PT-3 "Intro to Matt. 4:18-22

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/25/2020 10:01 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 Intro to Matt. 4:18-22

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 4:18-22

            Message of the verses:  “18 And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 And they immediately left the nets, and followed Him. 21 And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. 22 And they immediately left the boat and their father, and followed Him.”

            We continue to look at how the gospel was spread in the early NT times as we think about Saul of Tarsus who later became the apostle Paul and wrote a good deal of the NT books.  Paul was a Pharisee who loved the Law of God, but did not really love the Lord and one day as he was going to Damascus the Lord began to talk to him and the Lord was so bright that Saul’s eyes were blinded.  Saul was certainly not looking for the Lord and his story reminds me a bit about how the Lord saved me as I was going to visit a friend in Florida, certainly not looking for the Lord, but the Lord stopped me in my tracks and saved me.  After Paul was saved his desire was to tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ and how they could be saved, and this was my desire too, and that is one of the reasons that I write these Spiritual Diaries and put them onto my blogs. 

            John MacArthur writes “Evangelism has been the heartthrob of faithful Christians throughout the history of the church.  John Knox pleaded with God, ‘Give me Scotland or I die.’ John Wesley considered the whole world his parish.

            Like the Christian life in general, soul-winning involves a paradox.  Jesus said, ‘For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it’ (Mat. 16:25).  In other words, in saving others we lose ourselves; in losing ourselves in the task we will be used to win others.  Jesus warned His disciples that the Jewish leaders would soon ‘make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God’ (John 16:2)—just as they hated Jesus Himself ‘without a cause’ (15:25).  Those who would reach the world must be willing to be rejected by the world, just as our Lord conquered death by yielding to death.”

            2/25/2020 10:15 AM  2/25/2020 11:32 AM

            MacArthur goes on to write “In a sense, the life of evangelism involves sacrificing the greater for the lesser, the worthy for the unworthy.  It is the opposite of the loveless and brutal survival of the fittest—the way of the fallen, sinful world.  God’s way, the way of the redemption, is that of the strong being willing to die that the weak might live.  God’s Word is clear that, if we are committed to the salvation of those without Jesus Christ, we will lose ourselves in order to reach them.  Preaching the saving gospel is essential, and so is personal witnessing.”

            MacArthur states the forms of the word evangelize are used some 50 times in the New Testament and the thrust of the Great Commission is to evangelize:  “"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,’ (Matthew 28:19).  When we make a disciple means that we have to evangelize them in the first place, to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then to disciple them so that they in turn can do the same for other people, and so what happens in evangelism is having one bagger finding bread and then telling other baggers where to find that bread.

            In our next SD I want to begin with, Lord willing, by talking about the at least five different phases of Jesus’ calling of the twelve.  I hope that the next SD will end our introduction into these verses from Matthew 4:18-22.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look back at when the Lord saved me and some of the things that I have learned after that wonderful call that He gave me through His Holy Spirit, I have to admit to my disgrace that the health and wealth gospel has impacted my life.  I was called by our Lord to learn and grow and to be ready to tell others the hope that I have, and there were times when I failed that calling.  Evangelism is what I as a believer should be ready to do at anytime.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to be humble, to have joy as I study the Word of God and to “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;” (1 Peter 3:15).

2/25/2020 11:54 AM