His Signs (John 7:21-24)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2016 9:14 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                                 Focus:  His Signs

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  John 7:21-24

            Message of the verses:  “21 Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22 “For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."”

            As you read through the gospels, all of them, have you noticed that when someone asks Jesus a question or accuses Him of something, like in this case, that He does not seem to answer what they ask or accused Him of?  Jesus just ignores their insulting remark and goes on to talk about the one deed that He did earlier, which we talked about when we studied chapter five of John’s gospel (John 5:2-9).  This miracle was done about six or seven months ago, and these Jews still remembered it.  Now back in chapter five we saw and still see that the Jews did not react to the healing in a way that they would have seen that Jesus is the Messiah, instead they tried to kill Him “For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath (John 5:16).”  There problem was that they were so convinced that their false religion was right and they did not want Jesus to become more popular and therefore cause people not to believe in their false religion, therefore they would lose money and prestige.   John MacArthur writes “John 12:37 records the tragic truth that ‘though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.’  Those who saw the signs but refused to believe merely compounded their guilt.  ‘If I had done among them the works which no one else did,’ Jesus declared, ‘they would not have sin, but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well’ (15:24).”

            Now when we studied this miracle earlier we say that Jesus had defended His right and authority to heal the sick man on the Sabbath because He was One with the Father, but not He gives them another reason why He can heal on the Sabbath, and this one involves the Law of Moses, which speaks of circumcision on the Sabbath.  Once again we see Jesus turn their own Law against them as the first time He was talking about them wanting to murder Him, and not this time about circumcision on the Sabbath which Moses wrote was to be done.  His argument that they follow the Law of Moses to circumcise a baby on the Sabbath if that is where it falls eight days later from his birth, but they did not believe that it was lawful for Jesus to make a man whole once again on the Sabbath.  Now one more thing about circumcision that it was first practiced by Abraham long before God gave them the Law, some 400 + years before. 

            We will conclude with John MacArthur’s concluding thoughts from his commentary, which ends this chapter:  “The Lord’s concluding exhortation, ‘Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment,’ was both an indictment of their utter lack of moral and theological discernment and a plea for it.  The harsh, censorious judgment of self-righteous legalism is always unacceptable to God (Matt. 7:1), but so is superficial judgment ‘according to appearance’ (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7). ‘But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."’  In the context, Jesus was urging His hearers to abandon their misconceptions regarding Him and ‘judge’ His claims ‘with righteous judgment.’  Those who do so will find Him to be exactly who He claimed to be, just as He promised they would (John 7:17).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that what Jesus is talking about in this last verse we looked at today is pride, and pride causes me problems at times as I am sure it causes problems for others.  I have quoted a song by Roger Miller many different times in my Spiritual Diaries as it has to do with pride.  I think this would be a good time to quote it again.

Husbands and Wives

Two broken hearts lonely, looking like
Houses where nobody lives
Two people each having so much pride inside
Neither side forgives

The angry words spoken in haste
Such a waste of two lives
It's my belief
Pride is the chief cause and the decline
In the number of husbands and wives

A woman and a man, a man and a woman
Some can and some can't
And some can

Two broken hearts lonely, looking like
Houses where nobody lives
Two people each having so much pride inside
Neither side forgives

Repeat Choirs

My Steps of Faith for Today: Pride was the first sin committed in the universe, and it still rears its ugly head too many times in my life so by God’s grace I will be more humble and much less pridefull.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “One shekel.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Which plague did the magicians attempt to duplicate and fail?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/6/2016 9:54 AM