown beyond what the apostles can take care of by themselves. And so they say, look, our job is to know God's word and to teach it to all of you. We can't do that and also administrate the church. You are important, but so is God's word. So help us find out. Like put forward seven different people that are wise, that are able, and are full of the power of the Holy Spirit that we can entrust for the administration of the church so that we can continue to do the work of ministry God has called us to do. And so they did. And one of the seven people was a guy named Stephen that the Bible said was full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom. And they tried to catch Stephen doing some of these things, but they couldn't. He was, I mean, they couldn't find him doing anything bad. And so they started lying on him and took him before the high priest. Well, I don't know, but maybe Stephen saw the writing on the wall. He realizes this is probably not going to end good. And so, what are you going to do when you know that the next words might be your last? Well, we're going to read this in its entirety because what Stephen is going to do is he is going to tell the Israelites all the way from the beginning, all the way back from the time of Abraham, he is going to share with them the story of the Bible, partly just to let them know that he's not just some, you know, somebody who doesn't know what's going on. He's going to say, look, I know the teachings of our ancestors. I know how God has been at work through our people, but I also know that it is all led to Jesus. So in honor of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, spoiler alert, what's about to happen? We're going to read what he has to say in full and then just celebrate what God does at the end. Are you ready? I want you to get your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 7, the New Living Translation, and let's just enjoy the testimony of Stephen together. Here we go. Verse 1. Then the high priest said to Stephen, Are these accusations true? Remember, yesterday they were accusing him of all these bad things that he didn't do. This was Stephen's reply. Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. God told him, Leave your native land, your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you. So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where we 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 four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, God said, and in the end they will come out and will worship me 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 twelve patriarchs of the Israelite nation. These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Jess Joseph, and they sold him as 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 Pharaoh unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all 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 no grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons, our ancestors, to buy food. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent for his father, Joe Jacob, I'm sorry, tongue tied, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons and all. So Jas Jokob, Jacob, why is that the hardest word? Jacob went to Egypt. He died there, as did our ancestors. Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had brought to a certain for a certain price from Hamor's son Shechem. As 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 up on the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. By the way, that was likely because it was a civil war about that time in Egypt, and a different dynasty came to power. Just throwing that out there. Verse 19, this king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing our parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die. At this 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 forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating the Israelite. So Moses came to the man's defense and avenged 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. Forty 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, and I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. So now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt. So God sent back the same man this people had previously rejected when they demanded, who made you a ruler and judge over us? Through the angel who had appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior. And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and through the wilderness for forty 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. And when the angels 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 gods who can lead us, but we don't know what happened to this guy named Moses, who brought us out of Egypt. So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed it to it and celebrated over this thing they had made. Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heavens as their gods. In the book of the prophets it is written, Was it me? You were bringing sacrifices and offerings for those forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No. You carried your pagan gods, the shrine of Molech, the star of your God Raphon, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon. Pause. Now some of you may not realize that, but even during the entire wilderness wanderings, they continued to struggle to serve these other gods, these pagan nation gods, they probably got out of the land of Egypt. And so all throughout that time, they were still struggling with their faithfulness to God. All right, verse 44. Our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed according to the plan of God that he has shown to Moses. Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations that God drove out of the land, the tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory, and it stayed there until the time of King David. David found favor in God with God and asked for the privilege of building him a permanent temple for God, 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? asked the Lord. Could you build me such a resting place? Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth? Now pause. Now what Stephen has been doing up until now is he is letting them know he is aware of the teachings of the people. He's also letting them know that there has been a process by which God has been trying to reveal himself to the people. So at this point, they're all going, okay, I got you, I got you, I got you, but now he's just gonna just blow their minds. Okay, so here we go. So so far, we're on the same page, everything's good. Then he drops the bomb. Here we go. You ready? Meek and mild Stephen says, verse 31 51, you stubborn people, you are heathens and your heart and deaf to the truth. You are forever, 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 accusations, and they shook their fists at him in rage, to which we would say, Yeah. He just said, You have killed the prophets, you have ignored God's law, oh, and by the way, you kill the Son of God. That's gonna that's gonna ruin your day at that point. So, verse 55, 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 at 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 this young man named Saul. Eventually we'll know that as Paul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord, receive my spirit, and he fell to his knees, shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin. And with that he died. Now the I want to say this one thing about what Moses about what Stephen saw, and then we're gonna end our time together. What happened was the Bible said that he that the Lord opened his eyes to see into the throne room of God, and he said he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor beside the throne. Now that doesn't mean anything to us, but what would happen is is you would have the monarch, the king, who would be seated on the throne, but then you would have the crown prince who would stand on the side. And in Europe they would call him the black prince. In other words, that was the prince who had the power and the authority, because he did the will of the king who sat on the throne. So the authority was yet with the monarch, but the active authority was also with the prince who stood at the side of the throne. So they were there and in a way they were equal, because while the monarch had the authority, the crown prince also had the active authority to enact the will of the king. And so what was happening is that uh Stephen is looking and he sees, I see the father on the throne, but I see the son standing with equal authority and the ability to judge the nations. And it so enraged these people that they began to stone him until he died. And that is the first martyr of the young church. Knowing that he is in this contentious place, knowing what they're willing to do, instead of denying the Son of God, he said, Not only is he real, but you murdered him as well. And he called them to repentance, called them to account for what they had done. So I'm gonna ask you a question if you were standing before a hostile crowd and you knew that one word might mean your death, what would you say? I don't I I'd like to think that I would do what Stephen did, but we know what Stephen did, and that is he basically said, You can do whatever you want, but the truth's the truth, and that is that Jesus is the Son of God, and all you fools are the ones that killed him, but guess what? He didn't stay dead, he came back to life. And here's the thing because he was full of the Holy Spirit, God gave him everything he needed to do exactly what he needed to do when it mattered the most. And so I want to give you this encouragement today. It's very, very, very likely that today you're not gonna stand before a riotous crowd, you're not gonna stand before a mob of people and have to decide if you're going to defend the Lord or not. But you may stand in front of a season of discouragement. You may stand in front of a family that doesn't support your pursuit of God, or co-workers, or friends, schoolmates, different things in your life, criticism, and they may be telling you, one wrong move, and you may see a loss of a friendship or loss of a job, or maybe just the loss of an encouragement. Can I tell you that God will give you the boldness to say the right things? He's given you everything you need to do everything he's called you to do. And so don't worry about what you will say, just stay focused on being full of the Holy Spirit in your life, and in the right moment, God will use you to make a difference. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much. Thank you for the ministry of this man, Stephen. God, he was just a normal man, but full of the Holy Spirit. And that gives me confidence, that gives me encouragement to realize that when it matters, God, you're gonna give us boldness too, to say what needs to be said and to trust you. Because God, you stand at the throne. You stand undefeated and supreme. And God, if you could open our eyes to see you in heaven right now, I have a feeling it will fill us with never-ending courage to do what you've called us to do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget, Acts 1, Jesus said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer is that you'll receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will be a witness in your world today. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter eight.