SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2018
7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Content”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:2b-3, 11
Message of the
verses: “and for three Sabbaths
reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3
explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise
again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you
is the Christ."… 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in
Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the
Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”
Now we come to one of the verses in the book of Acts that
has always been very meaningful to me, and that is verse 11 of this 17th
chapter. As we look at verse eleven we
can be assured that when Paul got to Berea and spoke to the Jews there that he
would use the same approach as he did to the Jews in Thessalonica, but as we
see Luke notes that the Jews in Berea were more noble-minded that those in
Thessalonica for these Jews in Berea were actually looking into their Old
Testaments to find out if Paul was telling them the truth or not. Now we read in the 13th verse that
it was the Jews from Thessalonica that were causing the persecution, and not
the Jews from Berea, so evidently the Jews at Berea had no problem with Paul’s
teaching.
We see in verse four the word “examining” and John
MacArthur writes that this word “is from anakrino,
a word sometimes used of a judicial investigation. The noble Bereans carefully sifted the
evidence and concluded that the gospel Paul proclaimed with the truth that
fulfilled Old Testament promise. Those
who honestly examine the Scriptures will always come to that conclusion.” When Jesus was on planet earth He told the
Jews 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 Scriptures testify about Jesus, but the
Jews whom Jesus was speaking of missed that point altogether. One’s heart has to be open in order to
receive what the Scriptures say about the Lord Jesus Christ, and this was true
of His disciples for in Luke 24:25-27 Jesus Himself used these OT Scriptures to
convince the disciples:
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 highlighted 27th verse of Luke 24 has
always made me wish that I could have been there walking and listening to Jesus
as He opened up the Old Testament to cause those disciples to understand what
they said about Him. He may have looked
into the books of Moses as Moses said that someday the Lord would raise up a
prophet like him. He may have taken them
to Psalm 22 to see that that Psalm actually described what just had happened to
Him on the cross. Isaiah 53 is another
chapter that speaks of Jesus and perhaps He took them there. I’m sure that there were many other chapters
that the Lord took His disciples to as the Old Testament is all about Jesus. Now since we have at this time both Old and
New Testaments we can better understand the truths about our Lord.
I think that it is true that most people that reject the
gospel have very little knowledge of what the Bible has to say about it. John MacArthur writes that “the primary duty
in evangelism, then, must be to demonstrate the truth of Christianity from the
Scriptures.” There are three prerequisites
for Bible study that he gives in his concluding comments on this second main
point of content, and I will go over them, Lord willing, in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The theme of my
blog is 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This is my desire as I look into God’s Word
each day, then write about it as I try to learn what is shows me, and then
share it as I put it onto my blogs.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to look to the Lord for His grace as
He, through His Spirit teaches me from His Word each day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Joshua.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What sign was given to
Hezekiah that he would be healed?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/8/2018 8:24 AM
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