SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2017 10:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Submission of the Disciples
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 1:12-15
Message of the verses: “12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. 13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. 14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. 15 At this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren (a gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together), and said,”
We want to look at the list of people that Luke gives
here in verses 13-14 as it lists all of the eleven disciples along with the
Mother of Jesus and he then adds “along with the women,” which probably included Mary Magdalene, Mary
the wife of Clophas, Mary and Martha, and Salome, among others. Then we see that the brothers of Jesus were
also there, and this is speaking of the physical brothers of our Lord. When we get to the 15th chapter of
Acts we see that James, the brother of Jesus is the head of the church in
Jerusalem. We hear from certain
“religious” groups that Mary remained a virgin and had no other children. While listening to the Bible on DVD the other
day I was reminded of this passage from Matthew’s gospel “but kept her a virgin until
she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus (Matthew 1:25).” I want you to notice the word “until,” and
think about what that word means. Another
thing I want to mention is that when we read the different names of the
disciples in different books of the New Testament they may seem different, but
I think what they are doing is giving nicknames in some places, but rest
assured that there were eleven and the same eleven that Jesus chose from the
beginning. I suppose if I had the name
Judas I would want to change it after what Judas the traitor did, in fact one
of our Lords physical brothers change his name to Jude and authored the book of
Jude found in our New Testament.
In John MacArthur’s commentary he writes a lot about who
Mary the mother of Jesus is and about how she has been elevated to the position
of being the Mother of God in a way that is not true. Mary was a young girl whom God called to
become the mother of the Son of God. She
was a virgin, never knew a man sexually before which fulfills Genesis 3:15 “And
I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her
seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’” The words “her seed” is never seen again in
the Word of God as it is always the seed of the man, but in this case “her
seed” is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We also read about the virgin giving birth in Isaiah. When one reads Mary’s prayer in the book of
Luke it can be seen that she too was in need of salvation as can be seen in
that prayer. Mary was a special young
woman, probably in her teens when she was appointed by God to give birth to
Jesus. Remember that Jesus Christ was
100% Man and God and Mary gave birth to the Man Jesus.
We will continue with this section in our next SD and
perhaps I will quote some of the things that MacArthur has to say.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Forgive us” (1 John 1:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Let us go again and
visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord’?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/4/2017 11:01 AM
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