SPIRITUAL DIAYR FOR 7/2/2016 7:19 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Disappearance
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 8:59b
Message of the verses: “but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the
temple.”
I have to
say that this eight chapter of the book of John has probably taken me longer to
study than any other book in the Word of God that I have studied, and I have
studied almost every chapter with the exception of the last eight chapters of
Zechariah and the book of Malachi. We
began our journey through chapter eight on the 22nd of May learning
about the woman caught in adultery and then moved on to a very long discussion
that Jesus had with the “Jews” a term that John uses to speak of those who were
the enemies of Jesus. We now finish this
chapter by see the disappearance of Jesus from the temple. By the way as I was thinking about the first
part of this verse where it spoke of the Jews picking up stones to stone Jesus
I was wondering why there would be stones in the temple?
I have to
say that one of the most important things that I learned in this chapter is the
love that Jesus shows to these people who really hate Him. He could have just walked away from them
earlier, but He stayed the course as mentioned in an earlier SD Jesus had the
cure for what their problem was, and there problem is the same problem that all
of us have, and that is sin, as we are all born with a sin nature which we
inherited from Adam, and Jesus Christ is the only cure for that universal
problem. Thank you Jesus for coming into
our world to save each of us who have come to realize that we have this
problem, and then also realize that You are the only One who can cure this
problem and can help us live like we should, giving glory to you. The following is a quote from an earlier SD,
from September of 2002 that speaks to us on what the Word of God can do to us
after we have received the precious gift of salvation through Jesus
Christ: “The
Scriptures are Profitable. (2Tim.3:
16b). They are profitable for doctrine
(what is right), for reproof (what is not right), for correction
(how to get right), and for instruction in righteousness (how to get
right).” Jesus was giving reproof to
the Jews He was talking to, but they would have none of it.
As we look
at this last half of verse 59 the first thing we can see is that Jesus did not
protest that He had been misunderstood.
Jesus does not have to argue the fact that He is right, because Jesus is
always right and people just have to accept the fact that God cannot do or say
anything wrong, something these Jews would not do because of their pride, and
their wrong teaching. Jesus would not
allow Himself to be killed before His time had come, for Jesus being the Lamb
of God must die when the Passover lambs would die, and nothing would keep Him
from accomplishing that for that is why He came. Let us look at Luke 4:30 “But passing through
their midst, He went His way.” A similar
thing happened when the people of His home town of Nazareth tried to kill Him. MacArthur
writes of what happened here “John’s brief and straightforward description of
this miraculous escape is reminiscent of how he records other supernatural
events in his gospel—cf. John 6:11, 19.
Thus ends this tragic dialogue between Jesus and the doomed Jewish
religious leaders.”
He
concludes his commentary on this chapter by writing “As on this occasion, so it
always is that there are only two possible responses to Jesus’ claims. One is to accept them as true, and bow before
Him in humble, repentant faith, confessing Him as Savior and Lord. The other response, illustrated by Jesus’
opponents in this passage, is that of hardened, bitter rejection. The tragic, fearful result of that response
will be eternal damnation in hell. As
Jesus soberly warned, ‘Therefore
I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am
He, you will die in your sins (8:24).”
We next
move on to one of my all time favorite chapters in the book of John, chapter
nine which tells of the man born blind.
A few years ago I was reading a series of historical fiction and one of
the characters in the series was a fictional man who was the one that Jesus
healed in John chapter nine. The authors
did a wonderful job in bringing to light how this man could have acted after
this great and wonderful miracle was done by Jesus for him. I suppose that is why this chapter has become
one of my favorite chapters, and also because salvation is seen through this
chapter in a wonderful way as we will see.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see the wonderful element of humility
in our Lord in this chapter as we took a very short time to review some of the
things we learned from it in today’s SD.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To remember that everything I
have was given to me by the Lord, so I have no reason to be proud, but only
thankful.
Memory verse for this week:
(Romans 6:1) “What shall I say then?
Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase?”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Judges.”
Today’s Bible question:
“Where did Aaron die?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/2/2016 7:54 AM
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