SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/7/2016
7:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to John 2:12-25
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 2:12-25
Message of
the verses: “12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His
brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. 13 The
Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found
in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money
changers seated at their tables. 15 And
He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the
sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and
overturned their tables; 16 and to those
who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making
My Father’s house a place of business." 17 His disciples remembered that
it was written, "ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME." 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. 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.”
In his introduction to this section from his commentary
which John MacArthur entitles “Jesus Displays His Deity” he talks about a
question which we have been looking at since we began the study of the gospel
of John. The question is the most
important question that a person can answer “Who is Jesus Christ?” We continue to go over the main verses in the
gospel of John, the very reason that John writes this gospel as it is his
desire to make sure that people know who Jesus Christ is for he writes “30
Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His
name.”
I want at this time to go over what we will be
looking at as we study the last half of the second chapter of John’s gospel as
John MacArthur writes at the end of his introductory commentary “In this
passage, John continues this theme through three vignettes that each illustrate
an aspect of Christ’s deity.
Individually, they show His passion for reverence, His power of
resurrection, and His perception of reality.
Collectively, they underscore the inscrutable reality of His divine
nature.”
There are a number of quotes that MacArthur uses in
his introductory that give evidence of Jesus Christ being the divine Son of
God, the very God of creation which is the answer to the question that is posed
at the beginning of this Spiritual Diary and is of course answered in John
20:30-31. However there have been many
people throughout the history from the time that Jesus had began His ministry
all the way to the current time period that we live in that do not believe that
Jesus is the very Son of God and so the battle for the truth constantly goes
on. Josh McDowell wrote two books in
which he entitled both of them “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” volume I and
II, and in those books he gives evidence that shows that Jesus Christ is who He
claimed to be. In his first volume he
writes “How, in the name of logic, common sense, and experience, could an
impostor—that is a deceitful, selfish, depraved man—have invented, and
consistently maintained from the beginning to end, the purest and noblest
character known in history with the most perfect air of truth and reality? How could he have conceived and successfully
carried out a plan of unparalleled beneficence, moral magnitude, and sublimity,
and sacrificed his own life for it, in the face of the strongest prejudices of
his people and ages?”
If someone would ask me why it is that I believe
that Jesus Christ is who He claims to be I would have to go back to the time
when He saved me to begin my answer. I
mentioned that in 1974 I went to Florida to visit a friend of mine and the
reasons that I went there I certainly did not fulfill and it is because it was
there that God showed me who exactly Jesus Christ was through a series of tapes
that I listened to while there. Now most
people when they come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are
surrounded by people in a church which teaches this or have a friend who tells
them the truth. Not really the case with
me as those who had these tapes that I listened to told me that they were
actually believers, but later on said they were not into that any more. In other words I was kind of on my own. But in truth was not on my own for it was God
who saved me and it was God who led me to begin my journey in walking with Him,
a journey that still goes on today.
Truth be told I had no idea that Jesus Christ was the divine Son of God
even after I became a believer, but God led me to people who taught me the
truth of who He was as I gradually began to study more and more about Him as He
has given me a hunger to learn more about Him still to this day. I know that Jesus Christ is who He claims to
be because He changed me, He changed me completely and has given me a new life,
a life that is not perfect but the desires that He gives me are what I want to
follow, although as Paul writes I sometimes am doing the things that I don’t
want to do and not doing the things that I want to do. So my life is changed and that is one of the
reasons that I know that Jesus Christ is who He claims to be. The Bible is of course another reason that I
believe Jesus Christ is who He claims to be for He is truly the theme of the
Word of God as He is seen in every book of both the Old and New
Testaments. Remember after Jesus was
raised from the dead He was walking on the road to Emmaus, and the resurrected
Jesus Christ was walking with them although they did not know it was Him and
while walking Jesus explained what the Chris had to die and then He goes into a
sermon with them and tells them all about who the Messiah is using the Old
Testament. That is one sermon that I
would have loved to hear. Another reason
I know that Jesus is who He claims to be is from the study of the end times and
how we can see things developing in this world to set up what the Bible talks
about in Revelation 6-19. Ezekiel taught
that Israel would come back into their land and possess it again and this
happened in May of 1948. Another thing
that I like from the teaching of the OT is from the book of Daniel and Daniel
through the power of the Holy Spirit talks about the different empires that
would rule the known world and even the last one that would rule the entire
world during what the Bible calls the Tribulation Period. At the end of Daniel’s life, a life full of
serving the Lord an angel speaks to him about what Daniel had seen, the
predictions he had received in order to write about them and the angel tells
him to close the book as Daniel asks the question: “"How long will it be until the end of
these wonders?’ (Daniel 12:6b).” The
angel then says to Daniel “9 He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these
words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. 10 “Many will be purged,
purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will
understand, but those who have insight will understand. 11 “From the
time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation
is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 “How blessed is he who keeps waiting
and attains to the 1,335 days! 13 “But as for you, go your way to the end; then
you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of
the age (Daniel 12:9-13).” We who live
in the 21 century are seeing the beginnings of these things happen as the book
of Daniel is not sealed up to our eyes and this is another reason that I
believe that Jesus Christ is who He claims to be, that is the study of eschatology,
study of the end times.
We will continue to look at more and more evidence
that John the apostle will show us that if we are honest with ourselves we will
see the answer to our question of who Jesus Christ really is as again this is
the most important question a person can ask and find out the answer.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ephraim and Manasseh”
(Genesis 41:50-52).
Today’s Bible
question: “To what was Abram’s name
changed to?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/7/2016 9:55 AM
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