Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Human Weakness and Failure PT-1 (John 21:1-5)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2017 8:19 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Human Weakness and Failure

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  John 21:1-5

            Message of the verses:  “1 After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested Himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will also come with you." They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 So Jesus said to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No."”

            Verse one speaks of an unspecified time after the events that were recorded in chapter twenty.  John must like “Jesus manifested Himself” as he uses it here and also in John 17:6 “"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world,” a little different in that it was Jesus who was praying to the Father in John 17 telling Him that He had manifested His name to the disciples, and now in chapter 21 we see Jesus manifesting Himself to the disciples.  We see this takes place near the Sea of Tiberias, or Sea of Galilee and this was where the Lord commanded the disciples to go after His resurrection (Matt. 28:10, 16; Mark 14:28; 16:7).  MacArthur writes “Jesus manifested Himself…to the disciples’ emphasizes the truth that after His resurrection He was not recognizable unless He revealed Himself (cf. 20:14).  What was true of physically recognizing Jesus is also true spiritually.  No one, apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit, can call Jesus Lord (1 Cor. 12:3), because ‘a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised’ (1 Cor. 2:14).  Since ‘there is none who seeks for God’ (Rom. 3:11), was necessary for ‘the Son of Man [to] come to seek and to save that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10).  Apart from such seeking, the gospel remains foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18, 30-31).” 

            The “Sea of Tiberias” was the common name for this body of water with many other names, but during John’s writing of his gospel this is what it was called because Herod Antipas founded the city of Tiberias on its western shore and he named it in honor of Emperor Tiberius.

            Now because in a few minutes I have the privilege of taking care of my three year old granddaughter I will end this section of this SD and pick it up, Lord willing, tomorrow.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pilate” (John 19:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “To what island did Barnabas and Paul go as missionaries?”

Answer in our next SD.  6/7/2017 8:53 AM

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