SPIRITIUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2016 9:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Response of True Disciples
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:16-21
Message of the verses: “16 Now when evening came, His disciples went
down to the sea, 17 and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the
sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to
them. 18 The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. 19
Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on
the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. 20 But He said
to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." 21 So they were willing to
receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which
they were going.”
Once again
we have to remember why John writes this incident in that it is different than
the ones found in the gospels of Matthew and also in Mark, and the way he
records this miracle has to do with the theme verses from John 20:30-31. John MacArthur breaks this section up into two
different sub-points and we will look at the first one in our next Spiritual
Diary, but I want to just quote from my SD from May of 2012 on the way Mark
writes about this incident. I have to
mention and we will see more clearly how much this section has affected my life
as I will talk a bit more about that in the quote.
“When we
look at this section of Scripture along with companion passages from Matthew
and John we see some very powerful miracles done. Jesus walking on the water is seen in this
section, while Peter walking on the water is seen in the other gospels. We also see the calming of the storm by Jesus
and in John ‘s Gospel we see a miracle that is not seen in any of the other
Gospels, and that is that as soon as Jesus got into the boat they immediately
got to shore. I have often wondered if
it was because Peter had influence in Mark’s Gospel that the incident of Peter
walking on the water and then losing faith and was about to drown before Jesus
saved him, was not covered by Mark. When
I think of that part of the story I think that there were twelve men in the
boat, but only Peter had enough faith to get out of the boat and walk on the
water. Just think that there are only
two men who have walked on water, Jesus and Peter.
“Why Jesus
sent His disciple away is a question that we do not have an answer to, but we
know that it was in the will of Jesus to send them out into the storm. Perhaps it was because the crowds were trying
to take Jesus and make Him their king for reasons stated in yesterday’s SD, or
perhaps it was a lesson in faith because of the spiritual high that they were
on after being sent out to do miracles and preach and also to be a part of the
feeding of the 5000. Jesus had His
reasons and they are always perfect.
Jesus spent much time praying for them before He came to them.
“This is a
good time to write how much this passage means to me. I once heard a missionary friend of mine
preach a sermon on this passage along with the companion passages found in the
other Gospels. He entitled his message
“Blessings in the Storms of Life,” and the message to me was like the Lord
preaching it to me. There was a great
crisis in my life, a crisis that still affects me some nine years later, but
God has plans for me in that crisis to bring about blessings and it was from
that message that I knew that God was at work in this crisis. My friend had six points to his message that
day and although I don’t remember all of them, though I have a copy of the message
on tape, I do remember that Jesus sent His disciple out into the storm and then
He prayed for them while they were in the storm. Jesus then came to them in the storm and
calmed the storm, and then Jesus got them to the place where He had told them to
go, but they were not able to get there on their own. As I went through the first part of this
crisis the Lord saw fit for me to tell some of my neighbors how they can gain
eternal life and I saw 18 people accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. One of them is now with the Lord in
heaven. That blessing is still going on
as there have been others who have gotten saved since that time. What a blessing the Lord gave to me in a
great crisis. I took some time to disciple
these people that the Lord saved and I believe that most of them are walking
with the Lord at this time.
“Dr.
Wiersbe writes on spiritual highs, which is what the disciples of Jesus were on
before He sent them out into the storm.
“They were on a ‘spiritual high’ and this in itself was dangerous. It is good to be on the mountaintop if you
don’t get careless and step off a cliff. Spiritual blessings must be balanced
with burdens and battles; otherwise, we may become pampered children instead of
mature sons and daughters.” Dr. Wiersbe
also points out of another storm found in Mark 4:35-41 that Jesus saw His
disciples through. He then points out
something interesting and that is when we look at the book of Acts we do not
find persecution begin until after 5000 people had been saved. Perhaps the disciples remembered and were
encouraged as they thought about this incident and how the Lord saw them
through this storm.
“Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Each new experience of testing demands of us more faith and
courage. In that first storm experience,
the disciples had Jesus in the boat with them; but this time, He was on the
mountain praying for them. He was
teaching them to live by faith. (For
that matter, even when He was in the ship with them, they were still afraid!) The scene illustrates the situation of God’s
people today: We are in the midst of
this stormy world, toiling and seemingly ready to sink, but He is in glory
interceding for us. When the hour seems
the darkest, He will come to us—and we will reach shore!” After reading then the writing these words
from Dr. Wiersbe I can assure you that they are true because of the crisis I
was in and in some degree am still in.
“What does this mean: “and He intended to pass by them.” Jesus wanted them to recognize Him, and He
wanted them to invite Him into the boat, and He wanted them to trust Him so
that their faith would be increased.
“Verse 52
states: “for they had not gained any insight from the incident of
the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” I mentioned yesterday that this verse sticks
out to me like no other verse in this entire chapter. What is it all about? “The miracle of the loaves and fishes had
made no lasting impression on them.
After all if Jesus could multiply food and feed thousands of people,
then surely He could protect them in the storm.
Even a disciple of Jesus Christ can develop a hard heart if he fails to
respond to the spiritual lessons that must be learned in the course of life and
ministry.” (Warren Wiersbe)
“Let’s look
at these miracles in view of Psalm 23 verses one and four: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” These two verses show us that Jesus brings
protection and provision to those who are His own and these two miracles that
Jesus did in the last part of Mark 6 show us this.
“In the
last few verses we see that Mark ends this chapter on a positive note as he
writes about what Jesus did for the people that were at Gennesaret, as He
healed their sick, all of their sick.
“Spiritual meaning for my life today: I mentioned the fond memories that I have from
this section of Scripture and the Lord Jesus Christ has given provision and
protection to me through the crisis.
Protection from the crisis does not mean that it was life threatening to
me in a physical sense. God is faithful!”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I am learning a lot of things
from three books that I am reading at this time as they all seem to have
similar points in them. One book is
about the Holiness of God and how we are to live holy lives before Him, another
book is about loving our Lord and how it is hard to do that, and the third book
I am reading for the third time “The Joy of Knowing God,” and it is on the
attributes of God. I thinking about real
repentance as this is what is on my mind today.
Real repentance is something we can do because of the truth that Jesus
paid it all, without that repentance would do us no good, but because of that
truth repentance should be done with a broken heart.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Agabus (Acts 11:28).
Today’s Bible question:
“What is the first verse in the Bible?”
(We needed an easy one after yesterday’s question.)
Answer in our next SD.
3/30/2016 9:50 AM
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