SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/25/2017
10:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Lord’s
Prediction
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 16:16
Message of the
verse: “16 “A little while, and you
will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me."”
The following verses from the gospel of John include
Jesus saying the words “little while,” with the exception of the ones we will
see in chapter sixteen where it is said in verses 16-19.
John 7:33 Therefore Jesus said, "For a little
while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. John 12:35 So Jesus said to them, "For a little
while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that
darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know
where he goes. John 13:33 "Little
children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said
to the Jews, now I also say to you, ’Where I am going, you cannot come.’ John
14:19 "After a little while the
world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live
also.
I bring these verses up because there is a different
amount of time involved when Jesus says “little while.” In John 7:33 the time period was several
months, and in 12:35 it was several days.
MacArthur writes “The first reference in this verse looks to the events
set in motion by the death of Christ, which would culminate in His
ascension. After that brief period, the
disciples would ‘no longer see’ Him.”
Now that takes care of the first “little while” statement
but the second on in verse 16 presents a differences of opinions as to exactly
what it means. Some view it as being
fulfilled at the second coming of Christ as they connect the Lord’s
illustration of a woman having birth pangs as seen in verse 21: “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.” We will also look at Matthew
24:8 “"But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” Those things He is speaking of that will
occur before the return of Christ will happen during the tribulation followed
by the return of Christ at the end of the tribulation period. Now when Jesus spoke in Matthew about the
birth pangs the meaning is different than in 16:21 of John. In John the birth pangs speaks of having
sorrow turning into joy. When my son was
born 38 years ago this past Monday we were actually studying this very passage
in our Sunday school class and there was great joy in my wife as she gave birth
to our son as all of the difficulty that goes along with giving birth was
turned into joy and so it fulfilled what Jesus was talking about in verse 21
and we will look at that verse later on to add more to what it means.
Now some also believe that this “little while” refers to
the resurrection of Christ which would take place some three days after this
prediction. MacArthur adds “Those who
hold to this view would limit the first use of a little while to Christ’s death
on the cross.” We know that the
disciples were in fact overjoyed when they realized that Christ had arisen from
the dead. However the problem with this
is that He was only with is that He was only with them for forty days and then
He ascended to heaven to return to the Father.
I believe that this certainly was true for the disciples, however what
we need to look at is the promises that Jesus has been giving to the disciples
concerning the Holy Spirit. We know that
Jesus told them that He would send them another helper, and that word “another”
means one of the same kind and that happened after the ascension of Christ to
glory when the Holy Spirit came upon the believing disciples on the Day of
Pentecost so I think that this last little while has to do with the Holy Spirit
as all believers now have the Spirit of Christ living in them so He is with all
believers in the person of the Holy Spirit.
I have to say that while listening to MacArthur’s sermon on this section
yesterday that it came to me just before he talked about the Holy Spirit of
Christ being the fulfillment of this prediction of Christ.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Studying the
trinity can be a bit confusing at times but we must remember that all the
persons of the trinity are equal and speaking of what we learned there are
times in the Bible where the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of
Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am very thankful that the procedure went
very well earlier this morning for my wife and she is resting comfortably here
at home. Praise the Lord!
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Hebrew.”
Today’s Bible
question: “During the Passover, what
plant was used to strike the blood?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/25/2017 11:29 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment