PT-1 The Savior's Provision for an Invitation to All (John 12:23-26)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2016 10:23 AM

My Worship Time                            Focus:  PT-1 The Savior’s Provision for an Invitation to All

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  John 12:23-26

            Message of the verses:  “23 And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”

I have to say that even though we will probably not get to verse 26 today it has a great meaning for me this morning due to the fact that I was asked to serve as one of the prayer coordinators for a stewardship program we have going on in our church and to think that anyone who is serving the Lord will one day be honored by the Lord is kind of overwhelming to me.

Now as we remember what we looked at yesterday about some Greeks coming to speak to Jesus we may think that His response to that portion of Scripture is rather unusual to what they asked.  John does not even mention what happened to those Greeks, but according to verse 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,’” shows us that Jesus was speaking to a crowd and perhaps they were in that crowd.  Whatever the case this response is what Jesus gives.

Jesus says that His hour has come for Him to be glorified, and remember that glory usually comes after suffering, which He will go through before He will be glorified.  Now this is the first time that He uses the word Hour to refer to what was going to happen to Him.  MacArthur adds “From this point on the Lord referred to it as imminent (vs. 27; 13:1; 16:32; 17:1).”

Now if you would have been a Jew listening to what Jesus said you probably would have thought that He was about to overthrow the Roman government and usher in the kingdom because of the events that just took place, that is ridding into Jerusalem where He claims to be the King, and people were saying things from the Psalms that were only to be used when the Messiah came.  Not the case as we know what He is speaking of and at this time it was not to take down the Roman government, but that will happen to Rome phase II when He returns at His second coming.

Notice the words “Son of Man” something that is used more frequently in the synoptic gospels.  MacArthur writes the following on this title:  They would have remembered the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14 concerning the Son of Man (unmistakably a title signifying messiahship to those who knew the prophecy) and the establishing of His kingdom:  ‘13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.”

We will look in our next SD what Jesus says to destroy those hopes that they might have had.

Spiritual meaning for my life today: Just as the people of that day were disappointed as to what the Lord was about to do, there are times in my life when I am disappointed that the Lord has not done something in my life either, however I has to look at this section and see what the Lord did was far better, and continue to trust Him.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember that the Lord never makes a mistake.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:12) “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts;”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Paul” (Acts 25:11).

Today’s Bible question:  “What country did Jesus need to pass through in going from Judea to Galilee?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/23/2016 11:31 AM