SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/5/2020
9:44 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Motive”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 3:2b
Message of the verses: “2 "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.’”
In
the highlighted section of verse two we see “the kingdom of heaven,” which is
seen some thirty-two times in the gospel of Matthew. I want to remind you again that this gospel
was written to the Jewish people and this phrase would be very familiar to
them. This phrase is not seen in any of
the other three gospels. One thing more
I want you to remember and that is the gospel of Matthew speaks about the
coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another reason that this phrase is only in the gospel of Matthew has to
do again with its primary readers is that the Jews would never speak the name “Yahweh”
or “Jehovah.”
MacArthur
writes “There is no significant difference between ‘the kingdom of God’ and ‘the
kingdom of heaven.’ The one phrase
emphasizes the sovereign Ruler of the kingdom and the other emphasizes the
kingdom itself, but they are the same kingdom.
Matthew 19:23-24 confirms the equality of the phrases by using them
interchangeably.”
I
feel it necessary to quote two more paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary
because of the content of it. “The ‘kingdom’
has two aspects, the outer and the inner, both of which are spoken of in the
gospels. Those aspects are evident as on
moves through Matthew. In the broadest
sense, the kingdom includes everyone who professes to acknowledge God. Jesus’ parable of the sower represents the
kingdom as including both genuine and superficial believers (Matt. 13:3-23),
and in His following parable (vv. 24-30) as including both wheat (true
believers) and tares (false believers).
That is the outer kingdom, the one we can see but cannot accurately
evaluate ourselves, because we cannot know people’s hearts.
“The other kingdom is the inner, the kingdom that
includes only true believers, only those who, as John the Baptist proclaimed,
repent and are converted. God rules over
both aspects of the kingdom, and he will one day finally separate the
superficial from the real. Meanwhile He
allows the pretenders to identify themselves outwardly with His kingdom.”
Lord will we will finish this section in our next SD.
Our quote from “Love in
Action” as mentioned yesterday begins a brief final chapter.
AFTERWORD
“Good Encouragers”
How many people stop because so few say, “Go?”
Chuck Swindoll
1/5/2020 10:11 PM
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