Stephen

Our study is about Stephen, and we will review some of the Old Testament people that he talked about and discuss Jesus. For our IFA: Investigating Facts in Acts addition, there is a printable evidence card with directions to make an evidence bag. This can be used for any lesson! There is also a Fill-in-the-Blank STEPHEN Flap Book. The kids love these!

Our Bible lesson is found in Acts 6:8-8:4. Last week we studied a married couple named Ananias and Sapphira. They sold land and Ananias told Peter that the money they were giving was the full amount from the sale. But they only gave a portion. Peter told him he was lying to God, and he fell down dead.

After three hours his wife Sapphira came in and said, yes that’s what we sold the land for. Peter said "Your husband said the same thing, so look at these men because they are the ones that carried him out when he died and they will carry you out." She died right way, and they buried her right next to her husband.

Peter and John and Stephen were some of the people who did what Jesus commanded. They went about healing people and telling about Jesus. They were beaten and made fun of. When they were brought to the chief priests and asked why they kept doing what they were told not to do, they answered that “We obey God instead of men!”

They taught DAILY in the temple and in every house, preaching and teaching about Jesus being the Savior. The word of God spread.


Today we will be talking about Stephen and how his works for Jesus and his death introduces us to Saul, who we know as Paul. Read today’s Bible verse: "Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people."

Some of the Jewish leaders were arguing with Stephen about what he taught. They just couldn’t stop him from preaching, so they secretly told men to say that they had heard Stephen say offensive words against God. (vs. 11) The Jewish leaders got the people all worked up and Stephen was brought to the Jewish council.

They had false witnesses come in and tell lies. Everyone sitting at council thought Stephen had a face of an angel. (Acts 6:15) The high priest asked if the people were telling the truth with their accusations and Stephen began by telling the council about Old Testament Bible people:

1. God told Abraham to go to a new land. Which he did. God promised Abraham a son. God gave him Isaac. Abraham would be the father of all nations. His descendants would be like the stars in the sky! Which they are!

2. Isaac had Jacob. And Jacob had 12 sons. We know them as the 12 tribes of Israel. One of those sons was Joseph. His brothers were so jealous because Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors. They sold him and Joseph was taken to Egypt.

God gave Joseph "favor and wisdom". Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, made him Governor over Egypt, which gave him a lot of power in Egypt. God was watching over him! Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, during a famine, and they were able to be together again! All these men are found in the book of Genesis.

3. And then Stephen talked about Moses. He is in Exodus and it's over 400 years later. Moses was 40 when he killed the man and left Egypt. Moses saw the burning bush when he was 80 years old! (Acts 7:23-34) God had Moses and his brother Aaron take the Israelites out of Egypt. After the 10 plagues, they left Egypt. God also gave them the 10 commandments.

4. Stephen then talked about David. He fought the giant Goliath. He was also a king for 40 years. 

5. His son, Solomon who was the wisest man that ever lived, was king after him.

6. Stephen finishes up with Jesus. He calls Jesus 'The Just One'.

Stephen told the council they were stubborn, because all those people knew about God but they wanted to do what they felt like instead of what God says to do.

Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit and when he looked up into heaven, Stephen saw 'the glory of God' (no one is permitted to see God) and on the right side of God, Jesus was standing! (Acts 7:55-56) The Bible tells us that Jesus is sitting on God's right side. (Mark 16:19)

The men shouted out and plugged their ears! They ran at Stephen and took him out of the city to stone him.

The men that were witnesses in the temple were by law supposed to throw the first stones. Those witnesses laid their coats at the feet of Saul. (Acts 7:57) The clothes they laid at Saul’s feet would have been the outer coat that would get in the way when they heaved the rocks at Stephen.

As the people were stoning him, Stephen called to Jesus to “receive my spirit”. Stephen was ready to go to heaven with Jesus and he asked Jesus to forgive them for what they were doing to him. (Acts 7:59)

This is the first time the Bible talks about Saul, who we are going to study. We know him as Paul.

This was the persecution of the Christians. They were killed for telling others about Jesus. People left Jerusalem and went to other countries telling about Jesus.

Read: Acts 8:3-4 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. He approved of Stephen getting stoned to death. And, those who were Christians, went everywhere preaching the word.

Extra project : Let the students paint or write on a stone the word “Forgive”. Talk about how Stephen forgave the men who hurt him and even asked God to forgive them. (original idea here)  

We used these Evidence bags with this lesson. I printed the tags on cardstock (4 per page). Cut around the outside edges and FOLD on the dotted line. The students filled in the blanks and put them inside a 3x4" clear bag (found in any craft store in the jewelry design dept.). They added the rock and sealed the Evidence bag with tape I found at Oriental Trading. You can use any Washi tape (red would be best, and found in scrapbook isles in the store). Once the bags were finished, the kids added them to their IFA bags to take home at the end of our study of Acts. You can print the Evidence inserts here.

This name book is a scrapbook style book I used to make. Spelling out the name is fun for the kids! I have them all cut and ready and we discussed Stephen and they filled in the blanks. Click here to download the Stephen Flap Book.

To make these books:

If possible, print onto cardstock. You don't have to print onto cardstock, but they will hold up better with kids. As you cut each page out, you cut around the left side of the rectangle/square/page area, then, as you come around to the right side of the letters, they are around the outside. LEAVING the letters attached to the page. For an example, CLICK HERE to see the MOSES Flap Book.

Look at the Moses Flap Book photo. The letter S is not touched on the left, but the right side is. When the pages are layered on top of each other, they will spell out the word, in this case MOSES. Lay them as you see in the photo, and use a hole punch on the left side to add the holes to make it like a book. You can use ribbon, or book rings to hold the pages together.

 

Click here to download worksheet.

Bible Verse: Acts 6:8

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.

Click here to download the updated visuals.
The visuals for Acts 6 & 7 are all included. All are not shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Click here to download the lesson.

You can find the same lesson with more ideas here.

There are directions included to use this as a file folder game or as a review game for class. This has been updated with more Event Cards based on Stephen's speech. 

Click here to download this updated version.