SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 09/29/2017
My Worship Time Focus:
Be Thankful
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:24-28
Message of the verses: “24 And when they
heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said,
"O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL
THAT IS IN THEM, 25 who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our
father David Your servant, said, ‘WHY DID THE GENTILES RAGE, AND THE PEOPLES
DEVISE FUTILE THINGS? 26 ‘THE KINGS OF THE EARTH TOOK THEIR STAND, AND THE
RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD AND AGAINST HIS CHRIST.’ 27
"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy
servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the
Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your
purpose predestined to occur.”
This SD is written on October 31, 2022 because for
some reason I cannot find the original SD that was written in 2017. I will just quote from MacArthur’s commentary
for this SD.
Peter
and John returned not in a state of fear and dejection but of
exhilaration. They had preached to the
Sanhedrin and Had been granted the privilege of suffering for their Lord (cf.
Acts 5:41). When the rest heard their
report, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, ‘O Lord, it
is Thou who didst make the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in
them.’ Depotes (Lord) is an uncommon title for God in the New Testament,
appearing only five other times (Luke 2:29; 2 Tim. 2:21; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 4;
Rev. 6:10). It is the word from which
our English word ‘despot’ derives, and denotes an absolute master. Faced with opposition, they took comfort in
God’s sovereignty. All their suffering
was in His will. Being the Creator of
everything, He is in complete control of all events. Confidence in the absolute rulership and
might of God was enough to sustain them.
They
derived further comfort from the knowledge that such opposition had been
forseen in the Old Testament. The Holy
Spirit, speaking through the mouth of …David in Psalm 2:1-2, spoke of the
opposition Christ (and by implication His followers) would face; Why did the
Gentiles rage, and the peoples devise futile things? The kings on the earth
took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and
against His Christ. They had witnessed the initial fulfillment of that prophecy
in the city of Jerusalem. The final
fulfillment is presented in Revelation 17:9-14 and sets the stage for His
second coming revealed in Revelation 19:11-21.
Those opposed to God’s purposes had gathered together against God’s holy
servant Jesus, whom God had anointed as His servant. They included Herod and Pontius Pilate, along
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel.
All they had accomplished, however, was to do whatever God’s hand
and…purpose predestined to occur.
Predestined is from proorizo (Rom.
8:29-30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11) and means ‘to determine beforehand.’ It
reminds us that God is the supreme historian who wrote all history before it
ever began. Having done their worst,
they merely succeeded in fulfilling God’s eternal plan (cf. Acts 2:23). As the psalmist expressed it, ‘The wrath of
man shall praise Thee’ (Ps. 76:10).
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