SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/23/2016 9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Reaction of the True
Disciples
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:67-71
Message of the verses: “67 So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do
not want to go away also, do you?" 68 Simon Peter answered Him,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. 69 “We have
believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God." 70 Jesus
answered them, "Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of
you is a devil?" 71 Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he,
one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.”
A similar
statement was made by Peter in Matthew chapter sixteen “16 Simon Peter
answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."” Then Jesus has a similar thing to say to
Peter, similar to what He has been saying in this sixth chapter of John “17 And
Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not
reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
We see the
term “the twelve” for the first time in John’s gospel, but it us used more
frequently in the other three gospels referring to the twelve who would
eventually become apostles with of course the exception of Judas. John MacArthur writes “In the Greek text, the
Lord’s question expects a negative answer, hence the NASB translation ‘You do not
want to go away also, do you?’ Jesus
used the defection of the false disciples to contrast the faith of the Twelve.” We must also remember what we learned from
Warren Wiersbe is saying that Peter spoke for all of them, not realizing that Judas
was not a true believer. Perhaps after
Judas hanged himself that the other eleven may have looked back at some of the
things that he did so as they did this they realized he was not a believer, but
because of Peter’s statement Judas must have looked and acted like a believer.
MacArthur
writes “While the crowd was only willing to accept Jesus as a kind of second
Moses whom they hoped would supply their material needs, the Twelve saw Him for
who He really is. There was no other
teacher to whom they could turn, Peter said, for it was Christ alone who has
the words of eternal life.” That is a
very important statement about Christ’s Words bringing forth eternal life. The other disciples were not listening to His
words, but only could see His miracles and did not want to have anything to do
with His words, and therefore they missed what He was saying, and thus missed
out on the salvation He was offering.
Next we
look at the sad statement that Jesus says “Did I Myself not choose you, the
twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?"”
MacArthur writes “He is not here referring to the election to salvation,
but rather selection to apostleship. He
chose twelve men, one of whom was to slander Him in the most unthinkable
way. After Judas had been dismissed from
the Upper Room the night of the Last Supper, then the Lord spoke to the
remaining eleven as being chosen for salvation.
As He said to them, ‘You did not choose Me but I chose you, and
appointed you that you would go and bear
fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father
in My name He may give to you’ (15:16).
His sovereign choice of them, both to salvation and apostleship, ruled
out any pretentiousness or self-importance they may have otherwise felt.”
Perhaps
everyone who has read the gospels has wondered greatly about Judas and why he
did what he did, and there are some hard things to understand here about Judas
as he had the great privilege of walking with our Lord for three years and
listing to His words, and seeing the miracles that he did, and yet he turned
out to be the greatest trader in the history of mankind as he betrayed our Lord
on the night that He was crucified for a mere thirty pieces of silver as was
spoken of by Zechariah. John MacArthur
has some things to say about this that I want to quote here to help us better
understand the mystery of all of this. “It
would accurately reflect the Lord’s intent here to render the phrase, ‘One of
you is the devil.’ Satan, the supreme adversary of God, used
Judas as his tool in opposing the work of God (13:2, 27). As in the incident involving Peter’s presumptuous
rebuke of Jesus (Matthew 16:23), the Lord identified Satan as the source behind
Judas.
“That does
not exonerate or excuse Judas for his heinous act. The New Testament places the responsibility for
Jesus’ betrayal squarely at Judas Iscariot’s feet. In the chilling words of Jesus, ‘The Son of
Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son
of Man is betrayed! It would have been
good for that man if he had not been born’ (Matt. 26:2 4).
“Peter’s
affirmation in verse 68 and 69 expressed two key marks of true disciples; faith
(‘we have believed’)—which marks their spiritual birth—and faithfulness (‘Lord,
to whim shall we go?’)—which marks their character. The perfect tense of the verb translated ‘have
believed’ and ‘have come to know’ conveys the idea of an act completed in the
past, but with ongoing results. The
initial faith of true disciples results in continued commitment and loyalty to
Christ. Unlike the false disciples who
had made a final decision to abandon Jesus, the Twelve (except Judas) had made
a permanent pledge to follow Him. In
this way, John contrasted the stark difference between those who are fickle and
those who are faithful.”
I suppose “Fickle
or Faithful” would make a wonderful sermon talking about those who having
fallen prey to the “Health and Wealth gospel” with those who have been truly
born again and are continually trusting our Lord to give them the power for the
good works that He has planned for them as seen in Ephesians 2:10.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for learning more about the
truth of Judas and seeing how people can look like they are walking with Jesus
and truly are not. Satan is a tricky
character who is the believer’s enemy because he is God’s enemy.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I continue want to learn more
of my Lord and to also learn to love Him more, which as Joe Stowell writes “it
is hard to Love Jesus.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “In his own country” (Luke 4:24).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who wrote ‘But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is
the Christ and …have life through his name?”
(I know this is an easy one but I take them in order so I have nothing
to do with when they come up.)
Answer in our next SD.
4/23/2016 10:54 AM
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