SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2017
10:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Hate and
Love
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
7:60-8:1a
Message of the
verses: “60 Then falling on his
knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against
them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.
1 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.”
This is a wonderful title for this section as we can see
the hateful act that those in the Sanhedrin were doing to Stephen, and yet amid
the flying deadly stones that were being thrown at him Stephen’s heart is
filled with love for them as he asks the Lord not to hold this sin against
them. In our study of the book of John
we saw that Jesus prayed a similar prayer as He was dying, a prayer that came
from our Lord because one of His attributes is love and even though He was
being killed because of what they did to Him, He didn’t stop loving them. This is the only prayer found in the gospels
where we see Jesus praying for unbelievers.
Now perhaps upon seeing what Stephen saw in heaven his
hear was so filled with the love of God that he too prayed a similar prayer
that Christ prayed, of perhaps because he had heard what Christ prayed that he
desired to be like Christ and pray a similar prayer for those who were killing
him. Stephen was praying for the salvation of those who were doing harm to him.
John MacArthur writes “The death of the prophet
Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, provides an instructive comparison. Second Chronicles 24:20-22 describes his
murder:
‘20 Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the
son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them,
"Thus God has said, ’Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD
and do not prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has also forsaken
you.’" 21 So they conspired against him and at the command of the king
they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD. 22 Thus Joash
the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him,
but he murdered his son. And as he died he said, "May the LORD see and
avenge!’
“Like Stephen, Zechariah
was unjustly put to death. Unlike
Stephen, however his dying prayer was for justice and vengeance, not forgiveness.
“Only Christians can love as Stephen did, ‘because the
love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who
was given to us’ (Rom. 5:5).”
We see the term he “fell asleep” at the end of verse 60
and sleep is a term that is used for the death of Christians in different
sections of the NT. Sleep is a wonderful
way to describe the death of a believer.
Sleep is painless and it is also temporary, and it takes one from the
experience of weariness, work, and consciousness that occur as problems in this
life, and it takes us into the freshness of a new day.
“This He said, and after
that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so
that I may awaken him out of sleep.’ The disciples then said to Him,
"Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." (John 11:12).”
“For this reason many among
you are weak and sick, and a number sleep (1 Cor. 11:30).”
“20 But now Christ has been
raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not
all sleep, but we will all be changed (1 Cor. 15:20, 51).”
“14 For if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have
fallen asleep in Jesus. 10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or
asleep, we will live together with Him (1 Thess. 4:14; 5:10).”
We have mentioned many times that the chapter divisions
in the Word of God are not inspired, and so perhaps we see another example of
this as in the first part of the first verse in the eighth chapter of the book
of Acts we read “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.” Luke brings up Paul again as Luke is
beginning to bring in to his writings of the book of Acts the main character of
chapters 13-28.
John MacArthur concludes his writings on Stephen: “Both in life and in death, Stephen was some much
like his Lord. Jesus was filled with the
Spirit; so was Stephen. Jesus was full
of grace; so was Stephen. Jesus boldly
confronted the religious establishment of His day; so did Stephen. Jesus had a mock trial; so did Stephen. Jesus was executed though innocent of any
crime; so was Stephen. Both were accused
of blasphemy. Both died outside the city
and were buried by sympathizers. And as
already noted, both prayed for the salvation of their executioners. Was there ever a man more like Jesus?”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have read
through the account of Stephen in the book of Acts many times, and have even
studied it before, but this study of Stephen was very meaningful to me. As I was studying the book of Acts about
Stephen I was also studying about the church at Smyrna found in the second
chapter of Revelation, and as Stephen was killed for the cause of Christ so
were many in that wonderful church of Smyrna.
Our Pastor was preaching about the reformation beginning in 1517 and in
his last message on it he spoke of those who lost their lives because, like
Stephen, they refused to go against their faith. At the same time I have been praying for the
church in the Central African Republic, a church that is under extreme persecution. They we had the murders of believers in Texas
on the fifth of this month.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me some answers to
questions that I have as I prepare my Sunday school class for this upcoming
Sunday.
Memory verse: Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if
anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He wept” (Luke 11:35).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Who is the Lord,
that I should obey His voice and let Israel go’?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/29/2017 10:50 AM
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