SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2017
10:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Focus of Future Glory”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 17:24b
Message of the
verses: “so that they may see My
glory which You have given Me”
I have stated that understand God’s glory is a difficult
task for me, but as we look at the glory that Christ has which was given to Him
by the Father, and I have to believe that this is speaking of while He was on
earth. God’s gracious plan for all His
children will be that we not only see the glory of Christ when in heaven, but
we will share it: “20 For our
citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who
will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of
His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all
things to Himself (Phil. 3:20-21).” “29 For
those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of
His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29).” “49 Just as we have borne the image of the
earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49).” “2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and
it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like
Him, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).” John MacArthur states that the song of the
redeemed as seen in Revelation 5:12-13 will be sung as we behold the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ: “12 saying with a
loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches
and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." 13 And every
created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on
the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the
throne, and to the Lamb, be
blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever."”
John MacArthur writes “This request complements the
statement the Lord made back in verse 22:
‘The glory which You have given Me I have given to them.’ In the incarnation, Christ had manifested ‘His
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father’ (John 1:14; cf.
2:11). Believers also receive Christ’s
glory through His indwelling of them through the Holy Spirit (vv. 23, 26;
14:20, 23). In that sense they have His glory—His
attributes and essence—within them.”
We have this glory at this present time, but Christ is
not speaking of that glory we have at this time, but that we will be able to see
His glory once we get to heaven. On
earth as we have learned Christ’s glory was partiality veiled as we saw when we
looked at Philippians 2:7, however when Jesus returned to heaven He would once
again have His full glory on display.
John 17:5 Jesus said “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Once again we see the principle of praying
for something that was certain to happen.
I remember a conversation that I had with my Pastor a few
years ago along with a missionary friend of his who has also become a friend of
mine. The subject of will we be able to
see God the Father in heaven came up, and Pastor Jacobs stated that he did not
believe we would, and I thought that it is possible that we would. Listening to a sermon from this last section
of John 17, John MacArthur stated that we will only see Jesus Christ in heaven
as the Holy Spirit is invisible and also he believes that we will not see God
the Father. It was not long after that
that Pastor Jacobs, a very dear friend of mine went to be with the Lord and my
thoughts were that he knew the answer to the question we were discussing.
Believers have the hope (noun, not verb) of seeing Christ’s
glory in heaven either through their death or through going to heaven at the
rapture. Pastor Burns, a former pastor
of mine stated that he was looking for the upper-taker, and not the undertaker.
I certainly have to agree with that
statement. As we now take a look at
Revelation 5:11-14 we can praise the Lord because of the overwhelming
manifestation of Christ’s glory will be only praise to Him:
“11 Then I looked, and I
heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and
the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of
thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and
blessing." 13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth
and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,
"To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and
glory and dominion forever and ever." 14 And the four living creatures
kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.”
Why God will, and why is God continually giving us
blessings now and in the future? It is
because of the reality that the Father loved the Son “before the foundation of
the world.” MacArthur concludes that “From
all eternity the Father and the Son enjoyed perfect fellowship (John 1:1),
love, and shared glory (17:5). As
indicated throughout this prayer, based on that mutual love, the Father chose a
people (Eph. 1:4), gave them to the Son, and prepared an eternal kingdom for
them (Matt. 25:34) where they will behold His glory forever.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To trust the Lord as I begin to prepare
to teach Sunday school beginning on Easter Sunday.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter” (Matthew 17:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “The four great beasts
mentioned in Daniel 7:3, came up from where?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/3/2017 10:49 AM
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