PT-2 "The Life of Christ" (Acts 2:22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2017 8:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-2 “The Life of Christ”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 2:22

            Message of the verse:  “22  "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.”  “22  Men of Israel, give ear to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man who had the approval of God, as was made clear to you by the great works and signs and wonders which God did by him among you, as you yourselves have knowledge (BBE).”  “"Men of Israel, I beg you to listen to my words. Jesus of Nazareth was a man proved to you by God himself through the works of power, the miracles and the signs which God showed through him here amongst you—as you very well know (Phillips).”

            We have been talking about miracles in our last SD and I want to continue on this subject as John MacArthur gives us the Greek words that speak of miracles, wonders, and signs.

“Miracles, wonders, and signs all describe God’s miraculous works.  Miracles is from dunamis, a term that describes the powerful, supernatural character of the works.  Wonders, is the plural form of teras.  It describes the marveling that takes place in the mind of the one who witnesses a miracle.  Signs derives from semeion and gives the intent of God’s miraculous works: to point to spiritual truth.  It should be noted that ‘throughout Acts the term ‘wonders’ only occurs in conjunction with ‘signs,’ a testimony to the fact that mere marvels have no value in themselves except as they point beyond themselves to the divine power behind them and so lead to ‘faith.’ (John B. Polhill.)”

            Now as we look back on the miracles that Jesus did while on earth they were thus mighty manifestations of God’s power which were designed to get the attention of people which would then point them to spiritual truth.  As we look back at the feeding of the 5,000 from John’s gospel we can see that in doing this Jesus showed His divine power to produce food which pointed to the fact that He was God the creator, but not many who were there understood this truth as we can see later on in John’s gospel.

            God performed the miracles through Jesus as He did not do them on His own even though He certainly had the power to do them on His own.  Jesus spoke in Matthew 12 about the unpardonable sin stating that it was the Holy Spirit who was doing the miracles through Jesus, and yet those who believed that the devil was doing had committed a sin so grievous that they could never be forgiven for it.

            Peter tells the crowd that these miracles, signs, and wonders were “in your midst, just as you yourselves know.”  They certainly could not claim ignorance, as their rejection of Jesus was certainly not based on the lack of information, but it was on hatred and their love for sin.

            We can site different miracles that Jesus did and talk about the response that the people had like when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and some of those there went to the Pharisees to tell them.  The Pharisees wondered what they were going to do since they all agreed that Jesus did mighty miracles.  John MacArthur writes “Perhaps the clearest statement of this truth comes from our Lord’s words in John 15:24-25 ‘24 "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ’THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

            These works that Jesus did gave proof that He was the Messiah that God sent into the world; there is no other way to understand them.  John 3:19 says “"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There have been times in my life when I spoke the truth of the gospel to people that I know or people that I just meet, thinking that I may never see them again and they reject it as if it were some kind of story that was not true.  This does not deter me from telling others though.

My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will give me many more opportunities to tell others of His great salvation offered to them.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Herod” (Matthew 2:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘It is not good that man should be alone?’”

Answer in our next SD.

7/25/2017 9:25 AM