SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2016 7:46 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Subsequent Response
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:25-29
Message of the verses: “25 When they found Him on the other side of
the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?" 26 Jesus
answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not
because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 “Do not work for the food which
perishes, but for
the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give
to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal." 28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we
may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that
you believe in Him whom He has sent."”
What we
have for these people is a mystery and that is why they asked Jesus “when did
You get here,” for they knew that He did not come by boat, and they also knew
that if He would have walked there they would have seen Him.
We can see
that Jesus did not say to them “I walked across the lake during a great storm,”
for He knew that just the day before they wanted to make Him king because of
the great miracle that He had done so He purposely did not answer their
question.
We have
mentioned this before, but as we look at verse 26 we see the words “truly,
truly,” and this can actually mean “amen, amen,” and this introduces an
important truth that Jesus was going to tell them. This particular truth is actually a rebuke as
Jesus says to them “you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate
of the loaves and were filled.” What we
see here from our Lord is that He actually knew what they wanted Him for, and
what they wanted Him for was to make Him King as they have already mentioned,
but that is not what Jesus wants at this time from them. Leon Morris writes of this “They were moved
not by full hearts, but by full bellies.”
What a true statement this is for that is exactly what was moving
them. These people would be good
candidates for the “health and wealth gospel” that is going around the world at
this time and is not a gospel at all.
Our Pastor in this evening’s service was talking about this health and
wealth gospel. One of the things that he
mentioned is that you can go online to find out the top ten richest pastors in
the world and the number one is from Africa and is worth over 150 million dollars. This is the kind of spiritual leaders that
these people were looking for, but when we see Jesus when He was on earth He
had to work for a living until age 30 and then said that He did not have a
place to lay His head, so He was not preaching a health and wealth gospel for
sure.
Jesus wanted
these people to understand that it was the spiritual food that they needed to
go after and not the food that perishes as He told the woman at the well. John 6:35 and 54 says “35 Jesus said to them,
"I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who
believes in Me will never thirst.” “54
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day.” We will get
into the meaning of this verse when we get to it, but Jesus is speaking of spiritual
food in both places as He is the bread of life.
Why did Jesus come to earth? It
is a good place to answer that question for these people surely do not
understand it but Peter did: “24 and He
Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed (1 Peter 2:24).” John MacArthur writes the following note from
His Study Bible on this: “bore our sins.
Christ suffered not simply as the Christian’s pattern (vv. 21-23), but far more
importantly as the Christian substitute.
To bear sins was to be punished for them (cf. Nu. 14:33; Ezek
18:20). Christ bore the punishment and
the penalty for believers, thus satisfying a holy God (3:18). This great doctrine of the substitutionary
atonement is the heart of the gospel.
Actual atonement, sufficient for the sins of the whole world, was made
for all who would ever believe, namely, the elect. We
might die to sin. This is true by the miracle of being in Christ. We died to sin in the sense that we paid it’s
penalty, death, but being in Christ when He died as our substitute. Live
to righteousness. Not only have we
been declared just, the penalty for our sins paid by His death, but we have
risen to walk in new life, empowered by the Holy Spirit. By His
wounds you are healed. Through the
wounds of Christ as the cross, believers are healed spiritually from the deadly
disease of sin. Physical healing comes at glorification only, when there is no
more physical pain, illness, or death (Rev. 21:4).” As mentioned this is what these people needed
to hear and what people today need to hear.
The health and wealth gospel uses this verse from 1 Peter to try and
show people that Jesus died so they can be physically healed and if they are
not physically healed then it is because they do not have enough faith, and oh
by the way send some more “seed money” to us so we can continue to pray for
you, (and continue to take your money too).
We will look at the rest of the passage from John in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is best to look for the real truth that is
found in the Scriptures than be led astray by a person that is telling you a
lie as this is why we are to search the Scriptures to see if what is being
preached to us is true.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: My desire is to love the Lord
more, and to know more about the Lord that I desire to love more.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Foundation of the earth.”
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/3/2016 9:01 PM
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