MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/1/2026
8:06 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“John’s
Powerful Contribution”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke 1:16,
17b
Message of the verses: “And he will turn many of the sons of
Israel back to the Lord their God…to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the
children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make
ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Here we see that John’s preaching was to have a
powerful impact, turning the hearts of many of the sons of Israel back to
the Lord their God as seen in Matthew 3:1-6). MacArthur writes “The word rendered turn…back
is a form of the verb epistrepho, used frequently in the New
Testament in reference to conversion (cf. Matt. 13:15; Mark 4:12; Acts 3:19;
11:21; 14:15; 15:19; 28:27; 1 Thess. 1:9; James 5:19-20). John’s preaching would call the children of
Israel back from their disobedience, back from their apostasy, back from their
rebellion, back from their sin, back from their self-righteousness to the
Lord their God.” As one thinks about
all of the things that his preaching will do one could call that a miracle of a
great revival. “Significantly, the
phrase “the Lord their God’ is the antecedent of “Him” (Jesus Christ)
in verse 17, identifying Christ with God.”
MacArthur continues “Later, at the
time of John’s circumcision, his father, Zacharias, prophesied to him, ‘And
you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on
before the Lord to prepare His ways; to give to His people the knowledge of
salvation’ (1:76-77). He would
proclaim the gospel, the good news of God’s grace (Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:5, 8),
Mercy Iisa. 55:7; Joel 2:13; Luke 1:50; Titus 3:5), and forgiveness of sins
(Rom. 4:6-8; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:22) accomplished through the coming Messiah, the
fullest expression of the ‘tender mercy of our God’ (1:78).
“Inseparably associated with his call for a return to
righteousness, John would preach a message of repentance (Matt. 3:2; Mark 1:4),
one result of which would be to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the
children (cf. Mal. 4:6). His message
would result in the repentance and conversion of entire families (cf. John
4:53; Acts 10:30-48; 16:34). Parents and
children would repent to their sins, be converted, and return to God through
faith in Messiah, resulting in family members being reconciled.
“Describing conversion, Gabriel
declared that John’s preaching would turn the disobedient to the
righteous. The word translated disobedient
(apeithes) denotes someone who will not be persuaded, who stubbornly
refuses to believe and obey the truth (John 3:36; Rom. 2:8; 11:30, 31; 1 Peter
2:8; 3:1, 20). John’s preaching would
confront obstinate, heart-hearted sinners and transform their attitude (phronesis,
[mind-set,’ ‘understanding’]) into one of righteousness. The result of John’s ministry would be to make
ready a people prepared for the Lord, whose repentant and believing
hearts were ready to receive the Messiah (cf. John 7:31; 10:40-42).
After extolling John as the greatest
man who had lived up to that time, Jesus made the shocking statement that he ‘who
is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he’ (Matt. 11:11). True spiritual greatness comes not from the tasks we do,
but from the life we possess as a gift from God. John’s earthly greatness lay in the fact that
he was assigned the greatest task that any man had ever been given—to identify
the Messiah. But as great as John was in this calling, the least person in God’s
kingdom is greater, because the nature of Spiritual greatness far exceeds the
human efforts of ministry. Spiritual
life is forever. Because he, too,
belonged to the kingdom, John the Baptist shares that greatness with all other
believers (cf. Matt. 20:16)—all the redeemed enjoy the same glorious honor of
eternal life.
“In Christ all posses the same divine
life, capable of producing the same high quality of character and exhibiting
the same high level of and empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach Christ. Like John, believers are commissioned to the
same task, to proclaim repentance (Matt. 28:18-20), and be ambassadors of
reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19-20), urging people to turn to God through saving
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death (Mark 10:45; Rom.
5:8; 1 Peter 3:18), It is by doing so
that they share John’s greatness.”
I am finishing this SD after church
this morning.
My Steps
of Faith for today: True spiritual greatness comes not from
the tasks we do, but from the life we possess as a gift from God.
3/1/2026
2:00 PM
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