SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2016
9:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: On the Next
Day
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 12:12a
Message of the
verse: “12 On the next day”
I don’t know if I mentioned it or not but we will be in
the “Passion Week” for most of the rest of the book of John as chapters 12-17
speak of the events that take place up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which
is seen in chapters 18-19 which also talk about His burial, then chapters 20
speaks of the resurrection and 21 talks mostly about Jesus restoring Peter for
the ministry He has for him.
Now as we speak of passion week there are different
opinions as to what day Jesus was actually crucified as some say that it was on
Wednesday while others say Thursday, and most people say that it is on
Friday. The reason for the different
opinions has to do with a statement that Jesus made about how long He would be
in the grave. He mentioned the following
“38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, "Teacher, we want
to see a sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An
evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given
to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40 for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE
BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:38-40).” Now some believe that if
Jesus was crucified on Friday at 3:00 PM He would have been in the grave
Friday, even though it was only a part of Friday as the Jewish day began at
6:00 PM, and He would be in the grave all of Saturday, and part of Saturday. Others believe that when He spoke this in
Matthew that He had to be in the grave for 72 hours as that constituted three
total days. There is precedence for both
and as we follow the outline and some of the comments of John MacArthur we will
go with Jesus crucified on Friday, so when we say “on the next day” we will say
that day was Monday. Now the important
thing about what we are talking about here is that Jesus was crucified, buried
and rose again as the different theories are nice to talk about but not the main
point.
Monday morning was the day after Jesus had the dinner at
the house of Simon where Martha served, and Mary anointed His body for His upcoming
burial. Some believe that it was during
that night that Judas went and met with the Jewish officials and some say that
it was later on, but again the point is that at some time Judas did this as it
was prophesied that he would in the book of Zechariah and the account is given
in Matthew 26:14-16. There is one more thing
that I want to point out and that is that the gospel of John speaks the most
writing about what Jesus did for His disciples during the Passion Week.
When we were studying the book of Mark a few years back
there is something that I learned at that time that is seen here and that is
that the Jewish leaders surely wanted Jesus crucified, but they did not want it
to be done on the Passover, and their reason was that the crowds would react in
the wrong way and there would possibly be a riot and cause difficulties with
the Romans. However Jesus, who Paul
writes is our Passover Lamb, had to die exactly when the Passover Lambs were
slain which from what I have learned is at 3:00 PM on the day of the
Passover. “17 “For this reason the
Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No
one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have
authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This
commandment I received from My Father’ (John 10:17-18).” “10 So Pilate said to Him, "You do not
speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have
authority to crucify You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You would have no
authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he
who delivered Me to you has the greater sin’ (John 19:10-11).” “23 this Man, delivered over by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands
of godless men and put Him to death (Acts 2:23).” “27
"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your
holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28
to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur (Acts
4:27-28).” “4 But when the fullness of
the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).” “1Co 5:7
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact
unleavened. For Christ our
Passover also has been sacrificed.”
As Jesus comes into Jerusalem on what is traditionally
called Palm Sunday, and I know that MacArthur says this is Monday, but the fact
remains that He did come into Jerusalem to fulfill the prophecies of Zechariah
9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to
you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus was coming to announce that He was the King of Israel and this
would cause the Jews to crucify Him on the day that God planned for Him to die,
otherwise as we have mentioned it would not have been on the Passover.
We mentioned that this exact day that Jesus came into
Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-26, and if you haven’t read
that SD please do as that was something very important to understand. For the best understand of the chronology of
this event one can read Sir Robert Anderson’s “The Coming Prince” or there is
another book entitled “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ” written by
Harold Heohner.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I do think that
it is good to know as much about the dates that things happened in the life of
Jesus Christ, but I also believe that the most important thing to know is the
truth of Jesus Christ, the truth of the Gospel that Jesus Christ brought into
existence through His life, death, burial and resurrection of which is paramount
to every person who ever lived on planet earth.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
I have truly been blessed that my
almost 5 year old grandson understood the truth of the Gospel yesterday and
received Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, and for that I am truly
blessed.
Memory verses for the
week: (Romans 6:10-11) “10 For the death
that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives
to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves
to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Bartimaeus” (Mark 10:46-51).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where did Martha and Mary
live?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/16/2016 10:13 AM
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