SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2017
8:57 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Blessing Will Be Realized
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 3:25-26
Message of the
verses: “25 “It is you who are the
sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers,
saying to Abraham, ’AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE
BLESSED.’ 26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you
by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."”
I want to first talk about the “seed” which is mentioned
here in verse 25 as this is a quotation from Genesis 22:18, as it is a promise
from God to Abraham. Now the seed that
he is talking about if Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and I find it interesting
that if we go back to Genesis 3:15 we read “And I will put enmity Between you
and the woman, And between
your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall
bruise him on the heel."” I have
always been taught that this is the only time in the Word of God that the term “her
seed” is found, and this speaks of the virgin birth of our Lord as seen in the
NT gospels, especially Matthew. As we
look at the genealogies in both Matthew and Luke we see how this seed or line
was passed on. Matthew’s genealogy goes
from Jesus back to Abraham, while Luke’s goes back from Jesus to God who was
the father of Abraham. It is believed
that the differences between the two genealogies is that Matthews is Joseph’s genealogy
and Luke’s is Mary’s. The difference
between the two of them is when you get back to David and you find that Joseph’s
genealogy has all of the kings of Judah in it while Mary’s from Luke has David’s
son Nathan in it. The reason for that is
one of the kings was so bad that the line could not be followed through him and
so since Mary was the mother of our Lord (our Lord’s humanness) and Joseph was
actually His step-father that is why the line could come through Mary as we can
see from Genesis 3:15 as Jesus was the seed of the woman.
As we move back to our verses we find that Peter closes
his sermon on a hopeful note. In spite
of their sin his audience could still be saved even though at the time of the
Lord’s crucifixion they had rejected him.
People do the same thing today as they will hear about Jesus and know
that He died for them, understand the truth of it and yet reject Him. Later on they will come to Him to be saved
even though at first they rejected Him.
In Romans 9:3-5 we read that the apostle Paul expressed
the truth of this fact that they were still the sons of the prophets and of the
covenant: “3 For I could wish that I
myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh, 4 who
are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the
covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
5 whose are the fathers,
and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God
blessed forever. Amen.”
Yes they were heirs of all the promised covenant
blessings even more so than any other generation since in their lifetime their
Messiah had come. We have seen that God’s
covenant with Abraham found its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
It was only because of God’s grace, mercy, and love for
Israel, that He did not permanently reject them even when they were the ones
who rejected Jesus Christ. This
statement is truth, God is not done with Israel, and the blessings of Israel
were never given to the church as some would want to tell you. I have gone over this truth in an earlier
SD.
John MacArthur completes this tenth chapter in his
commentary by writing “All the rich blessings of salvation and all the covenant
promises were available. Peter’s hearers
could only obtain them, however, by turning from their wicked ways. Repentance was the key that unlocked
everything. Peter had clearly shown that
the claims of Jesus were consistent with Old Testament prophecy, so that it was
a compelling case for his hearers to respond in repentance and belief. Tragically, most of Peter’s audience refused
to repent. Like their fathers before
them, they hardened their hearts and failed to enter God’s rest (Heb. 3:8;
4:3). As a result, within the lifetime
of many in the audience the nation would be destroyed. And those who refused to turn from their sins
would find themselves ‘cast out into the outer darkness’ (Matt. 8:12), where
they will ‘pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of His power’ (2 Thess. 1:9).
“Such a fate awaits all those in very age and place who
refuse to repent and receive God’s gracious offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Olive oil” (Exodus 27:29).
Today’s Bible
question: “How did Paul become a Roman
Citizen?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/17/2017 9:33 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment