On Jesus’ last night with us; after the foot washing, after the Last Supper, and after Judas had been told ‘do quickly what you are going to do’, Jesus prayed to the Father what we now call Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. In it we have the written record of Jesus giving 3 reasons for his life on earth. First, he is our intercessor.

A Baptist pastor once told a study group I was in that one of the highest callings we can have is to be an intercessor, praying for the needs of somebody else. It is a serious responsibility; it puts us between God and that person

The “fruit tree” for Stephen was not his biological heritage; but it was something that proved to be even stronger. There was an indwelling of spirit between himself and Jesus that led him to publicaly proclaim Jesus as Lord, and to very boldly accuse the Jewish leaders of their sin in not recognizing who Jesus was.
When Stephen had incited the crowd to the point that they pulled him into the street and started to stone him, he said, “Lord, receive my spirit,” and “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Do those words sound familiar? They are the same words that Jesus spoke from the cross. The fruit did not fall far from the tree.