SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/26/2015
6:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 The Seeking Souls
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 1:38-42
Message of
the verses: “38 And Jesus turned and saw them following,
and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi
(which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?" 39 He said to
them, "Come, and you
will see." So they came and saw where He was staying; and they
stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two
who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He found first his own brother
Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).
42 He brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be
called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).”
We have already mentioned in an earlier SD that the
apostle John was the other disciple of John the Baptist’s disciples along with
Andrew, and stated that John the apostle is not mentioned in his gospel by his
own name. We see in this section
continues the story of their initial encounter with Jesus. As they were following Jesus He asked them a
question “Whom do you seek? Now we can
be sure that He was not asking this for His own benefit, for Jesus Christ is
omniscience so He already knew exactly what these two wanted. Now because these two men were already disciples
or followers of John the Baptist we can be assured that they had been convicted
of their sinful condition and were seeking forgiveness for their sins. Jesus is asking this question to them to
challenge them so that they can consider what their true motives were. John MacArthur writes “He did not ask them
whom they were seeking, but what they were seeking. R. C. H. Lenski notes ‘The first word spoken
by Jesus [in John’s gospel] is a master question. It bids them look searchingly at their inmost
longings and desires…A hidden promise lies in the question ‘What are you
seeking?’ Jesus has the highest treasure any man can seek, longs to direct our
seeking toward that treasure in order that he may bestow it for our everlasting
enrichment.’”
Now we can see that Andrew and John did not answer
the question that Jesus asks them, and perhaps it was because they were intimidated
by the presence of Jesus, and that would be perfectly understandable. The question they now ask Jesus is “Rabbi
(which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” Rabbi is a title of honor and respect and John
translates this for his Gentile readers as meaning Teacher. MacArthur adds “By asking the question, ‘where
are You staying?’ Andrew and John were not merely asking where He was
residing. They were courteously
requesting an extended private interview with Him. The question also signaled their willingness
to become His disciples.”
John and Andrew got the answer for Jesus that they
wanted when He tells them to “Come and you will see.” R. V. G. Tasker writes Jesus
is in fact bidding these men do something more than discover where He is
staying for the night; He is inviting them to come and gain from Him an insight
into the mind and purpose of God Himself.” Now here is something that we need to
understand about John and Andrew, and that is that they were sincere seekers,
and that they had already been drawn by the Father “"No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last
day (John 6:44).” They were convicted of
their sin by the Holy Spirit “"And He, when He comes, will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8).” The Bible teaches us that the honest seeker
will always find Him (Deut. 4:29; 1 Chron. 28:9; 2 Chron. 15:2; Jer. 29:13) “because,
as He promised, ‘If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the
teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself (John 7:17)
(MacArthur).” “On the other hand, Jesus
will not commit Himself to the insincere and hypocritical, no matter what their
outward profession may be (‘23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was
doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He
knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man,
for He Himself knew what was in man (John 2:23-25).”
The story of Zaccheus shows us that Jesus never put
off the sincere, Spirit-prompted seeker.
“1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man
called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3
Zaccheus was trying to see
who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for
He was about to pass through that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He
looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus,
hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house." 6 And he hurried and came down and
received Him gladly. 7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble,
saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner." 8
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions
I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will
give back four times as much." 9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this
house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost.’”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can see from this section and from the
section in Luke’s gospel that God will move heaven and mountain to find those
who have been lead to truly seek the Lord.
I have to tell a story at this point to illustrate this point and it
comes from a book that I have read a couple of times entitled “The God who Hung
on the Cross.” It is a missionary book
and the missionary tells a story of a woman who lived in Cambodia when the Communist
were going through that country killing people at random, at least that is what
they thought. They came to her village
and made all the people come out of their huts and dig a big hole and then told
them to line up around the hole where we know what they were going to do next. The woman cried out aloud “I cry out to the
God who hung on the cross.” Time went by
and nothing happened and when they finally had enough courage to open their
eyes all were gone. The only information
that this woman had about Jesus was what she called out. A few years later missionaries came to her
village and she asked them a question. “What
took you so long to get here?”
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
Trust that the Lord will give me experiences to tell others about Christ’s
saving message.
Answer to our last Bible question: “Three” (Exodus 15:22).
Today’s Bible question: “Being made free from sin, one becomes the
servant of what?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/26/2015 7:15 PM
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