SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/16/2016 9:21 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Sublime Riches of Christ’s Love
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 13:1
Message of the verses: “1 Now before the Feast of the Passover,
Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to
the Father, having loved
His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
The first
thing that I wish to do in this SD is to quote from the end of the introductory
commentary of John MacArthur’s commentary so we can get an idea of where we are
going as we look at the first 17 verses of chapter 13: “The account of the first expression of His
love, the washing of the disciples’ feet, may be discussed under four
headings. We see the sublime riches of
Christ’s love, the satanic rejection of His love, the shocking revelation of
His love, and the suitable response to His love.”
Now when we
talk about the Passover which is the first thing John mentions in verse one we
know that this was the celebration of the children of Israel leaving Egypt
after being in bondage for four hundred years.
The Passover was celebrated by the slaying of a Passover Lamb and the
shedding of the blood of that lamb on the doorposts of the houses that the
children of Israel lived in. Now when I
studied the book of Mark I learned that there were actually two different days
that the Jewish people celebrated the Passover depending where they lived at in
the nation of Israel, and this is an important thing to understand when we
study this passage. I will talk about
that a bit latter, but as we look at this Passover, the one that Jesus Christ
would die exactly when the Passover Lambs were to be slain we learn that this
is the last divinely authorized one that would be celebrated, for after the
death of Christ on this last Passover there would be no need to sacrifice any
more lambs, for Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world was
sufficient payment for all sins for those who would accept His
forgiveness. John MacArthur adds “The
Last Supper celebrated by the Lord with His disciples gave Him opportunity to
use the elements of the Passover meal to form a transition from the old
covenant Passover to the new covenant Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23-26).”
He goes on
to write “An apparent discrepancy exists at this point between John’s
chronology and that of the Synoptic Gospels.
The later clearly states that the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Matt.
26:17-19; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7-15).
John 18:23, however, records that the Jewish leaders ‘led Jesus from
Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early [Friday morning; the day of the
crucifixion]; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that
they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.’ Further, according to John 19:14 Jesus’ trial
and crucifixion took place on ‘the day of preparation for the Passover,’ not
the day after the eating of the Passover meal.
Thus the Lord was crucified at the same time that the Passover lambs
were being killed (cf. 19:36; Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12). The challenge, then, is to explain how Jesus
and the disciples could have eaten the Passover meal on Thursday evening if the
Jewish leaders had not yet eaten it on Friday morning.
“The answer
lies in understanding that the Jews had two different methods of reckoning
days. Ancient Jewish sources suggest
that Jews from the northern part of Israel (including Galilee, where Jesus and
most of the twelve were from) counted days from sunrise to sunrise. Most of the Pharisees apparently also used
that method. On the other hand Jews in
the southern region of Israel counted days from sunset to sunset. That would include the Sadducees (who of
necessity lived in the vicinity of Jerusalem because of their connection with
the Temple). Though no doubt confusing
at times, that dual method of reckoning days would have had practical benefits
at Passover, allowing the feast to be celebrated on two consecutive days. That would have eased the crowded conditions
in Jerusalem, especially in the temple, where all the lambs would not have had
to be killed on the same day.” Now this
is an important quote to help us understand these so called differences between
the gospel of John and the Synoptic gospels.
Next we see
that the hour had come for Jesus. Now when
we studied the 2nd chapter of John’s gospel where Jesus’ mother was
asking Him about wine that had run out He told her that His hour had not yet
come, but now it had come, for soon He would be hanging on a cross paying for
my sins and all the sins of those who would ever accept His sacrifice for
them. Jesus knew that it was time for
Him to depart out of this world to go to the Father as He was in full control
of when this would take place and nothing could stop it.
No the
theme of this section (1-17) is about love we read “having loved His own who were in the world, He
loved them to the end.” MacArthur
writes “Telos” (end) means ‘perfection,’
or ‘completeness,’ and signifies that Jesus loves His own with the fullest measure
of love. There is a general sense in
which God loves the world (John 3:16) of lost sinners (Matt. 5:44-45; Titus 3:4), but He loves His own
with a perfect, eternal, redeeming love—a love ‘which surpasses knowledge’
(Eph. 3:19).”
The following are some words from a hymn that talks about
this kind of love Christ has for His own:
“Loved with everlasting love,’
Led by
grace that love to know;
Gracious
Spirit from above,
Thou hast
taught me it is so!
O, this
full and perfect peace!
O, this
transport all divine!
In a love
which cannot cease,
I am His, and
He is mine.”
We will end
with a quote from Romans 8:35-39: “35
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is
written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE
CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." 37 But in all these things we
overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Darius” (Daniel 6:1-16).
Today’s Bible question:
“The life of Moses is told in which book?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/16/2016 10:01 PM
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