SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/22/2016
10:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Problem of Unbelief
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 3:11-12
Message of
the verses: “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. 12 “If I
told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
We have gone over the problems of Nicodemus in
earlier Spiritual Diaries, but his two biggest problems were, first of all he
was dead spiritually: 4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5).” The second problem is that he did not believe
the truth which Jesus gave to him, even though he was a learned scholar of the
Old Testament, he was blinded by his sin:
“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 (1 Cor. 2:14).”
John MacArthur writes “Even those who have never heard the gospel are
still culpable for their ignorance, because they reject the truth that they do
not have (Rom. 1:18-21).” “18 For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who
suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being
understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him
as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and
their foolish heart was darkened.”
Now as we begin to look at verse eleven we see the
words “truly, truly, I say to you.” When
we were studying verse three we went over the meaning of these words which are
only used in the gospel of John. Needles
to say Jesus was making sure that Nicodemus was hearing the truth from the One
who is the Truth. Now I want to quote
from John MacArthur about the statement “We speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do
not accept our
testimony.” “The plurals ‘we’ and ‘our’
encompassed Jesus’ disciples and even John the Baptist, who understood and
testified to the truth of salvation.
They provided a contrast with the ‘we’ in verse 2 (which referred to
Nicodemus and his colleagues). The Pharisees
and their fellow Jews were ignorant of the new birth, but Jesus and His
disciples were certain about regeneration—the truth to which they
testified. Moreover, Nicodemus spoke
with human authority, but Jesus with heavenly authority (cf. Matt. 7:28-29). ‘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 Lord’s use of the plural pronoun ‘you’
indicates that His rebuke went beyond Nicodemus to include the nation of
Israel, of which Nicodemus was a representative. The Jewish people did ‘not accept’ the ‘testimony’
of Jesus and His true followers (cf. 1:11); their unbelief was what perpetuated
their spiritual ignorance.”
Next we see that Jesus tells Nicodemus “If I told
you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you
heavenly things?” This shows the
self-righteousness of Nicodemus who though he knew it all because of his
background and what he had accomplished in his study of the OT and also his
position as a Pharisee and a part of the Sanhedrin. All of the added up to
nothing something Paul wrote about “4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.
If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of
Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal,
a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found
blameless. 7 But whatever
things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of
Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the
surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and
count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ (Phil. 3:4-8).”
MacArthur concludes “There are two sides to
Nicodemus’s unbelief. Intellectually,
while he acknowledged Jesus to be a teacher sent from God (3:2), he was
unwilling to accept Him as God.
Spiritually, he was very reluctant to admit that he himself was a
helpless sinner, since that was unthinkable for proud members of the Pharisees,
the self-righteous, self-confessed religious elite of Israel. Further, he was a privileged member of the
Sanhedrin and thus viewed as a prominent spiritual leader by the people
(3:10). To humble himself to admit that
he was in spiritual darkness and needed to come to the light of true salvation
and righteousness (cf. 3:19-21) would have been to confess his sinfulness and
lack of righteousness. Like many who
were impressed by Jesus’ miracles (2:23-25), Nicodemus refused to commit
himself to Christ as Lord and Savior.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: One of
the problems with Nicodemus was his pride, and pride is a problem with all
human beings. As I was listening to my
Bible this morning from the book of Numbers it is said that Moses was the most
humble man ever “Nu 12:3 (Now the man
Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)” I have nothing to be proud of for all that I
have was given to me from the Lord.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
Be more like Moses and less like Nicodemus as seen in the verses we have
been looking at from John’s 3rd chapter.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Malachi 3.”
Today’s Bible question: “When Moses saw the people dancing and shouting,
what did he do with the tablets of stone?”
Answer in our next SD. 1/22/2016 10:51 AM
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