SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2017 8:57 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Blessing Will Be Realized
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 3:25-26
Message of the verses: “25
“It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made
with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ’AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE
EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ 26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent
Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."”
I want to first talk
about the “seed” which is mentioned here in verse 25 as this is a quotation
from Genesis 22:18, as it is a promise from God to Abraham. Now the seed that he is talking about if
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and I find it interesting that if we go back to
Genesis 3:15 we read “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."” I have always been taught
that this is the only time in the Word of God that the term “her seed” is
found, and this speaks of the virgin birth of our Lord as seen in the NT
gospels, especially Matthew. As we look
at the genealogies in both Matthew and Luke we see how this seed or line was
passed on. Matthew’s genealogy goes from
Jesus back to Abraham, while Luke’s goes back from Jesus to God the Father. It is believed that the differences between
the two genealogies are that Matthews is Joseph’s genealogy and Luke’s is
Mary’s. The difference between the two
of them is when you get back to David and you find that Joseph’s genealogy has
all of the kings of Judah in it while Mary’s from Luke has David’s son Nathan
in it. The reason for that is one of the
kings was so bad that the line could not be followed through him and so since
Mary was the mother of our Lord (our Lord’s humanness) and Joseph was actually
His step-father that is why the line could come through Mary as we can see from
Genesis 3:15 as Jesus was the seed of the woman.
As we move back to our
verses we find that Peter closes his sermon on a hopeful note. In spite of their sin his audience could
still be saved even though at the time of the Lord’s crucifixion they had
rejected him. People do the same thing
today as they will hear about Jesus and know that He died for them, understand
the truth of it and yet reject Him.
Later on they will come to Him to be saved even though at first they
rejected Him.
In Romans 9:3-5 we
read that the apostle Paul expressed the truth of this fact that they were
still the sons of the prophets and of the covenant: “3 For I could wish that I myself were
accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh, 4 who
are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the
covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose
are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over
all, God blessed forever. Amen.”
Yes they were heirs of
all the promised covenant blessings even more so than any other generation
since in their lifetime their Messiah had come.
We have seen that God’s covenant with Abraham found its ultimate fulfillment
in Jesus Christ.
It was only because of
God’s grace, mercy, and love for Israel, that He did not permanently reject
them even when they were the ones who rejected Jesus Christ. This statement is truth, God is not done with
Israel, and the blessings of Israel were never given to the church as some
would want to tell you. I have gone over
this truth in an earlier SD.
John MacArthur
completes this tenth chapter in his commentary by writing “All the rich
blessings of salvation and all the covenant promises were available. Peter’s hearers could only obtain them,
however, by turning from their wicked ways.
Repentance was the key that unlocked everything. Peter had clearly shown that the claims of
Jesus were consistent with Old Testament prophecy, so that it was a compelling
case for his hearers to respond in repentance and belief. Tragically, most of Peter’s audience refused
to repent. Like their fathers before
them, they hardened their hearts and failed to enter God’s rest (Heb. 3:8;
4:3). As a result, within the lifetime
of many in the audience the nation would be destroyed. And those who refused to turn from their sins
would find themselves ‘cast out into the outer darkness’ (Matt. 8:12), where
they will ‘pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of
the Lord and from the glory of His power’ (2 Thess. 1:9).
“Such a fate awaits
all those in very age and place who refuse to repent and receive God’s gracious
offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“Olive oil” (Exodus 27:29).
Today’s Bible question: “How did
Paul become a Roman Citizen?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/17/2017 9:33 PM
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