Feb. 27, 2026

Last week we ended with Stephen continuing to school the Sanhedrin on the Old Testament Scriptures. This week we see them resist the Holy Spirit and stone Stephen to death.

Acts Lesson 12 Study Questions

1.    You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you: One can imagine the angry whispering among the Sanhedrin as Stephen’s history lesson began to make ______. Stephen saw this and knew they were __________ again the One God sent, just as before.

2.    Though it must have offended the council, Stephen’s message was true. First, God is no respecter of _________; that is, though the temple was a wonderful gift from God, it was wrong to overemphasize it as “the house of God.” Second, Israel at that time was guilty of what they had often been guilty of: rejecting God’s ____________.

3.    They were cut to the heart: The council was angry, but because Stephen’s message had hit the target. They could not dismiss or ignore what he said. The Sanhedrin reacted with _____ instead of ____________ to the Holy Spirit.

4.    But he, being full of the Holy Spirit: This was a great _________ to the behavior of the council. The fact that Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit shows the _______ of his courage, wisdom, and power in preaching.

5.    Jesus standing at the right hand of God: “Stephen has been confessing ________ before men, and now he sees _______ confessing his servant before God.” (Bruce)

6.    Then they cried out with a loud voice: “For Stephen to suggest that the crucified Jesus stood in a position of ___________ at the right hand of God must have ranked as __________ in the thinking of those who knew that a crucified man died under the divine curse.” (Bruce)

7.    Young man literally means, “a man in his prime.” It certainly does not mean that Saul wasn’t old enough to be a ________ of the Sanhedrin. In Acts 26:10, Paul says I cast my vote against them, and the plain implication was that he had a vote as a _______ of the Sanhedrin.

8.    They stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Stephen’s life ended in the same way it had been lived: In complete _____ in God, believing that Jesus would take care of him in the ______ to come.

9.    Cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin”: Stephen displayed the same __________ attitude that Jesus had on the cross (Luke 23:34). He asked God to _________ his accusers, and he made the promises loudly and publicly.

10.    Consenting describes Saul’s attitude, but the English translation probably isn’t strong enough. The idea behind the ancient Greek word suneudokeo is “to ________, to be pleased with.” Some people are _________ persecutors, but Saul wasn’t one of these; he took pleasure in attacking Christians.

11.    In Acts 1:8 Jesus clearly told His followers to look _______ Jerusalem and bring the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the whole world. But to this point, Jesus’ followers had ____ done this.

12.    Those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word: The end result was for the glory of God, because the persecution simply served to _______ the message. We shouldn’t think that those who left Jerusalem left as formal preachers. Most were “accidental missionaries” who talked about Jesus wherever they went.

13.    Preached Christ to them: After the Jews had _________ the gospel again, we see God extending the offer of salvation in Jesus out to other peoples, beginning with the _____________.