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
on 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 as 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
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