EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2026
6:57 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The Application”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
7:33-34
Message of the verses: “For John the Baptist has come eating no
bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking,
and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors
and sinners!’”
“Having given His hearers a simple illustration, Jesus
applied it to Himself and John. First,
He likened John’s ministry to the funeral game.
Eating bread and drinking wine symbolized the normal
pattern of social life. In the Olivet
Discourse Jesus told His hears that when He returns life will be continuing
normally, just as in the day that Noah entered the ark’ (Matt. 24:38). John’s radically ascetic lifestyle was a
total disconnect from and condemnation of Jewish society. Instead of eating bread, John’s ‘food
was locusts and wild honey’; instead of stylish clothes, he wore ‘a garment of
camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist’ (Matt. 3:4); instead of
living in luxurious surroundings, he ‘lived in the desert until the day of his public
appearance to Israel!’ (Luke 1:80). Even
after he began his ministry, John remained in the desolate wilderness near the
Jordan (Matt. 3:1). His Nazirite vow,
forbidding the drinking of wine (Luke 1:15), and his diet, a kind
of fasting, further isolated John from the normal course of life. Cultural trends and fads of society had no
influence of him.
“John’s ministry was a somber,
serious dirge sounding a warning of coming judgment and proclaiming to sinners
the need for repentance and mourning over sin.
The tone of his preaching was fearful, frightening, and confrontational;
John’s message was a severe one, with little emphasis of grace and mercy. His focus was on God’s wrath and vengeance,
and he challenged his hearers to repent or be consumed by the fiery judgment
that was coming (Luke 3:8, 9, 17).”
(Luke 3:8, 9, 17)
“8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And
do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell
you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”
“9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the
trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and
thrown into the fire.’”
“17 His
winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’”
“He had no
use for shallow, superficial hypocrites, denouncing them as a ‘brood of vipers’
(v. 7), desperately trying to escape the flames of judgment.”
“The reaction of the spiritual brats
to John the Baptist’s austere self-denial and message of judgment was
shocking. At first they had hailed him
as a true prophet of God, the forerunner
of the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah and Malachi. But soon after they contemptuously dismissed
him as having a demon. The
present tense of the verb translated you say indicates that some of
those hearing Jesus speak were among the very ones who had denounced John as
being demon-possessed. The reason for
that astounding conclusion was that bizarre behavior was frequently associated
with demon possession. The Gerasene
demoniac, for instance, lived in a cemetery, wore no clothes, was extremely
violent, screamed constantly, and mutilated himself (Matt. 8:28; Mark 5:1-5;
Luke 8:26-27).”
(Matt. 8:28; Mark 5:1-5; Luke 8:26-27)
“28 ¶ And when he came to the other side, to the
country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the
tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.”
“1 ¶ They came to the other side of the sea, to
the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when
Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a
man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived
among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain,
4 for he had often been bound with shackles
and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in
pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the
mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.”
“26 Then they sailed to the country of the
Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27
When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city
who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in
a house but among the tombs.”
“John’s
behavior was so different, unique, and anti-social that some concluded that it
could only be explained as the madness associated with demon possession. Many would come to the same blasphemous
conclusion regarding Jesus (cf. Luke 11:19; John 7:20; 8:48; 10:20).”
(cf. Luke 11:19; John 7:20; 8:48;
10:20)
“19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by
whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.”
“20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is
seeking to kill you?””
“48 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in
saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
“20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is
insane; why listen to him?”
“The people’s motive for so labeling
John was their hatred of his message.
Their hearts were hard and impenetrable, causing them to reject the
divine diagnosis of their condition that he proclaimed. Being proud and self-righteous, they hated
John’s condemnation of them as sinners, desperately in need of repentance and
forgiveness. They attacked John’s person
in order to justify their rejection of his message. They refused to join with him.
8/29/2026
7:29 PM
