SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2017
10:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Peter’s Denial: Act One
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
18:15-18
Message of the
verses: “15 Simon Peter was
following Jesus, and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to
the high priest, and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, 16
but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was
known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought
Peter in. 17 Then the slave-girl who
kept the door said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man’s
disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not." 18 Now the slaves and
the officers were standing there, having made a charcoal fire, for it was cold and they were
warming themselves; and Peter was also with them, standing and warming himself.”
We last saw Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus and then
like all of the other disciples fled from that scene as Jesus was being
arrested. Peter had mustered up courage
and began to follow, far behind, that is “Having arrested Him, they led Him
away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following
at a distance (Luke 22:54).”
John writes about another disciple who knew the high
priest and the question who is that disciple?
I believe that this is John himself as John never identifies himself in
his gospel, but says “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Another question is how a simple Galilean
fisherman such as John knew the high priest.
Andreas J. Kostenberger writes as quoted from John MacArthur’s
commentary “fishermen were entrepreneurs, not common laborers at the bottom of
the social spectrum.” John’s father had
a successful fishing business and one of the things that the Pharisees and the
high priest liked was money as we learned in our last SD when we quoted John
MacArthur’s comments about both Annas and his father-in-law.
MacArthur writes: “It
is also possible that John, through his mother, Salome (cf. Matt. 27:56 with
Mark 15:40, was of priestly descent. She apparently was the sister of Jesus’
mother, Mary (cf. John 19:25 with Mark 15:40).
Since Mary was related to Elizabeth (Luke 1:36; probably through her mother;
she was on the line David through her father [Luke 3:23-38]), who was from a
priestly family (Luke 1:5), Salome would be too. The early church Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History III.31.3) cites a
letter from Polycrates, a late second-century bishop of Ephesus (where John
spent his last years), in which Polycrates states that John had been a priest.”
I suppose that we may not know the true history of how
John knew the high priest, but the important thing here is that he did and that
allowed Peter to come into where Jesus was being tried by the high priest. The other disciple spoke to the doorkeeper
and the word doorkeeper is in the feminine form of the noun which indicates that
this was a woman as vs. 17 confirms writes John MacArthur. Because a woman was the doorkeeper this
indicates that this did not happen at the temple because only men manned posts
like this at the temple. We can see from
this story that Peter’s fear was overcome with his desire to be with the Lord
at this time. We will continue this
story in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As we look at this
story and John was writing this from around sixty years later, we can see the providential
hand of God in all of this. As I look
back at how the Lord saved me, and how he led me to being studying the Bible
using Spiritual Diaries, and then by placing them onto my blogs I have to
believe as I look back that God has been guiding my life and therefore believe
that God will continue to do so.
My Steps of Faith for Today: That I may make it clear in the way I ought
to speak (Col. 4:4).” I say this as a
prayer that the things that I say as I teach Sunday school tomorrow will be
made clear.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “An angel opened the prison”
(Acts 12:6-11).”
Today’s Bible
question: “To whom was Jesus speaking in
John 3:16)?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/15/2017 11:21 AM
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