SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2017
8:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Christ’s Appearance to Thomas”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John
20:24-31
Message of the
verses: “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 were talking about how Thomas got his
nickname “Doubting Thomas,” which comes from this section of Scripture, however
when you look at the history of the other disciples they were as big of
doubters as Thomas was. “10 She went and
reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping. 11
When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.
12 After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were
walking along on their way to the country. 13 They went away and reported it to
the others, but they did not believe them either (Mark 16:10-13).” 8 And
they remembered His words, 9 and
returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all
the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of
James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the
apostles. 11 But these
words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them
(Luke 24:8-11).” MacArthur adds “What
made Thomas different was not that his doubt was greater, but that his sorrow
was greater.”
Thomas would soon be taken up on his skeptical offer for
we read “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."”
Notice once again that the doors were shut and I suppose that this is
still because of the fear of the Jews.
Now I want for a moment go back to the prayer that Jesus prayed in John
17, as this section of Scripture has been on my mind ever since February when I
first began to study it, and am now teaching it in Sunday school. In the second section of Jesus prayer 6-19,
He was praying for His disciples and one of the things that He prays for is
their safety, that the Father would take care of them, for after the death of
Jesus if the Jews would have come and killed all of Jesus’ disciples then there
would have been not book of Acts, and for that matter no rest of the New
Testament, but because Jesus prayed this prayer for protection for His
disciples the Jews could not touch them at this time. I know that each of them was martyred for
their faith with the exception of John, but that happened long after the Gospel
message had been given out and the church began, so even though the disciples
were keeping the door locked for fear of the Jews the Father was protecting
them, for after all our Lord spent three years with them so that after He died
for them and then was resurrected and then went back to heaven He was going to
continue to use them for His cause as He prayed for them from heaven.
Jesus next tells Thomas to “"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."”
MacArthur writes “The Lord met Thomas at the point of his weakness and
doubt, without rebuke because He knew Thomas’s error was connected to his
profound love. In patient compassion, He
gave Thomas the empirical proof he had demanded.” This
was enough for Thomas who went from doubter to believer in an instance. He then gives one of the greatest confessions
every given of any of the apostles when he cries out “My Lord and my God!” Reading this in this book tells me that
because of Thomas’s weakness in doubting, and because of our Lord’s longsuffering with Him, and
because of this Jesus came to meet Thomas where He was that we get one of the
greatest statements of the deity of Jesus Christ found anywhere in the Word of
God. Remember in Jesus’ mock trials the Jews crucified Him because of His claim
to being God’s Son, thus being God, but Thomas cries it out testifying to the
fact of who Jesus is “My Lord and my God.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What furniture was placed in the
most holy place?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/3/2017 8:40 AM
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