SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/3/2021 11:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 Intro
to Matt. 8:16-22
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
8:16-22
Message of the verses: “16 When evening came,
they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits
with a word, and healed all who were ill. 17 This was to fulfill what
was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES
AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES."
18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to
the other side of the sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to Him,
"Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." 20 Jesus said to him,
"The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." 21 Another of the disciples said
to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." 22 But
Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.’”
We
can see that Jesus hates sin, hates it so much that He came to die on the cross
in order to pay the price of redemption for those who will accept His payment
for their sins. Every aspect we are looking
at in this section show that sin is the cause for all the problems that humans
face in this sin-cursed world, and Jesus hates all the things that sin has affected. Jesus loves the people so much that He has
healed thousands of people while on earth as we have mentioned in an earlier
SD. He healing of the thousands of
people shows the depth of His love for them and also shows what things will be
like in the Kingdom of God, in the millennial kingdom and also in the eternal
kingdom, for there will not be any sickness that is caused by sin. MacArthur writes “But He also healed in order
to give a preview of His coming kingdom, in which there will be no more sin, no
more death, no more sorrow, no more pain.
Just as on the Mount of Transfiguration, He pulled back the veil of His
flesh and gave His three disciples a glimpse of His divine glory, through His
vast healing miracles, Jesus gave a vision of His glorious kingdom—when all
disease and sickness would be banished, not in a small corner of the world or
for a few brief years but throughout the whole world and forever (see Rev.
21:1-4).” “ 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no
longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I
heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God
is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and
God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any
mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’”
However
before all of this happens, before He establishes His earthly kingdom that
would be free of suffering and death, the Messiah Himself would have to suffer
and die to redeem men from sin. That was
the first thing to happen, and during this time of the year we take time to
look back at Jesus’ suffering on the cross and then tomorrow remember His
glorious resurrection from the dead. Now
I have to say that when one takes part in the Lord’s Supper that is what they
are suppose to look back at and also look forward with being with Him in
eternity. MacArthur writes “He would be ‘pierced
through for our transgressions,…crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for
our well-being [would fall] upon Him, and by His scourging we [would be] healed’
(Isa. 53:5). And before He suffered and
died, He would give evidence of His divine power by bearing our griefs and
carrying our sorrows (v. 4). It is that
verse to which Matthew refers when he says that Jesus ‘healed all who were ill
in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
saying, ‘He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away our diseases.’”
Thinking
about this quotation from Isaiah that Matthew wrote, there is one thing that
has to happen before disease and death cannot be permanently removed. That won’t happen until sin is permanently
removed, and Jesus’ supreme work, therefore, was to conquer sin. In the atonement Jesus dealt with sin, death,
and sickness; writes MacArthur “and yet all three of those are still with us.” Now here is some important things to remember
as MacArthur goes on to write “When He died on the cross, Jesus bruised the
head of Satan and broke the power of sin, and the person who trusts in the
atoning work of Christ is immediately delivered from the penalty of sin and one
day will be delivered from the very presence of sin and its consequences. The ultimate fulfillment of Christ’s
redeeming work is yet future for believers (cf. Rom. 8:22-25; 13:11). Christ died for men’s sin, but Christians
still fall into sin; He conquered death, but His followers still die; and He
overcame pain and sickness, but His people still suffer and become ill. There is physical healing in the atonement, just
as there is total deliverance from sin and death in the atonement; but we still
await the fulfillment of that deliverance in the day when the Lord brings the
end of suffering, sin, and death.”
We
will continue to look at what MacArthur writes about this important issue in
our next SD as we talk about people who claim that Christians should never get
sick in that SD.
4/3/2021 12:08 PM
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