PT-1 "Stephen's Courage"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/7/2017 8:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “Stephen’s Courage”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 6:9-14

            Message of the verses:  “9 But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly induced men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God." 12 And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought him before the Council. 13 They put forward false witnesses who said, "This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us."”

            We have spent a considerable amount of time talking about the wonderful character of Stephen and because Stephen was a man of impeccable character he was a match for any attack which would come his way and there was a fierce one that came his way that in the end would take his life.  As we look at verse nine we see those men who were opposing Stephen.  Stephen was a bright light in a very dark place and light will always overcome darkness, but because the darkness hates the light they will rise up and fight against the light and this is what we see with these men who were arguing against Stephen as these men hated the light of the gospel and men still hate it today.  These men rose up against Stephen.  John MacArthur writes “The cultural and linguistic differences between those groups make it unlikely that they all attended the same synagogue.”

            We have written about what synagogues were and how many Jewish men it took to begin a synagogue which is ten.  In Jerusalem during this time there were 480 synagogues according to the Talmud.  We have mentioned earlier on that Stephen was likely a Hellenistic Jew and he probably was a member of one of the Hellenistic synagogues.

            We see in verse nine “the Synagogue of the Freedmen” and they were the descendants of Jewish slaves captured by Pompey in 63 B. C. and were taken to Rome.  After some time they were released as they were given their freedom and so they formed a Jewish community there.  “Cyrenians and Alexandrians were two major cities in North Africa. Remember it was a Cyrenians named Simon who carried the cross of Jesus as seen in Luke 23:26.  Next we look at Cilicia and Asia as they were providences in Asia Minor which today is modern day Turkey.  The Apostle Paul’s hometown of Tarsus was located in Cilicia (Acts 21:39; 22:3), and Paul likely attended their synagogue which was located in Jerusalem.  We will see once we get to chapter seven that Paul was in attendance of the mock trial of Stephen.  So the men from all three of these synagogues came to argue with Stephen.  John MacArthur writes “Argued’ is from suzeteo which refers not of a quarrel but to a formal debate.  Luke does not give us the account of the debate.  Some of Stephen’s arguments can be inferred from the charges brought against him (6:13-14) and his speech before the Sanhedrin.  The debate no doubt centered on the death, resurrection, and messiahship of Jesus, and the inability of the Mosaic Law and temple ritual to save.

            We will look more into this section in our next SD.  I would like to mention that I was seeking some advice from a friend of mine on how to have more people look at the Spiritual Diaries that I write so that the Spirit of God can use them even more to reach more people with the good news of the gospel and with things that will help believers grow in their faith.  He suggested that I put a summary of what I am writing on Facebook and so if any who read this would like to post it to your friends on Facebook that would be encouraging to me and hopefully bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ which is the major goal of these Spiritual Diaries.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Remembering the character of Stephen and how his godly character caused him to better serve the Lord which is my desire.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Spirit of God will continue to use these Spiritual Diaries, and use them in more places.

Memory verse for the week:  Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there be any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Study” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Today’s Bible question:  “Why did Jesus die on the cross?”

Answer in our next SD.

11/7/2017 9:40 AM