Open Door Baptist Church
Acts 6:9-15
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Libertines – Freedman, the name of a synagogue.
a freedman, one of the class of manumitted slaves; a synagogue at Jerusalem appears to have been reserved for them.
Manumitted – Manumission, or affranchisement, is the act of an owner freeing his or her slaves.
Cyrene – Cyrene (/saɪˈriːniː/; Ancient Greek: Κυρήνη, translit.Kyrēnē) was an ancient Greek and later Roman city near present-day Shahhat, Libya.
Alexandria – Alexandria (/ˌælɪɡˈzændriə/ or /-ˈzɑːnd-/;[3]Egyptian Arabic: إسكندريه Eskendereyya; Arabic: الإسكندرية al-ʾIskandariyya; Coptic: ⲁⲗⲉⲝⲁⲛⲇⲣⲓⲁ Alexandria or ⲣⲁⲕⲟϯ Rakote) is the second-largest city in Egypt and a major economic centre, extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country.
Cilicia – In antiquity, Cilicia (/sɪˈlɪʃiə/)[2][note 1] was the south coastal region of Asia Minor and existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia during the late Byzantine Empire. Extending inland from the southeastern coast of modern Turkey, Cilicia is due north and northeast of the island of Cyprus and corresponds to the modern region of Çukurova in Turkey.
Asia – The Roman province of Asia or Asiana (Greek: Ἀσία or Ἀσιανή), in Byzantine times called Phrygia, was an administrative unit added to the late Republic. It was a Senatorial province governed by a proconsul. The arrangement was unchanged in the reorganization of the Roman Empire in 211.
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Stephen may have been aware of this teaching of Jesus:
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.( Luke 21:12-15 )
Jesus was quoting scripture:
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
( Exodus 4:12 )
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And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.
( 1 Kings 21:10 )
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Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death;
( Matthew 26:59 )
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the customs which Moses delivered us.
Irony. When Stephen mounts his defense he will accuse them of resisting and opposing Moses.
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Angel – a messenger, generally a (supernatural) messenger from God, an angel, conveying news or behests from God to men.
Matty (Headwind) 