SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/23/2017
6:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “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?"”
Perhaps it is necessary to understand the motive behind the
question that Pilate asked Jesus “Are You the King of the Jews?” The Jews knew that just telling Pilate that
Jesus had blasphemed would not get the death penalty for Him, and so they had
to come up with charges against Him that would cause Pilate to want to crucify
Him. By making Himself out to be a King
and by telling the people not to pay taxes to Rome, which is what they were
accusing Him of, could be enough to have Pilate crucify Him and so this is the
reason for this question Pilate asked Jesus.
The charges that the Jews had against Him were untrue as Jesus had said
that the Jews were to render to Caesar the thing due him and to God the things
due Him.
MacArthur quotes Andreas J. Kostenberger who writes “Pilate’s
question seeks to determine whether or not Jesus constituted a political threat
to Roman imperial power.” MacArthur adds
“In all four gospel accounts this is the first question Pilate asks Jesus and
in all four the pronoun ‘You’ is emphatic.
The Greek text literally reads, ‘You, are You the King of the Jews?’ Pilate was incredulous; from a human perspective,
Jesus did not look like a king. And if
He was a king, where were His followers and His army? And how was He a threat to Rome?”
I have mentioned that my SD’s for Sunday are mostly
shorter because of all the other things going on to get me to church and so
with this said we will look at the answer that Jesus gave to Pilate in our next
SD.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
In relations of teaching Sunday school
this morning: “that I may make it clear
in the way I ought to speak (Col. 4:4).”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Turned water to wine” (John
2:1-11).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Depart from me; for
I am a sinful man O Lord’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/23/2017 6:46 AM
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