Acts
7:55-60 & 1 Peter 2:2-10
Acts
7:55-60
But filled
with the Holy Spirit, he 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.
1
Peter 2:2-10
Like newborn
infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into
salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him,
a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s
sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am
laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever
believes in him will not be put to shame.”
To you then
who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone
that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”
and
“A stone
that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble
because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order
that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light.
Once you
were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had
not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.