EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/24/2026
7:30 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
“Jesus’
Response”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
7:21-23
Message of the verses: “At that very time He cured many people of
diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were
blind. And He answered and said to them,
“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”
I begin this evening’s SD by quoting Hebrew 4:15 “15 For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
This verse means much to me as I am thankful that Jesus knows my
weakness and that He sympathizes with what I am going through as while on this
earth He was tempted so much, much more than any man was ever tempted, yet He
did not sin. As I think about that and
compare it to me when I am tempted, I realize that the temptation is the
hardest thing to go through, and Jesus could never sin even though He was tempted
so much, for so long from the beginning of His ministry after He fasted for
forty days and nights with nothing to eat, but I believe that He did drink
water for He could not have lived with out water, and it was at that time that
Satan came and tempted Him with three temptation in that weakened condition,
and yet Jesus used the Sord of the Spirit, the Word of God to defeat Satan’s
temptations.
“Jesus dealt gently with John’s
doubt. At the very time that the two messengers from John
arrived, He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits;
and He gave sight to many who were blind. This was a special display of His
miraculous power especially for their benefit and John’s. Jesus had rejected the Pharisees’ similar
requests (cf. Matt. 12:38-42; 16:1-4), because they asked in unbelief. John,
however, was seeking to have his faith strengthened and completed.”
(cf. Matt. 12:38-42; 16:1-4)
“38 ¶ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees
answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, "An evil and
adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except
the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For
just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise
up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at
the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
42 The queen of the South will rise up
at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than
Solomon is here.”
“1 ¶ And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to
test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 , "When it is evening, you say, ‘It will
be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3
And in the morning, ‘It will be today, for the sky is red and
threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you
cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be
given to it the sign of Jonah." So he left them and departed.”
“After the display Jesus said to the
messengers, ‘God and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind
receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.’ The miraculous signs Jesus had performed
were unmistakable evidence that the kingdom had been inaugurated (although it
will not be present in its fullest sense until Christ returns and establishes
His earthly millennial kingdom) and the King was present. John steeped in the Old Testament, knew that
such passages as Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2 point to a future resurrection of
the dead associated with Messiah’s kingdom.”
(Isaiah 26:19)
“19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of
light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”
(Daniel 12:2)
“2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of
the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and
everlasting contempt.”
“The
resurrections Jesus performed were a preview of that resurrection. Similary, Isaiah 35:5-6 associates healing
the blind, lame, and deaf with the messianic kingdom, while
Isaiah 61:1 describes the King’s preaching of the gospel to humble,
captive, oppressed, spiritually blind sinners (cf. Luke 4:17-21).”
(Isaiah 35:5-6)
“5 ¶ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6
then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute
sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the
desert;”
(61:1)
“1 ¶ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to those who are bound;”
(cf. Luke 4:17-21)
“17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was
given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back
to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed
on him. 21 And he began to say to them,
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
“Jesus
then told the messengers to remind John, ‘Blessed is he who does not take
offense at Me.’ He needed to rise
above his personal tragedy, the popular views of the day, his lack of complete
revelation, and his wrong expectations and put his complete faith and trust in
the convincing evidence that Jesus was the Messiah.
“How did John’s story end? The resolution of his doubt can be inferred
from Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels. As noted above, Herod’s wife Herodias hated
John and wanted him put to death.
Eventually, at a gala birthday celebration for Herod, Herodias’s
daughter (Salome, according to Josephus) performed a lewd dance for Herod and
his guests. Captivated by her
performance and seeking to impress his guests, Herod impulsively promised the
girl whatever she wanted. When she asked
her mother what to ask for, Herodias promptly replied, ‘The head of John the
Baptist’ (Mark 14:12). Trapped by his
foolish promise and unwilling to lose face before his guests, Herod granted her
request and had John decapitated.
“After John was beheaded, his
disciples came and took away his body for burial. Then, significantly, ‘they went and reported
to Jesus’ (Matt. 14:12). Clearly, John
had overcome his doubts and was satisfied that Jesus was the Messiah, or his
disciples would not have sought out Jesus to tell Him of John’s death.
“Though not immune to it, true
believers will, like John, be lifted by the truth above their doubt and
reaffirm their faith in Jesus as Lord, Messiah, and Savior. They will be led to trust His wisdom above
human wisdom, believe unreservedly all that the Bible teaches about Him, hear
and obey His word with joy, entrust their lives to Him both now and for
eternity, give their lives to proclaiming His gospel of salvation, desire
always to do what pleases Him, revere, worship, and obey Him, trust His purpose
for their lives, have confidence in His sovereign control of events, be grateful
to Him as the source of all their good and thank Him for it, surrender body,
mind, spirit, time, abilities, and possessions to His control, live their lives
for Him no matter what is required of them, and if asked, willingly die for
Him.
“Those who do so will find Jesus to be all they could
ever need or want—Savior, Bread of life, Light of the world, Shepherd of their
souls, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, the
only way to God, and the one who will one day return for His own to usher them
into the glorious presence of God, where faith will become sight and all doubts
will forever vanish.”
8/24/2026 8:15 PM
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