SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
1/31/2016 9:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Christ Knew the Truth Firsthand
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:32
Message of
the verse: “32 “What He has seen and heard, of that He
testifies; and no one
receives His testimony.”
Let us begin by looking at Hebrews 1:1-2 “1 God,
after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” We have already learned that John the Baptist
was the last of the Old Testament, and so as we look over these two verses we
see the end of the Old Testament and the beginning, that is “in these last days
has spoken to us in His Son.” When one
looks at the book of Hebrews they will learn that the writer talks about things
getting better as we see in the first two verses of the book of Hebrews. The author speaks of how things in the OT
were temporary while when Christ came He brought about the New Covenant and
things are better in that covenant than the old. “Jesus’ teaching is superior to anyone else’s
because His knowledge is not secondhand.
He is the source of divine revelation” writes John MacArthur. This reminds me of the end of the Sermon on
the Mount where we read “28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds
were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having
authority, and not as their scribes.”
The crowds knew that there was something about Jesus that was completely
different than that of the teachers they were used to hearing, and that
difference is because He is the Son of God.
“What He has seen and heard” this speaks of Jesus
who saw and heard things in the heavenly realm “"He who comes from above
is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth.
He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31).” Now if we go back to what Jesus told
Nicodemus in 3:11 we read “11
"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify
of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.” Now when we studied this verse we spoke of
what the word “we” means. Let’s look at
a verse that comes later on in John’s gospel “He who sent Me is true; and the
things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world’ (John 8:26b).” More from John’s gospel to what Jesus was
saying to His disciples “"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave
does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all
things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John
15:15).” “"But as it is, you are
seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did
not do (John 8:40).”
Now as we look at the last part of verse 32 we see
that John was lamenting “no
one receives His testimony.” John
is saying in this statement that the world in general rejects Jesus and His
teaching. We have seen this rejection in
the beginning of John’s gospel in the prologue “9 There was the true Light
which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10 He was in the world, and
the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not
receive Him (John 1:9-11).” Paul
writes also about this in 1 Cor. 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them,
because they are
spiritually appraised.” We can
better understand this verse in 1 Cor. by looking at Ephesians 2:1 which states
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Also from 2 Cor. 4:4 “in whose case the god
of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not
see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” So when we are born we are born spiritual
dead and if that were not enough we read that Satan has blinded the minds of
those who are unbelievers of which is the case with everyone who is born until
the Holy Spirit give a person an effectual call.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Since I am now alive in Christ and have the
Holy Spirit living in me, I can praise the Lord that I now am beginning to
understand the things that Jesus is saying in His Word, realizing who He is and
what He has done for me.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
In answer to the sermon that we had this evening I desire to live more
like Peter, than Simon. The message was
on the new name that Jesus gave to Simon, which is Peter and when he was living
like the old self Jesus would call him by his old name.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Satan” (2 Cor. 4:4).
Today’s Bible question: “When ten lepers asked Jesus for cleansing,
how many were cleansed?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/31/2016 10:04 PM
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