SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2016 9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Right Time
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 7:10-13
Message of the verses: “10 But when His brothers had gone up to the
feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 11 So
the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, "Where is
He?" 12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some
were saying, "He is a good man"; others were saying, "No, on the
contrary, He leads the people astray." 13 Yet no one was speaking openly
of Him for fear of the Jews.”
I want to
begin by looking at Luke 9:51-56 “51 When the days were approaching for His
ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on
ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make
arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling
toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said,
"Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume
them?" 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [[and said, "You do not
know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to
destroy men’s lives, but to save them."]] And they went on to another
village.” Now the reason we began with
these verses is because according to John MacArthur who wrote that most
scholars believe that this is the route that Jesus took after talking with His
brothers who told Him to go up to the feast and make Himself known. Jesus actually did the opposite as He went up
in secret for many of the Jews were seeking to kill Him. However He did go up for as we have learned
this was in the plan from the Father for Him to go up when He did.
We see from
verse eleven that the wisdom of the Lord was right on as we read that the Jews
were seeking Him at this feast, for they knew that all males were to come up to
this feast and that He would be there, and it was their desire to kill Him as
seen in 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to
kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling
God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”
As we look
at verse twelve we see that there were many who were grumbling about Him as
there was many who did not believe in Him, but some who did believe in Him, and
it seems that the ones who believed in Him only said that “He is a good man,”
which is not what it takes to became a true believer in Him. There are many today who would say that He is
a good man, but that is as far as they want to go with it, not saying that He
is the Son of God who came in the flesh to take our place on the cross to die
for our sins, to become sin for us that we may have His righteousness, to say
that He is the way the truth and the life and that no one can come to God
without going through Him. The ones who thought He was a deceiver would
eventually win out for this was what would cause the Jews to have Him crucified
as He was truly the Son of God, but they did not believe Him and felt He was
committing blasphemy.
People were
not actually speaking openly about Jesus as the Jews caused so much fear to be
upon the people that they were not standing up and saying that He was good or
that He was a deceiver, but only speaking among themselves and probably most
were even fearful in doing that. John
MacArthur writes “Though it was clear that the authorities rejected Jesus, the
Sanhedrin had not yet rendered a formal judgment regarding Him. Thus, the people were careful to guard their
words, speaking neither for Him or against Him until they knew what the
official response to Jesus would be. In
any case, the crowds certainly did not want to publicly contradict their
religious leaders. The consequences for
doing so were severe and could include excommunication from the synagogue
(9:22; cf. 16:2). That dreadful
punishment cut a person off from all of Jewish life.
“As this account in John’s gospel
illustrates, Jesus followed God’s timetable perfectly. He always performed God’s will exactly as the
Father wished. Those who are true
followers of Christ also have the ability to follow God’s revealed will—because
they have been given both His Word and His Spirit. His Word informs believers as to what His
will is (Ps. 40:8), and His Spirit empowers them to obey that will with
gladness (143:10; cf. 119:111).
“Unbelievers
do not have the capacity to understand God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:14) or the ability
to obey His Spirit (Rom. 8:5-9).
Nonetheless, for those who have not yet come to Him, the time is right
to do so, ‘for He says, ‘At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the
day of salvation I helped you.’ Behold, now
‘The acceptable time, ‘behold, now is ‘the day of salvation’’ (2 Cor. 6:2).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The highlighted portion above has spoken to
my heart today. It is not something that
I did not know, but sometimes you know something, but don’t follow it.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To follow the Lord’s will by
seeking to know what the Father has for me to do as I study His Word and trust
His Spirit to guide me; to love the Lord more, and to know Him better, and to
trust Him move.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Israel.”
Today’s Bible question:
“How many prophets of Baal came to Mount Carmel?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/29/2016 10:25 AM
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