SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/5/2017
10:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Holy and Righteous One
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 3:14
Message of the
verses: “14 “But you disowned the
Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,”
I want to remind everyone, and myself too of what we are
looking at here in our recent Spiritual Diaries by quoting the last paragraph
of John MacArthur’s introduction on this section we are looking at: “So Peter takes as the theme of his sermon
the matchless name of Jesus Christ. He
presents five of the many names of our Lord, all of which have messianic
implications. As he did in his first
sermon, Peter presents Jesus as the Messiah, approved by God, yet rejected by
the people. By so doing, he again
stresses to them that they were in the disastrous condition of being at odds
with God. Peter describes his Master as
Servant, Jesus, Holy and Righteous One, Prince of Life, and Christ.” In our SD for this morning we will be looking
at Holy and Righteous One from Acts 3:14.
Peter is working on the hearts of his listeners by
showing them that they are guilty, something that all people have to realize if
they are going to be saved. I have said
on different occasions that in order to have a person get saved they have to
realize that they are lost. If one is to
realize they are lost they will realize that they are guilty. Peter calls Jesus in this verse “The Holy and
Righteous One” and tells his audience that they rejected Him and asked instead
for a murder to be released and Christ crucified.
John MacArthur writes “Hagios (‘Holy’) means to be separated to God. Jesus is not only holy by nature by separated
to God to do His will. ‘Holy One’ is
also a messianic title. Psalm 16:10, a
messianic passage quoted by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, reads,
‘For Thou will not abandon my soul to Sheol; neither wilt Thou allow Thy Holy
One to undergo decay.’ Speaking for the
rest of the disciples, Peter said, ‘We have believed and have come to know that
You are the Holy One of God’ (John 6:69).
Even the demons knew the truth that Jesus was the Holy One (Luke 4:34). ‘"Let
us alone! What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You
come to destroy us? I know who You are-the Holy One of God!"’ Israel’s guilt in rejecting Him was both
monumental and inexcusable and placed them in open rebellion against God.
“Dikaios
(Righteous) carries the idea of being innocent of any crime. Faced with the choice between Jesus, their
innocent Messiah, and the guilty ‘murderer’ Barbbas, they chose the
latter. ‘Barabbas’ means ‘son of the
father,’ an interesting earthly contrast to Jesus, who was the ‘Son of the
Father’ in heaven. Even pagans, such as Pilate’s
wife (Matt. 27:19) and a Roman centurion (Luke 23:47), recognized what Israel
could not—that Jesus was innocent and righteous. Peter’s indictment of them was devastatingly
direct.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I found it very
interesting to realize the name of Barbbas and the name of our Lord were
similar, but also worlds apart. I am
thankful that the One I worship and try to bring glory to is “The Holy and
Righteous One.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give me wisdom as I
work on my lesson for Sunday school class this up coming week.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Even the sparrows are not
forgotten by Him.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said to Daniel, ‘Seven
weeks are determined upon thy people…’?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/5/2017 11:06 AM
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