SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/25/2016 8:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
His Compassion
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference:
John 11:28-36
Message of the verses: “28 When she had said this, she went away and
called Mary her sister, saying secretly, "The Teacher is here and is calling for
you." 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him. 30
Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where
Martha met Him. 31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they
saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that
she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Therefore, when Mary came where
Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You
had been here, my brother would not have died." 33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and
the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, 34
and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord,
come and see." 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews were saying, "See how He loved him!"”
In our last
SD we saw that Martha had confirmed her faith in Jesus, and so she now goes secretly
to tell Mary that He was there so that she could come and see Him too. We also mentioned how the Jew conducted a
funeral, how they had people come who were professional mourners and would stay
a week with the love ones who had just lost one of their own, and so seeing how
this was the fourth day they were still there with both Mary and Martha. It is interesting to me that the text does
not show us that Jesus asked to see Mary, but Martha does tell Mary that He had
said that He wanted to see her, so I have to believe that He had requested to
see Mary. By giving the message to her
in secret she may have been hoping that Mary could have a private meeting with
her without all of the mourners coming along, but that was not what happened,
and I have to believe that this was the plan of Jesus all along as they all
would see the miracle He was about to do.
Now we may not know what he motives were by telling Mary secretly, but whatever
they were it seems that they failed.
Mary got up
quickly and went to Jesus who was still on the outskirts of the town, and
because she got up quickly the mourners, along with others who were there
including the Jews thought that she was going to go to the grave and weep and
mourn there and so they followed. Now
the idea of there being “Jews” there and the fact that John seems to only talk
about them as being leaders and in a negative way, perhaps they knew that Jesus
had stayed there frequently and were there to look for Him, as the Jewish
leaders still desired to have Him killed.
Now as far
as going to the tomb to week let us look at 2 Samuel 3:32 “Thus they buried
Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of
Abner, and all the people wept.” I
suppose that this surely still goes on in our culture today too.
As we have
been looking at both Martha and Mary we have probably seen that Mary is the
more emotional of the two and once again we see Mary at the feet of Jesus as
she has been before when she was learning from Him. It seemed that when Martha spoke to Jesus
there was once again some reproach in telling Him that if He would have been
there Lazarus would not have died, but with Mary being at the feet we see no
reproach as her statement was simply a reflection of her grief. I know that all of us as believers at one
time or another are trying to tell Him what He should do as Martha did, and so
we can understand what Martha did.
John MacArthur
writes “The scene was understandably one of intense sorrow and pain. Not only was Mary weeping (a form of the verb
klaio; ‘to wail,’ or ‘to lament loudly’),
but the Jews who came with her were also weeping and wailing loudly. According to Jewish custom, even the poorest
family was expected to hire at least two flute players and a professional
wailing woman. Since Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus were a prominent family, they would likely have had even more
professional mourners, in addition to the others who came to pay their respects
(v. 19).
Observing
the chaotic scene, Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. Deeply moved is a misleading translation of
the verb embrimaomai, which literally
means to snort like a horse. Apart from
its use in v. 38, it appears only three other times in the New Testament (Matt.
9:30; Mark 1:43; 14:5), where it is translated ‘sternly warned’ or ‘scolding.’ It thus includes the connotation of anger,
outrage, or indignation. Jesus appears to
have been angry not only over the painful reality of sin and death, of which
Lazarus was a beloved example, but perhaps also with the mourners, who were
acting like the pagans who have no hope (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13). Tarasso
(troubled) further emphasizes the intensity of the Lord’s reaction. The term is similarly used elsewhere to
describe strong emotions, such as Herod’s reaction to the magi’s arrival (Matt.
2:3), the disciples’ terror when they saw Jesus walking on the water (14:26);
Zachariah’s fear when he saw the angel in the temple (Luke 1:12); the disciples’
amazement at seeing Jesus after His resurrection (24:38); Jesus’ reaction to
His impending death (John 12:27); and His response to Judas’s imminent betrayal
(13:21).”
We know
that Jesus has never, nor could He ever do anything wrong, and so as we look at
the emotions that He shows, and we can see them better as we better understand
the Greek language with the help of John MacArthur, we know that in each case
He shows the proper emotion, and this is something that we as believers do not
do all of the time. I would especially
think of anger and in a specific situation while driving a car and being cut
off by someone.
Jesus next
asks “where have they laid him,” and the answer was “Lord, come and see.” We don’t know who the “they” refers to but it
may refer to some in the crowd who were favorably disposed to Jesus, and why
this is possible is because of what they called Him “Lord.”
When I
first started going to my first church after being saved our Pastor would
sometimes have a contest as part of the evening service and would divide the
people into two sides depending on what side of the church they were sitting
on. He would ask them to recite
different Bible verses and give a time limit to see which side would win. He then would caution that John 3:35 could
not be used as “Jesus wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible. And so we need
to understand this verse and for that we have to have the Greek in it explained
by John MacArthur. “Like the others, ‘Jesus
wept.’ But the Greek verb is not klaio as in verse 33, but dakruo, a rare word used only here in
the New Testament. In contrast to the
loud wailing implied by klaio, dakruo
has the connotation of silently bursting into tears, unlike the typical funeral
mourners. Jesus’ tears were generated
both by His love for Lazarus and His grief over the deadly and incessant
effects of sin in the fallen world. Verse 35, though it is the shortest verse
in the Bible, is rich with meaning. It emphasizes
Jesus’ humanity; He was truly ‘a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’
(Isa. 53:3). But while the Jews were
correct in seeing Jesus’ sorrow as evidence that He loved Lazarus, they were
wrong to think that His tears reflected the same hopeless despair that they
felt.”
I want to
write a bit about that hopelessness that is referred to above as I think about
a subject that causes me to be properly angered, and that is evolution. Evolution is first and foremost a false
religion, which many people do not understand that it is a religion. Evolution is impossible to happen in the way
the evolutionists describe, or try to describe it to happen. Evolution is simply a way of taking God out
of the picture, saying that the universe just happened by chance, therefore
there is no God to worship who brought the universe into existence the way we
see it today. For those who have swallowed
this poison pill, they have no hope. Now
I am not writing to those who say that they are Christians who are improperly
convinced that there is a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, which certainly did
not happen, and so they are misled and mislead others. I am talking about those who believe that the
came from a one cell animal into a human being which happened over how long
these uniformed people want to say, and the length of time continues to
change. They have no hope and what they
are, are a people who believe that they are a protozoa who will eventually turn
into manure. On the other had a true believer has this as their hope, and hope
in this case is a noun and not a verb: “Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope,
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” There is a difference here and those who have
swallowed that poison pill of evolution can come in repentance to the Lord and
receive salvation as they put their trust in Him for eternal life, and those
believes who believe in this false gap theory can also confess their sin and
ask the Lord for forgiveness.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Thinking about Jesus being human is something
that I have not done a lot in the past, but after looking at this 11th
chapter of John’s gospel I can see that His life portrayed as being human, and
it is hard for me in the past to understand that. I tend to make the mistake of breaking Jesus
up into partly God and partly human where as He is 100% God, and 100%
human.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To see His perfect humanity
and do better to live like that.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:8) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall
live with Him,”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Saul” (1 Samuel 28:7).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where did Peter heal Aeneas?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/25/2016 9:47 AM
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