SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2016 10:17 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Spiritual Sight Requires Divine Initiative
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 9:35
Message of the verses: 35 Jesus heard that they had put him out, and
finding him, He said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"”
I mentioned
in our last SD on the gospel of John that we would be looking at two main
points which both have four sub-points under the main points. The first main point is entitled “Spiritual
Sight” and it will cover John 9:35-38. MacArthur
writes the following in his introduction:
“John’s account of this incident reveals four characteristics of
spiritual sight: it requires divine
initiative, responds in faith, recognizes Christ, and results in worship.”
We have
noticed that Jesus healed this blind man as seen in the first seven verses and
then He sent him away to wash his eyes.
We have not seen Jesus since that seventh verse and now we see Him again
beginning in verse 35. Jesus begins to
talk to him after he was excommunicated from the synagogue as seen in verse
34. Jesus had given the man physical
sight, something that he did not even ask for, and now He will give him
spiritual sight, also something he did not ask for as we will see. The Pharisees did not want anything to do
with him, but the Savior did.
God has to
take the imitative in a person’s salvation as seen in Romans 3:10-12 “10 as it
is written, "THERE IS
NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS
FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."” For
some reason the NASB95 always puts the OT quotes in all caps, as these are
quotations that Paul is using from the OT.
I might add to these verses that since the fall every person born of man
is born spiritually dead and that is what Paul writes these verses to the
Romans. I heard a good story to
illustrate man being born spiritually dead as we had an undertaker going to our
church and one of the pastor’s asked him one day if any of the corpses he deals
with ever told him what color tie he wanted to wear. Dead people can’t talk, and spiritually dead
people do not seek God as Paul writes here and so the Holy Spirit, and in the
case of this blind beggar that Jesus healed it was Jesus who was the One who
would do this miracle of the new birth.
Jesus said in John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who
sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” In John 15:16 He says to His disciples “You
did not choose Me, but I chose you.”
MacArthur adds “Just as the physically blind are incapable of restoring
their own sight, so also the spiritually dead and blind cannot live or see by
their own will or power. Salvation
depends on God’s initiative, power, and sovereign grace (cf. 1:12-13).”
After Jesus
sought this man out He then asks him a critical question “Do you believe in the
Son of Man?” MacArthur adds “By using
the personal pronoun ‘you’ in addition to the verb, Jesus emphasized the man’s
need to respond; the question could be translated, ‘You…do you believe in the
Son of Man?’ not just as a miracle worker with the power from God, but as
Messiah. In this way, the man was
confronted with his need to place his trust for forgiveness and salvation in
Christ as his Lord and Savior.” We have learned
when we studied the book of Daniel, chapter seven verses 13-14 and also in John
1:51; 3:13; 6:27, 62; 8:28 that the term “Son of Man” is a Messianic title.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One
thing that I have learned, or one thing that I believe as I study passages like
this is that even though it is the work of the triune God that saves a person
it is my job as a believer to tell people about the Savior so the Spirit of God
can give them the call for salvation.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to bring
people into my life to tell the good news of the gospel to.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:1-3) “1. What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in sin so
that grace may increase? 2. May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in
it? 3. Or do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).
Today’s Bible question:
“What three things does one do when he makes prophesies?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/17/2016 10:48 PM
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