SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/28/2017
10:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Blessed
Promise
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
16:23-24
Message of the
verses: “23 "In that day you
will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the
Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. 24 “Until now you have
asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be
made full.”
Jesus is saying to His disciples that in the day when you
see Me again, when you sorrow is turned into joy that you will not question
Him, and this further suggests that this day cannot be the resurrection as we
compare what we discussed from verse 16 with this. MacArthur adds “The disciples undoubtedly
asked many questions during the forty days between the resurrection and the
ascension that the Lord spent ‘speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of
God’ (Acts 1:3; one of their questions is recorded in vs. 6). But after the coming of the Holy Spirit on
the day of Pentecost, they would no longer question Jesus.”
We know that since
Jesus was no longer physically with them they could not ask Him questions like
when He was present with them, however more significantly, the disciples would
then have the indwelling Holy Spirit as their resident truth teacher. Jesus had told them earlier in verse 13: “"But when He, the Spirit of truth,
comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own
initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you
what is to come.” John 14:26 tells us “"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.” Then in John’s first letter he writes,
“20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you
all know…27 As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in
you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches
you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught
you, you abide in Him (1 John 2:20, 27).”
After this the disciples
would finally understand what it was that the Lord had to die. “44 “Let these words sink into your ears; for
the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." 45 But
they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that
they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this
statement Luke 9:44-45).” They would
also better understand His relationship with the Father as this is clarified as
we look at John 14:8-9 “8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father,
and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long
with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has
seen the Father; how can you say, ’Show us the Father’?” Another thing that they would realize that it
would be to their advantage for Jesus to go away thus sending His Holy Spirit
for them “7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I
will send Him to you (John 16:7).”
MacArthur writes that “All of this clarification of the cross and
resurrection by the Holy Spirit is contained in the rest of the New Testament.”
As we look at the synoptic gospels we can see a change in
them once the Pharisees accuse Jesus of doing His miracles in the power of
Satan. The end of Mark three and then
the end of Matthew 12 are two places when this happened. After that happened Jesus began to speak in
parables and His disciples asked Him why He was doing this. “10 As soon as He was alone, His followers,
along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. 11 And He was
saying to them, "To
you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get
everything in parables, 12 so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT
PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY
MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN’ (Mark 4:10-12).”
Now when we get to the books of Acts through Jude we do not see any more
parables as the Spirit of God shows us exactly what we as believers need to
know, and this is what Jesus was preparing His disciples and others who would
follow later to understand, for His work on earth would be complete after the cross
and then after His ascension back to heaven the Holy Spirit would take over for
Him. Now I understand that we do not
know nor will we ever know this side of heaven all about the Trinity and so we
have to take things by faith for this is what the Word teaches us that there is
a Trinity made up of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Now back to John as we look at the familiar words “Truly,
truly,” which introduces us to another important truth as we have mentioned in
earlier SD’s. This new discussion is
that the disciples can ask the Father for anything in the name of Jesus Christ,
and He will give it to them, and this is the third time in that evening that
the Lord stated this truth as we looked at it in John 14:13 and also 15:16 as
stating this three times underscores its immense significance. Now before the death of Jesus believers could
not go directly to the Father to as Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore
let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
When Jesus died on the cross, at the moment of His death the curtain
that was between the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies was torn from the top
to the bottom, and this was a very strong curtain. The significance of this is the truth found
in Hebrews 4:16 and this is what Jesus was telling His disciples those three
times mentioned above. We cannot just
tack on “in Jesus’ name at the end of our prayers and expect Him to answer
us. Perhaps something like this would be
better at the beginning of our prayers to God, “Father I come to You in the
name of Jesus who has stated that You will answer my prayers if they would
bless His name, and be in His will, and so my prayer is that what I am about to
pray will bless His name and be in Your will.”
With that we end this section and the next to the last
chapter in John MacArthur’s commentary on chapter sixteen of John’s gospel and
we look forward to begin looking at the last section in chapter sixteen as we
look at verses 25-33 and the theme is “Three Cardinal Christian Virtues,” and
so think about what these three are and we will begin looking at them in our
next SD. Hint look at the last verse in
the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful that
in our study of this section of John’s gospel (13-16) that I am learning a lot
about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and also the ministry of prayer.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to continue to teach me more
of those two ministries.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Father which is in heaven.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Because they have
taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him’?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/28/2017 11:28 AM
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