SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2017
9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Result
of True Unity”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:21c,
23b
Message of the
verses: “so that the world may
believe that You sent Me…so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved
them, even as You have loved Me.”
What does the observable unity of the church
authenticate? This answer is found in
these verses and it is a two part answer.
First thing we see that it gives evidence to the world in order that it may believe that the Father sent the Son. As we look back to what Christ was about to
do on the cross we know that those who had Him crucified did not realize that
He was sent to the world by the Father.
Now as we look at this highlighted phrase we know that it is a familiar
phrase and this phrase summarizes the plan of redemption. God sent His Son into the world to provide
salvation, to seek and to save those who were lost as Luke 19:10 tells us. In his commentary John MacArthur points out that
this is seen many times in the gospel of John:
“3:34; 4:34; 5:23, 24, 30, 36, 37, 38; 6:29, 38, 39, 44, 57; 7:16, 18,
28, 29, 33; 8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44, 45, 49; 13:20;
14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3, 8, 25; 20:21.
Jesus prayed that the visible unity of His church would convince many in
the world concerning His divine mission of redemption. The church’s unity is the foundation of its
evangelism; it demonstrates that Christ is the Savior who transforms lives (cf.
John 13:35).” “"By this all men
will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."”
Now the second thing that the church’s unity does is that
it authenticates the Father’s love for believers. Now, to me, we are getting into some
difficult things to understand, not that the Father loves all believers, but
something that I have heard in a sermon by John MacArthur that goes along with
this topic. He stated that you will not
find, but one time, that Jesus prays for unbelievers, and that one time is when
He was dying on the cross and said “Father forgive them for they know not what
they do.” This was a rather stunning
revelation to me. I have a book written
by Arthur Pink, and his books are very hard to read, at least for me. The book is entitled “The Seven Sayings of
the Saviour on the Cross.” In this book
he has a whole chapter on this saying from Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying,
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And
they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.” I don’t have time to go into what he has to
say about it, but as mentioned MacArthur states that this is the only time in
the gospels that we see Jesus praying for unbelievers. I guess that we all need to think about that
statement. We see Jesus in this 17th
chapter of John praying for Himself, then for His disciples, and then for
us. We have seen him come into
confrontation with the “Jews” many times in the gospels, and especially we have
seen it in the gospel of John. Now as I
am trying to better understand this I think about what Paul does in his letter
to the Colossians who had some false teachers in their midst trying to change
the minds of believers telling them that Christ alone was not enough for their
salvation, sanctification, and their victory, they needed more. Paul just told them truth in his letter to
them, and the Spirit of God uses truth to convict people of their sins, but
believers and unbelievers alike. Jesus
told those He came into contact with the truth and for the most part many of
them rejected the truth and so they crucified Him.
Ok enough of the rabbit trails as we need to concentrate
on this second important reality of what unity of the church authenticates,
which as stated is that it authenticates the Father’s love for believers. When an unbeliever sees believers’ love for
each other it gives them proof that the Father has loved the ones who have
believed that Jesus is His Son. As one
reads through the early chapters of the book of Acts this love is surely seen
as we read that the Lord was adding daily to the church, and we can believe that
unbelievers who became believers in that time surely saw the love that these
believers had for each other because the Father loved them.
Now on the other hand if a church does not demonstrate
this kind of unity the world surely can see that too. MacArthur writes “where there are carnal
divisions, strife, backbiting, and quarreling in the church, it drives unbelievers
away. Why would they want to be part of
such a hypocritical group that is at cross-purposes with itself? The effectiveness of the church’s evangelism
is devastated by dissension and disputes among its members.
“It must be the goal of everyone who is part of the body
of Christ through faith in Him to do their part in maintaining the full
visibility of the unity that believers possess, as Paul wrote:
‘1 Therefore I, the prisoner
of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which
you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
showing tolerance for one another in love, 3
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have to say that
the first 25 years that I attended my first church after I became a believer
you could see the kind of unity that we are talking about here, and then it
ended as there were two church splits, and in the second one I had to leave
after being there for 32 years. It was
during the first split that the Lord gave me the opportunity to lead some 18 of
my neighbors to the Lord and when I took some of them to church one of them
told me that it seemed to her that she walked into a family argument. That was one of the darkest times in my
spiritual life to hear that.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
What is seen in Ephesians 4:1-3 written
above.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Martha” (Luke 10:40).
Today’s Bible
question: “From which old testament book
did Jesus quote in Matthew 24 which reference to the Great Tribulation?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/29/2017 10:18 AM
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