Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Light (John 1:4-5)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/1/2015 12:49 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Light

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  John 1:4-5

            Message of the verses:  “4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

            In Today’s SD we will look primarily from the commentary of Dr. Warren Wiersbe and perhaps a couple of others too and then in our next SD we will look from what John MacArthur has to say about these verses, and in some cases they may overlap.

            One of the things that you have to think about when you think of light is power.  In the world we live in there is no light unless there is power, think about a flashlight or a “torch” what it is called in Europe.  At any rate there has to be batteries in it to make light come from it, at least in most flashlights.  I have one that you have to shake it in order to charge the battery but that still takes power, the power to shake it for a few minutes to get some light.  The sun gives us light and it is powered by gas that has been burning for over 6000 years and yet it still continues to burn.  When you come into your house and turn on the switch you lights go on, but that is because there is electric power connected to the switch that goes to the light bulb and that electric is power.  Light travels over 186,000 miles a second and that also takes power.  The earth is 93 million miles from the sun and so you have to divide 186,000 into 93 million to find out how long it takes for the light of the sun to get here.  When we were looking at the book of Revelation John MacArthur stated that one of the churches we were studying could be likened to a burned out star that continues to give light because after it burned out the light continues to come towards earth, but there is no power in the star.

            Light is one thing that humans have to have in order to live.  We have to have light, air, water, and food in order to live.  Now we will look at some verses that show that Jesus is all of these things in a spiritual way.  John 8:12 says “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."”  Mal. 4:2 says ““But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture (NLT).”   Dr. Wiersbe writes “By His Holy Spirit, He gives us the ‘breath of life.’”  John 3:8 and 20:22 “"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."”  “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”  In John 4:10, 13-14; and John 7:37-39 we see that Jesus is the Water of Life: Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ’Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."”  “13  Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."”  “37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’" 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. 40 Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, "This certainly is the Prophet."”  Lastly Jesus is the Living Bread of Life that came down out of heaven.  We can see this in John 6:35 and following in a discourse that Jesus gives from the Synagogue at Capernaum.  John 14:6 tells us that He not only has life and gives life, but is life:  “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

            We see that Jesus is all things we need to have life, but He is also the light and we spoke a little bit about that but I want to say a few more things about light.  Think about going into a dark room, or into a dark cave.  There are caves in Kentucky that are deep in the ground and when you go into them the guide will tell you to stand still for he is going to turn out the light and when he does it is a darkness that you can feel.  However if someone would light a match all who are there would be able to see the light because light overpowers darkness 100% of the time.  Satan is the one with the power over the darkness in the spiritual sense, and Jesus is the Light of the world in Spiritual sense.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Whenever Jesus taught a spiritual truth, His listeners interpreted it in a material or physical way.  The light was unable to penetrate the darkness in their minds. This was true when He spoke about the temple of His body (John 2:19-21), the new birth (John 3:4), the living water (John 4:11), eating His flesh (John 6:51ff), spiritual freedom (John 8:30-36), death as sleep (John 11:11-13), and many other spiritual truths.  Satan strives to keep people in the darkness, because darkness means death and hell, while light means life and heaven.”

            We will look more into these verses in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I now better understand something that has been a bit misunderstanding to me that came from John chapter six where Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, as Dr. Wiersbe pointed out it is a spiritual message from Jesus.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to give me the right things to prepare for the lesson on Ezekiel 23-24 for tomorrow’s lesson.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The potter’s) (Jeremiah 18:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who did God tell to build an ark?”

Answer in our next SD.

12/1/2015 1:46 PM     

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