The vast majority of Acts 7 is the record of Stephen's speech before the Sanhedrin. In it, he traces the history of ancient Israel with emphasis on the experience of the Patriarchs and Moses. He points out that the Israelites continually rejected what God was trying to do.
This is all a buildup to his main point - the Sanhedrin was rejecting what God was doing just like the way the Israelites fought with Moses. Here, the Sanhedrin rejected and killed God's latest messenger, Jesus.
The Sanhedrin lets Stephen give a long speech about the history of Israel, but this is opinion about Jesus angers the crowd. The mob then drags Stephen outside and stones him.
While being stoned, Stephen has a vision of the open heavens with Jesus standing next to the throne of God. Stephen also makes a few statements that were similar to when Jesus died on the cross. He says: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" and for Jesus to not "hold this sin against them". Then, Stephen dies. On the cross, Jesus expressed similar things, but the order was reused in that the release of the spirit was the last thing Jesus said before dying.
Here, Stephen expresses similar mercy and compassion for those killing him as did Jesus.
Also, it contrasts the statements by the Pharisees when they took Jesus to Pilate. The Pharisees told Jesu that they did not have the authority to execute anyone. The stoning of Stephen shows that regardless if they had the authority or not, they still did it.
Finally, the stoning of Stephen is being supervised by Saul, the great persecutor. We can probably infer that Saul was with the Sanhedrin when Stephen gave his speech. He probably also had a role in inciting the violence.
Since he would later become Paul the apostle, one wonders if Stephen's prayer of forgiveness for Saul had any role in God later redeeming Saul.
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