SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/1/2021 10:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Jesus
Power over Sin”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 Getting into a
boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city. 2 And they
brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to
the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven." 3 And
some of the scribes said to themselves, "This fellow
blasphemes." 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, "Why are you
thinking evil in your hearts? 5 “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are
forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? 6 “But so that you may know that the
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — then He said
to the paralytic, "Get up, pick up your bed and go home." 7 And he
got up and went home. 8 But when the crowds saw this, they were
awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”
We
have been talking about the different themes of the different Gospel letters
and how each author uses those themes throughout the entire letter. In the Gospel of Matthew he uses many things
from the Old Testament to show that Jesus is indeed the King and that during
the 1000 year kingdom age will show how things will run. We will continue with several quotes from
MacArthur’s introduction to this section to help us better understand about
this.
“Concerning
the supernatural realm, the Old Testament speaks of Satan and his evil forces
who have so long oppressed and persecuted God’s people (Dan. 7:24-27; 8:23-25;
11:36-12:3; Zech. 3:1-2) and who the Messiah would have to conquer before His
righteous kingdom could be established on earth. By resisting Satan’s temptations and casting
out his demon servants (Matt. 8:28-34), Jesus proved His power was superior to
Satan’s.
“Concerning
the spiritual realm, the Old Testaments tells us that Messiah’s kingdom will be
marked by forgiveness and redemption (Isa. 33:24; 40:1-2; 44:21-22; Ezek.
36). By His forgiveness of the paralytic
recorded in this passage and many others, Jesus further demonstrated power that
is reserved to God alone and that Scripture had prophesied would characterize
the Messiah.
“It
was Jesus’ specific, complete, and dramatic fulfillment of these and all other
messianic prophecies that made His rejection by the Jews—especially that of the
scribes and Pharisees, who were students of Scripture—so heinous and
inexcusable.
“Matthew’s
arrangement and presentation of the three sets of miracles in chapters 8 and 9
show progressive development in revealing Jesus’ credentials as the divine
Messiah. First we see Him heal a leper
with a touch of His hand (8:3), heal a centurion’s servant without having seen
the afflicted person (8:13), and then heal Peter’s mother-in-law of a serious
fever (8:15). Next He went beyond
physical afflictions and demonstrated His authority and power over the
spiritual kingdom of Satan by casting out many demons with a word (8:16), by
demonstrating His power over the great natural forces by stilling the storm on
the Sea of Galilee (8:26), and by again demonstrating His authority over Satan
by casting out a legion of demons from two possessed men of Gadara (8:32).”
Lord
willing we will complete this introduction in our next Spiritual Diary. I for one have been learning many new things
as we go through Matthew’s gospel.
5/1/2021 10:50 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment