SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2019
10:34 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “Intro to ‘The
Greatest Man”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
3:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Now in those
days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 2 "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3 For this is the one referred to
by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS,
’MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT!’" 4 Now John
himself had a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his waist; and
his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and
all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; 6 and they were being
baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.”
If
I were to ask you what makes a man great there would probably be many answers
to that question, including riches, power, political greatness, and many other
things, however according to the Words of Jesus John the Baptist was the
greatest man up to his time, which includes men like Noah, Abraham, Samuel,
King David, and all the rest of the kings.
You may be wondering what John the Baptist was the greatest man born up
to his time, and as we look at his background, and for that matter the
background of Jesus one would never believe that by just looking at their
background that they would be called great.
John
the Baptist’s birth is seen in the gospel of Luke and it was a birth that was
not ordinary at all, and then probably in his teen years he went out into the
wilderness living on locust and wild honey.
He ran around in not so fine clothing, and I suppose in today’s term he
would be regarded as a hermit. This is
the greatest man from when we look at men in Genesis all the way through the
rest of the Old Testament.
It
was John’s job to go before the Messiah as his twofold duty was to proclaim and
prepare. That is what John’s ministry
did for God’s great King, Jesus Christ, and that is why he was the greatest.
Now
I want to quote from John MacArthur as he reminds us that Matthew’s gospel is
about the King. He begins by talking
about these first six verses and John the Baptist: “Reasons for such superlative commendation
can be seen in 3:1-6, where Matthew gives a brief picture of the life and work
of John the Baptist and also shows that John’s ministry was yet another
evidence of Jesus’ kingship.
“In
chapter 1 Jesus’ kingship is shown by His birth—by His descent from the royal
line of David and by His miraculous conception.
In chapter 2 His kingship is shown by the circumstances surrounding His
birth—by the homage of the magi, the hatred of Herod, and God’s miraculous
protection of the young Jesus. Now we
are shown the evidence through the herald who announced the King’s arrival. The greatest man who had yet lived was primarily
so because he was herald of the Messiah, the One who was greater still. His greatness was related to his calling.”
MacArthur
then gives us the outline we will be following:
“In presenting the herald of Christ, Matthew shows us the man, the
message, the motive, the manner, and the ministry.” That is what we will be looking at as we go
through these six verses.
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from the commentary that David Jeremiah writes about 1 Samuel 30:6, the
verse we looked in our last SD.
“In his moment of distress, the heat of
discouragement, the young kin turned to the one true God, his God, for
encouragement. There was nowhere else to
go. Life had reduced his options to
one. Sooner or later, life does that to
all of us. Our loving Heavenly Father
has provided all the resources we need.
It is true we are commanded to bear one another’s burdens and encourage
one another and edify and lift one another up, but there will be times when no
one will be there for us but God. In those
crucial moments we, like David, need to encourage ourselves in the Lord our
God.”
12/29/2019 11:09 PM
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