SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2020
11:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matt. 5:5 Happy are the Meek
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:5
Message of the
verse: “5 Blessed
are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
In today’s SD I want to continue to
quote from John MacArthur’s sermon introduction to Matthew 5:5.
“So, you see, the hope of the political
religious restoration was nothing but a pipe dream. Israel lay in the
grip of the grim power of Rome and Caesar wouldn’t allow them any independence.
And yet, in their hearts this hope burned, and it burned, and it burned, that a
Messiah would come. Frankly, people, the hope burned so strong in their
hearts that it produced a pile of false Messiahs like rash on a body.
They were everywhere as false Messiahs came by the boatload.
“The Zealots, in anticipation of
what needed to be done would just say, “Well, we can’t wait for the
Messiah.” And along with the Sicarii who were the assassins in their
ranks, they would strike at Rome. They would assassinate some important
person or they would pull off some revolutionary act, and all that did was
bring about Roman reprisals. And finally in 70 AD, the Romans got so sick
of the reactions of the Zealots, they got so sick of this kind of stuff, that they sent Titus Vespasian in 70 AD and the
Roman army, and they came down and they literally destroyed Jerusalem.
They smashed the city, the crushed the people. They killed 1,100,000
people.
“But that wasn’t the worst.
Between the year 132 and 135 AD, it’s about 60 years later, a man named Hadrian
came from Rome and he went throughout the entire land of Israel and slaughtered
all the people and destroyed all the cities and he literally wiped out the
nation of Israel in terms of national existence. Now, I say all of this
to give you a picture of what they wanted. They wanted somebody to
overthrow Rome. The Zealots believed it could be done militarily, and the
Pharisees and the other religionists thought it could be done miraculously by
the Messiah, but they were wrong.
“You see, they were wrong.
Jesus didn’t come with that in mind. Before there could ever be Jewish independence, there had
to be Jewish salvation, and that had to come first, and they were about
to bend at that point. So God’s plan was not what they thought. And
when Jesus started talking the way he did in the Sermon on the Mount, you can
imagine their reaction. They expected Messiah to come in on a white
charger. They expected Messiah to come riding in with one slap of his
sword and all of a sudden wipe out the enemy. And here he comes and he
says, “Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are the mourners. Happy
are the meek.” And they’re saying to themselves, “What kind of a Messiah
is this? What kind of crowd is he going to collect? Who wants a
bunch of sob sisters? A bunch of meek people? They’ll never handle
Rome.”
“And so he disappointed the
political activists, because he wouldn’t pull off a revolution. And he
disappointed the religionists, because he only healed people. He didn’t
destroy Rome with cataclysmic miracles. He didn’t do it. And that’s
why, you see, when they finally saw Jesus captured by the Romans, when they
finally saw Jesus up there, and they looked at him standing next to Barabbas,
and they saw this pathetic person whom Pilate had battered, and beaten, and
bruised, and scourged, and smashed a crown of thorns on his head, and there was
no beauty in him that man should desire him, and there was nothing about him
that was attractive - Read Isaiah 53. “There was no form or comeliness
that we should desire Him.” - and they took one look at that and they said,
“Forget it. That’s not the Messiah we want.”
“And so they screamed, “Crucify
Him. Crucify Him. We’ll take Barabbas. We’ll take
Barabbas. He’s closer to a Messiah type than this guy.” And they
hated Him for it. You know, they hated Him because he disappointed
them. They hated Him because he didn’t fulfill their expectations.
And once he died, they were done with him, and that was really the final
straw. When the rest of the people came around and said, “Well, he was
the Messiah,” they said, “Look, he died on a cross. The Old Testament
says, ‘Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.’ Don’t tell us our
Messiah was crucified a curse. Don’t tell us the Messiah came and went
and didn’t overthrow Rome. Don’t tell us the Messiah came and went and
didn’t change our circumstance in the world. That’s no Messiah.”
And they wouldn’t even believe his resurrection, though it was true. And
though 500 people saw it, they wouldn’t believe it.
“When the apostles stood up to
preach, you see they had to preach always on the resurrection and they had to
say always, “You see, Messiah had to suffer. He had to suffer. He
had to die. This is what the Old Testament taught. It had to be
this way.” Jesus on the road to Emmaus said, “If you’d have known the scriptures,
you’d have known this had to happen this way.” But they were disappointed
really wretchedly disappointed with Jesus.
“And it all started right here,
because the first time they heard him speak, he said, “The meek shall inherit
the earth.” What kind of a deal is that? The spoils belong to the strong,
not the meek. That countered their whole philosophy of life. But he
came as a servant. You see, they were ignorant of Isaiah 40 through 66,
that whole section of Isaiah 40 to 66 presents the Messiah as a suffering
servant. They didn’t even know their Old Testament; a whole huge
section. In fact, when he announced who he really was, he quoted from
Isaiah 61. And, you know, he identified with a pretty crummy bunch.
“He says – Luke 4:18
- “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor -” oh, brother, “- To heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, to give sight to the blind, and to set a liberty
them that are bruised.” Now that’s a pretty sad bunch: The blind,
and the bruised, and the poor, and the maimed. And what in the world kind
of bunch is that?
“The apostle Paul said it in 1
Corinthians, “Not many noble, not many wise, not many mighty.” He’s
chosen the foolish of the world. He was a servant. He didn’t come
to overthrow Rome. He came to wash the feet of unloving disciples.
His whole life was an illustration of humility and service. He said, “The
Son of Man has come not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his
live a ransom for many.” They missed the whole point. They didn’t
even know what he came for. Humility, self denial.
“Now
this set the stage for what he said in this sermon. And what he said here
is this - now watch. He said, “It isn’t the self sufficient. It
isn’t the self righteous. It isn’t the proud, and the strong, and the
arrogant, and the confident, and the satisfied. It isn’t the religious
who enter my kingdom. It is the broken, and the mourning, and the meek,
and the hungry, and the thirsty, and the merciful, and the pure, and the
peacemakers, and the persecuted, and the reviled, and the slandered who never
retaliate. They’re the citizens of my kingdom.” And man, he shot
them right off their pins.
Lord willing tomorrow we will begin
with the subject “The Meaning of Meekness,” and then “The Manifestation of
Meekness,” next “The Result of Meekness” and finally “The Necessity for
Meekness.” This is the order of subjects
we will be looking at as we move through this third beatitude from the “Sermon
on the Mount.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: My prayer
is that the Lord will continue to bring great joy as I study this fifth verse,
the third beatitude. In the beginning of
his sermon John MacArthur wrote something that is near and dear to my heart
when he wrote “I always think that the book I’m studying at the present time is
the most wonderful thing I’ve ever studied, and I definitely feel that way
about Matthew.” Each and every book of
the Bible that I have studied over the past 25+ years I have felt that same
thing including Matthew.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
My desire is to continue to be taught contentment, humility and have
continued joy as I study God’s Word.
4/16/2020
11:28 AM
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