SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2016
10:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
Introduction to John 3:22-36
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:22-36
Message of
the verses: Since we put all of these verses on our last
SD we will not put them on this SD, but move right into the commentary of the
introduction to this section. In our
last SD we were talking about the differences between the Old Covenant and the
New Covenant.
John MacArthur writes “The transition from John the
Baptist’s ministry to that of Jesus Christ, which is the theme of this section
(cf. v. 30), symbolized the transition from the old covenant to the new. His father, Zacharias, understood the
significance of the coming Messiah’s relation to the new covenant, as he makes
clear in his Spirit-filled prophecy in Luke 1:67-79:
‘67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the
Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: 68
"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and
accomplished redemption for His people, 69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house
of David His servant- 70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets
from of old- 71 Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES, And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE
US; 72 To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant, 73 The
oath which He swore to Abraham our father, 74 To grant us that we, being
rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, 75 In
holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. 76 “And you, child, will be
called the prophet of the
Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; 77 To give to His people the
knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, 78 Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 79 TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO
SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of
peace.’”
Now we know that Zacharias was a priest and a very
godly man who received a message from an angel telling him that his wife would
become pregnant and what to name their son, so we have to believe that he knew
all of the OT passages about the coming new covenant as we can see from what he
spoke. He was struck mute for not
believing the angel until his son was born, and it was at the time that he
wrote down the name of his son because those in his family did not believe his
son’s name should be John that he was once again able to speak again and this
was the first then that he spoke.
John the Baptist was the very last prophet of the
old covenant, and he was the first one to speak in 400 years since the time
when the Jews had returned to their land and after those prophets died during
that time the Lord was silent as there were no more prophets.
We know that John came to announce the coming of the
Messiah, which he did in the first chapter of John, and that Jesus came as the
mediator of the new covenant as described in Hebrews 8:6; and 12:24, which He
ratified by His sacrificial death as seen in Luke 22:20; and also in 1 Cor.
11:25. Now up until the time John began
to speak he was very popular with the people, and now Jesus comes along as prophesied
and there is probably a six month time when the ministry of John continued with
the beginning of the ministry of Jesus even though they went in opposite
directions as Jesus actually took over where John was ministering in Judah and
John actually went to Samaria. This was unsettling
to some of those who stayed with John to see his ministry decrease and the
ministry of Jesus increase as we will see in this passage, but John to whom
Jesus said was the greatest man of all understood what his role was, and he
says these very important words “I must decrease, but He must increase,” which
shows the humbleness of John the Baptist.
It was said of Moses that he was very humble and one of the incidents that
speak of Moses being humble was a story of two men who began to prophesy as
they were filled with the Spirit and some of the friends of Moses told him
about it and Moses said that he wished all men were doing things like
this. Humility is something that is
lacking in people today as they want to be number one where like John the
Baptist he wants Jesus to be number one.
Whatever we do should bring honor and glory to the Lord for it was He
who died for us and it was His Spirit who gave us a call that we could not say
no to, therefore what do we have to be proud of?
Now we mentioned that Jesus left Jerusalem after His
conversation with Nicodemus and His cleansing of the temple and one of the
purposes was that He wanted to spend time with His disciples and to inaugurate
his preaching which would lead to His baptizing ministry, and we know that He
did not baptize anyone, but that His disciples did as seen in 4:2 of John. John MacArthur writes “Spending time
translates to a form of the verb diatribe,
which implies that a considerable period of time elapsed (cf. its use in Acts
12:19; 14:3, 28; 15:35; 25:14), probably sever months. During this interval, Jesus’ disciples were
baptizing those who came to hear Him preach and heeded His call to repent (cf.
Matt. 4:17). Their baptisms foreshadowed
Christian baptism, which was not instituted until after Jesus’ death and
resurrection (of which Christian baptism is a picture; cf. Rom 6:3-4).”
I want to write briefly about the statement that
John the apostle makes “John the Baptist had not yet been thrown into prison.” Now from the beginning of our study of the
gospel of John we know that it was the last of the four gospels to be written,
perhaps some thirty or more years after the other gospel accounts were
written. MacArthur writes “The statement
informs readers that this incident took place between Jesus’ temptation and
John’s imprisonment, a period of time about which the Synoptic Gospels
(Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are silent.”
Now one more thing to mention and that is from a
couple of sermons that John MacArthur made on this section of Scripture in 2013
and he broke this section into verses 22-30 and then 30-36 and spoke of the
humility of John in the first message and the increase of Jesus in the second
message. He stated that one
qualification of a minister of the gospel is that they are humble, that Jesus
Christ is the One to be seen on all of their preaching and teaching and once a
minister of the gospel becomes the focal point in their church that, that
church will begin to decline. You can
think about this statement and look at certain denominations where the leaders
of the church are all wearing their garb to bring notice on them and not on the
Lord, similar to what the Pharisees did during the time of Jesus’ time on
earth. As mentioned we have nothing to
be proud of for all we have has been given to us by the Lord and for that we
are to be thankful.
Now as far as continuing in this passage it will be
broken up into two parts “John the Baptist and the End of the Old Age,” and “Jesus
and the Beginning of the New Age.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Huldah” (2 Kings 22:14).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the shortest Psalm?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/28/2016 11:27 AM
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