SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/17/2016 8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro.
To John 14:15-26
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14:15-26
Message of the verses: “15 "If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments. 16 "I will ask the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him
because He abides with you and will be in you.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 "After a little while the world will no
longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 “In that day you will know that I
am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 "He who has My commandments and keeps
them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,
and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 22 Judas (not
Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to
disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?" 23 Jesus answered and said
to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love
him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who does not
love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but
the Father’s who sent Me. 25 "These things I have spoken to you while
abiding with you. 26 "But the
Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,
and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
John
MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary on the gospel of John, “The
Legacy of Jesus,” and yesterday I listened to his newest sermon on the first
half of these verses and what I learned from that sermon was something that I
would have never thought of after reading them.
He was speaking about heaven from these verses saying that when most
people think of heaven that they think of it as a place, which it is, but
heaven is being in the presence of Jesus along with the other members of the
trinity and Jesus is speaking in this section of giving those who believe the
presence of the Holy Spirit and so because of this we experience a bit of
heaven while on this earth.
We
mentioned the name of this chapter in MacArthur’s commentary “The Legacy of
Jesus” and as we think of what we as human beings do when we get older, how we
desire to leave something of value and importance to our offspring we know that
this is something of great importance.
One of the things that I am working on to leave to my family are a collection
of my Spiritual Diaries as I have been printing them out in booklets on the
different books of the Bible that I am studying. I have been working on my study through the
Word of God for around 23 years and as I get to the end of this journey, for I
am not studying the last book of the OT, it is my desire to have all of my
studies put into booklets for my children and grand children to read through
them as they have time, that is what I want my legacy to be.
Now when we
think of what Jesus has left, not only to His disciples to whom He was
addressing these verses to, but also to all of come to faith in Him for eternal
life. Jesus’ legacy is giving eternal
life to those who realize that they are sinners and need a Savior, and
therefore trust Christ as their Savior and Lord. No one could leave a better legacy, and a
part of that legacy that He leaves is to give the Helper, the Holy Spirit to
all who believe. John MacArthur writes “Believers
receive their inheritance from all three members of the Trinity. The Father ‘has qualified us to share in the
inheritance of the saints in Light’ (Col. 1:12); we are ‘fellow heirs’ with
Christ’ (Rom. 8:17; cf. Col. 3:24); and ‘the Holy Spirit…is given as a pledge
of our inheritance’ (Eph. 1:13-14).
“But that
inheritance is not merely after death.
God provides blessing for His children in this life that are a foretaste
of full riches that await them in heaven.”
How do we
know that we have this inheritance that Jesus offers? We see two evidences in the lives of
believers that show us that we belong to the Lord. They are love for the Lord by keeping the
commandments that He gives to believers which shows the second one which is
obedience. Love and obedience are the
hallmark of genuine saving faith. Jesus
said that if you love Me you will keep my commandments. He also told those who though that they were
followers of Him “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ Jesus demanded, ‘and do not
do what I say?’” We learned what John
the Baptist concluded at the end of John chapter three when he said “"He
who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will
not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”
We now want
to look at a few verses from John’s letters to see the inseparable link between
love and obedience “3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 The one who says, "I have come to
know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is
not in him; 5 but whoever
keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected (1 John
2:3-5a).”
“24 The one
who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that
He abides in us, by the
Spirit whom He has given us (1 John 3:24).”
“2 By this
we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His
commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and
His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:2-3).”
MacArthur
concludes his introductory comments by writing “Thus it is to the eleven
disciples, and by extension all the faithful, that the Lord speaks these words
of promise and provision. Although He
would no longer be visibly present with His disciples, they would not be left
alone. Jesus promised them (and all
subsequent believers) four permanent sources of power and comfort: the presence of the Spirit, the presence of
the Son, the presence of the Father, and the presence of the truth.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I realize that there have been many times in
my life when I have not obeyed the commandments that Jesus has given me to
obey, and I believe that everyone of those times that I have regretted not
obeying my Lord and have confessed my disobedience to Him as sinfulness, and at
those times I must remember the words of an old Scottish preacher who said “the
successful Christian life is a series of new beginning.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Obey the commandments that
the Lord has given to me.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:16) “16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to
someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either sin resulting to death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The head of John the Baptist” (Matthew
14:6-11).
Today’s Bible question:
“About whom did Jesus say, ‘Among those that are born of woman there is
not a greater prophet…’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/17/2016 9:56 AM
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