SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/18/2016 9:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Presence of the Spirit”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14:16-17
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.”
We spoke a
bit about verse 15 which shows our love for Christ, that is those who belong to
Him, and then we also mentioned that love and obedience were necessary for
those who are the true believers in Jesus Christ. Christ died for those who will receive Him as
Savior and Lord, as He did this because of God’s love for man as seen in John
3:16, and because He loves us we are to love Him by obeying Him. Love and obedience show that we are His
children.
Now in
verse sixteen we see Christ’s love for His disciples, and for those who are His
own. The book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus
Christ being our Great High Priest, and one of the functions being High Priest
is to pray for His people and so we see in verse sixteen that Jesus is asking
the Father to send another Helper to be with those who are His own, and He will
be with them forever. Now remember that
Jesus has stated that He is going to go back to the Father, and that before
that He mentioned also that He was going to the cross to die, die for the sins
of the world, and so His disciples are downtrodden because of this news. We have the advantage of knowing what will
happen, but as we put ourselves in their shoes or sandals, as they did not have
that advantage at this time to know what was going to happen, and we may feel a
bit different. Jesus Christ had been
with them for three years, supplying all of their needs and now He says He is
leaving them, but He tells them that He is going to ask the Father to send them
another helper. Now from what I have
learned there are two different words in the Greek language for our word “another”
as one means another like we usually use the word. Perhaps we are on vacation and we say that we
are going to go to another place tomorrow, but that place will be different
that where we are today. The other Greek
word for “another” is another of the very same kind, so Jesus is saying that
the Holy Spirit is just like Him. This
is part of the Trinitarian mystery that if we try to understand it we may end
up under our beds reciting the Greek alphabet.
We cannot understand it but we can, by faith, believe it for in fact it
is true that there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and
they are all the same as Jesus said to His disciples that they would receive another
like Him. The Greek word John is using
here is “Allos” another of the same
kind. “Heteros” describes another thing of a completely different nature
writes John MacArthur and we get our English word “heterodoxy.” MacArthur
quotes C. Trench who writes “Allos…is
the numerically distinct. But heteros…superadds the notion of
qualitative difference. One is ‘divers,’ the other is’ diverse.’ There are not a few passages in the N. T.
whose right interpretation, or at any rate their full understanding, will
depend on an accurate seizing of the distinction between those words.”
So as
stated the promise that Jesus gives is that He would send another (allos)
Helper exactly like Himself, and this Person would adequately take His place
and would empower His work. MacArthur
concludes “The Holy Spirit is the perfect substitute for the Lord Jesus Christ—the
original Helper (cf. 2 John 2:1, where ‘Advocate’ translates parakletos). Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit
would teach (John 14:26), strengthen (Eph. 3:16), and intercede for the
disciples (Rom. 8:26). Though His
departure was imminent, the Lord promised that the Holy Spirit would be with
them forever.”
We will
continue our look at the Holy Spirit in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have known that the Holy Spirit lives in me
for many years, soon after I became a believer, and I am thankful for this
study of the word “another” which helps me to understand that He is just like our
Lord in the ministry that He had while on earth. I don’t want to take for granted that the
Holy Spirit lives in me, but realize that He is there to work through my life
so that whatsoever I do is to bring glory to my Lord.
My Steps of Faith For
Today: Trust the Spirit of God to
rule and reign in my life so that my life will bring glory to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to trust Him to convict me of any sin that I commit so that I can
confess it to the Lord.
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 on whom you obey, either
sin resulting to death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28).
Today’s Bible question:
“Who said ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is no like him
in the earth’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/18/2016 10:06 AM
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