The Illustrative Parable (John 16:20-22)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/27/2017 10:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  The Illustrative Parable

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 16:20-22

            Message of the verses:  “20 "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21  "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

            Now we have written about the term “Truly, truly” in the past that it actually means “
Amen, amen,” as it was used many different times in the gospel of John to underscore the importance of what the Lord was about to say to His disciples, so this is important stuff and we should pay close attention to what the Lord is about to say.

            Jesus is comparing what His disciples were about to go through and perhaps Peter got the worst and much of that was brought upon himself because of what he had spoken about dying with Christ, but all of the disciples said the same thing.  Jesus is comparing the pain and suffering that they would go through with the pain and suffering of a woman who is about to have a baby, and although as a man I have never gone through it my wife has and I was with her trying to encourage her.  It was 38 years ago five days ago that our youngest was born and I remember that day very well and I remember the courage that my wife had as she delivered our son, a son who was born with two heart problems.  I could see firsthand what the Lord was talking about in this parable.  I could see the pain and suffering as it turned into joy when I looked at my wife’s face after the birth of our son.  I know that it was a terrible time for the disciples of Jesus, and yet when the Day of Pentecost came and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit you can just see and you can know that their sorrow had turned into joy.  Jesus is saying in this passage that your grief will be turned into joy.  MacArthur adds “The Lord was not saying that the event causing their sorrow would be replaced by an event producing joy but rather that the same event (the cross) that caused their mourning would be the cause of their joy.  The dark shadows of sorrow and grief cast by the cross fled before the brilliant, glorious light of the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts. 2:4-47).  That light also caused the disciples to view the cross in its proper perspective, making it an unending source of joy for them (cf. v. 22; Acts 12:52).  As Paul exulted, ‘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 (Gal. 6:14).  The cross is foundational to all Christian joy, because it is the basis of redemption.”

            Well we have one more section to look at and then one more chapter in MacArthur’s commentary to do and then we will be finished with this 16^th chapter of the book of John and move onto the 17^th chapter, a chapter that may take a long time to go through because of the subject matter found in it.  Chapter sixteen ends the teaching of Jesus to His disciples before his death on the cross and I have to say that this chapter has meant a lot to me, in fact chapters 13-16 have meant much to me as I have learned many important things from John’s gospel.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In my older Spiritual Diaries that I am looking at from 2003 I was going through the book of Hebrews and that time of my life was a very difficult time indeed.  I heard a sermon that God had prepared from a missionary that I knew entitled “Hidden Blessings in the Storms of Life” which was given on May 18, 2003, a sermon that I will never forget as I was going through a very bad storm, a storm that was mainly brought on by my disobedience and yet I was not alone in that storm as many others had made the same mistake.  The blessings from that storm were seeing at least 18 people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there were other blessings too.  The storm to me, falls into what Jesus was talking about in these verses so I know that what He is saying is true.  God is good, all the time!

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I know that at times I go back to something a mentor who mentored me when I first became a believer told me when he said to me that you have to keep your emphas on the right salible.  It is hard to write this as my spell checker wants to tell me that what I am writing is not spelled correctly.  Keep your right emphasis on the right syllable is the correct way to say it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

Today’s Bible question:  “Complete Matthew 5:16 ‘"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify…’”

Answer in our next SD.

1/27/2017 10:51 AM