SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/24/2016 11:29 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Friends of Jesus Know Divine Truth
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 15:15
Message of the verse: “15
"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what
his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have
heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
The first
thing that I want to mention is that since tomorrow is Christmas that I will be
posting on both of my blogs something that I wrote about Christmas a few years
back, and try to post it on Christmas Day each year.
Now we
began looking at this section about friends of Jesus who are best described
also as being slaves of Jesus Christ which has taken us to look at what the
Bible has to say about slaves and also we have looked at the Greek word of
slave which is seen in some form some 150 times in the New Testament and one of
them was in the book of Philippians “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being
made in the likeness of men (Phil. 2:7). From what I have learned there was no
Greek Word for “bond-servant” in that language, but that Greek word is
translated in English as slave, so this tells us that Jesus Christ emptied
Himself taking the form of a slave and being made in the likeness of men. Jesus Christ was a slave to His Father, doing
His will while on earth.
Now we want
to continue looking at verse fifteen and see that because we are now friends of
Jesus He will make known all things that He heard from His Father. Jesus stated in John 8:32 “They will know the
truth and the truth will make them free.”
Now let us look at some verses from the 17th chapter of John
and this chapter is known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. We have mentioned that from the 13th
chapter of John to the 16th chapter of John that Jesus gave many promises
to His disciples which are not only for them but also for us as well and when
we come to the 17th chapter of John Jesus is praying that God will
cause all of these promise to be made true in the lives of His disciples and
also for us too.
“6 "I have manifested Your
name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave
them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7
"Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is
from You; 8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they
received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they
believed that You sent Me (John 17:6-8).”
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter
13:10 His disciples as Jesus why He spoke to the crowds in parables and Jesus
replied “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it has not been granted (Matthew 13:11).” Then in Luke 10:23-24 Jesus told His
disciples “23 23 Turning to the
disciples, He said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things
you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and kings wished to see the
things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things which you
hear, and did not hear them." Turning to the disciples, He said privately,
"Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see, 24 for I say to you, that many prophets and
kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them, and to hear
the things which you hear, and did not hear them."” Since we as born-again believers in Jesus
Christ are His friends we have the insight into “the mystery which has been
kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of
the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made
known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith (Rom. 16:25-26).” I think that we have spoken about the word “mystery”
in past SD’s but this word that is found in the New Testament means that
something was hidden in the Old Testament is now seen in the New
Testament. The Old Testament prophets
did not understand what they were writing all of the time, but many of those
things that were actually hidden from them as seen in the New Testament. Let me give an example from Psalm 41:9 “Even
my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel
against me.” We know that this was
fulfilled in the upper room 18 "I do not speak of all of you. I know the
ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ’HE WHO EATS
MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME’ (John 13:18).” I believe that David
wrote the 41st Psalm and can’t imagine that he knew that this verse
that He wrote which may have been spoken of his son Absalom would be fulfilled
in the truest way speaking of Judas, but that was what we could call a mystery
which took place in the New Testament.
John MacArthur concludes this
portion of his commentary on this verse by writing “Their ability to understand
the spiritual truths Jesus reveals to them sets His friends apart from the unredeemed,
who have no such privileges:
“12 Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the
things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words
taught by human wisdom,
but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with
spiritual words. 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he
himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT
HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ (2 Con. 2:12-16).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I
think about being friends of Christ and as I think of the many things that the
Spirit of God has taught me through the reading of His Word, looking at
commentaries on His Word, listening to the preaching of His Word I am amazed
that I get to know these mysteries. When
I look at the world around me I know how things are going to end because of the
study of His Word and so this gives me comfort and peace.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I do not want to get caught
up in the things that are going on in our world but as mentioned because I know
what the final outcome is, to trust the Lord to give me the peace that passes
all understanding that will guard my heart and my mind.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Ethiopian eunuch” (Acts 8:36).
Today’s Bible question:
“Elijah went over what river on dry ground?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/24/2016 12:09 PM
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