SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/28/2016 7:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro to John 12:27-34
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:27-34
Message of the verses: “27 "Now My soul has become troubled;
and what shall I say, ’Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I
came to this hour. 28 “Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out
of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." 29
So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had
thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." 30 Jesus
answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your
sakes. 31 “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be
cast out. 32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to
Myself." 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which
He was to die. 34 The crowd then answered Him, "We have heard out of the
Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ’The Son of Man
must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?’”
As
mentioned in our last SD this section is entitled “Facing the Cross” in the
commentary of John MacArthur and so we want to focus in on what Christ would
accomplish on the cross as we continue in our introduction of this section of
Scripture.
It is very
important to understand that the Christian faith centers on the death, burial,
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without any of this then there would be no Christian faith, and as we
think about that when we look at other “religions” this is not present as all
of their “saviors, or spiritual leaders” are dead, however the grave is empty
for our Savior as He has risen from the dead.
What we are looking at in the Christian faith is the fact that God the
Father sent God the Son to planet earth in order to bring about salvation
through His life, death, burial, and resurrection from the dead, along with His
ascending into heaven where He is at this time.
Look at Revelation 13:8 from the NKJV “All who dwell on the earth will
worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world.” This shows that this was “foreordained
before the foundation of the world” as seen in 1 Peter 1:20a “He indeed was
foreordained before the foundation of the world.” John MacArthur writes “From start to finish,
the Scriptures emphasize the crucial significance of Christ’s sacrifice as an
offering for the sins of all who would ever believe—a substitutionary offering
that satisfied or propitiated the wrath of God on behalf of all the elect (cf.
Isa. 53:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24).”
We will
begin to look at four things about the death of our Savior and the first one
speaks of His death fulfilling prophecy from the Old Testament, something
Israel failed to understand as seen in 1 Cor. 1:23 “but we preach Christ
crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.” Jesus pointed out to those who were walking
with Him after the resurrection had taken place the following in Luke 24:25-27 “25
And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have
spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things
and to enter into His glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all
the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the
Scriptures.” I have mentioned before
that I would have loved to have heard that sermon from the mouth of our Lord.
The
following OT Scriptures show that the Messiah came to die: Daniel 9:25-27 “25 "So you are to know and discern that
from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the
Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again,
with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 “Then after the sixty-two
weeks the Messiah will be
cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come
will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood;
even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 “And he will
make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week
he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of
abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete
destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.’” Notice the highlighted portion where we see
that it was predicted that the Messiah would die, for that is what that
means. Now let us look at Zechariah
12:10 where God says “"I will pour out on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me
whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only
son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a
firstborn.” MacArthur adds “As a result
of Messiah’s death, ‘A fountain will be opened for the house of David and for
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity’ (Zech. 13:1).”
I am not
going to quote the passage in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 but this passage shows that
the Messiah would be “pierced through four our transgressions” and also “crushed
for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5; and “by oppression and judgment He [would be]
taken away…cut off out of the land of the living (53:8); and that His grave
[would be] assigned with wicked men, yet He [would be] with a rich man in His
death” (53:9); that the Lord [would be] pleased to crush Him, putting Him to
grief” that “He would render Himself as a guilt offering” (53:10); and that God
would bless Him “because He poured out Himself to death” (53:12).” The unfortunate thing is that even today the
Jewish Rabbis say that this section of Scripture is speaking of the nation
Israel, I cannot understand how they get that out of this passage that was
fulfilled in their Messiah.
There are
many more OT prophecies that speak of the death of the Messiah and I would like
to quote one more, and that is Psalm 22 which was written by David and vividly
describes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as if David was the one dying on the
cross. This psalm was written hundreds
of years before crucifixion was used as a way of killing people for their offences.
“6 But I am
a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised by the people. 7 All who
see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, 8 “Commit
yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He
delights in him (Ps. 22:6-8).”
“14 I am
poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my
tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs
have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my
hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; 18
They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots Ps.
22:14-18).”
The gospel
of Matthew was written primarily to the Jews and you will find in that Gospel
the words “as it was written” many times or word similar to this that Matthew
was using to show the Jews some of the prophecies that were being fulfilled through
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
One more
thing I want to mention and that is the OT sacrificial system pointed to what
would be the ultimate sacrifice, and that is the sacrifice of the Lamb of God,
our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, for His death occurred exactly when
the Passover Lambs were slain.
We will
look at the second thing about the death of Jesus Christ, which actually covers
about one-fifth of the writings in the New Testament, in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Understanding that much of the entire Bible
speaks of the Messiah who would come, who would live, who would die, who would
be buried, and who would be resurrected for me is something that, for lack of a
better word picture, blows me away.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To remember the truth that
when Jesus Christ died, I too died to sin as is scene in my memory verses for
Romans 6 that I am working on.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:13) “13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body
to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as
those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to
God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “None” (Luke 1:5-7).
Today’s Bible question:
“Other than Jesus and His disciples, who attended the banquet that
Matthew prepared?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/28/2016 8:52 AM
