SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/2/2016 9:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Supernatural Sign
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 6:22-24
Message of the verses: “22 The next day the crowd that stood on
the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except
one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that
His disciples had gone away alone. 23 There came other small boats from
Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given
thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples,
they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.”
We begin a
new section in our journey through this sixth chapter of John and John
MacArthur entitles this section “The Response of False Disciples.” I will quote the short paragraph that he
writes before going onto our section of verses today. “John’s account continues by contrasting the
response of the Twelve with the response of the crowd which Jesus had just
fed. They too had witnessed His divine
creative power. But, instead of
responding with heartfelt worship, they responded with selfishness and greed.”
We know
from this section and also from what Matthew and Mark also wrote that the next
morning after these people had been feed that they got up and were looking for
Jesus. Why do you suppose they were
looking for Jesus? Perhaps they still
desired to make them King, and perhaps they were looking for more food. Both reasons would be wrong since we will
find out that their motives for making Him King were wrong as it was for a
selfish reason, and not a spiritual reason.
Now when
they got up the next morning looking for Jesus they began to realize that His
disciples had left in a boat and that there were no other boats there and so
they knew something was a bit strange not to see Jesus and were wondering
exactly what could have happened to Him.
MacArthur writes: “The mystery,
then, was where was Jesus, if He had not left with the disciples? The crowd, of course, could not know what had
really happened; they had not witnessed Him walking on the water.
“Verse 23
is a parenthesis, explaining where the small boats that transported the crowd back
to Capernaum came from. Tiberias was an
important city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Why the flotilla came ‘to the place where’
the thousands ‘ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks’ is not
clear. Perhaps the owners of the boats
had heard of the miraculous feeding and had come to investigate. Or they may have come to pick up their
friends and loved ones, or to act as water taxis, seeking to cash in on the
large number of people in need of transportation. Or they may have been forced to seek shelter
from the same storm in which the disciples had been caught the night before.”
The crowd
finally realized that Jesus was not there anymore and so they got into the
small boats and came to Capernaum to seek for Jesus. Why Capernaum “and leaving Nazareth, He came
and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and
Naphtali (Matthew 4:13).” We see in this
verse that Jesus had set up the base for His Galilean ministry at Capernaum so
perhaps that is why the people searched for Him there.
We looked
at why this crowd was searching for Jesus in our last SD when I quoted Dr.
Wiersbe on why people today seek Jesus for the wrong reason, for what is a part
of the “health and wealth” gospel in our society today. What is the proper reason for people to seek
Jesus today? The Bible teaches us that “all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The Bible teaches us that there is only One
who can save us for our sins as He took our place on the cross, suffered and
died in our place. Think about the three
hours of darkness that God was taking out His wrath on His One and only Son for
us. In those three hours when God made
the place around the cross dark He was taking out His wrath on Jesus for us,
and the wrath that He took out on Him was equivalent to all who would come to
know Him as Savior and Lord as eternal punishment in hell. I cannot say how that is possible, but when I
think of it I am so very thankful that He did that for me, and I can also
understand more about the scene that happened the night before when Jesus was
sweating great drops of blood in the garden anticipating what was going to
happen to Him while on the cross.
We come to
Jesus Christ so that we can have forgiveness for our sin nature, and for all
the sins we commit while alive on planet earth.
Once we do that we must do two things, among others, and that is to
learn to love Jesus for what He did for us and then learn more about who Jesus
is by studying the Scriptures. “God As
He Longs For You to See Him” is the title of a book that I have in my study
written by Chip Ingram on the attributes of God, and by knowing His attributes
we come to know Him which is His desire for us.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To know that I came to Jesus for the right
reasons.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To love Him more, and to know
Him better.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “God” (Luke 12:24).
Today’s Bible question:
“Complete Hebrews 1:10 ‘And, You, Lord, in the beginning have.’”
Answer in our next SD.
4/2/2016 10:19 AM
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