PT-2 The Murders (John 11:46-54)

SPIRITUAL DIAIRY FOR 9/4/2016 6:53 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  PT-2 The Murders

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11:46-54

            Message of the verses:  “46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.”

            We see in verse 53 what was approved by the Sanhedrin that day and that was to have Jesus killed.  Now think about that for a moment, and that is that the Sanhedrin were made up of the top “religious leaders” of that day and the conclusion that they came up with was to murder Jesus, their Messiah.   I suppose that this would not be the first time that someone would be killed because they were doing what God wanted them to do.  Listen to what Stephen tells this same group before they go out and stone him to death:  “51 "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.’”

            When you look at verse 53 one need not wonder why Jesus did not receive a fair trial.

            Now we want to look at verse 54 for a moment a verse that tells us what Jesus and His disciples did after the raising of Lazarus back to life again.  What I am about to say is just something that I believe could have happened, but not necessarily what did happen.  John who writes this gospel is said in other places of the Bible that he had friends in the leadership of the Jews, and so perhaps one of them who was in that meeting came and told him what was decided.  We know that Nicodemus was a part of that group and so perhaps he got word to John or one of the other disciples to give them a heads up.  Now on the other hand we know that Jesus knew what was going on in that meeting because He is God, so that also could have been the reason they left.  MacArthur writes “The Lord remained in absolute control of the circumstances, and would not allow Himself to be taken before the appointed time in God’s plan (7:8, 30, 44; 8:20; 11:9-10).  ‘To those with eyes to see he was making a theological statement: no human court could force him to the cross’ (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John).”

            MacArthur concludes “The city called Ephraim to which Jesus went and stayed with the disciples is probably to be identified with the Old Testament city of Ephron (2 Chron. 13:19).  It was located about four miles northeast of Bethel on the edge of the wilderness, and about a dozen miles from Jerusalem.  From there Jesus would make a brief visit to Samaria and Galilee (Luke 17:11-19:28) before returning to Jerusalem for the Passover at the appointed time for His passion (John 12:23).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: As we race to the time when we believe that the Lord will come to take His church to heaven I have to believe that even though I see unrest in many parts of the world that I am confident that the Lord is in perfect control of all that is going on.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will prepare my heart for the partaking of the Lord’s Supper as I go to church today.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Sixty-six.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Solomon settle the problem of two mothers and one child?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/4/2016 7:19 AM

PT-3 of The First Feature (Zech. 10:4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2016 5:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  PT-3 First Feature

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 10:4

            Message of the verse:  “4 “From them will come the cornerstone, From them the tent peg, From them the bow of battle, From them every ruler, all of them together.”  “4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together(KJV).”

            In our SD for today we will be looking at the third term which describes the Redeemer, and that is “the battle bow” which is seen in the highlighted portion of the KJV above.  Let’s go back to look at 9:13 “When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man (KJV).”  “For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece; And I will make you like a warrior’s sword (NASB).”  This verse speaks of the judgment of the Grecian “mad man” Antiochus Epiphanes, when Judah defeated him in the time period in which we call “between the Testaments.”  Julius Maccabees was the man instrumental in doing this.  What we see in this verse is that God is the One who is pulling the bow to defeat Greece, so God is seen as the “battle bow” itself.  He is a conqueror who is without equal, and He is a warrior who will come and destroy His enemies.  Let us look at Revelation 19:11 to see more about this:  “11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.”   Here in this verse the apostle John is describing the second coming of Jesus Christ who comes during the battle of Armageddon to defeat the armies who are actually fighting against each other, but when they see Him coming they both begin to fight against Him, and we see that His purpose in coming is to wage war against them. 

            John MacArthur writes “What the verse is saying actually in the Hebrew is that all oppressors will be put out together.  Israel will no longer be oppressed.  The divine redeemer will conquer the enemy.

            “So, promise number one is Israel’s redemption…a divine redeemer.”  In our next SD we will, (God willing) look at verse one to “divine rain.”

9/3/2016 6:13 PM

PT-1 The Murders (John 11:46-54)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/3/2016 11:09 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Murders”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11:46-54

            Message of the verses:  “46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51  Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.”

            This section is going to take us more than one day to get through it, and so I will try and break it up into sections that seem to make sense to me. 

            I want to begin with a verse from the gospel of Luke which will show us that Jesus brings division between people as happened after He performed this greatest of miracles:  “"Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division (Luke 12:51” and then he goes on to say “52  for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. 53  "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’”  Now I know that these verses are very true as I have friends who minister in countries where Muslims and Buddhists live and when a person in one of their families comes to know the Lord the other members of the family want nothing to do with them and in some cases even want them killed.  Jesus says that He did not come to grant peace to the earth, but division.  The gospel is a very simple message with the rewards of those who accept it will actually be out of this world, and yet many people who hear it want nothing to do with it for various reasons.  Let us take a look at when the prophet Isaiah was called by God to be His prophet and we will see what God tells him.  “9 He said, "Go, and tell this people: ’Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ 10  "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.’”  Isaiah is told by God to tell the people of Judah the truth, but says that they will not accept it, and they did not accept it either and finally God destroyed their city and their temple.  Why would they not listen and why will not people listen today to this simple truth with gives such great rewards?  Well when Adam sinned along with Eve they died spiritually at that point of disobedience and all of Adam’s offspring were born spiritually dead.  Out of those who were born spiritually dead God chose some to be His children (now don’t ask me to explain this for no one can), and Jesus came to offer Himself for the sins of the world, but only those whom God called will hear the calling of the Spirit of God.  Once they hear that call they will accept it and be saved.  (Like I said don’t ask me to explain it.)  Now we go back to John’s gospel.

            Question:  Why did these people go and tell the Pharisees what happened?  Well we ran into this same question in chapter nine didn’t we as people ran to the Pharisees to tell them Jesus healed a man born blind.  John MacArthur quotes Homer Kent who writes “This response of unbelief in the face of the clearest proof is confirmation of Christ’s teaching in Luke 16:31 ‘If the hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.’  The chief cause of unbelief is not inadequate information, but a heart in rebellion against the authority of God and his word.”  I have to say that I never connected these two verses together, but it does make sense to me.  I also have to say that I agree that these people were rebellious against God and they also hated Jesus and that is why they ran to tell the Pharisees.

            Now notice that they did not run to the Sadducees who did not believe in angels or anyone rising from the dead, as they only believed in what was in the first five books of the Bible and this did not happen there so they did not believe it, but they ran to the Pharisees who did believe the entire OT.

            Now we come to and will end with what Caiaphas answer to the question as to what they should do to Jesus.  He answered them by saying “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’”  A John point out that part of what he said was prophetic as not only did Jesus die for the nation, but for those outside the nation of Israel, and I for one am glad of that for I am outside the nation of Israel, although I love them very much.  Caiaphas also said that the nation need not perish, but this part of his statement was not true, for because of the rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation and because of the fact that the put Him to death their nation was destroyed by the Romans, the very people Caiaphas had said would take their nation from them. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There is a statement that people use to say when they said that they were going to do something, as they would say “If the Lord wills.”  This is a good statement for by saying it one takes away any pride that what they are about to do will really happen.  Caiaphas should have said that as he was a very prideful person, and even though part of it was true, part of it was not. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Not to be prideful, but trust the Lord when making decisions, Proverbs 3:5-6.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Isaac” (Genesis 22:1-10).

Today’s Bible question:  “How many books are there in the Bible?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/3/2016 12:00 PM  

PT-2 "Feature One" (Zech. 10:4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/2/2016 11:11 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  PT-2 Feature One

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Zechariah 10:4

            Message of the verse:  “4 “From them will come the cornerstone, From them the tent peg, From them the bow of battle, From them every ruler, all of them together.”

            We have been talking about the different words in this verse that speak of the Messiah and we only got to the first one which is the cornerstone in our last SD, and so we want to move onto the next one which is the nail as seen in the KJV and the “tent peg” which is seen in the NASB.  In the Hebrew we see the following definition of this word “pin, peg, tent pin, tent stake.”  Now the tents that we are talking about were very large tents, and the reason for that was because people lived in them.  Now we want to focus in on the stake in the middle of the tent which was the main one and in that stake the owners of the tent would put a nail into it.  On this nail they would hang up things that were important to them, things like great art work and depending upon what was hung on this nail could determine the wealth of the family who lived in this tent.

            The question is how does this have to do with the Messiah and the answer is that when we look at Zechariah 6:13 we may get a clue “He (speaking of the Messiah) shall build the temple of the Lord and bear the glory.”  We have mentioned before the great love that God has for His Son who became the Messiah when He was born in Bethlehem.  In eternity past God the Father, because of His great love for the Son planed to get a bride for Him and one really has to understand the concept of the Jewish marriage to understand how this plan was put in process, but the first part of the process was God choosing who the bride would be.  Now I say all of this to show how important the Son is to the Father and this then ties in with this nail that holds the most precious thing owned by the family, and to God that would be His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us look at Isaiah 22:23 to help us better understand this:  “"I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.”  I think that this helps us understand more about how this nail that goes into this mail tent peg is the Messiah.  "So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars (Isaiah 22:24).”  This gives us more insight from this verse. 

            MacArthur writes “Now you could see there...and in the next verse he says, "The nail that is Eliakim will be removed, but the nail that is Messiah will never be removed." In other words, the ultimate fulfillment of this nail is forever. And he says, "I'll put that nail in a sure place and I'll hang on it all the glory of the house, all the vessels and so forth." And you can see by that verse that they hung everything there. They hung any paintings or portraits or representations of the people in the family. They hung all their fancy pots and pans; they hung it all on there. You can't put a nail on a tent, folks, it had to be on that post in the middle. And so it is that they shall hang upon Him the glory of His Father's house. He will be the cornerstone and He will be the nail on which the splendor of the Kingdom will be hung. All the glory of the Davidic house will hang on the nail fastened in a sure place...and verse 25 of Isaiah says, "In that day, saith the Lord of host, shall the nail that is fastened in a sure place be removed and be cut down and fall and the burden that was on it be cut off, for the Lord has spoken it."

“Now the only way we can interpret that verse is that the Eliakim nail will be cut off, not the nail that is referring to Christ. And sometime when we get the time to study that chapter, we'll look at that in more detail. But Christ is the nail that will never fall. Eliakim will, not Christ.”

Now we have one more reference to look at from this verse and we will do that in our next SD.

9/2/2016 11:38 PM

 

 

 

The Reaction of the Many (John 11:45)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/2/2016 10:48 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Reaction of the Many

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  John 11:45

            Message of the verses:  “45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.”

            Now as we look at this verse we see that it begins with the word “therefore” and so we can understand that the therefore is therefore to show that those who believed in Jesus, believed in Him because of the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead.  Now there is another thing here that perhaps may go unnoticed and that is that Martha’s name is not mentioned, only Mary’s name is mentioned, and we really don’t know why Martha’s name is not mentioned other than the fact that we see that Mary was the more emotional of the two sisters and so she needed more comforting, or perhaps Mary was better known than Martha who was the busy one and not the more social one.  We can believe that if Mary were alive today that she would probably spend a lot of time on Facebook, whatever the reason people came to her because of the raising of Lazarus.

            MacArthur writes “The statement that ‘they believed in Him’ is simple but critical, since saving faith is always placed in the Lord Jesus Christ and no other, as John emphasized throughout his gospel (1:12; 2:11; 3:16, 18, 36; 4:39; 6:29, 35, 40; 7:31, 38-39; 9:35-36; 10:42; 11:25-26; 12:44, 46; 14:1, 12; cf. 1 John 3:23; 5:10, 13).  Christ alone is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through [Him] (John 14:6), because ‘there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).”  This subject that is seen from the verses shown here is the heart and soul of the Bible, the most important thing that any human alive has to deal with, it is a matter, literally of eternal life and eternal death.

            The important thing to realize is that not everyone who believed in Jesus manifested true saving faith.  Let us look at a few verses that shows us this truth “23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man John 2:23-25).”  “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore (John 6:66).”  “30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.  31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine (John 8:30-31).”  “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder (James 2:19).” 

9/2/2016 11:07 AM  9/2/2016 12:15 PM

            John MacArthur adds several reasons as to why he believes that the individuals spoken of in verse forty-five are true believers.  “First, verses 49-52 refer to Christ’s death resulting in salvation for His people—a salvation that, in context, seems to include this group of Jews who believed in Him.  Second, Jesus’ primary reason for raising Lazarus was to glorify Himself and the Father (vv. 4, 40), and the Lord is glorified when people truly believe and are saved (2 Cor. 4:15).  Third, the Jewish authorities evidently view these people as genuine followers of Jesus Christ (v. 48); they saw them as a legitimate threat to their hypocritical religious authority.  Fourth, those who are said to believe are contrasted with the unbelievers who reported the incident to the Pharisees (v. 46); the apostle John makes a clear distinction between the two groups.  Finally, though faith based solely on Jesus’ miracles was not always genuine (2:23), this miracle was so powerful and convincing that it was unlikely to have produced shallow, superficial believers.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  This section takes me back to when I first became a believer in Jesus Christ and reminds me of how the Lord changed my life in a very short amount of time, and my life has not been the same since.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to tell others of this wonderful life changing event that happened to me back in January of 1974.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Nineveh” (2 Kings 19:36).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was offered by his father as a burnt offering?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/2/2016 12:32 PM

 

Messiah, First Feature PT-1 (Zech. 10:4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2016 9:05 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Messiah the First Feature PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Zechariah 10:4

            Message of the verses:  “4 “From them will come the cornerstone, From them the tent peg, From them the bow of battle, From them every ruler, all of them together.”

            When we looked at the introduction to this chapter in Zechariah John MacArthur mentioned that there were going to be eight features in this chapter that we will look at.  We also learned that this chapter is about the redemption of Israel.  We will follow the outline found in MacArthur’s sermon as we work our way through this chapter and his first feature is seen in verse four.

            What we are looking at in this verse is that first of all Israel will receive a redeemer, which we know will be their Messiah, and we know that their Messiah is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now I want to quote verse four from the King James Version of the Bible as that is what MacArthur used when he preached this sermon, and it will help us follow what he says here.  “4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.”  In both the KJV and the NASB we see that verse four refers back to verse three where we learn that the “him” and “From them” is speaking of the house of Judah.  “3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle (KJV).” 

            Now as we look at verse four we see that Zechariah reminds the people that the Messiah is coming and he also identifies Him in this verse.  We see some different names of the Messiah in verse four as we look at the NASB we first of all see Him as the cornerstone, and while Jesus was on earth He mentions this word “cornerstone” a number of times.  Some of the things mentioned in verse four have already been mentioned by the “former prophets,” those prophets that prophesied before the Babylonian captivity.  Zechariah is a “latter prophet” as he is after the Babylonian captivity.  As mentioned we see the word cornerstone in verse four which refers to the Messiah, and also a nail, and a battle bow and in the NASB the nail is referred to as the tent peg.   First of all we see that the Messiah comes from the tribe of Judah or the house of Judah as we have already mentioned that “Out of Him” which refers to Judah will come and then goes on to mention these things we have already mentioned.  Let us look at Micah 5:2 “"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.’”  Bethlehem of course is David’s home town and Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. 

            “Now having established that, the Spirit then gives Zechariah three pictures of the Messiah, three pictures of the divine redeemer, this great prophet who will come, this great deliverer. The first one is that He is called in Hebrew pazaz and that means the cornerstone, verse 4 calls Him simply the corner. That's a Messianic title and in the former prophets, such as Isaiah 28:16, it says, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation and he that believeth shall not be ashamed." So Isaiah prophesied that He would be a stone, a tested stone, a precious stone, a cornerstone, a foundation stone. That has to be Jesus Christ, none other than Jesus Christ. And as you look at the New Testament, you find that Jesus Christ repeatedly is stated to be the cornerstone (John MacArthur’s sermon).”

            Now let us look at Romans 9:32-33 “32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”  This speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as the stumbling stone or the cornerstone which is the most important stone of the foundation of a building.  There are other NT verses that talk about this:  1 Cor. 1:23; and also Ephesians 2:20 “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.”  As I have been listening to the Bible this year I just looked at the book of Daniel and in the second chapter of Daniel, the chapter that speaks of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream he say a stone come out of the mountain to destroy the statue that he saw in his dream and that stone is the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Now let us look at Matthew 21:44 “"And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."”  This speaks of the crushing aspect of Messiah, similar to what we see in Daniel chapter two.  This speaks of Messiah’s judgment on those who reject Him as their Savior and Lord.

            We mentioned about how important the cornerstone was and MacArthur quotes David Barron who writes “The great architect of the universe has purposed for Himself from all eternity to raise out of frail imperfect human materials a glorious temple for His own eternal habitation through the Spirit, which when completed shall show forth even more than the material temple of the universe, to principalities and powers the infinite power and manifold wisdom of God.  And in order to insure that temple’s eternal safety, He has bestowed great care on the foundation.  He Himself has laid it and the tried and precious cornerstone which He has laid as the basis of this mystical structure is His own Son who is perfected forever more against whom the gates of hell cannot prevail.’”  And that is quit a statement.

            MacArthur adds “And so we can say, let the storms rage and let infidelity assail and let men and devils do their utmost. When God sets Jesus as the cornerstone, the foundation stands sure. And we know that now, don't we? Because Christ is the cornerstone of the foundation of the church. And we have seen the church stand and weather the storm. And some day, He'll become the cornerstone of Israel.

            “Now there's something else about this cornerstone concept that struck me as I was studying it and that is that a cornerstone holds up two walls in the corner. It holds up two walls. And without pushing the point too far, I think it's kind of interesting to realize that the cornerstone Christ holds up the two walls that make up the redeemed people and that is the church and Israel. And where there used to be a wall between us, we now have a common cornerstone. And some day when Israel enters its kingdom, we'll enter it with Israel. And when we go into eternity, we'll go in together. And I daresay, by the time we hit eternity, there won't be any way to tell us apart. In fact, for all those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ today who are a part of Israel, they'll have to find a spot in both walls. He is the cornerstone for two people and He will give stability and solidarity and foundation to Israel. That's the promise of God for them. The day is coming when you're going to get solidarity.”

I think that we will stop here and continue looking at this first feature in our next SD.

9/1/2016 9:43 PM       

Introduction to John 11:45-57

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/1/2016 9:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  Intro to John 11:45-57

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 11:45-57

            Message of the verses:  “45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. 47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51  Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. 54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples. 55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?" 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.”

            We see three “therefore” in this passage, and that is a very important word found in the Bible as it is there over 900 times in the NASB translation.  Therefore means you have to look back at what you were just looking at to see how it connects with what you are now looking at.

            In Today’s SD we begin the last chapter in John MacArthur’s commentary on the first eleven chapters of the book of John, and he entitles this chapter “The Resurrection and the Life—Part Four:  Reactions to the Resurrection of Lazarus.”

            John’s Gospel is rightly called at times “The Gospel of Belief” and as we look at the theme from 20:30-31 we see that this is the purpose of it:  “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  No one can believe this unless they are called by the Spirit of God who will open their hearts and minds so that they can believe this truth, and once they are called by the Spirit then they must believe what John has written to us in this book, that is, that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”

            John MacArthur writes “In keeping with that purpose, John consistently presented the claim of Jesus Christ to be God in human flesh (e.g., 5:17-47; 8:12; 10:7, 9; 10:11, 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1, 5).  As the response of the unbelieving Jews (they wanted to stone Jesus for blasphemy) indicates, they clearly were outraged because they understood exactly who He was claiming to be (5:18; 8:59; 10:31).

            “To authenticate His claims, Jesus performed many miraculous signs (21:25), of which seven are featured in the gospel of John (2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-18; 6:1-15; 6:16-21; 9:1-41; 11:1-57; John also highlighted a port-resurrection miracle of Jesus in 21:6-11).  These seven signs culminate with the Lord’s spectacular display of divine power in raising Lazarus from the dead.  As has been noted in earlier chapters of this volume, while the miracle strengthened believers (11:15) and substantiated Jesus’ claim to be divine, its purpose was that all who would ever know of it might give glory to Jesus and the Father (11:4, 40).”

            So what happens after Jesus raised Lazarus it seen in the verses that we will be looking at and what we will see in them is that some of the people who witnessed this miracle believed in Jesus as their Messiah, and some of them went running to the Pharisees to basically tell on Jesus, something like a little brother will do when he sees his big brother do something wrong, but these people who ran off to the Pharisees did not believe who Jesus was or they would not have done this.  This sets up the meeting with the Pharisees that as we will see later will dome their nation, and I will explain that later on as we go through the passage, and it also set up the crucifixion of Jesus Christ which was totally in the plan of God all along and would be done exactly the way He wants it done.

            Now this is nothing new for how the Jews have been treating Jesus as we have seen not only in this gospel account but in the book of Mark we studied a few years ago.  Their egos got in their way as they believed in a false system that they took out of Judaism, but theirs was polluted and selfish, thinking only of themselves and not the people of Israel.  So there were some who hated Jesus and showed that and there were many who were probably just indifferent to what Jesus was doing, and then there were some who believed and became followers of Him.

            MacArthur adds “The various reactions of the Jewish people to Jesus after He raised Lazarus from the dead are typical responses.  In verses 45-57 the response of faith, hostility, and indifference are represented.  Thus we meet many (who display faith), the murders (who display hostility), and the multitudes (who display indifference).”  This is the outline to what we will be looking at as we finish up this 11^th chapter of the gospel of John.

            I in no means want to confuse an issue that I want to say at this time, but it is my desire as I take the time to study the Word of God each day to share it onto my blogs with the desire that some who read it, who have never understood the gospel to be led by the Holy Spirit to understand it and to accept it as they accept Jesus Christ into their lives as Savior and Lord, and it is also my desire that believers who read these Spiritual Diaries will be strengthened in their faith and grow in the Lord.  It is also my desire that believers who read these Spiritual Diaries to have revival come to their hearts so they will tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for them.  Then I also want these Spiritual Diaries that are on these blogs to be spread around the world so that they will bring glory to the Lord in all the ways that I have mentioned, and to this end I pray each and every day that God will do these things to His glory.  I know that I am not someone like John who wrote this gospel that we are reading and studying, but I do have a desire to spread the Word of God around the world through these Spiritual Diaries that are on my blogs.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To continue to tell others the good news of the gospel.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to continue to give me the desire to study His Word each day.  Trust the Lord that all will be well with my grandson Nathan as he has a problem.

Memory verses for the week:  (Romans 6:8-9) “8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Rehoboam” (1 Kings 12:14).

Today’s Bible question:  “In what city did Sennacherib live?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/1/2016 10:55 AM