1st Intro to John 11

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2016 8:01 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  Introduction to John 11

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11

            Message of the verses:  In Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the book of John, in the eleventh chapter of that commentary which he entitles “The Last Miracle—The Last Enemy,” he writes the following introduction to this chapter:  “The raising of Lazarus from the dead was not our Lord’s last miracle before the Cross, but it was certainly His greatest and the one that aroused the most response both from His friends and His enemies.  John selected this miracle as the seventh in the series recorded in his book because it was really the climactic miracle of our Lord’s earthly ministry.  He had raised others from the dead, but Lazarus had been in the grace four days.  It was a miracle that could not be denied or avoided by the Jewish leaders.

            “If Jesus Christ can do nothing about death, then whatever else He can do amounts to nothing.  ‘If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable’ (1 Cor. 15:19).  Death is man’s last enemy (1 Cor. 15:26), but Jesus Christ has defeated this horrible enemy totally and permanently.

            “The emphasis in John 11 is on faith; you find some form of the word believe at least eight times in this account.  Another theme is ‘the glory of God’ (John 11:4, 40).  In what Jesus said and did, He sought to strengthen the faith of three groups of people.” 

            The three groups that Dr. Wiersbe is writing about are the disciples, the sisters, and the Jews.  Now as mentioned in earlier SD’s we are following the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary in these Spiritual Diaries, but from time to time I also look and quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentary, for he puts the cookies on the shelf where you can reach them.

            Now as we look at some of the things that John MacArthur puts into his commentary on this 11^th chapter of John I first want to look at the title to his first chapter on this 11^th chapter of his commentary which is “The Resurrection and Life Part One:  Sickness for the Glory of God” and this covers the first 16 verses.  He has four chapters in his commentary for this section of John and they all begin with “The Resurrection and the Life” but then each have a different ending, so we will be looking at four different chapters as we follow his outline through this wonderful and meaningful chapter of John, for after that the last half of John’s gospel that we will be looking at will be far different than the first half as Jesus will be teaching His disciples, and then will go to the cross to pay for the sins of the world.  After than we will look at His resurrection and some of the things that He did after His resurrection.

            We will probably not get through this entire introduction to these first sixteen verses in the eleventh chapter of John, and will have to continue to look at it in our next SD.

            John MacArthur beings his introduction with these words:  “The most important theme in the universe is the glory of God.  It is the underlying reason for all of God’s works, from the creation of the world, to the redemption of fallen sinners, to the judgment of unbelievers, to the manifestation of His greatness for all eternity in heaven.         

            “Because God’s glory is intrinsic to His nature the Bible refers to Him as the God of glory (Ps. 29:3; Acts 7:2), the Glory of Israel (1 Sam. 15:29), the king of glory (Ps. 24:7-10), and the high and exalted One (Isa. 57:15; cf. 33:5).  God the Father is called the Father of glory (Eph. 1:17; cf. 2 Peter 1:17); Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8); and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of glory (1 Peter 4:14).  God’s intrinsic glory is uniquely His, and He will not share it with anyone else (Isa. 42:8; 48:11).”

            We will continue to look at the glory of God in our next SD as we continue to look at this introduction to the first sixteen verses in chapter eleven of John’s gospel.  Until then think about God’s glory as it is one of, if not the most important them in the Word of God. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to go back and think about what Dr. Wiersbe wrote about the necessity of Jesus Christ to be able to conquer death, as He did it throughout His earthly ministry to different people, but the most important was when He was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, which is a part of Romans chapter six and verse four.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  It is my hope that as I continue to grow in the Lord, that what I do will bring glory to the Lord, for this is the most important thing that I can do.

Memory verses for the week: (Romans 6:5-7) “5 For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness or His resurrection; 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would be no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.”

Answer to our last Bible question:  “The book of the Law” (2 Kings 22:8).

Today’s Bible question:  “For what did the apostles pray when threatened by the council?”

Answer in our next SD.

8/15/2016 8:48 AM