SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/8/2016 8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Final Call to
Belief
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 12:35-36
Message of the verses: “35 So Jesus said to them, "For a little
while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that
darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know
where he goes. 36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you
may become sons of Light." These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and
hid Himself from them.”
As we look
at the rest of this section in this SD I have to think that this is a sad day
for the children of Israel, for their Messiah had come to minister to them
being there a little over three years and they have rejected Him and were about
to kill Him, and yet because of His long-suffering He gives them a final call
to accept the salvation that He was about to provide for them, for after this
chapter John moves on to talk about how the Lord ministers to His disciples so that
once He is gone back to heaven they will remember what He has told them to do.
Jesus is
telling His audience that they need to walk in the Light so that the darkness
will not overtake them, and when you think about that statement of walking in
the Light we know that it means to walk in the light that Jesus gives to us
through the power of His Holly Spirit, however these people did not want to
walk in the Light as we will see later on in this section of John’s
gospel. Think about going into a dark
room, a room that is so dark that you can feel the darkness, like going into a
cave down deep in the earth where there is no light at all. Now think about someone just lighting a match
and what happens after that? Well you
can see for light always overcomes the darkness. Jesus Christ, the Light of the world will
always overcome the darkness of this world system for those who will accept His
forgiveness of your sins and inviting Him into your life to live in you in the
person of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus goes
on to say to them “walk while you have the Light, so that the darkness will not
overtake you, he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.” Let’s look at 1 John 2:11 “But the one who
hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not
know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” This is a similar statement that John makes
to his readers of this first letter he wrote.
Jesus is
talking about those who were traveling at night before there were any electric
lights and they got caught in the darkness for at that time there was not light
to guide them to where they were going.
This illustration that is made here worked much better before we have
all of the modern lights that we have now, but I think we can get the point He
is making as Jesus is tell His audience that those who have not accepted Him
are like those walking around in the darkness.
MacArthur
adds “The sobering truth is that when sinners persistently reject Him, God may
ultimately remove His grace and judge them.
Nehemiah records God’s extraordinary patience with Israel: “You bore with them for many years, and
admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets’ (9:30a). But when ‘they would not give ear…[God] gave
them into the hand of the peoples of the lands’ (9:30b; cf. Judg. 10:13; 2
Kings 17:13-18; 2 Chron. 15 :2; 24:20).”
Now we have also mentioned Romans 1:18-32 in earlier SD’s and that is
one of the most sobering portions of Scripture that I believe is being
fulfilled in our country, and that is not the portion of Scripture that one
wants to have being fulfilled.
MacArthur
writes “Those who reject Jesus Christ, never embracing Him in saving faith,
will inevitably face God’s vengeance, wrath, and judgment in eternal
punishment.”
We next are
able to see the tragic climax of the Lord’s public ministry to Israel when John
writes “These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.” As mentioned this is one of the sad parts of
Scripture along with when Jesus was weeping over the city of Jerusalem telling
them that they missed their Messiah and not great trouble is coming their way. MacArthur quotes D. A. Carson who writes “by
His withdrawal, His self-conscious hiding from the people, [Jesus] is acting
out the judicial warning He has just pronounced.”
We have
been studying the gospel of John since November of last year and we have seen
the ministry of Jesus Christ that John presents to us, and yet from this time
on we will not see any more of His public ministry, and for me that is a sad
thing to realize.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Looking at this section causes me to want to
continue to get the Word out to those who do not know Jesus Christ as their
Savior and Lord.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Continue to pray that the
Lord will use these Spiritual Diaries to draw people to Himself.
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: “The wicked’s” Proverbs 3:33).
Today’s Bible question:
“Which woman received Jesus into her home?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/8/2016 9:53 AM
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