SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2018 10:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Fact of Miracles Proves that Salvation is
by Grace
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 15:12
Message of the verses: “12 All the people kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.”
What we have this morning is a long title with a short
SD. As I look at verse twelve I realize
that I must have missed all along that the apostles were talking to the
congregation as we read in the first part of the verse “All the people kept
silent.” This shows me that those who
were in the congregation had nothing to say about Peter’s point that he brought
up in the last two verses which we spoke about in our last SD. Perhaps those Judaizers who were in this
group finally understood that salvation was by grace and they did not have to
add any works in order to be saved.
Now in today’s verse we see that the Lord used Paul and
Barnabas to do great sings and wonders and miracles in order to get people’s
attention so that they would listen to the gospel message. We have gone over this subject in the past,
but it does bear repeating. I remember
when I first became a believer and was not yet grounded in the faith as much as
I am now and therefore was listing to those preachers, who by the way only
wanted my money, who were teaching that God was obligated to heal a person who
was sick. I even wrote a letter to one
of them who was on TV about a problem that I was experiencing and of course
there was no cure for what I was suffering, but there was a letter back wanting
money.
In this section we see that there was a purpose for each
of the miracles that are seen in the New Testament, and many times it is to
show the power of God in order to get people’s attention to listen to what a
person has to do in order to be spiritually healed. This was a part of what we call “sign gifts,” spiritual
gifts that would go away after the church was established, and the New
Testament was written. Once that was
done people could read about the fact that they were sinners in need of
salvation and understand that Jesus Christ came to earth as God’s promised
Messiah in order to preach and teach for three years and then go to the cross
in order to pay for our sins in his body.
As Easter season is here and Good Friday is near we remember that while
Jesus was on the cross that darkness come upon the cross so that no one could
see what God the Father was doing as He was taking out His wrath on His Only
Begotten Son in order to pay for our sins.
Christ cried out at the end of those three hours “My God, My God, why
have You forsaken me” a quote from the 22nd Psalm. The Father and the Son were separated during
this time as the Father was pouring out His wrath, wrath that we deserve, on
His Son. I believe that because Jesus
knew that He would be separated from His Father and that He knew that He was
going to become sin
were the reasons that He was sweating great drops of blood in the garden, as He
hated sin that much, but loved us more.
Another thought on healing comes from a man who helped me a lot when I
first became a believer and he told me that God heals you every time except the
last time when He takes you home, and I suppose that that will be the best
healing of all.
John MacArthur writes “Those miraculous signs and wonders
confirmed that Paul and Barnabas were God’s spokesmen (cf. 2 Cor. 12:12) ‘12
The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by
signs and wonders and miracles.’ They taught salvation by grace (Acts 12:38-39)
‘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.’ and the miracles God performed through them confirmed the
truthfulness of that teaching (Heb. 2:3-4) ‘3
how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at
the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4
God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various
miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.’ In contrast, the Judaizers could have produced
no miracles to support their teaching.
God does not confirm false teaching by granting miracles (a truth
applicable to today’s church to the many so-called miracle workers with
aberrant theology).”
Just the same as Peter’s arguments, Paul and Barabbas’s
evidence presented was irrefutable as they too taught that salvation was by
grace alone and was thereby stamped unarguably with God’s approval.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Once again I see
the love of God in this passage as it was because of His great love that He
empowered Paul and Barnabas to do these signs and miracles in order to get
people’s attention to hear the greatest love story ever told.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be ready to tell others this wonderful story
of love and grace so that they too can be saved.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Ten” (Genesis 18:32).
Today’s Bible
question: “How did Paul describe Himself
in Philemon 1:9?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/28/2018 10:41 AM
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