“Jesus Is Omnipotent” (Luke 5:6b-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2026 10:46 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  “Jesus Is Omnipotent”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                   Reference:  Luke 5:6b-7

            Message of the verses:  “and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them.  And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.”

            When I look at the title of this SD “Jesus Is Omnipotent” I want to know what that word means, and so let us look at several words that help us understand that word.  “Invincible, Almighty, Supreme, All-Powerful, Godlike,”  God is the only one who can be described with these words. 

            Jesus knew the location of the fish, and this demonstrated Jesus’ omniscience, but the staggering, unprecedented size of the catch revealed His omnipotence.  Peter and the others were shocked and amazed at the enormous number of fish, knowing that there was no possible human explanation for it.  Now, perhaps if this was the first time you have read this section from the Word of God you may have a couple of things that go through your mind.  Perhaps you would think that this could not happen, and think that the Bible is false.  Or perhaps you would be in wonder to think that this kind of thing could happen.  Now if this verse, and the truth of it has been looked at by you many times you may just not get the greatness of what the Lord Jesus Christ did hear.  Perhaps it is time to again be in awe of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He just did here.  Now nothing like this had ever happened before; no catch had been anywhere near this size.  They were witnessing a display of divine power as the Lord gathered together in one location the vast number of fish that were now causing their nets…to break.  This caused Peter and his crew to become desperately wondering what they could do, and so they signaled to their partners in the other boat (v. 7) for them to come and help them.  Hurrying to their partners’ assistance, the other boat then came alongside Peter’s and working frantically, the crews filled both of the boats.  But so enormous was the catch that both boats began to sink because of the staggering weight of the fish.

            John MacArthur writes:  “As they knew from the Old Testament, God not only created the world, but also controls it.  Nehemiah prayed, ‘You alone are the Lord.  You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them.  You give life to all of them and the heavenly hosts bows down before You.  You are the Lord God’ (Nehemiah 9:6-7).  Extolling the Lord’s sovereign control over His creation the psalmist wrote,

“24 Lord, how many are Your works!
^[In wisdom You have made them all;
The earth is full of Your possessions.
²⁵ There is the sea, great and broad,
In which are swarms without number,
Animals both small and great.
²⁶ The ships move along there,
And Leviathan, which You have formed to have fun in it.

²⁷ They all wait for You
To give them their food in due season.
²⁸ You give to them, they gather it up;
You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good.
²⁹ You hide Your face, they are terrified;
You take away their breath, they perish
And return to their dust.
³⁰ You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the ground.”

In Isaiah 50:2b, God declared, “Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.’  Even the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar acknowledge God’s sovereign control over all of His creation:  ‘All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’’(Dan. 4:35).

            Those shocked, amazed, and frightened fishermen knew that they were witnessing confirmation of the truth that ‘power belongs to God’ (Psalm 62:11).

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  When my son was born he had a bad heart, really bad, and we knew from right after he was born that he would have to have open heart surgery.  When he was 18 months old he had that open heart surgery as the took his heart out of his chest, as he was on a device to keep him breathing and the blood flowing.  As one may expect there was much prayer that was going before, during, and after his surgery. I believe to this day that this was done through the power of God, to give those surgeons the ability to do what was needed to be done in order to give healing to my son.  As I look at this section from Luke’s gospel I don’t want to miss out on knowing the all powerfulness of God, to look over it because I have read it before.  God is all powerful and can do as He wants to do, and what He does is all in His will.  I am still so very thankful for the successful surgery my son got when he was 18 months old.  He is married, and has three children of his own, one in college, and two in high school.

My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my prayer for my wife that the Lord will do a miracle for her, and for the rest of the family, that God will give wisdom to us to do the correct thing in order to defeat that devilish disease of cancer.

5/25/2026 11:23 AM

 

“Jesus Is Omniscient” (Luke 5:4-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2026 8:09 PM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  “Jesus Is Omniscient”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:4-6a

Message of the verses:  “4When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish,”

            Now when anyone, especially a professional fisherman goes out to fish the challenge always facing them is finding the fish.  Even experienced fisherman, using the latest fish-finding sonar, often come up empty, and there is a lot of high-tech fishing things on the market today.  The Lord Jesus Christ, however, did not need any of this high-tech fishing gear for He knew exactly where the fish were.  As the One who created everything as seen in John 1:3; Col. 1:16; and Heb. 1:2, He has an exhaustive knowledge of all creatures—even to the point of knowing when a sparrow falls to the ground (Matt. 10:29)—since “there is no creature hidden from His sight” (Heb. 4:13).  As the story continues to unfold, Jesus’ omniscience becomes evident as we will see.

John 1:3; Col. 1:16; and Heb. 1:2

3  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

“16  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

“2  but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”

            John MacArthur writes:  “When He had finished speaking to the crowd, Jesus said to Simon (the verb is a second person singular), ‘Put out into the deep water and then said to the entire crew let down (this verb is a second personal plural) your nets for a catch.’  The nets were not the small ones used by individuals fishing from the shore or in shallow water (cf. Matt. 4:18) but large nets similar to modern seines, and used for fishing in deeper water on the lake.”

(cf. Matt. 4:18)

“18 ¶  While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.”

            “Perhaps surprised that a carpenter would presume to tell experienced fisherman how to fish, Simon answered the Lord and said, ‘Master (epistates; ‘chief,’ ‘commander’; a respectful title for one in authority, but not an affirmation of deity), we worked hard all night (when, as noted above, fishing was usually done) and caught nothing.’   Why then should He expect them to catch fish in the middle of the day?  Besides, letting down the large nets and hauling them in was hard work.  But then again, this was no ordinary carpenter, but one who had healed his mother-in-law, so Peter added, ‘but I will do as You say and let down the nets.’

            “If Jesus’ command surprised them, the result utterly dumfounded them.  When they had let down the nets, much to their amazement they enclosed a great quantity of fish.  Nothing in their experience could have prepared them for such an unheard catch of fish in the middle of the day.  But the omniscient Savior knew exactly where the fish were.  Later He would tell Peter where to find one specific fish with a specific coin in it mouth (Matt. 17:27).”

(Matt. 17:27)

“27  However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.’”

“And after His resurrection, the Lord would once again tell Peter and his companions where to let down their nets for a huge catch of fish (John 21:1-6).”

(John 21:1-6)

“  1 ¶  After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2  Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3  Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 4  Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5  Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6  He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.”

            “Knowing where the fish in the Sea of Galilee were is merely one demonstration of Jesus’ omniscience.  He described exactly the man who would lead Peter and John to the upper room where they would celebrate the Last Supper (Luke 22:8-12).  His supernatural knowledge of Nathanael’s whereabouts (John 1:47-48) led Nathanael to exclaim, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel’ (v. 49).  He was not deceived by the shallow, superficial, nonsaving professions of faith on the part of some, because ‘He Himself knew what was in man’ (John 2:25).  He ‘knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him’ (John 6:64).  Christ’s omniscience was convincing proof of His deity, and caused the disciples to say, ‘Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by we believe that You came from God’ (John 16:30; cf. 21:17).  Those times when Jesus voluntarily restricted His omniscience (e.g., Matt. 24:36; Mark 11:13; Luke 8:45-46) are consistent with His submission to the Father during His incarnation.”

(e.g., Matt. 24:36; Mark 11:13; Luke 8:45-46)

“36  "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

“13  And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.”

“45  And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46  But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.’”

5/24/2026 8:51 PM

 

PT-3 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth” (Luke 5:1-3)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2026 8:08 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:1-3)

            Message of the verses:  “1Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.”

            I want to pick up where I left off last night and begin to write that Jesus being pressed against the water on that crowded shore, He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake.  Now these were fishing boats, and not some small row boats.  They were large enough to hold Jesus and the twelve disciples as see in Matthew 8:23-24; 14:22-23; Mark 6:31-32; 8:10; cf. John 21:2-3 which is where seven of the disciples were in a boat.  Now these particular boats were beached or anchored to the shore, and the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets in preparation for the next night’s fishing.  Fishing on the Sea of Galilee was generally done at night, and the fishermen washed and repaired their nets and worked on their boats and equipment during the day.

            Now to create some space between Himself and the crowd that was shoving and jostling for position around Him, Jesus got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s.  Perhaps the others belonged to James and John.  The Lord’s decision to enter that particular boat was not a random one; Jesus did nothing without purpose.  The time had come for Him to move not only into Peter’s boat, but more intensely into his life, along with the other two who would become His inner circle, James and John, to lift them to the highest level of commitment.

            MacArthur writes “Since the Lord had first encountered Peter (John 1:41-42) when his brother Abdrew brought Peter to Him they, along with John (the unnamed second disciple of John the Baptist referred to in v. 35) began their initial voluntary interest in following Jesus as the Messiah.  The Lord’s first actual calling of Peter, along with Andrew, James, and John (Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20), drew them in as men chosen by the Lord to be followers of Him.  In this passage, Luke alone records their final call, when they abandoned their fishing business and became permanent, full-time disciples of Jesus.  The Lord targeted Peter in particular, since he would be the recognized leader of the Twelve (his name is first on all four New Testament lists of the apostles) and have a great influence on the rest (cf. John 21:3).

            “After entering Peter’s boat, Jesus asked him to put out a little way from the land.  Being on the water freed Jesus from being jostled by the crowd, allowed the people to see Him better, and may have provided better acoustics, since the flat, calm surface of the lake would to some extent amplify the sound of His voice.  After the boat was moved a short distance from the shore and anchored n place, Jesus sat down (as rabbis traditionally did when teaching; cf. 4:20; Matt. 5:1; 13:1; John 8:2) and began teaching the people from the boat (cf. Matt. 13:2).  No matter what the exigencies or difficulties, Jesus would not be deterred from preaching the Word of God, which the Father had sent Him to do (4:43; Mark 1:38).”

            This ends the section and this evening I begin to look at “Jesus Is Omniscient.”  5/24/2026 8:46 AM

 

PT-2 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth” (Luke 5:1-3)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2026 8:54 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-2 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:1-3)

            Message of the verses:  “1Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.”

            I want to continue to look at these verses in this evening’s SD.

            Now on this occasion, the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God as He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.  Now the lake, more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee as the Old Testament refers to it as the Sea of Chinnereth found in Numbers 34:11; Josh. 13:27 or also in John 6:1; 21:1, the name by which it was known when he wrote), is a lake nearly 700 feet below sea level, that is the dominant geographical feature of the entire region of Galilee.  Now let me take a moment to quote the two verses from John’s Gospel.

John 6:1; 21:1

“1 ¶  After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.”

“1 ¶  After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.”

            The name Gennesaret derives from the fertile plain of that name to the northwest of the lake.  The primary source of water for the Sea of Galilee is the Jordan River, which arises from several sources near Mount Hermon which is 9,200 feet above sea level, and it flows into the lake from the north.  The enlarged Jordan River exists the southern end of the lake, and flows south into the Dead Sea. 

            As I study the different gospels I find that the crowds were always eager crowds that surged around Jesus, pushing Him toward the water’s edge.  What captured their attention was Jesus’ preaching of the word of God, but also the chance to see one of His many miracles done.  MacArthur writes “The term is not here a synonym for the Bible as it commonly is in Christian circles today. The phrase of God is a subjective genitive in the Greek, indicating source; the people were listening to Jesus speak the word that came directly from God.  When Jesus spoke, they literally heard God speaking.  The subject was the good news of salvation; the truth about entering the kingdom of God.  It was the glorious truth that the spiritually poor could be made rich; the spiritual prisoners set free; the spiritually blind given sight; and the spiritually oppressed delivered from their bondage…It was the good news of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.  ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, ‘Jesus declared, ‘he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life’ (John 5:24).

            “Jesus’ teaching and preaching was strikingly different than that of the rabbis, whose authority was connected to quoting other rabbis.” (Perhaps like the blind leading the blind!) “But Jesus, being God spoke the long-awaited divine revelation of the kingdom, which could be entered through faith in Him.  Jesus did not speak as an Old Testament scholar or as a rabbinic tradition; it was the voice of God.  Jesus was the Son of God; God in human flesh, and when He spoke He spoke with personal divine authority (Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:27).”

(Matt. 7:29; Mark 1:27)

“29  for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

“27  And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’”

            “Jesus is truth incarnate, since God is true (Ps. 31:5; Isa. 65:16).  His word is an expression of His truth (Ps. 138:2).”

(Ps. 31:5; Isa. 65:16)

“5  Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.”

“16  So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.”

(Ps. 138:2)

“2  I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”

“In John 14:6, Jesus declared ‘I am the way, and the truth and the life.’  Earlier in his gospel the apostle John wrote of Him, ‘And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the one begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth….For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ’ (1:14, 17).

            “Jesus repeatedly taught that He had been sent by God and thus spoke the truth.  In John 7:16, He ‘answered [the Jewish religious leaders] and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.’”  Later ‘Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free’’(John 8:31-32).  ‘Because I speak the truth,’ He told the Jewish leaders, ‘you do not believe Me.  Which one of you convicts Me of sin”  If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?’ (John 8:45-46).  In John 12:49-50, Jesus again affirmed that He spoke exactly `as the Father commanded Him: ‘For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.  I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

5/23/2026 9:30 PM

 

PT-1 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth” (Luke 5:1-3)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2026 11:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-1 “Jesus Is The Source Of Truth”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:1-3)

            Message of the verses:  “1Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.”

            This morning I begin to look at these verses with the help of John MacArthur’s commentary, and I do need to mention that this may take a number of SD’s to get through it, but hopefully all who read it will learn and grow in the Lord as a result of reading it.

            The first thing we want to look at is the phrase now it happens, and this indicates that an indefinite amount of time had passed since the events that were recorded in Luke 4:38-44.  It is not know what happened during that time period.  We do know that the Lord was still in Galilee, and according to Luke 4:44 He was preaching, healing, and also casting out demons (vv. 40-41), which, understandably, resulted in large crowds following Him as seen in verses (42; cf. 4. 14:5; 5:15; 6:17; 7:11-12; 24:8, 42, 45; 9:11, 37; 11:14, 29;12:1, 54; 14:25).  MacArthur adds “Writing later in the first century, the Jewish historian Josephus estimated the population of Galilee at about three million, which allows for the vast size of the crowds that followed Jesus.)  In a day when no media existed, gifted communicators drew huge crowds, and Jesus was obviously unparalleled (John 7:46).”

(John 7:46)

“46  The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

            Now as I read about all of the healings that Jesus did, and of course many of them were not told about, but many were the ones that the Holy Spirit wanted to put into the Word of God.  What I am wondering about is how many of those healed became true believers in Jesus Christ, for we read in the book of Acts that after Jesus had returned into heaven that there were only 120 people in this room where they were told to wait until the Holy Spirit would come upon them.  They did wait and once that event happened the disciples went out into the city of Jerusalem when Peter gave the very first sermon of the church age; (Acts 2:41).

(Acts 2:41)

“41  So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

            Now think about this for a moment, think about the church going from 120 to an addition of 3,000 people who just received Christ as their Lord and Savior, but as mentioned when Jesus was preaching and doing miracles it seems to me that for the most part that those who received healing did not truly become believers.  I think about the young blind man in the 9^th chapter of John’s gospel and we know from that story that he truly did become a believer.  The demoniac that is seen in different Gospels, and he became a true believer.  Think about two other times when Jesus feed the five thousands, and then the 4000 and we are not clear as to any of them being truly saved.  After the feeding of the 5000 the people tried to come and make Jesus their King so that as they went out and would fight against the Romans, they would not have to worry about being fed, and if someone got killed then Jesus could bring them back to life to go out and fight another day.  These people had it wrong as to why Jesus came to earth, as He came to teach and preach, but most of all to die on the cross for the salvation of those who would come to Him, asking that their sins would be forgiven so that they then could have eternal life.  As I was studying about the movements that were and are still going on, and I am talking about healings it seems to me that the most important thing that should be going on is the preaching of the Word of God and not about healings, for if not many became believers when Jesus was on earth teaching, preaching and healing many, many people that not many of them would get saved, how many will become saved from this movement that is going on.  When I first became a believer and was introduced to this kind of charismatic movement the friend that that was mentoring me told me that God heals you every time except the last time.  I think that I will end this SD for this morning and hopefully pick up where I am leaving of in this evening’s SD.

Spiritual Meaning for My Life today:  It is my desire to tell the truth about what I write and put on my Spiritual Diaries, and then allow the Holy Spirit of God to use what I write to bring honor and glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to led me to the right people that will be able to help my wife as she battles the cancer in her body.  I know that all of us, including believers and non-believers have an expiration date, and we don’t know when it will be, but I believe we are to continue to do what we can when we are ill to have the illness taken care of and leave the results up to the Lord.

5/23/2026 12:34 PM

 

“Intro to ‘Characteristics of Jesus’ Divinity’” (Luke 5:1-11)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2026 9:26 PM

My Worship Time                                        Focus: “Intro to ‘Characteristics of Jesus’ Divinity’”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                    Reference:  Luke 5:1-11

            Message of the verses:  “1Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; 2and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat. 4Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” 6And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; 7so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking. 8But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; 10and likewise also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching people.” 11When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”

            I will now quote the introduction to these verses from John MacArthur’s commentary.

            “The last few centuries have seen an enormous number of books written about the Lord Jesus Christ.  The nineteenth century quest for the ‘historical Jesus’ saw countless explanations written about Jesus.  Most were generated from a rationalistic, naturalistic perspective, in a purported attempt to get behind the fantasy biblical ‘Christ of faith’ to the nondivine, nonsupernatural real ‘Jesus of history.’ Their authors’ antisupernatural presuppositions controlled their research, as I. Howard Marshall notes:

Many of these investigators believed that the real Jesus must have been an ordinary person with nothing supernatural or divine about him.  His life must have conformed to ordinary human patterns, and be explicable in purely human categories.  For such people the phrase ‘the historical Jesus’ clearly meant a non-supernatural Jesus. (I Believe in the Historical Jesus [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977], 110-11).

“It should come as no surprise that those who began with an antisuper-natural bias wound und with a nonsupernatural Jesus.  Marshall goes on to note that

In every case the picture of Jesus was of Jesus clearly fashioned by a nineteenth-century artist.  The process reached its climax in the so-called ‘Liberal Jesus,’ a somewhat inoffensive teacher proclaiming ‘the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.’…The most damning criticism [of the ‘Liberal Jesus’] came from the pen of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, who said quite simply, ‘Why anyone should have troubled to crucify the Christ of Liberal Protestantism has always ben a mystery.’ (I Believe in the Historical Jesus, 113)

            “Albert Schweitzer’s famous book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, written early in the twentieth century, chronicled the nineteenth-century quest for the ‘historical Jesus’ and pronounced all such efforts futile. (Ironically, he then proceeded to set forth his own skeptical, non-biblical interpretation of Christ’s life.)  But the twentieth century would produce its own aberrant views of Jesus.  The influential German New Testament critic Rudolf Bultmann was noted for his ‘demythologizing’ approach to the New Testament.  As a result, ‘for Bultmann nothing survived of the deeds of Jesus and very little of his teaching’ (Marshall, I Believe, 126).  The so-called ‘new quest for the historical Jesus’ in the post-World War 2 era concluded, like the old nineteenth-century one, that little, if anything, could be known about the life of Christ.  The closing decades of the twentieth century saw the rise of Jesus Seminar, whose members also reinvented Jesus to fit their Scripture-rejecting, anti-supernatural bias.  They even had the audacity to arrogate to themselves the right to vote on which sayings of His were authentic.  (For a defense of the historical reliability of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, see Lee Strobel, the Case for Christ [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998]; for a scholarly critique of critical approaches to the Gospels, see Robert L. Thomas and F. David Farnell, The Jesus Crisis (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1998.)

            “But all such skeptical efforts to find the ‘real’ Jesus are doomed to fail, because they do not look for Him in the only place where He can be found—the divinely inspired, inerrant historical record of His life and ministry in the New Testament Gospels.  To deny the truthfulness of the Gospels and then attempt to construct a life of Jesus is both futile and absurdly hypocritical.

            “Luke in the lengthiest of the four Gospels, but the reader does not have to work through the entire book for the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ to become evident. The real Jesus is unmistakably revealed in every section of Luke, and no more so than in this passage.  Its eleven verses portray Him as fully human; He acted and talked like a man, and was accepted as one by the people around Him.  Yet these same verses reveal that He is more than a mere man.  The profound incident in His life presented here reveals clearly His essential nature as God.  As this story of a fishing incidents on the Sea of Galilee unfolds, five of Jesus’ divine attributes are manifested. He is the source of truth, omniscient, omnipotent, holy, and merciful.”

5/22/2026 10:11 PM

 

 

“Jesus’ Power Over The Eternal Realm” (Luke 4:42-44)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2026 10:06 AM

My Worship Time                                               Focus:  “Jesus’ Power Over The Eternal Realm”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  “Luke 4:42-44”

            Message of the verses:  “When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them.  But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”  So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

            John MacArthur writes the following on the verses above, which are the very last verses of the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel.  “When day came on Sunday after a Sabbath in which He demonstrated massive power over the natural and supernatural realms, Jesus left Peter’s house just before daybreak while it was still dark (Mark 1:35) and went to a secluded place.  Mark reveals that His purpose in doing so was to pray (v. 35).  But before long the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them.  Awed by His power to deliver them from disease and demons, they understandably did not want Jesus to leave them.  The Lord did not rebuke their interest in the miraculous signs He had performed.  But those signs were not an end in themselves, but rather a means to an end.  Jesus was not primarily a miracle worker, but a preacher of the gospel.  Therefore, He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”  Jesus repeatedly affirmed that the Father had sent Him (Matt. 10:40; Mark 9:37; Luke 10:16; John 4:34; 5:24, 30, 36, 37: 6:38, 39, 44, 57; 7:16, 28, 29, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42; 12:44, 45, 49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:8, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21).  He came not merely to demonstrate His power over the effects of sin in the body by physical healing and the mind by overcoming demonic influence, but mot importantly His power to overcome sin’s eternal consequences.  For that to happen required repentance and faith in the gospel preached (cf. Rom. 10:13-17).”

(cf. Rom. 10:13-17)

“13  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

“Only by faith in the truth preached could sinners be rescued from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and enter into the kingdom of God.  This is the first of thirty-two uses of this important theological term in Luke’s gospel (he used it six more times in (Acts).  The kingdom of God is the sphere or realm of salvation that those who respond in repentant faith to the preaching of the gospel enter, so in keeping with His kingdom mission, Jesus kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea, which here is a generic term for the entire nation of Israel including Galilee (Mark 1:39), not merely the southern part.

            “The power the Lord displayed over the natural, supernatural, and eternal realms authenticated Him as the Son of God, sent by the Father to preach the saving gospel of salvation to lost sinners.”

            Now as I look at why the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth, that is to save sinners through His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead, along with preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God to mostly the children of Israel, it causes me to think of why I spend so much time in the mornings and the evenings writing my Spiritual Diaries.  I do this to tell the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior so others can see the sinful condition that they were born into, and then repent of their sin, and then ask the Lord Jesus to come into their lives in order to save them from their sin.  Paul writes “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  This certainly is true and so if an unbeliever realizes that this verse Paul wrote is true, and then comes to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer confessing that they are a sinner and have sinned, asking Him to save them, then He will and that person will move out of the kingdom of the world, and into the kingdom of God.

            I also take the time to write these Spiritual Diaries to hopefully cause people to grow in their faith as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:18 “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”  I have to say that doing my Spiritual Diaries each day, a couple of times each day does bring joy to my heart believing that the Holy Spirit of God will continue to send them around the world to use them for the glory of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

5/22/2026 10:53 AM