SPIRITUAL DIRY FOR 5/25/2017
11:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro
to John 20:11-31
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
20:11-31
Message of the
verses: “11 But Mary was standing
outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw
two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the
body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, "Woman, why are you
weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord,
and I do not know where they have laid Him." 14 When she had said this,
she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was
Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you
seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if
you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him
away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him
in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ’I ascend to
My Father and your Father,
and My God and your God.’" 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the
disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things
to her.
“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." 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not
with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him,
"We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in
His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the
nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
26 After eight days His disciples were again
inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood
in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then He said to
Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your
hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28
Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said
to him, "Because you
have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
30 Therefore many other
signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not
written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life
in His name.”
In our last SD we said that we would look at one more
fable trying to show that Jesus had not risen from the dead and that this one
would come from the Scriptures (Matthew 28:11-15) “11 ¶ Now while they were on
their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief
priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders
and consulted together, they
gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 and said, "You are to
say, ’His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14
“And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep
you out of trouble." 15 And they took the money and did as they had been
instructed; and this story
was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”
John MacArthur writes “It should be noted first of all
that their claim is a tacit admission that the tomb was empty, and that they
did not know where the body was. William
Lane Graig writes,
‘The point is that the Jews
did not respond to the preaching of the resurrection by pointing to the empty
tomb. The fact that the enemies of
Christianity felt obliged to explain away the empty tomb by the theft hypothesis
shows not only that the tomb was known (confirmation of the burial story), but
that it was empty…The fact that the Jewish polemic never denied that Jesus’
tomb was empty, but only tried to explain it away is compelling evidence that
the tomb was in fact empty.’”
I suppose we could ask a question here and that would be “Why
would the disciples take the body of Jesus and hide it when they did not really
believe that He was going to rise from the dead?” The fact is that none of the disciples
believed that Jesus was going to rise from the dead, as we can see from what
Thomas said to the other disciples. He
was adamant that Jesus had not risen from the dead.
That section from Matthew 28 which is quoted above has always
been kind of a mystery to me. The Jews
told the soldiers that the disciples came and stole the body of Jesus when they
were sleeping. How could they know what
happened when they were sleeping, and soldiers who slept on the job could very
well be punished by death, and so this just shows us that people did and do not
want to believe the truth that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead.
John MacArthur writes “It is significant to note that all
of the Lord’s postresurrection appearances were to believers (except Paul, who
was not yet a believer when He appeared to him the first time). His normal method of reaching the lost is not
through performing spectacular miracles, such as personally appearing to them,
but through the witness of His church in the power of His Spirit (Matt.
28:19-20; Acts 1:8). Nor would such
miracles convince unbelievers anyway. ‘”But
through He had performed so many signs before them,’ John noted, ‘yet they were
not believing in Him.’ John 12:37). Even a resurrection appearance would not
convince hardened unbelievers, since those who ‘do not listen to Moses and the
Prophets,…will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ (Luke
16:31).
“Out of all of Christ’s postresurrection appearances,
John selected three that give special insights into the person of Jesus
Christ: to Mary Magdalene, to the ten
apostles (without Thomas), and to all eleven apostles (specifically to Thomas).” That will be the outline we follow as we
continue to look over these verses.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Red Sea” (Joshua 2:10).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was in the belly of a
fish for three days and three nights?”
Answer in our next SD
5/25/2017 12:03 PM
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