MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2026
10:38 AM
My
Worship
Time Focus: PT-2Intro to “The Announcement of
Jesus’ Birth”
Bible
Reading &
Meditation Reference: Luke 2:8-20
Message
of the verses: “ 8 ¶ And in the same
region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by
night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of
the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
10 And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring
you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped
in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among
those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from
them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to
Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known
to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and
the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known
the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all
who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary
treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And
the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen, as it had been told them.” (ESV)
I continue quoting from MacArthur’s introduction to
these verses: “What allows God to be the
Savior of lost sinners is the propitiatory, sacrificial, substitionary death of
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Old Testament describes Messiah’s sacrificial death mostly thoroughly in Isaiah
53:
“4 ¶ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he
was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned— every one— to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)
“8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land
of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?” (Isaiah 53:8)
“9 And they made his grave with the wicked and
with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was
no deceit in his mouth. 10 ¶ Yet it was
the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes
an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see
and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make
many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the
many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his
soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of
many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:9-12)
“All the
redeemed, both in the Old Testament and New Testament eras, were saved by God’s
placing their sins on Jesus Christ. He
alone (Acts 4:12) is the source of salvation since, as Peter wrote, ‘He Himself
bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness, for by His wounds you are healed” (1 Peter 2:24; cf. 3:18;
John 1:29; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:28; 1 John 2:1-2).” Now I am going to quote these verses from the
ESV along with first quoting Acts 4:12.
(Acts 4:12)
“12 And there is salvation in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be
saved."
(1 Peter 2:24; cf. 3:18; John 1:29; 2
Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 5:2; Heb. 9:28; 1 John 2:1-2).
“24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the
tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed.”
“18 ¶ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the
righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to
death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”
“ 29 ¶ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him,
and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
“21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
“13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged
on a tree’”
“2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
“28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear
the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save
those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
“1 ¶ My little children, I am writing these things
to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not
for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
“God revealed Himself as a Savior of
Israel in two ways. Temporally, God
saved the people by delivering them from bondage in Egypt and preserving them
through the ensuing forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Isa. 63:9; cf.
Num. 10:9; Deut. 23:14; 33:29; Judges 2:18; 8:34; 2 Sam. 3:18; 22:1, 4; 2 Kings
17:39; Psalm 106:10; Ezra 8:31). Through
common grace, God, in His ‘kindness and tolerance and patience,’ gives
sinners an opportunity to repent (Rom. 2:24); He is ‘the Savior of all men’ in
a temporal sense and ‘especially of believers’ in a spiritual sense (1
Tim. 4:10). God delivers people
generally from the just and immediate temporal and physical consequences of
their sin, but more importantly delivers believers from sin’s spiritual and
eternal consequences as well. Thus the
believing remnant of Israel (Rom. 9:27); 11:5) enjoyed not only God’s temporal
salvation like the rest of the nation, but also spiritual salvation.
“The Angelic announcement of His
birth set forth at the outset the purpose of Jesus’ life and ministry. He did not come into the world to be an
example of nobility and integrity. He
was not merely a Jewish sage, a teacher of morality and ethics. Still less was He a passive, nonviolent
social reformer; a sort of first-century Gandhi. He was and is ‘the Savior of the world’
(John 4:42; 1 John 4:14), who came ‘to seek and to save that which was
lost’ (Luke 19:10) by ‘sav[ing] His people from their sins’ (Matt.
1:21). Jesus did come to fulfill the
Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. The
fulfillment of those covenants, however, is predicted on the fulfillment of the
New Covenant, which was initiated by His sacrificial death (Matt. 26:28).
“The announcement of the birth of
Jesus Christ heralds the greatest good news that the world has ever heard. From the narrative of that announcement and
its aftermath, five truths about the good news emerge; the proclamation of the
good news, the pervasiveness of the good news, the person of the good news, the
purpose of the good news, and the picture of the good news.”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today. Today, April 3, 2026 is what is called Good Friday,
and that day looks back on the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was on the cross dying for the sins of
the world as in those three hours when the world went dark, the Father was
taking your sins and my sins out on the Lord Jesus Christ, in order for those
who come to Him by faith and believe that you are a sinner, and then trust what
Christ did for you on the cross will be saved.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting the Lord to work out the things
which are going on in my life and in my wife’s life to bring glory to the Lord.
4/3/2026
11:17 AM
