PT-3 "Jesus: The Fulfillment of Prophecy"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2018 8:41 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus: PT-3 “Jesus:  The Fulfillment of Prophecy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:23-37

            Message of the verses:  “23  "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24  after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ’What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 “But God raised Him from the dead; 31 and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32  "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33  that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ’I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ 36  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; 37  but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.”

            I want to begin with one more thing about John the Baptist and that is that according to Acts 19:1-3 John’s ministry was well known to Paul’s hearers.  “1 It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. 2 He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." 3 And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John’s baptism.’”

            Verse 26, “26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent,” is an important dividing line in Paul’s sermon as he readdresses the two groups in the audience as brethren as seen in verse 26.  The two groups are the Jews and the Gentiles who fear God. 

            Now as we go through Paul’s writings we see that he has his own style, and part of that style is that Paul will anticipate and then answer questions that may have been going through the minds of his listeners.  This is especially seen in the books of Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Galatians. 

            The first question is a question that Jewish people have wrestled with from the time of the apostles until now and that is whether or not Jesus is the Messiah.  If Jesus is the Messiah, then why did the Jewish leaders not recognize Him as their Messiah?  We can conclude that Paul was listening to the sermon that Stephen gave as he gives the same answer and that is because of the hardness of their hearts.  Paul explains that “those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.”  Paul is saying that the Jewish leaders read the very Scriptures that they would fulfill because they did not understanding what they were reading, and the reason they did not understand what they were reading was that their hearts were hard.  I have heard it explained that when unbelievers read the Bible it is as if they are trying to read a book in another language, thus they cannot understand it.  The Holy Spirit, the Author of Scripture is the One who opens the hearts of believers to understand His Word, and He will open the hearts of unbelievers when they are coming to know the Lord after He gives them an effectual call. 

            The second question that Paul answers is if the Messiah was rejected, does that nullify God’s plan?  Paul replied far from it.  John MacArthur writes “Isaiah 53:3 foresaw that Messiah would be ‘despised and forsaken of men.’  (“3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”)  They hated Jesus without cause, so that even ‘though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed.’  They thus unwittingly fulfilled Psalm 69:4, ‘Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head’ (cf. John 15:25).”

            David wrote Psalm 22, and in this Psalm we can see what crucifixion was about many years before it was used.  What we read in this Psalm shows what Christ was going through as He hung on the cross, and the Jewish leaders had absolutely no problem doing this to Jesus because of their hatred for Him.  Paul talks of the aftermath of this in verse 29:  “29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.”  Jesus’ life that is recorded in the Scriptures was the fulfillment of prophecy as everything that He did while on earth was the plan of God for Him to do.  You may remember when He was 12 years old and seemingly lost according to His parents.  When they found Him in the temple He stated that He was about His Father’s business.  In John’s gospel we read at the end of His crucifixion just before He died He stated “It is finished.”  Jesus had finished His Father’s work for Him to do as those words actually mean “paid in full,” and Jesus paid in full for our sins.  Don’t be like the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus, but accept the payment that He made for you realizing that is the only way that you will have forgiveness for your sins and be born-again.

            We will continue looking at this portion of Paul’s sermon in our next SD.  I said as we began this section that it would take us a while to get through it, but remember as we look at this we are listening to the preaching of the Apostle Paul.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  To think that Jesus would come to earth and die for me is more than I can understand, but I am thankful that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to understand this truth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  As I continue studying for my Sunday school lesson, my prayer is that the Lord will increase our numbers and that people will understand what this great book of Revelation teaches.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “I am come that they might have life; and have it more abundantly.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘If you had not plowed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle’?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/23/2018 9:25 AM

PT-2 "Jesus: 'The Fulfillment of Prophecy' (Acts 13:23-37)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/22/2018 7:47 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-2 Jesus:  “The Fulfillment of Prophecy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Acts 13:23-37

            Message of the verses:  “23  "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24  after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ’What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, One is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 “But God raised Him from the dead; 31 and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32  "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33  that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ’I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ 36  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; 37  but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.’”

            We ended up yesterday’s SD by talking about how verse 23 is kind of a bridge verse in Paul’s message, bridging together the fact that Christ is the offspring of David and that prophetically; He was the One whom, according to promise, God brought to Israel as a Savior.  We will now begin looking at the first prophecy that Paul mentioned and that was about the forerunner to the Messiah, and that of course was John the Baptist.

            Isaiah 40:3-5 tells us “3 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. 4 “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; 5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’”  Isaiah has been called a “mini Bible,” and the reason is that there are 66 chapters in Isaiah and there are 66 books in the Bible.  The Bible is divided up between the Old Testament which has 39 books, and the New Testament which has 27 books.  Isaiah is divided up between the first 39 chapters and the last 27 chapters beginning with chapter 40.  One of the first things we see when we begin the New Testament is that the gospel writers bring up John the Baptist very early in all their writings and as we look at these verses from Isaiah we see his first prophecy from chapter 40 is about John the Baptist. 

            Another prophecy about John the Baptist comes from Malachi 3:1 where we read 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.”  Both prophecies were fulfilled in the person of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist was paving the way for the Lord Jesus Christ by going out into the wilderness and baptizing people and of course his baptism was not Christian baptism, but a Jewish ceremonial cleansing, and this symbolized true, heartfelt repentance, as Paul spoke of in verse 24 “after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.”  John was making sure that there were clean hearts before the coming of the Messiah. 

            The Bible tells us that Elijah was to come before the Messiah and Jesus spoke of this to His disciples when He was asked by them about the coming of Elijah, and some thought He was crying out to Elijah while dying on the cross.  Jesus told His disciples that Elijah did come and they did to him whatever they wanted, and the disciples knew that He was talking about John the Baptist.  What about Elijah then?  The following are a selection of verses from the gospel of Matthew which talk about Elijah:  “Mt 11:14 “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.”  “Mt 17:10 And His disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Mt 17:11  And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; Mt 17:12  but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Mt 27:47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." Mt 27:49 But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him."”

            Paul goes on in his sermon to let his listeners know that John the Baptist reported that he was not the Messiah, but that He was coming and he was not fit to untie His sandals. Untying sandals was the job for the lowest slave, and this speaks of John the Baptist’s humility.  Jesus said of John the Baptist that up until that time he was the greatest man who ever lived.  “11 “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Mat. 11:11).” 

            John MacArthur writes “When confronted by Jewish authorities John clearly distinguished himself from the yet-to-be-revealed Messiah:  “19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." 21 They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 23 He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ’MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,’ as Isaiah the prophet said’ (John 1:19-23).”  There is one more thing that I want to bring up about the coming of Elijah and that is that many people believe that it is Elijah and Moses who will be the two witnesses that are found in the Revelation 11: 3 “"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."” 

            We will continue looking at this portion of Paul’s sermon in our next SD.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Prayers” (2 Timothy 1:3).

Today’s Bible question:  “According to John 10:10, why did Jesus come to earth?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/22/2018 8:27 AM

PT-1 "Jesus: The Fulfillment of Prophecy" Acts 13:23-37)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/21/2018 11:14 AM

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-1 “Jesus:  The Fulfillment of Prophecy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:23-37

            Message of the verses:  “23 "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24 after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ’What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 “But God raised Him from the dead; 31 and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32 "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33 that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ’I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ 36  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; 37 but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.”

            I want to begin with a verse from the book of Revelation “10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’ (Rev. 19:10).”  In my John MacArthur study Bible he writes the following about the highlighted portion of this verse:  “The central theme of both OT prophecy and NT preaching is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul is doing both in this sermon that he is preaching in this synagogue that is he is talking about the prophecies of the Messiah from the OT and also telling how these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ as we see in this portion of his sermon.

            The first prophecy of the Messiah is found in 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."”  This of course speaks of what is only spoken of one time in Scripture and that is the “seed of the woman” which speaks of Christ’s virgin birth.  It also speaks of what Christ would accomplish on the cross as even though He would die, He would bruise Satan on the head which is a death blow.  We next move onto Isaiah 7:14 “14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”  Once again we read about the virgin birth of Christ and this time we see it actually spelled out, unlike where it was actually eluted to in Gen. 3:15.”  Isaiah 9: 6 “6  For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”  Jesus certainly was and is our “Wonderful Counselor,” and He is the “Mighty God,” “Eternal Father, and Prince of peace.”  In Micah 5:2 we read about where He would be born:  “2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.’”  Matthew 2:1 verifies this “1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying.”  In Genesis 12:2-3 we read at the calling of Abraham that the Messiah would be one of his decedents:  “2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’”  Now there are many other prophecies in the OT that speak of the Messiah that I will not put into this SD, with the exception of the ones which are favorites of mine and they  come from the book of Zechariah:  “9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zech. 9:9).”  “12 I said to them, "If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!" So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages (Zech. 11:12).”  Zech. 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”  I realize that this last one (12:10) has not happened yet, but just as the others did happen, this one will also happen when Christ returns to planet earth as spoken of in the 19^th chapter of Revelation.

            We will end this first of what will probably many SD’s on this section with a quote from John MacArthur:  “Verse 23 ties together Paul’s first two points.  Historically, Jesus was ‘the offspring of ‘David.  Prophetically, He was the One whom, ‘according to promise, God brought to Israel’ as ‘a Savior.’  He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah.  In Him God’s ‘promise’ in the Old Testament was realized.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that God has kept all of His promises about His Son, and will continue to keep them in the future.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am trusting the Lord to give comfort to my wife as she has some minor surgery tomorrow.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “80” (Exodus 7:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “In what way did Paul remember Timothy night and day?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/21/2018 12:02 PM 

PT-3 "Jesus: The Culmination of History" (Acts 13:17-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/20/2018 9:15 AM

My Worship Time                                            Focus:  PT-3 “Jesus:  The Culmination of History”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:17-22

            Message of the verses:  “17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance-all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 20 “After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ’I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’”

            I have to say that this section has taken longer for me to complete that I thought it would have, but when studying the Word of God you have to be sure that you are open to what the Spirit of God is doing in your heart and so sometimes the short sections take longer than the longer sections.

            One only has to read through the book of Judges to find out how Israel had sinned and continued to sin against the Lord.  Towards the end of the book of Joshua we read “31 Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known all the deeds of the LORD which He had done for Israel.”   It was the second generation that was the ones who served the Lord and then after that we find that in the book of Judges it was an up and down service of the Lord by the people with the general direction down.  In my study of the seven churches in the book of Revelation we see the same thing happening in the church age as it began with the church at Ephesus losing their love for the Lord which began the downward spiral and when you take out the two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia who Christ had no condemnation you can see the other five churches in a downward spiral.  You end up with the church at Laodicea where you actually find Christ on the outside of the Church asking to come in. 

            Paul then talks about the two kings that Israel first had, Saul and David.  Saul was the king that the people wanted and he turned out to be a bad king, and then David was the king that God chose for the people and he was a man after God’s own heart.  When the people cried out to Samuel the prophet for a king it broke his heart as he did not want to ask God to give them a king because he knew that the Lord was their king, but the people wanted to be like the nations around them as they wanted a king who would solve all their problems, but in reality it caused more problems for them.  In the 17^th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy Moses writes the following about Israel wanting a king:  “14 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ’I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15  you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16  "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ’You shall never again return that way.’ 17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. 18  "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel (Deu. 17:14-20).”  God knew this would happen as it was actually His plan because once David became king of Israel God made a covenant with him that the Messiah would be born through his line which of course Jesus was which is what Paul is leading up to in this sermon. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God knows everything and God has a plan for the people on planet earth and I believe that plan centers around His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord’s plane for my life even though at times it is not what I would choose for my life.

 Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Amos”

Today’s Bible question:  “How old was Moses when he first appeared before Pharaoh to deliver the children of Israel?

Answer in our next SD.

2/20/2018 9:57 AM

PT-2 "Jesus: The Culmination of History" (Acts 13:17-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2018 10:46 AM

My Worship Time                                             Focus:  PT-2 “Jesus:  The Culmination of History

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:17-22

            Message of the verses:  “17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance-all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 20 “After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ’I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’”

            I think we know the story of how Israel ended up in Egypt as found in the book of Genesis where there was a famine in all the Middle-East and God had sent Joseph down to Egypt in order to become second in charge of Egypt so that he could make sure that there would be enough grain to sustain not only Egypt but those who came to buy grain from Egypt during the famine.  Jacob sent his sons to buy grain and Joseph knew who they were and eventually the entire family of Jacob ended up in Egypt so they could be preserved throughout the famine. After the death of all the patriarchs Israel began to grow so much that Egypt feared them and made them slaves, but God had promised to bring Israel out of Egypt way back in Genesis chapter fifteen and even told Abraham how long they would be there, 400 years.  Exodus 1:8 tells us “Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.”  This is when Egypt made slaves out of the Hebrew people and so they were looking for a redeemer to bring them out of Egypt, which was Moses.  Paul goes on to say “and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it.”  Paul is moving rapidly through the history of Israel which the people whom he was preaching to probably all ready knew about.  As we look at what Paul said about God bringing Israel out “with an uplifted arm” we can see the power that God has in order to do that.  God’s power is seen throughout the entire Bible beginning with the creation of the earth and the entire universe, and in the New Testament God showed His power by raising our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

            John MacArthur writes “After the Exodus, God continued to care for the nation, as ‘for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness.’  The manuscript evidence is evenly divided between etropophorasen (‘He put up with them’) and etropophorasan (‘He cared for them’) (“Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament)…Both statements are true.  God cared for His people in spite of their rebellion, enduring their sin because they had a key role to play in His plan for history.”

            Next Paul talks about what happened after the forty years of wondering in the wilderness “And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about four hundred and fifty years.”  I mentioned about God telling Abraham what He was going to do with his offspring and I would like to quote where He told Abraham this because if follows along with what Paul is preaching about.  “13 God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete’ (Gen. 15:13-16).”  This is a prophecy that God gave to Abraham about what would happen to him and his family, and by the way Abraham had no children at that time and both he and his wife were past the age of having children.  Notice also the highlighted portion of the text above as it tells us that God knew when the Amorites iniquity would go so far that God would have to destroy them.  I have often looked at this as God having a bottle in heaven with the iniquities of nations in it and when it get full He will act to destroy that nation.  I have also wondered how full that bottle is for our country.  We will continue looking at the remaining portion of the Scripture in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I see in this section God’s power, God’s grace and forgiveness, God’s patience, and God’s plan.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  With all of the things that pertain to God in our passage I can say that I need to continue to trust the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Solomon” (1 Kings 8:22).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which prophet was a shepherd and dresser of sycamore trees and a native of Tekoa?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/19/2018 11:23 AM

PT-1 "Jesus: The Culmination of History" (Acts 13:17-22)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/18/2018 9:52 PM

My Worship Time                                                Focus: PT-1 Jesus:  The Culmination of History

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Acts 13:17-22

            Message of the verses:  “17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance-all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 20 “After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ’I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’

            John MacArthur begins this portion of his commentary talking about where is history going to end, which is a question that people sometime ask, but can’t find an answer unless they are looking in the Word of God.  Is there meaning in the everyday world that we live in or is there just endless days and nights going by until someone builds a weapon that will destroy all of mankind.  MacArthur writes “But despite such cynicism and despair, history is going somewhere.  And every Jew and Gentile proselyte in Paul’s audience knew exactly where:  to its culmination in the coming kingdom of Messiah.  Man’s fellowship with God, shattered by the Fall, would be restored when Messiah came and delivered men from the bondage of sin.  History would ultimately resolve itself in the redeemed being back in full fellowship with God and giving Him glory.  Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial death, His second coming to set up His earthly, millennial reign, and His eternal rule over the new heavens and new earth are the climax of history.”

            As you read through the book of Acts you find out that the preachers found in it know their audiences and such is the case we find here.  Paul wanted to tell these Jews who their Messiah was, but he knew his audience as he was getting their attention.  He did this by addressing a topic dear to the hearts of his countrymen, which was God’s providential care for Israel.

            The history of that care that God has for Israel when the God of this people Israel chose their fathers, which of course were Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob who fathered all the different men who would become the tribes of Israel.  God is and always has been in complete control of History, and we were learning this just this morning in our Sunday school class when we looked at the “throne” of God in Revelation chapter four.  There is a quote from John MacArthur that I will use in conclusion of this SD, and in this quote he writes about the throne of God and what it represents.  “This was not a piece of furniture, but a symbol of God’s sovereign rule and authority (cf. Pss. 11:4; 103:19) located in the temple in heaven (cf. 7:15; 11:19; 14:15, 17; 15:6-8; 16:17).  According to Revelation 21:22 the heavenly temple is not an actual building:  ‘the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb’ are the temple.  The use of the term temple symbolizes God’s presence.  The throne was said to be standing because God’s sovereign rule is fixed, permanent, and unshakable.  A vision of God’s immovable throne reveals He is in permanent, unchanging, and complete control of the universe.  That is a comforting realization in light of the horror and trauma of the end-time events about to be revealed (chap. 6-19).  In much the same way, Isaiah was comforted during a traumatic time in Israel’s history by his vision of God’s glory (Isa. 6).”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Tyre” (1 Kings 5:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who prayed at the dedication of the temple?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/18/2018 10:13 PM

 

PT-3 "Intro to Acts 13:14-41

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/17/2018 7:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 Intro to Acts 13:14-41

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:14-41

            Message of the verses:  Again I will not post the verses on this SD as they are on PT-1 of this section if you want to look at them.

            I promised to continue to look at John MacArthur’s comments from his commentary as he is describing the journey that Paul and Barnabas are taking on their first missionary journey.  “Luke’s terse statement passes over in silence what must have been an arduous journey (especially if Paul was ill with malaria).  The road from Perga to Pisidian Antioch, some one hundred miles away was difficult and dangerous.  It wound its way through the rugged Taurus Mountains, clinging to cliffs that ascended to dizzying heights.  Travelers also had to cross the turbulent and flood-prone Cestrus and Eurymedon rivers.  The Taurus Mountains were notorious for the robber bands who infested them.  Those brigands, who had plagued Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar, were still unsubdued in Paul’s time.  When Paul wrote, ‘I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers’ (2 Cor. 11:26), he may well have had this journey in mind.”   As you read over this quote one would have a hard time understanding why Paul and Barnabas did what they did unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

            When Paul and Barnabas finally got to Antioch they did what was normal for them to do and that is to preach in the Synagogues to the Jewish population in that city.  People in the Synagogues were eager to listen to Paul preach as he was undoubtedly a polished speaker who could hold the attention of those in his audiences.  However on far too many occasions the Jews would listen to him to a point when he began to speak about their Messiah who had come lived on earth preaching and doing many good things including raising the dead and healing people who were sick or crippled and then died and came back to life again and is now in heaven, as believes were awaiting His return and still are for that matter.

            15 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, "Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it’ (Acts 13:15).”  “Verse 15 suggests the liturgy common to first-century synagogues.  The service opened with the recitation of the shema (Deut. 6:4ff.)—the Jewish profession of faith.  Following further prayers came ‘the reading of the Law and the Prophets, then came the teaching, usually based on that week’s Scripture reading.  Since it was customary to invite prominent visitors to deliver the teaching—and all the more so since Paul was a student of the celebrated rabbi Gamaliel—‘the synagogue officials sent to the, saying, ‘Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.’”  (John MacArthur)

            We have mentioned that one of the names that could be given to the book of Acts is the Acts of the Holy Spirit as He was the One arranging where Paul and Barnabas went and when they could speak and also what they would speak to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ which is one of the things that the Holy Spirit does, and even continues to do today.  As we have read over this sermon we can see that there are two main characters that dominated Paul’s sermon and they are God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, even though Christ is only mentioned by name in verse 23.

            “Paul’s evangelistic message falls logically into three parts.  He presents Jesus as the culmination of history, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the justifier of sinners.”  This is the outline we will follow as we work our way through these verses from Acts chapter thirteen.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jesus” (Luke 23:34).

Today’s Bible question:  “Of what country was Hiram King?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/17/2018 8:07 PM

            The marriage retreat that my wife and I went to was the best marriage treat we have ever gone to.  The one thing that happened to me however was that I had difficulty in sleeping in the Hotel room and did not get to sleep until 5:30 A. M.

 

PT-2 "Intro to Acts 13:14-41

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/16/2018 11:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 Intro to Acts 13:14-41

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:14-41

            Message of the verses:  As mentioned in our last SD I am not going to include all the verses that go along with what we are looking at in Acts 13, but also as I mentioned we will continue to look at preaching as this is a very important subject for believers, and perhaps the main reason non believers become believers.  I want to say one thing before we continue looking at preaching and this is a personal note from me.  I am what we find in Acts 17: 10 “The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”  The Bereans searched the Scriptures after they heard a message from Paul and Silas to find out if what they were telling them lined up with the Scriptures.  I have to admit that I listen intensely to what Pastors preach to make sure that they are preaching what is in accordance with the Scriptures.

            We can see from Scripture that Jesus told a progressive follower “but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:60).”  Jesus wanted him to preach even as he preached.  Paul wrote to Timothy “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction (2 Tim. 4:2).”

            There have been different times when the Lord provided a revival since the church age began.  An example from the United States is that we have had two very large revivals, one before the Revolutionary War and one before the Civil war, and the thing that was the catalyst of these revivals as they are in any revival is the preaching of the Word of God.  It began with the church fathers taking the baton from the Apostles and it moved on throughout church history.  As I have just finished teaching about the seven churches in the book of Revelation and have mentioned that my belief is that they were in prophetic order and can look back at the church in Philadelphian era that began in 1750 and ended around 1925 and see how the preaching of God from many famous men brought revivals in England that actually came to the United States, where the Puritans were instrumental with these revivals.

            If we look back to when the church began we studied that it began with the preaching of Peter on the Day of Pentecost and as we move through the book of Acts we have seen preaching that has brought many souls to Christ in different places.  Now that we are in the second part of the book of Acts which focuses on Paul’s preaching to the Gentiles we see from our text that we are looking at Paul’s preaching. 

            John MacArthur writes about Paul and Barnabas’s preaching:  “Having first visited Barnabas’s home island of Cyprus, the missionary team next visited Paul’s home region, Asia Minor.  Leaving Cyprus, they sailed north nearly 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea and landed at Attalia, the port of Perga.  At that point, John Mark deserted Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem.

            “Paul and Barnabas apparently did not preach in Perga at this time, although they did on their return journey (Acts 14:25).  Some have speculated that Paul was ill (cf. Gal. 4:13), possibly with malaria, and needed to leave the coastal lowlands for the cooler mountain regions (Pisidian Antioch was 3600 feet above sea level).  In any case, they did not remain there, but ‘going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch.’  The city was located in Asia Minor and it’s not to be confused with Antioch in Syria.  From which the missionaries set out on their journey.”

            In our next SD we will begin with another quote from MacArthur as he continues to talk about Paul and Barnabas’s journeys.  I hope that these are interesting to my readers as personally I like to read about these types of things.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for giving great preachers to His church so that we can learn more about who God is and what His desires are for us, His children.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord that He will speak to our hearts as we listen to three videos at our minnie marriage retreat.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Sinners” (Luke 15:3).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘Father forgive them; for they know not what they do’?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/16/2018 11:54 AM      

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/15/2018 9:17 AM

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  PT-1 Intro to Acts 13:14-41

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:14-41

            Message of the verses:  “14 But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, "Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it." 16 Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: 17 "The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance-all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. 20 “After these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22  "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ’I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.’ 23  "From the descendants of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, 24  after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 “And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ’What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 “But God raised Him from the dead; 31 and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. 32  "And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33  that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ’YOU ARE MY SON; TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.’ 34 “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ’I WILL GIVE YOU THE HOLY and SURE blessings OF DAVID.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ’YOU WILL NOT ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.’ 36  "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; 37  but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. 38 “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. 40  "Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: 41  ’BEHOLD, YOU SCOFFERS, AND MARVEL, AND PERISH; FOR I AM ACCOMPLISHING A WORK IN YOUR DAYS, A WORK WHICH YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE, THOUGH SOMEONE SHOULD DESCRIBE IT TO YOU.’"”

            A few things as we begin this rather long section, first John MacArthur entitles this chapter “Paul Preaches Jesus,” and second as we will take more than one day to look at the introduction I will not be putting all these verses on the rest of the introductory SD’s.

            John MacArthur quotes something from Dr. Warren Wiersbe that I have read before and what Dr. Wiersbe said that “If some homiletically inclined archangel were to permit me to select another time and place in which to live I immediately would ask to be transported to Great Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria.”  He wrote that in a book entitled “Walking with Giants.”  It seems to me that he also wrote it in another book when he wrote about 50 great Christians that everyone should know about.  The reason he would want to be transported to that time period was because of the great preachers that lived during that time period.  Now in studying for my lessons in Revelation 2-3 and as we studied about the seven churches it was pointed out to me that the main church during this time period that was the church of Philadelphia which went from 1750 to 1925.  In saying this perhaps the greatest time period to hear great preaching would be the time period in which we are studying from the book of Acts.  I have to believe that many of the sermons that Luke writes about are summarized by him, for if he included the entire sermon the book of Acts would perhaps be the longest book in the NT.  At any rate there was wonderful preaching during that time and I like great preaching.  What we are introducing this morning is a sermon spoken by Paul in a Synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, and we have mentioned that Paul’s practice as he traveled around these Gentile cities was to go first to the Jews and tell them the gospel message which is what he did in this city.

            What we have before us in these verses is the very first sermon preached by Paul, but that by no means it was his first sermon that he preached for we know that he spoke in Damascus right after his conversion.  There are many other places in the NT that speak of Paul’s preaching.  John MacArthur writes “Paul’s words to the believers at Rome reflect the importance he placed on preaching:  ‘14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?’  His words to Timothy are the classic call to this responsibility:  ‘Preach the word.’ (2 Tim. 4:2).  To Titus he said, ‘Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine,’ and, ‘Speak…with all authority’ (Titus 2:1, 15), emphasizing that preaching is to be doctrinal and authoritative.”

            MacArthur goes on to talk about how sadly the preaching in churches today do not share Paul’s commitment to preaching the Word of God, and that is something that makes me believe that since we are now living in the Laodicean church age that this is true as Paul wrote to Timothy that people who live near the end times only want their “ears tickled.”  People do not want sound preaching today, now this is probably true in many of our churches as I saw when I had to leave the church we went to for 32 years as the preaching got very weak, and it was done that way on purpose.  Amos 8:11 says “"Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord GOD, "When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.”  This is certainly true for 21^st century America.

            If we are to have strong churches there has to be strong preaching that comes from the Word of God for after all the Apostles died God’s way of speaking to His people is through the strong Biblical preaching.  In the fourth chapter of Ephesians Paul writes about spiritual gifts as he also wrote in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, and Peter wrote of them in 1 Peter 4, so it is easy to remember where this subject is taught in the Word of God as there are two “fours” and two “twelve’s.”  In Ephesians he writes about the importance of how we as believers are to hear from the Lord:  “11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:11-13).”  Notice why God gave these gifts to pastors and teachers, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;” and this is done through the preaching of the Word as good pastors will pray about what the Lord wants time to preach on and then they will “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).” 

            We will continue our lesson on preaching as we continue to look at the introduction to Acts 13:14-41 in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the great Biblical preaching that I get from the church that I attend on Sunday mornings and evenings and also on Wednesday evenings.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to be with my wife and me as we go with 30 other couples to a weekend marriage retreat in Amish country Ohio.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Boasted to him of the Corinthians” (2 Corinthians 7:14) “14  For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.”

Today’s Bible question:  “The Pharisees accused Jesus of receiving what kind of people?”

Answer in our next SD.

2/15/2018 10:07 AM

"Spiritual Victory" (Acts 13:9-12)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/14/2018 8:26 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Spiritual Victory

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 13:9-12

            Message of the verses:  “9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, 10  and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? 11 “Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time." And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.”

            We mentioned in an earlier SD that there was a battle going on for the soul of Sergius Paulus, and as we open this SD we see that that battle comes to a climax.  Another thing we see is that Luke notes that Saul was also called Paul which was his Roman name, and all through the rest of the book of Acts Luke uses Paul instead of Saul.  Next we see that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit to do what he does next which is fixing his eyes upon this false prophet.  It is not good to dabble in the occult which is what Bar-Jesus was doing and we see because that was what he was doing for Luke goes on to write that Paul tells Bar-Jesus that he was “full of all deceit and fraud.”  John MacArthur writes: “Dolos (‘deceit’) is the Greek word for ‘a snare.’  Like a cleverly disguised snare, Bar-Jesus was not what he appeared to be to his unsuspecting victims.  Radiourgias (‘fraud’) appears only here in the New Testament.  It meant originally, ‘ease or facility in doing hence readiness in turning the hand of anything, bad or good; and so recklessness, unscrupulousness, wickedness’ (Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament).’”  We mentioned earlier that the name Bar-Jesus means “son of salvation,” and in this case that we are looking at here Paul calls him a “son of the devil.”  He was not a righteous prophet like he thought he was for Paul denounced him as the “enemy of all righteousness” as he constantly twisted and perverted God’s truth, which lead Paul to ask the question “will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?”

            Bar-Jesus was not to get away with just a good talking to by Paul because he had made others spiritually blind, so now he will suffer physically blindness.  Paul tells him next “the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.”  It was only because God is merciful that this blindness was temporary.  Perhaps this physical blindness caused him to understand his spiritual blindness and afterwards sought the Lord to save him.

            Next we read about this spiritual victory that came about as the battle for Sergius Paulus’s soul is now over as we read “Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.”  As we have been studying the book of Acts since last June we have seen many different times that a miracle was used to call a person to the Lord and that is what happened here.  John MacArthur writes “Significantly, it was ‘the teaching of the Lord, not the stunning miracle he had just witnessed, that prompted the proconsul to believe.  He was ‘amazed at the teaching of the Lord, not at the miracle.’”

            MacArthur concludes his first chapter on the 13^th chapter of Acts by writing “The church at Antioch stands for all time as an example of an effective church.  The successful mission to evangelize the Gentile world that it initiated was a turning point in history.  The true church of Jesus Christ on earth today is the spiritual legacy of that outreach.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at this last quote from John MacArthur I never put together the importance of the church at Antioch and for that I praise the Lord and desire to do similar things by telling others about how they too can be saved like Sergius Paulus.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to be with me in a special way for these next few days as there are a lot of things on my plate.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To wash seven times in the Jordan River” (2 Kings 5:10).

Today’s Bible question:  “What had Paul done to Titus that he hoped to find true?”

Answer in our next SD

2/14/2018 9:03 AM