SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2020
7:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Healing”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
4:23c-25
Message of the verses: “and healing every
kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. 24 And the news
about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken
with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He
healed them. 25 And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis
and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.”
We
are looking at the different types or groups that Jesus healed and we looked at
the first type, demoniacs in our last SD.
Today we want to look at the second group that Jesus healed and they
were “epileptics.” MacArthur writes “The
King James renders the original (seleniazo)
as ‘lunatic,’ which, like the Greek literally means ‘moonstruck.’ In many cultures the mentally ill and those
who have convulsions or seizures have been thought to be under the influence of
the moon. From other biblical references,
such as Matthew 17:15, as well as from descriptions of the affliction in other
ancient literature, it is almost certain that the disease was epilepsy, which
involves disorder of the central nervous system.”
Now
we move onto the third group which were “paralytics,” and this is a general
term representing a wide range of crippling handicaps. Matthew uses characterize the three broad
areas of man’s afflictions which are the spiritual, the mental/nervous, and the
physical. Jesus, the Son of God was able
to overpower whatever evil afflicted those who came to Him, after all it was
Jesus, the second Person of the godhead that created man in the garden so He
knew exactly what it would take to heal man of any of these afflictions that
they had. John MacArthur writes “The
earthly aspect of His kingdom will have no place for anything harmful, anything
wicked, anything less than perfect wholeness and perfect goodness. ‘On that day the deaf shall hear, …they eyes
of the blind shall see. The afflicted
also shall increase their gladness in the Lord, and the needy of mankind shall
rejoice in the Holy One of Israel’ (Isa. 29:18-19; sc. 11:6-9). ‘They brought to Him all who were ill, …and
He healed them.’
“The
great reformed theologian B. B. Warfield said, ‘When our Lord came down to
earth He drew heaven with Him. The signs
which accompanied His ministry were but the trailing clouds of glory which He
brought from heaven, which is His home.
The number of the miracles which He wrought may easily be underrated. It has been said that in effect He banished
disease and death from Palestine for the three years of His ministry. One touch of the hem of His garment that He
wore could heal whole countries of their pain.
One touch of His hand could restore life.’”
Now
we will begin to look at four things that Jesus’ miracles accomplished which
were above and beyond the immediate and obvious benefit to those who were
healed. The first thing that they proved
was the Jesus was divine, for after all no mere human being could do such
things that Jesus did. Jesus told Philip the following in John 14:11 “"Believe
Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because
of the works themselves.”
Second
is that these wondrous healings showed that God is compassionate toward those
who suffer.
The
third has to do what was written in the Old Testament about Jesus, and a part
of the prophecies showed that the Messiah would perform miracles. When John the Baptist was imprisoned he began
to have some doubts about Jesus being the Messiah and he sent some of his
disciples to ask if Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The answer that Jesus gave to them comes from
Matthew 11:4-5 where Jesus says “4 Jesus answered and said to them,
"Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the
lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM.”
MacArthur
writes “Fourth, the miracles proved that the coming kingdom was a reality, the
wonders and signs being a foretaste of the marvelous realm God has in store for
those who are His.” We will not look at
three different Scriptures that show what Jesus did, then when He gives power
to His disciples to do similar things, and the last has to do with what He told
the disbelieving Pharisees. “35 Jesus
was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and
every kind of sickness” (Matt. 9:35).” “7
“And as you go, preach, saying, ’The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the
sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely
you received, freely give” (Matt. 10:7-8).
“"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom
of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28).
Lord
willing we will begin our next SD with what I believe is an interesting quote
from MacArthur’s commentary.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “these wondrous healings showed that God is
compassionate toward those who suffer.”
Showing the loving compassionateness of God means very much to me.
My Steps of Faith For Today: I want to continue to look more at “The
Strategy of Satan” by Warren Wiersbe. “The
next step is to reach for your Bible and present your mind to God for spiritual
renewal. It is the Word of God that renews
the mind and transforms it. If you do
not have a system for reading the Bible, get one. Personally, I like to read straight through
the Bible regularly, but I do not give myself a time limit. I start in Genesis 1, Psalm 1, and Matthew 1,
and keep reading. There are some days
when I read and meditate on only a few verses; on other days, I may read all
three chapters, I am not in a hurry; I am not trying to set any records. My purpose is to meditate on the Word of God
so that the Spirit of God will be able to transform my mind and make it more
spiritual.”
3/10/2020 9:01 AM
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