SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/15/2017
9:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The
Request for Spiritual Protection
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
17:11b-16
Message of the
verses: “Holy Father, keep them in
Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We
are. 12 "While I was with them, I
was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and
not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would
be fulfilled. 13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world
so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 “I have given them
Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the
world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world.”
We ended yesterday’s SD by looking at two reasons why the
Father’s protection was essential for the disciples. We start today by stating that while Jesus
was on the earth that He was the One who had been keeping them in the Father’s
name, the name which He had given to the Son, and He even guarded the disciples
so well that none of them perished but the son of perdition, which we know to
be Judas. Now as we look back through
the book of John and also in the other gospels we know that Jesus was
threatened many times by the hostile Jews and if at any of those times they
would have defeated Him then the disciples would have been venerable to their
attacks, but we learned in the first verse of John 17 that His hour had come,
meaning two things that the Jews could not have done any harm to Him before the
time that had been set up in eternity past, therefore Jesus had taken care of
His disciples up to that point and now puts them into the care of the
Father. Now there would be one more time
in which Jesus would protect His disciples while on earth and that would be at
His arrest in Gethsemane. When Judas and
the Jewish authorities came to arrest Jesus He would ask them who they were
looking for and when they answered Him they fell to the ground which was the
power of Jesus that made this happen and so He told them if you are looking for
Me, let these men go in answer to this prayer from John 17.
John MacArthur writes that “Jesus used two different
Greek words for ‘keeping’ (tereo) and
“guarded’ (phulasso). The first speaks of protection by means of
restraint, and carries the idea of preserving or watching over. It is often used in John’s gospel to refer
to keeping God’s words or commandments.
The second refers to protection from outside dangers. It is an act of safeguarding, used in Luke to
picture the strong man who guards his house (Luke 11:21). Taken together, the words give a picture of
complete deliverance from all perils, and lasting security. The Son asks the Father to secure His disciples,
knowing that it is the Father’s will (John 6:39). The omniscient Son always prayed in perfect
agreement with His Father (John 5:30).
The work of securing His people is Trinitarian work. In John 5:17-19 Jesus
answered them, "My
Father is working until now, and I Myself am working." 18 For this reason
therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only
was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making
Himself equal with God. 19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it
is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these
things the Son also does in like manner.’
“In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul
wrote,
‘13 In Him,[Christ] you
also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of
promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of
our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the
praise of His glory.’”
Don’t think that the reason that Judas was lost was
because Jesus did not protect Him, Judas certainly was prophesied to be the
trader that He was and he truly fulfilled the prophecy that was written in
Psalm 41:9 and 109:8, along with what was written in Acts 1:20, but remember it
was Judas who was living with Jesus for three years seeing the miracles that He
was doing, including raising people from the dead, and yet he turned his back
on Jesus betraying Him as it is written “Even my close friend in whom I
trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me Psalm 41:9).” “Let his days be few; Let another take his
office (Psalm 109:8).” “"For it is written in the book of Psalms, ’LET HIS
HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE, AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT’; and, ’LET ANOTHER MAN
TAKE HIS OFFICE’ (Acts 1:20).” I
understand that this is a difficult thing to understand but the truth is that
Judas did what he desired to do which in turn fulfilled the very Scriptures
that were written about him that He did.
I once heard the first Pastor, Pastor Burns state about situations like
this “God does not chose people to go to hell, He chooses them to go to heaven,”
and this is true because after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden everyone of
their offspring were heading for hell and out of those heading to hell God
chose some to go to heaven.
Now we will finish this SD by looking at what Leon Morris
says about this as John MacArthur quotes him in his commentary:
“The reference to the
fulfilling of Scripture brings out the divine purpose. This does not mean that Judas was an
automaton. He was a responsible person
and acted freely. But God used that man’s
evil act to bring about his own purpose.
There is a combination of the human and the divine, but in this passage
it is the divine aspect rather than the human that receives stress. In the end God’s will was done in the handing
over of Jesus to be crucified’ (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John.)”
I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that John MacArthur
preached a sermon that goes along with our study in the Gospel of John entitled
“Twin Truths” and in that sermon he discusses the interplay between human
responsibility and divine sovereignty.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I suppose that it
is true that the human brain, even if used to its full capacity could never
understand the truth of the Sovereignty of God.
All I know is that on the 26th of January in 1974 that God
chose me for salvation. I know that this
is true because Scripture teaches to me that it is true, and I also know that
it is true because of the circumstances that went along with my salvation. For all of this I am truly thankful and
desire to serve the Lord in the ways that He wants me to.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will show me ways that I
can serve Him this day.
Answer in our last Bible
question: “Sarah” (Gen. 23:19).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book records women
having to shave their heads before they could marry?” (Hint:
OT)
Answer in our next SD.
3/15/2017 9:59 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment