SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2016 9:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to John 11:45-57
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 11:45-57
Message of the verses: “45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and
saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told
them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees
convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is
performing many signs. 48
“If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans
will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one
of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know
nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the
people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own
initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together
into one the children of
God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill
Him. 54 Therefore
Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from
there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there
He stayed with the disciples. 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and
many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify
themselves. 56 So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another
as they stood in the temple, "What do you think; that He will not come to
the feast at all?" 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given
orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they
might seize Him.”
We see
three “therefore” in this passage, and that is a very important word found in
the Bible as it is there over 900 times in the NASB translation. Therefore means you have to look back at what
you were just looking at to see how it connects with what you are now looking
at.
In Today’s
SD we begin the last chapter in John MacArthur’s commentary on the first eleven
chapters of the book of John, and he entitles this chapter “The Resurrection
and the Life—Part Four: Reactions to the
Resurrection of Lazarus.”
John’s
Gospel is rightly called at times “The Gospel of Belief” and as we look at the
theme from 20:30-31 we see that this is the purpose of it: “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in
the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been
written so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have
life in His name.” No one can believe
this unless they are called by the Spirit of God who will open their hearts and
minds so that they can believe this truth, and once they are called by the
Spirit then they must believe what John has written to us in this book, that
is, that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
John MacArthur
writes “In keeping with that purpose, John consistently presented the claim of
Jesus Christ to be God in human flesh (e.g., 5:17-47; 8:12; 10:7, 9; 10:11, 14;
11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5). As the response
of the unbelieving Jews (they wanted to stone Jesus for blasphemy) indicates,
they clearly were outraged because they understood exactly who He was claiming
to be (5:18; 8:59; 10:31).
“To
authenticate His claims, Jesus performed many miraculous signs (21:25), of
which seven are featured in the gospel of John (2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-18;
6:1-15; 6:16-21; 9:1-41; 11:1-57; John also highlighted a port-resurrection
miracle of Jesus in 21:6-11). These
seven signs culminate with the Lord’s spectacular display of divine power in
raising Lazarus from the dead. As has
been noted in earlier chapters of this volume, while the miracle strengthened
believers (11:15) and substantiated Jesus’ claim to be divine, its purpose was
that all who would ever know of it might give glory to Jesus and the Father
(11:4, 40).”
So what
happens after Jesus raised Lazarus it seen in the verses that we will be
looking at and what we will see in them is that some of the people who
witnessed this miracle believed in Jesus as their Messiah, and some of them
went running to the Pharisees to basically tell on Jesus, something like a
little brother will do when he sees his big brother do something wrong, but
these people who ran off to the Pharisees did not believe who Jesus was or they
would not have done this. This sets up
the meeting with the Pharisees that as we will see later will dome their
nation, and I will explain that later on as we go through the passage, and it
also set up the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which was totally in the plan of
God all along and would be done exactly the way He wants it done.
Now this is
nothing new for how the Jews have been treating Jesus as we have seen not only
in this gospel account but in the book of Mark we studied a few years ago. Their egos got in their way as they believed
in a false system that they took out of Judaism, but theirs was polluted and
selfish, thinking only of themselves and not the people of Israel. So there were some who hated Jesus and showed
that and there were many who were probably just indifferent to what Jesus was
doing, and then there were some who believed and became followers of Him.
MacArthur
adds “The various reactions of the Jewish people to Jesus after He raised
Lazarus from the dead are typical responses.
In verses 45-57 the response of faith, hostility, and indifference are
represented. Thus we meet many (who
display faith), the murders (who display hostility), and the multitudes (who
display indifference).” This is the
outline to what we will be looking at as we finish up this 11th
chapter of the gospel of John.
I in no
means want to confuse an issue that I want to say at this time, but it is my
desire as I take the time to study the Word of God each day to share it onto my
blogs with the desire that some who read it, who have never understood the
gospel to be led by the Holy Spirit to understand it and to accept it as they
accept Jesus Christ into their lives as Savior and Lord, and it is also my
desire that believers who read these Spiritual Diaries will be strengthened in
their faith and grow in the Lord. It is
also my desire that believers who read these Spiritual Diaries to have revival
come to their hearts so they will tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ and
what He has done for them. Then I also
want these Spiritual Diaries that are on these blogs to be spread around the
world so that they will bring glory to the Lord in all the ways that I have
mentioned, and to this end I pray each and every day that God will do these
things to His glory. I know that I am
not someone like John who wrote this gospel that we are reading and studying,
but I do have a desire to spread the Word of God around the world through these
Spiritual Diaries that are on my blogs.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: To continue to tell others the good news of
the gospel.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to continue to
give me the desire to study His Word each day.
Trust the Lord that all will be well with my grandson Nathan as he has a
problem.
Memory verses for the week:
(Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead,
is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Rehoboam” (1 Kings 12:14).
Today’s Bible question:
“In what city did Sennacherib live?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/1/2016 10:55 AM
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