SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/10/2016
8:51 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Jesus’ Power
of Resurrection
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 2:18-22
Message of
the verses: “18 The Jews then said to Him, "What
sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?" 19 Jesus
answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up." 20 The Jews then said, "It took forty-six years to build this
temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" 21 But He was speaking of
the temple of His body. 22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said
this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.”
We have mentioned that this act that Jesus did was a
miracle, a miracle in that if an ordinary man would have done this there would
have been much more trouble for him that was brought against Jesus, for all
they wanted to know was what kind of sign was He going to show them to show
that He had authority to do such a thing.
We have to believe that these were some kind of temple police who were
paid to do this job by the Sanhedrin. We
have mentioned Sanhedrin in an earlier SD stating that they were leaders of the
Jews made up of both Pharisees and Sadducees.
They were looking for a miracle, but the only miracle that Jesus was
going to show them was that three days after He was killed by them that He
would be raised from the dead.
John MacArthur writes of His miracle: “Their demand for a sign, however, was
foolish; the messianic act of single-handedly cleansing the temple was itself a
clear sign that God had a message for them.
In their hard-hearted unbelief, the Jewish leaders repeatedly asked for
such signs, yet t hey never accepted the ones they were given. As John later wrote, ‘But though He had
performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him’ (John
12:37). The fact that the temple authorities
demanded a sign also exposed the wickedness of their hearts. They knew that their greedy, corrupt commercialization
of temple worship was wrong, even though they obstinately refused to admit it.”
When Jesus told them “Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up” baffled the Jewish authorities and for a while
it also baffled His disciples. Now the
temple that these authorities were referring to was the temple that was built
after the Jews came back from Babylon as spoken about in Ezra and
Nehemiah. “Herod the Great began an
extensive reconstruction and expansion of the postexilic temple” writes John
MacArthur. He goes on “Ironically, those
reconstruction efforts were not completed until shortly before AD 70—when the
postexilic temple itself was destroyed by the Romans.”
The Jews remembered that Jesus claimed that He would
do this when Jesus was on trial as seen in Matthew 26:61 and also Mark 14:58,
but these Jewish authorities completely missed the point that Jesus was referring
to, that is of His body being resurrected. MacArthur writes “But as John points
out, Jesus was speaking of the temple of His body. The sign He would give them would be far
greater than simply reconstructing a destroyed building: ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for
a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea
monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth.’ (Matt. 12:39-40; cf. 16:4).”
MacArthur mentions that in John’s writings he
usually refers to only one Scripture to refer to a specific and if that is the
case for what he writes “He was raised from the dead that His disciples
remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word
which Jesus had spoken.” He believes
that the Scripture John refers to is Psalm 16:8-11 “8 I have set the LORD
continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is
glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. 10 For You will
not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo
decay. 11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is
fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Let us also look at Acts 2:25-28 “25 “For
David says of Him, ’I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT
HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. 26 ’THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED;
MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; 27 BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY
SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. 28 ’YOU HAVE MADE
KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR
PRESENCE.’” Acts 13:35 says “"Therefore
He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO
DECAY.’” MacArthur concludes “In any
case, it was not until after the resurrection that the disciples understood
everything clearly. Only then did they
make sense of this prophecy and recognize Jesus’ resurrection power as a clear
indication of His deity.”
We have one more section to look at which will be in
our next SD, and this will conclude the second chapter of John, a chapter that
did not take us a long to complete as the first one, but then there were twice
as many verses in the first chapter. I
believe that this will take us the better part of this year to finish the
entire book of John, but well worth the effort.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of the joys in studying the OT is finding
those nuggets of truth that speak of our Lord Jesus Christ and then while
studying the NT to see how those nuggets fit into place in fulfilled prophecy.
My Steps of Faith
for Today: Continue looking for those nuggets of truth in both the OT and NT.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Christ’s” (2 Corinthians 8:9).”
Today’s Bible question: “Who anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his
feet with her hair.”
Answer in our next SD. 1/10/2016 9:27 PM
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