SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/20/2015
8:20 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 2nd Day, 2nd
Group, 2nd Emphasis
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 1:29-34
Message of
the verses: “29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world! 30 “This is He on behalf of whom I
said, ’After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before
me.’ 31 “I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel,
I came baptizing in water." 32 John testified saying, "I have seen
the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 “I
did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ’He
upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One
who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 “I myself have seen, and have testified
that this is the Son of God.’”
I wanted to mention something that I think I
neglected to mention, but actually comes up in verse 30 where John the Baptist
said “for He existed before me.” We know
from the book of Luke that John’s mother became pregnant with John before Mary
became pregnant with Jesus, but John is speaking of the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ here and when he mentioned this the first time.
John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘the next day’
introduces a sequence of days, which continues in verses 35, 43, and 2:1. Apparently, the events from John’s interview
with the delegation from Jerusalem (vv. 19-28) to the miracle at Cana (2:1-11)
spanned one week. On the day after he
spoke to the delegation, John ‘saw Jesus coming to him.’ Faith to his duty as a herald, and defining a
momentous redemptive moment, John immediately called the crowd’s attention to
Him, exclaiming ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’
That title, used only in John’s writings (cf. v. 26; Rev. 5:6; 6:9;
7:10, 17; 14:4, 10; 15:3; 17:14; 19:9; 21:22-23; 22:1, 3), is the first in a
string of titles given to Jesus in the remaining verses of this chapter; the
rest include Rabbi (vv. 38, 49), Messiah (4:1), Son of God (vv. 34, 49), King
of Israel (v. 49), Son of Man (v. 51), and ‘Him of whom Moses in the Law and
also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph’ (v. 45). That was not a guess on John’s part, but was
revelation from God that was absolutely true, as the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus proved.”
John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God,” and this was a familiar
term that the Jews knew for it went all the way back to the days of Abraham in
the 22nd chapter of the book of Genesis when God had asked Abraham
to sacrifice his son, but when he was about to do it God stopped him and then
we read about a ram that was caught in the thicket which Abraham used as the
sacrifice. Abraham would understand what
God was going to do when He sent His Son, the Lamb of God into the world in order
to sacrifice Him for our sins. Now when
you look all the way back to the third chapter of Genesis when Adam and Eve
sinned that God provided clothes for them because of a sacrifice of an innocent
animal in order to cover them. I have to
believe that this was an innocent lamb.
Of course we know about the first Passover celebration in the land of
Egypt when God told Moses to tell all the families of Israel to choose a lamb
to sacrifice for them and place the blood of that innocent lamb on the door
posts of their houses in order to cover their houses with the blood so the
death angel would not kill them. The
Egyptians did not do this and all of their first born were killed. This celebration went on for centuries as it
looked forward to when God would send His Lamb into the world to once and for
all pay for the sins of those who would accept His sacrifice, as His sacrifice
was not just a covering, but a final payment.
I have to say that I will repeat a SD on Christmas on the 25th
that I did last year and a part of that has to do with where it is that I think
that Christ was born, not the city but the place in the city, and that also has
to do with Him being “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
We will continue this SD in our next SD as it is
Sunday and I usually do these in the evening along with my other SD and so
these are usually a bit shorter.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “"If You are willing, You
can make me clean’” (Mark1:40).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/20/2015 8:48 PM
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