SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/29/2016 11:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Promise
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 11:40
Message of the verses: “40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to
you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"”
I want to
do a little review since this Spiritual Diary will be short, and what I want to
do is to take a brief look at some of the seven “I Am” statements that are
found in the gospel of John. From our
past study we know that when we read these I Am statements that Jesus is
telling His audience that He is God the very God that is described in Exodus
3:14 “God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you
shall say to the sons of Israel, ’I AM has sent me to you.’"” When we see that Hebrew name of God it is in
all caps LORD, and it is Yahweh, or in the English Jehovah.
“John 6:35
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not
hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” “John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them,
saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in
the darkness, but will have the Light of life."” “John 10:7 So Jesus said to them again,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” “John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd; the
good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” “John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.” “John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the
way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” “John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father
is the vinedresser. John 15:5 “I am the
vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much
fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
We see
these seven “I Am” statements from John’s gospel and in many cases they are
connected to a miracle that Jesus did or would do. John 6:35 speaks of when Jesus gave the fish
and loaves of bread to the crowd. The I
Am statement in John 8:12 is right before He gave the blind man sight. Next we see the I Am statement in the chapter
that we are looking at this time, chapter eleven where we read “Jesus said to
her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live
even if he dies.” This is probably the most important statement
that we see in this 11th chapter of John, for in it we see Jesus is
saying that He is the One who gives resurrection, both spiritual and physical,
and He proves that by raising Lazarus from the dead, giving life to a totally
dead person, which is what He does when He saves a person as we are all born
dead. Now we look forward to looking at
the other two “I Am” statements as we continue to look at John’s gospel.
Martha’s despair
drew out from Jesus a response that was designed partly to give her hope, and
also it was partly a gentle rebuke.
MacArthur writes “The text does not record the Lord making this exact
statement to Martha in their prior conversation (vv. 20-28). Therefore He may have been referring to an
earlier remark that does not appear in Scripture, or this statement may have
been intended as a composite of verse 4 (His words there were not doubt
reported to Mary and Martha) and verses 23-26).
In either
case, Jesus’ reminder challenged Martha to stop being concerned about her
brother’s body and to start focusing on Him.”
The Lord tells her that if she believed that she would see the glory of
God, and that is exactly what happened to her, and all of those who were with
her at that time. Now we know that if
she believed or did not believe that that would not cause Jesus to raise
Lazarus from the dead, for He was going to do that whether or not she believed
for that was a part of His plan and that could not be changed. Those who were present who would be given
faith to believe in Him would be saved, but some of those present at the
raising of Lazarus went off to tell the Jews what had happened and did not have
faith to believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be. John MacArthur quotes Leon Morris who
explains “For [Jesus] the ‘glory of God’ was the one important thing. This means that the real meaning of what He
would do would be accessible only to faith.
All who were there, believers or not, would see the miracle. But Jesus is promising Martha a sight of the
glory. The crowd would see the miracle,
but only believers would perceive its real significance, the glory.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to see what the Lord wants me
to see in His Word every time I open it up to read and study it, but I suppose
there are times when I don’t see what He wants me to see, but then there are
times when things seem to jump off the page, even something I have read may
times before.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: One of the things that I have
been trying to do better is to meditate on God’s Word, which is what I want to
continue to do.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died to Christ, we believe we shall
also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is
never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “His vineyard” (1 Kings 21:2).
Today’s Bible question:
“What was the feast of unleavened bread called?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/29/2016 12:24 PM
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