SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/10/2020
10:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “The Fruits of True Repentance”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: “Matthew
3:7-12
Message of the verses: “7 But when he saw
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them,
"You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 "Therefore
bring forth fruit in
keeping with repentance; 9 and do not suppose that you can say to
yourselves, ’We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is
able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10 “And the axe is
already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "As for me, I baptize
you with water for
repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am
not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and
fire. 12 "And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly
clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He
will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”
There
is a parallel account of this with more details found in Luke 3:1-18, so if you
want to look at more details look at those verses. The message is the same in both passages, and
I for one like the fire and brimstone type of preaching that John spoke to the
Pharisees and Sadducees. There is no easy
believing from John’s powerful message to them.
The message is a call to repentance and for baptism, which is an inner
change of mind and heart, along with an outward act that symbolized that
change. There is more which is also
important and that is a manner of living that demonstrated this change. John MacArthur writes “The ‘many other
exhortations’ that John preached (Luke 3:18) possibly consisted primarily more
examples of the fruit in keeping with repentance (v. 8) that he gave in
addition to those mentioned in verse 11-14.”
We
can see from John’s preaching that it was simple and that his message was
limited to that which was most essential, however he faithfully fulfilled his
singular calling, something we have mentioned many times and that was his
calling as the herald of God’s coming King.
John was no push-over as we can see from this small section of his
preaching, and John took his job as the herald of the coming Messiah very
seriously. I have mentioned many times
in my SD’s Ephesians 2:10 where I believe that we can see from that verse the
calling of works that believers will do as God chose them in eternity past and
what Jesus has to say about the greatness of John the Baptist to me shows that
he fulfilled what God had chosen for him to do very faithfully.
John
MacArthur gives us our outline for this section: “In the narrative of 3:7-12 Matthew focuses
on four elements: the congregation, the
confrontation, the condemnation, and the consolation.”
Because
this SD is not so very long I will include Luke 3:1-18 in it so you can see
more of the details that Matthew did not cover.
“1
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate
was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother
Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was
tetrarch of Abilene, 2 in the high
priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of
Zacharias, in the wilderness. 3 And he came into all the district around the
Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; 4 as it is written in the book of the words of
Isaiah the prophet, "THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, ’MAKE READY
THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT. 5 ’EVERY RAVINE WILL BE FILLED,
AND EVERY MOUNTAIN AND HILL WILL BE BROUGHT LOW; THE CROOKED WILL BECOME
STRAIGHT, AND THE ROUGH ROADS SMOOTH; 6 AND ALL FLESH WILL SEE THE SALVATION OF GOD.’"
7 So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by
him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8
“Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to
yourselves, ’We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these
stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 9 “Indeed the axe is
already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." 10 And the crowds were
questioning him, saying, "Then what shall we do?" 11 And he would
answer and say to them, "The man who has two tunics is to share with him who
has none; and he who has food is to do likewise." 12 And some tax
collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what
shall we do?" 13 And he said to them, "Collect no more than what you
have been ordered to." 14 Some soldiers were questioning him, saying,
"And what about us, what shall
we do?" And he said to them,
"Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely,
and be content with your wages."
“15 Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were
wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, 16 John answered
and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is
coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His
sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 “His winnowing
fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the
wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire." 18 So with many other exhortations he preached the gospel to the
people.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: One of the things that I did at my
father-in-laws funeral was to make available tracts entitled “One Minute You
Die” as they come from the book with the same title written by Erwin W. Lutzer,
who was the Pastor at Moody Church in Chicago Ill. for many years. I sort of feel like this is like the message
that John the Baptist gives from our section today, and I also felt that to
have that kind of message in a funeral home would also make people think.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I had joy in my reading of the Scriptures
this morning when I got up very early and could not fall back to sleep as it
seems to me that the Lord was speaking to my heart concerning my Sunday school
lesson from Psalm 22 where I read “Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned
upon the praises of Israel.”
Today’s quotation from “Love in Action”
comes from Romans 12:16.
Be of the same mind toward one
another. Do not set your mind on high
things, but associate with the humble.
1/10/2020 11:07 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment