The Process of the New Man (Col. 3:10b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2017 8:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Process of the New Man

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Colossians 3:10b

            Message of the verses:  “who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.”

            When we think of the new birth we have to think about it being like a person who is just born physically and the need to be feed so that they can grow up and be productive.  As new believers Peter tells us to in “1Pe 2:2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”  So just as a new born baby does not grow to physically maturity so a new born believer does not become spiritually mature instantly.  Once a person is born again the flesh will desire that you go back to the old way of living as it tempts the new believer.  There is a spiritual battle that is going on right from the beginning of the new birth, but remember the old nature has been replaced with a new one “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come (2 Cor. 5:17).”  Paul also wrote in 2 Cor. 4:16 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.”  He writes this to show that the inner man can cope with the decaying outer man.

            John MacArthur writes “Being renewed refers to being new in quality.  The preposition on the front of the verb (ana) makes the verb (kaioo) have the sense of contrast to what was already there.  This is a new quality of life that never before existed.”  This is why Paul stated “behold, new things have come.”  MacArthur writes “Epignosis (true knowledge) refers to a deep, thorough knowledge (1:9).  The process of renewal brings increased knowledge.  William Hendriksen writes, ‘When a man is led through the waters of salvation, these are ankle-deep at first, but as he progresses, they become knee-deep, then reach to the loins, and are finally impassable except by swimming (cf. Ezek. 47:3-6)’”  A Christian cannot grow without obtaining knowledge, and that knowledge has to come from the Word of God.  Remember what Peter wrote about new believers needing the pure milk of the Word, and then the diet begins to have food that you have to chew up as you continue to grow.  Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that we are “not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  We have written about the word transformed before “(metamorphoo)  to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure.”  Paul writes elsewhere in Ephesians 4:22 “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”  MacArthur adds “From mature knowledge flows holy living.”

            What is the goal of knowledge?  It is to conform the believer “to the image of the One who created him.”  Our goal as a believer is continually, steadily becoming more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ and this is progressive sanctification.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”    Look at Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.”  The new self will continue to progress toward Christlikeness until the Lord returns or the believer dies.  I have said many times that I am looking for the Upper-Taker, and not the undertaker.

4/30/2017 9:27 PM                 

PT-3 "Pilate's Failed Proposals" (John 18:39-19:7)

SPIRIUTAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2017 6:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  PT-3 “Pilate’s Failed Proposals”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 18:39-19:7

            Message of the verses:  “39 “But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?" 40 So they cried out again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber. 1 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. 2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3  and they began to come up to Him and say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and to give Him slaps in the face. 4 Pilate came out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." 5 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the Man!" 6 So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him." 7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God."”

            I mentioned in our last SD that these things that they are doing to Jesus are very difficult to read and to write about.  We are at verse two which talks about the crown of thorns and also the purple robe they put on Him as they mocked Him about being King of the Jews.  The crown of thorns must have been very painful to our Lord as they cut into His head.  Perhaps the robe came from one of the soldiers.  The Roman soldiers were heartless and once I read that they were probably surprised that the beatings did not kill Jesus and so they tried all the harder, but Jesus had stated that no one takes My life, I will lay it down.  I can imagine that physically Jesus was probably in perfect shape for after all when He was conceived in the womb He was unlike any other person ever conceived in a womb for because of the virgin birth there was no sin or Adam’s nature to be passed on and sin causes death as once a person is conceived it is actually all downhill from there.  Matthew 27:29 tells us “And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"”  Of course this was all done in mockery, but it was all prophesized that this would happen.

            In verse four we read that Pilate came out again, and perhaps this meant that he had been watching the terrible things that the soldiers were doing to Jesus, not really taking the advice that his wife had given to him to not do anything to Jesus.  Pilate again affirms that Jesus is innocent of any crimes as he once again states “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”  A truer statement was never made by anyone, for indeed there was no fault in our Lord for He is God come in the flesh and God is and always will be perfect. 

            Sunday’s SD’s are usually shorter because of all that goes on, one Sundays and so we will stop here and pick up our look at what is going on with Jesus in our next SD.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Judges and makes war.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Bless me, even me also, O my Father’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/30/2017 6:58 AM

           

PT-2 "The Position of the New Man" (Col. 3:9b-10a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2017 9:09 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: PT-2 “The Position of the New Man”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 3:9b-10a

            Message of the verses:  “since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self.”

            We spoke of true believers as being in Christ and once this happened at their time of conversation they have laid aside the old self with its evil practices and have put on the new self, and even though at times believers do not live like they have laid aside the old self, in position they have done so.

            The Bible views all men as either in Christ or in Adam as there is no middle ground at all.  John MacArthur quotes Puritan Thomas Goodwin “There are but two men that are seen standing before God, Adam and Jesus Christ; and these two men have all other men hanging at their girdles.”  Not sue girdle is the correct term as we are living in the 31 century, but I think the point is made.

            Let us look at what Paul wrote to the Romans explaining the contrast between Adam and Christ:  “12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned- 13 for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16  The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21  so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 5:12-21).”

            John MacArthur asks “The question then arises as to why believers sin if the old self is gone.  They do so because the new self lives in the old body and must content with the flesh.  Paul shows this in the conflict described in Romans 7:14-25.  He makes it clear there that sin is not in the inner man, the “I” that loves what is holy, but is in the flesh.  ‘The flesh’ does not mean the body in and of itself; but it does mean the body as it is being used and tyrannized over by sin.  It means the body as it is possessed by sin and evil; it is the body as sin dwells in it during this earthly life.’ (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)  The flesh includes all the sinful desires, drives, and passions associated with our humanness.  The presence of the unredeemed flesh causes us to ‘groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body’ (Romans 8;23).”

  4/29/2017 9:26 PM

PT-2 "Pilate's Proposals" (John 18:39-19:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2017 11:41 AM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus: PT-2 “Pilate’s Proposals”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 18:39-19:7)

            Message of the verse:  “39 “But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?" 40 So they cried out again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber. 1 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. 2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3 and they began to come up to Him and say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and to give Him slaps in the face. 4 Pilate came out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." 5 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the Man!" 6  So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him." 7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God."”

            As we begin this SD I have to say that is a heavy burden on me to continue to look at what our Lord went through in order to care for the sin issue that I, along with everyone else born of woman have.

            We ended our last SD talking about how helpless that Jesus must have looked like standing bound and tied up in front of Pilate, for we noted that this probably changed the minds of many who believed that He was their Messiah.  It was during this time, as seen in Matthew 27:19 “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him,’ Pilate was distracted with this message from his wife that the chief priests to begin to manipulate the crowd to begin to ask for the life of Barabbas.  The chief priests were persistent in trying to get their way to have Jesus crucified, but as we know now they were actually playing into the hands of the plans that God had planned from eternity past, and as we use our new word juxtapose, they would be accountable for what they were doing.

            Barabbas was a robber, a common thief as the other gospel writers tell us.  John MacArthur writes “The specific insurrection he was involved in is unknown, but such uprisings, precursors of the wholesale revolt of A. D. 66-70, were common at that time.  Ironically, the same Jewish leaders who had demanded that Pilate condemn Jesus as an insurrectionist now demanded the release of the notorious insurrectionist Barabbas.”

            As Pilate was fast running out of options on how he could release Jesus he asks “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”  Their answer was to crucify Him “Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Crucify Him!’ (Matt. 27:22).”  Now in order to appease the Jews Pilate then had Jesus scourged, and in many cases when a person was to be crucified the Romans would scourge them and also in many cases they would not survive the beatings as the Romans loved to do these kinds of things to people.  Talk about you cruel and unreasonable punishment they enjoyed it. 

            John MacArthur writes that “Scourging was a hideously cruel form of punishment.  The victim was stripped, bound to a post, and beaten by several torturers in turn.  Jewish law set the maximum number of blows as forty (Deut. 25:3), and in practice the Jews gave a maximum of thirty-nine (to avoid accidently exceeding forty blows; cf. 2 Cor. 11:24).  The Romans, however were not bound by any such restrictions.  The punishment would continue until the torturers were exhausted, the commanding officer decided to stop it, or, as was often the case, the victim died.  The whip consisted of a short wooden handle to which several leather thongs, each with jagged pieces of bone or metal attached to the end, were fastened.  As a result, the body could be so torn and lacerated that the muscles, bones, veins, or even internal organs were exposed.  So horrible was this punishment that Roman citizens were exempt from it (Acts 22:25).  The scourging He endured left Jesus too weak to carry the crosspiece of His cross all the way to the execution site (Matt. 27:32).  Pilate hoped that this brutalizing of Jesus short of death would satisfy the bloodthirsty mob.”

            I think it best to stop here as we will pick this up in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It should have been me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to think of this whenever the Lord’s table is served at our church.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Malice” (1 Corinthians 14:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “In Revelations 19:11-16, when Christ comes to earth, what two things will He do.”

Answer in our next SD.

4/29/2017 12:19 PM  

PT-1 "The Position of the New Man" (Col. 3:9b-10a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2017 9:12 PM

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: PT-1 “The Position of the New Man”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 3:9b-10a

            Message of the verses:  “since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self.”

            We begin by looking at the word “since” which is actually in the middle of 3:9, and this perhaps could have or perhaps should have been the beginning a new verse, at least it indicates that transition to be an accomplished fact.  The accomplished fact is that the believer has laid aside the old self with it evil practices.  When we move to 3:12-17 we will see what we have put on.  MacArthur states “It bridges the chasm between the old self and the new self—a chasm that believers could never have crossed unless Jesus had made them new creatures.  We could safely say that Jesus Christ is the bridge that crosses the chasm, and the chasm was instigated when Adam and Eve sinned as seen in Genesis chapter three.

            I think we need to also look at the following quote from MacArthur:  “The relation of the old self and the new self has been much disputed.  Many hold that at salvation believers receive a new self but also keep the old self.  Salvation thus becomes addition, not transformation.  They argue that the struggle in the Christian life comes from the battle between the two.

            “Such a view, however, is not precisely consistent with biblical teaching.  At salvation the old self was done away with.  Paul told the Corinthians, ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come’ (2 Cor. 5:17).  To the Romans he wrote, ‘Our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin’ (Rom. 6:6).  Salvation is transformation—the old self is gone, replaced by the new self.  R. C. H. Lenski writes, ‘The old man is not converted, he cannot be; he is not renewed, he cannot be.  He can only be replaced by the new man.’

            “What is the old self?  It is the unregenerate self, the former manner of existence in Adam.  The old, wretched, depraved, sinful self is ‘being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit’ (Eph. 4:22).  It is that which was replaced by the regenerate self.  To argue that believers have both an old and new self is to argue in effect that the believer’s soul is half regenerate and half unregenerate.  There is no support for such a spiritual half-breed in Scripture. 

            “The new self, in contrast, is the regenerate self.  It is what believers are in Christ.  The new self is the new creature Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  It walks differently from the world (Eph. 4:17), in divine love (Eph. 5:1), in the light of God’s truth (Eph. 5:8), and in wisdom (Eph. 5:15), loving God’s law and God’s Son, hating sin and pursuing righteousness.” 

            I have to say that I, probably along with all believers at some time in their life have struggled with understanding this truth, and as I was reading over what John MacArthur wrote I began to think that what we have when we are born is a sinful body, or better yet called the flesh and the only way to get rid of that sinful flesh is to either die or be alive when the rapture of the church happens.  Paul struggled with this too as we can see from reading the 7^th chapter of his letter to the Romans as he stated that the things that he did not want to do, he did, and the things that he wanted to do, he did not do and then he adds the following concluding this struggle “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”  He then answers his question in the next verse:  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:25-26).”  Paul then begins the 8^th chapter by writing “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Yes we struggle with sin, but because we are born from above through what Christ did for us on the cross there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and all believers are in Christ Jesus.

4/28/2017 9:39 PM

           

PT-1 "Pilate's Failed Proposals" (John 18:39-19:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2017 10:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  PT-1 “Pilate’s Failed Proposals”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 18:39-19:7

            Message of the verses:  “39 “But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?" 40 So they cried out again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber.  1 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. 2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3  and they began to come up to Him and say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and to give Him slaps in the face. 4 Pilate came out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." 5 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the Man!" 6 So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him." 7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God."”

            As we begin to look at the things that are going on in this section we know that they are fulfilling prophecy, especially from Isaiah 53, and yet we also know that it is not Pilate who is in control of this situation, but Jesus. 

            One thing that we do not see in John’s gospel is that Pilate sent Jesus to Herod, and it is mentioned in Scripture that Pilate and Herod became friends after that, for they were enemies before.  Pilate sent Jesus to Herod because He was from the region of Galilee, and Herod ruled over that part of Israel.  Jesus never spoke a word to Herod.  Herod did nothing to Jesus as far as ruling over this case and so he sent Jesus back to Pilate.

            We know that Pilate had pronounced Jesus as being innocent and according to the “proud tradition of Roman justice, Pilate should have released Him.”  (MacArthur)  “But to do so would have infuriated the Jewish leaders, and possibly touched off a riot that could have cost him his position as governor.”  Like we have said Pilate was not in charge.

            Pilate then comes up with another plan “But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?"”  MacArthur has some interesting things to say about this and he will also quote F. F. Bruce too.  “There is no clear reference to this practice outside of Scripture (some scholars see an allusion to it in the Talmud), but ‘the testimony of the Evangelists [gospel writers] is evidence enough for the historicity of the practice.’”

            Looks like Pilate was trying to make the Jewish leaders mad when he asks “Do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?”  Pilate knew that this was one of the problems that the Jews had with Jesus and they totally rejected this then and most Jewish people still reject this even today, however Paul writes  in Ro 11:5  “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.”  Paul is saying that during the Church age there will be some Jews who will come to know the truth that Jesus Christ is their Messiah and their King.  Paul goes on to say later on in Romans 11 “26  And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,  “The Deliverer will come from Zion,  he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’”  Yes there is coming a day when “all Israel will be saved.”

            Ok back to the trial of Jesus and we want to at this time look at Matthew 27:17 “17 So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"”  What we see here is that more and more people were getting word of what was going on here and they came to see for themselves and Pilate knew that a riot could soon break out.  Pilate knew that many people believed that Jesus was indeed their Messiah so things were getting more and tenser for him.  However many of those who had believed that Jesus was their Messiah now see Him bound and seemingly helpless, not realizing that this was all in the plan of God from eternity past.  If they could have studied the OT Scriptures they would have not only seen that it was the time for the Messiah to come as seen in the 9^th chapter of Daniel, but also that Isaiah wrote that this would happen to Him when He came along with Daniel in that 9^th chapter of his book, and also David who wrote Psalm 22.  I am sure that the crowd that though Jesus was the Messiah was horrified to see Him the way He was at this point in time.

            Spiritual Meaning for my life today:  It seems to me as I think about what Jesus was going through that there is always a part of me who wants to see Pilate release Him, but then reality sets in and I know that I could never be saved apart from what Jesus went through, and for that I am so very thankful.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  As I continue to prepare for my Sunday School class my thoughts are going to the greatness of God and my prayer is that “that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Adam named them” (Genesis 2:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “In what ways are we to be children?”  (Hint: 1 Cor. 14:?)

Answer in our next SD.

4/28/2017 11:15 AM

           

Intro to Col. 3:9b-17

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2017 10:19 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Intro to Colossians 3:9b-17

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 3:9b-17

      Message of the verses:  “since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him- 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.  12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

            Today seems to be the day for introductions as we already did one from John’s gospel in our morning SD, and so we do one now in our evening SD.  John MacArthur entitles this 13^th chapter of his commentary on the book of Colossians “Putting on the New Man” and as noted it covers 3:9b-17 as it seems that things changed right in the middle of verse nine.  I think it best to quote from MacArthur commentary as it is only two paragraphs long.

“You can tell a lot about people in our society by the way they dress.  From baseball players to bus drivers, from postal carriers to policemen, people wear the uniform of their profession.  Who we are determines what we wear, and failing to ‘dress the part’ can sometimes have embarrassing consequences.  Many years ago a very wealthy man in a Southern California town was found wandering around the local country club wearing shabby clothes.  He was promptly seized by the country club.  He had failed to dress consistent with who he was.

“That is precisely Paul’s point in 3:1b-17.  Christians must dress themselves spiritually in accordance with their new identity.  They have died with Christ and risen to new life.  Salvation thus produces a two-sided obligation for believers.  Negatively, they must throw off the garment of the old, sinful lifestyle, as Paul pointed out in 3:5-9a.  Positively, they must put on the lifestyle of the new man.  To do that, they must understand the position, progress, partnership, performance, perfection, and priorities of the new man.”

The last sentence with the six items listed in it will be what we will be looking at over the next several Spiritual diaries.  4/27/2017 10:35 PM

Intro to John 18:29-19:16

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2017 10:04 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Intro to John 18:39-19:16

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 18:39-19:16

            Message of the verses:  39 “But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover; do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews?" 40 So they cried out again, saying, "Not this Man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber.

            “1 Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. 2  And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; 3 and they began to come up to Him and say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and to give Him slaps in the face. 4 Pilate came out again and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him." 5 Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the Man!" 6 So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out saying, "Crucify, crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him." 7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God." 8 Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; 9 and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, "Where are You from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" 11 Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." 12 As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, "If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar." 13 Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!" 15 So they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar." 16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.”

            I have been thinking a lot about John 17 as this is the chapter that I am now teaching in our Sunday school class and this week’s class will be on the first verse and so as I was reading over what these verses say my thoughts went back to 17:1 “Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.”  Jesus look’s back to what He had just said to His disciples in chapters 13-16 in the first part of this verse, and then looks ahead to what will happen to Him in chapters 18-19 when He stated “the hour has come,” and we are looking what that hour was as we continue our study on chapters 18-19.

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary “Jesus Before Pilate—Part 2: Phase Three of the Civil Trial.”  We will probably take a couple of days to look at the introduction to these verses that are before us.

            The question that is posed in the introduction to this section from MacArthur’s commentary is: “Who is Responsible for the Death of Christ?”  I have to be honest in that as you read different portions of the Scriptures you seem to find different answers to this question.  I remember after Mel Gibson’s move came out about the crucifixion of Christ and he was being interviewed and asked this question and his answer was “me.”  He was saying that because of his sin that Christ was crucified.  This truly is one of the answers that we find in Scripture, and yet there are others as Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost says “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”  We see in this verse what is called juxtaposing, and we have looked at this word before and I have to say that this has become one of my favorite words to help me understand some difficult things in Scripture.  God planned the death of Christ in eternity past and as Peter states the Jews had Him nailed to the cross, so the question is who is to blame.  Isaiah 53:10 tells us “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him, He has put Him to grief.”  We see here that it was God’s will to have Christ put to death.

            Now speaking of whether to blame the Romans or the Jews John MacArthur writes “But the real responsibility does not rest solely with either of them; What put Him on the cross was God’s own determination to punish His Son for all the sins of all who would ever be saved.  John the Baptist hailed Him as the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’ (John 1:29).  The writer of Hebrews said that He ‘has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself’ (Heb. 9:26).  In his first epistle John wrote that ‘He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2) and ‘He appeared in order to take away sins’ (3:5).  Our sins put Him on the cross.”

            Elsewhere we read that Jesus said that “no man has taken [My life] away from me” and then went on to say “but I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I received from My Father” (John 10:18).  Later on Jesus told Pilate, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.”  

            At this point I think that I will express some things that I think are true as we look at this subject.  First of all I want to list the attributes of God that I praise the Lord for many days of the week:  “God is HOLY, good, glorious, pure, sovereign, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, truth, measureless, omnipresence, omnipotent, omniscience, all wise, immutable, eternal, God is wrath, God pardons, God is Jealous, faithful, God is love and just.”  Now you can see that I have highlighted four of these attributes and the reason for them is that before God created the earth and surrounding universe there was only the trinity that was in existence.  God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and all of these Persons of the godhead had and still have all of these attributes.  We know that in eternity past that God promised to give His Son a love gift, that is a bride.  Now before the creation of man on the earth, and before the angels were created, God did not demonstrate any of these attributes that I have highlighted as there was no need for wrath, God to pardon anyone, the jealously of God, or the justice of God.  Now in God’s plan to give His Son a love gift, that is a bride these attributes that are highlighted will be seen as man will sin, God will pardon, God’s jealously will be in effect as those who will not worship Him will see His wrath and His justice.  So I conclude this by saying that for reasons that I totally do not understand it was in the plan of God to Have Christ die to pay for the price of His bride and to demonstrate those attributes that in eternity past were not demonstrated.  Of course this is all conjecture on my part and so I truly cannot say that I can find verses that say exactly what I am saying, but I do believe that there is Scripture that can support this “theory” of mine.  One thing I do know for sure that it was God who was in charge of the death of His Son, and that death paid for my sins and has allowed God to justify me in His eyes so that I can spend eternity with Him.

            John MacArthur writes the following paragraph at the end of his introduction and I usually quote it as it tells us where we will be going as we study the section before us.

“As he did  throughout his gospel, John presented the majesty and dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ—even as He was beaten, unjustly sentenced to death, and led away to be crucified.  The apostle did so by contrasting Him with the weak and vacillating Pilate, who lost his composure, his control over events, and was pressured into sentencing and innocent man to die. The story of Pilate’s downfall reveals his failed proposals to dispose of the case, his fatal panic as events spiraled out of control, and produced his final pronouncement of the death sentence on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I have been studying the sections that come from John 18-19 I am seeing more and more of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was in control of what was happening to Him.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to continue to trust the Lord to guide me into what He has for me to say that will glorify Him as I teach Sunday school on the amazing 17^th chapter of John.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “13.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How did the animals get their names?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/27/2017 11:21 AM

PT-3 Sins Wicked Hate (Col. 3:8-9a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2017 10:26 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Sins of Wicked Hate PT-3

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 3:8-9a

            Message of the verses:  “8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another,”

            MacArthur states “The result of anger, wrath, and malice is ‘abusive speech.’”  This kind of speech is spoken of in the Scriptures “and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks (Eph. 5:4).  “"The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil (Matthew 12:35).”  “"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the Day of Judgment (Matthew 12:36).” 

            Now as we look at Colossians 3:9a we see that Paul is warning against a final sin by telling believers not to lie to one another.  I would have to say that one of the things that bothers me the most is when someone lies to me.  John MacArthur writes “It would be a helpful (and time-consuming) study to begin in Genesis and find every lie in the Bible.  Satan lied in deceiving Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:4-5).  Cain lied to God after murdering Able (Gen 4:9).  Abram lied, claiming Sarah was hi sister instead of his wife (Gen. 12:11-19; 20:2).  Sarah lied to the three angelic visitors (Gen. 18:15), and to the king of Gear (Gen. 20:5).  Isaac lied by denying that Rebecca was his wife (Gen 26:7-10).  Rebecca and Jacob lied in their conspiracy to defraud Esau of his birthright (Gen. 27:6-24).  That list does not even get us out of Genesis.”

            In John 8:44 Jesus told the Pharisees “"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  We see here that lying characterizes Satan and not God “in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago (Titus 1:2).” 

            MacArthur concludes “How can we be victorious in our struggle with sin?  First, by starving it.  Do not feed anger or resentment.  Do not cater to sexual lust or covetousness.  Second, by crowding it out with positive graces:  Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these thing” (Phil. 4:8).  ‘Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you.’ (Col. 3:16).”

4/26/2017 10:44 PM

PT-4 "The Interrogation" and "The Adjudication" (John 18:33-38)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2017 9:26 AM

My Worship Time                                Focus:  PT-4 “The Interrogation” and “The Adjudication”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 18:33-38

            Message of the verses:  “33 Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" 35 Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in Him.”

            In our last SD I promised to give a quote from John MacArthur on this section about “What is truth,” and then look at the last half of verse 38 “The Adjudication.”

“Jesus’ words were an implied invitation to Pilate to hear and obey the truth about Him.  But they were lost on the governor, who abruptly ended his interrogation of Christ with the cynical, pessimistic remark “What is truth?”  Like skeptics of all ages, including contemporary postmodernists, Pilate despaired of finding universal truth.  This is the tragedy of fallen man’s rejection of God.  Without God, there cannot be any absolutes; without absolutes, there can be no objective, universal, normative truths.  Truth become subjective, relative, pragmatic; objectivity gives way to subjectivity; timeless universal principles become mere personal or cultural preferences.  All fallen mankind has accomplished forsaking God, ‘the foundation of living waters,’ is ‘to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water’ (Jer. 2:13).  Pilate’s flippant retort proved that he was not one of those given by the Father to the Son, who hear and obey Christ’s voice.”

“The Adjudication:”  “And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, ‘I find no guilt in Him’ (John 18:38b).”

            We have mentioned that the Jews took Jesus to Pilate because they could not inflict the death penalty on Him and so they had to bring some trumped up charges against Him so that the Romans would think that He was a threat to them and thus put Him to death.  Pilate, at this point would have none of this, and so he comes out and tells the Jews that he had not found any guilt in Him.  Jesus posed no threat to Roman rule. 

            MacArthur concludes “No valid indictment of Him at the beginning; no conviction of Him at the end.  The Lord of glory was maligned, hated, and falsely accused, but nevertheless found to be perfect, faultless, and innocent.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God’s Word gives us what truth is and therefore it is my desire to continue to study the Word of God, in order to continue to learn truth from it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to truth the Lord with my preparation for my Sunday school class as what I am teaching about this Sunday is probably the most important verse found in the 17^th chapter of John’s gospel, and it is my desire to “that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak (Col. 4:4).”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible Question:  “Solomon” (1 Kings 11:1-3).

Today’s Bible question:  “There how many Pauline epistles?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/26/2017 9:55 AM

PT-2 "Sins of Wicked Hate" (Col. 3:8-9a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2017 10:18 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Sins of Wicked Hate”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Colossians 3:8-9a

            Message of the verses: “8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another,”

            We are talking about what the meaning of these words are that are on this second list that Paul has written to the Colossian believers, and we want to look first of all how closely related anger and wrath are to each other.

            John MacArthur writes “The churning, boiling anger that often lies just below the surface gives rise to eruptions of wrath.  And many unbelievers live with a deep-seated resentment that feeds their anger.  They do not ask for their circumstances, and they do not know how to handle them.  All of that strokes the fires of their anger and makes them even more prone to explosions of wrath when exacerbated.”

Kakia (Malice):  This is a general term for moral evil.  J. B. Lightfoot defines it as “the vicious nature which is bent on doing harm to others.”  Now in the context that we are looking at in this verse it could well mean that the harm is caused by evil speech.

Blasphemia (Slander):  Now if we look at anger, wrath and malice they will often result in slander.  Notice that the Greek word is close to and is translated “Blasphemy.”  The problem is that when we slander people we are blaspheming God because all people are created in the image of God.  Jesus says the following in Matthew 5:22 “"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ’You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ’You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” 

Now we have two more of these words to look at and we will try to do that in our next SD, which hopefully will be done tomorrow.

4/25/2017 10:36 PM

 

PT-3 "The Interrogation" (John 18:22-28a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2017 9:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-3 “The Interrogation”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 18:33-38a

            Message of the verses:  “33 Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" 35 Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." 37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"”

            Today we look first of all at the answer that Jesus give to Pilate “If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews.”  Think about if Jesus were an earthly king, and not one from heaven as we know He is, but if He was earthly He never would have so easily gotten Himself caught like He did.  Another thing we can remember that goes along with this is that Peter, one of His followers tried to defend Him by cutting off the ear of one who came to arrest Him, but Jesus not only stopped Him from doing this but He also healed the ear of the one whom Peter struck with his sword, so from those to incidents Pilate could have seen that Jesus was not an earthly king.  MacArthur writes “The messianic kingdom does not originate from human effort, but through the Son of Man’s conquering of sin in the lives of those who belong to His spiritual kingdom.”

            The kingdom of Jesus Christ is spiritually active today, as the body of Christ is doing things that advance His spiritual kingdom on earth, and one day Jesus Christ will return to earth as seen in Revelation chapter nineteen and then His physical kingdom will begin and last for 1000 years.  Jesus Christ at this point in time was absolutely no threat to either the national identity of Israel or to the political and military identity of Rome, and Pilate knew this to be a fact, and yet we know that even though he knew this He had the Son of God crucified because He was not in charge of what was going on, but Jesus was in charge.

            We can see by Pilate’s next question to Jesus that He was confused as he said to Him “So You are a king?”  Jesus then answered him clearly “You say correctly that I am a king.”  Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:13 “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.”  Jesus then tells Pilate “For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world.”  Jesus as we know was not only born like any other person, but He also came from another realm, that is from heaven.  “"No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man (John 3:13).”  “"He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all (John 3:31).”  “"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world’ (John 6:33).”  “And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world (John 8:23).”  “"Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5).”  What we see here is the unmistakable reference to the preexistence and incarnation of the Son of God.

            I want to quote from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary as we look at the concluding part of our verses today.

“But Jesus not only told Pilate of His origin; He also explained His ministry: to bear witness unto the truth; and He won people to His cause, not through force, but through conviction and persuasion.  He spoke of the truth of God’s Word, and all who were His people would respond to His call (see John 8:47); 10:27).  Rome’s weapon was the sword; but our Lord’s weapon was the truth of God, the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17).

“We do not know what attitude Pilate asked his now-famous question, ‘What is truth?’  In his classic essay ‘Of Truth,’ Francis Bacon wrote, ‘What is Truth?’ said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer.’  But we are not certain that Pilate was jesting.  Perhaps he was sincere.  For centuries, Roman and Greek philosophers had discussed and debated this very question to no settled conclusions.  Whether Pilate was sneering or sighing as he asked the question we do not know; so it would be unwise to pass judgment.”

            I don’t know what Pilate’s attitude was when he asked that question, but I do know that he did not stop and listen to the answer, and I also know that there are many people today looking for the answer to what truth is and yet they look in all the wrong places, and then perhaps if they come in contact with someone who knows the answer to that question, they too like Pilate will walk away before getting the answer.

            In our next SD I want to quote what John MacArthur has to say about Pilate’s question and then we will look at our final section in this whole section of verses (John 18:28-38), which is the remaining part of verse 38.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer I know the truth of the gospel and it is my desire to continue to pass it along through personal contacts when God brings them to me and also through my Spiritual Diaries that go onto my blogs.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to give me the things that He desires me to have in order to teach Sunday school.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To Pada-Aram” (Genesis 28:1-2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who had seven hundred wives?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/25/2017 10:39 AM