SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2012 10:10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Correction
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Mark 9:11-13
Message of the verses: “9 As
they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to
anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. 10 They seized upon that statement, discussing
with one another what rising from the dead meant. 11 They asked Him, saying, " Why is it that
the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" 12 And He said to them, "Elijah does first
come and restore all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that
He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? 13 "But I say to you that Elijah has indeed
come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.’”
In the last SD that we did on Mark chapter
nine we did speak a bit about Elijah, and not the subject of Elijah comes up
once more, but before we talk about Elijah we have to do a bit of a review in
order to help us understand how this section of Scripture fits in with the
first eight verses in Mark nine.
I have
mentioned that what happened in Mark chapter is the high point in Mark’s
Gospel, and that is that Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the
living God, and that since Peter was more or less the spokesmen for all the
disciples we have to believe that all of them agreed that Jesus was the
Messiah, but what they did not understand is that Jesus had to die in order to
pay for the sins of those who would accept Him as Lord and Savior. They now believed He is the Messiah, but now
they will continued to be taught that He was going to die, and this is
confusing to them. The reason that this
is confusing to them is because of what they, and for that matter, most of the
Jewish people had been taught. The
missed passages like the ninth chapter of Daniel where it is told of the
Messiah that He would be cut off: “’Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah
will be cut off and have nothing.” They
also missed what the 22nd Psalm had to say about how the Messiah
would be “cut off.” They also missed the
53rd chapter of Isaiah where Isaiah writes about the suffering
Servant.
We saw in
the first eight verses that Jesus gave three of His disciples, Peter, James and
John a glimpse of the kingdom of God on the top of the Mountain, and that there
they saw the glorified Christ along with Moses and Elijah being there two, and
hearing them speak about the upcoming death of Jesus, and also hearing the
Father speak:”’This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!’”
We now come
to today’s section which speaks of what happened as they came down the
mountain. The confused disciples know
that Jesus is the Messiah and that Elijah is to come first, but they must have
been thinking “did we miss the coming of Elijah?” And so they ask Jesus about the prophecy that
is found in Malachi: “1 ¶ "Behold, I am going to send My
messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom
you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. 4 ¶ "Remember
the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded
him in Horeb for all Israel. 5
"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the
coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. 6 "He will restore the hearts of the
fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so
that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.’” (Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6)
Jesus
points out that Elijah did come and they killed him. Jesus was speaking of John the Baptist, and
even though John told the Pharisees that he was not Elijah in John 1:21, John
did come in the spirit and the power of Elijah (“16 "And he will turn many of the sons of
Israel back to the Lord their God. 17
"It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and
power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and
the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord.’). (Luke 1:16-17)
This was the message that the angel gave to John’s father before John
was conceived.
We can see
that those who believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of the living
God, believe that Elijah came before Jesus in the person of John the Baptist
who came in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that “Second, there would be a future coming of Elijah,
just as Malachi had predicted (Matt. 17:11), before the time of the Great
Tribulation. Some students connect this
with Revelation 11:2-12. The nation
did not accept John’s ministry. Had they received John, he would have served
as the ‘Elijah’ God sent; and they also would have received Jesus. Instead, they rejected both men and allowed
them to be slain.”
I want to
make one more point here and that is what Jesus also told His three disciples
while coming down the mountain: “And yet
how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be
treated with contempt?” Jesus knew that
his disciples knew about Elijah coming before Messiah, but He now wanted them
to understand the prophecies about His own suffering and death, something that
we have already mentioned, but something that Jesus does point out to His three
disciples.
Oh I forgot
there is one more point, and that is why Jesus told these three not to mention
what they saw until Jesus had risen from the dead, which they did not
understand. Jesus had told many of those
He healed not to speak of Him, but some did not follow those commandments,
however these three would follow this commandment that He gave to them. We know that after Jesus feed the 5000 that
according to John’s Gospel the crowd wanted to force Him to be their king, but
He left them, and so Jesus did not want to go through this kind of scene again
for He knew that His Father had given Him a job to do, and that job was the
most important job ever to be done, and He did not want anymore distractions. I suppose that these three would get together
by themselves and talk about this but never mention it to anyone else. Both Peter and John would write about it in
their inspired writings after Jesus had been raised from the dead.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have had on my mind something that goes
along with this section for some time now.
I spoke briefly about it when I had the privilege of giving the sermon
at my mother’s funeral last week, and when I put on the spiritual armor in the
morning I think about it too. I think
about those hours when Jesus was on the cross, those hours when Jerusalem
turned black as night so no one could see what was happening to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It was during those dark hours
that God turned His face away from Jesus and poured out His wrath upon Him in
order to pay for my sins and for all who would accept Him as their Savior and
Christ. How could God have His wrath
satisfied in such a short time? How
could Jesus endure the payment for my sins that would take eternity for me to
pay for? They happened that dark day
when God turned His face away from His Son.
We see that after this was done Jesus spoke the words “It is finished,”
and this means that my sin and those who believed in Jesus had their sins paid
in full. There is another word that is
important here that is used to help us understand about what happened on the
cross and that word is propitiation a Greek word that means “The satisfaction
of an angry god.” Yes God is indeed
angry with sin, but He is satisfied with Jesus’ death to pay for our sins. The OT Hebrew word for propitiation is “Mercy
Seat,” and the mercy seat was the top of the Ark of the Covenant where we see
two cherubim’s on it. This is the place
where the High Priest would come on the Day of Atonement to place the blood on
so that Israel’s sin would be covered over for that year. We can picture two of God’s attributes here
on this mercy seat, one is God’s love and the other is God’s wrath. God is angry with sin, but God wants to
forgive sin and so when the blood is applied God’s wrath is satisfied so that
God’s love can be demonstrated. This is
what happened on the cross.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Never forget the cross and
what it cost for my salvation. Never
forget the cross!
Memory verses for the week:
2Peter 1:1-10
1 ¶ Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of
Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by
the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; 3
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to
life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own
glory and excellence. 4 For by these He
has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you
may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world by lust.
5 ¶ Now for this very reason also, applying all
diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence,
knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge,
self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance,
godliness, 7 and in your godliness,
brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities
are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in
the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten
his purification from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about
His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you
will never stumble.
8/13/2012 11:26:30 AM
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