SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/11/2016 7:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Be Willfully Ignorant
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:25-30
Message of the verses: “25 So they were saying to Him, "Who are
You?" Jesus said to them, "What have I been saying to you from the
beginning? 26 “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He
who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to
the world." 27 They did not realize that He had been speaking to them
about the Father. 28 So Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then
you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak
these things as the Father taught Me. 29 “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has
not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." 30
As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.”
It is hard
to understand how blind these people who were talking to Jesus were as they
have seen the wonderful miracles that Jesus had performed, they had seen Him
feed over 15,000 people and heal a man who had been crippled for many years,
and other great miracles, and yet they ask Him “Who are You,” and yet this is
the question of the ages even today to ask who Jesus is. These men were the ones who sat around
reading their Bibles and then adding things to it, and yet they were blinded to
the many OT verses that speak of Jesus, their Messiah. John MacArthur writes “They may have been an
undercurrent of more mockery in the question; ‘Who are You to tell us we are
going to die in our sins?’ But the query
in any case reflects their stubborn, willful ignorance (cf. Matt. 15:14;
23:16-26). The overwhelming evidence
made it patently obvious who Jesus was, so He merely replied that He was who He
had been claiming to be ‘from the beginning’ of His ministry. He had nothing more to say to the willful
ignorance of hard-hearted unbelief.”
If there
ever was a time when God’s revelation was so plain to behold it was when Jesus
walked on planet earth, and yet the Jews were blinded by their quest for power
and money and Jesus was in the way of that and so the missed their chance and
now would be judged by God. As a person
reads and progresses through the OT from the very beginning they can see God’s
progressive revelation. After Adam and
Eve sinned God promised that one day the seed of the woman would cure the sin
problem and that was all of God’s revelation that was given and yet they
believed it and thus became believers.
We read through the book of Job and he had more revelation from the Lord
and he believed what was given to him, and thus He was a believer. We read in the 15th chapter of
Genesis that “Abraham believed God and it was counted for him righteousness,”
and yet even then not all revelation was given to him, yet he believed what God
told him and thus became a believer. The
prophets of Israel received more and more revelation from the Lord and all the
people had to do was believe what was given to them to believe that one day God
would send His Messiah into the world to care for the sin problem, the problem
that plagued men from the very first sin, and so we see Jesus being the
promised Messiah doing what the prophets had foretold He would do and the very
people who saw the fulfillment of all these promises did not believe them when
they were right in front of their eyes.
Now Jesus
speaks of judgment, and we see that the judgment of the Father and the Son were
the same, for He had been with the Father and knew what He had said. The Jews, as seen in our text did not realize
that what Jesus was telling them was about the Father, for they “did not
realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.” MacArthur adds “Such was the deceptive power
of their willful unbelief. They had no
ears to hear.”
Jesus next
speaks of a day when the truth of His claims would be seen and that time would
be “When you lift up the Son of Man” which of course is a reference to the
crucifixion, and this would also be implying His resurrection, something they
still would not believe when it happened as they tried to cover it up.
MacArthur
concludes this chapter in his commentary on these verses: “Some of the Jews who rejected Jesus would
later realize that they had been terribly mistaken about Him. On the day of Pentecost alone about 3000 Jews
would come to receive Him as the Messiah (Acts 2:36-37, 41, 47). Even on this occasion, six months before the
cross, His words were so powerful that ‘as He spoke these things, many came to
believe in Him,’ at least outwardly (cf. the exposition of 8:31-36). But the majority, in spite of the evidence,
refused to believe—choosing instead to remain self-righteous, worldly,
unbelieving, and willfully ignorant to the end.
As a result, they condemned themselves to ultimately die in their sins
and never see heaven, but suffer eternal wrath.” As we think about that eternal wrath they
would suffer, Jesus Christ received that eternal wrath in those three hours on the
cross, and something He knew was coming, for that is why He came to planet
earth.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I can
only praise the Lord for taking my place on the cross, for becoming sin for me
that I could receive His righteous and one day be forever with Him in heaven.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: “always being ready to make a
defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in
you, yet with gentleness and reverence;” (1 Peter 3:15b).
Memory verses for the week:
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9) “7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the
revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from
exalting myself. 8. Concerning this I implored
the Lord three times that it might leave me.
9. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is
perfected in weakness,’ most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast in my
weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Israel” (2 Kings 17:6, 18).
Today’s Bible question:
“Until Christ came what was the schoolmaster?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/11/2016 7:40 AM
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