At first they worshiped in the Upper Room, after healing the lame man at the Temple, they decided together (homothymadon) to worship at the front door of the Temple in what was called Solomon's Portico (Acts 5:12-16). This was a time of relative peace when those that still entered the Temple held them in "high esteem".
But because 5,000 people no longer were entering the temple, neither was their tithe. Jealous, the Sanhedrin thew them into "public" prison overnight (Acts 5:17-42) to teach-them-a-lesson.
But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”
Instead God miraculously released them and through an angel commanded them to go into the temple to speak the "words of this Life".
What is the difference between their life and "this Life" (outos zōē)? Their life was filled with the fear of the Sanhedrin, who could pass judgement on what and how they must atone. This life was filled with the fear of God, who through the work of Christ, has atoned for us!
Their sermons spoke of the innocent death and resurrection of Jesus. This tore at those who listened because it put the responsibility of Jesus death on them ("you intend to bring this man's blood upon us"). This is a sin for which the Law did not have a method of atonement (Leviticus 4:20,26,31,35,5:10,13,16,18)!
Our text this week, then goes on describe the choosing of the first Deacons (Acts 6:1-7) and the martyrdom of Steven.
Steven, who tradition and early lists, holds was one of the 72 disciples commissioned by Jesus as evangelists, worked among the Hellenistic widows, whose wealth then was no longer going to their previous synagogs (See for example Josephus “The Antiquities of the Jews” Book XVII Chapter 2 Section 4).
This enraged their leadership, who incited a crowd to stone Steven. When they looked (atenizō eis) at Steven they saw "his face was like the face of an angel". When they were stoning him, he looked (atenizō eis) into heaven and saw "the glory of God".
Then he did what they could not:
And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
He forgave them, so that no atonement was necessary, in the ultimate demonstration of "this LIfe".
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