Christ Received All Authority from the Father (John 3:35-36)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2016 12:35 PM

My Worship Time                                      Focus:  Christ Received All Authority from the Father

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 3:35-36

Message of the verses:  “35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”

Once again I want to bring up John 20:30-31 as this tells us the reason why John wrote this gospel:  “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.” 

We are looking at the last point which explicitly states what the first four imply, and that is because of God’s love for the Son, the Father has given to the Son supreme authority over all things that are on earth and also in heaven, and this supremacy is a very clear indicator of the deity of Jesus Christ.

Now we have mentioned that John the Baptist is a humble person, not wanting the glory to be displayed on him, but on the Lord Jesus Christ and as we look at the end of John’s ministry as described in the gospel of John we see this humility as it is his desire to fade away and the ministry of Jesus Christ to grow.  John must have realized that his ministry would soon come to an end as he would soon be arrested and then executed by Herod Antipas who was the ruler of Galilee.  John would tell Herod that it was unlawful for him to have the wife that he had since he stole her away from another, thus making it against the law of God, and this did not set well with his wife so she figured out how to have him executed as her daughter did a kind of dance before some of Herod’s guest that caused Herod to tell her he would give her what she wanted and so she asked her mom who wanted the head of John the Baptist delivered on a platter, which is what happened.  Yes bad things do happen to good people.

John MacArthur writes “But before he faded from the scene, John the Baptist gave an invitation and a warning that form a fitting climax, not only to this chapter, but also to his entire ministry.  Like Moses (Deut. 11:26-28; 30:15-20), Joshua (Josh. 24:15), Elijah (1 Kings 18:21), and Jesus (John 3:18) before him, he set forth the only two choices available to lost sinners:  ‘He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”

Quoting from the same sermon from John MacArthur as in our last SD we read:  “Fifth and last, climax of all of it, he says Christ is supreme just because God said so and gave Him all the supremacy. That's really beautiful, verse 35, "The Father loves the Son and hath given...how much?...all things into His hand." He's supreme because God made it that way. God may have given me a ministry, says John, God may have given me a dimension to operate but God gave Christ all authority, all power is given unto Me, He said. So John shows the five supremacies of Jesus Christ. In all things He's supreme.

“And so the transition is complete. John fades away. Jesus moves in to the full light. The world's greatest man has reached the end of his life. He exalts the Lord Jesus Christ, fades into the background, soon to lose his life, a life physically lost, spiritually a life that counts for God for all eternity. He fades out. But John doesn't fade away before he gives an invitation. Every great sermon always has an invitation. We saw it in Christ's message to Nicodemus, we see it here in John the Baptist's message. Here's the invitation, verse 36, he can't resist this invitation. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." I don't need to explain that, that is obvious. You believe on Christ, receive Him, put your faith in Him, invite Him to take over your life, you have the gift of everlasting life but "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him." There's the choice.

“What you do with Jesus Christ is up to you, the choice, eternal life or the wrath of God, the key, believing in Christ.”

As stated by John the Baptist, there is only black and white when it comes to the choice of eternal life, if you believe in the Son who took your place on the cross to pay for you sins and to rule and reign in your life, then you have eternal life.  If you reject this offer of salvation provided by the Son then the “wrath of God abides on you,” so the choice is yours to make.  Chose wisely!

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the fact that a little over 42 years ago my choice was to believe in the Son for eternal life, and it is my desire to tell others of this as I am able.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To tell others of the gift of salvation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Babylon” (2 Kings 24:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was Moses’ father-in-law and what was his position?”

Answer in our next SD

2/3/2016 1:06 PM