The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God

The Apostles Arrested, continuing in Acts 6

Acts 6:1-7:60, 8:1-3 In those days, when the number of the disciples was being multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians (believers) against the Hebrews (the Jewish believers), because their widows were neglected in the daily administration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God, to serve tables. Therefore, look out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. Because we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests became obedient to the faith. 

Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines (Freedmen), and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. Because they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Then they suborned (secretly induced) men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon and caught him, and brought him to the council, and set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us (though they had perverted and totally defiled, made them vain, and profained his teachings long ago). And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Then the high priest said, Are these things so? He then said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said to him, Get you out of this country, and from your kindred, and come into the land which I shall show to you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from there, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein we now dwell. And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spoke on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them with evil for four hundred years. (this number has caused many to falter in their course because they fail to take into account the time of Abrahams own wonderings there) And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come out, and serve Me in this place. And He gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begot Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs and princes. These patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Now there came a dearth (famine) over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, with great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers; and Joseph's kindred was made known also to Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died there, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. 

But when the time of the promise drew nigh (keep in mind that Israel also had a time appointed it as the end of promise), which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtly (took shrewd advantage) with our kindred, and evilly treated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house for three months: And when he was cast out (placed in the water of the Nile River, for this is the meaning of his name, and that of Jesus' also), Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. Then when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brothers would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not (here is revealed the revelation of Jesus out of the mouth of this Priest still unknown to him). The next day he showed himself to them as they strove against each other, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brothers; why do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Will you kill me, as you did the Egyptian yesterday? To thisthen did Moses fled, at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begot two sons.