SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2017
8:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Scriptural
Word of Truth”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 8:28
Message of the
verse: “28 And he was returning and
sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.”
I have to believe that the eunuch did not find what he
was looking at while he left the city of Jerusalem. As he still had a desire to know God after
leaving Jerusalem he was reading from his OT Bible from the book of
Isaiah. The eunuch knew that in order to
find out about God the best place was looking at His Word. The eunuch must have paid a great price for
the scroll of Isaiah while in Jerusalem as books during this time period had to
be written by and copied by hand and this would take a scribe a very long time
to copy each book of the OT. I can think
of no other reason than the leading of the Holy Spirit as to why he would have
purchased the scroll of Isaiah, as the portion that he was reading certainly
spoke of our suffering Lord. John
MacArthur writes “Perhaps Isaiah had special meaning to him, since the book
speaks encouragingly to eunuchs (Isa. 56:3-6).”
Paul writes in Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the
world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been
clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are
without excuse.” Paul is saying that
there are some of God’s attributes that can be seen in nature, however to
understand the truth about who the Messiah is and what He has done it is
necessary to read and study the Word of God.
Jesus says the following in John 5:39 “"You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify
about Me;” The Pharisees studied the Law
and then added things to it and tried to get the people to follow what they
taught, however they missed what the Scriptures had to say about the Messiah as
their hearts were too hard to understand this truth about Him. In the 24th chapter of the gospel
of Luke we read the following from verses 25-27 “25 And He said to them,
"O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have
spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to
enter into His glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the
prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the
Scriptures.” This portion of Scripture
which speaks of Jesus giving a sermon to these two men was one sermon that I
would have liked to have heard as Jesus began at the beginning of the OT and
went through it showing things about the Messiah, and one of the places that He
would have had to talk about was the portion that the eunuch was reading.
John MacArthur writes:
“Paul’s grand words to the Romans serve to enrich the understanding of
this account:
‘12 For there is no distinction between Jew and
Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call
on Him; 13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL
ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." 14 How then will they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not
heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach
unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET
OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!’”
(Romans 10:12-15)
“All the essentials were in place; the Spirit’s work of
preparation was complete. Philip had
obeyed the Spirit’s call and was in place to meet the man. The eunuch’s heart was seeking, prepared by
reading the Scriptures. All was set for the
next step.”
We will look at this next step: “The Proper Presentation” which is found in
Acts 8:29-35:
29 Then the Spirit said to
Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." 30 Philip ran up and heard him
reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand what you are
reading?" 31 And he said, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides
me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage
of Scripture which he was reading was this: "HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO
SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS
MOUTH. 33 “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RELATE HIS
GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH." 34 The eunuch
answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say
this? Of himself or of someone else?" 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and
beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.”
Can you imagine what must have been going through Philip’s
mind at this time, for as we look back Philip was told to leave a thriving
ministry in Samaria and go to what he may have thought was an obscure road to
do what. Next he runs into a eunuch who
was reading the book of Isaiah and then he is told by the Holy Spirit to get
into this man’s chariot. We have to
believe that this man was not alone and that his entourage must have been
impressive, but Philip continued to obey the Spirit of God as he got into the
chariot with this man. Acts 4:31 tells
us “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was
shaken, and they were all
filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.” The Holy Spirit and boldness goes
together.
We will begin looking at Acts 8:30-34 in our next SD
which will show us that salvation must center in on Scripture.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As a believer I must always be ready and
willing to follow what the Spirit of God would have me to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: As I prepare for my Sunday school class this
coming Sunday, which is Christmas eve, I pray that what I will have to say to
the class along with the other things that are planned will bring glory to the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Memory verses: Philippians 4:1, 8 “1 Therefore, my beloved brethren
whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my
beloved.” “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 anything
of good repute, dwell on these things.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ruler of the synagogue” (Luke
8:41).
Today’s Bible
question: “God raised Jesus from the
dead and He no more will have to return to what?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/19/2017 9:27 AM
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