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26 December 2022
11:00 | 
Posted by
Dr Platts |
Acts 7:51-60
A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
Stephen said to the high priest and the council.
‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you are for ever opposing the Holy Spirit,
just as your ancestors used to do.
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?
They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One,
and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.
You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels,
and yet you have not kept it.’
When they heard these things,
they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.
Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’
But they covered their ears,
and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him;
and the witnesses laid their coats
at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed,
‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’
Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice,
‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’
When he had said this, he died.
Matthew 10:17:22
Hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.
Jesus said to the twelve:
Beware of them,
for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;
and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me,
as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say;
for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;
for it is not you who speak,
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will betray brother to death,
and a father his child,
and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;
and you will be hated by all because of my name.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
