SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/6/2016 8:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 Intro to John 14:28-31
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14:28-31
Message of the verses: “28 "You heard that I said to you, ’I go
away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the
Father is greater than I. 29 “Now I have told you before it happens, so that
when it happens, you may believe. 30 "I will not speak much more with you,
for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31 but so that
the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded
Me. Get up, let us go from here.”
We ended up
yesterday’s SD by looking at a list compiled by Leon Morris who summarized what
Christ’s death means for believers, as he gave sixteen items in that list, so
if you have not looked at that list please look at the SD from 12/05/2016.
The Apostle
Paul must have contemplated all that Christ’s death means to believers when he
wrote the following found in Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would
boast, except in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to
me, and I to the world.” And then he
also wrote “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified” to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 2:2. As we think about these two of many
statements found in the Word of God that show us the significance of what
Christ’s death means to us as believers we may do well to ponder what our lives
would be like if Christ had not come to earth for the purpose of purchasing our
salvation on the cross. As I think about
this I can understand why Paul would only want to boast in the cross of Jesus
Christ, for what have I to boast about except in the cross of Christ, for I can
do nothing to obtain salvation for myself, therefore I too desire to boast in
the cross of Christ.
Now we come
to the part of this introduction to look at what Christ’s death meant to
Him. Now remember the second person of
the godhead came to earth some 2000 years ago for the purpose of dying on a
cross to satisfy God’s demands for the payment of sin and after 33 years Jesus
was about to finish the work that His Father gave Him to do and after that was
finished He is to return to the Father, to the glory He shared with Him from
eternity past, and Jesus was ready for that to happen. Now this truth is something that many of us
have not looked at before. I know that I
have not and as I listened to two messages on this subject I learned many
things that I have never thought before, things that I hope to share with you
through the following Spiritual Diaries on these verses.
I can
understand why I did not understand what Christ’s death meant to Him as even
His eleven remaining disciples did not realize this truth. Everyone of His disciples thought that He was
going to overthrow the Roman government and set up His promised kingdom, but
that was not the case and so they were confused and disappointed. As Jesus continued to talk to them the slowly
understood that He was going to die, and of course this caused them to be sad
for He had been with them for three plus years and had cared for their every
need and now He was going away to be with His Father again. Jesus had promised to them that He would be
resurrected from the dead and then would be with them for a while after that
but that still did not, at this time give comfort to them, things were going to
be different, change was coming and change many times is scary, as it was to
them.
As we
conclude this SD we want to look at the selfishness of Jesus’ disciples as they
saw the Lord’s death only in terms of what would be loss to them, and not what
would be gained to Him.
MacArthur
writes “The disciples’ selfishness prompted the Lord’s rebuke, ‘You heard that I
said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced.’ Since the noblest love does ‘not seek its own’
(1 Cor. 13:5), but rather what is best for its object, Jesus exposed the
weakness of the disciples’ love and called them to view the cross from His
perspective.
“This
passage reveals four facets of what Jesus’ death meant to Him, each of which
reflects an important aspect of His work.
Through His death His ministry would be vindicated, His message would be
verified, His mission would be victorious, and His motivation would be
validated.” We will begin to look at
these four facts in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There is a large difference between
selfishness and loving others even when it costs me something as “love does not
seek its own.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust the Lord to work in my
heart to love as He loves.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The bread represents the body of Jesus” (1 Corinthians
11:24-25).
Today’s Bible question:
“What did God do to all the animals after the flood?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/6/2016 9:27 AM
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