"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; they disputed what Paul was saying and insulted him.

But Paul and Barnabas spoke out even more boldly: "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we will leave you and go to the Gentiles.

When they opposed him and said evil things about him, he protested by shaking the dust from his clothes and saying to them, "If you are lost, you yourselves must take the blame for it! I am not responsible. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."

But they would not obey; they were stubborn like their ancestors, who had not trusted in the LORD their God.

Do not be stubborn as they were, but obey the LORD. Come to the Temple in Jerusalem, which the LORD your God has made holy forever, and worship him so that he will no longer be angry with you.

But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the LORD's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

But our ancestors grew proud and stubborn and refused to obey your commands.

They refused to obey; they forgot all you did; they forgot the miracles you had performed. In their pride they chose a leader to take them back to slavery in Egypt. But you are a God who forgives; you are gracious and loving, slow to be angry. Your mercy is great; you did not forsake them.

You warned them to obey your teachings, but in pride they rejected your laws, although keeping your Law is the way to life. Hard-headed and stubborn, they refused to obey.

"Don't be stubborn, as your ancestors were at Meribah, as they were that day in the desert at Massah.

Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and the people of Jerusalem.

Yet no one listened or paid any attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors.

that the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, "I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say."

"God has blinded their eyes and closed their minds, so that their eyes would not see, and their minds would not understand, and they would not turn to me, says God, for me to heal them."

So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.

What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.

Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word "Today" in the scripture applies to us.

It was at this time that there was serious trouble in Ephesus because of the Way of the Lord.

and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

I persecuted to the death the people who followed this Way. I arrested men and women and threw them into prison.

except for the one thing I called out when I stood before them: 'I am being tried by you today for believing that the dead will rise to life.' "

But we would like to hear your ideas, because we know that everywhere people speak against this party to which you belong."

You know that everyone in the province of Asia, including Phygelus and Hermogenes, has deserted me.

Even so, many will follow their immoral ways; and because of what they do, others will speak evil of the Way of truth.

But these people act by instinct, like wild animals born to be captured and killed; they attack with insults anything they do not understand. They will be destroyed like wild animals,

But these people attack with insults anything they do not understand; and those things that they know by instinct, like wild animals, are the very things that destroy them.

The people of the city were divided: some were for the Jews, others for the apostles.

Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas; so did many of the leading women and a large group of Greeks who worshiped God.

So he left them and went to live in the house of a Gentile named Titius Justus, who worshiped God; his house was next to the synagogue.

Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with all his family; and many other people in Corinth heard the message, believed, and were baptized.

"Don't worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch."

How evil and godless are the people of this day! You ask me for a miracle? No! The only miracle you will be given is the miracle of Jonah." So he left them and went away.

Do you suppose that I came to bring peace to the world? No, not peace, but division.

Fathers will be against their sons, and sons against their fathers; mothers will be against their daughters, and daughters against their mothers; mothers-in-law will be against their daughters-in-law, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law."

and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich.

they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people.

Watch, then, and remember that with many tears, day and night, I taught every one of you for three years.

Those who listen to me will be happy--- those who stay at my door every day, waiting at the entrance to my home.

Then Jesus spoke to the crowd, "Did you have to come with swords and clubs to capture me, as though I were an outlaw? Every day I sat down and taught in the Temple, and you did not arrest me.

to preach the message, to insist upon proclaiming it (whether the time is right or not), to convince, reproach, and encourage, as you teach with all patience.