SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 8/13/2012 10:10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Correction
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Mark 9:11-13
Message
of the verses: “9 As they were
coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what
they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. 10 They seized upon
that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant. 11
They asked Him, saying, “Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come
first?" 12 And He said to them, "Elijah does first come and restore
all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer
many things and be treated with contempt? 13 “But I say to you that Elijah has
indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of
him.’”
In the last SD that we did on Mark chapter
nine we did speak a bit about Elijah, and now the subject of Elijah comes up
once more, but before we talk about Elijah we have to do a bit of a review in
order to help us understand how this section of Scripture fits in with the
first eight verses in Mark nine.
I have mentioned that what happened
in Mark chapter eight is the high point in Mark’s Gospel, and that is that
Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that since
Peter was more or less the spokesmen for all the disciples we have to believe
that all of them agreed that Jesus was the Messiah, but what they did not
understand is that Jesus had to die in order to pay for the sins of those who
would accept Him as Lord and Savior.
They now believed He is the Messiah, but now they will continue to be
taught that He was going to die, and this is confusing to them. The reason that this is confusing to them is
because of what they, and for that matter, most of the Jewish people had been
taught. The missed passages like the
ninth chapter of Daniel where it is told of the Messiah that He would be cut off:
“’Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have
nothing.” They also missed what the 22nd
Psalm had to say about how the Messiah would be “cut off.” They also missed the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah where Isaiah writes about the suffering Servant.
We saw in the first eight verses
that Jesus gave three of His disciples, Peter, James and John a glimpse of the
kingdom of God on the top of the Mountain, and that there they saw the
glorified Christ along with Moses and Elijah being there too, and hearing them
speak about the upcoming death of Jesus, and also hearing the Father speak:”’This
is My beloved Son, listen to Him!’”
We now come to today’s section which
speaks of what happened as they came down the mountain. The confused disciples know that Jesus is the
Messiah and that Elijah is to come first, but they must have been thinking “did
we miss the coming of Elijah?” And so
they ask Jesus about the prophecy that is found in Malachi: “1 "Behold, I am going to send My
messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom
you delight, behold, He is coming," says the LORD of hosts. 4 "Remember the law of Moses My servant,
even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.
5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and terrible day of the LORD. 6 “He will restore the hearts of the
fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so
that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.’” (Malachi 3:1 and 4:5-6)
Jesus points out that Elijah did
come and they killed him. Jesus was
speaking of John the Baptist, and even though John told the Pharisees that he
was not Elijah in John 1:21, John did come in the spirit and the power of
Elijah (“16 "And he will turn many
of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. 17 "It is he who will go
as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 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.’). (Luke
1:16-17) This was the message that the
angel gave to John’s father before John was conceived.
We can see that those who believe
that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of the living God, believe that
Elijah came before Jesus in the person of John the Baptist who came in the
spirit and power of Elijah. Dr. Wiersbe
writes that “Second, there would be a future coming of Elijah, just as Malachi
had predicted (Matt. 17:11), before the time of the Great Tribulation. Some students connect this with Revelation
11:2-12. The nation did not accept
John’s ministry. Had they received John,
he would have served as the ‘Elijah’ God sent; and they also would have
received Jesus. Instead, they rejected
both men and allowed both of them to be slain.”
I want to make one more point here
and that is what Jesus also told His three disciples while coming down the
mountain: “And yet how is it written of
the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?” Jesus knew that his disciples knew about
Elijah coming before Messiah, but now He wanted them to understand the
prophecies about His own suffering and death, something that we have already
mentioned, but something that Jesus does point out to His three disciples.
Oh I forgot there is one more point,
and that is why Jesus told these three not to mention what they saw until Jesus
had risen from the dead, which they did not understand. Jesus had told many of those He healed not to
speak of Him, but some did not follow those commandments, however these three
would follow this commandment that He gave to them. We know that after Jesus feed the 5000 that
according to John’s Gospel the crowd wanted to force Him to be their King, but
He left them, and so Jesus did not want to go through this kind of scene again
for He knew that His Father had given Him a job to do, and that job was the
most important job ever to be done, and He did not want anymore
distractions. I suppose that these three
would get together by themselves and talk about this but never mention it to
anyone else. Both Peter and John would
write about it in their inspired writings after Jesus had been raised from the
dead.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have
had on my mind something that goes along with this section for some time
now. I spoke briefly about it when I had
the privilege of giving the sermon at my mother’s funeral last week, and when I
put on the spiritual armor in the morning I think about it too. I think about those hours when Jesus was on
the cross, those hours when Jerusalem turned black as night so no one could see
what was happening to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was during those dark hours that God turned His face away from Jesus
and poured out His wrath upon Him in order to pay for my sins and for all who
would accept Him as their Savior and Christ.
How could God have His wrath satisfied in such a short time? How could Jesus endure the payment for my
sins that would take eternity for me to pay for? They happened that dark day when God turned
His face away from His Son. We see that
after this was done Jesus spoke the words “It is finished,” and this means that
my sin and those who believe in Jesus had their sins paid in full. There is another word that is important here
that is used to help us understand about what happened on the cross and that
word is propitiation a Greek word that means “The satisfaction of an angry
god.” Yes God is indeed angry with sin,
but He is satisfied with Jesus’ death to pay for our sins. The OT Hebrew word for propitiation is “Mercy
Seat,” and the mercy seat was the top of the Ark of the Covenant where we see
two cherubim’s on it. This is the place
where the High Priest would come on the Day of Atonement to place the blood on
so that Israel’s sin would be covered over for that year. We can picture two of God’s attributes here
on this mercy seat, one is God’s love and the other is God’s wrath. God is angry with sin, but God wants to
forgive sin and so when the blood is applied God’s wrath is satisfied so that
God’s love can be demonstrated. This is
what happened on the cross.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Never forget the cross and what it cost for my salvation. Never forget the cross!
Memory
verses for the week: 2Peter 1:1-10
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;
3 seeing that His divine power has
granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true
knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. 4 For by these He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5 ¶
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith
supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in
your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and
in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten
his purification from his former sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about
His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you
will never stumble.
8/13/2012
11:26:30 AM
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