SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2020
11:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Preaching”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 4:23b
Message of the
verses: “and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness among the people.”
Once again we begin with a quote
from MacArthur to help us better understand what the Greek meaning is to some
of these words in this passage. “Proclaiming’
is from a term (kerusso) ‘to preach.’ The root idea is to herald, or cry out. Whereas didasko
relates to explaining a message kerusso relates
simply to announcing it. While
interpreting the Old Testament in His teaching He also was ‘proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom’ announcing the fact that God’s long-promised Messiah and
King had come to establish His ‘kingdom.’
He continued and extended the heralding that John the Baptist had begun.
“That which is proclaimed is the keruma (Matt. 12:41; Rom. 16:25); Titus
1:3; etc.), and that which is taught is the didache
(Matt. 7:28; Rom 16:17 etc.). The
message proclaimed needs to be explained, and vice versa.”
I
think that most everyone knows that the word “Gospel” means “good news” that is
the good news of the kingdom was coming and that Jesus preached this throughout
Galilee. The gospel is the supreme
truth, the great good news, which was around all of what His teaching centered
on. From the time of Jesus’ baptism
until His ascension Jesus was preaching the kingdom. Let us look now at Acts 1:1-3 “1 The first
account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until
the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit
given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3 To these He also presented
Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them
over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the
kingdom of God.” Jesus never allowed
Himself to become sidelined or sidetracked into different areas where we sometimes
get sidetracks, like political, economics, social issues, or eve personal
disputes. His preaching and teaching
focused entirely on expounding God’s Word and also proclaiming God’s kingdom—a sound
pattern for every faithful messenger of the gospel.
When
we look at the life of John the Baptist we can see that his purpose that God
gave him was to proclaim the kingdom, and Jesus’ was to proclaim the gospel of
the kingdom. MacArthur adds “Good news
as such was not the primary feature in his preaching. His preaching called men to repent of their
sins and to prepare themselves for the coming of the King (3:1-10). He focused on sin and judgment. His was the bad news that pointed up the
graciousness of the good news about to come. When Jesus’ ministry was more and more
resisted by the Jewish leaders, His preaching became more and more stern, even
sterner than that of John the Baptist.
As hypocrisy became more evident and hostility became more vehement,
Jesus’ words became more harsh.”
This
was true later on in His ministry but the King’s first proclamation was that of
the good news, God’s marvelous offer to deliver “Us from the domain of
darkness, and to transfer us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins” as seen in Colossians 1:13-14. MacArthur adds “The gospel is the good news
of salvation through Jesus Christ, the good news that God’s kingdom (the sphere
of God’s rule by the grace of salvation) is open to anyone who puts his trust
in the King.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The preaching of the gospel is the best news
that anyone can ever hear as without knowing this truth then one can never be
saved from their sins and spend eternity with the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I quoted
from “The Strategy of Satan” in yesterday’s SD from this section and mentioned
that there was more I wanted to quote in today’s SD. One of the things that Satan was to use to
destroy the effectiveness of believers is to attack our minds, our bodies and
our wills and so Warren Wiersbe states “If you yield these three areas of your
life daily to the Spirit of God, then
the Spirit will empower you to defeat the devil. As the Spirit of grace, he will give grace to
your body so that you will be able to endure suffering to the glory of
God. As the Spirit of wisdom, He will
teach you God’s Word and bring it to your mind when Satan attacks with his
lies. And as the Spirit of power, He
will empower your will to say “No” to pride.
The Holy Spirit will work in you and through you to defeat the wicked
one.” Lord willing we will look at more
of this in our SD on Monday.
3/6/2020 11:53 AM
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