SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/26/2016 9:49 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Honor and Dishonor
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:48-59
Message of the verses: “48 The Jews answered and said to Him,
"Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
49 Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon;
but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50
"But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.
“51 "Truly,
truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death." 52
The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died,
and the prophets also; and You say, ’If anyone keeps My word, he will never
taste of death.’ 53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who
died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" 54
Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father
who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ’He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to
know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar
like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. 56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 So the Jews said to Him,
"You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born,
I am." 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid
Himself and went out of the temple.”
We are
finally in the last section of the 8th chapter of the gospel of John
and as I have mentioned in earlier SD’s Sundays are difficult days for me to
write two Spiritual Diaries as I don’t usually get to them until the
evening. With that said what I want to
do this evening is to quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on this
section and then tomorrow I may give a short introduction on these verses and
then take the rest of the week to finish up this 8th chapter of
John.
“The
leaders could not refute our Lord’s statements, so they attacked His
person. Some students think that the
leaders’ statement in John 8:41—‘We are not born of fornication’—was a slur on
our Lord’s own birth and character.
After all, Mary was with child before she and Joseph were married. But the personal attacks in John 8:48 are
quite obvious. For a Samaritan was the
grossest of insults, and then to be called a demon-posed person only added
further insults.
“Note that
Jesus did not even dignify the racial slur with an answer. (No doubt there was also in this the suggestion
that, like the Samaritans, Jesus was a heretic.) They were dishonoring Him, but He was
honoring the Father. You will recall
that He made it clear that it was impossible to honor the Father without
honoring the Son (John 5:23). They were
seeking their own glory (see John 5:41-44), but He was seeking the glory that
belongs to God alone. Tradition-centered
religion, without Christ, is often a ‘mutual admiration society’ for people who
want the praise of men.
“Jesus had
warned them that they would die in their sins because of their unbelief, and
now He invited them to trust His Word and ‘never see death’ (John 8:51). He had said this before in His synagogue
sermon (John 6:39-40, 44, 54). Once again,
the leaders lacked the spiritual insight to understand what He was saying. Abraham was dead, yet he was a godly man; and
the faithful prophets were also dead.
This kind of talk only convinced them the more that He had a demon! (John 7:20)
“By
claiming to be the Lord of death, He was claiming to be God (John
5:21-29). This was not an honor He made
for Himself; the Father gave it to Him.
In fact, Abraham 9whom they claimed as their father) saw His day and
rejoiced! Instead of rejoicing, they
were revolting and trying to kill Him.
“How did
Abraham ‘see’ our Lord’s day, that is, His life and ministry on earth? The same way he saw the future city: by faith (Heb. 11:10, 13-16). God did not give Abraham some special vision
of our Lord’s life and ministry, but He did give him the spiritual perception
to ‘see’ these future events. Certainly
Abraham saw the birth of the Messiah in the miraculous birth of his own son,
Isaac. He certainly saw Calvary when he
offered Isaac to God (Gen. 22). In the
priestly ministry of Melchizedek (Gen. 14:17-24), Abraham could see the
heavenly priesthood of the Lord. In the
marriage of Isaac, Abraham could see a picture of the marriage of the Lamb
(Gen. 24).
“His
statement found in John 8:58 can be translated, ‘Before Abraham came into
being, I AM.’ Again, this was another affirmation
of His divine sonship; and the Jewish leaders received it as such. He had once again made Himself equal with God
(John 5:18), and this was the sin of blasphemy, worthy of death (Lev.
24:16). Jesus was divinely protected and
simply walked away. His hour had not yet
come. We cannot help but admire His
courage as He presented the truth and invited blind religious men to trust Him
and be set free.
“The most
difficult people to win to the Saviour are those who do not realize that they
have a need. They are under the
condemnation of God, yet they trust their religion to save them. They are walking in the darkness and not
following the light of life. They are
sharing a ‘living death’ because of their bondage to sin; and, in spite of
their religious deeds, they are dishonoring the Father and the Son. These are the people who crucified Jesus
Christ, and Jesus called them the children of the devil.
“Whose
child are you? Is God your Father
because you have received Jesus Christ into your life? (John 1:12-13) Or is Satan your father
because you are depending on a counterfeit righteousness, a ‘works
righteousness,’ not the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ?
“If God is
your Father, then heaven is your home.
If He is not your Father, then hell is your destiny.
“It is
truly a matter of life and death!”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Feeding Swine” (Luke 15:15).
Today’s Bible question:
“Complete the beatitude ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit…’”
6/26/2016 10:20 PM
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