Stephen, the First Martyr

Title ideas:Angry men kill Stephen.The first Christian killed after Jesus was raised from death.

Even though Religious chiefs beat [punished] the apostles [chosen leaders] for telling to people Good News about Jesus, the apostles kept on telling the Good News about Jesus. And many more people put their trust in Jesus.

Every day, the Christians gave food to poor people. One day, some Christians who speak Greek [language] went to the apostles and said, “They give more food to widows who speak Hebrew, than they give to our widows.”

So the apostles called together all of the Christians, and said, “We apostles must pray and teach people God’s words. We must not distribute food. You must choose men who will work to distribute food.”

“Choose seven men who are wise and have God’s Spirit. We apostles will give to them authority to distribute food to the poor. Then we apostles will only have to pray and to teach God’s words.”

The Christians agreed with the apostles words, so they choose seven men. Then the apostles laid their hands on [touched / approved] those men and prayed, “O Lord! Please, give to these men wisdom and strength, to do this work well.”

In those days, the Christians told many other people the Good News about Jesus, so that there were many more [new] Christians. Also, many Jewish religious leaders [priests] put their trust in Jesus.

One of the seven men whom the Christians chose to distribute food was named Stephen. He had strong faith in God, and he was able to show God’s power to help poor people.

One day, some evil Jewish religious men, who did not believe in Jesus, began opposing [stopped] Stephen. They argued with him, but God’s Spirit gave to Stephen more wisdom than theirs.

Those evil men began telling lies about Stephen. They would say to other people, “We heard Stephen say bad words about our prophet Moses and about God!”

These lies made [the Jewish] people angry, so the religious chiefs sent soldiers to arrest Stephen and bring [lead] him to stand before the [city] elders’ council.

Some liars stood up and said, “We heard Stephen say that Jesus will destroy our temple, and our sacred [Jewish] laws that our prophet Moses commanded!”

Suddenly, the council members [men] looked at Stephen, because his face began to shine [as the face of an angel].

When the liars stopped talking, the high [top] religious chief asked Stephen, “Are these men’s words true?”

Stephen replied, “Long ago, God spoke to our ancestor [father] Abraham and said: Leave your father’s family and your country [land]. Then I will show you where you should go.

“God led Abraham to this land where we now dwell [live]. But God did not give this land to Abraham. Instead, God promised to give it to [us,] Abraham’s descendants.

“Abraham’s grandson had twelve sons who became the chiefs of our twelve tribes.

“The older sons became angry with their young brother named Joseph. One day they sold him to be a slave in the country [land] called Egypt.

“God gave wisdom to Joseph, and Egypt’s king made Joseph [to be] a strong ruler. When there was no food in our land, the brothers went to Egypt to buy food. Joseph gave them food, and he brought all the sons’ families to live [dwell] in Egypt.

Those brothers and their families [our ancestors] lived 400 years in Egypt. But Egypt’s king made our tribes to be his slaves, and he made them leave their babies outside of their houses, to die. Then God purposed to do what he had said to Abraham that he would do.

“So God choose a man named Moses, and spoke to him through a burning bush, saying, Go to Egypt and lead my people to their own land! At first, our people did not follow Moses, but Moses became our ruler and our prophet.

“While our people were travelling through a wilderness [desert], God gave to Moses our sacred Laws [our holy book]! But our ancestors [fathers] disobeyed Moses! They wanted to go back and live [dwell] in Egypt!”

Stephen also said, “You people today are like our ancestors! You resist God’s Spirit! Our ancestors killed God’s prophets who foretold that God would send a great righteous [holy] man! That man is Jesus whom you betrayed and murdered [killed on a wooden cross]!”

Stephen’s words made the Jewish council members very angry. Then Stephen looked [gazed] upwards towards the sky and said, “I see heaven open! I see the man Jesus standing at God’s right side [as the Son of Man, God’s chosen eternal King]!”

All the men who were there covered [closed] their ears and began shouting. They seized Stephen and dragged him out of the city [village]. There, they laid their [outer] coats near the feet of a man named Saul. Then they began throwing heavy stones at Stephen [in order to kill him].

While they were throwing stones, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, please receive [welcome] me [my spirit] [into heaven]!” Then he fell to his knees and shouted, “Lord, do not hold this sin against [blame] these men!”

Then Stephen died, and Saul was glad that he was dead. That same day, men who did not believe in Jesus began to harm the Christians in that city. All the Christians had to flee from the city, so they went to other provinces.