SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2016 10:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The Traitor Addressed
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 13:26-30
Message of the verses: “26 Jesus then answered, "That is the
one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had
dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27
After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him,
"What you do, do quickly." 28 Now no one of those reclining at the
table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. 29 For some were
supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him,
"Buy the things we have need of for the feast"; or else, that he
should give something to the poor. 30 So after receiving the morsel he went out
immediately; and it was
night.”
We left our
SD yesterday with Judas crossing the line as he did not want anything to do
with Jesus and so Satan entered him after he had eaten the morsel. Now Jesus tells him “What you do, do quickly.” Now we have mentioned earlier that His
disciples did not realize what Judas was going to do thinking he was to give
something to the poor or buy more food or something like that. Now I want to focus in on this phrase “do
quickly.” We have discussed the time
line that had to be followed for the death of Jesus Christ as He had to die
exactly when the Passover lambs died, but this was not the plan of the
Pharisees for they did not want this to happen until after the Passover
celebration because there were as many as one million people in and around
Jerusalem for this feast and they feared that the crowds would cause a problem,
but instead they got on board with having Jesus crucified. God’s plans always work out exactly on the
timetable that He desires them to work out, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
would work out exactly according to His plan.
Now as we
look at the last phrase of verse 30 we see “and it was night.” According to my
Online Bible program and in the NASB95 version there are 298 uses of the word
night from Genesis to Revelation. Now
things were different before electrify was found and night was certainly more
dark then than now, but my point is that if something was going to happen that
was not good it usually happened at night.
Jesus said that He was the Light of the world, and when we first began
this study of John we talked about the fact that light is power, for you cannot
get light without some kind of power. In
the eternal kingdom described in the last chapter of Revelation we see that
there will be no need for the sun or the moon for God is the One who will make
things light and it also says that there will be no more darkness. Light and darkness can, and do many times in the
Scripture talk about spiritual things and as we look at our reference in verse
thirty it can refer to both physical and spiritual for Judas had decided to
remain in spiritual darkness and would never see the light of day again and
also the spiritual forces of darkness would come about in order to have the Son
of God crucified, so yes it truly was dark, but take courage for Sunday morning
will bring about the resurrection of the Son of God with spiritual light
offered to all who will receive Him.
We will
conclude with some lessons that we can learn from this story of Judas and his betrayal
as written by John MacArthur in his commentary.
“First, Judas is history’s greatest example of lost opportunity and
wasted privilege. He heard Jesus teach
day in and day out. Further, he had the
opportunity to personally interact with Him.
He witnessed firsthand the miracles Jesus performed that proved He was
God in human flesh. Yet Judas refused
Christ’s invitation to exchange the oppressive burden of sin for the easy yoke
of submission to Him (Matt. 11:28-30).
Second,
Judas is the foremost illustration of the danger of loving money (1 Tim.
6:10). Money meant more to him than
eternal salvation.
Third,
Judas typifies the vileness of spiritual betrayal. In every age that have been Judases, who
professed to follow Christ but turned against Him. Judas’ life is also a sobering reminder of
the need for self-examination (2 Cor. 13:5).
Fourth,
Judas was living proof of Christ’s patience, mercy, and loving-kindness. Even when he arrived with the mob to arrest
Him, Jesus still addressed Judas as ‘friend’ (Matt. 26:50).
Fifth, the
example of Judas shows that the Devil will always be at work among God’s
people. Jesus illustrated that truth in
the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43).
Sixth,
Judas proves the deadliness of hypocrisy.
He was a fruitless branch, cast into the eternal fire of hell (John
15:6).
Finally,
Judas demonstrated that there is nothing sinful men can do to thwart the
sovereign will of God. Out of the
seeming tragedy of the cross came the triumph of redemption; Satan’s apparent
victory was in reality his ultimate defeat (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8; cf. Gen.
3:15). God used Judas’s treachery for His
own glory (cf. Gen. 50:20).
When Judas
sold Jesus to His enemies he was in effect selling his own soul to the
Devil. In the words of the poet,
‘Still as
of old
Men by
themselves are priced—
For thirty
pieces Judas sold
Himself,
not Christ.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the
faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that
Jesus Christ is in you-unless indeed you fail the test?”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust that the Lord’s plan
for my life and the country that I live in are all on schedule even if I have a
problem with what is going on.
Memory verse for the week:
(Rom. 6:15) “15 What then? Shall we to continue in sin because we are no
longer under law but under grace? May it
never be!”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Balak” (Numbers 24:11).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where did Laban live?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/28/2016 11:10 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment