SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/26/2017
8:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The
Disciples Perplexity”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 16:17-19
Message of the
verses: “17 Some of His disciples
then said to one another, "What is this thing He is telling us, ’A little
while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’;
and, ’because I go to the Father’?" 18 So they were saying, "What is
this that He says, ’A little while’? We do not know what He is talking
about." 19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to
them, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ’A little
while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’?”
I have mentioned in past SD’s that as I use the
commentaries from John MacArthur that he rarely takes off a very large chunk of
verses at one time, but as we read over these three verses we can see that much
of them are a repeat of what we looked at in our last SD from verse 16. The disciples repeat what Jesus said and then
Jesus repeats what the disciples said when He said it in verse 16.
The last time that we have heard anything from the
disciples was back in chapter 14:22 “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?"” Now
according to verses that we studied in chapter two Jesus knew and continues to
know what is on the minds of people including His disciples at this time. The disciples had been listening to what
Jesus was teaching them, but when He got to verse 16 they were startled at what
He said and even though they were unwilling to question Him openly, similar to
what we read in Mark 9:31-32 “31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling
them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they
will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days
later." 32 But they
did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.” Now they may not have asked Him about verse
sixteen because of what He had said in verse 12 “12 “I have many more things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
So what we see here in verse 17 is the disciples talking amongst themselves
about what He was saying in verse 16 and this too has happened before when
Jesus and His disciples were getting into a boat and the disciples forgot to
bring bread. Jesus was talking about the
“leaven” in the Pharisees. Mt 16:6 “And
Jesus said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and Sadducees."” “7 They began to discuss this among
themselves, saying, "He said that because we did not bring any
bread."”
The disciples were having a difficult time in thinking that
Jesus was about to die and this was why they began to talk about what Jesus had
said in verse 16 and they were bewildered.
MacArthur writes “Adding to their confusion was the Lord’s statement ‘because
I go to the Father’ (cf. vv. 5, 10; 7:33; 14:12, 28), seemed
contradictory. The nineteenth-century
Swiss commentator Frederic Louis Godet aptly summarized the disciples’
perplexity: ‘Where for us all is clear,
for them all was mysterious. If Jesus
wishes to found the Messianic kingdom, why go away? If He does not wish it, why return?’”
We mentioned that Jesus knows what is in the minds of all
men and this was certainly no exception and what Jesus did was typically what
Jesus did and that was bring comfort to His disciples by answering their
unasked questions. He may have been doing was we read from Isaiah’s book “"It
will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are
still speaking, I will hear (Isa. 65:24).”
I have mentioned before how much I am amazed by what our
Lord was doing hours before His certain death and separation from His Father
and His Father pours out on Him payment for all sins ever done from the
beginning of time to the end of the millennial kingdom. Jesus died a death that believers never have
to die, for Jesus died a death that paid the price for our sins and so when a
believer dies that are absent from the body, but present with the Lord in an instant. Jesus knew that in a few hours that the
enemies of God would be spitting on Him, beating Him, placing a crown of
thrones on His head, nailing His hands and feet to a cross, and yet Jesus was
comforting His disciples even thought He knew what was about to happen to Him. In a few more verses Jesus will be done
instructing His disciples and then in John’s gospel we will see Him praying to
His Father and I have to say that I have read that this is not the prayer that
He was praying when He sweat drops of blood and frankly I do not know exactly
what the timeline was during those last hours before He was arrested. I also have to say that that will bug me
until I get an answer that I can accept, but I believe what God wants me to
learn about this that He will teach me, or perhaps not as maybe this is not
important for me to know.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am so thankful
that the God I worship knows all things that are on my heart all of the time
even though I am ashamed at times what is on my heart and in my mind it is still
comforting to me to know He knows. Also
I am comforted by the comfort that my God gives to me when I need it as He did
for His disciples in a moment when the soul of Him was very troubled.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord of comfort to continue to
teach me as I study His Word each day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Hyssop” (Exodus 12:22).
Today’s Bible
question: “Paul taught us that we should
abstain from all appearance of what?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/26/2017 9:13 AM
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