PT-1 Christ's Power over death was Manifested in His Dying (John 19:31-37)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/19/2017 10:49 AM

My Worship Time              Focus: PT-1 Christ’s Power over death was Manifested in His Dying

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  John 19:31-37

            Message of the verses:  “31 Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. 36 For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN." 37 And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED."”

            Let me begin by telling a story of a man who was in a video that I had to watch when I was working at my regular job at Ford Motor Company’s Cleveland Casting Plant.  It was a safety video that hopefully made you think more about safety when you were working in what was a very dangerous place to work.  When you were working around molten cast iron with water all around it there was always the possibility of an explosion that could cut your life short.  There was a man in this video who left for work one morning and on his way out the door he told his wife that he loved her and then went onto work.  The narrator on the video said that this would be the last thing that he would ever say to his wife as he was killed that day.  My point in this is that many times death comes as a complete surprise, as there are things left unsaid, plans that were not finished, dreams that were not realized, and perhaps hopes unfulfilled.  The death of our Lord Jesus Christ was no surprise as His death was planed exactly how it would happen in eternity past and was fulfilled exactly how it was planned.  Jesus says the following in John 10:17-18 “17 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."”

            We saw in our last section of John’s gospel that Jesus stated “It is finished,” and then He gave up His life, and as John 10:17-18 states He did it just as He said He would do it, on His own terms.  As we read through the gospel records we see that there were many times when Jesus’ life was in danger, but that could not happen for Jesus had to die on the cross exactly when the Passover lambs were to die, and I am sure that during the exact time when Jesus gave up His life that there were thousands of lambs dying at that exact same time, but Jesus death was to fulfill what those Passover lambs pointed to for many years, since the time when God brought Israel out of the land of Egypt. 

            The next section we will look at causes me to become angry, not quite as angry as when the Jews would not enter the place where Pilate was conducting the false trial of Jesus because they did not want to defile themselves so that they could not celebrate the Passover, but this section is almost as bad when the Jews ask Pilate to have the legs of those being crucified so that they would not be there while they were celebrating the Passover.  Jesus was already dead at this time as we see in our section but we will deal with that later.  John MacArthur calls the action of the Jews “an act of blatant, nauseating hypocrisy,” and I could not agree more.

            The Romans, cruel people that they were, would many times leave the bodies on the cross to rot or to have the birds eat them or even wild animals eat them and of course the Jews did not want to have this happen and spoil their feast.  Crucifixion was a very cruel way to execute a person and one of the ways that people died from this form of execution was their weight of their bodies caused them to sag making it impossible for them to breathe and thus they would die and if their legs were broken then they could not push themselves up to breathe thus hastening their life. 

            I think that is enough for one day as we will pick up the rest of this section in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Sin has caused mankind to do some horrible things as history has proven.  The death of Jesus Christ was a horrible thing to happen to pay for the horrible things that sin has caused.  We have mentioned the horrible physical things that men did to Christ as we wrote in our past SD’s but the most horrible thing that happened to Christ was that He became sin for us, and also that He was separated from His Father as His Father poured out His wrath upon His Son to pay for my sin, and for all who would bow the knee to accept this forgiveness. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to cause me to remember what my sin caused for my Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Samson” (Judges 14:5-6).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was the king of Egypt called?

Answer in our next SD.

5/19/2017 11:27 AM