Sunday, April 9, 2017

Christ's Supreme Love (PT-1) (John 18:7-9)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/9/2017 7:07 AM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-1 “Christ’s Supreme Love”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  John 18:7-9

            Message of the verses:  “7 Therefore He again asked them, "Whom do you seek?" And they said, "Jesus the Nazarene." 8 Jesus answered, "I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way," 9 to fulfill the word which He spoke, "Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one."”

            We see sort of a repeated question from Jesus after the power of His Word put His captors on the seat of their pants, and they give Him the same answer and so in order to fulfill His Word He had earlier prayed to the Father for that none of His disciples were to be lost, and because of His great love for them He tells those who came to arrest Him that they came only to arrest Him and to leave the eleven go.  As mentioned in our last SD we see that Jesus was the One who was in control of what was going on and not the soldiers, Judas, or the Pharisees who really thought that they were in control.

            As we think about why Jesus shielded His disciples from being arrested we may want to go back to a promise that we looked at when we studied the 10th chapter of John and verses 12-13 “12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.”  On the other hand Jesus is the Good Shepherd as verse 14 states “14  "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”  Jesus was about to lay down His life for His sheep and in verse sixteen of John 10 He states “16  "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”  This highlighted portion of this verse goes along with the section we quoted from Revelation 21 about the Jewish ceremony as once the eternal kingdom comes we will all be a part of His bride or as He states here we will be one flock.

            He also shielded them from arrest because of the promise of the prayer He prayed in John 17 and then of course we know that everything that Jesus had taught His disciples would be used by them once they were given the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost seen in Acts chapter two.  Also as we look at the focus of our SD we find that it was out of His love for the disciples that He would shield them from arrest.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The highlighted portion of John 10:16 brings great comfort to me, knowing that from before God created the earth, that He had this in mind, and for that I am truly blessed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to give peace to my heart, and great wisdom to my mind as I prepare to once again begin to teach Sunday school at our church.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Prayer” (Luke 19:46).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/9/2017 7:30 AM

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