SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/3/2017
8:43 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
This Faith is in a Person
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Peter
1:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 Simon Peter, a
bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours,
by the righteousness of
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you
in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;”
As we begin to look at these verses I want to point out
that this section that we are looking at this evening is the first sub-point
under the first main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary entitled “The
Christian Faith Begins with Faith” and it covers the first four verses of the
first chapter of 2 Peter. Under this
first main point Dr. Wiersbe writes “Peter called it ‘like precious faith.’ It means that our standing with the Lord
today is the same as that of the Apostles centuries ago. They had no special advantages over us simply
because they were privileged to walk with Christ, see Him with their own eyes,
and share in His miracles. It is not
necessary to see the Lord with our human eyes in order to love Him, trust Him,
and share His glory (1 Peter 1:8).”
Now we will begin looking at this first sub-point. We realize that the Person that person who
Peter is speaking about is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the
Savior. Let us take a look at the end of
the very first verse of Peter’s second letter in which he affirms that Jesus
Christ is God as he writes “by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus
Christ.” Peter is not talking about two
different persons, but One and the same as Jesus Christ is God the Son, the Son
of God and is the second person of the godhead.
Let us look at 2 Peter 1:11; 2:20; 3:2, and 18 to see the
common thread of Jesus being our Savior:
“11 for in this way the entrance
into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly
supplied to you.” “20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions
of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they
are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them
than the beginning (AV).” “2 that you should remember the words spoken
beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior
spoken by your apostles.” “18 but grow
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the
glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” Verse 3:18 is the very last
verse that Peter will write for the New Testament. Dr. Wiersbe states “A Savior is one who brings
salvation, and the word salvation was familiar to the people of that day. In
their vocabulary, it meant ‘deliverance from trouble,’ particularly ‘deliverance
from the enemy.’ A physician was looked
on as a savior because he helped deliver the body from pain and
limitations. A victorious general was a
savior because he delivered the people from defeat. Even a wise official was a savior because he
kept the nation in order and delivered it from confusion and decay.” I want to look at what the name “Jesus” means
from my Greek/English dictionary: “Jesus
= "Jehovah is salvation’.” Now I
want to look at what the OT Hebrew name Joshua means “Joshua or Jehoshua
=" Jehovah is salvation"” Now
we read the following in Matthew 1:21 “"She will bear a Son; and you shall
call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."” I want to add a personal opinion from
something that I read in one of the OT commentaries that Dr. Wiersbe wrote in
which he stated that his thoughts were that God had planned for Joshua to lead
the people into the promised land because of what his name means. Not sure if this statement is true or not,
but it certainly makes sense to me.
We will continue looking at this sub-section in our next
SD.
8/3/2017 9:12 PM
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