SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2016 7:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
A Ministry Marked by Controversy in a Fallen World
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 10:19-21
Message of the verses: “19 A division occurred again among the Jews
because of these words. 20 Many of them were saying, "He has a demon and
is insane. Why do you listen to Him?" 21 Others were saying, "These
are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the
blind, can he?’”
As we look
at these three verses we see some things that we have seen before in our Lord’s
teaching, and that is a division sprung up between those who were listening to
His teaching, one side saying that He has a demon, while the other side saying
that a person with a demon could not heal the sight of a man born blind. Jesus Himself, said that He came to bring
division: Mathew 10:34-42: ‘"Do not think that I came to bring
peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS
FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER
MOTHER-IN-LAW; 36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. 37
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who
loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 “And he who does not
take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 “He who has found
his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
40 "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him
who sent Me. 41 "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall
receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of
a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 "And whoever in the name of a disciple
gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I
say to you, he shall not lose his reward.’”
As we go
back to look at our verses today we can find it interesting that these people
did not even take time to think about what the Lord had been saying, but just
jumped to a conclusion, and the sad part of this is that even though there was
a division it is probably true that neither side actually has saving
faith.
When the
people of Jesus’ day after seeing His miracles declared that He was doing them
in the power of Satan there was no hope for them as they had committed the
unpardonable sin, which could only be done in that way while Jesus was on the
earth. I have been studying a book just
written last year by John MacArthur about some of the parables of Jesus and in
the beginning he talks about what a parable was and what it was not, and then
goes into looking at the 12th chapter of Matthew. He goes there, and it is in the other
synoptic gospels as well, when a time comes when Jesus begins to teach in
parables because of this very thing that these people did in this section of
verses, and that is state that Jesus’ miracles were done by the power of
Satan. As stated above this was the
unpardonable sin, and so after that Jesus saw no hope for them and begins to tell
His parables so those who were interested could ask Him the meaning of them,
but few did, mostly His disciples.
John
MacArthur concludes this 36th chapter in his commentary with these
words: “Others, however, not so blindly
biased, were able to conclude the obvious—what the lucid, majestic sense and
clarity of Christ’s words indicated: ‘These
are not the sayings of one demon-possessed.’
Then, reaching the same conclusion as the blind man whom Jesus had
healed (9:30-33) they added, ‘A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can
he?’ Like the blind man, they realized
that Jesus’ miraculous power was undeniable proof that He truly was sanctioned
by and sent from God (cf. 7:31).” “But
many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, "When the Christ
comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will
He?"” As stated earlier this does
not conclude that these people had saving faith, and I don’t believe that they
did, but that is just an opinion of mine.
Perhaps some of these who made this statement came to know Christ as
Savior and Lord sometime later.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have found in my life that I have been too
much in a hurry many times and have also jumped to conclusions before taking
time to think about things before acting, and I know that this is one thing
that I need to work on, like those who spoke so fast saying that Jesus had a
demon.
My Steps of Faith for
today: Continue to remember that we
celebrate the Lord’s Table tomorrow evening.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:5-6) “5 For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of
His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of 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 no longer be slaves to sin;
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The Septuagint.”
Today’s Bible question “How were the Priest’s garments made
holy?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/6/2016 8:01 AM
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