SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/22/2020
10:05 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Matthew 3:13-17
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 3:13-17
Message of the verses: 13 Then Jesus arrived
from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But
John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and
do You come to me?" 15 But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it
at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he permitted Him. 16 And after being baptized, Jesus
went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he
saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, 17 and
behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in
whom I am well-pleased.’”
A
reminder of a couple of things we have stated earlier and that is that the
gospel of Matthew was primarily written to the Jews and second the gospel of
Matthew is about the King, which of course is Jesus Christ. Remember this we can see from this section
that this is the commissioning or the coronation of the King. In our study so far we have seen that Matthew
has given us the King’s ancestry in 1:1-17, next His arrival in 1:18-25, next
His adoration in 2:1-12, next His attestation 2:13-23 and then in chapter three
1-12 we saw His announcement and now the rest of chapter three we see His
anointing, or His coronation. The King
will begin His ministry after this section which will begin in chapter four
where He will go out into the wilderness to fast for forty days in final
preparation for the beginning of what He will do as He ministers for three
years before He goes to the cross, which is why the King came.
John
MacArthur writes “There is something strikingly majestic about this great event
that brings all the preceding events into focus. Here, for the first time, the Lord Jesus
Christ comes fully onto the stage of the gospel story. Here is where His ministry and work truly
begin. Everything before this, even
those events which directly involved the young Jesus were introductory and preparatory. Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth are all
behind. From this day on the Son of Man
would call no place His earthly home (8:20), but was to move about fulfilling
His mission.
After
an eternity of glory in heaven and some thirty years of virtual obscurity on
earth, the Messiah-King is manifested publicly for the world to see and
know. As ‘the voice of one crying in the
wilderness,’ John the Baptist had faithfully prepared the way for the King even
as Isaiah had prophesied (3:3; Isa. 40:3).
The herald of the King had announced the coming of the King, and now the
King Himself appears for His coronation.”
One
of the questions that will be raised as we begin this section has to do with
the first section we will be looking at which is the baptism of the Son which
goes from verses 13-15, is why was Jesus baptized. We will tackle that issue as we move through
these verses. The next section from
verse16 is entitled “The anointing of the Spirit.” The last section we will look at is the “Confirmation
by the Father.” These are some exciting
verses to look at as we continue to look at the King coming to earth to do the
will of the Father. “7 "I will
surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ’You are My Son, Today I
have begotten You. 8 ’Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your
inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. 9 ’You shall
break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware’’”
(Psalm 2:7-9). This comes from the
wonderful 2nd Psalm which when studied one can see exactly why the
Lord came to earth, and what He will do the next time He returns. We see here that it is all about the Son and
in verse 17 of our text today we see that Father saying “"This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is the
most important three years in the history of planet earth. Without His coming mankind would have
destroyed this planet many years ago, but as I look at the 2nd Psalm
I know that would not happen because it was in the Father’s plan for Jesus to
come, to die, to be raised again, to return to heaven, and then to come back in
what is called the rapture of the church, and then a little over seven years
later come to rule and reign for the last 1000 years of the earth’s history,
followed by taking all of His to be in heaven with Him for eternity. What we will do there is to worship the Lord,
and we will just have to wait for what our great God has planned for us to do,
but one thing I am sure of, it will be amazing.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am thankful for the joy that God has given
me as I studied His Word this morning, and I pray that it will continue.
1/22/2020 10:56 AM
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