SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2018
10:08 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The Negative Response”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
13:45-47
Message of the
verses: “45 But when the Jews saw
the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things
spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. 46 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and
said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since
you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are
turning to the Gentiles. 47 “For so the Lord has commanded us, ’I HAVE PLACED
YOU AS A LIGHT FOR THE GENTILES, THAT YOU MAY BRING SALVATION TO THE END OF THE
EARTH.’"”
In our last SD we have been speaking about how it is God’s
plan to offer salvation to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles, which is
what Paul and Barnabas were doing. We
also talked about the times in the Gospels when this was seen, for instance let’s
look at Matthew 10:5-6 “5 These twelve
Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the
Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel.”
As we continue to look at these verses we see something
that is very sad found 46 “"It was necessary that the word of God be
spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of
eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.” What happened to these Jewish people was that
they brought the verdict on themselves by their own choice. It is a shame that after centuries of waiting
for the Messiah to come, He came, but they did not recognize Him because of their
foolish pride, as they were depending on themselves to get into heaven. The Jews were actually looking for the
Messiah would will come at the end of the tribulation period, one who will at
that time usher in the millennial kingdom, but they were not looking for the
suffering, gentle Savior who would take care of their sin problem if they would
have listened to Him. John MacArthur
writes that “They would pay a fearful price for such nationalistic pride and
love of self-righteousness.” He goes on
to write “This passage teaches the important biblical truth of human
responsibility. Like all who go to hell,
the unbelieving Jews at Antioch judged themselves unworthy of eternal life by
their unbelief. John 3:18 reads, ‘He who
believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’ People perish because they choose to reject
and refuse to believe, and their choice shuts them out of eternal life. Jesus once said to the unbelieving Jews, ‘You
are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life’ (John 5:40). Later He said, ‘Unless you believe that I am
He, you shall die in your sins (John 8:24).
Damnation is the result of rejection and unbelief, for which each
faithless soul is utterly responsible.
That truth of personal volition must be held in tandem with the equally
biblical truth that God is absolutely sovereign in salvation and saves whomever
He wills to save. The resulting antinomy
(an apparent incompatibility between two undeniable truths) is beyond the
ability of our finite minds to resolve.”
In our next SD we will quote a couple of paragraphs
written by J. I. Packer who is quoted in John MacArthur’s commentary on this
subject.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Upon the sea.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was imprisoned with Paul
in Philipi?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/4/2018 10:30 PM
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