SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/16/2017 8:40 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Committed Christians Focus on Following Christ’s
Leading
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
21:19b-25
Message of the
verses: “And when He had spoken
this, He said to him, "Follow Me!" 20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus
loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at
the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?" 21 So
Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" 22
Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to
you? You follow Me!" 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren
that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would
not die, but only, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to
you?" 24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote
these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also
many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose
that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”
John MacArthur begins his last section of the gospel of
John in his commentary by writing “Following Jesus Christ is the sine qua non of the
Christian life.” I had to look that one up:
“an essential
condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary.” Let us look at John 12:26 “"If anyone
serves Me, he must follow
Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me,
the Father will honor him.” John 10:27
“"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;” Now John 8:12 for a comparison “Then Jesus
again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will
not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."” No matter what the cost those who belong to
Jesus follow Him “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to
come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me (Matt.
16:24).” “When they had brought their
boats to land, they left everything and followed Him (Luke 5:11).” 27 After that He went out and noticed a tax
collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, "Follow Me." 28 And he left everything behind,
and got up and began to follow Him (Luke 5:27-28).” “23 And He was saying to them all, "If
anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross
daily and follow Me. 24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 “For
what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits
himself? (Luke 9:23-25).” “Peter said,
"Behold, we have left our own homes and followed You’ (Luke 18:28).” MacArthur adds “To follow Jesus means not
only to be willing to sacrifice everything in submission to His will, but also
to obey His commands (Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:46) and to imitate Him (1 Thess. 1:6;
1 John 2:6; cf. 1 Cor. 11:1).”
John 21:19b is actually the end of a paragraph, and in it
we see the words that Jesus speaks to Peter “follow Me.” I suppose that this is in that existing
paragraph to show what Jesus says to Peter after He restores him to being a
worker for the gospel. Peter surely
needed it and I believe that after Peter thought about this that his heart was
filled with joy. Perhaps this happened
as Jesus and Peter got up and began to walk, maybe even along the shore of the
lake, and looking around Peter sees John and then asks the Lord about him, as
it seems to me that he was interested in how John would die for the cause of
Christ. As mentioned in earlier SD’s John
does not identify himself by name but by the words “the disciple whom Jesus
loved.” Let us look at John 13:23 “There
was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” As we stated this is John, the author of this
gospel. John MacArthur writes
“Obviously, as that reference indicates, he was one of the inner circle of
Jesus’ followers. Yet he cannot have
been Peter, since the two were distinguished in this text and others. Nor can he have been James, who was martyred
too early (Acts 12:2) to have written the gospel of John. By process of elimination, the beloved
disciple had to have been the apostle John.”
As we have mentioned when we look at the next verse, (v.
21) Peter was wondering about how John would die and Jesus replies “If I want
him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!"” MacArthur says that this “was not an answer,
but a rebuke that made it clear to Peter that what was to happen to John was
none of his business. If John lived
until the second coming, it had no bearing on his responsibility. Reiterating His command from verse 19, Jesus
said emphatically, ‘You follow Me!’
Peter’s attention was not to be on anyone else, but on his own devotion
and duty to Jesus Christ. All believers
will do well to embrace this truth that the Lord has a unique plan for each of
His followers.”
As we look at the remaining verses in John’s gospel they
answer a few final questions and the first one has to do with the statement
that Jesus gave to Peter concerning the fate of John which caused a rumor about
him as far as how long he would live. “23
Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not
die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, "If I
want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?"” John was quick to debunk that rumor as seen
in verse 23. Rumors have many times
caused problems, and they have caused problems for those who walk with the
Lord.
Next we see that John reminds his readers that he “the disciple
who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we” (MacArthur
adds “either the apostles, or more likely and editorial device referring only
to John) ‘know that his testimony is true.’
John was an eyewitness to the events recorded in his gospel, and ‘his
testimony’ concerning them ‘is true.’”
The things that John wrote in this gospel were true as they were
inspired by the Holy Spirit the author of all Scripture, but there were some
things that were not included that John now speaks about here “there are also
many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose
that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.’” The Holy Spirit gave John the words to write
and those words were what he wrote in his gospel, but as he mentions there were
many more things that Jesus did as John focused on what we have been talking
about since the beginning of this study “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.” John’s task was not to write about all of the
signs or miracles that Jesus did, but to only focus on what the Holy Spirit
wanted him to write in order to show those who read these words that “Jesus is
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” John would write similar words in his epistles
too. John MacArthur writes “His
statement that Jesus did more works than the world’s books could hold is
evidence that even in the four Gospels there is given only a limited and
selective record of events. This makes
the point stronger regarding how great Israel’s unbelief and subsequent
culpability truly was, since she denied her Messiah in the face of such a
massive display of divine power. In
light of the vast evidence of His deity, Israel’s rejection of the Lord Jesus
renders her subject to the severest judgment.
This was especially true of the leaders, to whom the Lord said,
‘34 "Therefore, behold,
I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill
and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city, 35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the
righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of
Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the
altar. 36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.’
“This symbolized in the
destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70:
‘41 When He approached
Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known
in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been
hidden from your eyes. 43 “For the days will come upon you when your enemies
will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every
side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you,
and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not
recognize the time of your visitation."
“Jesus had challenged Peter to love Him above all
else. Faced with the prospect of
sacrificing everything for Christ, from here on Peter did not back down. He learned the lesson that Following Jesus
was to be the singularly supreme objective of his love. Peter and his fellow apostles, empowered by
the Holy Spirit, turned the world upside down through their fearless witness to
Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 17:6) and in almost every case died as martyrs for the
love of Christ and the truth of the gospel.”
With these words we finish looking at the Gospel of John.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Just as Jesus had
a plan for Peter’s life that was different than the plan for John’s life, so He
has a plan for my life “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph.
2:10),” it is my desire to do the things that He has planned for my life,
things I believe He planned before the world was even made.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to show me the things He wants
me to do for the cause of Jesus Christ, and by His grace do them.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Mary (Luke 1:39-40).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who wrote the epistle to the
Romans?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/16/2017 9:55 AM
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