SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/2/2016 10:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Reaction of the Many
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 11:45
Message of the verses: “45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to
Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.”
Now as we
look at this verse we see that it begins with the word “therefore” and so we
can understand that the therefore is therefore to show that those who believed
in Jesus, believed in Him because of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the
dead. Now there is another thing here
that perhaps may go unnoticed and that is that Martha’s name is not mentioned,
only Mary’s name is mentioned, and we really don’t know why Martha’s name is
not mentioned other than the fact that we see that Mary was the more emotional
of the two sisters and so she needed more comforting, or perhaps Mary was
better known than Martha who was the busy one and not the more social one. We can believe that if Mary were alive today
that she would probably spend a lot of time on Facebook, whatever the reason
people came to her because of the raising of Lazarus.
MacArthur
writes “The statement that ‘they believed in Him’ is simple but critical, since
saving faith is always placed in the Lord Jesus Christ and no other, as John
emphasized throughout his gospel (1:12; 2:11; 3:16, 18, 36; 4:39; 6:29, 35, 40;
7:31, 38-39; 9:35-36; 10:42; 11:25-26; 12:44, 46; 14:1, 12; cf. 1 John 3:23;
5:10, 13). Christ alone is ‘the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through [Him] (John
14:6), because ‘there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name
under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts
4:12).” This subject that is seen from
the verses shown here is the heart and soul of the Bible, the most important
thing that any human alive has to deal with, it is a matter, literally of
eternal life and eternal death.
The
important thing to realize is that not everyone who believed in Jesus
manifested true saving faith. Let us
look at a few verses that shows us this truth “23 Now when He was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His
signs which He was doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself
to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify
concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man John 2:23-25).” “As a result of this many of His disciples
withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore (John 6:66).” “30 As He spoke these things, many came to
believe in Him. 31 So Jesus was saying
to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples
of Mine (John 8:30-31).” “You
believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder
(James 2:19).”
9/2/2016 11:07 AM 9/2/2016
12:15 PM
John
MacArthur adds several reasons as to why he believes that the individuals
spoken of in verse forty-five are true believers. “First, verses 49-52 refer to Christ’s death
resulting in salvation for His people—a salvation that, in context, seems to
include this group of Jews who believed in Him.
Second, Jesus’ primary reason for raising Lazarus was to glorify Himself
and the Father (vv. 4, 40), and the Lord is glorified when people truly believe
and are saved (2 Cor. 4:15). Third, the
Jewish authorities evidently view these people as genuine followers of Jesus
Christ (v. 48); they saw them as a legitimate threat to their hypocritical religious
authority. Fourth, those who are said to
believe are contrasted with the unbelievers who reported the incident to the
Pharisees (v. 46); the apostle John makes a clear distinction between the two
groups. Finally, though faith based
solely on Jesus’ miracles was not always genuine (2:23), this miracle was so
powerful and convincing that it was unlikely to have produced shallow,
superficial believers.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: This section takes me back to when I first
became a believer in Jesus Christ and reminds me of how the Lord changed my life
in a very short amount of time, and my life has not been the same since.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to tell others of
this wonderful life changing event that happened to me back in January of 1974.
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, having been raised from the
dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Nineveh” (2 Kings 19:36).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who was offered by his father as a burnt offering?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/2/2016 12:32 PM
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