SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/10/2016 6:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Perplexity
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 9:8-12
Message of the verses: “8 Therefore the neighbors, and those who
previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, "Is not this the one who used
to sit and beg?" 9 Others were saying, "This is he," still
others were saying, "No, but he is like him." He kept saying, "I
am the one." 10 So they were saying to him, "How then were your eyes
opened?" 11 He answered, "The man who is called Jesus made clay, and
anointed my eyes, and said to me, ’Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and
washed, and I received sight." 12 They said to him, "Where is
He?" He said, "I do not know.’”
I have to
say that I have a unusual habit and that is that for some reason whenever I
pick up a magazine I look at the back first and then move towards the
front. My daughter tells me she does the
same thing so I guess she got it from me.
At any rate I want to quote from the last part of John MacArthur’s
commentary on this section as we begin to look at it. “This account of Jesus’ healing of a blind
man beautifully illustrates the salvation process. Blinded by sin (12:40; 2 Cor. 4:4), lost
sinners have no capacity to recognize the Savior or find Him on their own (Rom.
3:11; 8:7). The blind man would not have
been healed had Jesus not sought him and revealed Himself to him. So it is in salvation; if God did not reach
out to spiritually blind sinners, no one would be saved (Rom. 5:6; cf. John 6:44,
65). And just as the blind man was
healed only when he obeyed Jesus’ command and washed in the pool of Siloam, so
also are sinners saved only when they humbly and obediently embrace the truth
of the gospel (Rom. 1:5; 15:18; 16:26; Heb. 5:9; cf. 2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Peter
4:17).”
Now we do
not find Jesus in the narrative of chapter nine until we get to verse 35, and
so what we will be seeing is the blind man, his neighbors, his parents, and the
Pharisees as we move through John chapter nine.
It was easier for his neighbors to think that he was an imposter than to
believe that this was the same man who had been born blind. In this section we see the first statement
that this blind man says about Jesus, and that is he calls Him “the man Jesus.” As we move forward in this chapter we will
notice that he progress in what he calls Jesus until Jesus tells him that He is
the Messiah and the man believes in Him as his Savior and Lord.
I want to
back track a bit and quote a paragraph or so from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary as
he speaks to why Jesus made the clay and put it onto the blind man’s eyes. The first reason is one we have already
looked at earlier: “There were at least
two reasons for our Lord’s use of the clay.
For one thing, it was a picture of the Incarnation. God made the
first man out of the dust , and God sent His Son as a real Man…
“The second
reason for the clay was irritation; it encouraged the man to believe and
obey! If you have ever had an irritation
in your eyes, you know how quickly you see irrigation
to cleanse it out! You might compare
this ‘irritation’ to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit as He uses God’s
Law to bring the lost sinner under judgment.
“But the
illumination now led to a problem in identification: was this really the blind beggar, and who
caused him to see? Throughout the rest
of John 9, a growing conflict takes place around these two questions. The religious leaders did not want to face
the fact that Jesus had healed the man, or even that the man had been healed!”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful that Jesus opened my spiritually
blind eyes to show me who He is. I remember
that time when the Lord saved me and my life has not been the same since. I am thankful that the Lord saved me and that
not only has He saved me but He continues to show His grace and mercy to me
each and every day.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to trust the Lord as
I teach our small Sunday school class on who God is. My prayer is that our class will not just
know about God but we will be like Moses when he asked God to show him His
glory.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:1-2): “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?”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “300” (1 Kings 11:3).
Today’s Bible question:
“It is a fearful thing to fall into whose hands?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/10/2016 7:04 AM
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