SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2016 8:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Critical Man
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 11:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of
Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who
anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick.”
Let’s begin
by giving the meaning of the name of Lazarus “God has helped,” or “helped by
God,” and under the circumstances this is an appropriate name. Lazarus is a shortened form of the Hebrew
name Eleazar, and this was a very common name used during this time period, and
perhaps even today among Jewish people.
Now when we
go back to the ninth chapter of John’s gospel we saw something similar that we
see in this chapter, and that is that just as the blind man was not the focus
of the story, neither is Lazarus the focus of this story, but Jesus and His
Father are the focus, as the raising of Lazarus from the dead will bring glory
to the Lord.
John
mentions that a certain man was sick and then tells his readers who it was by
saying Lazarus of Bethany, and then further identifies him as the brother of
Mary and Martha. He does this because
there were at least to towns named Bethany in Israel during that time, and this
is the Bethany in Judah. John the
Baptist ministered in Bethany beyond the Jordan and after the Jews tried to
stone Jesus in chapter 10 He and His disciples went to that Bethany where John
ministered, so I guess you could say that Jesus and His disciples were going
from one Bethany to another Bethany.
Bethany =" house of dates" or "house of
misery"
1) A village at the Mount of Olives, about two miles (3 km)
from Jerusalem, on or near the normal road to Jericho.
2) A town or village on the east bank of the Jordan, where
John was baptizing. (From the
Greek/English Dictionary)
John
further describes Lazarus as being the brother of the Mary who anointed the
Lord with ointment. I want to look at
Luke 10:38-42 first to show us more about Jesus, Martha, and Mary “38 Now as
they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha
welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s
feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with all her
preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that
my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help
me." 41 But the Lord answered and
said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many
things; 42 but only one thing is
necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away
from her.’” Now we have to move ahead in
John’s gospel, to chapter 12 to see when Mary would anointed the Lord Jesus in
preparation for His burial. John,
remember was the last gospel to be written and so his readers would be familiar
with this story. “1 Jesus, therefore,
six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had
raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was
serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary
then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of
Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume.” Once again we
see Martha serving and Mary at the feet of Jesus. I remember my first Pastor that I had after
becoming a believer, and he mentioned that he thought it would be good to write
a book about all the things that we see in the gospels that happened at the
feet of Jesus. Well here are two things
that happened at the feet of Jesus, and there was a similar story like this one
when a harlot did something similar to the feet of Jesus when He was eating at
a Pharisee’s house. Joel Stowell, the
former President of the Moody Bible Institute wrote a book about this other
woman and entitled it “Why It Is So Hard To Love Jesus.”
By the way
in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Mark the story of Mary anointing the
feet of Jesus is also there, so as stated because John’s gospel was written
last his readers would have already been familiar with the story.
John
MacArthur concludes this section of his commentary by writing “Through the
resurrection of Lazarus Jesus and the Father would receive glory, the disciples’
faith would be strengthened, and the final straw would be dropped that prompted
the hostile Jewish leaders to bring about Jesus’ execution.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Sometimes, and perhaps far too many times, I
don’t relate things to bringing glory to the Lord. Like the blind man of chapter nine, and
Lazarus of chapter eleven, it was Jesus who would receive the glory, and not
them. My life should bring glory to the
Lord and not to me as I am like the hose that the water flows through, the hose
does not get the credit for what the water does. Paul writes “Because of the surpassing
greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given
to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To bring glory to the Lord
through my life each day.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:5-7) “5 For if we have become 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; 7
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Peter” (Matthew 16:16).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/17/2016 9:19 AM
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