SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/31/2017
8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Christ’s
Appearance to Ten of the Disciples
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
20:19-23
Message of the
verses: “19 So when it was evening
on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the
disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said
to them, "Peace be with you." 20 And when He had said this, He showed
them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the
Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father
has sent Me, I also send you." 22 And when He had said this, He breathed
on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 “If you forgive the
sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any,
they have been retained."”
I have to say something about our last SD, and that is
that I truly have enjoyed learning about the disciples of Jesus from the
devotionals that I have been reading in MacArthur’s Devotional Bible. Today was the last day, and it was kind of a
recap of all the disciples. He told a
story of a man who played the violin very well and said that he was going to
play a 20 thousand dollar violin and many people came out to listen to him
play. After his first part of the
program was finished he through the violin onto the floor breaking it to bits
and then he left. A while later someone
came out and said that the violin he broke was only worth twenty dollars and he
would return to play the more expensive one to finish the program. The disciples were “$20”) disciples until
they meet Jesus and listened to Him for three years and then they became (“$
20,000”) disciples. The moral of this
story is that believers can be worth much more spiritually by spending time
with the Word of God, getting to know the Lord Jesus Christ better, and
allowing Him to use them as He changes them for His glory.
In verse 21 we see a bit of a preview of what is called “The
Great Commission,” as Jesus says to them “as the Father has sent Me, I also
send you.” MacArthur writes “Having
formally commissioned the disciples,
Christ ceremonially empowered them as
a pledge of the power they were actually to receive on Pentecost forty days
later (Acts. 2:1-4). Signifying that coming reality, ‘He breathed on them, and
said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’
This was a purely symbolic and prophetic act, reminiscent of the vivid
object lessons frequently employed by Old Testament prophets to illustrate
their messages (cf. Jer. 13:1-9; 19:1-11; Ezek. 4:1-4). In other words, Christ did not through this
puff of breath actually and literally impart the Spirit in His fullness to
them; rather He declared in a visible figure what would happen to them at
Pentecost.” I for one, a happy to finally understand this passage as it has
been somewhat of a mystery to me.
There is a difference in the ministry of Holy Spirit in
the Old Testament than what it is in the New Testament as the Holy Spirit could
come on people and then leave them.
David prayed in Psalm 51, a Psalm he wrote after his sin with Bathsheba,
“Take not You Holy Spirit from me,” as David knew that that could have
happened. The disciples did not receive
the Holy Spirit in His fullness until Pentecost, and after that all believers
would receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as Paul writes to when believers
would be taken to glory.
We will close this SD with another quote from John
MacArthur as he further explains what Jesus did to the disciples. But before that a thought just came to me and
that is that when Jesus speaks to Thomas a little while later He did not breath
on him to receive the Holy Spirit.
“When Jesus ‘breathed on
them’ at this point, however, it was a powerful illustration, rich with meaning—because
the Holy Spirit is pictured in Ezekiel 37:9-14 as God’s breath. So the gesture was affirmation of Christ’s
deity, making His own breath emblematic of the breath of God. It was also reminiscent of the way God first ‘breathed
into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life’ (Gen. 2:7)—thus picturing the impartation
of new life through regeneration (the second birth), which under the new
covenant is always accompanied of the Spirit (Ezek. 36:26-27). [‘26 “Moreover,
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove
the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will
put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be
careful to observe My ordinances.’] The
simple act of breathing on the disciples was thus a meaningful emblem on
multiple levels. Since then, every
Christian has received the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I once read in a book by Warren Wiersbe that he did not
believe that having the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in this day and
age meant a great deal because of how believers were living their lives. I believe that the Holy Spirit leads me an
guides me, and also teaches me from the Word of God, and when I get to heaven
it will be good for me to better understand all that the Spirit of God has done
in my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Holy Spirit will give me the
wisdom to prepare me to teach Sunday school this Sunday, and that He will give
me calmness of heart to present what He teaches me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Daniel” (Daniel 6:22).
Today’s Bible question: “What city was referred to as the city of David?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/31/2017 9:28 AM
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