SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2017
9:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 The Submission of the Disciples
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 1:12-15
Message of the
verses: “12 Then they returned to
Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath
day’s journey away. 13 When they had
entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that
is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and
Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of
James. 14 These all with
one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 15 At this time Peter stood up in the midst
of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there
together), and said,”
I want to go back and think of the prayer that Jesus
prayed in John 17 and in the eleventh verse Jesus was praying for unity,
actually two kinds of unity or perhaps better stated unity with two different
beings, as He prayed for an invisible unity that believers have with the triune
God, and then a visible kind of unity with those believers in your church and
people in other churches you may know.
We see here in verse fourteen in the highlighted portion of the verse
that the disciples, along with those who were meeting in the upper room were
all with one mind, and then the verse goes on to talk about what they were all
doing to be of this one mind as they were devoting themselves to prayer, and
when people get together to pray it is easier to be of one mind as in this case
they were all praying for things that they wanted God to do. I believe that what they were doing is being
prepared to begin the church age which would begin soon.
John MacArthur writes what he believes they were not
praying for, “they were not praying for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They had not been told to pray for that but
to wait for it, and they knew it was coming soon. The coming of the Spirit did not require or
depend on their prayers but on God’s promise…
They were praying because they were physically communicating with
Him. They may have been asking Him to
return soo and in the meantime to grant them all they would need to be
faithful. This was the beginning of the
pattern of prayer offered in the name of Jesus (cf. John 14:13-14) and thus
marks another of the many historical transitions found in the book of Acts.”
We do not know exactly when it was that Peter stands up “in
the midst of the brethren,” and then Luke gives us a parenthetical note of how
many were in the group, 120. It was from
this small number and perhaps more in Galilee that the Christian church was
born. I suppose that some people would
be disappointed about such a small number.
John MacArthur writes about some who would complain as to the small
size, “One such man came to Charles Spurgeon and complained about the small
size of his congregation. Spurgeon’s
devastating reply was that perhaps the man had as many people as he cared to
give account for in the day of judgment.
The 120 gathered in the upper room were small in number but had counted
the cost and were willing to take up the cross and follow their Lord. They believed in Him fully. From this modest beginning, Christianity
spread throughout the Roman Empire in an amazing short time span. In spite of repeated attempts to stamp out
the movement, it eventually prevailed and because the dominant force in Western
culture for nearly two thousand years.”
This was a very patient group, a group that was obeying
the words that the Lord told them to do just before He went back to heaven
where He is now sitting at the right hand of God praying and interceding for us
who belong to Him.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have mentioned
that I am teaching a Sunday school class on the 17th chapter of
John, which is Christ’s High Priestly Prayer.
As I am looking at this first chapter of Acts I can see the parts of
Christ praying for His disciples protection fulfilled or answered here. Christ was praying for their protection so
that they could be the ones to begin the Church age and although 10 of these
eleven men would die violent deaths for the cause of Christ, Christ plan for
them was fulfilled in their lives.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Remember, from time to time to look back at
my life to better understand that the steps that I have been taking were
ordered by the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Paul” (Acts 15:36).
Today’s Bible
question: “In which garden did Christ
undergo great suffering prior to the crucifixion?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/5/2017 9:34 AM
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