You can click one of the titles in the brown bar at the top of the page or the black bar at the bottom of the page to go to the index (with contents) or to any of the topics. The story of St Stephen and St Paul story is in the Book of Acts. Click ACTS on the brown bar. The contents list is now part of the index.
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The Story of St. Stephen and St Paul.
In this story Paul was known by his earlier name of "Saul". He was persecuting the Christians. When you come to the next story you will read how he changed his name to "Paul" and became a Christian.
To hear the story read, click the arrow on the left hand side of the bar below
St Stephen.mp3
The first martyr was a man called St.Stephen. St. Stephen's day is the 26th of December. That is the day after Christmas day. You will probably know the Christmas Carol "Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Stephen. " It was the 26th December when Wenceslas looked out of his palace and saw an old man gathering wood for his fire. We will look at the story of Wenceslas later.
What does the Bible tell us about Stephen?
When the Christian Church first started, its members sold what they had and the money now belonged to everyone. Every day, a little money was give to all the widows so they had all they needed. But after a time some people began to complain that not all of them were getting their fair share. They asked all the 12 Apostles to make sure that the money was being shared fairly. The Apostles said, "If we spend time doing this we will not have so much time to tell people about Jesus. The best thing to do is to elect 7 people to look after the money." The disciples thought this was a good idea so they voted and they elected the 7 people. One of the people they elected was Stephen.
Stephen at table counting money
Stephen helped to look after the money but he also started preaching about Jesus. Some people did not believe him and they argued with him. They became very angry and decided that they would try and put Stephen in prison. They brought him before the high priest and the council. They knew he had not done anything wrong so they persuaded some people to be false witnesses. The false witnesses came and said that Stephen was speaking against Moses and against God. This was quite untrue. Stephen said, "Think how often the people of this country have killed the prophets who came to tell them about God and about the coming of Jesus.." The crowd were furious.
Then Stephen had a very strange experience. He looked up and saw into heaven where Jesus was standing at the right hand of God. He said, "I can see Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Stoning of Stephen
The people were so angry that they took Stephen and threw him out of the city. They threw stones at him to kill him. "Stephen said,"Lord Jesus receive my Spirit." and then he said, "Do not hold this sin against them." Then he died.
One of those watching was a man called Saul. Saul did not like Christians and he was pleased that Stephen was dead. Later he probably thought about how brave Stephen had been and this was perhaps one of the things that made Saul become a Christian himself.
Paul page 1: What happened to Saul
You can click one of the titles in the brown bar at the top of the page or the black bar at the bottom of the page to go to the index (with contents) or to any of the topics. The story of St Stephen and St Paul story is in the book of ACTS. Click ACTS on the black bar. The contents list is now part of the index.
